Where The Ice Gives Way (Charlotte and Blake) novel Chapter 243

Chapter 243 What It Feels Like to Love a Girl

Blake

By the time hockey practice ends, I know Charlie is barely holding himself together.

He plays hard. Every hit is heavier than it needs to be. Every turn across the ice is sharp enough to make Theo glance at me more thas once. Charlie doesn’t miss drills, lose focus, or snap at anyone out loud, but the tension coming off him is impossible to ignore.

Lex notices it first. Or maybe I do. It’s getting harder to tell the difference these days. I just feel it like second nature, already knowing exactly which storm I need to stop.

Charlie’s wolf is riding him hard beneath his skin, pressing against every movement. I can feel it in the air around him, something restless, hungry, and frantic.

Theo slows beside me during the last drill, breath puffing white in the rink air. “He’s going to burn himself out.”

“I know.”

“You talking to him?”

“Yeah.”

“Good,” Theo mutters, watching Charlie slam the puck into the net hard enough to make it rattle. “Because he’s been looking at me all

day like he wants to bite me.”

When practice finally ends, the others trail into the locker room laughing and shoving each other like normal. Charlie doesn’t join in. He

sits on the bench in front of his locker, elbows on his knees, staring at the floor.

I take my time removing my gear, waiting while the others shower, joke, grab their bags, and head out. Theo catches my eye once near the door. I nod, and he gives me one back before leaving.

Then it is just me and Charlie.

“You know,” I say, pulling my jersey over my head, “when I first scented your sister, I felt this overwhelming urge to be near her.”

Charlie’s head snaps up. “Bro.”

I ignore him. “It was constant.”

“No. Fuck. No.” He points at me. “I do not want to hear about you and my sister.”

I sit on the bench opposit

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Chapter 243 What It Feels Like to Love a Girl

He groans and drags both hands over his face. “Fine Talk. But if this gets weird, I’m walking out

“It was weird for me too,” I tell him.

I lean back against the lockers, trying to find the right words for something that has never fit into any language. The first time i scented Charlotte feels both close and far away now. We’ve been through so much.

“I wanted to be near her all the time,” I say. “Not in a normal way. It felt physical, like my whole body knew where she was before my head did. Lex wanted her close. Safe. Protected. Fed. Warm. All of it.”

Charlie’s face tightens, but he listens.

“When you kept me from knowing her,” I continue, quieter now, “I was so bloody furious.”

His gaze drops.

“I know why you did it. I understand it now. You were protecting her, and she needed that. But back then, it felt like there was a war

inside my own head. Lex couldn’t understand why we were staying away from our mate when she was right there, scared and hurt and

alone.”

I chuckle weakly at the memories.

“I had to fight him,” I say. “Every day, every second, he wanted to ignore every boundary. He was so sure if we could just hold her,

everything else would be okay.”

Charlie’s hands curl around the edge of the bench.

11:18 Wed, Jul 29

Chapter 243 What It Feels Like to Love a Girl

“When did it change?”

130

I can see him thinking back through it all. Through whatever happened between them before she went home scared and he ended up crying in Charlotte’s arms.

His voice is rough when he answers.

“Last night.”

“When you told her?”

Charlie shakes his head slowly. “After Titan showed himself to her.”

“That was when it changed?”

He presses his palms against his thighs. “When she put her hand on his head.”

Every part of him seems to pull tight around the memory. His eyes are fixed on the concrete now, but I don’t think he is seeing it. I think

he is back there in the snow with Jess in front of Titan.

“It was like…” He stops, frustration flashing across his face. “I don’t know. I don’t know how to explain it.”

I nudge his leg, giving him a small smile. “Try.”

His eyes move to mine, and I get a glimpse of the boy he only ever shows Charlotte.

“It was like the whole world opened up under my feet,” he says quietly. “And now I don’t have anything to stand on anymore if I don’t

have her.”

Well shit. I know mate instinct. I know the pull. I know Lex’s certainty when it comes to Charlotte. And I know it all feels a hell of a lot

like that, but still, it doesn’t add up.

Charlie rubs at his chest again. “I know she isn’t mine. I know that. I keep telling Titan that. If she was our mate, we would have known

the second we first met her, right?”

“But he doesn’t understand it?” I ask.

Charlie shakes his head. “He understands. He just really hates it.”

He lets out a humourless laugh.

I stand, cross the space between us, and sit beside him instead of opposite him.

without making you feel lik

11:18 Wed, Jul 29

Chapter 243 What It Feels Like to Love a Girl

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