Page 41 of Bound to Exiles (Rejected Wolf Pack #5)

“You’re emotionally drained,” I finished for him, recognizing the bone-deep weariness in his voice.

He nodded, and I settled against him, pulling the blanket higher around us both.

“Rest, then,” I murmured. “We’ll figure it out tomorrow.”

As Zak’s breathing eventually evened out into sleep, I remained awake a little longer, my mind turning over possibilities.

If I told Gage that Zak couldn’t bring his wolf out, he would try to help.

I remembered how Gage had supported me before I could shift, giving me the pack bite despite my inability to transform.

The memory of kneeling before him, his wolf form looming over me as he marked me for the pack — it still filled me with warmth thinking of how they’d accepted me back when none of us were sure I would ever shift.

So, if Zak’s wolf really was stuck, I knew Gage would allow him to fully join the pack regardless — just as he had done with me.

Gage didn’t stand on tradition, after all.

That was one of the things I loved most about him and our unconventional pack.

And our unique pack drew more pack followers to us every day…

So many wolves had left Frost Fang to join us, and now even Brielle gave me her allegiance.

We were building something special, and Zak was part of it.

With that comforting thought, I closed my eyes and went in search of Tor.

Drifting through the dreamscape, I called out to my sixth mate. I longed for the comfort of his guidance and the connection we shared as Odinswolves. Tonight, however, something felt different. The usual pathways seemed altered, pulling me in an unfamiliar direction.

I followed the current, curious rather than afraid. The dreamscape shifted around me, colors bleeding into one another until they solidified into a new scene.

A cozy room soon materialized with walls lined with bookshelves and a large, worn rug over wooden floors.

A man sat on the rug, his hands glowing with soft blue light as he tended to a young boy who couldn’t have been more than six or seven.

Bloody scrapes marred the deep black skin of his shin and knee.

“Hold still, Zakaib,” the man said, his voice gentle but firm.

I moved closer, drawn in. The man had deep blue eyes that sparked with lightning and short brown hair. His face was kind, with laugh lines around his eyes and a certain intensity to his gaze that spoke of power carefully controlled.

The blue light from his hands enveloped the boy’s leg, and the scrapes began to close, the skin knitting together seamlessly.

“Wow,” the boy — Zak, I realized with a start — breathed in amazement.

The man smiled. “One day when you’re grown up, you’ll be able to shift and heal yourself instead of needing magic to fix you up.”

“Really? You think I’ll be able to shift?”

“Being a hybrid doesn’t make either side weaker,” the man said. “That’s what they don’t understand. You have gifts from both worlds, Zakaib. Never let anyone make you feel lesser for that.”

My heart clenched at the words. How different would my life have been if someone had told me that as a child?

“Preston—” someone called from outside the room, and Zak quickly backed away from the man named Preston .

Shock sent ice through my veins as I realized why that name sounded so familiar — Pandora’s brother was named Preston.

My father. How had my father come across Zak?

My eyes widened as I tried to drink in everything about the scene just before it shifted, colors swirling before resolving into a new moment.

The same room, but Zak looked slightly older now. He sat cross-legged on the floor while Preston stood before a chalkboard covered in strange symbols.

“The coven believes hybrids like you shouldn’t exist,” Preston was saying, his tone matter-of-fact but gentle. “But they’re wrong. The strongest magic comes from diversity, from the blending of different strengths.”

“Is that why they killed my parents?” Zak asked, his young voice somber.

Preston’s expression darkened. “Yes. And it’s why we must be careful. But never ashamed, Zakaib. Never ashamed.”

The scene changed again, melting into a forest clearing, Preston running with Zak bouncing on his back.

The boy looked to be about eight now. Both of them let out a cry as a fireball smashed into a tree directly in front of them.

Preston tripped and Zak went flying, but Preston’s magic cushioned his fall.

I watched it all with my heart in my throat, terrified for them both.

“We’re almost to shifter territory.” Fear laced Preston’s words. “Keep going!”

“Those shifters will kill you both!” A woman’s voice called from behind them. “Don’t be stupid.”

Preston turned to face their attackers and created a shield in front of the two of them. To my surprise, Zak raced around the edge of it.

“I’ll distract them!” Zak yelled, tears streaming down his face.

“No, Zak—”

With a child’s simple logic, Zak said, “You saved me, now I can save you.”

“Zakaib—”

“Go!” Zak disappeared into the brush. “They already promised not to kill me. ”

“That way!” Someone called, hearing Zak crashing through the undergrowth.

Preston’s face crumpled with indecision as he stared off into the darkness after the boy. “I’ll come back for you,” he promised. “I swear it.”

“Go!” Zak yelled again, invisible in the dense underbrush.

The boy pushed through the bushes and broke into rocky terrain free of undergrowth, then ran straight toward the voices, away from Preston.

My chest ached for the brave little boy, sacrificing himself so that Preston could escape, unaware of the hell the coven would later put him through.

The timeline was becoming clearer now — these events must have taken place before my parents met.

Preston had taken in this orphaned hybrid child, raised him for four years, then been forced to leave him behind when he fled the coven.

Which meant it must have been later that Preston found his way to my mother’s pack, where I would eventually be born.

The scene shifted once more until Preston stood in a dimly lit room.

A woman’s voice radiated confidence. “The Winter Wind pack doesn’t care about hierarchies.”

“Which is exactly why I want to bring Zakaib here,” Preston said. “But I don’t even know if my messages are reaching him.”

I couldn’t see her features. Was that because this was Zak’s dream, and he had never met her?

Her words softened with regret. “Every message you send could be getting intercepted. Every person you try to approach could be a trap. They want you to come back for him.”

Preston’s hands clenched into fists. “But I won’t stop trying. I can’t.”

I sensed that Preston had spent years knowing he’d left Zak in danger, unable to go back for him without risking both their lives.

“We’ll find a way to get him out,” she promised. “But it has to be the right way, at the right time. We can’t risk the Winter Wind, and our pack is much smaller than Ravenscroft.”

“I failed him,” Preston said, his voice breaking. “I left him there. ”

“He chose to stay,” she reminded him. “That courageous child saved your life.”

“And I’ll spend the rest of it trying to save him and others like him,” Preston vowed. “No more children torn between worlds. No more families ripped apart because they dared to love across species. We can work toward unity, toward peace between our kinds.”

“We’ll build something better. For our daughters, for Zakaib, for all of them.”

A smile broke across his face. “Things will be different here for Freya, our own little hybrid.”

The dreamscape blurred with my shock. My mother. My father. They were talking about me.

The revelation hit me like a physical blow, jolting me from the dream. I sat up with a gasp, my heart pounding wildly in my chest.

Beside me, Zak stirred, roused by my sudden movement.

“Freya?” he murmured sleepily. “What’s wrong?”

Awareness of my other mates bloomed as I sensed their alert concern, and I sent my reassurances to them all. I stared at Zak, my mind still reeling from the dream. In the dim light filtering through the tent, his worried face blurred with the image of the little boy from my vision.

“I was dreamwalking,” I said slowly, my thoughts whirling. “But instead of finding Tor, I found… memories. Your memories.”