Where The Ice Gives Way Chapter 79

**Charlotte**

When Blake, Charlie and I walk back into the sitting room, my father is gone. Gareth stands near the fireplace with one hand braced against the mantle. John is positioned near the doorway. Theo leans off to the side with his arms folded, watching quietly, and Mara is the first to move the second she sees me. She crosses the room quickly and pulls me into a hug before I can prepare for it, my hands coming up automatically to grip the back of her shirt as my face presses into her shoulder. I let myself lean into it, just for a moment. “Oh, sweetheart,” she murmurs, one hand sliding up to cradle the back of my head. I close my eyes, breathe in, then pull back before I sink into it too much. If I stay there any longer, I might not want to step away again. Mara keeps her hands on my arms, looking over my face carefully, and I give her a small nod before Gareth steps forward. “Charlotte,” he says, his voice calm and even, “we need to know what you want to do.” Gareth holds my gaze and doesn’t rush me, doesn’t soften the question or fill the space around it with anything unnecessary. “It is your choice,” he continues. “If you want to leave with your father, we won’t stop you.” Blake’s wolf reacts before he does. I hear it in the low growl and feel the tension in him rise and press outward. A small part of me almost smiles at how immediate that reaction is. I shake my head. “No. I don’t want to go back to a man who kept secrets from me,” I say, my voice steady even though my chest still feels tight, “and sees me as something wrong.” Gareth steps closer and gives my shoulder a brief squeeze. “I’m proud of you for making that choice,” he says, and there’s no hesitation in it, no careful phrasing, just the simple truth of it landing exactly where it should. His hand drops, and his focus shifts, the room moving with him as he steps back into what comes next.

“With everything your father told us,” he says, “we now know your wolf is no longer a secret. That means we expect attention,” he continues, “and not the kind we want.” John steps forward then, folding his arms across his chest as he looks at me with assessment rather than concern. “It means you need training,” he says plainly. “Your body, your wolf, your power. All of it. We will need to perfect your skills to give you the best fighting chance.” Mara’s hand comes to my arm again, softly running up and down the length. “If you need time before that,” she says gently, “we can give you time.” For a second, I think about taking it, but then my father’s voice cuts through my head again. It hits the same place it did before, and it makes something in me push back. I straighten my shoulders. “Let’s do it now.”

“You’ll be unstoppable when we’re done with you,” John says, and there’s a certainty in it that makes me smile.

Gareth is already turning toward the back of the house. “Outside,” he says, and the room moves with him. I glance at Blake, and he’s already looking at me. There’s a smile there,  sitting just at the corner of his mouth. “You ready?” he asks quietly. “Yeah.” We follow the others out through the back door, the cold air hitting my face the second I step outside.  Gareth doesn’t stop until we reach the far end of the yard, where the trees begin to thicken. He turns to face us, his eyes moving over both Charlie and me. “Shift,” he says. My body reacts before my mind catches up. I draw in a breath, the command settling into me, but Blake’s hand brushes mine for the briefest second. He guides me with a tilt of his head toward the trees. “Come on,” he says under his breath. I follow him automatically, weaving between trunks until we’re just far enough from the others that I can’t see them clearly anymore. He stops beside one of the larger trees and turns his back to me without hesitation, one hand coming up to scrub over the back of his neck. “Go on,” he mutters. “Now shift.” The simple fact that he doesn’t look, that he gives it to me without making it a thing, makes me smile. I let out a breath, close my eyes, and let go.

The shift moves through me faster than I expect, not fighting me this time, not dragging, just unfolding. My bones stretch and settle, my skin pulls and reshapes, and the cold air doesn’t bite so hard under my fur. Every sound around me sharpens until I can hear the movement of snow under boots from across the yard, the quiet exhale of breath, the shift of fabric. Shanti rises fully, and I let her take control. She steps forward and nudges the back of Blake’s knee. He turns immediately and crouches slightly, one hand coming out without hesitation to run through my fur, slow and warm. “Hey, pretty girl,” he says, his voice dropping into something softer, something meant just for us. “Missed you too.” Shanti presses closer, dragging the length of her body against his leg, and the sound that leaves Blake is half laugh, half breath, warm enough that it runs straight through me. His hand follows her shoulder as she slips past him, fingers sinking once more into the thick white fur before she circles him neatly, tail brushing the snow. She pauses a few feet away and looks back over her shoulder, ears flicking once. *Come on then,* she speaks into his mind, before she turns and bolts through the trees.

The yard opens up fast, and Charlie is already there, his large black wolf standing out against the snow. He comes straight to Shanti, lowering his head to rub his muzzle along the side of her neck in a quiet greeting. Then he pulls back, and together our wolves turn as one, standing side by side in the snow, facing the Alpha and his Beta.