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Home / Paranormal / Mate on thin ice / Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

All Chapters of Mate on thin ice: Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

19 Chapters

001

WAKING UP TO RAGE ~MABLE POV~ I woke up choking on the smell of rain and the sound of a flatlining heart. One second, I am flat on my back in the street, headlights blinding me, the taste of blood filling my throat. Next, I am sitting straight up in my dorm bed at Blackridge U, the sheets tangled around my feet like they’re trying to keep me from escaping. Third time. Third fucking time. My heart is trying to punch a hole through my sternum. I press both hands to my chest, gasping, but the pain isn't just in my ribs. It’s lower. A sharp, stabbing cramp in my abdomen that feels like a ghost trying to claw its way back to life. I doubled over, squeezing my stomach. The phantom pain. I shouldn’t feel this. In this life—this "reset"—I am supposed to be eighteen. I am supposed to be "whole." But my body remembers what my mind is trying to process. It remembers the second heartbeat that stopped right along with mine when that car hit me in Life Two. I reached for my backpa

002

ECHOES OF FAILURE ~DARIN POV~ The ice doesn’t give a shit about how many times you’ve died. I dig my blades in harder, crossovers ripping the surface, shoulder-checking the boards just to feel the rattle in my teeth. Practice is half over, and I’m already sweating through my jersey, my lungs burning like they’re trying to remind me I’m still breathing. Fifth life. Same rink. Same numb fucking routine. Coach blows the whistle. “Salvator! Are you skating or daydreaming?” I flip him off without looking back. He knows better than to push. I’m the Silver Ridge Blizzard’s pro-star and its most expensive liability. I play hard, I party harder, and I don't follow the rules—mostly because I know the rules are a lie. In the locker room later, I strip my gear slow, letting the cold air bite skin that never quite warms up. I step into the shower and crank the heat until it burns. It doesn’t help. The water runs red for a second in my head, like it always does when the memories c

003

THE LIE THAT BINDS ~MABLE POV~ The door swings open, and there he is. No shirt. Just low-slung gray sweats hanging off his hips like they’re barely trying. Black hair still wet from a shower, falling into those stupid, piercing ice-blue eyes. He’s bigger up close—taller, broader, the kind of build that makes you feel small even when you’re not. But as my eyes scan the hard lines of his abs, that phantom ache in my lower stomach flares up again. It’s a sharp, stabbing heat, a physical memory of the heartbeat I lost in Life Two. My hand instinctively twitches toward my stomach before I force it to my side. I swallow. Hard. “Hi,” I say, my voice steadier than I feel. “I’m Mable. The… escort? Except I’m not. I mean, I’m not here for that. Obviously.” He doesn’t move. He just leans one shoulder against the doorframe, arms crossed over a chest that looks like it was carved from granite. He’s watching me with an intensity that feels like he’s trying to read my DNA. “Obvio

004

CRACKS IN THE ICE ~DARIN POV~ The door clicks shut behind her, and the room goes dead quiet. Maybe too quiet. I stand there staring at the wood like it owes me a refund for the last four lives. Her scent is still hanging in the air—rain-soaked concrete, sharp wolf, and that sweet, ghostly undertone that makes my chest ache like a fresh break. I know that scent. I’ve known it four fucking times before. Different hair, different names, same soul. But this time? This time, there’s an echo I haven't felt before. That ultrasound she was carrying… Even through the paper, the scent of it hit my wolf like a physical blow. A phantom ache that matches the one rotting in my own gut. My fist hits the wall before I can talk myself out of it. Plaster cracks. Knuckles split. The pain flares bright and clean—better than the numb that’s been sitting in my bones for years. I lean my forehead against the cool surface, breathing through the roar of my wolf. “Fuck you,” I mutter. To th

005

FIRST FAKE SPARK ~MABLE POV~ The campus cafe is packed—Friday afternoon crowd, hockey guys laughing too loud, the smell of burnt espresso and wet jackets hanging thick in the air. I get there early, hoodie up, nursing a black coffee that’s gone cold. My stomach is in knots, but it’s not just nerves. It’s the phantom ache. It’s been a slow, pulsing burn ever since I woke up in this life. Every time I think about the ceremony, or Aiden, or the ultrasound glitch tucked in my bag, it stabs at me. A reminder that I’m playing for more than just my own pride. Darin walks in at exactly 7:02. He doesn't just enter a room; he commands it. Hood up, dark jeans, a black hoodie that makes his shoulders look like they could hold up the ceiling. Heads turn. Phones lift. He doesn’t notice—or he’s lived through enough lives to stop caring. His eyes find me in the corner booth instantly, like he’s got a radar tuned to my specific frequency. He slides in across from me without asking. “

006

SPLINTERS ~AIDEN POV~ I slammed through the front door of Alpha-Sig so hard the hinges rattled, and for a second, I considered doing it again just to feel something other than the burning, biting thing crawling up the back of my throat. The common room was loud, the usual Friday chaos of guys yelling over a game, someone's speaker blasting something I couldn't name, and the harsh, sour smell of cheap beer soaking into the carpet that never quite came clean. Nobody looked up when I walked in. That was fine. I didn't want to be looked at. I wanted to break something. "Yo, Aiden....." one of the guys started from the couch. I didn't stop. I kept walking, shoulder clipping the doorframe as I turned for the stairs, my jaw so tight I could feel it in my temples. I took the stairs two at a time and shoved my bedroom door open, then shut it behind me with a hit that probably shook the walls. I didn't sit down. I paced. Three steps to the window, three steps back, my cleats still on,

007

TESTING BOUNDARIES~MABLE POV~I told myself I came for the noise.The rink was loud on practice days, blades scraping ice, pucks cracking against boards, coaches barking from the bench in that specific tone that sat somewhere between disappointed and done. I had a Media Ethics paper due Thursday and the library felt too quiet, too still, too full of my own thoughts. The rink was better. The rink had enough chaos that my brain could pretend it was focused.That was the story I was telling myself, anyway.I was tucked into the upper stands with my hood pulled up and my laptop open, highlighter in hand, three pages deep into a case study I had not memorized a single word of. Because Darin was on the ice.I watched him from behind the safety of my screen.He skated like he was angry at the ground underneath him, crossovers fast and sharp, each turn accurate and aggressive in a way that looked almost effortless until you watched his legs and realized how much force he was actually puttin

008

CURSED MEMORIES~DARIN POV~I did not mean to sleep.I meant to sit on the couch for ten minutes and let the quiet settle before I did something productive, like eat, or check my emails, or call Mike back about the four missed calls he had left since noon. I meant to be awake and functional and in control of at least one thing tonight.Instead, sleep took me the way it always did when I was too tired to fight it off, fast and total, like a light switching out.And then the dream started.It always started the same way. Dark first, the typical dark of somewhere I could not place, not quite outside, not quite in. Then a sound. Breathing, struggling and wet, the kind that meant something was wrong with the lungs behind it. I looked down and she was in my arms.Different face. Brown hair this time, not dark waves. Smaller hands. But the eyes were the same, they were always the same, hazel and too bright and looking at me with that particular expression I had memorized across four lifet

009

JEALOUS WHISPERS~LOLA POV~I had a system.It was not complicated. It did not need to be. The right words dropped into the right group chats at the right time moved faster than any headline, faster than any official statement, faster than the truth. The truth was slow and boring and required proof. A rumor just needed to sound like something people already suspected.I was good at this. I had always been good at this.I was cross-legged on my bed in the sorority house with my phone in my lap, the room dim except for my ring light still glowing from earlier, when I typed it out. Casual. Light. The kind of thing that sounded like concern if you blinked at it.'Saw Mable with Darin Salvator again last night. Genuinely hope she's okay. Girl went from scholarship crisis to pro-athlete sugar daddy real fast. Prayers.' I added a small emoji at the end, the one with the folded hands, and sent it to four group chats simultaneously. Then I set my phone face-down and counted to thirty.By

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 hung from the ceiling and flashed whenever the music got loud.Darin put his arm around my waist right as we walked out the door. It wasn't a slow thing, like he was trying to be sneaky. His arm just landed there, firm against my hip, like it was already decided.Everyone noticed us right away. You could feel the whole room turn to look. People started whispering even before we got to the drinks.I just went with it. That was the plan. Be seen, make it obvious, really sell it.It felt easy to lean on him, his warmth coming through my jacket. I didn't like how comfortable it was to be so close to him, a guy who made everyone notice him when he entered a room.Someone pressed a cup into my h

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