Where The Ice Gives Way Chapter 9

**Blake**

I stayed behind the trees because my body had forgotten how to move. Snow gathered on my shoulders, and cold crept into the pads of Lex’s paws. None of it mattered. The only thing that mattered was the girl on the ice. My mate. She skated like the lake belonged to her. Like the moon had been put up there to give her light. Every turn was clean, like she wasn’t thinking about it at all. She wasn’t performing. She was somewhere else, lost in it, and it hit me so hard I barely breathed. Lex pressed forward inside me, reverent and starving at the same time. Mate. He whispered in my mind. I knew it. I felt it. The bond was a live wire in my chest, tight and aching, pulling me toward her until it felt like my ribs were the only thing holding me back. Lex shifted his weight, paws sinking into snow. He wanted to step out. He wanted to close the distance. He wanted her to look up and see us and recognise what we were to her. What she was to us. Just one step, he pushed. I tried to hold him. I did. I told him to stay, not to ruin this moment of beauty she was displaying just for us. He listened for half a heartbeat. Then his paw landed on a branch, and the crack was as loud as a gunshot in this quiet space. Her whole body snapped still on the ice for a second, making her stumble before she corrected herself. Then she just stood there, breath fogging, head turning slightly like she was listening for anything more. Then she moved out of pure instincts and survival. She shot across the ice toward the far bank. She hit the snow at the edge and dropped to her knees, ripping at her laces like her life depended on it.

Lex surged. *Chase. Make sure she’s safe. Don’t let her fall. Don’t let her freeze. Don’t let her be alone out here.* I let him go after her, instincts dragging me forward before my mind caught up. Snow kicked up under our paws, and the scent of strawberries and cream streamed behind her like a trail made for me, sweet and frantic now, laced with adrenaline. She ran. The snow was deep, up to her knees in places, and her legs were bare; every step had to sting. She still didn’t slow down. She tore through the trees with her bag thumping against her side, breath ragged, stumbling once and catching herself, never stopping. Lex gained on her easily, and we could have caught her in seconds. Then, some clarity hit me in the head. What the hell am I doing? It’s late. It’s dark. She came out here because she thought she was alone. Now she hears something in the woods, and something is chasing her through the snow. She doesn’t know I’m her mate. She probably didn’t even catch my scent. The wind was wrong, and she was too focused on the ice. All she knew was that something was out there, and her body told her to run. I forced Lex to slow down. He fought me, muscles tightening, the urge to protect turning into something hot and angry. *Mate. Mate. Mate.* I pulled him back anyway. *Stop.* I told him. *We’re scaring her.*

Lex skidded, snow spraying, chest heaving. He stood there trembling, staring after her as she disappeared between the trees. For a few seconds, I just listened to the distant crunch of her footsteps getting farther away. Lex didn’t like it. He paced in a tight circle, nose in the air, trying to hold onto every scrap of her scent before it got swallowed by the wind and snow. I let him. I needed it too. I needed the proof that she was real.

I turned back toward the lake, then toward home, forcing my legs to move even though everything in me wanted to follow her trail all the way to her front door. Tomorrow. We'll try again tomorrow. We do it properly, in daylight, somewhere she isn’t alone and scared. Lex huffed, frustrated, but at least now we know what she looks like. At least now I can stop imagining and start finding. I headed home through the woods, my mate’s scent still caught in my lungs like a promise. Tomorrow, I will see her again.

I make it back to the house with snow packed into my fur and my mind stuck on a frozen lake. I shift behind the garage again, hands shaking from the cold and from the adrenaline I never got to burn off properly. The back door clicks softly when I slip inside. The house is quiet, and everyone’s asleep. Warm air hits my face, and it should calm me down, but it doesn’t. Lex paces under my skin as I head for the bathroom. The shower steams up the mirror almost instantly. Heat floods my muscles and loosens the tight ache in my shoulders, but it doesn’t touch what’s lodged in my chest. I close my eyes, and I still see her. Out on the ice, alone, moving like she wasn’t afraid of anything in the world, even when the lake could have cracked beneath her blades. Her hair keeps coming back to me. Long blonde hair, catching the moonlight when she turned, sweeping out behind her in a soft arc as she built speed. It floated around her for those few seconds when the spin held and the world blurred, as if she were the centre and everything else was just background noise. I rest my hands on the tiles and let the water run over my face. Mate. There’s no guessing anymore. I’m not chasing a scent through the woods and wondering if I’m losing it. I saw her. I smelled her. I felt the bond lock in so absolutely that it still makes my ribs feel too small. I rinse off, dry my hair, and pull on a shirt and boxers. When I slip into bed, Lex finally quiets, curling in on himself in my mind. I stare up at the ceiling, and a smile tugs at my mouth before I can stop it. She’s here… So close. Tomorrow I’ll find her again. I’ll do it right. I’ll be patient if I have to, steady if I need to, even if the bond claws at me every second of the day. I have a mate… and I’m going to love her for the rest of my life.