Momcomesfirst - Little Puck - The New Family -2... Access

Derek finally looked up, his eyes flat and amused. "How should I know? Maybe the ‘new family’ ghost took it."

"Little Puck," Derek mocked from the sofa, "running away to find his magic puck? Good luck."

He opened the door. The cold rain hit his face, but it felt cleaner than the air inside. MomComesFirst - Little Puck - The New Family -2...

That was the trigger. The phrase "new family" dripped from Derek’s mouth like poison wrapped in honey. Puck felt the old, familiar heat crawl up his neck—the same heat that got him benched in peewee hockey for checking a kid who’d called his mom a name.

"Where do you think you're going?" Marcus called, his voice sharpening into authority. Derek finally looked up, his eyes flat and amused

Something inside Puck snapped, but not into anger. Into ice. He had always believed in the rule of three: Mom, then him, then the world. But the rule had changed. Mom came first, yes—but not for him anymore. For Marcus. For Derek. For the illusion of a perfect home.

"Mom," Puck said, his voice quieter than he intended. Good luck

Elara stepped between them. "Let's all just calm down. Puck, you can be very emotional. Derek, did you see the puck?"

Two months had passed since the wedding. Two months since his mom, Elara, had smiled that new, wide smile and said, "Puck, it’s time for a new chapter." The chapter was named Marcus. And Marcus came with a son: Derek, a broad-shouldered, lacrosse-playing senior who smelled of cologne and arrogance. The new family was a puzzle where Puck’s piece no longer fit.

The rain hadn’t stopped for three days. It fell in a steady, gray curtain against the tall windows of the old Victorian house, blurring the line between the skeletal autumn trees and the bruised twilight sky. For Little Puck—a nickname he’d carried since he was a toddler, too small for his age but too fierce for his own good—the weather matched his insides perfectly.