All Chapters of THE FOUR HOCKEY KINGS' FORBIDDEN MATE: Chapter 61 - Chapter 65

~ Kaia ~Corwin found me between classes three weeks into our new arrangement, his expression carrying the particular urgency that had become familiar whenever he'd gathered something worth reporting."I received a message," he said quietly, steering me toward a quieter corner of the courtyard. "Coded, the way Dacre always communicates with his remaining contacts. He wants confirmation of your training schedule. Specifically when you're most vulnerable — alone, away from the brothers."My stomach tightened. "Did you respond?""I sent false information. Told him you train exclusively during team practice hours, surrounded by witnesses. It should buy us time, though I don't know how long before he grows suspicious of my continued usefulness.""Thank you, Corwin. Truly.""Don't thank me yet. I also intercepted something else." He hesitated, clearly troubled. "References to an alliance. Other supernatural factions, apparently willing to support his continued efforts against your bloodline

~ Kaia ~Spring arrived at Crescent Moon gradually, the frozen lake behind the Royal House slowly cracking into open water, the campus grounds shifting from stark white into the first tentative greens of the season."I love this time of year," Luca said, walking with me along the water's edge one afternoon between classes. "Everything waking up again after months of dormancy.""It feels appropriate, honestly. Given everything that's happened this year.""How do you mean?""I spent nineteen years frozen, essentially. Hiding, suppressing, pretending to be someone I wasn't. This year's felt like slowly thawing into who I'm actually meant to be.""That's a beautiful way to think about it." He squeezed my hand gently. "I'm grateful to have witnessed that thawing, honestly. Watching you become more fully yourself, season by season."---The formal alliance with Thornwood Coven solidified fully that week, King Alexei hosting a considerably smaller, more intimate celebration than the chaotic

~ Kaia ~Coach Roland asked me to stay after our morning training session, something careful and deliberate in how he set down the phoenix lore text instead of packing it away as usual."There's something I should have told you a long time ago," he said. "I kept putting it off, telling myself the timing wasn't right. I don't think there's ever going to be a perfect time, so I'd rather just say it now."My stomach tightened at the particular gravity in his voice. "Okay.""When your mother disappeared," he began, hands visibly unsteady as he spoke, "I wasn't simply informed secondhand, the way I let you believe. I was there. The night it happened.""You were there?""I helped her leave." His voice roughened. "Dacre's men were closing in. She came to me, desperate, asking for help getting out before they could complete whatever ritual they'd prepared. I drove her to the border myself, watched her cross into territory his reach couldn't easily follow.""Then she might actually be alive. N