Where The Ice Gives Way (Charlotte and Blake) novel Chapter 241

Chapter 241 Wolf 101

Emily

When less finally stops talking, she lets out a really long breath and looks up at me.

I know that took

I know it far too well.

So I don’t rush to defend Charlie.

I don’t tell her he would never hurt her, even though I believe that. I don’t tell her wolves are not monsters, even though Sasha bristles at the word inside me. I don’t tell her this will all make sense eventually, because when your world has just cracked open, eventually feels useless.

I pat her hand gently.

“That sounds like a lot,” I tell her, giving her a small smile.

Jess stares at me.

Then her eyes widen so much I almost worry I’ve said the wrong thing. She shifts back an inch, enough that every part of her body tells me she is considering running for the door.

“Are you…” Her voice catches. “Are you…?”

I keep very still.

The last thing she needs is another person proving they are faster, stronger, or stranger than she thought.

“I’m a wolf too,” I whisper.

Her face drains, and I hate that part.

The fear.

But I understand it.

“I’m not going to hurt you,” I add softly.

”

11:17 Wed, Jul 29

Chapter 241 Wolf 101

I know what it feels like to have everything you thought you understood scrambled and shoved back into your hands with no instructions.

I know what it feels like to look at familiar faces and wonder what else they have been hiding-

Sasha shifts inside me, quiet but alert.

She smells weird, Sasha murmurs,

Now is absolutely not the time to be rude, 1 tell her.

I ignore her as best I can, because Jess looks like she is about two seconds away from bursting into tears, and I am not about to start sniffing at her.

“Is everything I know a lie?” Jess asks.

Her voice is small now. It’s like 1 can hear the little girl inside her. The frightened one who came here before school because she didn’t know where else to go.

I shake my head. “Not a lie. Just… not what you thought it was.”

She lets out a cracked laugh and presses her palms over her face, and I give her a moment.

Then I say, “You know Charlie’s adorable crush on you?”

Her hands lower just enough for her to glare at me through her fingers.

I lift one shoulder. “That’s still real. It’s just that he also has a wolf,” I continue carefully, “and that wolf may also have feelings about you.”

Her hands fall all the way into her lap.

“What?”

I know I’ve opened another can of worms A whole

11:17 Wed, Jul 29

Chapter 241 Wolf 101

part of them. I tell her that Charlie is still Charlie, even when he has fur and paws and terrible timing.

Jess listens with the intensity of someone trying to build a ladder out of every word I give her.

“So when he was looking at me,” she says, “that was Charlie?”

“Yes, Charlie, but Titan was there too. He’s always there.”

76

She rubs at her chest again, her fingers pressing into the spot like something aches there. “And the wolf having feelings about me means

what exactly?”

I pause.

Sasha goes very still.

“Our wolves bring out our wolf instincts,” I say carefully.

Jess looks sharply at me. “Wolf instincts?”

“Yeah, like… they make the human part of us want to protect the people we care for. Like, Theo doesn’t like other boys escorting me around school. To him and his wolf, that’s their job. My wolf, Sasha, makes me want to comfort him. Coddle him, in a way.”

Before I can tell her more, a soft knock sounds at the door, and Jess flinches.

“It’s just me,” Theo says from the other side, his voice low and careful. “Tea and toast. No hovering.”

Jess looks at me.

I bite back a smile. “He and his wolf have a very serious need to make sure we’re fed.”

I open the door, and Theo stands there with two mugs balanced in one hand and a plate of toast in the other. His hair is still a mess, his shirt is now fully on, and he is doing his best impression of someone who has not been pacing outside the room like a worried guard dog.

His eyes go to Jess for half a second, then away again.

“Dad said you’ll both be late if you don’t move soon,” he says.

“Thank you,” I tell him, taking the mugs.

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