Page 7 of Bound to Exiles (Rejected Wolf Pack #5)

“You’ve taken every chance to deceive us,” Fern declared, unaware of our silent exchange.

“No one knew that Freya was a half-breed until I connected the dots and forced Heath to admit it. You could have told the pack from the beginning that Freya was a half-breed, and that she would take multiple mates like a witch. You allowed Ironwood refugees to defect and come here as spies, putting our pack in jeopardy.”

Several shifters raised their voices, most in agreement, and I noticed Brooke shrinking back to the edge of the crowd. The low-ranking wolf had seemed to gain confidence the longer she lived outside of Ironwood, but now Fern and her belligerence would instill that fear once more. It infuriated me.

“You put the entire pack at risk when you brought the Midnight Path here to subjugate us in your absence. You abandoned your duties for your mate. When we questioned your wisdom, you made us all submit to silence us. Why didn’t you take those foreigners with you instead of our own alphas?”

That got the biggest outcry of all so far.

Gage started, “We needed more alphas to stand against Ironwood—” but the crowd drowned him out, and he couldn’t risk using his alpha commands to silence them now.

My wolf prowled inside me in frustration.

But when Fern raised a hand, the crowd quieted.

“Plus, you could’ve told us about the starbeams before the pack run, but yet again, you said nothing until pushed into admitting the truth.

And now, you invite another witch onto our packlands?

We deserve freedom from alpha commands. Freedom from meddling witches.

Freedom from being forced to silence. Freedom to choose our own path forward. ”

More voices of agreement rose from the crowd. To my shock, I recognized some of them — packmates who’d seemed perfectly content under Gage’s leadership until now.

“And what do you propose?” Gage asked, his tone dangerously calm. “That we abandon pack structure entirely?”

“That we create something new. A council of betas, chosen by the pack, to lead us forward.” Fern’s eyes gleamed. “No more alphas treating us like their personal servants. No more being forced to submit to their will.”

The gathered wolves erupted into chaos.

Flint’s frustration bled through the bond. He agreed with her to some degree, but knew she was going about it wrong. Freya’s distress brought my wolf to the fore.

“Frost Fang pack bonds are weakening before my eyes,” she whimpered.

A snarl from my left drew my attention. One of our more aggressive alphas, Varden, was squaring up against a beta who’d voiced support for Fern. I moved to intercept, catching Varden’s arm before he could strike.

“Stand down,” I ordered, letting my dominance flood the air between us.

For a moment, I thought he might challenge me. But Gage’s presence at my back made him think better of it. The alpha subsided with a growl, though his eyes still promised violence.

“We’ll sort this out,” I murmured to Varden.

“You see?” Fern called out. “They respond to every challenge with force. And now they’ve brought a witch into our midst — a spy from an enemy coven!”

“That’s not true,” Freya protested, but her voice was drowned out by the angry shouts of the crowd.

“I gave up my coven,” Zak tried to explain to no avail.

“My sister was killed by witch magic!” someone cried from a far corner of the throne room.

“The Nightsinger pack trusted witches, and look what happened to them!”

“We can’t let them destroy us from within!”

The accusations flew thick and fast. With everything my father had done, I understood their fear. Witches had hurt too many of us. But Zak wasn’t like that… was he? The seed of doubt Fern had planted took root because Zak was an unknown quantity.

Zak stepped in front of Freya, raising his hand as flames sprayed from his fingertips, fading into the air. The room went silent, though I sensed his display and the scent of magic made the pack even more uneasy.

“Yes, I am a mage. But I’m no spy,” Zak’s voice was steady and calm. He pointed to the rune on his cheekbone. “I came here because the stars themselves led me to my… mate.”

The word ‘mate’ sent a shiver through me that had nothing to do with fear. The crowd backed away from the throne’s steps as though Zak’s mere presence might contaminate them.

“Liar,” someone hissed in the near-silent room. “Witches can’t be trusted.”

More voices joined in, and I sensed the mood of the room tipping toward violence. They surged forward as if to storm the throne but stopped below the first step, where Fern stood staring up at Freya with a gleam in her eyes.

Freya’s lightning crackled again, responding to her distress. That only made the crowd’s cries even more threatening.

Zak touched our mate again, gentle but firm. Did their magic mingle so he could help her maintain control? The intimacy of it made my chest ache, knowing this was something I could never share with my mate.

“Just by being here, I’m endangering the pack,” Freya’s anguished thought reached us all through the bond. “I’m making everything worse.”

“No,” five voices answered as one. The strength of our combined denial seemed to steady her.

But she wasn’t entirely wrong. The pack’s unity was fracturing, and her unique nature had been the catalyst. Zak’s arrival had only sped up the rate.

My gaze met Gage’s, and I saw my own fears reflected there.

We were losing control of the situation, and enforcing our alpha will over everyone would only make it worse.

My wolf paced restlessly inside me, torn between defending our pack and protecting his mates.

The part of me still raw from my father’s political games recognized the gathering storm.

If forced to choose between pack tradition and our unconventional bonds, I knew which I’d protect — even if it meant burning everything else to ash.

A commotion at the back of the room drew my attention. Through the crowd, I caught a familiar scent that made my hackles rise .

“Isn’t this special?” a voice drawled. “Looks like I arrived just in time for the fun.”

The crowd parted to reveal Tork. The exiled beta’s smile didn’t reach his eyes as he sauntered forward. He’d been cast out of the Moonblessed pack for betraying Freya to Ironwood — a crime I hadn’t forgiven my former lover for.

“Who let him onto our pack lands?” Gage roared in fury just as I demanded, “What are you doing here, Tork?”

His scent reached me, now smelling like bitter herbs and stale cologne rather than the underlying notes that had once drawn me to his bed. My muscles tensed in preparation for violence I couldn’t allow myself to unleash, not with the pack watching our every move.

“Supporting the cause of justice,” he answered with fake innocence. “After all, I know firsthand how dangerous it is to trust witches and their mates.”

He glared at Freya. Freya’s sharp intake of breath carried to my sensitive ears. The betrayal still hurt, I knew. My hands curled into fists as I fought the urge to tear out Tork’s throat.

“Moonblessed exiled you for good reason,” Gage stated flatly. “You have no place here.”

“Don’t I?” Tork’s gaze swept the room. “Frost Fang seems to think differently. My fellow betas invited me here to share what I know about your precious mate and her… proclivities. We all know that the Howling Echo has done nothing but ruin packs left and right — first Moonblessed, then Ironwood, now Frost Fang.”

Several growls filled the air — mine among them. Tork slid an arm around Fern, making Flint snarl. Tork’s eyes lingered on me as he whispered something in his fellow beta’s ear that made her smirk.

Before Flint or I could do anything stupid, Gage’s voice rang out.

“This meeting is adjourned. We will reconvene tomorrow after dark when tempers have cooled. Everyone return to your homes. And Varden, please escort this interloper off our packlands. He doesn’t belong here.”

“Neither does the mage!” Fern growled from the foot of the throne. “If you’re kicking out Tork, you should kick out your pet mage, too.”

The crowd roared their agreement, and Tork grinned triumphantly .

“Fine,” Gage growled. “Heath and Rowan, escort Tork somewhere you can guard him. We’ll take turns watching him just as we’ve done with Zak.”

His tone left no room for argument. Even Fern didn’t protest as the pack began filing out, though her triumphant expression said she’d achieved exactly what she’d wanted.

I was standing so close to the throne that when Gage slid forward to get up, his fingers casually brushed mine.

The contact sent electricity racing up my arm.

His masculine scent sharpened with his protective, possessive instincts raging to the fore, making my wolf want to bare its throat despite our equal alpha status.

The duality of wanting to both challenge and submit to him never failed to leave me breathless.

“I thought you might want a word with him,” Gage said privately to me before opening it up to the rest to hear. “Heath, if Tork pisses you off too much, trade out with Flint. We don’t need even more trouble on our hands, so don’t go killing Tork yet.”

Yet. I grinned malevolently and tried to ignore how Gage’s scent filled my lungs. We had bigger problems than my inappropriate attraction to my pack alpha.

“I should’ve killed him when I had the chance,” Rowan growled as the two of us strode down the dais toward Tork.

The exiled beta’s presence here proved Frost Fang was fracturing, and if we didn’t find a way to hold it together…

My gaze fell on Zak as he guided Freya toward the door, one hand protectively at the small of her back.

The sight stirred conflicting emotions in my chest — desire, jealousy, and my wolf’s sense of rightness.

Flint went with them, staring down anyone who dared get too close as the crowd filed out of the room.

Forcing myself to focus, I called down to my former lover, “Tork, you’re with us.”

As much as I longed to jerk him around with my alpha-bark, I refrained for fear of riling up the crowd again. Fern gave Tork a nod and slipped outside with the rest of the cronies.

“When did you have the chance to kill him?” I silently asked Rowan, whose presence intimidated Tork into following me without a word.

“Gage and I went on a run together in the wildlands outside of Moonblessed and stumbled across him once. Gage said you wouldn’t forgive me if I killed him and ordered me to let him live.”

“Too bad Rowan let you live for my sake,” I told Tork. “I doubt he’ll make the same mistake twice.”

“Heath, the two of us could still be together. It’s not too late—”

“Let me stop you right there,” I growled. “Don’t pretend you’re here out of some love for me. You and I both know this is your last-ditch effort to find protection in the pack. Protection you don’t deserve, after the way you betrayed the Moonblessed alpha pair’s trust.”

“I was trying to protect my pack,” he argued.

“Strange how you smell like lies when you say that.”

As we left the throne room, I caught fragments of whispered conversations with phrases like “witch magic” and “unnatural to have multiple mates.” I snarled, remembering my father’s political playbook: Create fear, offer solutions, divide loyalties.

Gage would need to counter with a show of transparency before Fern’s poison spread further.

Outside, the crowd dissipated, but many of them switched into wolf form, where they could communicate silently over the pack bond without any of us being able to eavesdrop. I didn’t like that one bit.

“It’s rude to shift indoors,” I called out to them. “And we all need our rest after the pack run yesterday. Go home,” I ordered without backing it up with my alpha command.

A few wolves whimpered in submission anyway, and I shook my head in annoyance at their theatrics.

“This way,” I growled at Tork.

Garth had set up a jail not far from the pack house. I intended to make good use of it.

Walking alongside Tork, I remembered nights under northern stars when I’d foolishly whispered sweet nothings against his skin.

The same lips that had once traced promises along my neck had later spoken treachery against my mate, betraying Freya’s whereabouts to Ironwood.

My wolf’s memory was long, and forgiveness wasn’t in my nature when it came to betrayal.

“The other alphas are asking us what to do,” Rowan announced over our Bonded connection .

Since he was the only one in wolf form, it made sense that the Frost Fang alphas had contacted him over the pack bond. The five — now six — of us could only communicate silently with each other in human form thanks to the Bonded connection Freya had forged between us during her past heat.

“Tell them to stay out of trouble,” I growled just as we reached the jail.

Gage answered more like a pack alpha should. “Tell them we’ll meet with them tomorrow, before the pack meeting. The rest of us need to come up with a plan before then.”

“Are you seriously going to put me behind bars?” Tork growled when I pushed him inside the building.

“It’s where you belong,” I answered as innocently as he had during the pack meeting.

After finding the keys, I pushed him inside the jail cell. Then I locked it behind him and pocketed the keys.

Staring into Tork’s eyes, I issued my first alpha command of the night. “Speak to no one except the Howling Echo until one of us commands otherwise.”

“Heath, you can’t really mean to leave me here—”

I changed my mind. “Stay silent in your cell unless the Howling Echo speaks directly to you.”

Tork opened his mouth, but no words came out. Slamming his hands against the bars, his lips twisted into a silent snarl. The Moonblessed pack mark and tattoo had been crossed through and obliterated, showing he was a packless lone wolf now.

Tork’s shoulders fell, and my heart twinged at seeing my former lover look so defeated. But I knew better than to trust him. His desperation made sense, but this fresh betrayal infuriated me. He could stay here and rot for all I cared.

“Shall we take turns?” I asked Rowan out loud.

The giant wolf jumped up on the desk nearest the jail cell, making Tork cower back. “I’ll stay here for a few hours and do my best not to tear out his throat if he gets too close to those bars.”

I grinned and left to head back to the den.

“Good luck,” I tossed over my shoulder, knowing both their ears would pick up my words, even from outside .

Almost no one knew that Rowan and I could communicate when we weren’t in the same form. Let Tork wonder why he needed luck. Only Rowan’s low growl answered me, and I chuckled. At least one thing had gone right today.