Face Off

A Cajun hockey center and a Russian winger forced into co-parenting bonded kittens on an NHL expansion team.

Two years ago, Bastian Fontenot and Tikhon Volkov destroyed each other in a playoff handshake line. The words were ugly. The damage was permanent. Now they're both on the Atlanta Firebirds, an expansion team built from castoffs and fresh starts, and they can't be in the same room without the temperature dropping.

Bastian is loud, Cajun, and managing his ADHD the way he manages everything: by being the first one through the door and the last one to shut up. A night in a Toronto gay bar during a road trip opened a door he hasn't been able to close, and no one on the roster knows.

Tikhon is Russian, precise, and has been closeted through every team he's played on. He keeps people at a distance because the cost of being known in a locker room is something he's already experienced. The loud, reckless forward he can't stand is not someone he should be watching. He watches anyway.

Then the team cat has kittens. A bonded pair, siblings who cry when separated. Bastian takes one. Tikhon takes the other. Same apartment building. Shared elevator. A co-parenting schedule that puts them in each other's kitchens every morning and evening.

Kitten handoffs become shared meals. Shared meals become late nights on the couch. Neither of them planned for this. But the team building around them, the locker room that's turning into the first real family either of them has had, is paying more attention than either of them realizes.

Tropes: Enemies to Lovers · Closeted Teammates · Forced Proximity · Kitten Co-Parenting · Found Family · Secret Relationship · Grumpy-Sunshine · Workplace Romance · ADHD Representation

POV: Dual first person, present tense

Tone: Emotional, sharp humor, locker room banter

Heat Level: Explicit (on-page)

Series Type: Interconnected standalone, Atlanta Firebirds

Book 2 Ending: HEA guaranteed