Summary:

A hit is a hit.

This one ends Shane Hollander’s career.

Without hockey, there is no rivalry. No opposing locker rooms to build distance. No automatic goodbyes to make loving Ilya Rozanov survivable.

For years, the game decided for them. It set the terms. It gave them an excuse.

Now there is only choice.

As Shane stares down early retirement, rehab, and the terrifying blank space where his identity used to be, the one thing he can’t avoid anymore is Ilya — not across the ice, not in another city, not at the end of a season.

If the rivalry is gone, what are they?

An alternate path in the Heated Rivalry universe where the injury is career-ending, the loss is deeper than bone, and the happily ever after has to be chosen without hockey to hide behind.

Moody. Intimate. HEA.