Luke Callahan runs the first lap on fresh ice every morning. He keeps his hands flat on his thighs when his pulse misbehaves. At twenty-two he's the youngest captain in the league, the golden boy with the clean stat line — and lately he's been jolting awake at five a.m. from a dream about a faceless man, a hand at his throat, a voice telling him to let go.

Then the Titans trade for Evan Mercer: same position, dark hair, broken nose, and zero interest in being convenient for anybody after his last team quietly shipped him out for being caught with the wrong person. Evan looks at the captain wound tight across the faceoff dot and figures he's going to crack. He's right. He's just early.

A turf war over one roster spot turns into board battles that last a beat too long, a handshake held a second past polite, and a pull Luke has no language for. Evan isn't asking him to come out. He's just standing there — steady, patient, unafraid — holding the door. All Luke has to do is stop running long enough to walk through it.

Breaking the Captain is a slow-burn, explicit MM hockey romance and the first in the Lakeview Titans series. If you like rivals-to-lovers with a closeted control freak, an out-and-proud love interest who refuses to shrink, forced proximity in a scrappy minor-league locker room, and a found family with one menace of a best friend — this one's for you.