Page 54 of Bound to Exiles (Rejected Wolf Pack #5)

Freya

I sat with Zak by a magically concealed fire in the wildlands just outside Frost Fang packlands while Gage led Frost Fang volunteers to circle the border.

As darkness fell, Flint and Rowan went, too, using the Bonded link to communicate, no matter our form.

They demanded Zak and I stay behind for now, listening attentively to anything Heath discovered.

“My father and Tork betrayed me to the witches. They’re—”

The Bonded link between Heath and me disappeared, gone like moonlight in a sudden eclipse. One moment he was there, his presence a warm, familiar comfort in the back of my mind, and the next — nothing. Just a gaping, raw wound where he should have been.

I screamed, doubling over. The pain wasn’t physical, not exactly, but it felt like someone had reached inside my chest and torn out something vital.

“Freya!” Zak’s hands gripped my shoulders.

“Heath’s gone,” I gasped, tears streaming down my face. “I can’t feel him anymore.”

It wasn’t like when Heath pulled the curtain across our Bonded link to give himself privacy. This was different, violent and absolute. The space where Heath’s presence should be felt cauterized, as if someone had burned the connection away.

“Let me in, Freya,” Zak said softly. “I need to see what’s happened, and our Bonded connection is different from most.”

I nodded, dropping the barriers I’d instinctively thrown up when the pain hit. Zak’s presence flowed into my mind, cool and soothing like water on a burn. I felt him examining the damaged Bonded link, his magic gentle but probing.

“Can you fix it?” I asked desperately.

Zak’s expression was grim in the dying light of day. “Not from here.”

I closed my eyes, trying to breathe through the pain, but every inhalation felt like knives in my chest. The absence of Heath was a physical ache, a hollow space that nothing could fill.

“Stay with me, Freya,” Zak murmured, his arm around my shoulders. “Focus on my voice. The connection isn’t completely destroyed — just blocked. And Heath is still alive.”

“How do you know?” I whispered.

“Because the rune is still glowing on your collarbone,” he said, his finger lightly tracing the mark that connected me to Heath. “If the connection were truly severed, it would have faded.”

“And the stars themselves blessed your bonds as surely as moonlight reveals fated mates,” Flint added, startling me.

“You came back,” I whispered, reaching for Flint, who took me in his arms.

“He’s right,” Zak said, rubbing my back. “What else could the starbeams mean but that we’re your fated mates? So, if they’d killed him… well, we wouldn’t be having this conversation. Fated mates are rumored to die when their mate does.”

Gage came into camp like a tornado. His blue eyes were wild with panic, his face pale in the moonlight.

“What happened?” he demanded, reaching for me.

I jumped up and then fell into his arms, my legs barely supporting me as the pain of the severed bond washed over me again.

“Heath,” I choked out. “They’ve cut him off from us.”

Gage’s arms tightened around me, and I felt a shudder run through his powerful frame. His face buried in my hair, and for a moment, I thought I felt moisture against my scalp. When he pulled back, though, his expression was composed, only the tightness around his eyes betraying his fear.

“Tell me everything,” he said, leading me toward where Brielle and several Frost Fang wolves waited.

Zak and Flint followed, explaining what little we knew as we approached the others. Brielle’s face went ashen when she heard.

“We should have gone with him,” Flint said, his voice rough with guilt.

“That wasn’t the plan,” Gage replied, though I could hear the strain in his voice.

“He told me not to intervene until you got here,” Rowan growled in our minds. He was clearly close enough that he could hear our voices while still remaining hidden in the shadows. “Let’s get him out.”

Bretton shifted and got dressed. “Alpha, our wolves are positioned around the perimeter of the packlands. They report increased witch activity in the last hour — some kind of commotion at the jail.”

“That’s where they’re keeping him,” I said with certainty.

Rowan’s big black wolf stalked out of the shadows over to me. With Gage behind me, it felt good to run my fingers through Rowan’s fur, to remind myself that my other mates were safe, at least for now.

Bretton’s lipped thinned before he spoke. “It makes sense they’d lock Heath in the jail. He’s an alpha, too powerful to be allowed to roam free.”

“Then we go in now,” Varden said, already reaching for his gun.

“No.” Gage’s voice was firm, though his arms around me trembled with the effort of restraint. “We still don’t know enough about what we’re facing. Rushing in blind will only get Heath killed — and the rest of us too.”

“Yes, alpha,” Varden said, though his eyes showed how badly he wanted to protest.

“Gage is right,” Brielle added, her green eyes gleaming in the firelight. “These witches are powerful enough to block a Bonded link. That’s not something to take lightly.”

Gage turned to my other mates. “Rowan, Flint — see if you can get closer to the jail, find out how many witches are guarding it now, and if security or patrols changed after they took Heath prisoner.”

Over the Bonded link, Rowan had relayed a lot of information to us about the witches’ defenses, but that was before they captured Heath.

“Will report back,” Rowan confirmed. He nuzzled my hand before silently bounding off into the forest.

Flint looked like he wanted to argue further, but after a moment, he too nodded in agreement.

His eyes gleamed gold as he stalked over to me.

While I was still wrapped in Gage’s strong arms, Flint kissed me like we were the only two people in the forest. His mouth plundered mine, rougher than usual, as though his wolf rode him hard.

“We’ll get Heath back,” Flint promised against my lips.

“Take Varden with you,” Gage added. “He knows the territory better than any of us.”

Flint nodded, squeezed my hand, and then beckoned to Varden.

As the wolves moved off, Gage turned to Bretton, his jaw tight. “Set up a perimeter sentry rotation around our command area. I want to know immediately if anyone approaches our position.”

“Yes, alpha,” Bretton replied, moving off to organize the Frost Fang wolves.

Gage then turned to Zak and Brielle. “Is there anything you can do to counteract whatever spell they’ve used on Heath?”

My fellow hybrids exchanged a glance.

“We’d need to be in closer proximity,” Brielle added. “Magic used to unravel other magic weakens with distance.”

A heavy silence fell over our small group. The small fire crackled, sending sparks spiraling up into the night sky. I stared into the flames, trying to ignore the hollow ache where Heath’s presence should be.

Time passed, my head aching like I’d been exposed to witch fire inside my mind.

Eventually, Gage stood. “I need to check something. Zak, stay with her.”

I watched him walk away, his shoulders rigid with tension. Though he tried to hide it, I could see the fear and guilt eating away at him. I knew he blamed himself for letting Heath go alone .

Zak’s dark eyes reflected the firelight. “He’s taking it hard. There’s history there… and things left unsaid.”

“They’ve been best friends since they were children. It’s only recently that Gage realized it’s always been more than that for Heath.”

Rowan’s voice in our minds interrupted our conversation.

“The jail is heavily guarded,” Rowan reported. “At least four witches at any given time.”

Gage’s voice answered. “Anything else?”

Rowan hesitated. “Most of the witches are preoccupied with strange stones.”

“What do they look like?” Zak asked sharply just as Gage returned to my side.

The pack alpha wrapped me in his arms again, as though he needed to be touching me as much as possible.

“Yellow or dull, with symbols carved into them that glow,” Rowan explained.

“Did you see Heath?” Gage asked, his voice tight.

“Not yet,” Flint answered this time. “I’m still watching the jail. I’ll let you know when I spot him.”

“Get some rest,” Gage told me, his hand cupping my cheek briefly. “We’ll need your strength tomorrow.”

“I can’t sleep,” I said. “Not with Heath—”

“Try,” he insisted. “For him. For all of us. Now, I’m going to shift so I can relay orders to the Frost Fang wolves.”

I nodded reluctantly. As Gage shifted, Brielle came to sit by the fire, her red hair bright in the firelight. She looked up, her green eyes assessing as Zak filled her in on the mental conversation she’d been unable to hear. When he was done, Brielle turned to me.

“You should shift, too,” she said without preamble.

I blinked. “Why?”

“Wolves process emotional trauma differently,” she explained. “More instinctively, less analytically. You’ll be able to sleep in wolf form.”

It made sense. I nodded, beginning to strip off my clothes. The night air was cold against my skin, but I barely noticed as I called my wolf forward .

My body flowed from human to wolf in a smooth, painless transformation.

As my paws touched the ground, I felt a subtle change in how I experienced Heath’s absence.

The raw wound was still there, but my wolf understood it not as a catastrophic loss but as a temporary separation.

He was still my mate, still part of my pack. He was just… away.

I padded back to the fire, where Brielle and Zak still sat. She nodded approvingly as I approached.

“Better?” she asked.

I huffed in agreement, settling down with my tail toward the fire, preventing myself from going night blind as I settled my head on my paws.

Though I tried to allow myself to rest, worry gnawed at me. I needed to do something, to feel like I could help him somehow.

“My mates,” I whispered through our Bonded link. “Let me borrow your power for a moment.”

Their responses came immediately. Flint and Rowan gave wordless agreement.

“Of course, my darling Bonded. Anything,” Zak said.