DEAR EX-BEST FRIEND, KEEP YOUR HANDS OFF MY HOCKEY ALPHA

TICK TOCK

~Katherine~

Three days after the basement, Xavier Blackburn showed up at my door with roses and I honestly stood there for a full five seconds wondering if I was still unconscious.

He held out the bouquet. Blood-red. Every thorn was removed.

"I was wrong," he said. No smile. No performance. Just those three words standing on their own. "What I did to you was wrong."

Three days ago, I'd been chained to a chair and then, I'd shaken hands with the devil in the basement. Yesterday I'd rehearsed every version of how cold and untouchable I needed to be.

None of that rehearsal had prepared me for thornless roses and a man who looked like he meant it.

"Can I come in?" he asked.

I stepped back.

He walked in and set the roses on my bedside table like he was handling something breakable, then faced me. No strategy I could detect. Just a man looking at a mess he'd made and trying to figure out where to start.

"The basement," he said. "I didn't know. If I had—"

"You would have done what?" I shot at him. "Rejected me somewhere with better furniture?"

He took that without blinking. "Probably the same," he said. "I'm not going to pretend I'm someone I'm not. That would insult both of us."

"Agreed."

"But the basement had nothing to do with me. What happened to you in there—" He stopped and worked his jaw. "That was not acceptable. I want you to know I had no part in it."

"Your fiancée's basement," I said. The word fiancée had a specific taste. It burnt my tongue.

He didn't correct me.

He moved closer instead, and the bond did what it always did when the distance between us shrunk. It lit up quietly along every nerve, warm and persistent, like a pilot light that refused to die no matter how many times you tried to blow it out.

Nyx pressed against my ribs. Gently this time.

"Let's have a truce," he said. "Not forgiveness. Not friendship. Just — stop being enemies."

My heart agreed before my brain could file an objection. That's the bond. I'm blaming the bond entirely.

"The cafeteria is forgiven," I said. "Everything that came after is still on the ledger."

He nodded. Like that was fair. Like he understood there was a list with his name on it and he was prepared to work through it. Then he kissed me.

I could tell you I resisted. I could make that version of events sound convincing. The truth is that he kissed me and the bond pulled like an undertow and I went under willingly, because some part of me had wanted this since the cafeteria and pretending otherwise was exhausting.

He kissed me like he had something to prove. His hands found my waist and pulled me closer and the warmth of him went through every layer I had.

When he walked me backward toward the bed his mouth never left mine, and when we landed I pulled him down with me because waiting any longer felt like cruelty to myself.

"Are you sure?" he asked, mouth against my jaw.

"If you stop, I'll be significantly less sure," I said.

He laughed. Low and warm. Then he made absolutely certain I couldn't think about anything except him for the better part of an hour.

He was thorough about it. Patient in a way that brought him pleasure, judging by the sounds he made while we made love.

His hands learned me with a focus that felt less like convenience and more like intention, and when I finally came apart he watched my face like he was memorising it.

Afterward we lay in the quiet, both of us looking at the ceiling, catching our breath. I couldn't believe I was beginning to fall for the ice-cold Lycan prince and Moonstone's Hockey champion.

The snake tattoo on his chest rose and fell. I could see an long old scar cut across his opposite shoulder. It looked serious but well-healed, the kind of scar that comes from a fierce battle where he had to prove himself.

"There's a freshers' dinner tonight," he said.

"I know. Audrey got me a dress."

He turned his head on the pillow and looked at me. "I want to apologise to you in public. The way the rejection was public."

My heart somersaulted.

"You don't have to—"

"I want to." He pressed his mouth to my forehead. It was brief and warm. "Come tonight."

"Okay."

He smiled. A real one. Not performing anything, just a man who looked slightly surprised by his own feelings.

He dressed and left. I lay there for a moment and then sat up and made myself think.

He kissed you. He was kind to you. But he is still engaged to Eleanor Campbell. Technically, he's cheating on her with you.

He is your target. None of this is real and none of it changes the plan.

I said that until I believed it. Then I got up and got ready for the dinner, because I was Katherine Thorne and I didn't miss parties.

Even the ones that were going to hurt me.

****

The great hall that evening looked like a fever dream. Crystal chandeliers scattering light, white tablecloths, a hundred students in their best whites trying to look like they deserved to be somewhere this beautiful.

I found Audrey near the entrance looking like she'd stepped off a magazine page.

"You look stunning," she said.

"If I cry before anything happens I'll never forgive myself."

She laughed and squeezed my arm and I thought, for one small moment, that I might be okay.

Xavier was across the room with Eleanor fitted perfectly at his side. He found my eye over the crowd.

When Eleanor turned to speak to someone beside her, he lifted one hand and blew a quiet, private kiss across the room.

My stomach flipped completely over.

Do not, I told it.

The dinner went by. The food was good. The board representatives spoke for too long about things I couldn't focus on. I watched the clock and kept my expectations sensible.

Xavier took the stage when the dessert plates cleared.

"I want to address something," he said. His voice filled the hall without any effort. "This week has generated a lot of noise around Eleanor and me. Tonight I want to put it to rest."

I sat up straighter.

"So let me be completely clear about where I stand."

He took Eleanor's hand.

My smile started dying.

"I love Eleanor Campbell." He raised their joined hands and the diamond on her finger caught the light and scattered it. "I proposed to her privately three days ago. Tonight we’re making it public."

He kissed her. The room erupted.

I sat completely, absolutely still.

"One final thing." His eyes found mine across the room with cold certainty. "I, Alpha Xavier Blackburn, formally reject Katherine Thorne as my Luna. Whatever has been said about a mate bond between us ends tonight."

More applause. Louder.

Faces turned toward me. Expressions I didn't want. Someone whispered something nearby and their friend covered a laugh.

He had kissed my forehead four hours ago. He had looked at me like I was something worth looking at.

And then he walked into this hall and built this.

Every tender thing this afternoon had been architecture. Constructed for this moment. A trap that worked because deep down, I was still very naive.

Audrey was already at my elbow. "Now. We're leaving right now."

The rain outside was cold and merciless. We ducked into the covered garage and I sat on a concrete ledge. The shaking started in my hands and worked its way up through everything.

I cried. Hard. Pouring out all the pain I was too proud to feel in public.

I cried the way I hadn't cried since I was seventeen and understood for the first time that the people most capable of loving you are also the people most capable of causing damage to you.

"Who do we have here? If it isn't the crying wolf and her keeper."

Zander's voice arrived from just outside the garage light, unhurried, like he'd been standing there waiting.

Audrey went rigid. "What do you want?"

Zander looked at her with a complete absence of interest. Then looked at me.

"I want to talk to you privately."

I nodded at Audrey. She bent close and said quietly, "I'll be just one block away. Scream and I'll be back in thirty seconds." She gave Zander a look that communicated exactly what she thought of his presence before she walked away.

"Step one," Zander said. "Get Xavier to mark you. You have until tomorrow."

I stared at him. "You watched what just happened in that hall, right?"

"I did." He was completely unbothered. "I also know he slept with you today. Use whatever you used to make that happen and make him mark you as well." His eyes went flat. "Or you'll find out what it means to have me as an enemy rather than a resource."

He turned and walked back into the rain.

"Tick tock," he said without looking back.