Page 68 of Bound to Exiles (Rejected Wolf Pack #5)

“You’re beautiful like this,” he murmured, the admission clearly surprising even him. “Beneath me, taking me, wanting me.”

I wrapped my legs around his waist, pulling him deeper.

“I’ve always wanted you,” I confessed, the words torn from me by the intensity of the moment. “Always.”

His expression softened with the realization. His thrusts became more urgent, more desperate. One hand slid between us to wrap around my cock, stroking in time with his movements.

“Heath,” he panted, his rhythm faltering as his pleasure built. “I can’t — I need—”

His fangs descended, his eyes going completely golden as his wolf pushed his way forward.

I knew what he needed because I needed it too. My wolf surged forward, eager to show my submission to the man, the alpha, I loved. I tilted my head, exposing the opposite side of my neck from where Freya had marked me.

“Do it,” I demanded. “Claim me. Make me yours.”

His eyes flashed as his fangs elongated even more. He leaned down, his chest pressed against mine as he continued to thrust. His hot breath against my neck sent a primal anticipation through me.

He bit down, breaking the skin at the junction of my neck and shoulder.

The pain made me thrash in pleasure. His weight held me down as my back arched off the bed.

My body clenched around him as waves of ecstasy crashed through me, and I came with a shout.

My release splashed hot between our bodies, but I barely noticed, lost in the overwhelming sensation of being claimed by the man I’d loved for so long .

In the throes of my orgasm, my own fangs lengthened instinctively.

My wolf saw where Freya had marked him low on his neck, and I turned my head, finding the unmarked side of his neck.

My fangs sank in deep. The rich taste of his blood flooded my mouth, carrying the essence of who he was.

His body went rigid above mine, muscles locked in pleasure.

The mate bond snapped fully into place between us, equal and unbreakable.

Gage threw his head back and roared, his body tensing and hips stuttering as he followed me over the edge.

His hot release filled me, and the magic of our bond washed over us both, so intense it bordered on pain.

My wolf kept my fangs embedded in his flesh, instinctively knowing the bite needed to be deep enough for a permanent mark to prove he was mine as much as I was his.

When I finally released him, pulling back to look at his face, shock and wonder met my eyes. My blood stained his lips, and I knew mine must look the same. The sight of my mark on his neck sent a possessive thrill through my system.

The dual sensation of physical pleasure and the magical bond forming sent aftershocks through my body.

Colors seemed brighter, sensations more intense.

I could feel Gage not just through the pack bond or the Bonded link, but through something new, something that was ours alone — a mate bond, at long last.

As we collapsed together, Gage’s weight a welcome pressure on top of me, the reality of what we’d done began to sink in. We’d claimed each other. We were mated — officially, irrevocably mated.

And judging by the shock I felt emanating from Gage, neither of us had planned for this to happen.

I traced my fingers over the fresh bite mark I’d left on Gage’s neck, admiring how it mirrored Freya’s mark on the opposite side. There was something deeply satisfying about seeing him wearing both our claims, sharing territory yet marking it as ours.

“You look good with my mark on you,” I murmured, my voice still rough from shouting.

Gage’s sky-blue eyes were hazy with post-orgasmic bliss as they focused on me. His fingers found the matching bite on my neck, teasing over my skin and sending aftershocks of pleasure through my system.

“You too,” he said, a hint of wonder in his voice. Then reality seemed to crash down on him all at once. “Heath, we just—”

“Mated,” I finished for him, feeling the same shock rippling through me. Despite everything we’d just shared, despite how right it felt, neither of us had consciously intended to form a mate bond.

Through the Bonded link, I felt the others’ awareness of what had just happened. Flint’s amused voice drifted from the other room.

“Why would you be shocked?” he asked, a laugh in his voice. “Freya proved a wolf can have multiple mates. Did you think you were immune to being mated to each other?”

We disengaged, and Gage propped himself up on one elbow to look through the peephole.

“She’s an Odinswolf, though,” he argued, as if that explained everything.

“We’re all Bonded,” Zak’s voice came next, though I couldn’t see him from my vantage point. “We’re all each other’s mates, regardless of whether we’ve been claimed or not. Your claiming bites just made visible what was already there.”

I felt Freya’s agreement pulse through the bond, along with a wave of affection that warmed me from the inside.

Then, as if by unspoken agreement, the sounds from the other room changed — the rustle of bodies moving together, Freya’s command to Zak, the murmur of masculine voices — as they returned to their own pleasures, giving Gage and me space to process what had happened.

We lay in silence for several minutes, Gage’s weight half-covering me, our legs tangled together. I could feel his heartbeat against my chest, strong and steady, the new mate bond humming between us, golden and warm. It was everything I’d ever wanted and never thought I could have.

My throat tightened with emotion. Ever since we were teens, I’d buried these feelings, convinced they could never be reciprocated.

Gage had always accepted his father’s decree that alphas must procreate.

I’d feared and then grown to accept that Gage would never see me as anything more than his second-in-command and friend. Yet here we were, irrevocably bound.

“How long?” Gage asked suddenly, his voice quiet but intense.

I didn’t pretend not to understand. “Since the day you stood up for me to Garth,” I admitted, remembering the scene vividly despite the years that had passed. “Your own brother, your own litter mate, and you got in his face when he tried to humiliate me in front of the pack.”

Gage’s eyes widened. “That was — we were just teenagers.”

“I know,” I laughed softly. “Seeing you get mad on my behalf, like you cared about me more than anyone else in the world… I can’t tell you how many countless times I rewrote the ending to that day in my fantasies.”

“What ending did you imagine?” Gage asked, his fingers tracing idle patterns on my chest.

I smiled, feeling oddly vulnerable despite everything we’d just shared. “In my favorite version, you dragged me off into the woods after telling Garth to go fuck himself. And then you kissed me senseless against a tree.”

Gage’s lips quirked up. “Scandalous.”

“My wolf wanted you all along,” I confessed. “Even when I tried to convince myself otherwise.”

Gage leaned down, pressing his lips to mine in a kiss that was surprisingly gentle given the ferocity of our earlier encounter. When he pulled back, his eyes were soft in a way I’d rarely seen.

“I wish I’d known sooner,” he said simply.

From the other room, the sounds of pleasure grew more intense — Freya’s breathless moans, a tongue lapping, and the deep groans of our packmates. The scent of arousal drifted through the open space between rooms, and I felt myself stirring again, Gage’s body responding similarly against my thigh.

“Freya’s heat is coming soon. Her scent is driving me insane,” Gage whispered, his eyes darkening as he glanced toward the bookshelf opening.

“I can barely wait,” I replied, sliding my hand down his back to cup his ass. “But it’s not her heat making us want more. ”

“True.” Gage’s grin turned predatory. “I just want her. All the time.”

I chuckled low in my throat, my dick rising to the occasion. “Same.”

We rose from the bed together, not bothering with clothes as we rounded the bookshelf to approach the other bed.

The sight that greeted us was magnificent — Freya and Zak in a 69 position with Rowan touching Freya.

Flint lay beside them, stroking himself as he watched, his eyes flicking up to meet mine as we appeared.

“Room for two more?” I asked, my cock already fully hard again.

Freya looked up, her eyes glowing with a mixture of lust and love as she took in the sight of Gage and me standing together, both marked, both claimed.

“Always,” she breathed, reaching out a hand toward us.