Page 28 of Bound to Exiles (Rejected Wolf Pack #5)

“But we could all share strength and endurance in battle,” Freya suggested eagerly. “Maybe even wolf healing if one of us needs it more?”

“Excellent deduction, my spark.” Zak’s pride colored our bond. “You’re probably right. It’s hard to know… I’m aware of a few Bonded circles with wolves and even fae among their Bonded. But it’s rare to see multiple wolves in a Bonded circle.”

I studied them both, still uncertain. “What does Freya get in return for sharing her magic with you and her wolf healing with all of us?”

Zak hesitated, unsure, and Flint answered instead, “We keep her grounded. As an Odinswolf, she could become lost in her visions and dreams. We all noticed her heat dreams were stronger than before. The stronger she grows, the greater that risk — especially with her witch magic. That must also be why she needs six mates.”

Even though we’d known about it since the starbeams fell, my wolf bristled at the thought of another outsider joining our pack and sharing our mate. I forced down the instinctive response. After all, I’d once been the outsider myself.

“You should have told us this sooner,” Gage growled at Zak.

“When I arrived, I wasn’t sure how much you understood about the bond,” Zak answered. “I expected you must know how it worked — otherwise, how could it exist? There can be no one-way bond among witches. It’s everyone or no one.”

“That can’t be right,” Heath challenged, stepping closer to Zak and Freya. His scent carried frustration tinged with desire. “We couldn’t even hear each other through the Bonded link until Freya bit Gage back. Explain that. ”

Freya held up a hand, then explained everything to Zak. “Let’s back up. Gage bit me first, then I had mutual bites with Heath, Flint, and Rowan. During my heat, I finally bit Gage back.”

“Ah. So, you had a wolf’s mate bond with Gage at first, but it was only one-sided. That’s possible with wolves, but not a witch’s Bonded. Then, your bonds with the others were two-way wolf mate bonds. Right?”

As he spoke, longing leaked through his careful control of the bond. The depth of his yearning for connection struck me, reminding me of my old loneliness. Even when I’d run with my wolf family, I hadn’t fully belonged. It wasn’t until I joined the Howling Echo that I found my true pack.

“Yes, but, when Gage bit me, he came away with the Bonded mark on his face,” Freya said. “And the others did when I bit them.”

Zak raised a hand to his clean-shaven chin.

“Interesting. So, Gage’s initial alpha mate-bite would be considered one-sided from a wolf’s perspective.

Yet it must have interacted with your nascent witch magic, Freya.

It’s like your magic instinctively tried to form a Bonded link, marking him as it would a Bonded partner. ”

“But we couldn’t communicate both directions,” Gage added. “Not until she bit me back.”

Zak hummed in surprise. “Well, Freya isn’t a full-blooded mage. She’s only half. So, perhaps it’s due to her wolf side. The full two-way connection of that link wasn’t active yet because the mate bond itself wasn’t mutual. It didn’t fully connect as a two-way wolf mate bond, nor as a Bonded link.”

“But my Bonded mark showed up,” Freya murmured.

Zak nodded. “Normally, witches choose to become Bonded together. They join magic willingly, knowingly. But you four aren’t witches at all. You never chose to become her Bonded through ceremony. Perhaps that’s why it didn’t behave normally at first.”

“Then how did it happen?” Heath asked. “Why did it start working later?”

“You all finally chose. You not only chose her, but each other, her other Bonded — during her heat. That’s when she brought me in, too. The powerful magic of her heat acted like a Bonding ceremony because we all chose each other.”

Freya’s first heat had been strong enough to reach me through the pack bond, even at a distance. So, I knew her heat was powerful, unlike anything I’d sensed before, but powerful enough to forge a magical bond like a witch ceremony?

“But we didn’t choose you,” Heath pointed out, though his voice had softened.

“No,” Zak acknowledged. “But Freya did. And since we both have enough mage blood, that was sufficient to bind us. Meanwhile, you all accepted that Freya has the free will to choose her mates, and that you would all accept the others. During her heat, she chose me. That made us all Bonded, whether you consciously chose me or not.”

“The same will likely happen with Freya’s sixth mate,” Flint said thoughtfully.

“Yes.” Zak nodded. “He’ll probably become Bonded without ceremony as well.”

The silence that followed felt charged with unspoken questions. Finally, I voiced what had been nagging at me, my eyes on Zak.

“Could the Bonded connection explain why we’re starting to feel things for each other, not just Freya?”

The tent grew still as my packmates absorbed the implications. Through our bond, I sensed their curiosity spike — and something sharper, more intense. Zak’s careful control slipped, letting through a flash of keen interest before he masked it again.

I was a member of the Howling Echo for two years before Freya came along. I’d never once felt anything but admiration for my packmates. But Freya turned everything on its head, and for the first time, I’d begun noticing how attractive my packmates were. It had to be because we were Bonded.

Zak glanced at Freya, who grinned at him and said, “You’re the expert here.”

“That could be,” Zak carefully answered me.

“Please understand the Bonded link can’t create attraction where none existed.

But it does offer access to each other’s secret emotions and deepest desires.

Which means we’re getting to know each other with the kind of intimate understanding that most shifters only experience through a mate bond. ”

Gage’s eyes flicked to Heath before returning to Zak. “And in turn, our wolves are beginning to see others as mates and call for their claiming.”

Freya’s eyes lit up as her pleasure flooded our bond. The thought of Gage and Heath as mates clearly pleased Freya, who looked meaningfully at Heath.

My inner wolf howled. Whatever my mate wanted, he wanted. Since this wasn’t something he could hunt down and present to her like a trophy, he felt restless and impatient.

Zak was right. Gage and Heath’s attraction had been there all along. They’d always belonged together — we’d all seen it. Maybe now the Bonded connection would encourage them to finally acknowledge it.

Zak responded, “Exactly. Wolves are primal and intuitive. They’re recognizing that profound connection as something akin to a mate bond, an undeniable part of your unified whole. Most witches do treat all their Bonded similarly to how wolves treat their mates.”

“I thought you told Freya—” Heath started.

“I told her some Bonded choose not to.” Zak looked away. “I told her what she needed to hear. It’s common for Bonded members to develop deep affections for one another, whether or not they ever turn romantic or sexual.”

Horror flooded our bond as Freya stared at Zak. “Did I… did I bond you against your will? Just like when—”

She cut off abruptly, but not before Zak caught Gage’s surge of guilt through the bond.

“What’s that about?” the mage asked, squeezing Freya tighter to him and twisting her to the side as though protecting her from the pack alpha.

“You shouldn’t be able to sense that,” Gage growled. “Only the pack alpha should have such access.”

To my surprise, the mage was able to meet the pack alpha’s gaze for three long seconds before his eyes dropped .

“It’s okay, Zak,” Freya reassured him. “It happened a while ago, and I’ve forgiven Gage for biting me without my permission.”

Zak stared down at her silently for a moment, and I wondered if they were talking privately or if he was just trying to sense everything he could through the bond.

He nodded after a moment, then faced Gage. This time, his eyes didn’t lift above our pack alpha’s chin.

“In a typical pack bond, only the pack alpha has such broad access. But this Bonded connection we share through Freya’s magic is different — it’s inherently more open between all members.

Any strong emotion can bleed through to anyone within the Bonded circle unless we consciously learn not to let it.

In the Bonded circle, there is no hierarchy. ”

“That’s become clear to us all,” Gage grumbled.

“Would you like me to teach you how to limit what bleeds through the bond, alpha?”

Gage’s irritation and attraction both simultaneously sparked, and Heath shared a grin with Flint.

Zak remained unfazed, dropping a kiss on Freya’s forehead. “It’s almost like creating wards, but inside your mind.”

“Show us,” Freya said eagerly.

With the same patience he’d shown while teaching her magic, Zak guided us through the mental exercise. “Focus on the bond itself first. Feel how it connects us all.”

I closed my eyes, sensing the bonds that linked us all together, how right they felt, how they made us stronger. Maybe Zak was right, and we were naturally growing closer together because we could now sense so much more of each other’s deepest emotions.

“Now imagine drawing a veil across that connection — thin enough to let the other Bonded know you’re alive and well, but thick enough to maintain privacy.”

“That’s what you did the night Freya and Flint were together,” Gage said. “When you asked if I needed to concentrate.”

Zak nodded, and I recalled how my connection to Flint and Freya that night had suddenly dampened. Their lovemaking had fallen quiet, becoming less visceral and more like a faint memory in the back of my mind that I could call up or ignore.

“You did that?” I asked.

Zak smiled and nodded. “You were all busy, so I thought you might appreciate the discretion, and it gave Flint and Freya their privacy.”

Flint and Freya shared a secret smile that made me wonder what I’d missed that night.

“Now, everyone focus on drawing your curtains.”

The more I tried, the more I realized I could feel Zak pushing through the bond, easily breaking through to each of us while he remained opaque. Gage snarled out his frustration.

Zak took a deep breath, his calm pushing through the bond to each of us.

“Think of it like… a window with a curtain. The fabric won’t block everything, but it filters how much light and air pass through.

A strong gust of wind — like if our Bonded are in danger — will still push through the window past the curtain.

We’ll know a storm is coming. But on a calm day, we can’t easily look through the curtain to every little detail of what’s on the other side. ”

We practiced for several minutes, Zak pushing and prodding us through the bond to help us gauge our success. The bond felt different now — still present, but quieter, calmer, more manageable.

“Great,” Zak’s approval waited just outside my imaginary window, visible even through the curtain I’d drawn across it. “As you get better at it, you’ll be able to help the others close their curtains if needed, unless they object.”

At some point during our practice, he and Freya had pulled apart. Now he turned to face her, taking her hands in his.

“Freya.” Zak’s voice softened as he turned to her. “You didn’t force this on me. I’m happier and more fulfilled as your Bonded than I ever was in my coven.”

She stepped into his arms, and he held her close.

“I’m glad you’re here,” she whispered.

He leaned his head against hers. “In the coven, I was treated as less than nothing. A hybrid who couldn’t be trusted. They…” He sw allowed hard. “They made sure I knew I was worth less than the rest of them.”

A flash of worry across the bond struck me, and when I glanced over, Flint was frowning.

“Just like Ironwood did to me,” Freya whispered, reaching up to touch her fellow hybrid’s face.

Watching them together, my remaining doubts about Zak crumbled. I didn’t need the bond to see his genuine pain — the kind of pain that came from years of abuse and isolation. The same pain I’d seen in Freya’s eyes when I first met her.

My wolf whimpered, urging me to comfort them both. But these feelings for Zak were too unfamiliar for me to act on them.

While I held back, Heath stepped closer to them both. “Turns out you’re right where you belong.”

Flint joined them, sandwiching Freya from behind.

Heath laid a hand on Zak’s shoulder. Though the bond remained silent this time, my wolfish nose detected the bloom of attraction. My inner wolf pushed forward, seeking solidarity and comfort from his packmates, wishing to join in.

“He’s right. We’re all outcasts here,” Freya said, raising up on her toes to gently kiss Zak — the first time any of us had seen them kiss.

He let out a shuddering breath when their lips broke apart, as though he’d waited years for that moment. Freya met his eyes, pouring her affection to him through the bond.

It struck me that he could meet her gaze without dropping his eyes. Neither of them were alphas, and Freya’s Odinswolf held no natural rank.

Flint added, “And we were all outcasts long before what just happened with Fern and Frost Fang.”

“So we get it.” Heath nodded. “Us misfits have to stick together.”

Only Gage and I stood apart. We shared a glance, and I had a feeling he and I were thinking the same thing. As much as I wanted to ease his pain, Zak still hadn’t told us everything. And until our wolves met, he wasn’t ready to join the pack.