Chapter 151 Face off
I cannot do it, I cannot do it.
The temperature was dropping. Foot traffic thick on the sidewalk. But I was muttering like a crazy woman, bumping into strangers and bowing my head in apology, only to bump into someone else again a couple steps later because my vision was blurred with tears.
Twice, I slipped on snow.
Eomeo, gwaenchanhayo, pedestrians stopped to look at me in concern. But I saw myself through their eyes, clumsy, disheveled, not dressed for winter. Crazy American.
If only they knew. Moon above! If they had even the tiniest clue about the terror gripping me like an angry fist. This dread washing over me as my resolve weakened. As I desperately chanted, I cannot do this to myself over and over. As if it would purge the thoughts off my mind. Help me stick to my initial decision not to betray my wolf.
I was a selfish woman. It made no sense why I was even considering this ritual when only minutes ago my response had been a flat NO.
“Go away, Finn.” My shoulders jumped to the sudden warmth. A jacket hung from my shoulders now, draped around me from behind me. “I want to be alone.”
“Too bad.” That familiar deep bass hummed.
I halted so quickly I slipped again. But he grabbed my waist immediately, pinning me to himself.
Passersby shot us glances, blushing, smiling and giggling behind their palms.
I pushed away from him immediately, my cheeks hot as a stove. Then I remembered his actions from the past few days and glared at him. I walked faster, wiping my cheeks.
My chest rose and fell from the exertion of speed-walking, but the dragon easily kept pace with me, hands folded behind his back.
“You do have a bit of stubbornness after all. How have you managed to hide it from me?”
I struggled not to sneer. As if he wouldn't lay me across his thighs and spank the stubbornness out of me if I dared to show it.
“You’re real quiet now.”
“What do you want from me, Mordaine.” I paused in the middle of the sidewalk, and a teenager narrowly escaped barreling into me.
Mordaine yanked me out of the way.
The kid pushed back his headphones, lifting his head to curse. But he met Mordaine’s glare and hurriedly spun away.
When the dragon tilted his head down to meet my gaze again, he had a frown on. He tightened his grip around my arm and started to match me in the direction of the hotel again.
I whimpered.
The last place I wanted to be right now was cooped up with three of them, even though that was in fact my favorite place.
But we did not turn at the hotel entrance. Mordaine walked right past it, pulling me with him.
We finally turned into a large building as he spoke rapid French into his phone. He glanced at me repeatedly while security screened us at the door, and then he led me to a leather couch in the reception hall and ordered me to wait.
My eyes took in the bright high-ceilinged room, even as my chest continued to heave from the last of my tears. The place seemed similar to the academy back in Hollywood. I wiped my sticky cheeks and sniffed as my mind drifted to Tamar.
She must have left countless calls on my phone at this point.
I was supposed to be preparing for my performance right now. But I could not perform in this state, not with my heart beating as if it wanted to escape my chest.
Mordaine reappeared and pulled me up. “It will be a disappointment if you don't know how to skate. The prices here are ridiculous.”
I blinked when we stepped into an empty skating rink. But he marched me further, turning at the first door to the right. It was a long, rugged hall where a polite assistant got us fitted into hockey outfits.
Minutes later, I was standing in a face off with Mordiane on the ice rink.
“I do not appreciate that you keep hurting my husband, little wife.” He wheeled around me, his voice deep, eyes on fire.
My lips trembled, and I could not form a response. He had the same look in his eyes as he did the afternoon he tried to drown me in the lake.
“Pack-centered insults cut him deep.” He circled me again, and I got a whiff of the lily note in his cologne. “He doesn't deserve that. I told you some nights ago, we keep selfish nastiness away from him. Didn't I?”
"Yes," I whispered.
He tossed a hockey stick into the air, and I just managed to catch it before it hit me in the face.
I blinked. He sure loved his husband. And at this thought, a strong wave of sadness enveloped me. I would never experience that side of him. To him, I will always be an Ascendant. At best, his pet.
“Over the last few days,” he gritted through his teeth, “You have worked my patience, sweet wife.”
My calves were beginning to burn and I wheeled forward a little. I had been maintaining my position for several minutes.
“I have a real itch to spank you right now.” He tossed the punk to the floor. My shoulders jumped. “But that isn't nearly enough. So how about this?" He glanced at his wristwatch. “You have exactly twenty minutes to beat me at this game, or I will punish you however I see fit.”
My clit throbbed and I swallowed hard.
He wheeled and stopped right in front of me. Our eyes were locked, my lips slightly parted as he raised one hand. He placed his fingers beneath my chin and snapped my jaw shut. My belly flipped, heat spreading down to my neck.
Did he really expect me to beat him at a game I have never played? Win against him when he looked twice his original size in this get up. A giant in helmet and padded shoulders.
He looked like some sports god. Dark and mammoth.
“Ever played this game before?”
“No.”
He grinned in that wicked way that sent shivers kissing down my spine.
“Good. Just try to get the puck away from me and into that net as many times as it takes to beat me.”
I clenched onto the stick tightly as my heart beat against my rib cage like a caged bird.
I could not beat him at this game. He knew it.
He was simply giving me a chance to try so he could thoroughly enjoy my failure. More than once, I have heard the men say that Hale was Mordaine’s morality tutor. Taught him how to be human, be fair, be good.
If this was what he learned after all these years, Hale was a terrible teacher.
Moraine patted my shoulder now like I was his sports buddy, let out a dark chuckle, and tapped the puck with his stick as he wheeled to stand across from me.
I hunched. Gripping my stick tightly, and the moment he gave me a nod, I secured the puck.
One major advantage I had in life was how much people underestimated me. They took one look at my sweet, calm appearance and came to all the wrong conclusions. But I was in fact very competitive. Fiercely so.
It was how I beat Celeste and my other cutthroat competitors to become principal ballerina at Meridian House.
I spun away from Mordine now, and raced towards the net with the puck. The goal was right there, and my lips were already stretching in a victorious smile when a large mass slammed into me from the side. My ears rang as I went flying and then crashed hard, ice shooting up in a spray all around me.
My body slid across the length of the rink to the far corner. For a second, I saw only stars. It was as if I had crashed into a building.
But I was unhurt.
I blinked and the dragon's face came into focus.
“What?" He sneered down at me, "Never said I would play fair now, did I?”