Where The Ice Gives Way (Charlotte and Blake) novel Chapter 166

Chapter 166 One Soul at a Time

Charlotte

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The holding cells feel different now that the rehabilitation building is finished. Before, this place felt hopeless with all the cold concrete and steel doors, overlayed with the growls of lost souls echoing through the corridors. Now there is somewhere for them to go. Beds are waiting upstairs, warm food, blankets, and people who care, where no one else did.

Shanti rises slowly inside me as we stop near the first secured transition room. I look back to find Emily standing further back, behind the first barrier with Theo and Charlie. I won’t lie and say I wasn’t worried about her coming down here, but I see the need for it as well. She’s trying to understand what happened to her now that she can see it from the outside. I give her a small smile, and then Blake squeezes my hand. “Ready?”

No. “Yes.”

Lex brushes warmly against Shanti through the bond while Blake unlocks the first transition room. Gareth and two patrol wolves move into position with their restraint poles ready in case things go wrong. The first rogue launches toward the opening, and the second, the door cracks open. He’s a huge grey wolf with matted fur, and his ribs show through his sides. His snarl rattles through the room hard

enough to shake the walls, but he freezes mid–lunge as Blake commands, “Stop.”

Gareth and the others move in to secure the restraint collar attached to the floor anchor before Blake releases him again, and the rogue

thrashes violently. Foam drips from his mouth, and his claws scrape desperately against the concrete while Shanti presses painfully

against my ribs. Hurt.

I step forward slowly. “It’s okay,” I say softly.

The wolf snaps toward me immediately, and every instinct around me sharpens, but I kneel anyway. “You’re safe,” I whisper.

The wolf jerks violently against the restraints again, but I can feel his fear underneath the aggression now. I can feel the confusion, pain,

starvation, and loneliness pressing through Shanti, and she answers to it with a soft howl through me.

The rogue stills, and the whole room goes quiet with him. Then the shaking starts. His wolf whines softly, almost desperately, before his

body begins to shift. His bones crack, and fur recedes, as the huge wolf collapses inward. A middle–aged man is left kneeling against the restraint line, trembling so violently his teeth chatter. One of the patrol wolves rushes forward with a blanket, wrapping it around him

quickly, while the man stares down at his hands. When he lifts his eyes to me, tears spill down his face, and his lip trembles before he says, “Daniel. My name is Daniel.”

“You’re okay, Daniel,” I tell him quietly, and his whole face crumples.

“I killed people,” he chokes out. “I shouldn’t be here. You shouldn’t have saved me. I’m not worthy.”

Gareth moves in and kneels beside him carefully, putting one hand on his shaking shoulder. “Right now we’re just focused on getting you

healthy.”

1/3

10:56 Fri, Jul 10

*Pat him rarefully to his feet. Eversone in the them stay

mex ha kemen he going to be okay, thus be the thi. As he’s taken out of the room, I look very to see my

BR Rat tears in her eye pede hand sexy kay kaget in the ghost me a thaky cemile and not Tegh (thes

the means can to the next rest where chia rogue refuses to come near es at all. A smaller brown the wolf crouches in the farthes

of the mom with her wars posted far and blodshest eyes locked on every movement we make She lets us into the rem

Bast afore I step forward the grows in I sit die sowly on the concrete where I stand and Blake crosscher beside me

Then I look so her wolf again, trying desperately to disappear. “You don’t have to fight anymore. No one here wants to hurt you.”

The wolf trembles violently, and I can feel Shanti pushing me to shift. I let her take the reins, and the rogue allows her to approach.

Shanti lowers her head to the she–wolf’s muzzle, and one touch is all it takes. The rogue lets out a broken whining sound that makes my chest ache as she shifts suddenly. The young woman now curls against the wall, sobbing into both hands. “My baby,” she cries

immediately. “Where’s my baby?”

One of our female patrols moves in from behind me and kneels beside the girl, wrapping a blanket around her shoulders. She speaks softly to her, comforting her however she can, while I step out into a private room to shift back and change. Then the rest blur together after that. There are so many of them. Some come back screaming. Some collapse asleep before they even finish shifting. One older woman remembers every single thing she did as a rogue and apologises so hard she can barely breathe around the words. A teenage boy keeps asking for his brother. Another wolf refuses to let go of Blake’s arm because he thinks we’re going to lock him back inside if he

Gort

Each time, the process stays the same for us. We approach gently, talk them through it and let Shanti guide them back. Then we wrap them in blankets, learn their names and hand them carefully to waiting pack members who guide them upstairs toward warmth, food and

safety.

Hours pass that way, and by midday, the rehabilitation building is alive. The common room fills with quiet voices, steaming mugs,

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