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

Freya twisted in Flint’s lap. “I don’t understand why. Maybe if I understood what happened to get you exiled on her behalf…”

“Exiled?” I asked, puzzled.

Flint seemed like an easy-going alpha. He’d even let me feed his mate, proving he was barely territorial at all. I couldn’t imagine this peaceful alpha doing anything to earn exile.

“Long story,” Heath answered. “We’ve all been exiled from our packs at one point or another.”

I blinked in surprise at this news, then covered my hopefulness with a saucy grin. “Sounds like I’ll fit right in. ”

“To answer your question, moonbeam…” Flint took a deep breath.

“Fern has always been a very strong beta. When we were eighteen, Fern defended a lower-ranked pack member. Back then, Frost Fang held annual omega competitions, and whoever lost became the region’s omega slave.

Each region had their own omega, the lowest ranking pack member for an entire year.

Fern argued on the behalf of a subordinate wolf who was forced into the omega competition because she rejected a male beta as her mate. ”

“So, simply for rejecting a higher-ranking wolf, she might become the next omega slave?” Freya sounded pissed.

None of this surprised me. I’d heard how cutthroat pack law could be.

That’s why Canada had overturned pack law in all but a few relatively peaceful or powerful packlands where pack law still ruled.

Of course, that legislation had opened the door for witch covens and the fae to take control of large swaths of the country, and they made sure everyone knew how grateful we should be that they ruled instead of shifters.

They had only to point at the northwestern United States for examples of how bad things could get with unchecked pack law running the show.

Gage nodded. “That was my father’s law. And when Fern questioned it, Garth took offense. Instead of turning Fern away, though, he demanded my father exile her for daring to question pack law. I disagreed.”

I narrowed my eyes, trying to follow the conversation while not knowing anyone involved. It sounded like Gage’s father had been pack alpha before him.

For my benefit, Heath explained, “Garth and Gage were littermates, and even though Gage was slightly more dominant, Garth was born a few minutes earlier. For some reason, their father deemed Garth the next in line for pack alpha.”

His explanation only confused me further, since Gage was clearly pack alpha now. Had his brother died?

Gage balled a fist on his desk. “So, Garth’s word counted for more than mine. When Fern backtalked him in front of others, she got herself in more trouble. ”

I sensed Freya’s dawning understanding as she processed their words.

Flint continued, “She refused to back down or apologize to Garth. So, he used his alpha command to force her to submit and apologize. When he started humiliating her, I stepped in.”

“Of course,” Freya murmured. “She was your littermate.”

“Not only that,” Flint admitted. “I admired Fern’s resolve.

I agreed with her about that subordinate wolf.

As a moonmarked wolf, Frost Fang’s rigid hierarchy never sat well with me.

Or my sister. Remember, we were refugees old enough to remember our old pack.

We knew omegas didn’t have to be treated so poorly.

We’d been raised to believe alphas were meant to protect, not to rule through fear.

When Fern said something to that effect, they decided to exile her. ”

I hadn’t realized Flint might be a different kind of wolf from the others.

I knew so little about wolf shifters that I hadn’t even realized there were different kinds.

While part of me wanted to ask more about that, I knew better than to let my Bonded know how ignorant I was of wolf shifter ways.

First, I needed them to trust me. Finding out how little I knew would only make them more suspicious, not less.

Gage glanced over at me, then explained, “Flint knew a female beta wouldn’t stand a chance in the wildlands. So, he took his sister’s place. My father left the decision to Garth, and Garth agreed, knowing that it would leave Fern powerless without Flint to back her up next time.”

Flint nodded, and tilted his head to the pack alpha.

“Pretending to be as outraged as his brother, Gage banished Fern to the northern towns, where she would be less likely to cause trouble in the future — in other words, where she was out of Garth’s immediate reach.

And Gage helped me find a place among the Moonblessed pack.

I asked him to watch out for Fern for me. ”

“And I did as much as I could from afar. At least until Garth exiled me.”

Gage and Garth were brothers, just as Flint and Fern were siblings. But while Flint had protected his littermate, Gage’s had stabbed him in the back.

Despite how little I knew about wolf shifters, this still surprised me. “Your own littermate? ”

“My own littermate. But that’s a story for a different day.

The point is, Fern has always challenged pack alphas.

I don’t take it personally, but I won’t stand for her destabilizing the pack.

” Gage’s powerful words resonated with his alpha dominance.

But what he said next shocked me. “We need to find a solution, though, because I also refuse to rule through fear like my brother and father did.”

Flint had already claimed to be a different kind of wolf, a kind where alphas protected the pack instead of ruling it through fear. But to hear Gage saying something similar made me wonder if this was all just talk.

“So, you won’t use your alpha command to force her obedience?” I asked.

“Not if I can help it,” Gage growled. “But Freya’s safety comes first.”

Freya’s denial came through loud and clear. “I don’t want us to become like Luka or any of the rest of them. We shouldn’t force anyone to do anything just because we’re in charge.” She paused, then asked, “Does Fern know you looked out for her after Flint’s exile?”

Gage shrugged. “I doubt it. It doesn’t matter now. Thanks to my exile, I couldn’t protect her under Garth and then Nira’s rule.”

“Nira?” I asked, trying to follow along. The more I knew, the better chance I stood of finding my place among them.

Heath waved me off. “She’s dead.”

“Okay,” I shrugged. Clearly, that was another story for another time.

“And now,” Heath kept us on track, “Fern sees us as no different from all the pack alphas who abused their power before. Only worse, because we’ve let mages in.”

I sighed, seeing the conundrum. My arrival couldn’t have come at a worse time, it seemed.

“I think you need to make Zak a packmate,” Flint said. “In front of everyone.”

He proposed the solution as if it were obvious, easy. But he’d forgotten one thing.

“The full moon just passed,” I pointed out .

Flint’s smile turned into a wolfish grin as Heath chuckled and Gage smirked.

“What?” I asked as I felt even Freya’s amusement.

“We don’t stand on tradition,” Gage answered.

Maybe not. Judging from what I’d heard from them already, they had made significant changes once they took control of the pack, however that had happened.

“Maybe that’s part of the problem,” I argued. “Too many changes, too fast. I assume you got rid of omega status?”

Gage nodded.

“How long ago did you become pack alpha?”

“In October.”

“ This October?” I blinked. “Less than two months?”

“Yes,” Gage said. “So you see why keeping the pack stable is so important, and how your arrival couldn’t have come at a more challenging time.”

Just as I’d feared.

I turned to Freya. “That’s why you wanted me to hide the Bonded mark.”

“Right,” she said. “But now that we’ve spent a few hours together, we could reveal it, so they know he’s one of my Bonded as well. We won’t be able to hide it for long without one of us misspeaking and making everyone wonder what else we’re hiding.”

“And we tell them that the starbeams brought him here,” Flint said slowly.

There had been seven starbeams. From my count, we were still missing one, and they’d made no mention of Freya having another mate. Plus, I’d only observed five runes under her collarbones, proving she lacked one.

“I’m sure the pack will be thrilled when they realize there’s still one missing,” I grumbled.

“We can’t change what they’ve seen,” Flint said. “And we can’t keep hiding the truth about Freya. Either they accept who and what she is, or…”

“Yes, or ,” Gage growled. “I don’t like it. ”

“Things were easier when we were just the Howling Echo,” Heath agreed.

“The four of us were the Howling Echo pack when Freya first joined us,” Flint explained to me.

“Just the five of you?” That surprised me. Surely a pack of five couldn’t protect even the smallest packlands. It sounded exhausting. “How did you survive?”

“Must be hard for a city boy like you to imagine,” Heath laughed. “We traveled between packs, doing odd jobs here and there, without a packlands of our own.”

“And you… did that by choice?” I sat back in my chair, stunned.

“Some of us more than others,” Flint answered. “Rowan and I liked it. Gage and Heath adapted.”

These alphas had repeatedly braved the wildlands over and over until Freya showed up to join them.

Then, somehow, they’d ended up in control of the Frost Fang pack.

Gage had mentioned Garth then Nira’s rule, which implied they’d been Frost Fang pack alphas.

And since Heath had told me Nira was dead…

that made me think Gage had taken command by right of combat, in what the Ravenscroft Coven would have deemed typical, uncivilized wolf shifter fashion.

A knock came on the door. “It’s Bretton,” he called.

“Come,” Gage answered.

When the wolf shifter stepped inside and closed the door, his confident aura surprised me. He clearly wasn’t an alpha, yet he didn’t submit to the room full of alphas or even bow. Instead, he inclined his head to Gage before politely averting his gaze.

He didn’t fear these alphas. The realization pleased me for reasons I didn’t fully understand.

“It doesn’t look good, pack alphas,” Bretton said. “The pack is gathering outside the throne room.”

“Throne room?” I laughed, then sobered when I realized he was serious. “I will never understand pack law.”

“Bretton, we’re planning on putting all our cards on the table and answering any questions the pack has about the starbeams, Zak, Freya’s mage background, or anything else,” Gage said. “What do you think? ”

My jaw nearly hit the floor. An alpha asking a lower-ranked wolf for his opinion? I’d never dreamed packs like this one existed.

“I’m afraid it may already be too late for that, alpha.” Worry filled his voice. “Fern is calling for some kind of… beta council. She asked me to join her.”

“And?” Gage asked.

Bretton chuckled. “I told her you’ve earned my loyalty, but I’m happy to serve the pack in any way you deem fit.”

Gage nodded in approval. “Good, you left it open. I may need you to monitor Fern more closely. Perhaps even by joining her beta council.” His sky-blue eyes flashed as he got to his feet. “Let’s face the firing squad.”