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Thirty Seven

Author: Lovely
last update publish date: 2026-06-16 13:41:58

ATHENA

Staring blindly at the whiteboard in the coaches' office, the dry-erase marker hovered uselessly in my right hand. I hadn't drawn a single play in twenty minutes. Every time I closed my eyes, my brain immediately hijacked my focus, dragging me right back to the quiet, heavy warmth of my apartment last night. I could still feel the phantom weight of Jeremiah’s hands on my waist, the sharp smell of his spearmint gum, and the absolute, terrifying safety of his chest against mine.

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  • Rejected by my team, Claimed by the Rival   Fifty Eight

    The traffic on the 405 freeway was crawling.Heat waves radiated off the baked asphalt, intense enough to violently distort the shape of the palm trees lining the concrete barriers. The smog choked the setting sun, turning the Los Angeles sky a sickly, toxic shade of orange.Sitting in the cab of an Uber, my SUV was currently sitting in an impound lot covered in aluminum shrapnel, the silence felt deafening.Turning off Sunset Boulevard, the massive wrought-iron gates of the Bel Air estate loomed ahead. The driver punched in the guest code I provided. The heavy metal swung open, granting access to the pristine, insulated world of the Ashford family.The Uber idled in the circular driveway. Tossing a crumpled fifty-dollar bill onto the center console, I stepped out into the sweltering evening heat.The mansion sat completely dead and quiet.Pushing through the mahogany front doors, the blast of central air conditioning hit my bare chest. The entryway smelled of lemon polish and expensi

  • Rejected by my team, Claimed by the Rival   Fifty Seven

    JEREMIAHThe rhythmic, high-pitched beep of the heart monitor was the only thing standing between me and a murder charge.Morning sunlight slammed hard against the plastic window blinds of the UCLA Medical Center intensive care unit. The harsh glare cut across the sterile white linoleum, highlighting the chaotic tangle of clear IV tubes snaking across the hospital bed.My primary objective was keeping my anger contained enough to stay in this room.Athena lay completely motionless under a massive, inflating plastic Bair Hugger blanket. A machine hissed violently in the corner, pumping continuously warmed air over her frozen body. Her skin had lost the terrifying blue tint from the arena, replaced by a sickening, translucent pale white."Like I told the triage nurse, son."The voice scraped like rusty metal.Detective Vance leaned against the heavy wooden doorframe of room 412. He wore a rumpled tan suit smelling heavily of stale coffee and stale cigarette smoke. He didn't even bother

  • Rejected by my team, Claimed by the Rival   Fifty Six

    ATHENAFrost coated my eyelashes, sealing them together with heavy, frozen crusts.My only goal right now was surviving the next sixty seconds. The Los Angeles night outside was supposed to be warm, but inside the Ashford arena, the industrial HVAC system roared like a jet engine. Sub-zero air blasted directly from the overhead vents, chewing through my thin jacket and biting directly into my bones.Dragging my body across the dark rubber matting, the friction scraped the skin completely off my knees. I needed shelter. The open hallway was a wind tunnel of freezing death.Hitting the wooden edge of the home team penalty box, I hauled my dead weight over the low bench.Curling into a tight ball on the floorboards, violent, uncontrollable shivers wrecked my entire body. My teeth cracked against each other. The darkness swallowed everything, broken only by the tiny, useless green standby lights on the overhead jumbotron.Clack. Clack. Clack.The sharp sound of hard-soled dress shoes hitt

  • Rejected by my team, Claimed by the Rival   Fifty Five

    JEREMIAHI ripped the athletic tape cleanly off the roll, the sharp sound echoing off the concrete walls.Sitting in the corner stall of the Ashford locker room, I wrapped the blade of my composite stick. The room smelled of fresh sweat, floor wax, and intense, quiet focus. Friday’s qualifier was barely forty-eight hours away. My singular goal was keeping this roster completely insulated from the academic warfare currently trying to swallow our coach whole."Carter," I called out, tossing a spare roll of black tape across the room. "Your gap control on the penalty kill is sloppy. Close the neutral zone faster today."Catching the tape one-handed, Carter nodded. "Got it, Captain. Sub-three second transitions. Coach Cole will run us until we vomit if we miss the mark again."A heavy, metallic thud echoed from the entrance.The double doors swung open, hitting the rubber stops with enough force to rattle the hinges.Three men walked into the locker room.Arthur Ashford led the pack. Wear

  • Rejected by my team, Claimed by the Rival   Fifty Four

    ATHENAWe'd fucked for hours. My pussy was still sore.And now, lying in the center of the bed, the heavy duvet draped over our bare legs. The digital clock on the nightstand glared a harsh red: 3:14 AMMy head rested on Jeremiah’s chest. His heartbeat pulsed steadily against my cheek, a slow, grounding rhythm. His arm wrapped tightly around my waist, keeping me flush against his side even in sleep. Total, utter exhaustion pulled at my eyelids. For the first time all week, the anxiety vibrating in my ribs vanished.BEEP-BEEP-BEEP-BEEP.A piercing, high-decibel shriek violently shattered the quiet.I jolted upright, my heart instantly slamming into my throat. "What is that?""The perimeter alarm." Jeremiah rolled out of bed with terrifying, immediate speed. The sleepy lover vanished, entirely replaced by the lethal protector. "Someone breached the back patio gate."The keypad in the hallway continued its deafening, rhythmic screaming.Jeremiah shoved his legs into a pair of gray sweatp

  • Rejected by my team, Claimed by the Rival   Fifty Three

    ATHENAStaring at the boy who used to be my entire world, the leftover adrenaline from the dance floor instantly curdled into pure, venomous disgust. The neon pink lights of the hallway cast harsh, ugly shadows across his face.Jeremiah shifted his weight. The muscles in his arm coiled like thick steel cable. He didn't speak, but his massive frame angled forward, completely ready to tear Luca apart with his bare hands.Reaching back, I pressed my hand flat against Jeremiah’s chest. *Stand down.*"You are bargaining with a felony, Luca," I stated, keeping my voice entirely dead and flat."I’m offering you a lifeline," Luca corrected, stepping closer. The smell of cheap tequila radiated off his crimson Westmore jacket. "Sienna paid a TA to plant that midterm. She set the trap, not me. I have the text messages on a burner phone. I can hand them to Dean Hayes tomorrow morning and clear your name entirely.""And the price is me.""The price is us going back to the way things were," he insi

  • Rejected by my team, Claimed by the Rival   Thirty Five

    AUTHOR'S POVTick.Tock.Tick…The facility had gone dead silent. The team had cleared about an hour ago, leaving the long, sterile hallway smelling of stale sweat, industrial floor wax, and the metallic tang of hockey gear. Athena sat hunched over on a cold metal bench, staring blankly at the flo

  • Rejected by my team, Claimed by the Rival   Thirty Two

    AUTHOR'S POVTurning her back to the table, Hayes paced toward the panoramic windows overlooking the campus tennis courts. The blinding Los Angeles sun cast long, harsh shadows across her tailored suit. The looming threat of a formal NCAA investigation or a national pipeline scandal erupting in Los

  • Rejected by my team, Claimed by the Rival   Two

    (Athena's POV).For a second, I thought I heard him wrong because there was no way Luca Ryder had just looked straight past me and called who?“Sienna?” My rival?The crowd screamed, while I just stood there, frozen at the edge of the rink with my hand still over my mouth like a complete idiot, t

  • Rejected by my team, Claimed by the Rival   One

    (Athena's POV)“Ew. Girl! Stop staring at him like that before I throw up.”I laughed under my breath, gripping my hockey stick tighter as I turned to look at Tessa, my best friend.We were near the player's bench, the rink screaming loud around us as both schools packed the arena like tonight mean

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