Where The Ice Gives Way Chapter 75

**Charlotte**

Sunday morning settles over the house in a way that feels almost normal. Not my normal, but someone’s normal. The kitchen is full before I even make it downstairs. Mara is at the stove with her hair twisted up, moving between pans and plates while Theo leans against the counter, stealing bits of bacon. Charlie is already at the table, half awake with a mug in his hands and his curls still a mess from sleep. Blake sits across from him with one arm hooked over the back of his chair, and Gareth and John are at the far end of the table talking quietly over coffee. For one strange second, with the smell of toast and eggs and coffee in the air and everyone moving around each other like this is ordinary, it almost feels like I’ve stepped into someone else’s life. A warmer one. One that is safe. Mara points at the seat beside Charlie the moment she sees me. “Sit. Eat.” I do, because I’ve learned quickly that arguing with Mara about anything is pointless.

She drops a plate in front of me a second later, then one in front of Blake, and turns back to the stove before Theo can swipe anything else. The room hums around me, low voices and clinking cutlery and the soft scrape of chairs over the timber floor. Is it possible that every morning could be like this? John sets his mug down, and his eyes move to me, then Charlie. “We’d like to get your wolves out training today.” Charlie glances up from his plate. “Today?” Gareth nods once from beside him. “It’ll be good for both of you.” I still for a second with my fork halfway to my mouth as John folds his arms over his chest. “Basic control first. Getting them out. Getting them to listen. Learning where your limits are before something pushes you into finding out the hard way.” Beside me, Charlie straitens in his chair. “And if our wolves don’t want to play nice?” Theo huffs a laugh into his coffee. John doesn’t smile. “They’ll play nice if I tell them to.” Blake glances sideways around Charlie at me. “You okay with that?” I look at him, then at Gareth and John, then back down at the food on my plate. I don’t know if I’m okay with any of this. I do know that I’m tired of feeling like things are happening to me while I stand there trying to catch up. So I nod. “Yeah,” I say quietly. “I think so.” Charlie looks at me for a second, grinning. “We can finally show everyone who’s faster.” I roll my eyes and laugh while digging my elbow into his ribs. “Yeah, me.” 

Then a loud series of banging echoes through the house, and everyone freezes. It’s hard enough to rattle through the front hallway and shake something low in my chest. Mara wipes her hands on a tea towel and starts toward the doorway. “I’ll get it.” Gareth’s hand catches her shoulder before she can pass. “I will.” His voice lowers, and the air around him seems a little harder to breathe in. I see Blake straighten in his chair, and Theo pushes off the counter. John is already half rising from his chair before Gareth is even fully on his feet. The knocking comes again. Gareth crosses the house in long, even strides, and the sound of the front door unlocking carries through the silence. I hear the voice before I see the face, and my heart drops so hard it feels like I’ve missed a step. “Are my children here?” Shit. My father. Every thought in my head stops at once. Charlie looks at me. I look at him. He pushes back from the table and stands first. “That would depend,” Gareth says from the front hall, his voice carrying through the house. “Who are your children?” I am already on my feet before I realise I’ve moved, following Charlie into the hall. Blake and Theo are behind us a second later. I don’t have to look to know it. I can feel them there. Gareth is standing in the doorway like a wall, and behind him is my father.

His coat is buttoned wrong at the collar, as if he dressed in a hurry, but his eyes are clear. He smells like winter air and old anger and the houses I spent years trying to tiptoe through without making noise. His gaze catches on Charlie first, then me. He looks around Gareth like he expects him to stop existing if he ignores him hard enough. “Do you know how many people I had to ask to find out where you two were?” he says. Charlie’s shoulders pull back. “Sorry, Dad,” he says, but there’s no real apology in it. “We were just hanging out with our friends here.” He nods to where Blake and Theo have stopped at either side of me. My father’s eyes move over all of us, taking in the room, the house, the men standing in it. Then his nose wrinkles. “Your wolf friends,” he says.

Everything stops—the silence after is sharp enough to cut. I feel Blake go still on one side of me—Theo on the other. Somewhere behind us, I hear Mara’s shoes stop on the floor. John says nothing, but the quiet pressure of him fills the space. Gareth grunts once and finally shifts back a step from the door. “Seems we should be having a conversation then.” My father steps over the threshold. He doesn’t hesitate. Doesn’t look the slightest bit uneasy. He walks into the Alpha’s house, glances once around the hallway, and says with quiet disgust, “I guess we should, Alpha.” The title rolls out of his mouth with a hint of disgust. Gareth’s face doesn’t change, but every wolf in this house feels it. Standing there with my father in front of me, sober enough to be careful and angry enough not to care, I know this conversation is going to change everything.