Chapter 73 - A walk in the garden - Part 3

"Get off me!" he shouted, but his hands were contradictory to his words as they were holding my hands that were hanging around his shoulders.

"I won't let you take the win," I said, still clinging to his back. As he was taller than me by a few inches, my feet were no longer touching the ground and were dangling mid-air. Luke seemed to have no difficulties in having me on his back, but he couldn't advance further to the finish line because he would be taking me with him if he did.

"Is that so, Violet?" he chuckled, his hands gripping tightly on mine so that I wouldn't fall. "Then I'll be sure to take the win," he said, then he turned around. 

By this time, we were halfway through the lake, only some distances to get to the finish line, but why did he turn around? When he started to skate his way to the starting line, I finally realized what he was doing. Instead of keeping me off him, he was going to take me back to the starting line! 

It seemed that he was taking this as an opportunity to secure his win by dropping me back to the starting line, knowing very well that I would take long to catch up to him. 

"Ah! Wait!" I struggled to get off him, but he wouldn't let me to by keeping hold of my hands. I couldn't believe that he would go back to the starting point to drop me there when the finish line was only a few steps away! I didn't think of this before!

"You brought this to yourself," he let out a laugh when seeing my struggle, satisfied with our current situation. "I won't let you take the win as well," he said. 

He then released his hold and gently dropped me back on the snowy ground, and before I could stop him, he had stepped back into the ice and heading straight to the finish line now that there was nothing stopping him. 

I quickly stepped back to the ice, but he was already too far for me to catch up with my current skating ability even though he was not going all that fast—it was I who was too slow. If this kept on going, he would be the winner! Oh no, the amount of smugness that he would show me later. 

While I was chasing after him, I slipped on the ice and caused the distance between us to grow even further. Though it was not a hard fall, I decided to shout to catch his attention and hoped that he would come back to help me, "Ow!!" 

It may seem like I was taking advantage of his worry—which I am, but I have decided to do whatever it takes to prevent him from winning. 

I glanced at Luke, but he seemed to be too focus on heading to the finish line to hear me. So I shout one more time, this time a little bit louder, "Ow!! It hurts!!" 

As I was not looking ahead, I didn't know if he heard me, but by the sound of it, it seemed that he had stopped and turned to see me. I had my head lowered, pretending to be in pain when I was not in any pain at all. 

"Violet?" he called as he skated back to me, "Are you okay?" I stayed still, not replying to his question until he squatted down and touched my shoulders, once again asking, "Where does it hurt? Look at me."

I raised my head to the man, "Nowhere, you got fooled," I grinned, "Now I don't need to chase after you anymore." 

Hearing it, he stared at me, clearly dumbfounded. "I didn't know you could be this cunning! I was so close to the goal," he said, pinching my cheeks. 

Without even replying to his remark, I stood up and started to skate back towards the snowball by the middle of the lake, leaving Luke behind to chase after me. The match turned fiery, and all the competitors were eagerly aiming for the goal.

Unfortunately for me, my rival was better and a lot faster in skating, so he soon caught up with me and went past me despite the late start. His skating ability was unmatched, and it made me wonder whether or not he purposedly asked for this race, knowing well about how good he was on the ice. Do werewolves skate too?

I was getting hopeless, looking at him going further and further away while I stayed behind. Should I just let him win? I mean, not that I had any choices. While I was getting discouraged about taking the win, a glint of hope came when I saw him slipped in front of me. The sight of it immediately brought a smile to my face. 

He let out a little curse as he slipped, and I quickly took this chance to turn the table. I went past him without giving him any glance, focused solely on the snowball in front of me. The hope that I have previously lost came back at the speed of light as the victory would soon be mine. 

I held out my hand, trying to reach for the snowball. I was only a few centimeters away from being the winner of the race, but then just before I touched the snowball, my body got lifted to the air. Luke had caught up to me and swept me off the ground to prevent me from touching it. 

Though he did prevent me from winning, he failed to prevent us both from falling. Due to the slippery ground beneath us, Luke once again slipped while he was lifting me up, eventually making me fall alongside him. 

"Ah!" I shouted. 

Soon after the fall, a loud thump was heard. As I fell on Luke's body, the fall didn't hurt me but most likely hurt Luke. I quickly sat up and turned to him, wanting to make sure if he was okay, "Are you okay?" I asked. 

He let out a groan, scrunching his face but not saying anything. He touched his left shoulder as he sat up, seemingly to be in pain. 

"Did you get hurt?" 

I waited for him to answer, giving him some time to ease his pain. After a few minutes, he finally said, "No, I'm okay. What about you?" 

"I'm okay," I ȧssured him, "But are you sure you are okay? You look like you are in pain." 

"I mean—are you okay with me taking the win?" the pained expression soon turned into a smirk, and I needed a second before I could finally understand what he meant. I quickly turned my head to the snowball, and there I found his left hand touching it.

"No way," I felt my shoulders dropped as soon as I saw his hand touching it, and all hope of winning shattered to pieces. If only he was one second late, the victory would be mine. 

"Don't look so dejected," he laughed, using his fingers to turn my mouth upwards, "I told you I would be taking the win, didn't I?" 

Usually, I would find his smile charming, but this time, it looked rather annoying. I should have played fair since the beginning—no, if I did play fair, would I even have any chances to win? At least I was close to winning. 

"So? What is your wish?" I huffed, throwing a little punch to the snowball. 

"Now that I have secured a wish," he smiled, folding his hands while nodding a little, "I think I will keep it for now. I need some time to think about the perfect wish to ask. I can't waste it away for something easy," he said. 

"Then, are you going to ask for something hard to do?" 

"Maybe or maybe not," he chuckled, "You will have to wait for—"

CRACK!

All of a sudden, a loud crack was heard. We first looked at each other and then slowly to the frozen lake beneath us. When our eyes fell to the ice beneath us, there we found a crack right on the part where we were sitting at. 

An image of the worst situation possible that could happen right now immediately flashed through my mind as I saw the distance between us and the safe ground. Seconds later, the crack got bigger, spreading to all the other parts of the ice. 

"I think it would be wise for us to leave now," I let out a nervous laugh, standing up.

Without giving me an answer, Luke stood up and pulled my hand to run for our lives. Just a moment ago, we had a race between the two of us, but now, it was a race between the lake and us.

Would Luke finally feel the cold if he fell into the water now? Strangely, that was the question that came to my mind as I ran. 

Fortunately, the lake didn't split in half, and the worst scenario I had imagined before didn't happen. We had successfully made it back to the ground, though it was partly thanks to Luke who carried me back while we were in the middle of the run.

"I think that is enough fun for today," said Luke, placing me back on the ground. "That could have gone worse," he let out a sigh, feeling relieved that we were back safe and dry.

"Indeed, it could have gone much worse," I laughed. Now that we were safe, I found what just happened to be quite funny. How could it go from taking a little walk in the garden to almost falling into a frozen lake? 

"Well then, it would be best for us to return to our room. It's getting late," he said, offering his hand like he always does.

Taking his hand, we made our way back down the same path we had been on before, albeit with new memories to keep in our minds. It seemed that a day could never feel dull whenever he was with me. 

Our way back was full of small talks, with the two of us making fun of each other. Nothing was wrong until Luke suddenly turned quiet, not again replying to my words. His steps then turned slower and slower before finally stopping.

"What's wrong?" I asked. 

He didn't answer my question, but his eyes were focused on the ground. Curious, I followed his eyes and then found red stains on the white path before us. 

Blood.