Where The Ice Gives Way Chapter 78

**Charlotte**

I fold into Blake without thinking. My face presses into his chest. My fingers knot in the back of his shirt. The fabric is warm under my hands, and so is he. Blake’s arms tighten around me when my breathing starts to turn choppy from crying. “Lotty.” I shake my head against him. I don’t even know what I am shaking it for. I just know that the ground under my feet doesn’t feel solid right now. I can feel tears sliding down my face, and I hate that I’m crying. I hate that my father got that from me, too. Blake pulls back just enough to look at me. His hand comes up to my face, thumb brushing under one eye and catching the tear there before it falls further. “No,” he says. I look at him through blurred lashes. His jaw is set, and his eyes are fixed on mine. “Charlotte,” he says, quieter now, but no less sure. “You are not cursed.” My mouth trembles before I can stop it. “That’s what he thinks.”

“That’s because he’s terrified.” I feel like my father just reached into the middle of me, found the oldest bruise and decided to punch it just for fun. My voice comes out smaller than I want it to when I finally find it in me to ask. “Do you think my Mum was cursed?” His hand doesn’t leave my face as he pulls my chin to look back at him. His thumb rests there, warm against my skin, while he searches my eyes. “No,” he says at last.

“But he said she was hunted because of what she was, just like I am now.” Blake’s eyes soften as he gives me a small smile. “Hunted doesn’t mean cursed. It means you’re special, and some people can’t handle special.”

Shanti, who has been pacing hot and offended beneath my skin, stills. Then her voice slides through me, calm and clear. What he fears and what you are have never been the same thing. Behind us, something thuds loudly in the sitting room, and voices rise before they drop again. I pull away from Blake just enough to stand properly on my own again, though his hand stays at my waist. “I don’t want him here,” I whisper.

“I know.”

“I don’t want him looking at me like that.”

“He won’t get to do it for much longer. The pack, my parents, we won’t allow it.” Before I can answer, footsteps hit the hallway fast. Charlie appears around the corner, chest rising hard, face tight with anger. He takes one look at me, and I can see the way he breaks a little at my pain. “Lotty.” I straighten fully this time and wipe quickly under my eyes. It does nothing, but I do it anyway. “I’m fine.” Charlie doesn’t buy it, and honestly, I don’t even know why I tried. He opens his arms as he steps in close, and I feel Blake’s hand leave my waist just as my brother pulls me into his arms. “He’s leaving,” Charlie whispers as he rubs my back. “Gareth told him he wasn’t allowed to stay here and upset you, and then John asked him a bunch of questions in a row so fast he barely got the chance to breathe.” Charlie lets out a weak laugh as he holds me a little tighter. “Turns out hunters hate being questioned by the people they think are monsters.”

A weak huff leaves me as I let my tears soak into his shirt. “He told them the hunter network has been hearing about a white wolf for the last month,” he says. “There’s been rumours and sightings. He says rogues are being drawn in from all directions.” I hear Lex’s low growl through Blake, and Charlie pats my back before turning me back around. He gives me a nudge forward, and Blake doesn’t hesitate to tuck me back into his chest. Charlie stands at the side of us, pushing my hair behind my ear and looking right into my eyes. “He’s wrong, Lotty. I need you to know that, okay? What he said about you and Mum is bullshit. He’s just a weak, old man who couldn’t protect you both well enough.” My throat tightens, and the tears threaten to fall again. Charlie’s hand lands on my back, and he smiles at me. “Mum wasn’t cursed,” he says. “And neither are you. So you can go ahead and get those silly thoughts out of your head.” My eyes sting again, and my chest aches because Charlie sounds so sure, and I need him to be right more than I know how to say out loud. All I can manage to do is nod once because my voice is no use to me now.

From inside the sitting room, Gareth’s voice carries through the house. “Charlotte. Charlie. Come back in, please.” No one moves straight away, and I’m thankful for it. The hallway feels like the only safe place left in the world. Blake looks down at me. “You don’t have to.” I know he would let me walk upstairs and shut the door and stay there if that’s what I asked for. But as Shanti lifts her head in me, silently standing with me, I feel something else. Under all the pain, I feel this urge to prove my father wrong. I look from Blake to Charlie, then toward the room. I pull back from both of their hands, and I wipe my face one more time. I lift my chin and swallow the piece of me that wants to hide. “No,” I say with all certainty. “I’m done running.” Charlie’s mouth curves, fierce and proud all at once and Blake’s hand slides into mine as he smiles down at me, checking my face for any sign that I might not be ready. Then the three of us turn and head back toward the room together. I’m done feeling small.