Page 1 of Bound to Exiles (Rejected Wolf Pack #5)

Freya

“Welcome, my fifth mate,” I said. “Or should I say, my Bonded?”

Lightning raced up my arm the moment my hand connected with Zak’s.

My wolf perked up, her fur sizzling with barely restrained electricity — not from fear or protective instincts, but from excitement.

The same excitement I’d felt when I first met each of my mates, but with an added layer of familiarity.

Recognition sparked like memories long forgotten.

We’d already shared intimate moments in my dreams, even though I couldn’t quite remember any of them clearly thanks to my heat.

His touch sent warmth spreading through me, and my wolf paced restlessly, wanting to get closer. The way his full lips curved into a knowing smile made heat pool low in my belly. I couldn’t tear my eyes away from his dark, mesmerizing gaze even as my alphas’ awareness sharpened.

His playful yet authoritative words echoed across the Bonded link to us all: “My guiding star, my sweet hybrid, my darling new pupil, I’ll answer to anything you wish to call me.”

His words made me recall one of my dreams. I’d cried out to him that I was hopeless, incapable of learning magic. By the time I awakened, and the dream slid from my conscious mind, I’d lost the clarity of his reassuring voice.

Meeting him at long last sent butterflies rising in my stomach. My breath caught in my throat as I studied the man, my fifth mate, who claimed to be my future magic instructor.

With his sleeve pulled down, I could see how muscular his shoulder was. The half-moon tattoo matched the ones that graced all my alphas’ shoulders — though his dark skin tone changed how it looked. The bright half almost seemed to shine, while the shadowed half was harder to spot.

Bright silver studs and delicate hoops, maybe a dozen of them, lined his ears, drawing attention to his clean-shaven jaw and the dark-skinned curve of his neck. His closely cropped hair and smooth skin accentuated his strong features.

The light of dawn made his piercings shimmer whenever he glanced back and forth between me and my mates. I could barely peel my eyes away from my attractive new mate to make introductions.

“Zak, this is Flint, Gage, Heath, and Rowan,” I pointed out each of my mates standing in a row.

“The pleasure’s all mine.” Zak’s lips quirked up in a flirty smile, but was that a hint of dismay I caught in his eyes as my mates circled around us?

“I knew Zak’s connection with Freya gave her the fifth rune,” Heath said, “but for some reason, I didn’t expect it went both ways. Can he hear us right now?”

I held my breath, waiting to see if Zak would answer. Unlike my alpha mates, the mage didn’t project dominance with the threat of consequences for disobedience. Wrapped in his heavy wool peacoat, he carried himself with the confidence of someone who knew his own power and wasn’t afraid to use it.

“I don’t think we’ve been projecting our thoughts to include him,” Flint said after an awkward moment of all of us staring at the newcomer.

“Good, because I don’t trust him,” Gage warned.

“Neither do I. Not yet,” I reassured my alphas, not wanting them to think I trusted the mage simply because the half-moon tattoo marked his shoulder .

Testing our theory, I pushed my thoughts toward Zak. “Can you hear me?”

“Of course, my dear,” he answered for all of us to hear.

Even if I ignored the scent of magic clinging to Zak, he commanded attention. His shoulders rivaled Heath’s in breadth, though he stood closer to Flint and Rowan’s height. Like my alpha mates, his presence radiated physical power, even though my wolf didn’t sense an alpha inside of him.

The pull between us felt undeniable, but I’d been fooled by a fake fated mate bond before.

My own aunt had cursed me to make it look like Luka and I were fated mates to prevent Ironwood’s alliance with the Frost Fang pack.

Despite my own vision showing a mage would come to aid me in my hour of darkest need, a magic wielder claiming to be my mate made me wary.

Though… my wolf certainly sensed no deception — she was pawing at the walls of my mind, begging to run and play with him.

Sensing my uncertainty, Gage stepped closer to Zak. In a low voice, he demanded, “Why are you here? Why now?”

Zak let out a soft chuckle. “Surely I can’t be the only one who saw the starbeams? I came as quickly as I could.”

I kept my grip on Zak’s hand, as that point of contact seemed to amplify the Bonded link between us, allowing a sense of his emotions. Beneath his flirtatious exterior extended depths that called to both my newfound magic and my wolf.

My wolf had never reacted positively to Luka, even when she’d been trapped inside me. And Luka and I had never shared this feeling, this sense of soul-deep connection, like the one between Zak and me. This didn’t feel fake.

Remembering my ability to sense pack bonds, I let my eyes slip half-closed, trying to bring up that power again, reaching out with all of my senses to find the bonds between us.

“That’s it, my darling pupil,” Zak whispered, startling me.

When my eyes flashed open, his full lips curved into a knowing smile. But it was his mischievous gaze that held me captive.

“I feel you drawing in your magic, gathering it around yourself. Whatever you’re doing, my magic is yours to take if you need it. ”

I didn’t tell him I had no idea how to do that.

That he could feel me accessing my magic made me wonder if I was barking up the wrong tree — using my mage powers instead of my Odinswolf blessings.

So, I let my eyes slip half-closed once more, trying to reach that place again where the bonds had been so obvious.

This time, they effortlessly snapped into place.

What I saw made my eyes widen. A web of bonds surrounded me, enveloping me in shared connections. Pausing to unravel them all, I noticed three different kinds — pack bonds, mate bonds, and the Bonded link I’d unintentionally formed between me and my mates.

The Bonded link between Zak and me crackled with barely restrained energy, but we didn’t share a mate bond like I did with my four alphas. My mate bonds with my claimed mates were thicker and stronger, and they felt far steadier.

To my surprise, I caught sight of bonds connecting Zak to my other mates, and them to him.

The Bonded link hadn’t just formed between me and Zak — it united all six of us.

And the faintest thread flowed outward from me into the middle of nowhere, unconnected to anyone that I could see.

But the direction was obvious — it pointed toward where we’d seen the most distant starbeam fall.

As for the third type of bond, the pack bonds that united the Howling Echo did not connect to Zak, nor did the Frost Fang pack bonds that the rest of us were connected to via Gage. He had no pack, though he’d asked Gage to let him join ours.

Around us, the others spoke silently to each other over the Bonded link, letting me listen in, but excluding Zak.

“His scent seems so… familiar,” Heath murmured in our minds.

“Like Freya’s, both wolf and magic,” Flint answered.

“More witch than wolf,” Rowan warned.

“We’re Bonded,” I answered, feeling more confident now that I could see the bonds between us all. “Fate sent him to me — to us — for a reason. We need to get to know him.”

When I glanced back toward Frost Fang territory, I saw a strong pack bond running from Gage into a few wolves gathering near the border.

With a sigh, I blinked, letting my special sight fade. At least that was one ability I’d mastered, but probably only because it came from my Odinswolf, who seemed to instinctively access her power.

“Zak…” I said along the Bonded connection. Seeing the wolves gathering reminded me of the political fallout awaiting us. “I need you to hide that Bonded mark one more time. At least for a little while.”

A bolt of fear shot through my bond with him, quickly suppressed. He raised my hand between us and lightly kissed the back of it.

The rich baritone of his voice rose only loud enough for me and my mates to hear. “For you? Anything.”

Magic rippled along his cheekbone, and the rune disappeared as though it had never existed, leaving unblemished black skin beneath. Once again, my eyes were drawn to his smooth, strong jaw and the earrings lining the shell of his ears.

Heat flooded my cheeks as his smile widened.

Through our new Bonded link, I felt his pleasure at my obvious appraisal.

Just like when I’d first met each of them, my body responded to his presence with an intensity that left me breathless.

My other mates tensed around me, their unease flowing through our mate bonds and Bonded link, but I couldn’t look away.

His origins and our meeting intrigued me. I wanted to find answers to the mysteries of fate that linked us. But first…

“Let’s get in out of the cold,” I said, pulling him toward Frost Fang packlands.

Rowan and Gage’s discomfort grew, for different reasons. A deluge of relief, joy, and desperate longing overwhelmed those emotions, all coming from Zak. But as quickly as they had come, those feelings waned, as though Zak had muted them in the Bonded link somehow.

When I turned to look toward civilization, the crowd of wolf shifters had grown.

Zak stood by my side but made no further movement to cross the border, as though not wanting to appear threatening.

Though I’d asked him to hide the ansuz rune on his face, I didn’t drop his hand.

Eventually, I would want him to reveal his Bonded marks, and if our packmates saw me holding hands with him first, it would come as less of a surprise.

“We’re all tired after the pack run,” Gage called to the gathered Frost Fang wolves. “You can all find your beds. We’ll handle the mage from here.”