Catalyst
The Hockey Prince's Secret Ice Queen
All I wanted was to find a computer genius to process the non-linear dynamic equations for my ecological model. Instead, I found myself cornered by Julian Andrews, the university's hockey prince, trading a public, staged kiss for his academic support. To finalize our "deal," I was dragged to the campus ice rink. The cheerleaders and puck bunnies immediately swarmed him, mocking my plain clothes and treating me like a pathetic joke. Brooke, the head cheerleader, even set up a figure skating competition with a date with Julian as the grand prize. She performed a basic spin, blew him a kiss, and smugly waited for me to fall flat on my face and humiliate myself. His hockey teammates laughed from the sidelines, watching me try to support Julian as he stumbled around the ice like a newborn giraffe. But as I held his warm hand to keep him from falling, I couldn't help but feel something was terribly wrong. Why was a top-tier athlete faking such awful balance? And why did his ice-blue eyes stare at me with such knowing anticipation, as if he already knew about the professional figure skating past I had spent years trying to bury? "Just let go and skate." He whispered, slowly releasing my hand. I took a deep breath, glided to the center of the rink, and landed a flawless double Axel. As the entire rink fell into a dead, shocked silence, I realized I had just exposed not only my own hidden past, but also the biggest secret of the campus god.
Chapter 1 No.1
Sage POV:
"Let me kiss you."
The request was a low, hurried murmur—warm, quiet, and laced with the faintest edge of mortification.
Stunned, I snapped my head up toward the sound.
Julian Andrews filled my vision. He easily towered a head over me, his lean, athletic frame silhouetted against the bright morning glare, casting a long shadow across the cobblestones. Briar University's star forward. Team captain. The athletic department's untouchable golden boy.
Campus rumor had it that Julian was notoriously indifferent, never sparing anyone a second glance.
Behind him, a solid wall of navy-and-gold varsity jackets blocked the brick path. His teammates were whistling, shoving each other, and effectively cutting off my only exit.
The sudden commotion immediately bottlenecked the morning foot traffic. Whispers rippled through the crowd, and within seconds, a dozen students reached into their pockets out of sheer muscle memory, black camera lenses catching the light as they aimed squarely at us.
Julian's sharp eyes tracked the movement, his jaw tightening into a hard, irritated line.
Before I could take a single defensive step back, he closed the distance between us. Leaning down into my space, his broad shoulders shifted in a subtle, fluid maneuver—throwing up an impenetrable physical wall that completely shielded my face from the intrusive glare of the cameras.
His sharp, striking face hovered breathtakingly close. His deep baritone brushed against my ear, lost to the autumn wind, meant for me alone:
"Sorry to drop this on you," he whispered, his pale blue eyes disarmingly earnest, holding a quiet heat that sent a tremor straight down my spine. "The guys backed me into a locker-room dare... but I'm not here to use you as a joke. We can fake it. Angle it so it looks real—whatever you're comfortable with. Just help me get them off my back, and I owe you one."
It was only then that my brain finally rebooted.
What on earth? He's actually trying to kiss me?
A sharp flare of pure absurdity hit me, and my gaze dropped to my reflection in the dark glass door of the adjacent building: an oversized, faded gray hoodie that swallowed my frame whole, soft, thin jeans worn at the knees, bare-faced dark circles carved beneath my eyes from forty-eight hours of non-stop coding, my dark hair hastily twisted into a cheap plastic claw clip, and a pair of oversized, thick black-rimmed glasses sitting heavy on the bridge of my nose, completely hiding my face.
I looked like a refugee from an all-night disaster. How had Briar's golden prince ended up in front of me?
When I looked back up, my breath trapped in my throat anyway. He was too close, his clean scent of winter mint and cedar wrapping around my senses. Having those pale blue eyes staring straight down at me made my chest tighten in a way I really didn't want to acknowledge.
"Clock's ticking, Cap!" Landon howled from the sidelines, hands cupped around his mouth as the rest of the players lost their minds laughing. "Plant one on her, or enjoy the five-AM bag skate!"
A raucous chorus of barks and chest-thumping went up from the team.
A few yards away, two girls heading toward the dining hall froze in their tracks, pointing their phones.
"Wait, who the hell is that?" one of them laughed loudly, zooming her camera in on my face. "She looks like she just crawled out of a dumpster. There's no way Julian's actually kissing her. Post it on Sidechat right now—this is going straight to number one."
The cruel words hit like a splash of ice water, snapping me out of my daze and instantly killing the stupid flutter in my chest.
I hated the attention.
Four years ago, after my family and my former training partner framed me and destroyed my competitive skating career, I swore I would never be public entertainment again. I buried my name, switched majors, and hid behind oversized fleece and thick glasses just to live an invisible life. If I ended up on the campus forums with Julian Andrews, the internet vultures would dox me before noon—and drag up the toxic scandal I had bled to walk away from.
My research was already on the verge of falling apart. I didn't have time for this circus.
I locked my grip around my heavy binders, my knuckles straining white.
"Find someone else for your dare, Andrews," I said coldly, taking a step back to put distance between us, my voice tight with adrenaline. "I'm not interested in being part of your game. Move."
I kept my head down, attempting to brush past him.
"You're Sage Kelley, right?"
The sound of my name brought my boots to an immediate halt.
I blinked up at him, caught completely off guard.
"Professor Beaumont's senior research student," Julian straightened up slightly, his cadence measured and even, carrying an intellectual sharpness that seemed impossible beneath a varsity jacket. "I saw your Havenwood Creek senior capstone proposal sitting on his desk over Sunday dinner."
My heart gave a hard, hollow thud. Professor Beaumont was my academic advisor—and the guardian of the final research endowment my late father had left behind.
Julian leaned in slightly, his voice dropping to a near-whisper against the whistle of the wind. "I spent an hour going over your codebase."
My lips parted. "You... read my proposal?"
"Your simulation keeps crashing because your core fluid algorithm strategy is flawed," Julian murmured, his pale blue eyes deadly sharp. "And Uncle Des mentioned that if you don't deliver a working version by this Friday, the department is pulling your grant—which means you don't clear your senior thesis, and you don't graduate in May."
The hair on the back of my neck stood on end.
Friday was the deadline. If the funding was pulled, the project died, my senior capstone failed, and I would be forced to stay another semester without my degree. Worse, my father's final ecological legacy would be reduced to scrap paper.
I had been panicking over that exact deadline for two days straight, and Julian had just laid it out like it was nothing.
Worse, I couldn't even brush him off. I had heard the rumors about Beaumont's nephew—the CS prodigy everyone in the department talked about. I just had never realized it was him.
"I know how to fix your algorithm," Julian stated plainly, laying his cards on the table, his gaze locking onto mine with an unshakeable, quiet certainty. "Help me get through this bet. In return, I'll rewrite your boundary calculations tonight. Deal?"
Triplets Secret Lover
Ann Davis divorced Hans Graham after she caught her husband having an affair with Franz Smith and Teddy Lee. Ann was shocked that her husband was gay. While drunk with grief, Ann Davis met J. Carter, the handsome billionaire and CEO of the Carter Group. Ann decided to help J. Carter, to get away from a woman who chased him spontaneously. But unfortunately, Ann fainted from being too drunk. When she awoke, she realized that she had spent the night with J. Carter and that her purse was in the man's hands. J. Carter offered her a year-long contract marriage to help him avoid Merry Smith. Who would have thought the contract marriage brought Ann to the reality behind the fire that killed her late Father? What was J. Carter's secret? Who was Merry Smith? What did Hans Graham do? What was Franz Smith's intention? Will Ann manage to find a man who loves her sincerely? Does true love exist?
A Luna For The Two Alphas
I would do whatever it takes me to make her mine . The only way to succeed is to have that girl and am good to go . Am Alpha dagon and am 40 years old. Alpha eros has taken so many things from me that I can't even imagine. ************************************************************ "Have you found the girl yet?"I asked my beta . "No Alpha. She seems far from us" he said and I groaned mentally. "What's taking you so long to bring her?" I asked . "She's an Omega" he said . "And what has am Omega got to do with this? That girl is the key to every alpha's sucsses and before she was born I already know about this because it has already been written down by the moon goodess" I said. She's paired to Callum but if he dosen't get her quicky, the person that gets her first and mark her would have her as his. So, you have to find her!" I said and he nodded and walked out . I walked around my office worridely. I really needed that girl.
Wanted By Two Alphas
I pulled my top down and brought his lips to my tight nipples and he sucked on them and gave them a soft bite that made me quiver and moan. He knew I liked it and immediately pulled my bottoms down. "Let's see how wet you are" he softly said. He stuck two fingers inside me and it made my whole body relax as he curled them in and pulled them out again, revealing two very sticky fingers. "You want more ?" I nodded and pushed his hand back inside of me as he pushed them in slowly and deeply inside me. Then he turned his hand over and it made me moan when he came down and began to suck on my clit and get me closer and closer to an orgasm. I pulled his head up and stroked his hair, all I wanted was his cock. He began to get harder and I got more and more anxious. "Please put it in me" I pleaded but he told me to be patient. I could do that and he didn't disappoint when he slowly stopped eating me out and jacked himself off in front of my opening. It was so hot as he fingered me deeper and harder I thought he was never going to put it in me when he flipped me over with my legs and fucked me hard and deep. I gasped when he entered me because of how veiny and ribbed his dick felt inside me. He pushed deep and kissed my back and neck as he clenched my nipple and twisted it making me moan. I was confused because I am in love with another shifter who loved me equally. My wolf recignizes him as my mate too. How can this be possible? How am I going to deal with this? ************** Even her own mother was one of her enemies, who wanted to murder her, in order for her own father's kingdom to be brought down and for her not to be a Luna. Now that she's wanted by two Alphas, how is she going to deal with all these troubles alone?
After Divorce: My Arrogant Ex Regrets Calling Me Trash
Aurora woke up to the sterile chill of her king-sized bed in Sterling Thorne's penthouse. Today was the day her husband would finally throw her out like garbage. Sterling walked in, tossed divorce papers at her, and demanded her signature, eager to announce his "eligible bachelor" status to the worl
The Billionaire's Secret Lover
Nina Dern Miller it is a simple and easy going girl. At 17, she gave her virginity to a stranger she met at a club. Now at 27 years, she met the guy who took her heart but he's engaged to her friend. Will she break friendship or mend the relationship? Michael Vincent Thompson, the first of the
One Night Stand.
She went to a club with her friends to drink for the first time after finishing her third-year examinations. Gabriella was a 21-year-old virgin who had never kissed anybody before. She met a stranger at a club, accompanied him to a hotel, had her first kiss, and lost her virginity. She enjoyed her
Ex-wife's Temptation
Anne followed a certain contract: she would get married to Kevin and give birth to his child by the end of the year. Otherwise, she would lose it all. However, it was easier said than done. Faced with humiliation day by day, she had run out of patience. This time, she didn't want to give in. On
The Humble Ex-wife Is Now A Brilliant Tycoon
For three quiet, patient years, Christina kept house, only to be coldly discarded by the man she once trusted. Instead, he paraded a new lover, making her the punchline of every town joke. Liberated, she honed her long-ignored gifts, astonishing the town with triumph after gleaming triumph. Upon
Get A Taste Of Your Delicious Love
Cherry, an ideal woman, a big star manager, and an excellent cook. Jacob, an upright doctor, who always hid behind a cold mask. The two were unlikely to fall for each other, but fate had other plans. The first time they met was because of a car accident. The second time she saw him, she was robbed
His Stunning Ex-wife
[Cute Baby + Secret Identity + Powerful hero and heroine!] Caroline loved Damian with all her heart for five whole years. She devoted herself to him and lived humbly for his sake. However, when the couple faced a crisis, she hoped that the news of her pregnancy would fix their marriage, but what sh
On Her Knees
The back of his hand hit my face for the third time but this slap really stung. The force of it rocked my head back but it wasn't enough to knock me off my feet. "Kneel," he commanded again, his voice thick with fury. I brought the back of one of my hands, that were bound in front
He Only Married Me To Show Her That He Already Moved On
He has all the traits that you wished for your dream man to have. Power, money, perfection, handsomeness and a body like a Greek God. But he's inlove. He's inlove with her. For him, she was the completion of his dream, a perfect wife and a mother to be with his children. He would give her ever
Trial Of The Senses
Seven years ago, a night with a mysterious man brought Ashley a child. However, she suffered an accidental miscarriage. What was worse, her boyfriend cheated on her with her younger sister, and the two of them kicked her out of the house. In order to make a living, she became a member of the papar
