All Chapters of SHADES OF ICE AND ASHES : Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

47 Chapters

Chapter 1: The Interview

LILA’S POVThe Chicago wind clawed at my skin, slicing through my thin coat as I sprinted across the slick concrete toward the Blizzard’s practice arena. My boots skidded, nearly sending me sprawling, but I caught myself, heart hammering like a puck slammed into the boards. I was late. Again. Five minutes late. Of course Meredith had set me up for this—my first real assignment at Windy City Sports wasn’t a puff piece on game stats or fan reactions. No. My cutthroat boss had thrown me straight into the lion’s den: an exclusive one-on-one interview with ‘The Zane Callahan,” Chicago’s golden boy on the ice and the media’s nightmare off it.The man who snapped at reporters, walked out of press conferences, and hadn’t granted a personal interview in two years. And Meredith had given me the job. The 23-year old intern. The nobody in the newsroom that only smelled blood instead of talents. I told myself it was an opportunity, but deep down I knew the truth—she expected me to crash and burn

Chapter 2: The Fallout

LILA’S POVThe Blizzard’s arena faded behind me, but Zane Callahan’s green eyes burned like acid. My boots pounded the icy Chicago pavement, every step feeding my anger. He’d humiliated me, storming out like I was some rookie gossip—monger. Overreacting? That was putting it lightly. He’d exploded, and I’d been the fuse. But those questions weren’t mine. Meredith’s sabotage had set me up to fail, and the realization twisted my gut as I shoved through the revolving doors of Windy City Sports.The newsroom buzzed with clacking keyboards and ringing phones, a chaotic pulse that matched my racing heart. My auburn hair clung to my sweaty neck, and my coat felt like a straitjacket as I marched to Meredith’s glass-walled office. Eyes followed me—reporters smirking, interns glancing away. They knew. Word traveled faster than ink. My fingers tightened around my crumpled notebook, the pages still bearing the scars of Zane’s wrath. Meredith sat behind her glass wall, framed in sleek black lin

Chapter 3: The Fire Within

ZANE’S POVThe rink wasn’t loud enough to drown out my thoughts.The scrape of blades cut across the ice, pucks ricocheting off the boards like gunshots, but none of it stuck. My body burned from the drills, sweat soaking through my gear, yet the fire inside me had nothing to do with practice. It was her. That intern. Lila Harper.Her name had been plastered across my screen since the second I left the ice. Windy City Sports. Big bold letters. Her article was front and centre, tearing me apart like I was nothing more than a bloodthirsty spectacle for her to feed on. Zane Callahan’s Violent Outburst: Another Reporter Burned by the Reaper.I could barely see straight as I leaned against the tunnel wall, sucking air through my teeth, my chest heaving. Violent? Outburst? She’d made it sound like I’d torn her apart with my bare hands when all I’d done was bite back. I hadn’t laid a single finger on her. Sure, I’d snapped. Sure, I’d lost my temper. But she had crossed a line. She had poked

Chapter 4: The Collision

LILA’S POVThe Chicago skyline glittered through the floor-to-ceiling windows of the downtown club, but the Blizzard’s charity gala felt like a cage. My heels clicked on the polished marble, each step heavier than the last, as I scanned the crowd for Zane Callahan. The air pulsed with laughter, clinking glasses, and the low thrum of a live band, but my pulse drowned it all out. I didn’t want to be here. But Meredith’s ultimatum of getting Zane ‘s answers or kissing my job goodbye had forced me into this glitzy hell, and the weight of my forced engagement to Ethan Callahan crushed me further. The crowd parted, revealing him. Zane leaned against the bar, a champagne glass dangling from his fingers, his jet-black hair tousled, his green eyes glinting with that predatory edge. His navy suit hugged his broad shoulders, every inch screaming wealth and danger. My stomach twisted—hatred, yes, but something else, something I refused to name. I marched toward him, my auburn hair bouncing agai

Chapter 5: The Bombshell

ZANE’S POVThe rink was my sanctuary, the only place where the world’s noise dulled to a low hum. My skates carved the ice, each stride a desperate bid to outrun the chaos in my head. The Blizzard’s practice facility echoed with the sharp crack of pucks and the shouts of teammates, but I barely heard them. My mind was a storm—Lila Harper’s hazel eyes, her defiant mouth, the way she’d shuddered under me last night. I’d fucked her, hard, in my penthouse, her wrists bound, her screams echoing as I unleashed my anger. She’d written that article, painted me as a violent thug, and sparked my parents’ push to chain me to a marriage I didn’t want. I hated her for it, hated how she’d thrown herself into my bed, hated how her body felt like a drug I couldn’t quit. So I’d left before dawn, slipping out while she slept, determined to cut her out of my life.My stick slammed a puck into the net, the impact jarring my arms. Sweat dripped down my jaw, my chest heaving. I’d come to the rink to escap

Chapter 6: The Trap

LILA’S POV The chandelier was a frozen explosion of crystal above the table, every prism throwing knives of light across the china. Eleanor Callahan walked towards the table with a man by her side as she gestured to the table. “Everyone, this is the woman joining our family,” she said, her voice sweet. “Lila Harper.” The name cracked through the room louder than the crystal ever could. Forks froze halfway to their mouths, conversations died mid-sentence. And about ten pairs of eyes turned to me at once, and I felt every single one strip me bare.I couldn’t breathe.The six-foot-three of living nightmare standing beside her stared at me like he wanted to sniff the life out of me. It was Zane.He leaned against the frame as if he owned the oxygen itself—black suit jacket open, white shirt stretched across his chest, hair a deliberate mess. Those green eyes swept the room once, dismissed everyone, and locked on me like crosshairs.My heart slammed against my ribs so hard I was sure t

Chapter 7: Mine to Ruin

ZANE’S POV I opened the bathroom door like I was stepping onto the ice before a playoff game: calm surface, with murder intentions underneath.Mother’s eyes narrowed the second she saw us. Lila was half a step behind me, her cheeks flushed crimson, her lips bitten hard, her dress wrinkled in all the right places. The scent of her pussy still clung to my fingers. I didn’t bother hiding the smirk.“Zane,” Eleanor said, voice sharp enough to cut glass. “Dinner has been waiting.”“Sorry, Mother. Lila needed help finding the powder room,” I muttered, flashing a fake smile. I slid my hand to the small of Lila’s back in a possessive and deliberate way and steered her past Eleanor before she could answer. My palm burned where it touched her, right above the spot where her juice was already sliding down her thighs.We walked back into the dining room and every single head turned to our direction. Ten pairs of eyes tracked us like wolves scenting blood. Forks hovered, conversations died. E

Chapter 8: Shards

LILA’S POV The last guest left and the front door shut with a heavy click that echoed through the house like a judge’s gravel. Silence fell hard but my legs still shook, my thighs felt sticky and cold and the place between them throbbed with every heartbeat. I stood in the dining room holding a stack of dirty plates because I needed something to do with my hands. Anything except look at the people who had just watched my moment of shame. I carried the plates toward the kitchen, porcelain clinked against porcelain and a few green stalks of broccolini slid off the edge and hit the marble floor. I bent to pick them up and my dress rode high on the back of my legs as I felt the air hit the wet skin there and heat rushed to my face all over again. Victoria walked in behind me, her heels were slow and deliberate. She stopped so close that I smelled her perfume, it was something sharp and expensive. “I’m proud of you,” she said. I straightened up fast and turned around, the plates ratt

Chapter 9: Bad Blood and Bruises

ZANE’S POVI stormed out the front door as the cold night air slapped my face hard enough to sting. My cheek still burned from Dad’s hand and I tasted blood where my teeth cut the inside of my mouth. The valet tried to hand me my keys but I snatched them and kept walking. I didn’t trust myself behind the wheel yet because my hands shook so bad. I walked the driveway twice until the shaking stopped and then I climbed into the Rover and floored it downtown.The city blurred past in streaks of red and gold as I rolled the window down and let the wind rip through the cab. It didn’t help, actually nothing helped. Dad’s voice kept looping in my head: Settle down, Zane, stop embarrassing the family. Come back to the company like a good little heir. As if I ever wanted the chair behind that desk, as if Connor dying on that boat five years ago didn’t prove I destroy everything I touch.I saw the yacht in my head again like it was yesterday; Connor laughing at the rail and me reaching for h

Chapter 10: Out Of My Hands

LILA’S POV His words hit harder than Ethan’s grip ever had. “Tell your boss to send another journalist if she wants this interview so badly, because I won’t be seeing you anymore.” Zane stood three feet away with his arms crossed over my bare skin and his green eyes flat and cold. The same eyes that looked at me like I was everything last night now looked at me like I was nothing. My throat closed up. I opened my mouth and nothing came out. I wanted to scream that this wasn’t my choice, that Ethan bought me, that I never wanted any of this, but the words stuck behind my teeth. He already decided what I was. A liar, a whore, and a problem he could throw away with one phone call. He turned his back and walked toward the hallway. “Lock the door on your way out.” That was it. I stood in the middle of his living room clutching my notebook so hard the spiral dug into my palm. Tears burned hot and fast and I hated them. I hated that he made me cry, I hated that I cared he didn’t w

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