The Pucking Wrong Rookie

He’s my brother’s best friend. My father’s star player. And the one man I should never want. When my brother’s hockey team takes me in for a mandatory winter internship during the holiday season, I promised myself I’d stay invisible. Keep my head down, finish my internship, and steer clear of trouble. But trouble has a name—and it’s Liam Kane. He’s all sharp edges, wicked smirks, and muscles that make rational thoughts melt like snowflakes when the sun is out. A professional hockey player with a reputation for breaking hearts and rules alike. When one stolen kiss turns into nights tangled in his sheets, I know I’ve crossed the line. Because if my brother finds out—or worse, my dad, the team’s coach-Liam’s career and my future would both go up in flames. The rules were simple. No dating the players. No falling for him. Too bad I’m already pucked.

"You still think you’re the main character in your own story, don’t you, Mercer? That’s cute. You were written out the moment you let me inside you. You don’t exist without me now. And you love it." Kade Mercer an unstoppable force on the ice, destined for the NHL. One reckless mistake, one desperate night, and it was all over. The trap was set long before he even stepped onto the ice. Nikolai Volkov, mafia kingpin and team owner, orchestrated it all—the seduction, the scandal, the blackmail. Now, Kade isn’t just owned. He’s trapped. He still plays. He still wins. But only when they let him. Throw a game. Obey. Or lose everything. But the real hell doesn’t come from Nikolai. It comes from his son, Rook Volkov. Golden boy of a rival team. Hockey’s rising star. Kade’s worst enemy. He’s spent years fighting Kade, hating him, wanting him. Now? He owns him. Rook doesn’t destroy Kade’s career—he controls it. His flights. His bank accounts. His entire life. And when Kade resists? Rook makes him pay. First, he makes him beg. Then, he makes him like it. Every punishment, every violation, every humiliating submission forces Kade deeper into the world Rook has carved out for him. A world where the line between rivalry and ownership has been erased. A world where Kade can fight all he wants—but he’ll never escape. Because Rook isn’t keeping him prisoner.

TW: ️This story is a dark romance filled with angst and loaded with spicy moments. You have been warned. 18+ Jay: I made one mistake when I was eighteen. I slept with my best friend’s little sister. One night I’ve never forgotten. One girl I should have stayed away from. By morning, I was gone—leaving behind secrets and a heartbreak that lasted ten years. Now I’m back. An NHL superstar with a reputation as dangerous as my shot. Madison still looks at me like I ruined her life. Maybe I did. But the moment I see her again, I know one thing. I never stopped wanting her. And this time? I’m not walking away.

They were supposed to be on the same team. Santos Khyle arrived in Seattle as the Soul Reapers' most anticipated rookie in years, a natural-born scorer with something to prove and a chip on his shoulder the size of a regulation puck. Gunner Jäger had been tearing up the ice as the team's feared enforcer for two seasons, and he had zero interest in sharing his spotlight with some orange-haired twenty-one year old who looked at him like he was a problem to be managed. From the moment they met, it was war. On the ice, they were a disaster. Off it, they were worse. Screaming matches in corridors. Fists through locker room walls. A live on-air brawl that made every highlight reel in North America and earned them both a suspension, a lecture from their furious coach, and the undivided attention of the entire hockey world. Nobody could stand to watch them together. Nobody could look away either. Because underneath the fury and the bruises and the months of spectacular mutual destruction, something else was building. Something neither of them had language for yet. Something that felt uncomfortably like the only fight either of them was actually afraid to lose. The Soul Reapers are one playoff run away from everything. Gunner and Khyle are one honest conversation away from falling apart completely. Or maybe, just maybe, from finally figuring out what they are to each other. Pucking Up the Ice is a slow burn MM romance set in the brutal and beautiful world of professional hockey. It contains explicit language, on-ice violence, emotional gut punches, two men who are absolutely terrible at feelings, and a love story that had to break everything before it could build something worth keeping.

“We shouldn’t be doing this,” Imani whispered, her voice trembling more from want than from fear of her brother barging in and catching her leaning in to kiss his ex-best-friend now turned enemy. “Then stop me,” he murmured back, his fingers brushing her jaw, his breath hot against her skin. But neither of them moved. The distance between them had already disappeared, along with every rule she’d promised not to break. *** When Imani Grayson, a quiet psychology major, is assigned to mentor the university’s star hockey captain, Nicolas Jameson, she expects arrogance not the kind of chemistry that keeps her up at night. What begins as a simple assignment spirals into late-night tutoring sessions, stolen glances, and kisses that blur every boundary she’s ever set. But with jealous teammates watching, old wounds resurfacing, and a love too intense to hide, the game they started might be the one that shatters them both. Imani will soon learn that some games can’t be won without losing everything, and Nicolas, that even in the game of hearts, the strongest player can fall to his knees.

Moving to her old town was supposed to be her fresh start into adding up the pieces...or so she thought. But when the fiery, headstrong Jhelani Snowfire finds herself living next door to not only one but three dangerously irresistible Alpha heirs, she learns quickly that trouble comes in leather jackets, tattoos, motorcycles, wicked grins, actions, and wolf eyes that see far too much into her. Caught between lust, love, loyalty, and a curse that names her as the one who would destroy the sworn brothers bounded by oath, Jhelani must decide if she will resist the temptation of the Wolfbane brothers…Or surrender to the Forbidden pull of the Alphas living Next Door.