Crossing The Line (The Avalon Wolves #1)

Prequel

SUTTON

When black mold forced me out of my senior year housing just a week before move-in, I felt like I'd hit rock bottom.

The university's solution? A last-minute placement in the one house I had spent two years actively avoiding—the men's hockey house.

Which meant living with Declan Hayes, my ex-boyfriend and the guy who broke my heart during freshman year.

Declan Hayes wasn't just any ex. He was hockey royalty—the star center everyone admired, the guy with perfect family connections and a reputation to match.

We dated for eight incredible months during our freshman year before I walked in on him with Bree Matthews at a party.

I saw her lips on his and didn't wait for explanations.

I sent him a text ending things and blocked him everywhere.

He didn't fight for me, which told me everything I needed to know.

Or so I thought.

Living together meant we could no longer avoid each other. The tension was unbearable—though not necessarily in a bad way. Hating him was hard when he looked that good.

Then came the party at our house, and somehow we ended up alone on the back porch.

That's when Declan finally told me the truth: he never cheated.

Bree kissed him, and he pushed her away immediately, but I had already made up my mind.

He told me I was looking for a reason to run and that I was scared of what we had.

He was right.

We fell into bed that night, two years of unresolved tension exploding between us. And I believed things were good.

We were good.

Then Bree started her games—making sure I overheard her talking about Declan in class, stirring up drama everywhere she could. I accused him of playing me. He accused me of never trusting him. We were a disaster.

Until we weren't.

A midnight kitchen encounter changed everything. I told him I was moving out, that we couldn't do this. He asked me to stay. To give us a real chance. I was terrified, but I wanted him more than I was afraid.

For the first time in two years, I let myself believe we could make it work. The guys in the house became our unlikely allies—Ashton, Crew, Pierce, and Holden all rooting for us in their own obnoxious ways.

Declan told me he loved me and that he had loved me throughout the entire two years we were apart. I told him I loved him, too, that I had tried to get over him and failed spectacularly. We were finally on the same page and building something real.

But Declan was keeping a secret that would blow it all up.

And he'd been lying to me the entire time.

Welcome to my crazy story. This is only the beginning of my love story with the Avalon Wolves hockey god.