Where The Ice Gives Way (Charlotte and Blake) novel Chapter 190

Chapter 190 However You Let Me

Theo

Holy shit. She chose me. She bloody chose me. Me. Emily is still tucked against my chest after Blake and Charlotte leave, her hands resting lightly over mine where they sit across her middle, and all I can do is stare at the closed door like the whole world just shifted two inches to the left. She wants to stay with

1. me. She wants me here.

Human, calm down, Yelen growls inside me.

I swallow. She chose me.

She chose us, he corrects, and his voice goes warm and smug in my head. Now coax her to lie down again so we can snuggle in that spooning position.

I nearly choke. Do not say snuggle.

Snuggle, he repeats, louder and more demanding.

I close my eyes for one second and beg every god listening for patience, because my wolf has gone from warrior protector to affectionate house pet in record

time.*

Before I can say anything, before I can ask if she wants to lie back down or if she needs space, water, food, or a new identity in case I accidentally combust

in front of her, Yelen starts purring, right through my chest. The sound rolls out low and steady, vibrating under my ribs and against Emily’s back. My eyes

fly open, and Emily stills for a second. Then her shoulders lower. She practically melts against me again, her body softening with a little sigh that goes

straight through me.

“I like it when he does that,” she whispers.

My brain leaves my body.

She likes it.

She likes it.

She likes it.

Shut up, human, Yelen grumbles, but he sounds far too pleased with himself as the purr deepens.

I sit there frozen while Emily reaches for the remote on the blanket beside us and rewinds Mate Island to where we were before Blake and Charlotte came in. The screen fills with dramatic music, pool lights, and Brayden, looking as if he is about to make another emotionally catastrophic decision. Emily turns the volume up a little, then settles again against me. Her hair brushes my jaw, soft and clean and smelling of sunflowers. Her body is warm where it rests along mine, and her hands stay over my arms, keeping me where she wants me.

I do not move. I barely breathe. On screen, a girl in a sparkly pink bikini points at Brayden and tells him he needs to stop acting like a victim just because

everyone found out he was lying, and honestly, fair enough. Emily lets out a faint sound through her nose.

“Terrible show,” she murmurs.

“The worst.” I smile.

12:30 pm PTNM

Chapter 190 However You Let Me

0

A few minutes pass with the fire crackling and the television filling the quiet. My body starts to relax one muscle at a time as Emily’s fingers trace absent

circles over the back of my hand. Then she speaks so softly I almost miss it. “Thank you for staying.”

The show keeps playing, but I stop hearing it.

“You don’t have to,” she adds. “But I appreciate that you’re here.”

I reach for the remote and pause the show just as Brayden opens his mouth, which is probably the kindest thing anyone has done for him all season. Emily

turns her head slightly, eyes flicking up to mine.

“Hey,” I say. “I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else.”

Her lips part, but I keep going because if I stop now, I might lose every word I need her to hear. “The mate bond is there. I’m not going to pretend it isn’t. It pulls at me. Yelen is half out of his mind over you, and I’m not exactly doing better.” I let out a breathy laugh. “But even without it, Em, I would still want to be here. I would still see you. This beautiful, kind, funny, ridiculously strong girl who somehow still worries about everyone else after everything she has

been through. Your old pack were idiots for how they treated you.”

A tear slips down her cheek, and she wipes it herself with the sleeve of her hoodie, while I swallow around the ache in my throat.

“I’m not going to let a good thing slip away because they were too blind to see what they had,” I say. “I want you, Em. As my mate, as my friend, as the girl who laughs at awful television with me. If all I ever get is being allowed to stand in the corner of whatever room you’re in, then I’ll stand there and be

grateful.”

Her mouth wobbles, and I thread my fingers through hers.

“I want to be here,” I whisper. “With you. However, you let me. Okay?”

She nods, small and shaky, and lays her cheek back against my chest.

“Okay,” she whispers, and Yelen’s purr rolls through me again. I unpause the television and rest my arm around her carefully, and then I let my fingers drift into the ends of her hair. Soft brown strands slide between my fingers. I look down at her. Her lashes rest against her cheeks. Her mouth is soft. There is still tension around her eyes, still proof of the day sitting on her face, but she is here, safe and tucked against me by her own choice. This girl. This is it. I am so far gone, and I do not ever want to come back..

Yelen settles under my skin with a satisfied huff. Our mate, he murmurs.

I keep my fingers moving through her hair while the show plays on. After a while, I ask, “Do you want to go home tomorrow?”

Her fingers pause against my hoodie, and for a second, I think I have said the wrong thing. Shit. I shouldn’t have mentioned it. I’ve upset her again. Then she turns her head, just enough for me to see her face.

“I think…” she says slowly, “I think it might actually be fun to go to Munroe.”

I blink, trying to clear my vision, because I swear… Emily is smirking. It curves at the edge of her mouth and lights something in her eyes I have never seen before. It’s playful, it’s dangerous, it’s possibly illegal, and it’s definitely going to get someone yelled at by an Alpha. My heart trips over itself. I love it,

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