FORBIDDEN ON THE ICE

Elias Ashwood stepped into the light, his expression unreadable, his eyes moving between his son and Reyna with a slowness that made her stomach twist.

"You said you'd be careful," Elias said, walking closer, his footsteps echoing off the concrete. "This does not look careful."

"We were just talking," Kade said.

"Talking," Elias repeated, glancing at Reyna. "That's an interesting word for it."

"It's true," Reyna said, straightening her spine, refusing to let herself shrink under his gaze the way she had shrunk under her father's the night before. "Kade told me what your family suspects about Silas. I think we deserve to know the truth, both of us."

Elias studied her for a long moment, long enough that Reyna felt the urge to look away, but she held his stare instead.

"You look like her," Elias said finally, quieter now. "Your mother. Same stubborn chin."

"You know my mother?" Reyna asked.

"Everyone knew your mother," Elias said. "She used to come to this rink long before either of you were born, back when it was still just an ordinary ice arena, back before either family owned a team here. She used to say the ice didn't care whose pack you belonged to." He paused. "She was wrong about a lot of things, but she wasn't wrong about that."

"My father never told me any of this," Reyna said.

"Your father has spent fifteen years trying to erase every trace of what happened," Elias said. "I understand why. Grief does strange things to people. But erasing the past doesn't make it stop repeating."

"Is that why you told Kade to get close to me?" Reyna asked. "So you could dig up information without getting your own hands dirty?"

Kade flinched slightly beside her, but Elias didn't look surprised by the accusation.

"I told him to be cautious," Elias said. "I never told him to use you."

"Then what would you call it?" Reyna asked.

"I'd call it two young people who never had a choice about what they were born into," Elias said, "trying to survive a mess their parents made worse instead of better."

The hallway went quiet for a moment, filled only with the distant sound of skates on ice from the arena beyond the doors, players warming up for the day, unaware of what was happening just outside.

"I need to know something," Reyna said, turning fully to face Elias. "Do you think Voss is still dangerous? Right now, today?"

Elias's jaw tightened. "I think a man who orchestrated a death and got away with it for over a decade does not simply stop being dangerous because nobody caught him."

"Then we need proof," Kade said. "Something solid enough that even the council can't ignore it."

"I've been trying to get proof for years," Elias said. "Voss is careful. He doesn't leave trails."

"Everyone leaves a trail eventually," Reyna said. "My father keeps old pack records in the family archive. Financial records too, going back decades. If Voss has been quietly funding anything, meeting with anyone he shouldn't, there might be something there."

"Your father would never let you dig through those records," Elias said.

"My father doesn't need to know," Reyna said.

Kade turned to look at her, something like worry crossing his face. "Reyna, if he finds out you went behind his back on this, especially with us, he's not going to just ground you. He might pull you off the team completely."

"Then I'll deal with that when it happens," Reyna said. "Somebody set up your uncle's death, Kade. Somebody probably killed my mother too, and let everyone believe it was an accident for fifteen years. I'm not interested in staying safe if staying safe means letting that go unanswered."

Elias watched her for a long moment, something shifting in his expression, respect maybe, or recognition.

"She really does look like her," Elias said quietly, more to himself than to either of them.

"So you'll help us?" Kade asked his father.

"I'll help," Elias said. "But we will do this carefully. If Voss suspects anyone is looking into him, he'll cover his tracks faster than we can uncover them, and I am not losing anyone else to this feud." He looked directly at Reyna when he said it, his voice heavy with a warning that felt more like fear than threat. "Do you understand me?"

"I understand," Reyna said.

"Good," Elias said. He turned to leave, then paused, glancing back over his shoulder. "Practice starts in ten minutes. Both of you should be on the ice, not standing in a hallway where anyone could walk by and see you together."

He disappeared through the door at the end of the hall, leaving Reyna and Kade alone again, the silence between them heavier now, weighted with everything that had just been said.

"You didn't have to offer to go through your dad's archive," Kade said. "That's a huge risk."

"I know," Reyna said.

"He could disown you for less," Kade said.

"I know that too," Reyna said, meeting his eyes. "But I'd rather lose his approval than spend the rest of my life wondering if my mother's death could have been prevented."

Kade reached out slowly, giving her every chance to pull away, and when she didn't, he tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, his hand lingering against her cheek.

"For what it's worth," Kade said quietly, "I don't think you're anything like what your father's afraid of."

Reyna's breath caught, and for a moment neither of them moved, the pull between them stronger than either the danger or the ten minutes they had left before practice.

Then her phone buzzed in her pocket, and when she looked down, the screen made her blood run cold.

Dad: Come home right now. Voss just told me you saw Kade Ashwood this morning.