He looked so scared that it worried me.
Gabe glanced over his shoulder while the others were skating toward the Fangs end of the rink and he started to head over to me instead. I braced myself. He looked intent, like there was something he needed to say.
“Perkins!” Blake shouted, just as he skated out of the penalty box.
I hadn’t realized how tensed up I was until then but I was gripping my box of popcorn like it was a lifeline, the constant roar of the crowd and the hazy scent of beer and shifters and sweat was making me a little dazed as I stared at the scene playing out on the rink. Luca’s guys had gone on offense, beating back the Fangs, but Blake and Gabe had split off as Gabe skated towards me. I stared at Gabe, willing him to impart psychically somehow whatever it was he wanted to tell me.
Then I saw Gabe mouth: “He knows!”
I didn’t think Blake saw him do it, but he herded Gabe away and I didn’t miss the dark look Blake sent my way. I hunched in my seat, fumbling and dropping my popcorn.
Blake knew.
Blake knew.
I shouldn’t have been surprised. His friend had definitely seen me. I wondered if Gabe had cracked and told him everything. I wanted to be angry at my brother but I’d always found that difficult. Now I shut my eyes and I took a deep breath. When I opened my eyes again, tears were sliding down my cheeks and I wiped them away, not wanting to give in to Blake. He wanted me to be so afraid of him, just like he wanted everyone to. I didn’t want to give him that.
The game continued and I watched Blake like a hawk. I kept seeing him look into the stands directly across from me. He had definitely spotted me, but now he was looking at someone else and I couldn’t help but be curious and a bit paranoid. I watched Blake’s every move while keeping an eye on Luca. It wasn’t hard. They were really going after each other now. The rest of the game almost seemed like an excuse for them to go at each other and finally they were slamming each other against the wall as the others came to their aid. They both got the penalty box then. I caught Luca’s eye and he looked a bit banged up. He nodded at me as he caught his breath, sending me a little wave, and just that gesture made my heart swell a little.
I felt the witch’s magic before I saw her. My mouth dropped open when I felt it. All at once there was a wave of vibration penetrating my stomach. That was the only way I knew to describe it. It was magic aimed directly at me. For a moment, I was scared that it was hurting the baby, but it didn’t feel malevolent. It did feel intrusive. Like it wanted something. I haven’t felt magic aimed at me very many times and usually only for fun. It’s like tasting different flavors or knowing when you’re very hungry versus when you’re sick. You just know. That’s when I looked up to the spot that Blake had been so fascinated with and saw her.
The witch was a middle-aged woman but she didn’t look like anyone you’d immediately peg as a witch. Her greying blonde hair was tied back in a ponytail and she wore a t-shirt and a fleece hoodie. She had a plastic cup of beer in her hand, but her eyes were on me and her other hand was raised as if in a still wave. She was sending power my way and her lips were moving as she cast something straight at me.
The spell didn’t hurt but it was freaking me out and if it was at Blake’s request, it couldn’t be good. She didn’t look the least bit startled to see that I’d caught her out either. Her expression didn’t change. She only looked sharply now to Luca in his penalty box and then at Blake.
I wondered if she was figuring out the father of the baby. There was probably a spell for that after all. If she was, I was now getting my confirmation if there had ever been any doubt.
Blake was the father. The truth of it made me want to cry all over again, but I took a deep breath. I had an urge to at least go to the restroom and gather myself but I stayed glued to my seat as the spell receded, leaving me with a strange, cool feeling.
“Fuck.” Luca said it, and even with the crowd and the scrape of blades on ice and the hoots and shouts of the teams, I could hear his voice. It cracked like thunder somehow as he finally came skating out of the penalty box.
He didn’t look right. He was hunched over and skating too slowly. He seemed sluggish, as if he’d suddenly come down with the flu. I saw Blake’s grin as he skated out and I got to my feet, my gaze going straight to the witch, an ordinary looking woman in the middle of an ordinary crowd. But she was pointing right at Luca, her eyes wide and her lips quickly forming words.
She was hexing him.
“Son of a bitch,” I whispered.
Luca was getting ambushed on the ice. The Fangs were on him in no time, seemingly almost as devoted to fucking with him as they were with scoring a goal. They were winning too and that pissed me off even more. The score was 3-2 and I saw Dylan at his goal, looking braced for an attack.
“Luca!” I screamed over the crowd, trying to get his attention. It was a gamble. He might just be more distracted with me yelling for him. But he had to know there was magic behind this. He looked so off, sliding slowly across the ice as if in slow motion, the others outpacing him. As soon as he’d catch up, the others would be at the other end of the rink again.
“Luca!” Miguel shouted. “What’s the matter?” Miguel was skating up to him, clapping him on the back. Luca didn’t speak. He just shook his head and skated on. Miguel skated as if he was Luca’s bodyguard after that just as Blake came heading straight towards him.
I screamed for Luca again but he couldn’t hear me.
He could get hurt, I thought.
I had to take down that goddamn witch. I left my seat and dashed through the crowd, desperate to get around to the other side of the rink and stop that bitch before she hurt Luca.
Chapter Nine: Luca
Blake and I hadn’t spoken a word to each other. He hadn’t even talked trash like he usually did. Yet there had been an understanding between us as we went at each other on the ice. We were out for blood. I didn’t need to know what Blake knew or what he intended.
We pretty much wanted to kill each other.
Even given our ongoing rivalry with The Fangs I’d always at least put up the pretense of keeping it focused on the game. There had been run-ins off the ice between players, sure. That was difficult to avoid with shifters in a feud and living in towns next door to each other.
But now the game was incidental. At least to me. Which was probably why The Cougars were losing. I wasn’t focused and therefore the other guys weren’t focused either. As alpha and captain of the team, it was my job to keep them on task and I was failing and I really didn’t care.
All I cared about was the way Blake had shot that look straight at Chloe in the stands. It made me want to murder him. I knew he was after me to get to her. I didn’t know the whole story and I didn’t need to.
When Blake and I were let out of the penalty boxes, I was intending to go after him again, the game be damned. But all at once, I could barely skate at all.
It was like I’d suddenly been hit by a terrible fever as I scared out of the box. I felt dizzy and overheated. I felt a strange kind of tingling vibration in my muscles. My whole body was weak and I could hardly keep myself upright, the skates under me suddenly feeling awkward and strange when I’d grown up on them and they were as much a part of me as my lion’s paws or my human feet.
My vision blurred. I was trying to keep up but I was skating so badly, it was purely a matter of pride. I couldn’t imagine what had come over me. I’d felt fine all day. I’d barely ever been sick my whole life which was common for shifters. We weren’t nearly so fragile as humans who were always getting colds and flus. But now I was sweaty and achy and sluggish. If this was what humans dealt with when they were sick, I suddenly had much more sympathy for humans.
“Are you okay?” That was Miguel, or at least I was pretty sure it was. He’d skated up next to me and now he was looking at me from under the visor of his helmet. Everything was blurred and doubled up. I think I groaned in response and then staggered off.
; I wasn’t exactly thinking straight or I would have told him something was wrong. In my mind, I wanted to. I felt like my thoughts were racing around, exhausting me. I couldn’t catch one long enough to turn it into action.
Stop.
Help.
Must stop…
Blake and a couple other players skated into me, just casually enough for it not to look like deliberate since I should have easily skated out of their way. But I couldn’t think coherently much less move fast enough to get out of their way and I went slamming painfully into the wall, groaning.
“Goddammit!” That was Miguel, trying to come to my rescue. I pushed the guys away from me and skating was like moving with buckets of cement tied to my feet.
I didn’t even know where I was going.
“What the hell…” I thought that was Charlie’s voice but I wasn’t sure.
I thought I was skating the wrong away, far from the others where they were chasing one of my guys to the Fangs’ goal. Instead I was headed to Dylan and everything felt foggy and unreal. I wasn’t even sure I was awake anymore. It felt like I’d been knocked out and I was only dreaming.
I swore I could hear Chloe calling for me from somewhere. But I didn’t know what she was saying. I could hear the crowd, shouting, sounding as confused as I felt. I could hear the guys, yelling for me to turn the other way.
Blake was coming.
Blake had the puck.
I dimly thought that was bad, and now he was headed straight towards me.
“Luca, move!” Dylan was shouting but the sound was dulled. It was like hearing music through a wall. “LUCA! MOVE!”
But I didn’t move. In fact I hunched down low and it all seemed to be happening so slowly as Blake took a powerful swing. I knew just how hard Blake could hit a puck. I’d been playing him for a few years now. I watched it, blinking dumbly, completely unable to control my body and get away.
The puck was coming straight for my face.
I thought I could hear Chloe yelling somewhere.
The puck hit me right in the head and the shock and force of it instantly put me on the ground. I could hear the crowd yell. I couldn’t think but later I imagined they must have thought I was just an idiot, skating directly into the line of a shot like that, baring my face where it was unprotected from the helmet. It was like I was trying to get hit.
It was like I had no control.
Dark magic, I thought dimly as I hit the ice. The pain took a minute to hit and when it did, it was like thunder. I felt a terrible, sharp pressure on my fingers through my thick gloves. Blake had nearly skated over my hand. Then I heard shouting, hoots, and boos. Everyone was mad at Blake. I was pretty sure even his own pride was mad at Blake. I wondered if anyone else had seen the dark magic for what it was.
I was passing out, the world going dark around me, but now I realized that tingling vibration I’d felt had been magic hitting me. It had been a long time since I’d felt anything like that. I just hadn’t realized it at the moment. I’d been hexed.
I lost consciousness wondering how the hell Blake had pulled that off.
Chapter Ten: Chloe
I didn’t make it.
That was all I could think as I stood on the top step of the stands. The witch was down in front, somewhere in the third row. She was standing now and people were giving her funny looks while others looked alarmed, probably having sussed out that she was a witch who was clearly hexing the captain of The Cougars.
I was just standing there about to run down the steps, but then it was too late and the puck was knocking Luca right to the ground, his blades going out from under him. I clapped my hands to my mouth. The scream that came from me startled the crowd. But then they were all roaring and booing at the spectacle. People were on their feet, yelling and pointing their fingers. They seemed upset at Blake as a timeout was called.
Luca was completely knocked out. I was frozen to the spot.
He’s just unconscious, I told myself. He’ll be fine.
He was a lion after all. A little puck couldn’t take him down. But it had just looked so painful and more than that, I knew what it was supposed to mean.
Blake was after Luca and he was serious.
“He’ll be fine,” I said to myself. I felt like all my blood had rushed down to my feet. “He’ll be fine, he’ll be fine…”
The witch was gone. The crowd was pretty chaotic. The medics were coming to take Luca off the ice and everyone was upset one way or the other. I saw some guys from Stone River I knew to be friendly with Blake getting into a fist fight with a couple St. Dominic fans before they were forced apart by a security guard. Sure, Luca had skated right into the crossfire of the puck but Blake had very deliberately shot it at him.
When they carted Luca off the ice, Miguel started heading toward Blake and his own guys had to hold him back. I ran back down the corridor behind the stands to try and follow Luca’s stretcher, intending to go to the hospital with him, but the medics made me stay back and wouldn’t listen to me when I claimed I was his girlfriend.
There was press there too. It wasn’t as if it was a pro game, but there were a few people with cameras and microphones from the local news and the crowd around Luca as he was taken outside to an already waiting ambulance was thick. I couldn’t fight my way through it as I teared up, gritting my teeth with frustration. Soon enough it was pulling away and I was left alone among the others loitering at the entrance to St. Dom’s rink, staring after the van as it drove away.
I didn’t watch the rest of the game. There wasn’t much of it left anyway. I only stood there, frozen, regretting pretty much my entire life up to this point.
Luca had been hurt because of me. This was all down to me.
It was a long time before the guys started coming out after the game. The Cougars had lost. I had to think that Luca’s friends had been distracted worrying about him, even as professional as they were. But it was The Fangs too. Blake had pushed his guys hard to beat Luca at any cost.
Now Luca was in the hospital…
“This is your fault.” Miguel’s voice was a hiss that came from behind me and I was startled. I hunched up my shoulders, feeling shaky with the uncomfortable fear of someone being so angry at me and echoing my own deepest anxieties. “Blake is after you. Why? Just for pride loyalty? Or something else?” He looked at me like he already knew what it was.
“Miguel,” Dylan said quietly behind him. “C’mon, man.”
I forced myself to look at him but Miguel looked ready to murder me and I ducked my head, backing away from him. “I would never want Luca hurt,” I said tearfully. “He’s the kindest man in the world. The strongest, the… I…”
“Well, he is hurt,” Miguel spat. “And I think there’s something you’re not telling him. About you and Blake. Was he your boyfriend or what? You going after his rival just to piss him off?” Dylan was holding Miguel back even as he looked just as interested to get some answers. I felt like I was under a microscope but it was my own damn fault after all.
The very thought turned my stomach and I shook my head. “No. No. I can’t stand Blake.”
“But it’s something,” Miguel said. “You better figure out how to tell Luca because I’m not seeing him hurt again. I don’t care how much he likes you.” With that, Miguel stormed off with Dylan following him.
I felt about three inches tall and I couldn’t see for the tears in my eyes.
It was freezing out and I’d left my parka inside, but I walked out into the chill anyway. I’d have to go to the lost and found in the rink to get it back. But just now, I didn’t care. I wanted to feel the bitter cold. It was the only thing grounding me, I felt like.
It had snowed in St. Dominic while the game had been going on and there was a blanket of beautiful, calming white over the parking lot, the trees, the sidewalk. It muted everything and I stood out in front of the rink, sniffing and clenching and unclenching my fists. I patted my stomach absently, thinking of the little seed of a
life in there. I could take off, I thought. Wouldn’t it be easier for everyone? I’d just have to figure it out on my own.
But the thought of being a lion alone in the world was terrifying to me. Lion shifters need their pride. But the thing was, I’d never felt at home in mine. I wanted to be a part of Luca’s pride. I wanted to be a St. Dom’s cougar. When I thought about it, I realized I wanted that as much as I wanted to stay by Luca’s side. I wanted him to know me and I wanted to know him. I wanted to make good on that promising thread of connection between us that said we were meant for each other.
I wanted the fairy tale to be real.
I thought everyone had left the rink but then I saw her.
The witch walked out into the snow and looked right at me like I didn’t matter at all. Like she wasn’t at all concerned that the two of us were alone outside, even though she must have seen me headed towards her and trying to stop her during the game. She knew I knew. Yet she only glanced at me with a blank look on her face before tugging her parka around her stupid fleece hoodie and walking on, her gray-blonde ponytail high on her head.
“Hey!” The shout that came from my mouth as the witch walked on ahead of me, surprised even me. All my frustration and self-loathing came boiling up inside me and I wanted to throw it all at that stupid witch who was helping Blake to make my life miserable and hurt Luca. “Hey! Asshole!”
The witch turned and looked at me again with that blank stare of hers. “Do you need something?”
I didn’t say anything. I just screamed, shifted, and leapt at her. Her hand shot out and aimed a hex at me but I dodged it, leaping to the side before tackling her to the ground. A full grown female mountain lion is no joke and shifters are stronger than regular lions on top of that. I clawed at her and I should have easily had the better of her but I was being a little stupid, attacking a woman who was clearly an experienced witch and had likely expected there to be some trouble with lion shifters. She had some kind of magical shield around her and when I tried to attack, I found my claws and teeth bouncing off a tingly, invisible force. It made me feel like my whole body had fallen asleep. It was uncomfortable, but at least it didn’t hurt.
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