All Chapters of Mate on thin ice: Chapter 11 - Chapter 19

19 Chapters

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 people only went there if they had a reason to. I had a reason.I stood in the shadow of the doorway with my hands in my hoodie pocket and listened to the sounds of the building emptying out, voices fading, a car starting somewhere in the lot, the distant clang of the locker room door swinging shut one final time.Then Aiden came out.He was still in his practice gear minus the skates, helmet tucked under one arm, his blond hair wet and pushed back off his face. He was looking at his phone, that easy, unhurried walk he had, the one that came from nineteen years of being told the ground he walked on was already his. He did not see me until I stepped out of the shadow directly into his pat

Last Updated : 2026-03-11

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 like it had personally offended me. Then I closed the laptop, got off the bed, and opened it.Darin was leaning against the hallway wall opposite my room, hoodie up, hands in his front pocket, looking like a man who had driven across campus at midnight and had decided on the way over that he was not going to explain why unless specifically asked. His eyes dropped to my face, did their usual fast read, and came back up."You called me a terrible liar," he said."You are a terrible liar.""Yeah." He pushed off the wall. "So are you. Move."I stepped back. He came in, quickly checked out the room, and then casually sat on my desk chair as if he was supposed to.I stood by the door for a secon

Last Updated : 2026-03-12

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 headlights were bright and coming fast and Mable was right there in the middle of the road, her eyes wide, her hair wet from rain that I could hear but not feel. She was looking at me. Not at the car. At me. Like I was the thing she had not seen coming.I did not move.The crash was not loud. That was the part that woke me up. In every movie, every scene, it was always loud. This was just a dull, deep thud, and then she was gone, and the headlights swept past, and I was still standing there in the empty street with the rain coming down and and a strange quiet settled in, the kind you feel when you've seen something bad and didn't do anything.I sat up so fast the sheets twisted around my

Last Updated : 2026-03-13

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

Last Updated : 2026-03-16

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

Last Updated : 2026-03-18

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

Last Updated : 2026-03-23

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

Last Updated : 2026-03-25

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

Last Updated : 2026-03-26

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

Last Updated : 2026-03-30

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