Chapter 148 Chapter 148

Chapter 148 Chapter 148
Taylor's POV

I realized the calls started the week after graduation.

Sponsorship deals and college scouts.

A sports network wanted an exclusive interview about the heir to the Alpha throne who also happened to be one of the best young hockey players in the territory.

Hunter's phone buzzed constantly now, meetings stacking on top of meetings, his schedule filling faster than he could keep track of it himself.

I tried to be understanding.

I told myself this was what came with everything he'd survived this year, that he deserved the recognition, the opportunities, the future finally opening up in front of him after months of nothing but danger and fear.

But understanding didn't stop the ache building quietly in my chest every time he canceled plans.

Every time a call ran late, every time I sat alone at my kitchen table with dinner going cold because something more important had come up again.

"He'll make time soon," Mom said gently one evening, noticing me staring at my phone for the third time in an hour.

"He's not choosing this over you, Taylor and he's just drowning a little."

"I know," I said. "It still hurts."



Asher noticed before I ever said a word to him about it.

He showed up at my house one evening with dinner from my favorite place, the same quiet, steady presence he had always been.

He sat with me on the porch while I picked at food I didn't have much appetite for.

"You've been quiet," he said. "More than usual."

"I'm fine," I said automatically.

"You're not," he said, not unkindly. "Talk to me."

I sighed, setting my plate aside.

"It's Hunter and I feel like I barely see him anymore. Every time I do, he's rushing off to another meeting, another call, another opportunity he can't afford to turn down." I hugged my knees to my chest.

"I know it's selfish to be upset about it. He's finally getting the life he's earned."

"It's not selfish," Asher said, his voice tightening slightly.

"You spent this entire year fighting for your life alongside him. You deserve more than being an afterthought now that the danger's passed."

"He's not doing it on purpose," I said.

"Maybe not," Asher said.

"But intention doesn't erase the effect and you're hurting, Taylor. That matters, whether or not he means for it to happen."

I could see something building behind his eyes with quiet fury he was clearly trying to keep contained for my sake.

"Don't," I said softly.

"Please don't make this into a fight between you two and we just found our way back to something steady."

"I'm not going to let him keep hurting you without saying something," Asher said.

"That's not me starting a fight and that's me caring about you the way I always have."



I found out later, secondhand, exactly how that conversation went.

Asher went to the rink the next afternoon, where Hunter was finishing up an interview with a sports reporter before his next scheduled meeting.

According to what Zara told me afterward, pieced together from students who had been at the rink that day, Asher waited until the reporter left before confronting him directly.

"You need to slow down," Asher said, loud enough that a few lingering students overheard.

"Taylor's falling apart quietly while you're out here chasing every deal that lands in your inbox."

"I'm building a future," Hunter shot back, clearly caught off guard. "For all of us. Don't act like you understand everything I'm juggling right now."

"I understand that she sits alone most nights wondering if you even remember she exists," Asher said, his voice rising.

"You promised her you would never let anything come before her again. You're already breaking that."

"Don't lecture me about promises," Hunter snapped.

"You've spent this whole year trying to take my place with her anyway. Maybe this is exactly what you wanted."

That was apparently when the fight actually started, both of them shoving hard, old rivalry surfacing fast despite months of hard won truce between them.

Nobody noticed the small group of paparazzi that had been trailing Hunter since his interview, cameras already rolling from a distance, capturing every second of the escalating fight.

"You don't get to act wounded," Asher shouted, shoving Hunter back against the boards.

"Not after everything and not after I've had to watch you hurt her again and again this year while I picked up every piece you left behind."

"She's my mate too," Hunter shouted back, fury raw in his voice.

"Don't act like you have more claim to her feelings than I do."

"She's not property either of us gets to claim," Asher snapped.

"But since we're finally saying things out loud, maybe it's time everyone actually knew the truth about us instead of hiding behind some palace secret."

"Asher…." Hunter started, an alarm flashing across his face.

"We're brothers!" Asher shouted with the words tearing out of him in the heat of the fight, loud enough to carry clearly across the rink, directly toward the cameras still recording every second of it.

"Same father and same blood and I'm done pretending that secrets matter more than telling the truth for once!"

The rink went dead silent with students frozen, phones already rising to capture the moment too, the paparazzi's cameras catching everything with perfect, damning clarity.

Hunter stood frozen, the fury draining out of his face fast, replaced by something like horror as he realized exactly what had just happened.

It was exactly what Asher had just revealed in front of cameras that would spread it across every screen in the territory within the hour.



I found out about all of it that evening, Zara showing me the footage with shaking hands, the video already climbing fast across every platform.

I watched Hunter and Asher shove each other across that ice, watched the fury and hurt tangled together in both their voices.

And I watched Asher's words finally tear loose the secret that had defined both their lives for eighteen years.

My phone buzzed almost immediately after, both their names lighting up my screen at once.

I didn't answer either call right away.

I just sat there instead, staring at the frozen frame of the video, both boys locked in a fight born from love twisted sideways into fear and hurt.

And I understood that whatever fragile peace we'd built since Kessler's defeat had just been shattered completely.

In front of the entire world, because two brothers had finally run out of room to hold their feelings quietly any longer.