Where The Ice Gives Way Chapter 80

**Blake**

By the time I get back to the yard, Shanti is already there. Charlie’s black wolf stands beside her like a shadow beside moonlight, broad and dark, where she is lean and bright against the snow. Dad and John are facing them both with their full attention fixed ahead, and I barely make it to the fence before Dad gives the first command. The first thing we all notice is how fast she really is. Charlie launches hard through the snow in a straight burst of speed that sends powder kicking up behind him. He’s strong, built heavily through the chest and shoulders, even in wolf form, and he eats ground the same way he does everything else. Then Shanti moves. She doesn’t explode into motion the way Charlie does. She unfolds into it. One second she’s standing there, ears up, white fur catching the weak winter light, and the next she’s gone, skimming over the snow so quickly my eyes need half a second to catch up to where she’s actually gone. Her stride stays low and long. She doesn’t throw snow behind; she cuts over it cleanly. Every step placed exactly where it needs to be, and by the time Charlie’s wolf reaches the marker Dad pointed out, Shanti is already turning back. Lex lifts his head inside me, watching her every move. *Look at her.*

*I’m trying.* I say back in awe and watch as Dad’s brows rise and John’s head tilts slightly. Though neither of them says anything straight away, I know them well enough to see when something has surprised them. Theo pushes off the fence beside me. “Well,” he mutters. “That’s horrifying.” I look over to Mum, who is watching from the back deck with a blanket folded over one arm. She smiles into her mug like this is exactly the sort of thing she was hoping to see. When Charlie’s wolf gets back to the starting point, his chest is rising harder, while Shanti stops neatly, having barely exerted herself at all. Dad looks at John. John looks back at Dad. Then both of them look at the wolves again. Theo laughs, and I can’t help it. I laugh too. Lex, on the other hand, is almost unbearably smug. *Pretty girl is fast.*

*She is.* I smile to myself. *Fast and clever.*

Dad folds his arms as he watches them both. “Speed’s clearly her strong suit.” John grunts. “Clearly.” They run through a series of drills after that. Trying to gauge where each wolf lands on a scale, what their strong suits are, and where they need more help. Charlie’s wolf does well. He’s strong and responsive, and he listens once he gets out of his own way. He’s got that same stubborn streak he carries as a man, though. You can see it in the way he sometimes anticipates what he thinks the command will be before it’s given. It earns him a flat stare from John more than once. Shanti is different. She doesn’t just react. She watches. There’s a beat before every movement where she seems to take the command in and feel around it, and then she moves with this smooth certainty that makes it look like she already knew what was coming. Her turns are tighter. Her stops are sharper. Her recoveries happen so fast they barely register as a loss of momentum at all. Dad points John to the middle of the yard and has both wolves circle wide around him, coming back in from opposite sides. Charlie takes the direct line, but Shanti disappears behind the thicker line of trees to the left and reappears seconds later on John’s blind side. It’s so smooth and quiet that even I lose her for half a second. John turns too slow, and by the time he fully pivots, Shanti is already back in front of him, chest heaving lightly, eyes bright. “She flanks quietly,” John says, frowning at Dad. “She hunts quietly,” I laugh before I can stop myself.

Dad’s orders for them to do it again, and this time he watches more carefully. So do I. Charlie will always be the heavier force. The one that holds ground. The one that crashes through instead of slipping around. Shanti is something else. She’s speed and angles and silence. She doesn’t just move fast. She moves smart. She cuts space down to nothing. Slips into the places people leave open without knowing they’ve left them open. She changes direction before anyone else has fully registered the first one. By the fourth run, even Dad has adjusted his stance because he’s having trouble keeping an eye on her. I watch her there in the snow, white fur bright against the dark line of trees, body angled toward Charlie, but her eyes drifting to me every few seconds.

Mum eventually comes down off the deck and drapes the blanket over the fence. “How are they doing?”

“Charlie’s solid,” Dad says, and John jerks his chin toward Shanti. “She’s quick.” She catches me watching, and that smile turns into something more amused. “You’re not exactly subtle, sweetheart.” I look back at the yard. “Wasn’t trying to be.” The training goes on longer than I expect because every time Dad or John seems ready to move to the next thing, one of them notices something else. Even Theo starts paying proper attention once he realises this has gone beyond first-day shifting and into something much more interesting. At one point, Dad throws a stick into the snow without warning and barks for them to react. Charlie goes straight for it, while Shanti goes wide, cuts across from the side, and gets there first without ever needing to shoulder him out of the way. Lex makes a deeply satisfied sound. *There. That’s my Luna.*

*Our Luna.* I correct him.

Even before today, before I knew what to call it. Charlotte has always felt like someone who moves differently from everyone else around her. On the lake. In a room. Now here. Dad finally calls a stop when both wolves are panting, and Mum calls out for the fifth time that lunch is ready. Charlie’s wolf shakes out his coat and sprays snow everywhere. Shanti stills, chest rising and falling, ears flicking once before her gaze lifts and finds me again. Lex rises under my skin. *Get her clothes and take her somewhere to shift. She needs privacy.* He’s so bossy I almost want to argue with him, but how can I when he wants exactly what I want? I quickly run over to Shanti and give her a pet before I tell her to wait behind the trees for me again. Then I race over to the house to get her some fresh clothes.