Where The Ice Gives Way Chapter 103

**Blake**

Before the car door even slams outside, I can feel it. It comes under my skin in a low, crawling wave of anger and rage. At first, I thought it was me. Maybe I’ve still got some leftover tension from what that rogue said. But then it gets closer, stronger, moving toward the house in hard, quick bursts that don’t belong to me at all. What the hell is that? Both Charlotte and Charlie flinched at the burst of noise, but somehow I already knew it was coming. My jaw tightens as this feeling of anger rushes hotter, closer now. I can feel every heavy step that comes up the path to the house before the fists even hit the front door. ***Bang. Bang. Bang.*** The whole frame rattles under it, and then a voice tears through the house.

“Theo! I know you’re in there, you prick! Get outside and face me!”

Every head in the room turns to Theo, who is standing there at the table with half a piece of toast in one hand, smiling in that awkward little way he does when he knows full well he’s about to cop it. Dad folds his arms and looks at him over the kitchen island.

“What did you do?”

Theo lifts one shoulder. “I didn’t do anything. I don’t think.”

The pounding starts again. “Theo!”

Theo sighs. “I mean… It’s not my fault his girlfriend ended up in my bed last night.”

There is a beat of dead silence before Dad grumbles, dragging one hand down his face. “Jesus Christ, Theo. You’ve got to stop doing this. Or at least stop bringing it to my house.”

Charlotte makes the smallest sound beside me, halfway between a laugh and a choke. Charlie outright barks one, and Mum closes her eyes like she’s asking the universe for patience. The anger outside spikes so sharply that I feel it in my chest like a shove. It is not normal. That’s the first thing that becomes clear to me. This isn’t me guessing. It isn’t instinct. I’m not hearing the footsteps or the shouting and piecing the rest together. I can feel him. The rage. The humiliation. The hot, violent pulse of it as he stands on our front step, trying not to explode. Lex rises under my skin with his ears pinned back. *Angry.*

“Yeah,” I mutter.

Dad’s head turns. “What?”

“Huh? Oh. Nothing.”

The pounding on the door comes again. Theo groans and sets his toast down. “Right. Fine. I’ll go sort it.”

The anger outside crawls in under my skin, and this time, there’s something uglier in it. A split-second surge that makes my shoulders lock.

“He’s going to swing at you,” I say.

Theo looks over at me halfway through opening the front door. “What?”

His head is turned toward me, so he doesn’t see the fist before it slams into his jaw. The sound of it cracks through the doorway, but Theo’s head barely moves. The anger inside him, though, bursts through me so hard it nearly knocks me off balance. It hits sharp and hot and immediate, nothing like the idiot outside on the porch. This is Theo’s temper. His instinct. The violent, split-second urge to use his wolf’s strength and put this poor human through the damn garden bed. What the fuck? I shouldn’t be able to feel his anger. That’s Yelen’s job.

I’m moving before the thought even finishes. I cross the room in what feels like two seconds flat, catching Theo by the chest just as his fists tighten and his shoulders square. He’s already halfway gone, right on that sharp edge where one bad second becomes a bloodbath.

“Theo,” I snap, shoving him back a step. He jerks against me, eyes blazing as he tries to look around me at the bloke on the porch. 

“Get the fuck off me.”

“No.”

The guy outside is breathing hard now, chest pumping, his face red and twisted with that stupid human anger that always thinks it’s bigger than it is. Thank fuck Dad steps right in front of him, because Theo is vibrating with the need for blood, and I can still feel every bit of it. It crawls over my skin like it’s my own, and for one insane second, I have to fight the urge to swing too.

“Enough.” Dad’s voice cracks like thunder. I see the guy flinches at the sound of it, but Theo laughs like a maniac. “You’d better get him out of my face.” 

I keep a hand braced against his chest, holding him there, as I see a dangerous look in his eyes.

“Breathe,” I mutter.

He glares at me. “Don’t start.”

“He’s not worth it.”

I look back then to the bloke outside who’s rubbing at his knuckles now like he’s only just realised what he hit. “You all think you’re real tough, yeah?”

Dad speaks before Theo can answer, his body blocking the doorway completely now. “You’ve had your shot. Go home.”

I can’t see the guy now, but he must think better of it, because I get this strange feeling of his anger curdling into embarrassment. Christ. This is so bloody weird. When Dad finally shuts the door, I loosen my hold on The. He shrugs my hand off his chest completely and rubs his jaw, more annoyed than hurt. “Well. That was unnecessary.”

I stare at him. Then at the door. Then back at him again. I can feel that Theo is still angry, the heat of it echoing through me in waves. Under that, I can feel the humiliation too, buried deeper, sitting ugly and sore where he’d never usually let anyone see it.

Theo catches my expression and narrows his eyes. “Why are you looking at me like that?”

I don’t answer straight away, because I still don’t know how the hell I just felt all of that.

Charlotte steps in close, her hand coming to rest flat against my chest. The second she touches me, I feel a rush of peace. The anger hasn’t left me, but at least I have something else to focus on.

“Blake?” she murmurs softly. “Are you okay?”

I let out a slow breath, my hand covering hers.

“I… don’t know.”