2. CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER TWO
PEM
The frozen lake stretches before me, a shimmering expanse of perfection, as I take in my surroundings.
In the distance, snow-capped mountains extend into the sky, disappearing among the clouds, and although everything is painted in shades of gray, it doesn’t reflect my mood.
For once, I’m joyous.
Free.
It feels like I haven’t been on the ice for my own enjoyment in a century, always at the mercy of my job.
As the center for my hockey team, my schedule keeps me tied up with interviews and meetings off of the ice.
Everything else in between usually means I’m on the ice, but not for my enjoyment. I’m either at practice or playing a game.
By the end of the season, there’s not a frozen surface to be found in nature around my home in Wales, and I tend to avoid rinks, so I never skate to just skate .
The pressure of winning the Norsphere Cup weighs on my entire team. We’ve come so far, but we’re also exhausted from the nonstop work we’ve put in for the last four months.
Recently, The Goodfellows—my team—just clinched the division, meaning we’re in the IMH finals.
It’s been an amazing experience, and I’m grateful that we’ve made it this far, but we all need a break, too.
When we arrived in Iceland yesterday afternoon, I met with our coach to propose that for the week leading up to the first playoff game, we give everyone the morning off.
The team will still train in the gym and then meet on the ice for drills and practice later in the day, therefore not cutting into our practice schedule.
Puck, the Goodfellows’ coach, immediately agreed, but the managers weren’t so keen. I knew they’d be hesitant, which is why I made sure to bring it up in front of the team at dinner last night.
With the Puck’s backing and the excited chatter coming from my teammates, the managers bent to our will.
It doesn’t happen often, so we take our wins where we can—another reason I’m bent on enjoying my morning alone.
Tilting my head as far back as I can, the curve of my horns presses through my sweater and into my shoulders, and I exhale a lungful of air.
The moisture of my breath crystallizes the moment it leaves my lips, creating a little cloud. I close my eyes and count to ten, letting go of all the stress.
Inhaling one more time, I step onto the lake. My skates slice across the expanse of frozen water, leaving the weight of the entire world’s expectations behind me.
The primal urge to shift wars against my desire to be on the ice. The only thing that keeps me bipedal is the fact that I can transfigure myself any time in the year, but never can I just skate .
I find myself tracing over the floral designs someone left in the ice, subconsciously adding small details every so often—an extra petal here, a leaf there.
Lost in the beauty of the moment, I turn from the art etched into the ice as I spy movement in the corner of my eye.
A nine-tailed fox bounds forward, each graceful contact with its paws creating a cascade of snowflakes.
It’s pure magic to watch. The numerous tails tell me the creature is monstrous in nature, but there’s something about the tiny beast that captivates my attention.
Like a vulpine ballet, it dances about, wrapped up in its own world, and although I’ve met plenty of Fae with the power to command the weather, none have mesmerized me as this being does.
Who are they— what are they?
As if hearing my unspoken question, the fox jumps up and twirls, landing gracefully in a flurry of snow, and where a fox once pranced now stands a stunning woman.
Her skin is a light blue that glistens in the weak sunlight, emphasizing the bright red circles on her cheeks and forehead.
Her long ebony hair is woven into a tight braid that hangs down her back, and she’s wearing a pretty dress—along with the daintiest skates I’ve ever seen.
But perhaps the most adorable thing of all is the fact that her nine, white tails still float behind her. Vulpine ears poke out of her dark head of hair.
I don’t realize I’ve skated closer, enthralled by the woman, until she spins to face me, the bell shape of her navy skirt flaring with the movement.
Her lips form the cutest little ‘o’ of surprise, and the thoughts that race through my mind are not appropriate for someone I’ve just met, but she’s bloody stunning.
I can’t take my eyes off of her.
The world disappears until it’s just us. She inhales, the sharp sound running up my spine, and I come closer as if tugged by some invisible cord.
The ice has always been a place that I can escape to when I need to find myself again. It’s the blood in my veins.
It’s always given me what I’ve needed, and suddenly, here is this gorgeous woman who calls to me like no one else ever has.
What is the ice telling me?
Moving forward a bit, I close the gap between us. I’m near enough that I could probably reach out and brush the stray hair stuck to her cheek back into her braid.
Tuck it behind her ear and trace her jaw line with one of my claws…
“Hello.”
I blink at her greeting, pulling myself back to the present. She’s got her head craned back so that she can look up at me.
She seems so tiny, though I imagine she’s of an average height, and I’ve just forgotten what it’s like to be around anyone other than the men on my team.
I want to pull her into my side and protect her.
Shelter her.
Care for her.
“Hello,” I reply lamely, still rather tongue-tied.
The woman bites her lip, and I groan, taking in the erotic vision of her sucking on the plump pinkness. If only I could be doing the same.
“I was told no one comes to this lake.”
She shoots me a shy smile, and I have to beat back all the thoughts clamoring about in my head with a mental hockey stick.
Instead of throwing her over my shoulder and running into the woods, I grin down at her in what I can only hope is a friendly smile—and not a lascivious leer.
“I was told the same thing.”
I want to smack myself in the face at how awful my responses are. Usually, I’m witty and charming, thanks to my years spent in the public eye.
But not today, it would seem.
“Right, well, I’ve been here for a while already, so I’ll leave you in peace.”
She makes a move to skate past me, and I automatically reach out to stop her. By some miracle, my fingers catch hers, and something within me swells.
It’s like the first time I stepped onto the ice.
Exhilarating, yet terrifying.
Heat jolts through me, the sensation something I’ve felt a handful of times in my past—but only when I was in rut.
Nowadays, I take suppressants since I spend the majority of my time with my team. Nothing would knock us off-kilter faster than a week-long fuckfest during playoffs.
Thankfully, I use the strongest ones in the market from Eldritch Labs. They’ve never failed me before, so this spark of fire must be something else.
“No—stay, please?” I beg before I even realize that I’m speaking.
To my surprise and delight, she agrees to stay and skate with me. To say she’s amazing on the ice is the biggest understatement of my life.
She might skate better than even me.
I learn that her name is Iseol, that she’s from Korea, and that her pretty dress is from the traditional style worn by Korean women called a ‘hanbok’.
The most interesting thing, though, is the purple flush that stains her cheeks and creeps down her neck. I’m struck with the need to see just how far it goes…
We move across the frozen lake together, already in sync with one another in such a short amount of time.
I don’t let go of her hand, our fingers tangling together as my claws curving around Iseol’s softness. Her palm fits perfectly in mine, and I try not to think what this means.
“So, you’re a fox shifter?” I ask to distract myself.
“Partly. I’m a Gumiho. Although, I believe the Japanese Kitsune is more widely known than the Korean nine-tailed fox. I’m also part Yuki-Onna, or Snow Maiden, from my mother’s side.”
“Do you choose to keep your ears and tails?”
“No. I look like a Yuki-Onna aside from my ears and tails, which remain from my Gumiho side. I have to shift into my Gumiho if I want to be fully vulpine. But I also have my father’s powers to shift into anything I want.”
“That’s fascinating. In that way, we’re similar. I’m part Puca and part Faun, but my Puca side allows me to shapeshift into anything I choose as well.”
“How… coincidental .” Iseol lapses into silence for a moment. “Forgive me, I’m not familiar with Puca.”
“We’re a type of Fae—the trickster kind.”
She laughs, tossing back her braid. “Aren’t all Fae tricksters?”
“Indeed, we are. Beware. On a completely other note, can I offer you some food?”
Iseol smacks my arm playfully. “Absolutely not! In Korea, we have Dokkaebi, which are known to play tricks. I think the closest English translation would be ‘goblin’.”
“Ah, goblins. Nasty little buggers. They’re Fae, too, so it makes sense about your Dokkaebi being tricksters.”
She snorts, erupting into a colorful tale about how she met a Dokkaebi when she was a child and just how troublesome they are.
I’m so caught up in how Iseol moves and expresses herself—so fluid, even on the ice—that I barely realize how much time has passed.
“Shite…I’ve got to go.” My abrupt announcement wipes the enjoyment off her face, and I wince. “Trust me! I don’t want to leave. You’re amazing company. I just have somewhere to be and didn’t realize how late in the morning it’s become.”
Iseol squints up at the sky. “Oh, you’re right! I should be heading back, too. It was nice to meet you, Pem.”
She holds out a hand to shake. I stare at it for a moment, debating in my head what to do when my body decides for me.
Before Iseol can react, I take her hand and tug her into my arms. Her beautiful eyes widen, but mine are already fluttering close as I bend down and brush a kiss over her soft-as-silk lips.
The swish of her tails whipping into a frenzy is the only sound I can hear over the beating of my heart as I break the kiss.
It was chaste compared to what I really wanted to do, but I just met Iseol. It wouldn’t be appropriate to tackle her onto the ice and lick her from head to toe.
So I let her go.
Reluctantly.
She stares at me like I’m a Redcap who wants to devour her whole, and my stomach drops as she shifts into a fox and bounds away.
I hang my head, running a hand through my long hair as I watch Iseol disappear. The pit in my gut doubles in size.
Way to ruin things before they even started, Pem.