Seducing the forbidden ice princes

Chapter Nine

Eira’s POV

Kellan’s fingers closed around my throat.

Not a choking grip, not yet — but a warning. The kind of possessive pressure that says you better watch yourself before words ever do. My head snapped back on the wall and the cold concrete hit my scalp. For a half-second, everything stilled, the hum of the lights, the distant chatter of students, the thud of my heart that suddenly felt like a drum.

“You b***h,” he spat, his voice low enough that only I could hear it, and I shivered at the enticing heat coming from his body.

Air died in my lungs. Hot, fast. My hands scrabbled at his wrists, useless against the strength of his grip. For a stupid, humiliating instant I thought of the phone and Ares’ threat — of that video waiting to explode my life and the iron in my chest sank deeper.

“Let…me go,” I managed, the words rasping and pathetic.

Kellan’s jaw moved but he didn’t let me go. He lowered his face until our noses almost touched. I could still feel how hot he burnt despite being angry, the scent of pine and something sharp that always made the back of my neck prickle.

Oh sh*t.

“You think you get to threaten us?” he breathed. “You think you get to hold our lives in your hands and make me lose control?”

Lucien stepped forward then — not like Kellan, all pressure and edge, but like a shadow moving to soften the light. His hand hovered, hesitant, over Kellan’s shoulder. “Kel,” he said quietly.

Kellan didn’t release me immediately. He held me there long enough that my pulse thudded against his palm. Then, finally, he loosened his fingers and shoved me back with an elbow that stung my side. I slid down the wall and landed on my knees before I could steady myself.

“You think threats work with me?” Kellan asked Lucien, not taking his eyes off me. “She’s trying to corner us. We let her do that once and we never get the chance again.”

“She’s not your enemy, Kel.” Lucien’s hands were iron-soft as he reached for me and helped me to my feet. His touch made something ache in my chest that was not quite fear and not quite longing. “She’s terrified.”

“Good.” Kellan’s laugh was a blade. “She should be.”

I hated the way my lips trembled when Lucien’s thumb brushed the bruise along my jaw. I hated that the same thumb could feel like salvation.

“What did you say you wanted?” Kellan demanded, circling like a wild tiger. “For him to act like your mate or you’d expose us?”

My mouth felt dry as if I’d swallowed cotton. For one lunatic second, I almost told him the other reasons — that I needed to get Ares off my back, that the video had been used like a leash, that my scholarship and everything I’d worked for were dangling above me. But the truth was ugly and I knew I would have to bargain with uglier things to survive here.

Instead, I dug the words out of my throat and said the best thing I could admit, “I want to be on the women’s hockey team again. I was kicked out for no good reason because of your caring and selfless sister.”

Kellan’s expression flickered. He didn’t believe me. No one did. Nobody believed anything that didn’t feed their assumptions about me.

Lucien stepped closer, putting himself between Kellan and me without looking confrontational. “We’ll see what we can do. “Although we’re not sure my sister could do that.”

Kellan’s laugh was short and humorless. “You’re not sure? Do you mean you’re doubting her…because of this…never mind, we’ll talk about this later.”

Heat pooled low and ridiculous in my chest and, i***t that I was, I felt something like relief. Not because Kellan still refused to see the truth, but because the idea of someone like Lucien slowly but surely losing control over me too was intoxicating.

“It doesn’t matter if you believe me or not,” I said before I stopped myself. “I just want to get back on the team. Permanently. And also tell your lovely princess to stay away from me forever.”

Kellan’s hand curled into a fist. For a moment I thought he’d go straight into the corridors and ignore my demands. Instead, he moved like an animal — dangerous, calculating, patient.

“We’ll update you on how it goes,” Lucien said softly. “But you have to stay out of trouble for the meantime.”

I swallowed, the urge to say everything was all a misunderstanding trembling on my tongue. But I wouldn’t have to see any of them after everything was said and done so there really wasn’t any point to proving my innocence.

Both princes watched me like they were reading a map, waiting for me to say something else so they could be done with this conversation as well.

“I really do need to play again,” I said, the words surprising, even to myself. They poured out, hot and desperate. “I need my spot back and if I have to use you to get what I want, then that’s what I’ll do, just so we’re clear. So from now on Lucien, you’re my boyfri….” I stopped in my tracks, and then it clicked.

My brain must’ve been working overtime because another brilliant idea came to my mind and I wondered how I overlooked it simply because I disliked the idea. But at the end of the day, this new arrangement would be even better so I couldn’t miss the opportunity in front of me.

They must have noticed the smug smile on my face because they stiffened as I opened my mouth to lay my new terms. “You know what? I’ve changed my mind a bit, I don’t just want one of you as my ‘fake boyfriend’, I’ll settle for both instead. That’s fine with you two, right?”

Lucien’s brow lifted at the words and Kellan’s eyes narrowed. “Are you insane? You want everyone to think you have both of us in your corner,” he said. He wasn’t asking because he already knew the obvious answer. He wasn’t just confirming that I wanted to use not just one of them as shields.

“Yes.” The answer came like a shard of ice. “I want people to believe I’m not alone. I want the power that comes from being with both of you. I want the fear to be on their side, not mine.”

Silence wrapped around us. The hallway seemed to tilt.

Kellan laughed, low and incredulous. “You want us to be your doting and sweet little boyfriends, huh?.”

“It’s still fake,” I said quickly. “I’ll keep your secret. I promise. You’ll have your privacy back. Aria will have her brothers in a position of public decency. And I’ll get my life back.”

Lucien’s mouth softened. He took a breath that smelled like mint and something that made me forget to breathe. “And how long should this charade go on for?”

“For as long as I need it to. I... I will be your public…mate.” The word tasted like sin. I licked my lips. “And we know it’s temporary so I won’t force what’s not real in private. If you want to keep sucking his d*ck, then you’re free to.”

Kellan’s eyes were unreadable. He stepped closer until the heat of him brushed my face. “You’re wrong about that, this…arrangement will only last for as long as we allow it, not you. And besides, what guarantee do we have you won’t stab us in the back the second you have the strength that comes from being with us?”

I remembered the phone in Ares’ pocket — the way one tap could ruin me. I thought of the nights I had spent convincing myself to be small, to be grateful. I thought of tears swallowed and of practicing a smile for a life that didn’t belong to me.

“I survived on my own before,” I said, quietly, “and that’s exactly what I’m doing now too. So if I’m doing this, then I plan to keep your secrets — since there’s nothing I’d gain from betraying you, it’s not my thing.”

Kellan’s mouth twisted. Lucien’s hand found his and squeezed, that gentle, steady pressure that must’ve felt like comfort between them.

Finally, Kellan turned to meet his eyes and Lucien gave a little nod. It was as if they spoke without words and the verdict came by blood and breath.

“We’ll do it,” Lucien said, voice low and raw. “We’ll play along with your public arrangement. But there are rules.”

Kellan’s voice was colder, an edge like a razor. “Rule one — you stay away from Aria and Ares unless you want trouble. Rule two — you don’t post anything that could expose us. Rule three — if you drag us into public humiliation, there will be consequences.”

The word consequences hung between us like a blade.

I swallowed. My hands trembled. “And if I do what I promise?”

Kellan’s eyes slid down to my mouth, then to the bruise along my throat. For the second time that evening, something like hunger crossed him — quick, dangerous, then gone. “Then we protect you. Publicly. And privately, you stay where we can reach you.”

Lucien stepped even closer, voice like rain. “We will make sure you can play again. We’ll speak to the Coach. We’ll handle it all. But you have to keep your end.”

“You promise?” I whispered, too tired to be proud.

Kellan set his jaw. “We promise. But betray us, and you’ll find out being alone was mercy.”

Lucien put a hand at the base of my neck with a grip that wasn’t too tight like his boyfriend’s. “We’ll keep our end of the deal Eira, so should you.”

For the first time since the ring had glinted on Aria’s finger and Ares had smirked, I felt something that tasted like hope. It was small and dangerous and a little naïve. It felt like standing under the sky and deciding to breathe anyway.

“Fine,” I said, the word brittle and also true. “I'll be sure I’ll keep your secret.”

Kellan stepped back, folding his arms. He looked like he’d just signed for a war and the map made sense only to him. Lucien smirked at me, just once, and in it there was something like amusement.

“Tomorrow,” Lucien said, “we’ll discuss it one last time before we make the announcement.”

Kellan’s eyes cut across to mine, red and furious, and his shadow moved like a promise I didn’t understand yet. “We’ll do it,” he echoed, “even though I doubt you'll last a day with us.”

For the moment, I felt the world tilt in an odd, terrible good way.

We were all using each other and maybe myself most of all, but the threats would buy me time. The princes had pulled me into a new orbit and I didn’t know whether I’d burn or stay warm.

I only knew one thing, after tonight, nothing would be the same. And so with an equally devilish smirk of my own, I folded my arms around my chest and replied to him. “Oh yeah? We’ll see about that, won’t we?” And oh holy f*ck, we would, whether we were ready or not.