Where The Ice Gives Way Chapter 42

Blake

I mind-link the pack before I even sit down for breakfast. Pack sticks together, and we have these moments where we show up for each other without needing a reason. Right now, Charlotte and Charlie need to see what it looks like when a community closes ranks around you instead of watching you drown. *Breakfast at Nanna’s,* I send out. *If you’ve got free time this morning, come through.* The responses ripple back almost instantly.

*On my way.*

*Be there in five.*

*Got time.*

*Bringing Joey, he owes me coffee.*

*Already nearby.*

No explanation needed. That’s the thing about pack. We don’t always ask why. We show up. By the time Sophie drops plates on our table, the diner is filling up quickly, and I watch Charlotte behind the counter moving like she was born for it. She slides between tables, coffee pot in hand, apron tied tight, hair back, green eyes focused. Every time she looks up and meets someone’s gaze, she’s polite but guarded, like she’s braced for people to be cruel. They aren’t. The pack makes sure of that. One by one, they file in, pretending to be normal customers, taking booths and tables, ordering breakfast and coffee, laughing like this is just a busy morning in a small town, but every single one of them does the same thing. They look at Charlie and Charlotte, and they welcome them. Not with anything dramatic, but with small, human things. A smile and a nod, a “morning,” a hand lifted in greeting and extra tips left under plates. Charlie looks confused at first, then a little stunned, then pleased in that way he tries to hide. Charlotte keeps working, and she tries to look like she isn’t noticing, but I can see it in the tightness around her eyes easing slowly, and it makes me happy.

The boys are talking about the game this weekend, chirping each other, arguing over lines and who’s got the better shot, and for a while, I let myself be distracted by it. It feels good to sit in warmth with my people and listen to Charlie laugh. It feels good to watch Charlotte move through a room without flinching at every sound. I don’t notice her leave. It’s a tiny thing, the way my eyes lift automatically after a few minutes to find her, to make sure she’s still there, to track her in the way my body does without permission. When I don’t see her behind the counter, my stomach drops. I scan the room, but I can’t find her, and the bond pulls hard… Lex lifts his head inside me, hackles rising.

Then, a deadly scream rips through the diner and makes every conversation die on the spot. Chairs scrape. Cups rattle. Forks clatter against plates. Every wolf in the room goes still for one heartbeat, and then the pack snaps to attention like a single organism. I’m on my feet before the echo fades. I mind-link one of our elders instantly, the one sitting closest to the counter, the one humans think is just a quiet regular who likes his coffee black. *Keep the humans inside,* I send, voice tight. *Lock it down.* He puts his coffee down and stands. *Done. Go.* I’m already moving. Pack members spill toward the back like a wave, fast and silent. Sophie is shouting something behind us that I don’t hear because the bond is pulling like a hook in my chest. The back door bursts open, and cold air hits my face. Snow. Alley. Dumpster… And Charlotte on the ground.

 For half a second, my brain refuses to accept it, because it doesn’t fit with the warm diner, the laughter and the way she looked almost safe five minutes ago. Then I see the blood. Red is spreading through white snow. One rogue has its teeth clamped around her ankle, tugging and shaking like it’s trying to break the bone. Two more circles close with their lips peeled back. Charlotte is yanking, kicking, clawing at the snow, trying to tear free, breath coming out in sharp white bursts as she fights. It happens so quickly, I don’t even make it to her in time. Her body jerks, her spine arches, and she shifts. Right there in the bloodied snow, in the alley behind a diner, in front of half the pack, like her wolf can’t be contained anymore…White fur erupts through her skin. Breathtaking, clean white that catches the moonlight memory even in daylight. It makes the alley look darker by comparison, which makes every rogue freeze for one stunned heartbeat. She’s smaller than Lex, but she doesn’t look weak. She looks like winter itself. Her eyes lift, her chest expands, and she howls.

The sound is nothing like a normal wolf howl. It isn’t just noise. It is power. It hits my bones. It hits the air. It hits the rogues like a hammer. My mother used to read me stories about it when I was a kid, legends about white wolves and the call that could drag a feral mind back to itself, and I always thought it was pack mythology meant to make children behave… But this is real. This is the howl from those stories. The pack around me goes still, every wolf instinctively stopping like the sound has grabbed hold of our souls with a gentle embrace, and the rogues… the rogues don’t just stop. They break. One by one, they step back. Their snarls die in their throats, and their ears flatten. Their bodies lower, and they submit to her. To the howl. I watch in stunned awe as their eyes change, the madness flickering, the feral hunger dimming as something human forces its way back to the front. The rogues shift unwillingly. Bones crack. Fur melts away. Bodies hit the snow. In their place, dazed and panting humans lie in the alley, blinking like they’ve woken up from a nightmare they can’t remember choosing. All because of her. My chest tightens with a sick, clear understanding. This is why they want her.

This is why they’re sniffing around our territory and stepping into schools, diners, and rinks, places they would never dare get close to before. Because if she can pull them back, she can ruin an army. Charlotte shakes her white fur, blood flecking the snow. She looks around wildly, ears pinned back, breath fast, fear sharp in her posture now that the danger has shifted shape. She takes one step back… Then another. Then she turns and runs. Straight into the trees as her instincts take her away from this. I don’t second-guess it. I shift, and Lex surges forward like he’s been waiting his whole life for this moment. *Go. Protect. Find.* I chase her into the snow, lungs burning, paws pounding, the bond screaming through my chest like a beacon, because my mate is terrified and bleeding. She has just shown the world she is something legendary, and the world has just proven it will hunt her for it. I am not letting her disappear. She will not face this alone.