The Ice Alpha’s Mate (Aria and Ryder) novel Chapter 43

Chapter 43

RYDER

Mate.

KYEA

.

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My mate.

Mine.

I stared into Aria’s face in disbelief. She was my mate. Everything makes so much sense now-the realization settles over me like the warmest blanket on the coldest winter night. It’s like I’ve always known the truth and it was just buried so deep inside of me that I couldn’t reach it.

But it’s staring me in the eye now.

The look on her face mirrors mine. I’m sure of it. The world around us blurs and she’s the only one I focus on. I forget Nadia. The game I should be heading to. Ray Laws. The pack. My father. None of it matters compared to this blissfully perfect moment.

My wolf calms for the first time in weeks. I’m so aware of her wolf now, which is crazy because I’ve been close to her before and it was never like this.

Never.

I part my lips to say something, anything, but no words come out. Aria does the same. Goddess, she’s stunning-the longer I stare at her, the surer I am of my feelings.

She’s mine. And I’m not going to let her go.

Suddenly, the door behind us bursts open. The sound makes me tear my eyes away from her and I see Zach staring at me with a wild look in his eyes, sweating from head to toe.

He looks back and forth between me and Aria. At the same time Nadia’s friends help her to her feet and all three of them take out of the bathroom.

Zach bursts out, “WHAT THE FUCK, RYDER!? WHAT’S WRONG WITH YOU? WE’RE LOSING THE GAME!”

The despair in his voice tears me out of my trance. I look at Aria one more time. She’s out of danger. In fact, it was Nadia who needed helping.

Zach grabs my arm and pulls me toward the door. I stare at her tunned face one more time before heading out and following him. Wherever we pass, there are stunned eyes on me I’m sure all these people saw me race out of the penalty box like a madman.

I felt that Aria was in danger. It was strange that I even knew where to go.

There are five minutes left and to my horror, I see that Moonve is three points ahead of us. Coach Murdock gives me a bewildered look like he doesn’t know what he’s looking at. I get back in the rink and Ray Laws and his team practically laugh

at me.

My fury from earlier rises to the surface again. I glare at him, violence on my mind. It’s so overpowering that it makes me feel sick.

“Welcome back, Drexel,” Ray says from beside me as I struggle to take the puck from one of his teammates. He crashes his shoulder into mine and I hit the glass. “Hope whatever it was that made you run outta here like a lunatic was worth it.”

I ignore him but that’s getting a little harder to do. The clock is king and even time seems to be against me today. I manage to score twice, but they’re still a point ahead.

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Chapter 43

And then the buzzer sounds.

It’s over.

We’ve lost once again.

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The Moonveil team celebrates right in the rink. I can feel every ronclaw eye in the room on me. I make eye contact with Coach, and he gives his head a shake. It’s not disappointment-is more like disbelief.

As I look around, my eyes finally landing on the scoreboard, I’m stunned. My mind clears and I realize the severity of my

actions.

I chose Aria over my pack.

I chose her even over myself, because there’s no coming back from a loss like this.

I look for my father in the crowd, and when we make eye contac, something heavy settles over my chest. His expression is hard and unforgiving. I messed up this time.

There might be no coming back from this.

Slowly, we leave the ice. My teammates don’t say a single thing to me and Coach is fuming now. I can tell it by the way he looks at me.

Even so, despite everything that happened, I’m still worried about Aria and I have this need to check up on her.

As I’m about to walk past him, he grabs my arm. “Wanna tell me what that was about?”

I meet his gaze. “I’ve got nothing to say to you, Coach.”

His eyes narrow. “Do you have the slightest idea what you cost us?”

“I’m the Alpha heir,” I shrug. “I know better than you do.”

Harsh, but I’ll blame it on my frustration. I’m not in the right state of mind right now.

Behind me, someone calls my name, and of course, it’s Ray Law “I think I should thank you for helping me win this.” He kisses the trophy in his hand. “Oh, I should probably go ahead and thank your little girlfriend, too.” His eyes narrow and his lips thin as they pull into a smirk. “I might just do that one personally.”

I hear a ringing sound in my ears and before I know it,

I’m heading straight toward him, and a massive fight breaks out don’t feel any pain-my focus is on making sure Ray Laws doesn’t get up from the-ice.

I slam my fist into his face so many times that I lose track of time. I’m pulled off him by my teammates-I don’t know who they are exactly.

Ray’s nose is broken and he stares at me with a murderous look his eyes. When he speaks, blood sprays onto the ice. “You’re gonna regret that, Drexel! You’ll fucking see!”

I allow them to pull me off the ice because I’ve humiliate myself more than once tonight. I shove them off me and head down for narrow corridor, heading to the bathroom to see if she there,

It’s empty.

I backtrack and head to the medical room, but she’s nowhere to be found and neither is Coach Murdock. Where’d they go?

Dan turns around and forces a smile. He’s packing up. “Ryder. Is there anything I can do for you?”

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Chapter 43

“Where’s Aria?”

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He stills when I ask him this, but he tries to play it cool. I don’t care about what he thinks-I just need him to answer the question. “She wasn’t feeling well and Coach Murdock took her the hospital. At least, that’s what they told me.”

My eyes widen. “What?”

I don’t wait for him to answer my question-I just keep moving heading straight for the exit. Worry blinds me. When I last saw her, she was fine. At least, I think she was. I was so distracted by the recognition of our matehood that I barely paid attention to her.

I come face to face with my father on the way out. He’s walkingght toward me, hands in his pockets, appearing calm even though I know he’s anything but.

I’m forced to stop.

The look on his face tells me that I can’t escape whatever it is coming my way.

“I had a talk with one of your teammates,” he claims, and he doesn’t even have to tell me who it is. I already know that it’s Zach. “Oh, son. We need to talk-now.”

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