All Chapters of PUCKING CAPTAIN NIKO : Chapter 51 - Chapter 60

JEREMY’S P.O.VToday had already been a shit day, and now I was left wondering how much more shit I had left to deal with.Tomorrow was going to be much worse than today.Tomorrow marked the final day of my gruelling two-week trial with Niko. By tomorrow, Coach would hand down his verdict, deciding whether I was worth keeping around or if I’d be cut from the roster for good.Two weeks ago, I wouldn't have blamed him for casting me aside. Honestly, I’d been bracing myself for the impact. According to everyone else, I was the team's ultimate liability—the weak link everyone openly resented, the guy who couldn't execute a single play right no matter how much blood and sweat he poured into it. But the real sting didn't come from their insults; it came from the agonising realisation that nobody even bothered giving me a chance anymore. Because long before they had given up on me, I had already given up on myself.Yet, somehow, against all odds, the tide had begun to turn.For starters, I c

JEREMY’S P.O.V.Someone tall, broad-shouldered, and completely, unapologetically shirtless.The figure was sliding around a series of cones effortlessly, his movements so fluid and precise that it looked as though he’d been born on the ice.I watched, completely forgetting how to breathe. Apparently, they had decided that nine o’clock at night was the perfect time to skate and make me question every decision I’d made all day.Niko fucking Archer.Of course it was him. The universe had clearly taken one look at my already miserable evening and decided I hadn't suffered enough.The arena lights were mostly dimmed, leaving the rink illuminated by a single overhead bank of lights. The stark glow spilled across the ice, casting long, dramatic shadows over the empty stands. It should have looked gloomy. Instead, the lighting made Niko look like he’d walked straight off the set of a ridiculously expensive, high-end sports commercial. It made him stand out, made him look like a star, placed u

JEREMY’S P.O.V.My face had turned to the brightest shade of pink. A violent, scorching shade of pink flooded my cheeks, and for a second, I genuinely forgot how to use my limbs. My legs turned to jelly, my voice was gone, and my eyes darted to literally anything in the room that wasn't him—the floor tiles, the ceiling grid, a random piece of loose hockey tape. Anything.I forced out a shaky exhale and risked a glance. Lord help me.His eyes were still locked onto mine, tracking me curiously.He was standing too close. The radiating heat from his damp skin drifted over to me, carrying that rich, frustratingly good scent of his cologne.Niko’s brows pulled together. “What are you doing here?”I swallowed hard, trying to force my eyes to behave and look at his face. “I-I definitely wasn’t… spying—”Oh my God. I was so fucking stupid.“Huh?”I squeezed my eyes shut and shook my head furiously, blinking like a broken flashlight. “I meant… that’s not what I meant!”Niko straightened up, ta

NIKO’S P.O.VJeremy skated toward me, his movements so desperate and clumsy that he couldn't stop. He crashed straight into my chest. The impact rattled us both, but my hands found his shoulders, gripping him tightly to steady him—to keep him from hurting himself. Standing this close, I could feel the frantic, uneven heat radiating off him.“First, I need you to take a deep breath,” I said, trying to keep my voice a steady anchor against his chaos.“I’ve been breathing.”I raised an eyebrow, fighting the urge to pull him just a fraction closer. “Do you want my help or not?”He glared at me, aggressively wiping a streak of sweat from his forehead with the back of his glove.“You’re panicking,” I murmured, keeping my hands on his shoulders, feeling the tension locked in his muscles. “You’re trying to do too much at once, and you’re getting frustrated because you’re not improving as quickly as you want to.”“I’m not panicking.”“I’ve been watching you, Jer. You are.”He snapped his gaze

NIKO’S P.O.VJeremy flipped me off, his teeth gnashing. “Asshole! Drop the fucking puck, Niko.”I dropped it.This time, Jeremy didn’t rush blindly forward. He waited.It was such a subtle shift that anyone who hadn't spent the last two weeks intensely analysing his play would have completely missed it. But I saw it instantly. He was watching my feet. He was tracking the slope of my shoulders, reading the ways I shifted my weight before making a move.And then, he came at me.I tried to bait him, drawing him towards my left and expecting him to bite just like he had in the first two rounds. He didn't. He adjusted his angle flawlessly, keeping his body positioned squarely between me and the open ice.A sharp grin tugged at the corners of my mouth. Fucking interesting.I shifted again, hunting for a gap. Jeremy stayed glued to me. I pushed hard towards the right, trying to pressure him into overcommitting and making a mistake. He moved with me, mirroring my stride, then cut back in the