Chasing the Alpha
/1/129726/coverbig.jpg?v=d952b45e9b05aae9f5803a8b2c8d4fc6)
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?"
/0/35310/coverbig.jpg?v=e0e2959db8819cd95f85a0153380efa0)
Chasing The Alpha
Sebastian El Venuel, the son of a well-known alpha, is next in line and the only son of his parents. As he is bestowed the title of the next in line alpha, the elders assigned him to a difficult job. And that is to chase away the rogue that trespassed on their wolvendom. They thought it was some or
/0/44555/coverbig.jpg?v=feed3e44e50ef067776a23528e1b3484)
CHASING MY ARRANGED ALPHA
Selene comes from a lead family of one of the biggest packs in the country . she has been taught how to be a good omega for her future alpha mate. Her parents arranged her marriage, she is promised to Alpha Tristan Blackwood , the heir of the biggest pack in the country, she is over the moon because
/0/47350/coverbig.jpg?v=bb1260071e03bd66fe3eaff63ee67183)
The Alpha Chasing his Ex-Luna again
After being the Alpha's mate for three years, they referred to her as barren Luna. However, one day she discovered that she was pregnant. She was filled with excitement to share this news with her Alpha mate. Unfortunately, before she could do so, he unveiled a shocking secret and expressed his desi
/0/74367/coverbig.jpg?v=81ac157d58a826528149d039e3378da5)
The Alpha REJECTED MATE: Chasing her back
After Richard was announced the pack's alpha. Amelia was happy for him and was waiting for him to propose to her wanting to be his best luna. They had been best friends for a long time and she was waiting for him to be an alpha before she'll confess her feelings to him. After they both had a one nig
/0/47900/coverbig.jpg?v=826938fa2d6147a359ff89b8580da6c0)
Chasing The Famous Demon
‘Did you hear?’ ‘Is that in the news?’ ‘Yes, the demon and angel race will be together in one school.’ I stopped walking when I heard that, demon race? I looked at the large wall that was blocked on the side of the building. it was a large concrete wall that separated the building of the demon and
/0/26801/coverbig.jpg?v=20220412160313)
Chasing The Sunset
She left while sun is setting down. She left him while watching the pale tint orange sky above, and she left him without saying a good bye. That's why he's chasing for her... He is chasing the sunset. An end he only wants, is the sunsets.
/0/47895/coverbig.jpg?v=3cce15b5f539b70994e77fddfabbcb5c)
Chasing The Hot Billionaire
"Let's get a divorce"- His wife looked at him, he stood up and approached his wife. "What do you mean Divorce? Are you really gonna leave me?"- he said while stroking her wife's cheek, Charlotte removed his husband's hand and stepped back "Yes! and I'll do anything just to get rid off of you!"-
/0/72208/coverbig.jpg?v=902ae4a7223e391bb93388e8b7335c72)
Chasing the Ex-Wife
"They say once a heart is broken, it can never be whole again. But some hearts just don't know when to quit." Camilla Moretti left everything behind four years ago-the man she loved, the life she built, and a world laced with danger. She did it all to protect the secret she carries: the child her
/0/75268/coverbig.jpg?v=c6d37d766fec80f70726e6c38fcff0d3)
Chasing The Billionaire Dreams
Chloe Evans is a small-town girl with big dreams-dreams of launching her own fashion line and escaping the limitations of her humble beginnings. When she gets a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to showcase her designs at an exclusive gala, Chloe is determined to make her mark. But there's one problem:
/0/38547/coverbig.jpg?v=8ccb1c382380e228a6145bb627d61437)
Chasing the White Wolf
It's been four years since Emma and Logan marked each other. Life is going great for both of them, but Logan can't get over what Samuel said. He is afraid that someone is after his mate. What will happen when rogues start to attack Alpha Drake's pack? Are those rogues after Emma? What will happen wh
/0/23591/coverbig.jpg?v=ce88fb942aeba4f96ead4035081d3235)
Chasing The Fierce Heiress
He stole her first kiss on their first encounter, and she accused him of being perverted and arrogant. Her straightforward personality hooked his interest despite the danger ahead. He announced a surrogacy competition to draw her towards him. She left no option but to join the competition only to
/0/45237/coverbig.jpg?v=4b701abe0715ead17c62df17ec71725b)
Chasing the Bliss
"You can't wait until life isn't hard anymore before you decide to be happy." Nightbird The cold wind blows against my face as I read this quote. I gently tucked my hair to the side to keep it from blowing away in the wind. I hugged myself and looked at the beautiful sky. I took a deep breath and
/0/29324/coverbig.jpg?v=a2ad0277df4e5d1143592a0f1c22e996)
Chasing the Past
Amber Siobe Kennedy, a famous bitch heart breaker in abroad expectedly received a good treatment from her own family. She decided to run away from home and go back the Philipines with her friend. Enrolled in the well-known school, and met a famous playboy at school. What will happen when these two
/0/65367/coverbig.jpg?v=34d75abb7a89c888879ee3c59ae4f955)
Alpha Rafael: Chasing My Ex-Wife
"God, please, Rafael," pulling my undies away, I begged. ''Not Rafael, I'm Alpha, to you... It's only when I'm making that pussy of yours feel good that you can call me God," his voice was like a whisper, sending cold shivers down my spine. That Alpha is synonymous with danger, the controller of h
/1/100675/coverbig.jpg?v=0dbf6929a17885e4dc48649a95d82813)
CHASING AFTER THE REJECTED
Existing in a depressed life without a glimpse of hope, Alice lived with her uncle, who mistreated her badly. She finally found her mate whom she had sought for and wished to have. Her mate rejected her after she caught him cheating. She ran away but found out that she was pregnant. She moved o
/0/23184/coverbig.jpg?v=10cda096bbfd279d273fb1c9ece6a49e)
Chasing The Wind
King Tus III is anxious to find a bride for his son and heir - Prince Kyan. But the defiant Prince insist on having a wife "who's thoughts move the Earth." The King and Queen search the Kingdom and yet do not find such a girl, so they invade other Kingdoms and conquer them in search of a befitting
/1/109848/coverbig.jpg?v=eba7b45dd4b0a337b7ccf675b00f9b07)
Chasing The Reborn Heiress
BLURB Sophia died hating the man she once loved. Then she woke up ten years younger with a chance to make him pay. Alexander Sterling destroyed her in ways he'll never remember. Now she'll become the woman he can't forget, and can't have. But he's dreaming of her death. She's planning his downfall
/0/62994/coverbig.jpg?v=4f75b246117a24a204a29deeb9b9e6a3)
Chasing Headlines
The last thing Amelia wanted after her breakup was drama that put her on her toes, but that wasn't going to happen anytime soon with Billionaire playboy Alexander Sinclair on her heels. Alexander Sinclair had a bad habit, he just couldn't take no for an answer no matter what it was. So when he had
/0/56730/coverbig.jpg?v=5c08659d3a61993f6beb29e0560cd423)
Chasing Hearts
Maia Beaufort has lived her 17 years on Earth as Han Ma Ri, until the day her mother puts her on a plane and her past is taken away from her by her estranged father, with the promise that she would be able to return home someday. As an already struggling artist, Maia sees no other choice but to take
/0/22498/coverbig.jpg?v=30a34424064cf7ca996e07f343f73170)
Endless Chasing
After Grayson's mother's funeral, the named Acalan Miller offered him to train the Chinese traditional dance who used to dance way back in history. On the day of one of his performances, he met someone that seems familiar to him. The day of his visit to the store that he used to rent outfits, he saw
