Where The Ice Gives Way Chapter 135

**Blake**

We hit the bank in a rush of snarls, blood, and sliding paws. I throw my weight forward, shoulder slamming into the rogue blocking our way. Titan comes in from the side and drives it down into the snow. Shanti slips between us, white fur streaked red at the shoulder, her paws finally finding solid ground as she scrambles off the ice. Relief cuts through me, but then I look up. The woods are full of wolves. Pack and rogue collide across the snowbank, bodies crashing between the trees, teeth flashing, paws tearing through snow and frozen dirt. More rogues spill from the dark, pushing through gaps, climbing over fallen bodies, throwing themselves at every wolf trying to hold them back.

Dad is there. I see him on the far side, massive and grey, driving into the line with a snarl that shakes the air. He takes one rogue by the shoulder and throws it into another, already moving for the next. Around him, our pack fights hard. But there are too many. I have never seen this many rogues in one place. They come from every direction. It feels like every lost wolf in the world has found us today. 

A rogue lunges for Shanti from the left, and I slam into it before it gets close. My teeth close around its neck, and Lex rips it away, but another comes behind it, and another behind that. Titan snarls beside me, blocking one with his body as Shanti ducks under another’s jaws and snaps at its front leg. She is tired. I can see it in the way her steps drag, and in the tremble that runs through her shoulders every time she turns.

*Charlie, hold her left.*

*I’ve got it,* he sends back, strained but steady.

Yelen barrels in from the trees before I can answer, all dark fur and reckless force. He hits a rogue, and they both tumble through the snow. *I made it,* Theo throws through the link, breathless. Then a scream cuts through the bank as one of ours goes down under three bodies. The sound kills whatever was left of it. We’re losing, even with Dad here, and our pack tearing into the lines as fast as they can. There are still too many. Every rogue that falls leaves space for two more to push in. Every breath costs blood. Every step we take forward, they force us back toward the lake. Lex’s voice rips through my mind. *Howl.*

I bare my teeth, shoving into another rogue, forcing it back with my shoulder. I glance at Shanti. Blood is dripping down her leg now, her chest heaving, her eyes locked on the rogues fighting to reach her. If I can stop them long enough, maybe she can reach what’s left inside them. Then a rogue crashes into Titan and sends him sliding sideways through the snow. Shanti turns toward him, and three more shift with her, all of them drawn by that single movement. *Charlie. Theo.*

*What?* Charlie snaps.

*Hold them off long enough.*

Charlie answers, low and fierce, understanding what I need. *Do it.*

Theo’s voice comes through right after. *Freeze these fuckers already.*

Titan drives himself back between Shanti and the nearest rogue. Yelen hits the line beside him. Two patrol wolves close in from the other side. They form a rough wall, bleeding and snapping, giving us a pocket of space that won’t last long. I move to Shanti, and she turns her head toward me. Her eyes hold mine, and the bond between us pulls so hard it feels like a hand around my ribs. *Together,* I send.

She steps closer, shoulder brushing mine. *Together.*

I plant my paws in the snow and lift my head. Lex rises through me, but standing with me, pouring everything he is into the sound building inside my chest. I think of Dad, Mum, the pack, my brothers holding the line and my girl on the ice. I think of her sacrifice to keep the humans safe—no more. The howl tears out of me. It rolls over the bank, deep and commanding, shaking through the trees and across the lake. The meaning inside it is simple, brutal, and absolute. Stop. The world locks, and for one impossible second, everybody stills.

Rogues freeze mid-lunge, teeth bared, paws braced in snow or sliding across ice. Pack wolves stop with them, caught in the command as it slams through the fight and pins everything in place. Then Shanti howls beside me. Her sound rises through mine, bright and raw, slipping past the command and into the broken silence underneath. Where mine holds them still, hers reaches. I feel it move through the bond, feel the strain of it, the aching pull as she calls into every ruined wolf around us. Come back.

They collapse in waves, shaking, fur rippling as the human beneath it fights its way forward. They stagger, eyes clearing before they go down with sobbing whines. All around us, rogues tremble. Some fall. Some shift halfway. Some claw at the ground as if trying to crawl out of their own skin. It’s working. Fuck, it’s working. Shanti pushes harder, and I keep howling, holding the command as long as I can, feeling it tear through my throat and chest. But not all of them stop.

A few at the far edge of the ice twitch under the weight of my command, fighting it with bodies too far gone to obey. Their eyes stay fixed on Shanti. Their paws scrape against the frozen surface. No. I try to break away, but the howl has me rooted. If I stop, the command drops. If I move, we lose the only thing holding hundreds back. Titan sees them, and Charlie lunges. Theo and Yelen move too, but they aren’t fast enough.

The feral rogues barrel across the ice, slipping and crashing into each other, using their own momentum to keep going. Shanti is still howling beside me, eyes squeezed shut now, every part of her reaching into the broken wolves around us. She doesn’t see them. *Charlotte!* Her eyes snap open too late. The first rogue hits her shoulder and drives her backward onto the ice—the second crashes into her side. The third slams into both of them, and all of them skid together across the frozen surface. My howl breaks. *Charlotte!* The command shatters with it.

Around us, rogues drop to the ground, some human, some wolf, some caught between, but I can’t look at them. I can’t look at anything but Shanti scrambling under the weight of the feral bodies as they shove her farther out over the lake. The ice groans a deep sound, and I run. Lex throws us forward, paws tearing through snow. Titan is beside me, Yelen behind us, and Dad’s roar tears through the trees, but all I see is white fur, red blood, and cracks spreading beneath her. The ice shudders, and Shanti looks at me. For half a breath, her eyes are Charlotte’s. Then the lake breaks open beneath her. The ice gives way. And she is gone.