Where The Ice Gives Way (Charlotte and Blake) novel Chapter 189

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12:30 pm PTNM

Where The lee Gives Way

Chapter 189 My Choice

Emily

A knock comes on the door in the midst of this quiet bubble that Theo and I have created. He walks to the door and opens it only halfway. Cold air slips

inside around him, carrying Blake and Charlotte’s scents. “Hey,” Thee says quietly.

He opens the door wider, and Charlotte steps inside with Blake right behind her. She has snow caught in her hair and cheeks pink from the cold. “Em,” she

breathes out, rushing over to sit and wrap her arms around me. I fold into her as her arms tighten around me, and I press my face into her shoulder as my

breath shakes out.

“I’m sorry,” she whispers into my hair. “I’m so, so sorry.”

I shake my head. She has nothing to be sorry for, but the words are caught in my throat. She holds me anyway, one hand rubbing slowly over my back while the cabin door shuts and Blake’s low voice murmurs something to Theo. When she leans back, her hands come to my face, thumbs careful under my eyes.

“Are you okay?”

I let out a small, broken laugh. “I don’t know.”

She gives me a thin smile that doesn’t reach her eyes, and then reaches for Blake as he comes to stand beside her. “We are sorry, Em. We should have asked.

Should have made sure you knew where we were going.”

Theo comes back to the bed then. He hesitates near the foot of it, watching me the way he always does now, and I scoot forward a little. Hoping that he gets

the silent plea I can’t bring myself to cry out for.

His eyes flick to mine, and I look down at the blanket, cheeks warming, as I twist my hands in the fabric. The mattress dips a moment later as he sits behind

me, one leg bent along my side, his body warm at my back. I move back until my shoulder touches his chest, and then I take his hands and wrap them around my stomach. There. That’s what I need. This is what will stop me from falling apart.

Charlotte’s eyes flick between us quickly, before she looks back at me. “Marcus is locked up,” Charlotte says. “He will stay there until you decide what to do

with him.”

I’m not sure how Charlotte got Alpha Thomas to agree to that. Marcus was always able to get away with anything. I figured that would also extend to being

dangerous and unstable within the pack. Sasha whines deep inside me at the thought of it, and Theo leans a little closer, wrapping his soothing vanilla scent

around me with the warmth from his body.

“You want me to…” I start, then stop.

Charlotte reaches for my hand, her fingers are cold from the outside, around mine.

“That choice belongs to you,” she says. “Whatever happens with Marcus, if anything happens with him, it will be your choice. Not Thomas. Not Marcus. Not

me.”

My chest pulls tight at that. I get to decide? Me. The one who was exiled and thrown away like nothing. Now I get to have a choice. Theo’s chest moves

against my back with one slow breath, and I lean into it instinctively.

“And their rogues?” i ask, avoiding the topic that I don’t have answers for yet. “What happened with them?”

“They’re in bad condition,” she says. “Way worse than ours were.”

I know what it is to curl up on a hard floor and stop caring if the world remembers you. I also know the cruelty of that pack. Those rogues… I know they

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12:30 pm PTN M

Chapter 189 My Choice

have it bad.

Charlotte’s fingers tighten around mine. “I told Alpha Thomas we would go back tomorrow, and hopefully I can help them then.” I stare at her. There she is

again. The girl who would give you the coat off her back if she knew you needed it. I’m envious of her heart.

“You’re really going back?” I ask.

“Some of them might be like you,” she says and nudges my arm playfully.

A tear slips down my cheek as I choke out a weak laugh.

“Maybe you can make a whole group of severely traumatised friends.”

“Ah, yes, well, that is the dream, isn’t it?” She laughs.

After a small stretch of silence, I ask her, “Are you staying here tonight?”

“Yeah. We’re in the cabin two doors down.” She glances at Blake. “But I can totally stay in here with you.”

I feel ‘Theo’s hands flinch where they rest on my stomach, and he pulls his arms around me tighter before he loosens them.

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“Yeah, Blake and I haven’t had a good uninterrupted sleepover in months now.” Theo weakly jokes.

Charlotte rolls her eyes dramatically, “Aw, honey, is someone feeling left out?”

Blake snorts from where he stands, arms crossed over his chest. “Months? You slept on my floor last week because you said my room had better heating.”

I turn to see Theo lifting his chin behind me. “It does, and that doesn’t count. Charlotte was there, and we didn’t play a single video game.”

Charlotte’s mouth twitches, and I hear Theo huff behind me. “I don’t know why everyone is judging me; it’s completely normal for Betas to hang out with

their Alphas,” he says.

Blake points at him. “Future Beta.”

“Tomato, Tomato. Whatever.”

Charlotte wipes under one eye with the back of her hand and looks between us again. “Well, as you can, Blake would love a very professional sleepover with

his Beta. So I can stay if you want me to.”

I look down at Theo’s hands, where they rest over my hoodie. Then I look at Charlotte.

“Actually,” I say quietly “, I kind of wanted to stay with Theo.”

I feel Theo stop breathing and see Blake’s brows lift, and Charlotte lets out the tiniest little gasp. “If that’s okay,” I add quickly. “Sasha and I just feel…”

swallow and lean back a little closer into Theo’s chest. “Safe with him.”

Theo’s arms tighten around me with the smallest pressure, like he cannot help it. His breath brushes the side of my hair, uneven and warm.

“Yeah,” he says, voice rough. “Of course it’s okay.”

Charlotte’s eyes shine as she smiles between us. “Okay.”

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