Chapter 23 - Rowan

Chapter 23

Rowan

Frost Fang alphas circled the small cabin on the outskirts of our packlands, far from any town. Knowing that we five were the bait left me uneasy, but we had some time before Ironwood would arrive.

“Come to me, Rowan,” Freya whispered in my mind even while she was wrapped in Heath’s embrace.

I leaped from the bed of one of our trucks and shook out my coat. Then I shifted until I stood on two legs, surprised at how natural this form felt today. My mate was going into heat, and she’d chosen this form. I would do the same.

With my sling bag across my chest, I didn’t bother to get dressed. Freya’s heat had arrived, and clothes would only get in the way.

I’d never been this close to a woman in heat before, and her need pulled me like a magnet. Her scent fogged my brain, making it hard to think of anything but giving into her aching need and filling her up.

“You know the plan,” Gage called to his warriors as the five of us disappeared inside the cabin.

Once they secured the immediate perimeter, most of them would push farther out, concealing themselves to set the trap. The wolves Gage trusted most would set up Brielle’s magical wards, which would give us advance warning when Ironwood showed up.

Answers of, “Yes, alpha,” met our ears as Flint closed the door behind us, and my Howling Echo packmates and I focused our attention on our mate, Freya.

For the longest time, I’d considered Gage, Heath, and — later — Flint to be something like brothers. I’d never had brothers, though I’d always wanted them. When I joined the Howling Echo pack, my three packmates became my family, the ones who knew me better than anyone else.

But there were no brotherly feelings today, as I watched Gage, Heath, and Flint strip Freya and carry her to bed. Heath’s hands rested on her plump ass as she climbed him like a tree. While Gage pulled off Freya’s pants, to my surprise, Flint helped Heath get undressed. On the one hand, it made sense — Flint always gave Freya whatever she wanted, and right now she wanted Heath. My surprise turned to outright shock when Flint’s hand dropped to Heath’s dick to hold him steady as Freya lowered herself onto his hard length.

We were all already hard — the overwhelming scent of Freya’s heat made sure of that. But if I hadn’t been hard before, I would have been just then. I could’ve told myself it was because of the way Freya sighed in contentment, as though Heath and Flint had given her exactly what she needed, or the way her eyelids fluttered in pleasure, or the way her lips then rounded on a moan.

It was all of those things, true. But it was also more than that.

Back in our den, I’d sensed Gage and Heath in that closet when I lifted Freya onto the kitchen table. The faintest thought that they were listening in — that they might even watch — had turned me on as I pleasured our mate. And now that I was the one watching, I palmed myself without shame. I had a feeling the Howling Echo might be radically different five days from now.

A king-size bed dominated the room, and faint moonlight from the waxing crescent filtered in through the small window. Freya blinked as though blinded, though, and let out high-pitched whine. The mate bond flooded me with even more awareness of Freya’s need for soothing darkness. My feet moved with no more forethought than that, and I pulled the curtains tightly closed.

“Not yet, greedy little wolf,” Heath growled.

The bed creaked behind me. When I turned around, soft light still emanated from the hallway, and my shifter vision allowed me to see in the dim room. Flint and Heath sandwiched Freya on the bed, kissing her and running their hands all over her. They each had one of her legs draped over them, spread for Gage and me to see her wetness already seeping onto the blanket beneath her.

“Please,” she moaned, and I could feel her emptiness tugging on us in the mate bond.

Heath’s eyes glittered in the dim light and latched onto me while his hand stroked Freya’s clit and she bucked, desperate for more. A growl rumbled up from deep within me that Heath had teased her and left her needy like that. He’d been inside her, but he hadn’t even made her come!

I dropped my sling bag on the floor, ready to give my mate everything she needed.

“Go to her,” Gage gave me a gentle alpha command. “This heat is happening because she met you.”

Though every fiber of my being wanted to obey, I resisted long enough to glance at my pack alpha. As the leader of our pack, I would have expected him to take his turn first.

“Tell him you want him,” Heath demanded of Freya, though I wasn’t sure she was lucid enough to understand.

“Rowan,” Freya moaned, her arms reaching for me.

I found myself at the foot of the king bed in an instant. Crawling across the blanket, I stalked her without any doubt that I would provide what we both wanted.

“Ready for me, lightning bolt?” I asked in a low voice.

“I need you,” she cried.

I slid between her milky white thighs, grabbed her hips to angle her the way I wanted her, and sank right in where Heath had sheathed himself only moments before.

She let out a moan that told me she wanted more, and I was only vaguely aware that Flint and Heath had pulled away to give me room to do whatever I wanted with our mate. I set a slow pace, already in danger of Freya’s heat making me lose control too quickly.

From the corner of my eye, I noticed Flint taking off his clothing, all of us unashamed of our nudity after years of shifting in front of each other. Freya growled with need and curled up toward me, her teeth bared. My wolf loved it, instantly wanting to dominate her, to prove he could give her what she wanted.

My hand wrapped around her throat as I pushed her down into the bed and pistoned my hips against her.

“That’s it,” Heath groaned. “Give her what she needs.”

The mate bond told me she loved feeling me pound into her body, but she wanted more. Why had Heath and Flint abandoned her? She didn’t understand, and it left her feeling unwanted. Couldn’t they feel that?

“Get over here,” I growled at them both, not caring that Heath outranked me. “Touch her.”

Flint’s fingers slid across her stomach to cup her breast and then pinch her nipple, and her back arched off the bed.

“More of that,” I demanded, glowering at Heath.

His throaty chuckle did strange things to my body, but I didn’t stop to think about it as Freya’s inner walls clenched on me.

“This is so much better with the mate bond,” Heath whispered as his fingers closed on Freya’s other nipple, making her moan even louder.

I pounded into her as Heath and Flint accompanied my motions, all of us driving Freya higher and higher together as our pack alpha watched it all. Freya’s eyes tracked his motions as he slowly disrobed.

I’d been so afraid that I’d feel out of place when Freya’s heat finally happened. But instead, the others made me feel equal to them, just as important as the rest of Freya’s mates.

This was so much better than I’d imagined before, when I’d been trapped in a cave alone during Freya’s first heat. Gage had done his best to shield me from her lust, but it often broke through, overpowering him and flooding the pack bond. I’d been hard for five days with nothing but my own hand for company. Since I’d dreamed of Freya, she’d consumed my thoughts. Without ever meeting her, I’d known we belonged together. But now…

Wrapping my hand around her throat as she looked up at me with so much trust stirred something protective inside of me. Flint kept one hand plucking her nipple while the other drifted lower, dipping beneath her bellybutton.

“Yes,” Freya gasped, her eyes widening as pure need flooded the mate bond.

Flint raised his brows, and I realized he was asking me for permission. His hand was about to be very, very close to my body, and I’d already seen he had no qualms about grabbing his packmate’s dick if it pleased Freya.

This moment would define the rest of her heat. I could keep the others at arm’s length, or I could do everything in my power to please our mate and join the pack to work as one to pleasure her.

I didn’t hesitate. “Give her what she needs.”

And as Flint’s fingertips met Freya’s clit, I pounded into her, my pelvis touching the back of his hand. I wouldn’t last much longer. Not with the primal sounds Freya was making. My own pleasure coiled at the base of my spine, and Heath caught my eye.

“Don’t hold back,” he told me. “Her scent will make us hard again.”

Freya wordlessly moaned in agreement, her assent flowing through the mate bond. Heath’s gaze slid down from my face, raking across my pecs and abs as I pounded into our mate, and finally fixating on that point where our bodies joined. When Heath licked his lips, I reached the edge of my control… and lost it. Freya’s inner walls clenched down hard as Flint’s fingers moved faster and faster, and Freya and I both came simultaneously.

The orgasm forced a roar from me, and the other three moaned right along with me as Freya’s pleasure smashed into us through the mate bond. I stared down at her wide-open mouth as she came on a silent scream, her back arching as her other mates’ fingers clamped down on her hard nipples.

The sight was so erotic, my climax lasted twice as long as normal. Maybe it was because that’s what my mate’s heat demanded of my body. I kept pounding, giving her what she needed until she sank onto the bed, allowing me to withdraw.

Flint and I traded positions. While my release still spilled from her, Flint speared her, making her cry out again in pleasure. Her relentless need would drive all of us to satisfy her repeatedly, for days on end.

My softening cock twitched to life again. This was why I’d gone moon mad during Freya’s last heat — no sooner would I bring myself to release than my cock would rise again.

This time, I wouldn’t go moon mad, because nothing would keep me separated from my mate for long. Gage moved closer to my side of the bed, and I got up so he could take my place. But instead, he beckoned me into the hallway.

“We have to pace ourselves,” he explained. “We’ll need to rotate who sleeps, who gets food for her, and who bathes her. And since we don’t know when Ironwood will arrive, we all need to stay rested.”

Freya’s desperate moans rose from the bedroom, and I gestured toward it. “We’re supposed to sleep during this somehow?”

“Not yet, but we can take turns throughout the night if we can tire her out and get her to pass out early.”

His choice of words made me pull up short. My pack alpha was talking about fucking our mate until she blacked out like this was a normal occurrence.

“Is that… how this worked last time?”

He tilted a hand back and forth. “I think she’s even more insatiable this time.”

“Maybe because her mate bonds with most of us are so new?”

He tipped his head. “Maybe. The good news is it’ll be easier to predict what she needs now that we’re all bonded to her.”

The glowing rune on his cheekbone reminded me that he could sense her just as well as I could, even though she hadn’t bitten him back yet. It also reminded me that a rune showed on my face as well, but I hadn’t yet worked up the courage to look at myself in a mirror. Instead, I’d stayed in wolf form ever since Freya and I claimed each other.

After Freya’s heat ended and we neutralized the Ironwood threat, then I would decide how I felt about the permanent witch’s rune on my face — not before.

“Then what should I do now?” I asked my pack alpha.

We might all be her mates, but Gage always considered the entire pack to ensure our survival by balancing each packmate’s needs with his skills. Even with Freya’s heat and the mate bond driving us all crazy, I still trusted him to put Freya first while balancing the pack’s needs.

“Now that she’s fully in heat, she won’t let up for at least a few hours.” Gage grinned and clapped me on the shoulder. “For now? Enjoy it.”