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作者: Hewrite
last update 公開日: 2026-03-30 17:26:00

VULNERABLE MOMENT

~MABLE'S POV~

I didn't knock.

I stood by his loft door around 9:15 on a Tuesday. My hoodie was partly open, my hair was still wet, and my hands were hidden in my pockets so he wouldn't notice they were trembling.

My stomach was doing that phantom ache thing again, low and quick, like my body remembered something my mind was still trying to bury.

He came to the door without a shirt on, a towel around his neck like he'd just showered.

Little drops of water were on his chest, sl
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  • Mate on thin ice   019

    VULNERABLE MOMENT ~MABLE'S POV~I didn't knock.I stood by his loft door around 9:15 on a Tuesday. My hoodie was partly open, my hair was still wet, and my hands were hidden in my pockets so he wouldn't notice they were trembling.My stomach was doing that phantom ache thing again, low and quick, like my body remembered something my mind was still trying to bury.He came to the door without a shirt on, a towel around his neck like he'd just showered.Little drops of water were on his chest, slowly running down.Twenty-eight looked good on him in the worst way—broad shoulders, scarred knuckles, that tired, ice-blue stare that always made me feel stripped naked."You okay?" he asked, voice low and rough.I walked straight past him. "No. Not really."I dropped onto his couch and pulled my knees up. He quietly closed the door, crossed the room, and sat on the coffee table right in front of me. We were close. Our knees touched.He didn't say anything. He just waited.That quietness was da

  • Mate on thin ice   018

    PACK INTRIGUE~DARIN POV~The private elders group chat only lit up when someone was making a choice no one dared to question.By the afternoon, the excitement from the morning had faded to a chill.I was kind of watching a game on my computer when my phone buzzed on the couch. The message showed enough words to see the start before I grabbed it.I read the thread quickly because I knew it would annoy me. I read it again, and my jaw got tight.'Aiden-Lola union finalized. Strengthens the bloodline.''No room for outside complications.''The Thorne girl is a liability.'I was not in the actual meeting. Of course, I was not. they kept me around mainly to avoid making a fuss. But honestly, no one really wanted the black sheep uncle out at the table when the important family stuff was being sorted out.I was useful for headlines and hockey payment and showing up at ceremonies in a good suit. Bloodline decisions happened without me.I grabbed my keys anyway.The pack house was by the woo

  • Mate on thin ice   017

    PROTECTIVE SHADOWS~DARIN POV~I did not sleep after she left.I sat at my kitchen counter with my laptop open and the loft dark except for the screen glow and worked backward through every photo that had been posted in the last forty-eight hours. First, the details. Things like when the file was made, info about the device it came from, and location data if it was still there.It was the kind of detective work that took time. It was done by someone who already had an idea of what they were looking for and just needed proof.The first photo's original file date was eleven months ago.I sat back and looked at that number for a moment. Eleven months ago I had been in Vancouver for a six-week stretch of away games. The club in the background of the photo was not in Vancouver. It was not anywhere I had been in the last year. The girl on my left had a face I did not recognize until I ran it through a reverse image search and it came back as a Getty Images result from a tabloid shoot thr

  • Mate on thin ice   016

    FRACTURED TRUST~MABLE POV~His door was open a bit when I arrived. Not all the way, but just enough, like when you're waiting for someone and don't want them to have to knock.I pushed it and stepped inside and he was standing in the middle of the loft with his arms crossed over his bare chest, sweats low on his hips, his hair pushed back like he had been running his hands through it. His eyes found me the second I walked in and stayed there.It was like a storm brewing. Not mad, not trying to protect himself, but just full of energy, like the air before a big event."You saw," he said.I held up my phone. The picture was still on the screen, showing the club, the girls, and the time. It felt like a quiet reminder of what happened."Yeah," I said. "I saw."My voice came out steadier than I felt. There was a crack in it somewhere that I could hear even if I was the only one who knew where to listen for it."How many?" I asked. "While we've been doing this. How many, Darin?"He did no

  • Mate on thin ice   015

    SABOTAGE BEGINS~MABLE POV~I woke up to forty-three notifications.It's not the slow kind of alert, where your phone buzzes a bit and then again, giving you a heads-up for what's next.It's that instant kind. The kind where you grab your phone when you're barely awake and it's so busy, your brain takes a sec to figure it out.I sat up.The first group chat message I opened had the photo attached. The one from the club, two girls, his arms around both of them, the timestamp sitting in the corner like a small, neat fact. I had seen this one last night at the rink. I had said his name and the chapter had ended there and I had not finished the conversation because I did not have the words for it yet.Apparently the internet had finished it for me.The caption on the repost read: 'Mable's new man stays busy. Someone tell her the audition's over.'I scrolled down.Second post, different account, same night, different angle. This one caught his face more clearly, his expression relaxed

  • Mate on thin ice   014

    NIGHT OF DOUBT~DARIN POV~I left the frat house parking spot at eight and drove back to the loft and sat with my cold coffee and thought about Aiden's face in the window.He had seen me. I had known he would. That was the point.I wanted him to spend the day thinking about what it meant that I was parked outside his building at seven thirty in the morning with nowhere else to be. I wanted him to feel really, really bad about being watched by something that could wait forever.He had grown up in a family where power announced itself loudly, expensive cars and pack titles and public ceremony. He did not know what to do with the quiet kind.Let him figure it out.I called Mike at nine, ignored his opener about the leaked photo because I already knew about the leaked photo, and told him to trace the anonymous account it came from. Mike asked why. I said because I need to know and that's what I pay you for. He sighed the sigh of a man who had been managing my messes for three lifetime

  • Mate on thin ice   013

    ECHOED WARNINGS~AIDEN POV~I was standing in the street.That was the thing about the dream that made it different from a regular bad dream. I was not running. I was not late. I was just standing there, completely still, watching it happen, like my body had already decided there was no point.The

  • Mate on thin ice   012

    DIGGING DEEPER~MABLE POV~He texted at midnight.'Still awake?' I looked at the message, cross-legged on my bed with my laptop warm on my thighs and three browser tabs open, and typed back: 'Obviously. Some of us have work to do.' His reply came fast. 'Open your door.' I looked up at the door l

  • Mate on thin ice   011

    FAMILY TIES TIGHTEN~DARIN POV~I waited until the rest of the team had cleared out.The back alley behind the rink was just like the ones in all the arenas I'd played in. It was cramped and dim, with a smell of rubber and old ice melt. It was the kind of place where gear got moved in and out, and

  • Mate on thin ice   010

    UNSPOKEN PULL~MABLE POV~The party was super loud, so loud you couldn't think, which is maybe why Darin picked it.The frat house was super crowded, with loud music shaking everything. It smelled like beer and cologne, and it was really hot because so many people were crammed in there.Lights were

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