Chapter 114: Can I... Become your boyfriend?

Kain’s POV"Evans," Reid called, his voice dropping an octave. "Can I kiss you right now?"

​The question hung in the warm space between us, heavy and laced with an intensity that made the air feel thick.

My heart was still hammering a frantic rhythm against my ribs, and my throat felt completely dry.

​Can I kiss you right now?

​I looked at the wet trail gleaming on his cheek, then down to his lips, and finally back up to those wide, desperate grey eyes.

The arrogant rookie was completely gone, replaced by someone so entirely stripped of pride that it terrified me. If I said yes, what then? There would be no turning back to the safety of mutual hostility.

​But looking at him now, holding me on the floor, I realized I didn’t want to go back.

​Slowly, my hand moved from his mouth, my fingers sliding up to cup the side of his jaw. My thumb brushed over the faint redness where I had struck him earlier, a silent apology.

​"Yeah," I whispered, the word escaping before my brain could talk me out of it. "Yeah, Reid. You can."

​He didn’t waste a single second.

​Reid leaned in, his lips meeting mine with a sudden, overwhelming heat. But it wasn’t like before.

There was no rough dominance, no desperate power struggle to force me into submission. It was deep, slow, and breathtakingly tender, his mouth moving against mine with a reverence that made my entire body go soft. He was kissing me, tasting me, loving me...

​An involuntary breathy sigh escaped my throat, and the moment it did, Reid deepened the kiss, his tongue sliding past my lips to taste me completely.

The thick, intoxicating scent of his Alpha pheromones flared, wrapping around us like a heavy blanket, but for the first time, it didn’t feel like a cage. It felt like a field that was meant for me to play in, to set myself free.

​I tangled my fingers into his unkempt blonde hair, pulling him closer until there was absolutely no space left between us.

I was drowning in him, completely succumbing to the dependency I had been so terrified of admitting, but as his arms tightened around my waist, lifting me slightly against his chest, the suffocating terror finally began to ease.

​When he finally pulled back, just an inch, his forehead rested against mine. Both of our breaths came out in short, ragged gasps in the quiet room.

​"Monday morning," Reid murmured, his eyes closed as his thumb traced the line of my hip through my clothes. "You were going to leave, wasn’t that the plan? Run away before the sun comes up?"

​I let out a weak, breathless laugh, my eyes stinging slightly. How did he...? "You really see through everything, don’t you?"

​"I told you, I know you," he whispered, opening his eyes to look straight into mine. The sad smile was gone, replaced by a fierce, unyielding determination. "But you’re not running anymore. I’m not letting you go back into hiding, Kain. I’m going to do this with you whether you like it or not. Together."

​I looked at him, feeling the profound weight of his words, and for the first time in a long while, the future with him knowing my secret didn’t look like an impending disaster. It just looked like him.

​"Okay," I whispered against his lips, closing the small distance between us once again. "But then... What does this make us?" I asked. "Fuck buddies can’t have feelings like this."

"Then, Kain, would you like to try dating me?" He asked and I paused, my entire body going rigid. "Can I... become your boyfriend?"

The silence in the room returned, but the suffocating weight it usually carried was entirely gone. Instead, it was replaced by a dizzying warmth that made my head spin.

Boyfriend.

The word felt foreign, heavy, and completely out of place in the life I had built for myself.

For years, I had lived like a ghost in my own skin, hiding my second gender, measuring every breath, downing illegal suppressants, and keeping everyone at arm’s length just to survive on the ice.

I had accepted a long time ago that a disciplined, guarded life like mine didn’t leave room for things like romance.

I was a captain with a ticking clock, an Omega pretending to be a Beta, planning to make the world stage on ice. I was supposed to have no room and no reason for romance.

And yet, here I was on the floor, pinned beneath the gaze of the team’s most arrogant rookie, listening to him ask for a title I never thought I’d ever hold.

I stared at him, my heart doing a strange, complicated flutter. I had literally just stopped him from confessing because my mind couldn’t handle the sheer weight of his words, and then he asked this instead?

This was even bigger than a declaration of feelings. It was a proposal to change everything. It was an invitation to stop running.

Is dating even the right call?

The logical, defensive part of my brain immediately started trying to tally the risks.

If anyone found out, if the team caught wind of it, if our dynamic exploded on the ice—it would be a disaster.

They would begin to not just make fun of us, but start suspecting that something is up. How does an Alpha date a beta?

Furthermore, our entire history was built on a foundation of sharp edges, toxic power plays, and a shared bed that was supposed to be nothing more than a mutual release.

Turning that mess into a real, functioning relationship felt like trying to skate on thin ice during a thaw.

And then, a sudden, intrusive thought hit me, breaking through the emotional gravity of the moment.

Besides, he’s freaking twenty-one.

A faint, incredulous laugh bubbled up in my chest, breaking through the tension. Twenty-one. He was a rookie in every sense of the word, a stubborn kid who had just admitted he became a total nightmare on the ice just to get his captain to notice him.

He was a spoiled star who had thrown more than a months-long tantrum because I didn’t treat him like he was special.

Jeez, how the hell did I get wound up in a mess like this? How did I let a twenty-one-year-old alpha completely upend my entire existence?

Well, I didn’t let him. He just did. That’s what Reid McCoy does. He just takes and intrudes, doing whatever he likes and not caring at all. That’s how he’s always been.

But right now, he wasn’t just taking. He was asking. And... He was pleading with his eyes.

I looked down at his arms still securely wound around my waist, holding me as if I might vanish into thin air if he let go.

The fierce, unyielding determination in his grey eyes didn’t waver, even as he waited for my answer with bated breath. He was young, he was arrogant, and he had been an absolute son of a bitch—but he was also the only person who had ever truly seen me.

He was the only one who looked at my secret and saw strength instead of a weakness to succumb to—even though he did do so many other messed up things with that secret. Welp.

"You’re a pain in the ass, you know that?" I whispered, my voice carrying a trace of that breathless laugh. I didn’t pull away. Instead, I let my forehead lean back against his, my fingers lightly tugging at the blonde hair at the nape of his neck.

"I know," Reid murmured, his breath warm against my lips, entirely unbothered by the insult.

I let out a slow, grounding exhale, the reality of what he was asking finally settling into my bones. "If we do this... if we actually try this, Reid, it has to stay between us. Completely."

I could give in. I could date this stubborn, arrogant rookie, but let’s get things straight.

"The team cannot find out, and the media absolutely cannot know. A captain and a rookie? An Alpha and what everyone thinks is a Beta? It would destroy the locker room dynamic, and the press would tear us apart before we even hit the ice."

Reid’s gaze sharpened, the weight of my words registering in the quiet space. For a guy who usually loved the spotlight, I expected at least a flash of hesitation, but there was none.

"I don’t give a shit about the press, but I care about keeping you safe," he said, his arms tightening around my waist, anchoring me against him. "We’ll keep it a secret. No one else gets to know. Just you and me."

The sheer gravity of his compliance made my heart skip a beat. This was the guy who wanted everyone to look at him, willingly agreeing to hide the one thing he wanted most, just to keep me from running.

"Okay," I whispered, the final remnants of my defense mechanisms slipping away into the dark room.

"Then...?" He looked at me with expectant eyes, waiting for the moment I formally accepted while he held his breath. "Does that mean...?"

"Yeah."I said, leaning in further so our lips could meet in a light kiss. "Let’s do it. I’ll date you, Reid fucking McCoy. I’ll let you be my boyfriend. But it doesn’t mean I’ve forgiven you, so you have a lot of making up to do."