Chapter 69: Mandate for Game Night
Aveline’s POV
The next afternoon, my phone buzzed on my desk. It was a text on the group chat from Coach Hale. The message was for every single person on the hockey team. It said that we had a mandatory team bonding night. Coach Hale was not stupid. He could see the heavy, dangerous tension between the players during practice. He wanted us to fix it before the next big game.
The team bonding night was hosted at Kieran’s family home. Calling it a house was a lie. It was a massive, mansion that felt more like a museum than a home. There were no parents around, just hallways and expensive furniture. To make it look like a normal high school hangout, the guys had ordered dozens of pizza boxes. They threw them everywhere.
In the main den, a high-stakes video game tournament was happening. Competitive hockey players were crowded around a giant TV screen, jumping up and down and screaming at the top of their lungs whenever someone scored a goal. I didn't care about whatever they did. I sat quietly on the floor in the corner of the room, keeping my distance from everyone. From across the room, I could see that Theo was staring at me. Every time I moved, his eyes followed me.
Suddenly, Milo Hayes marched into the middle of the room. He threw a shiny deck of cards onto the centre table.
“Enough video games! Guys” Milo yelled, waving his arms in the air. “Time for a real game. Time for Truth or Dare.”
The hockey players roared in approval, quickly moving the tables and sitting down in a big circle on the floor. I was forced to join them
Milo placed an empty glass bottle in the exact centre of the circle. He reached down and gave it a hard spin. The green glass spun fast, until it began to slow down. It clicked against the floor a few times and stopped.
The tip of the bottle was pointing directly at me.
Milo smirked, a nasty gleam entering his eyes. “Asher,” he said loudly, leaning forward. “Truth or dare?”
I did not hesitate for even a second. “Truth,” I said, my voice smooth and totally calm.
Milo’s smirk grew wider. He wanted to mess with me in front of the entire team. “Alright, Asher. Tell us the honest truth. Who is the biggest, fakest liar in this room right now?”
The entire room went completely quiet. The laughing stopped instantly. The guys held their breath, waiting to see how "Asher" would answer such a dangerous question.
I did not look at Milo. Instead, I looked directly across the circle, cutting through the space until my eyes locked onto Kieran. He was sitting perfectly straight, watching me with a tense face.
“Hampton,” I said smoothly, "He acts like a perfect captain for this team, but he is actually the best in the school at keeping dirty secrets.”
For a second, nobody moved. Then someone burst out laughing. They clapped their hands and shook their heads, thinking it was just an aggressive hockey rivalry and trash talk between the two top players. But Kieran did not laugh. His face went completely pale in a second.
Kieran stood up abruptly from the floor and he slammed his glass cup onto the table. The loud crack broke the fun atmosphere instantly. Nobody laughed anymore. Kieran glared at me with pure fury, then turned and walked away.
A few minutes later, the team got distracted by another loud round of the game. Seizing the moment, I quietly stood up and slipped down the hallway, pretending to look for a restroom.
As I walked deeper into the mansion, I passed by a dark study room. The door was not fully closed. Through the tiny crack in the wood, I heard quiet, urgent whispering. I stopped my footsteps and peered inside the dark room.
My eyes went wide. Cassian and Daphne were standing inside the shadows. Cassian had his hands wrapped tightly around her waist, pulling her body against his with intense possession. He leaned down and kissed her deeply as he would never let her go.
A sudden realisation hit me. Cassian had a dangerous calm reputation in school, but it was all a shield. This was his massive, fatal vulnerability: his secret, forbidden love for Daphne. If anyone found out about this, it could destroy him.
I needed to move away before they caught me spying. I took a careful step backwards, but my boot squeaked loudly against the floor.
Inside the room, the kissing stopped instantly. Cassian’s sharp eyes snapped toward the door like a hawk.
Panicking, I quickly ducked into the very next room in the hallway to hide from him. I pushed the door open and stepped inside, shutting it quietly behind me.
The room was pitch black. The blinds were closed. This looks like Kieran’s personal hockey trophy room.
Before I could reach my hand out to find the light switch on the wall, a warm hand came out of the dark. It gripped my waist with incredible force and pulled me backwards behind the open door.
The door clicked shut, My back hit the wall. The space behind the door was incredibly tight and small. The person pressed their entire body weight against me, our chests smooching together so closely that I could feel the rapid thud of their heartbeat.
It was Kieran. The smell of his expensive cologne filled my senses.
I could not see his face clearly in the dark, but when he spoke, his voice sounded completely broken and raw.
“You’re torturing me, Aveline,” Kieran whispered right against my ear. “You look at me like I’m a monster.”
Hearing my real name in his mouth sent a spark of electricity through my body. I quickly brought my hand up, pressing my palm against his chest to push him away from me.
But my push did nothing. Instead, his grip around my waist only tightened, his fingers digging into my clothes, pulling me even closer into the space. The toxic, dangerous tension between us grew so much that I could barely breathe.