Page 17 of Bound to Exiles (Rejected Wolf Pack #5)
Gage
After an afternoon where Freya became more and more frustrated at her thwarted attempts to create wards, Zak took over, telling her they would practice together more the next day.
By late evening, Zak was still busy setting up perimeter wards around the camp where we would stay for the next few days.
He and I had interacted very little, and I still wasn’t sure what to think of the stars bringing him to Freya.
Clearly he was meant to be one of her mates…
but up until now, we’d been the Howling Echo.
I’d always had the sense that if Flint, Heath, and I could share Freya, Rowan would eventually get on board with us.
I’d never once believed Freya might take even more mates outside our pack.
But she was a mage and an Odinswolf, and we weren’t.
It made sense for fate to send her more mates, ones who could help her better tap into her powers.
I tried not to wonder if perhaps we four were the interlopers, the temporary mates who’d shown up before her real mates could arrive.
If our only real purpose had been to protect her for them.
The thought made me feel prickly toward Zak, and I knew that frustrated Freya. While the mage set up wards, Rowan watched his back .
Heath and I quickly got tied up with pack disputes, which left Flint as the one at Freya’s side. We’d all already agreed one of us would be with her at all times now that we’d left the safety of packlands. Naturally, one thing led to another, and Flint took Freya to bed.
We all felt her pleasure, and I was surprised when Zak’s words reached me through the Bonded connection.
“Do you need to concentrate? Because I do.”
“I’m doing my best,” I gritted out just as Flint gave Freya her first orgasm of the evening, flooding the bond with lust.
I tried not to be jealous, but Freya and Flint were probably too distracted to feel how frustrated the rest of us were not to be in on the action.
“So am I,” Zak said. “And as much as I’m enjoying this… I need to finish up these wards.”
As soon as he said that, something changed in the Bonded link.
It felt… muted. If I concentrated, I could tell Freya and Flint were still going at it.
But it was the difference between hearing them in the same room versus hearing them down the hallway.
Somehow, Zak lengthened the mental hallway, giving me access to them if I wanted to peek in, but space if I needed to focus.
“Some are saying they never want to go back to Frost Fang,” Bretton said, drawing my attention.
“Thanks,” I said to Zak before ignoring the Bonded connection completely, something I hadn’t been able to do before the mage did… whatever he just did.
“Time will tell,” I answered Bretton. “They may change their minds.”
“Some of the Ironwood refugees don’t want to return to their pack either,” Heath added.
“They want you to bring them into your pack,” Bretton said pointedly.
“We’re all still part of Frost Fang,” I said defensively.
“I mean the Howling Echo.”
“More importantly, some are calling for you to bring Zak into one pack or the other,” Heath added. “They feel they can’t trust his loyalty if he’s not pack. ”
I sighed, scratching my beard. “He’s not ready,” I answered.
“Or is it that you’re not ready?” Heath asked silently over our bond.
I narrowed my eyes at him without replying.
Bretton glanced between the two of us. By this point, he’d learned to read us fairly well, so he changed the subject. “There’s another matter we should discuss…”
And so we went, round and round until late in the night, long after Freya had fallen asleep cuddled in the crook of Flint’s arm.
After a long night of arguing, I crawled into a single tent nearby, kicked off my boots, and fell into a deep sleep.
My wolf felt content knowing his mate was nearby and that she was protected.
The next morning, I woke up and found Zak already at it again with Freya, showing her how to work on the wards again. Her eyes flashed when something clicked, and they both looked up as I strode out of my tent.
“It’s easier today!” she crowed. “I think I’m getting the hang of it!”
“Good girl.”
Her eyes instantly darkened, her cheeks going red. I grinned at the immediate effect my words had on her.
Sauntering over, I kissed her senseless right in front of the mage.
Nothing came through the Bonded link from him, but it never did.
Somehow, he was keeping himself hidden from us, which was another reason he wasn’t ready to join our pack.
The Howling Echo pack kept no secrets from one another, but Zak did.
I didn’t like it.
I also didn’t like how she turned right back to him, ready for more training. She needed it, and yet… he could give her something I couldn’t, and that pissed me off more than it should. It was stupid, and I knew it. But I couldn’t tell my jealousy that.
“Keep at it, princess,” I growled, nipping her earlobe as she turned away from me.
Zak’s eyes widened, darting over to Freya, no doubt wondering how my vague alpha command would take effect.
His eyebrows drew down as she raised her hands to continue practicing.
None of us had clued him in yet as to Freya’s Odinswolf side, but by now he’d noticed she could do things no other wolf or mage could do .
As I turned to go relieve myself in the woods, I caught Zak’s angry look burning into me. My guess was that he didn’t like that I’d given Freya an order. If he tried to challenge my authority, I’d show him how I’d stayed pack alpha over two packs.
Out in the woods around the camp, I decided to shift and go for a run to burn off some of my frustrations after last night and this morning. I sensed Rowan out here, patrolling the area that Zak hadn’t yet warded, but I didn’t go toward him. Neither of us needed company.
And yet, only a few minutes later, I heard paws on the trail behind me, and through the bonds, I sensed Heath’s presence.
“Long night,” Heath grumbled through the bond as I let him catch up so we could run shoulder to shoulder.
“Indeed,” I agreed, wondering if Zak had done him the same favor as he had for me or not. “I didn’t want to intrude on Flint’s night with Freya. Rare that he gets one of those.”
“Rare that any of us do,” Heath added. “And it’ll only be less common as her two mates catch up.”
“Don’t remind me,” I grumbled.
“There seems to be a lot we’re not talking about.”
“Heath… let’s just run.”
“Fine,” he agreed, but his frustration leaked to me over the bond.
Aside from Zak, Heath was the best at hiding his feelings in the bond, which meant he was intentionally letting me know I’d pissed him off.
We circled the perimeter twice and caught sight of Zak and Freya finishing up the wards together.
“She’s improving rapidly,” Heath mentioned.
“Amazing what she can do with the right teacher,” I agreed.
“I like Brielle, but somehow, Zak knows just what to say—”
“Heath,” I grumbled.
“You don’t like him.”
“I… don’t know what to make of him yet.”
“He’s Freya’s mate, Gage. Your thoughts on the matter don’t matter.”
“I know that,” I growled.
With the perimeter properly secured, I headed back through camp toward our area, where the original Howling Echo vehicles and tents were set up.
I headed for the truck, where I’d left a duffel bag of extra clothes.
Heath shifted back before I could, and I found my gaze lingering on his jacked figure.
We’d run and shifted together so many times over the years, and yet only recently had I begun to acknowledge how attractive Heath was.
I just wasn’t sure what to do with those feelings, or how to explore where things might go without fucking up the delicate balance we’d found as Freya’s mates.
Heath yanked his pants out of his sling back and slowly pulled them on.
When I shifted back, I caught Heath’s gaze sliding over my body. Naked longing shone in his eyes, and my breath caught. I looked away. There was too much going on right now to unravel these complicated feelings between us.
“You’ve been giving me the cold shoulder ever since we kissed,” Heath said in a low voice, prowling over as I opened the back door of the extended-cab truck.
My pulse jolted at his words. I never thought I would kiss a man. And for him to just say it out loud, where anyone could hear?
It sent me back to the old Frost Fang days, when my father had been the pack alpha, and homosexual relationships were forbidden between alphas. I glanced around, but we stood between the truck and the Jeep. The open door of the truck shielded us from view from other tents nearby.
“What do you want me to say?” I asked as I pulled on a pair of cargo pants from my duffel bag.
Heath grabbed my shoulder, turning me around. The look in his eyes was pure predator, and I was his prey. The alpha in him was used to getting what he wanted.
“I want you to say… that you want to do it again,” he said in a rough voice.
Did I want to do it again? Just because it had happened once didn’t mean I needed to let this confusion continue.
Maybe it would be better for both our sakes to stop this before it really got going.
When he’d tried taking my hand the other day, I’d instinctively jerked away.
Surely that meant I wasn’t meant to be with men, right ?
I turned away, grabbed a long-sleeved shirt, and put my arms through it. Before I could put my head through, Heath grabbed my shoulder again and pushed my back against the truck bed. With my arms tangled up in the shirt, I didn’t offer any resistance.