Where The Ice Gives Way (Charlotte and Blake) novel Chapter 194

Chapter 194 No Rank, No Allies

Theo

They are her parents. I know that. Emily has her mother’s eyes. Same soft shape. Same brown that looks almost gold when the light hits it. She has her

father’s frown too, that little pull between the brows when she is thinking too hard or trying not to show what something costs her. I see what they should

have been- the people who raised her. They’re people who knew how she took her tea, how she smiled when she finished a puzzle, how carefully she watered

those sunflowers out the front of their little house. They saw her first steps, heard her first words, watched all those tiny pieces of her become the girl

standing in front of me now. I want to know those people. I want to meet the mother who would have brushed her hair when she was small, and the father

who would have glued her puzzles and hung them on the wall. But I don’t want a bar of the parents who let their daughter be thrown away.

Emily turns on her heel before her mother can get another word out. Her boots click against the path, and her arm stays wrapped through Charlotte’s as she

walks away with her head held high. Blake falls into step on Charlotte’s other side, his body angled slightly back as if he is still watching everything behind

1. us. Fuck, I am proud of her. So proud it hurts. I turn to follow, but a hand grabs my arm. “Wait,” her mother says.

Every muscle in my body locks.

I look down at her hand, and those thin fingers are curled into the sleeve of my jacket. Then I look at her face. She is crying properly now. Tears slipping

down both cheeks, mouth trembling, chest rising too fast under her cardigan. Her eyes are so much like Emily’s that it makes me a weaker man. It makes me

wait.

“You don’t even understand what you threw away, do you?” Her hand tightens on my arm. “How do you sleep at night?” I ask. It comes out sharper than I

mean it to, but I don’t care. Her face crumples, and she covers her mouth with her free hand, a sob catching behind her fingers. “We…” She shakes her head.

“We love her.”

“You don’t do that to someone you love.”

Her hand falls from my sleeve.

Her husband comes down the steps quickly, one arm going around her as her knees dip. He looks older up close, and his tired eyes stay on me. I turn away

before I say something worse. Emily is already halfway down the street with Charlotte and Blake. But Gareth stands a few steps behind me, arms crossed

over his chest, face thoughtful as he watches Emily’s parents. “What did they threaten you with?” He asks them quietly.

Emily’s mother goes still, and her eyes dart sideways, fast and frightened. Damn. Seems he hit the nail on the head there. The father lowers his head. “Alpha

Atlas…”

“Answer me,” Gareth says.

The man’s mouth opens as Emily’s mother grips his coat, but neither of them speaks. I turn to leave again because if they are going to keep protecting this

pack’s secrets after everything, then they can choke on them. I have my mate to get back to. She is the only person here who deserves my attention.

“Death,” her mother whispers, and I stop. The word is so quiet I almost miss it.

Emily’s mother looks down at the snow between us. “Either we let her leave on her own, or they would kill her.” My hands curl at my sides, and her husband draws her closer. “Lizzie…”

“Don’t,” she says, voice breaking. “He asked.”

Gareth’s eyes darken. “Who threatened you?” Gareth questions as his eyes darken.

The father’s gaze flicks toward the main road and back. “The order came through the Alpha. He said if we told her, if we followed her, if we tried to bring

12:31 pm P

Chapter 194 No Rank, No Allies

hor baik, they would make an example of all three of us.”

I stare at them. Part of me wants to feel sorry for them. Part of me does. The rest of me is standing on the side of a winter road with Emily sobbing into my neck, her whole body shaking because the pack that should have loved her became a grave she had to crawl out of alone. “You still let her walk,” I say, and

watch as her father closes his eyes and a single tear slips down his cheek. “Yes.” No excuse. No plea. Just a man admitting his failure.

Emily’s mother presses a fist to her chest. “We thought if she left fast enough, if she crossed the border and kept going, she might live. We thought…” Her

voice folds in on itself. “We thought living and hating us was better than dying while we held her.”

I swallow against the burn in my throat.

“You should have come to another Alpha,” Gareth says, gripping my shoulder, and I realise now I’m shaking.

The father lets out a hollow sound. “And tell them what? That our Alpha threatened us for trying to protect our daughter after his son rejected her? Thomas

controls the borders. The patrol. The records. We are lowly staff, Alpha Atlas. We had no proof. No rank. No allies.”

Emily’s mother looks down the street, toward the place where Emily disappeared around the bend with Charlotte and Blake. “Is she happy?” she asks.

“She is getting there,” I manage to say, and her mouth trembles again.

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