Where The Ice Gives Way Chapter 133

**Blake**

I hit the ice hard and fast, claws scraping for grip as we slide, the momentum carrying us forward across the frozen surface while every part of me locks onto the bastard coming at my girl. Fuck. If I had gotten here one second later, I don’t want to think about what could have happened. The rogue lunging for Charlotte never reaches her. Lex slams into it from the side with everything we have, the impact driving both our bodies sideways as claws tear uselessly at the ice beneath us. My teeth find its throat before it can recover, and I bite down hard, snarling through the hot rush of blood as I rip and shake until the fight leaves its body. It drops beneath me, and I’m already looking for her.

Charlotte is still upright, white fur bright against the ice, Shanti’s head low and lips pulled back as she keeps herself pressed against Charlie’s side. Titan, big and black and furious, already has his jaws closing around another rogue. He throws it aside and slides half a metre from the force of his own movement before digging his claws in again.

I move straight for Charlotte, putting myself at her front while Titan stays at her back, and the three of us form a tight circle in the centre of the lake as the rogues spill from the trees and drag themselves onto the ice. They are everywhere.

Some stumble as their paws hit the frozen surface. Some slide onto their sides and scramble back up with their jaws snapping at empty air. Others lower themselves closer to the ice, spreading their weight, crawling forward with ugly determination. While the ones behind them pace the bank, whining and snarling as they look for a way in. Lex snarls so hard it vibrates through my ribs. Titan presses in from the other side, keeping her between us.

*I’ve got you,* I push toward her.

*I know,* she sends back, breathless but there.

The next rogue comes low, claws scraping thin white lines across the lake as it drags itself toward us. I move to meet it, but the ice fights every step, stealing power from my legs, turning every lunge into a slide. I hit it on the shoulder, my jaws snapping near its face, and it skids backward, yelping, before another one crashes into me from the side. Lex twists, hooks his teeth into its shoulder, and uses the momentum to drag it down with us. We slide together, tangled and snarling, my paws trying to find purchase while its claws rake through my side. I shove up hard and get my jaws around the side of its neck, biting deep enough to end the struggle before kicking free. I barely have time to turn before another darts past me, too close to Charlotte.

Shanti darts forward, lighter than any of us on the ice, her body low and quick as she snaps at the rogue’s face and forces it back. The rogue recoils, and Titan hits it from the other side, driving it down so hard the ice groans beneath them. The sound rolls under my paws. I look up as one of our patrol bursts from the trees on the far side, sliding hard as soon as his paws hit the lake. He corrects clumsily, throws himself into the closest rogue, and both of them crash down in a tangle of fur and teeth. Another patrol wolf follows, using the bank for speed before launching onto the ice and catching a rogue that was coming toward Titan’s flank. They help, but not nearly enough.

The lake is still filling with bodies, and the rogues are throwing themselves at us in waves, slipping, falling, scrambling closer, letting their own get trampled if it means another one gains a little ground. One charges straight at Charlotte, its legs sliding wide as it comes, but its mouth is open, and its eyes are locked on her throat. I throw myself across its path, and we collide chest to chest, the impact punching the air from my lungs as we skid backward together. It snaps at my face, and I jerk aside, feel teeth graze my muzzle, then drive my head under its jaw and shove it back. Titan lunges over my shoulder and catches its front leg, dragging it down while I finish it at the neck.

Charlotte howls. The sound tearing across the lake, and everything changes. The rogues closest to her freeze mid-step, bodies trembling, ears flattening, their snarls breaking into whines as the sound works them. It gives us a bit of room, and I use it. Lex surges forward, forcing the nearest line back while they hesitate. The patrol wolves strike from the edges, dragging two rogues away. Titan keeps close to Charlotte, his body braced against hers, his eyes never leaving the ones that push through the howl. Some of them twitch under the sound, but their eyes stay fixed, and the clearer Shanti’s howl becomes, the more desperate they get to reach her.

One slams into Titan so hard he slides away from Charlotte’s side, and I turn, but two more hit me at once, dragging me off line. My claws scrape, my body sliding, every muscle straining as Lex fights to stay between them and her. I rip one away and shove into the other, but the gap is there. She drops her howl and snaps toward the rogue coming through, but it’s bigger than her. Titan scrambles back toward her, and I throw myself across the ice, but the rogue reaches her first. Shanti twists at the last second, and its teeth catch her shoulder instead of her throat. Her yelp cuts through me, and Lex loses every piece of control I had left.

I hit the rogue like a truck, taking it off her, sending it spinning across the ice until it crashes into another body. I’m on it before it stops moving, jaws locked, vision narrowed to the thing that put teeth on my mate. By the time I lift my head, blood is dripping from my mouth, and the bond between us burns hot enough to hurt. I move back to her side, pressing my body against hers. 

More rogues push forward, their paws hitting the ice in a messy rush, bodies sliding into each other as they scramble toward the centre. The ones at the back start driving the others forward, biting at them, forcing them closer, using their own as weight and momentum. They are fixed on Charlotte, hungry and desperate. 

Something in me cracks wide open. I throw my head back and howl. It rips out of me, raw and furious, carrying everything I have into the frozen air. I howl for my father. For the pack. For every wolf close enough to hear me. *Come now. Help us. Stop.* The last word rolls through the sound with all the force Lex and I can give it, a command buried deep in the howl, aimed at the rogues crawling across the ice. *Stop.*