Lahat ng Kabanata ng Frozen Knot: Rivals Claim: Kabanata 21 - Kabanata 29

Chapter 22: The EdgeThe drive to Jax’s apartment was the longest ten minutes of Ronan’s life.He kept both hands locked at ten and two on the wheel, fingers so tight the leather groaned under his grip. If he let go—even for a second—he knew exactly where his right hand would go: straight to Jax’s thigh, higher, tugging him across the console until Jax was straddling him right there in traffic, consequences be damned. Jax sat rigid beside him, hoodie zipped to his chin, knees jammed together so hard the muscles in his thighs stood out in sharp relief. Every few seconds a faint tremor ran through his legs. Ronan could smell it—the sweet, frantic spill of honey-cedar slick leaking stronger with every mile, saturating the passenger seat, mingling with Ronan’s own spiking pine-smoke scent until the cab felt like a pressure cooker with no release valve.Neither of them spoke.They didn’t need words. The silence thrummed with everything they weren’t saying: the fluorescent-lit tunnel where

Chapter 24: First LightJax woke to sunlight slicing through the half-closed blinds in thin, pale blades that cut across the rumpled sheets. For one disoriented heartbeat, everything was soft and quiet—then the bite mark throbbed, sharp and possessive, a living reminder branded into the base of his neck.Memory crashed in like cold water.Ronan.The knot locking them together.The claim.The bond snapping taut between them like a live wire finally connected.He lay very still, hardly breathing.Ronan was still asleep behind him—solid chest pressed to Jax’s back, one heavy arm draped possessively across his waist, palm flat and open over Jax’s stomach as though even in sleep he was trying to anchor the new bond in place. Their legs were tangled under the sheets; Jax could feel the faint, residual swell of Ronan’s knot scar resting warm against the inside of his thigh—soft now, but still tender from the stretch and pressure of last night.The room smelled overwhelmingly like them.Sweat

Chapter 26: Ronan's PlaceThe drive from the league office was quiet, but not empty.Jax sat in the passenger seat of Ronan's black SUV, hoodie pulled up to shadow his face, arms crossed tight over his chest. The city slid past in muted shades of gray steel and early-evening haze. Ronan drove with both hands locked at ten and two, jaw set in that familiar stubborn line.The bond thrummed between them—soft, steady, a low current that turned every near-touch into something alive.They didn't speak until Ronan took the exit toward the downtown core instead of Jax's neighborhood."We're going to my place," Ronan said. Not a question.Jax turned his head slowly. "Why?""The league has access to your building. Cameras in the lobby. Reporters already sniffing. Mine's got better security. No surprises." A beat. "Also I need clothes. Gear. A charger. If we're doing this, I'm not living out of a duffel bag."The ghost of a smile. "You're moving in?""I'm being practical."Jax looked away, watche

Chapter 28: First TestJax lasted eleven hours before he felt it.Not dramatic. Not the tsunami-force ache from the first heat. Just a faint wrongness, low under his ribs, like a held note going slightly flat. He was on his own couch, alone for the first night since the claim, phone dark on the coffee table because the league's new directive sat in his inbox in stark black type: no off-ice communication outside official team or league channels, effective immediately.He told himself it was exhaustion. Told himself the bite mark still ached because bite marks ached, that was just biology, nothing sinister about it.By midnight he wasn't telling himself anything. The mark had gone from a deep, satisfied throb to something duller. Flatter. Like a phone battery bleeding out overnight instead of dying all at once.He pressed two fingers to it. No sting. That scared him more than pain would have.His phone buzzed. He'd left it on, screen down, telling himself he wouldn't look.He looked.Ron