Betrayal on Ice

RAVEN

The equipment tunnels beneath Blackridge Ice Arena smelled exactly like every high school locker room, old sweat, rubber, and teenage desperation. Theo led the way with a flashlight, his hockey teammates flanking us in formation. Behind me, Dominic's hand stayed pressed against my lower back, possessive even now.

"These tunnels run under the entire complex." Theo's voice echoed off concrete walls covered in graffiti and old team photos. "Visiting team locker rooms, Zamboni garage, maintenance corridors. The cooling system for the ice runs through here, masks scent, drowns out sound. Silverfangs won't know we're coming until we're already there."

"How long have you been planning this?" Jax asked from behind us, suspicious as always.

"Three months. Since the day Marcus killed my father." Theo didn't slow down. "Dad found something in the old pack records. Something about Raven's bloodline. He was going to tell the council, expose Marcus's plans. Never got the chance."

"What plans?" I stumbled over a pipe, and Dominic's arm shot out to steady me.

"You'll see soon enough." Theo stopped at a junction where three tunnels met. "This way leads under the main rink. We come up through the home team bench area. They won't expect it."

"They won't expect it because it's insane," one of Theo's teammates muttered, a tall kid I recognized from calculus. "Coach is going to kill us for this."

"Coach is Silverfang," another player said. "He probably already knows."

"He doesn't." Theo's voice was sharp. "I made sure of it. The only ones who know are in this tunnel right now."

We moved forward, and I tried not to think about what waited above. Seven hostages. Marcus with his silver knife and his streaming cameras. My aunt Sarah, who I'd never met, who might already be dead.

"Forty minutes," Jax checked his phone. "We need to move faster."

"Rush it and we trip sensors." Theo turned a corner, stopped at a metal ladder. "This is it. Up this ladder, through the storage room, and we're thirty feet from the ice."

I looked up at the hatch overhead. Thirty feet from saving seven people or walking into a trap.

"Wait." Dominic grabbed Theo's arm. "How do we know you haven't already sold us out? This could be exactly what Marcus wants, Raven delivered straight to him."

"If I wanted to sell her out, I would've done it at school." Theo met his eyes. "I'm risking everything being here. My team, my scholarship, my life. Marcus finds out I betrayed him, I'm dead. So either trust me or go back, but decide now because we're out of time."

Dominic looked at me. The decision was mine.

I grabbed the ladder and started climbing.

The hatch opened smoothly, too smoothly, like someone had oiled it recently. That should have been my first warning.

We emerged into a storage room packed with hockey gear. Through the door, I could hear voices echoing across the rink, Marcus's smooth tone carrying over speakers.

"Thirty-seven minutes, Raven Carter. Where are you?"

My stomach clenched. We were close. So close.

"Here's the play." Theo gathered us in a huddle like we were about to hit the ice for real. "I go out first. I'm supposed to be here, told Marcus I had late practice. I distract him, get him talking, you three stay hidden until you have a clear shot at the hostages."

"And then what?" Jax pulled his gun. "We shoot our way out?"

"If necessary." Theo's blue eyes were cold. "But ideally, we cut them free and extract them through the Zamboni bay before Marcus realizes what happened."

"That's not a plan," Dominic growled. "That's suicide."

"You got a better idea?" Theo challenged. "Because I'm looking at thirty-six minutes and seven people about to die."

Before anyone could answer, the storage room door opened.

I barely had time to register the figure before Dominic shoved me behind him. But the person who entered wasn't Marcus.

It was the blonde from school. Sarah. Theo's teammate who'd given me the Silverfang card.

"Took you long enough." She looked at Theo. "He's getting impatient. Started sharpening the knife five minutes ago for dramatic effect."

"We're here now." Theo moved toward the door. "Everything in position?"

"Everything." She pulled out her phone, typed something. "Just sent the signal. You've got a three-minute window when he's distracted by the new stream notification. Make it count."

She left, and I stared at Theo. "She's with you?"

"Half the hockey team is with me." He checked his own phone. "The ones who are tired of Marcus's bullshit. Now come on."

He pushed through the door into a hallway I recognized, this led to the home team bench, to the ice, to everything.

We moved in silence, pressed against walls, weapons ready. The voices got louder.

"—disappointing, really. I expected more from the Alpha Supreme's daughter. Perhaps she doesn't care about pack loyalty after all."

Marcus's voice was close now.

Theo held up a hand, “wait”. He peered around a corner, then motioned us forward.

The hallway opened onto the team bench. Beyond it, the ice stretched out under harsh lights. Center rink, exactly as the stream showed, seven chairs, seven hostages. Marcus stood beside them with his silver knife, three other Silverfangs spread around the perimeter.

Only three. Not the twenty we'd expected.

"It's a trap," Jax breathed.

"No." Theo's voice was strange. "It's a trial."

Before I could ask what that meant, Theo stepped out onto the ice.

"Uncle Marcus!" His voice echoed across the arena. "Sorry I'm late. Practice ran long."

Marcus turned, and his smile was genuine warmth. "Theo. I told you not to come tonight. This is pack business."

"I know. But I thought you should know" Theo pulled something from his jacket. A gun. "Your nephew isn't as loyal as you thought."

He aimed it at Marcus's head and fired.

The shot echoed like thunder.

Marcus moved impossibly fast, but the bullet still clipped his shoulder. He spun, blood spraying across white ice, and his roar was pure animal rage.

"You little shit! I gave you everything!"

"You killed my father!" Theo fired again, but Marcus was already moving, already healing, already changing.

His shift was instantaneous. One second man, the next a massive black wolf with silver eyes, lunging for Theo's throat.

"Now!" Dominic shoved me forward. "Get the hostages!"

We burst onto the ice as chaos erupted. Theo's hockey teammates poured from the stands, not three Silverfangs, but twenty wolves all choosing sides, some with Marcus, some with Theo.

The arena became a battlefield.

I ran for the hostages, my shoes sliding on ice, and reached Sarah first. She looked up at me with Mom's eyes.

"Raven?" Her voice was hoarse. "You shouldn't be here. This is—it's not what you think. It's…."

"Just hold still." I worked at her restraints with shaking hands.

Dominic fought three wolves at once, his partial shift making him a nightmare of claws and fangs. Jax had someone pinned against the boards, his gun pressed to their head. The hockey players fought with practiced coordination, actual plays, like they'd trained for this.

I got Sarah's hands free and moved to the next hostage, the young pack member I recognized.

"Thank God," he gasped. "They've been planning this for months. Marcus wants—"

He never finished. A silver blade punched through his chest from behind.

I screamed, stumbling back as he collapsed. Behind him stood Sarah, my aunt who I'd just freed, holding Marcus's knife.

"I'm sorry, sweetie." Her expression was genuinely apologetic. "But you really should have stayed home."

She lunged for me with the blade.

Dominic roared, launching himself between us. The knife meant for my heart buried in his shoulder instead.

He went down hard, silver poisoning spreading fast through his veins.

"No!" I dropped beside him. "No, Dominic, stay with me"

"That's enough!" Marcus's voice cut through the chaos. He stood center ice in human form again, blood streaming down his arm but alive. Very alive.

Around us, the fighting stopped. Theo lay unconscious against the boards, his teammates either dead or restrained. Jax was on his knees with three guns pointed at his head.

And we were surrounded.

"Excellent work, Sarah." Marcus smiled at my aunt. "Your performance was perfect."

"She's with you?" I stared at her. "But Mom said—"

"Your mother hasn't seen me in eighteen years. She has no idea what I've become." Sarah twirled the knife. "I've been with the Silverfangs the whole time. Watching you grow up. Waiting for this moment."

Marcus crouched in front of me, his eyes level with mine. "Did you really think I'd gamble on a simple hostage exchange? That I'd risk everything for you to make the right choice?" He laughed. "No, little wolf. I needed you here. In this arena. Right now."

"Why?"

He gestured to the scoreboard clock.

Midnight exactly.

"Because the blood moon rises in twenty-four hours. And there's an old ritual that requires blood, silver, and ice to bind an unwilling mate." His smile was pure predator. "Welcome to your engagement party, Raven. Hope you don't mind that I planned it without asking.”