All Chapters of Claws on Ice: Chapter 71 - Chapter 80

Harlan's POVThe team party sprawled across Miller's backyard by the time Trixie and I finally made it there, trophy sitting somewhere near the drink table getting progressively more decorated with stickers as the night wore on, and something in me, wolf and human both, finally settled at the pure, uncomplicated normalcy of it, teenagers celebrating a hockey win instead of processing a political crisis for the first time in longer than felt reasonable to count. Someone had set up a makeshift shooting gallery using an old net and a pile of tennis balls in the far corner of the yard, half the team already competing for bragging rights they'd apparently decided mattered exactly as much as the actual championship trophy. Coach even showed up for twenty minutes, gruffly declined a drink, told us all he was proud in the fewest possible words, and left before anyone could turn the moment into something he'd have to be embarrassed about later. He paused at the gate on his way out, though, a

Harlan's POVI called Declan the morning after Trixie told me about the garden, an idea forming somewhere in the space between her text messages and my own restless wolf needing to actually do something useful with everything I'd been feeling since she'd described the old house."You want enforcers doing landscaping," Declan repeated, something dry in his voice that might have been amusement if I'd known him better. "That's a new one.""I want people who know how to work hard and keep their mouths shut doing landscaping. Discreetly. This weekend, if we can manage it." I'd already worked out most of the logistics in my head overnight, equipment, timing, making sure it stayed a surprise. "Her family's clearing an old lot. I want it done before she has to spend another summer looking at burned wood every time she visits."There was a pause on the line, and when Declan spoke again, something had shifted in his tone, warmer than his usual clipped efficiency. "I'll pull together a crew. No

Harlan's POVMy father spread three different venue proposals across the kitchen table on Sunday morning, each one apparently vetted by a council subcommittee I hadn't known existed until that exact moment, and something in his expression suggested this particular meeting was going to take considerably longer than the coffee currently cooling in front of me."The shrine grounds again," he said, tapping the first proposal, "though smaller scale, no full pack attendance required this time. Or the estate gardens, which keeps things private but limits how many elders can comfortably attend." He tapped the second sheet, then hesitated over the third. "Or.""Or?""The rink.""The rink." I turned the word over, half certain I'd misheard him."Trixie's idea, apparently, relayed through your mother's old friend on the council who apparently golfs with Coach's wife." He looked entirely too pleased with himself. "A pack ceremony held on the same ice where half this story actually happened. I hav

Harlan's POVI found my father in his study that evening, still up despite the late hour, papers from the day's council business still spread across his desk in the particular disarray that meant he'd been working through something difficult. Something in the careful way he glanced up when I walked in told me he'd been waiting for this particular conversation since the tournament ended."You want to talk about the Nightprowlers' Alpha.""I want to talk about the way he smelled like stress the entire game, even while he was smiling and playing like the whole thing was effortless." I dropped into the chair across from his desk, still turning the observation over in my head the way I had since the final buzzer. "You catch that too, or was it just me?""I caught it." My father set down whatever he'd been reading, giving me his full attention now. "Young Alpha, decent reputation as far as our contacts can tell, pack in good enough standing that nothing about him should be setting off alarm

Harlan's POVDeclan found me at the training grounds three days later, expression unreadable in the particular way that usually meant whatever he'd learned wasn't going to be simple. I'd been running drills alone for the better part of an hour, using the physical exertion to keep my mind from spinning too far ahead of whatever he actually found, and something about the careful way he approached told me my instincts about needing that hour had been right."Nightprowlers territory borders Vale's old holdings to the north," Declan said without preamble, spreading a hand-drawn map across the bench between us. "Shared trade routes going back decades, before Vale's exile even started. And there's this." He tapped a folder I hadn't noticed him carrying. "Lenin's mother died eight years ago. Officially ruled an accident, a fall from pack territory's northern ridge. Except the timing lines up almost exactly with a territorial dispute between the Nightprowlers and Vale's people that got resolv