Where The Ice Gives Way (Charlotte and Blake) novel Chapter 250

Chapter 250 The Pack Comes Together

Jessica

I’ve been to the Atlases’ house before. A few times now, actually. But I have never seen it like this.

Cars line the driveway, the kerb, the road, and half the street beyond it, some tucked neatly against snowbanks and others parked wherever their ownets clearly decided was close enough. There are utes, family cars, a couple of work vans, one motorbike half- covered beneath a tarp near the side fence, and so

many people moving through the front gate that it looks less like a norval Sunday breakfast and more like Wellington has quietly relocated itself to Blake

Atlas’s backyard.

“What the hell is this?” I ask, staring out the window.

Emily puts the car in park and glances at the crowd with the kind of calm that makes me want to shake her. “Breakfast.”

I turn my head slowly, not saying a word.

“What?” she says, reaching for her keys. “There’s definitely food involved.”

Charlotte leans forward from the other side of me, her shoulder brushing mine, and the second she is close enough, that awful pressure beneath my ribs loosens just a fraction. She looks out at the house, then back to me, and there is something soft in her expression that makes my stomach dip before anyone

has said a single useful thing.

“This is the pack,” she says quietly.

Right. Of course. How silly of me not to expect that.

I climb out, but the moment my feet hit the ground, the noise rolls over me. Voices from the house. Laughter from somewhere out back. A child shrieking. Doors opening and shutting. Tyres hissing through slush down the road. Every sound feels louder than it should, every smell too layered to make sense of coffee and smoke and wet wool and cold metal and bread and people, so many people, all tangled together until my head starts to throb again.

I move closer to Charlotte, and she shifts with me, letting me tuck myself against her side as Emily comes around the car and my parents stand ahead of us looking painfully nervous for people who apparently arranged this entire circus.

Mara Atlas opens the front door before we reach the porch, and her whole face warms when she sees us. She greets my parents first, one hand touching Mum’s arm, then Dad’s, murmuring something that makes Mum blink too quickly and Dad drop his gaze for half a second. Then Mara looks at me, and the kindness in her eyes is so direct I almost take a step back from it.

“I’m so glad you came, Jess,” she says.

Charlotte’s hand settles at my back and guides me through the house before I can decide whether to ask more questions or turn around and climb into the boot of Emily’s car. The house smells warm and full, too full. People move through it with a comfort that tells me this is normal here. People most da s often. Gather. Feed each other. Drift in and sut of the Atlases’ house like it is their own.

We step out the back door, and I forget how to walk properly.

11:16 am

ppp.

Chapter 250-The Pack Comes Together

Before

“Were those always there?” I ask.

Emily follows my gaze. “Nope.”

I would laugh at her vagueness if my pulse were not climbing up my throat.

People are everywhere. Students from school, a few teachers, faces 1ecognise from town, people I have served at the rink kiosk, people who have smiled at me in the supermarket, people who have been walking around Wellington this entire time with secrets. Big Bloody secrets.

Is this what Charlie meant when he said pack?

Is this a wolf den?

No, that’s a cave.

A community, maybe.

Mara appears beside us again, somehow gentle even in the middle of all this noise. “Please, grab some breakfast,” she says. “Once you’ve got your belly full,

we can have a chat, okay?”

My heart kicks hard enough that my whole body wants to fall over into the snow to cool off.

“Um… Mrs Atlas?”

“Please, dear. Just Mara is fine.”

“Mara,” I say quietly. “I’m very thankful. Really. But I think I might be sick if eat anything right now.”

Her expression softens. “Are you sure? Not even a little something?”

The thought of food makes my stomach twist, and I am trying to find a polite way to say that when a low voice speaks behind me.

“How about I put a plate aside for her, and she can eat when she’s ready?”

My body turns.

{

Charlie stands a few steps away with his hands in his pockets, hair messy, shoulders loose, face calm. His green eyes meet mine, and something in my chest pulls me toward him.

Maybe it’s because I know him, really know him.

Without thinking, I take one step toward him. Then I hesitate, but only for a second.

Charlie slips one hand from his pocket and lifts it just enough that I know he’s offering

1:16 am

ppp

Chapter 250 The Pack Comes Together

So i go to him

I slide my fingers into his and latch on to the only thing in this entire strange, crowded place that feels even a little bit steady.

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