Where The Ice Gives Way (Charlotte and Blake) novel Chapter 171

Wher

Emily

Best day ever. I smile down at the brand new purple suitcase sitting open on my bed. Mine. My suitcase. It still has the little tag hanging from the handle.

and the wheels are so smooth they barely make a sound when I rolt it closer. I run my fingers over the hard shell before I start unloading the bags Charlotte

and I brought back from town. Originally, Charlotte said she would help me pack, but the googly eyes she and Blake were making at each other in the track

on the way back were a clear sign they needed to be alone for a bit. I’m learning that people in love can be very obvious.

Theo helped me bring everything upstairs to my new room in the rehabilitation centre. I got one or the top floor, tucked at the end of the hallway with a window looking out over the snowy mountains and the dark line of trees beyond the pack land. He carried most of the bags without complaint, even though some of them had to be cutting into his fingers. At my door, he paused and then, very politely, he asked, “Do you want me to leave them outside?”

I snorted before I could stop myself and held the door open.

Eventually, he shuffled in with the bundles of things and set them near the bed. He stayed awkwardly for a few minutes while I dumped everything out of the bed. Then he rubbed a hand over the back of his neck and mumbled something about checking the vehicles for tomorrow before leaving. Now it is just

me and the quiet.

I start ripping tags off clothes and folding them carefully. I got soft jumpers, warm socks, pyjams, jeans, and a new coat. The cream hoodie Charlotte said made my eyes look pretty is probably my favourite thing. I fold that one twice before placing it into the suitcase. Then I take out the little white toiletry bag. There are tiny sunflowers stitched across the front, and I trace one with my fingertip. I have always loved sunflowers.

We had a little patch out the front of our house for a while. They grew tall along the fence, bright yellow heads leaning toward the sun, and I used to water them every afternoon after school. Mum said they made the place look cheerful. Dad said they were too tall and would block the window, but he never cut them down. Then Mark and his friends rode their dirt bikes through them. Sasha whines softly inside me.

Mark, the future Alpha. My first mate. The boy who rejected us before I even had a chance to understand what having a mate might feel like. He had always been cruel. I’m not sure why I didn’t see it before. Maybe because everyone said Alphas were built differently. Maybe because I wanted the bond to make him kind. Maybe because part of me believed fate wouldn’t hand me to someone who already looked through me like I was dirt on his shoe. He used to laugh when I walked past him and mutter things to his friends that made them grin.

Once, when I was fourteen, I dropped a basket of clean towels outside the training hall. He stepped on one before I could pick it up, grinding mud into the white cotton while I crouched there with my hands full.

“Careful,” he said, smiling down at me. “You’ll give people ideas if you spend too much time on your knees.”

His friends had laughed while I scrambled away.

The sunflower patch happened the month before I found out who he was supposed to be to me. I was outside when I heard the engines approaching the house. I ran to the porch and saw Mark and two of his friends tearing across the front yard, dirt spraying behind their tyres. One bike clipped the fence, breaking a few posts, and another went straight through the flowers, snapping stems beneath the wheels until yellow petals scattered across the grass like torn paper. I shouted for them to stop, but Mark had just looked back at me, laughing as he continued to skid his tyres through them. When the bikes finally slowed, I stood barefoot in the mud with sy hands shaking. “Why would you do that?” I asked.

He pulled off his helmet and shrugged. “Didn’t know anyone lived in this shithole.”

That was it. No apology. No guilt. He had simply found something soft and wanted to see how easily it broke.

I sit on the edge of my bed now with the sunflower bag in my lap and breathe through the memory until the room comes back to toe. White walls, Purple suitcase. Snow outside. Clean clothes folded in neat piles. This is Wellington. This is my pack now. I put the toiletry bag into the suitcase carefully, then add

0:34 am PPPM

Chapter 171 Sunflowers

shampoo, conditioner, a toothbrush, face cream, a little bottle of perfume Charlotte insisted I buy because she said every girl deserves something that makes her feel pretty. I didn’t tell her I’d never owned perfume before.

I keep folding. Keep breathing. Keep teminding myself that tomorrow I am going with people who want me there. Then a knock sounds at the door before Theo’s voice comes softly from the hallway. “It’s just me again.”

My fingers loosen around the jumper in my lap as stand and cross the room, opening the door only halfway at first. Theo stands on the other side looking nervous, and in his hands is a pair of puffy white gloves, with tiny yellow sunflowers stitched across the backs.

Theo glances down at them, then back to me. “I noticed you didn’t buy gloves.”

He holds them out as his eyes stay locked on mine. “I didn’t want your hands to get cold tomorrow.”

I stare at the sunflowers as I feel the tears building in my eyes.

“You bought me gloves?”

His cheeks colour faintly as he looks down at his feet, fidgeting a little. “Yeah.”

“With sunflowers.”

“I saw them and…” He swallows, eyes dropping to the floor for a second. “I thought you might like them.”

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