Where The Ice Gives Way (Charlotte and Blake) novel Chapter 175

r 175 Quantity Over Dignity

Emily

The road keeps unfolding in front of us. Long stretches of dark bitumen, pale snow piled along the edges, trees standing thick on either side with their branches heavy and white. Every now and then, we pass a farmhouse tucked far back from the road, smoke lifting from a chimney, yellow windows glowing through the early morning light. I sit in the back seat with my head against the glass and watch the world slide past. More often than I would like, I find

myself looking ahead to where the happy couple sits.

Blake drives with one hand on the wheel and the other resting near Charlotte’s on the centre console. He doesn’t even seem to think about it. His fingers find hers every few minutes, brushing over her knuckles, squeezing once, then letting go when he needs to change lanes or reach for his coffee. Charlotte sits beside him with her knees tucked up, a blanket over her lap, her eyes half on the road and half on him. They move around each other without needing

words.

Blake shifts the heater slightly before Charlotte asks. Charlotte opens his water bottle and passes it to him at a red light. He takes one sip, hands it back, and she screws the lid on without looking away from the road. It is tiny, ordinary things, but I can’t stop watching it. I have seen mates before. Of course I have. Mated pairs were everywhere in my old pack. Some were sweet with each other. Some were quiet. Some barely looked at each other unless other people were watching. I used to think the bond was the important part, the thing that made everything fall into place. But Blake and Charlotte feel

different.

The bond is there, but it’s only part of it. The rest is their choice to love each other. Again and again. In the way Blake checks her face in the mirror when the car gets too quiet. In the way Charlotte reaches across and brushes a crumb from his hoodie sleeve. In the way he lets her tease him without snapping back, only smiling like her voice is the best part of the morning. I wonder what that would feel like, to sit beside someone and have their body know yours so well that it answers before you ask. To be loved in little movements.

A rustle beside me pulls my attention away from the front seat. Theo holds out a packet of sour worms and gives me a small, hopeful smile. “Snack?”

The way he says it makes the word sound far more important than it should, but I’m not going to overthink a little lolly. I take one and thank him, and he grins and tips the packet toward himself, taking three at once and shoving them into his mouth. I laugh before I can stop myself, and Charlotte looks back at us. “What?”

Theo chews with deep seriousness. “She’s judging my technique.”

“You have a technique?” Blake asks from the front.

“Obviously.”

Charlotte twists farther in her seat. “What is the technique?”

Theo holds up one finger while he finishes chewing, then says, “Quantity over dignity.”

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Blake snorts, and Charlotte laughs and shakes her head before turning back around. Theo smiles and offers me the packet again. This time I take two, and the morning stretches on.

We stop once for fuel and to use the bathrooms, and Gareth checks in with the patrol vehicles. It’s a quick but much–needed stop for my legs. I can’t remember the last time I sat in one place for so long. I look back out the window as we pull onto the road again. Snow becomes thicker the farther we save, The towns get smaller. Houses spread farther apart. The trees press closer in some places, then open suddenly into wide fields where fences sun in long dark lines beneath the white.

I try to imagine myself as someone who goes places. Someone who owns a purple suitcase and sunflower gloves and sits in the back of a truck eating sour worms beside a boy who smells like vanilla, Charlotte ends up dozing off in the front seat, her head tipped toward the window. Blake lowers the volume on

10:35 am PP

Chapter 175 Quantity Over Dignity

the railio and drives one–handed, his other hand resting over hers beneath the blanket. Theo must notice me watching because he leans slightly closer, his

voice low enough that it doesn’t wake her. “He didn’t sleep much when she was in the hospital.”

My eyes move to him, and Theo look toward Blake and Charlotte. “None of us did, really. But Blake,..” He stops, jaw shifting slightly. “He stayed beside her every second they let him. Kinda made him a little extra clingy now.” He nods to where Blake’s hand disappears under the blanket.

“It must have been hard for him to see his mate hurt,” I say quietly.”

Theo nods. “Yeah… That sort of thing will change a man.” He says quietly before he looks back out the window, and I get the feeling that he’s not just

talking about Blake and Charlotte now.

I let my head rest lightly against the seat as the truck quiets again. By late afternoon, the sky begins to dim, and the roads turn slicker beneath the truck. Gareth’s vehicle slows ahead of us, and then his voice comes over the pack link, telling us we’re stopping for the night because the roads are getting icy. The hotel appears twenty minutes later, tucked beside the highway, warm lights glowing beneath a sloped roof. Snow falls lightly through the beams of the car park lamps, and a small sign near the entrance flickers blue and white. Blake parks beside Gareth’s truck, and the engine ticks softly as it cools. My legs really ache from sitting too long now, and my stomach twists with the strange nervousness of another new place.

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