Where The Ice Gives Way Chapter 50

**Charlotte**

The question sits in the air between us. Preference feels like a luxury, and luxuries have never been part of my life, but Mara is watching me patiently, like she’ll wait all day if she has to, like my silence doesn’t annoy her. Blake’s hand is still wrapped around mine. He’s just there, steady, a quiet weight that keeps me from floating off into panic. I swallow and force the words out. “Is it okay if I have my own room?” The second I say it, embarrassment hits, because it sounds ungrateful, like I’m rejecting something he offered me, even though he never actually offered it out loud, and my gaze flicks to Blake automatically. He doesn’t look offended. He doesn’t even look surprised. If anything, he looks like he understands. Mara’s smile softens immediately. “Of course,” she says, like it’s the simplest thing in the world. “Love, you don’t have to ask permission to have space.” Mara motions toward a door on the side of the room that I didn’t even notice earlier, half hidden next to a bookshelf. “There’s a room that connects to the bathroom,” she says gently. “It’s yours if you want it.” I blink, stunned at the offer. “Mine?” Mara nods. “For as long as you need.” Shanti stirs faintly in the back of my mind, warm and watchful. Safe, she whispers.

Mara’s gaze shifts to my bandaged leg. “It’ll also help your healing,” she adds. “Your wolf heals best when she feels secure, and being close to Blake will help too,” she says, like she can read my thoughts, “the mate bond settles your nervous system, and that helps your body do what it’s meant to do.” I feel my face heat again. I hate how easily I blush around him. My body is betraying me. Mara reaches for the tray, shifting it carefully into my lap. “Eat a little,” she says. “Then we’ll move you when you’re ready.” I pick at the toast because I don’t know what else to do with my hands, and refusing feels rude, and because my stomach is already betraying me by wanting it. The warmth spreads through me in slow waves, and it makes my eyes sting for reasons that have nothing to do with food.

A few minutes pass like that, quiet and strange, the three of us sharing the space without forcing conversation, until footsteps sound in the hallway before Charlie steps in. His cheeks are red from the cold. His hair is damp at the edges where the snow melted into it. His eyes are sharp and tired and full of too many thoughts at once, but the second he sees me, he exhales like he’s been holding his breath since he left. “Hey,” he says, voice low. “Hey,” I reply. He crosses the room and stops at the foot of the bed, gaze scanning me the way he always does. “You okay?” he asks. I nod. “Yeah.” Charlie’s shoulders drop a fraction, then his eyes flick to Mara. “Thanks,” he says, rough around the edges. Mara gives him a small smile. “You’re welcome.” Charlie glances at Blake next, and there’s less heat in it than there was earlier, less of that instinctive bristle. “Was he… okay?” I ask carefully. Charlie drags a hand through his hair and exhales. “It was weird.” My stomach drops. “Weird how.” He hesitates, and I can see him trying to decide how much to tell me, how much to protect me from, and I hate that he does that because it makes me feel like I’m a glass thing. “He was still sober,” Charlie says finally. “He opened the door and he… he smiled. He asked where we’d been.” My throat tightens. “What did you say?” Charlie exhales again, running a hand through his curls. “I said we’re staying at a mate’s place for a couple of nights.” Charlie keeps going, voice low. “Dad looked at me for a second like he was trying to decide if he should be mad. Then he just… nodded. He said, “ Alright, “ and he asked if you were okay.” My breath catches. “He asked about me?” Charlie nods, eyes dark. “Yeah.”

“What did you say?” I whisper. Charlie’s jaw flexes. “I said you weren’t feeling great. That you were resting.”

“And?” I ask. Charlie’s gaze drops to my bandaged leg, then back to my face. “And then he did that thing,” he says quietly. My stomach sinks because I know what he means. The switch. The moment where the warmth turns and you realise you were stupid for hoping. Charlie’s voice tightens. “He asked how much money you’d made. How often you’d been working and asked if you’d left any cash in the kitchen drawer.” Charlie swallows hard. “Theo stepped in,” he says, and his eyes flick to Blake. “He said you’d been sick, so no, and he joked about us being teenagers and not exactly rolling in it.” My face heats with humiliation even though I wasn’t there. Charlie continues, “Dad stared at him… He obviously didn’t like Theo being there. Then he said… fine and told me to lock up when I left.” My throat tightens. “Did he… yell?” Charlie shakes his head slowly. “Not today.” Relief and dread twist together in my chest because the sentence feels like a borrowed moment.

Charlie looks at me, and his voice softens. “He was… quiet,” he admits. “He didn’t fight it. He didn’t come after us.” I swallow hard. “So it was… okay.” Charlie’s mouth twitches without humour. “As okay as it gets.” Shanti stirs again, that quiet warning sense under her calm. Not safe, she whispers, and this time I understand she doesn’t mean right now, she means the uncertainty. The way Dad can be two people, and you never know which one is waiting when you open a door. Charlie shifts his weight. “So what’s the plan?” he asks, trying to sound practical. “You staying in here or…” Mara answers for me gently. “Charlotte asked for her own room. It’s right there,” she says, nodding to the side door. “Connected to the bathroom. Close enough for healing, far enough for space.” Charlie’s shoulders ease like he was actually worried I’d be sharing a bed with Blake. Charlie’s eyes flick to my tray. “Did you eat?” I nod. “A little.” He exhales like that’s another weight off his shoulders.

Then he looks between Mara and Gareth in the doorway behind him, like he’s remembering where we are, what we’ve stepped into, and how much we still don’t understand. “Thank you for having us”, Charlie says quietly. “It’s nice to feel… safe.”