Page 88 of Break The Ice

“I gave up everything to keep you safe. Why would you come back? Why would you risk it-”

“Uncle!”

“I just don’t understand, after everything that happened-”

“He followed me!” I shout so loud it silences him.

My uncle freezes. Several expressions chase themselves across his face. “What?”

I refuse to look at my alphas. I don’t want to see their sympathy or pity.

“He followed me. I haven’t been able to escape. Not for a single day,” I admit helplessly. “I don’t know how he does it, but he’s found me everywhere I’ve travelled.”

I’m hyper aware of the pack watching me. Of all the questions they want to ask, but I keep my focus on the devastation on my uncle’s face. He stumbles back and back until he hits the wall.

“No, that would mean, but, no. You were alone, Rhee. Why didn’t you come home?”

I force a weak smile. “I didn’t want to be a burden.”

My uncle stands up, pushing up from the wall, trembling with anger. I guess I would be too. I can understand where he’s coming from, and I totally get it. Still, if I could repeat all of those horrible years just so he can have peace of mind, I would.

“What do you mean, he?” Callan snarls into the silence, sounding so much like the alpha he is.

I snapmy head around to look at the pack. Kit’s face is expressionless. Wren looks like he might attack the room and turn it into splinters, but it’s Raider who makes me realise just how much I’ve fucked up. He looks so hurt, and I remember all the people who lied to him, who abandoned him, and, fuck, why didn’t I just tell them when I had the chance?

“Raider, I-”

“You got involved with my boys?”

I look between Raider and my coach and let out a frustration sound.

“When I was fifteen, I discovered I had a stalker.”

“Don’t you dare get them involved!” Uncle Patrick shouts at me.

Wren takes my wrist, ignoring my uncle. “What happened?”

“We didn’t take it seriously. I mean, well, I did, and my parents did, but everyone else brushed it off. It was just some guy with a crush. An act of vandalism, a coincidence. He would break into the house, take my things, and leave notes. On and on. Day after day. I started getting anxious and withdrawn, and then,” I stop and have to take a breath. “And then my parents died, but he was still there except more possessive. And just more. I tried to stay with Uncle Pat for a while, but Henrietta freaked out, she couldn’t handle the constant threats from the stalker, so I left.”

Uncle hisses and mutters something. “These are my boys, Rhee. You should have stayed away from hockey players! Far, far away.”

“Why?” Raider growls.

I study his expression. “Because we think, we’re not a hundred percent sure, but we think that my stalker is a guy who played on my dad’s mixed hockey team when I was a kid.”

Raider stands up straight and turns away, walking to the door and pausing before ripping it open and storming off.

“I’ll go,” Kit says and rushes after him.

“So you left home-” Callan asks slowly.

“We sent her away so that she can survive. So that she has a chance,” Uncle snarls. “It was a calculated gamble. We did everything we could to protect her movements. We cut contact, all her friends from school, everyone she’d ever known. You were meant to be going by your other name.”

I shrug. “The name wasn’t working. He knew it.”

Callan sits down beside me and reaches for my hand. “Is that person still here? Has he found you?”

I turn so I can stare into Callan’s eyes. “I don’t think I ever escaped him. He’s known where I am the whole time.”

---