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Thirty Two

Author: Lovely
last update publish date: 2026-06-11 04:03:16

AUTHOR'S POV

Turning 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 Angeles represented an absolute death sentence for a collegiate athletic director's career.

"If the national board gets wind that we are actively harboring a program where elite developmental spots a
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  • 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   Fifty Two

    ATHENAHeavy bass vibrated through the floorboards, rattling the soles of my boots.The Bruce mansion sprawled across the edge of a Hollywood Hills cliff, a massive monument to excess. Neon lights bathed the crowded living room in harsh shades of magenta and electric blue. The air tasted incredibly thick, choked with the smell of cheap beer, marijuana smoke, and cloying, expensive perfume.Hundreds of bodies crushed together. Shouting voices competed with the deafening rap music blasting from ceiling-mounted speakers.Standing near the massive marble kitchen island, I held a red plastic cup filled with lukewarm water.Tessa leaned against the counter next to me, wearing a tight black dress, her eyes scanning the chaotic room like a sniper."Okay, the hostility in this room is literally tangible," Tessa shouted over the music. "I’ve counted at least twelve Westmore hockey players glaring at us since we walked through the door.""Let them glare." I took a sip of the water. "We aren't he

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

    ATHENAThe heavy mahogany door clicked shut, sealing the suffocating heat of the Los Angeles morning out in the hallway.Dean Hayes slid a thick manila folder across the polished wood. It stopped directly in front of my folded hands. The stolen biology midterm rested on top of the stack, the university seal glaring bright red under the harsh fluorescent lights of the administrative boardroom. My singular goal today was walking out of this room with my academic record intact."The evidence is entirely conclusive, Miss Cole," Dean Hayes stated. She adjusted her silver-rimmed glasses, leaning back into her high-backed leather chair. "Campus security recovered this exact document from your personal athletic locker at seven o'clock this morning. Felony academic theft carries an immediate, non-negotiable expulsion."Sitting directly beside me, Jeremiah shifted his massive frame. The leather of his chair creaked sharply. He wore a dark button-down shirt, his shoulders rigid, completely dwarf

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

    AUTHOR'S POVKilling the engine of his SUV, Jeremiah sat in the driveway of the massive Bel Air estate for a full ten seconds before pulling the keys from the ignition. The text from the family housekeeper had been urgent: his mother’s autoimmune flare-up had spiked, leaving her entirely bedridden.

  • Rejected by my team, Claimed by the Rival   Three

    (Athena's POV)Shame!That was all I felt before I could even open my eyes. It was heavy and ugly, like my body remembered before my mind could register. And when I finally blinked awake, the white ceiling above me swam into focus. I was at the College hospital. Great.I let out the smallest bre

  • 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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