Chapter 24 - Gage

Chapter 24

Gage

Rowan went back into the bedroom, making me proud of the way he’d stepped up. He’d claimed and accepted Freya in preparation to serve her during her heat. He put his mate’s needs ahead of his own, just as I knew he would — though it took him long enough.

While the others kept Freya busy, I monitored the Frost Fang pack bond as they prowled around the woods outside the cabin. In my human form, I couldn’t communicate with them, and Freya’s heat prevented me from shifting into wolf form. But I would sense the moment any of them noticed the enemy.

We had some time. Thatcher probably hadn’t even shown Luka the message yet. And even if he had, Luka would have to rally his warriors first before moving earlier than he’d planned. That was exactly what we were counting on — that he would be hasty to take advantage of our weakness, and in his haste, he would fail to see the trap.

We planned for two Howling Echo wolves to protect Freya while the other two led the charge against Ironwood, but the timing would dictate who would take what role. I’d explained this to the other three, and all of us were prepared to lead Frost Fang to victory while the others kept Freya safe.

We hoped that if our mate was in danger, we would be able to shift, but none of us could know for sure. Which was why we’d also brought an arsenal with us… Even if trapped in our human forms, we wouldn’t be caught weaponless.

As soon as I assured myself all was well with Frost Fang, my mind drifted to other things… Like how Heath had been distant from me ever since the conversation in my study. His bombshell about being attracted to me had left me reeling.

In an instant, our entire lives had been rewritten, my memories given new context. We’d always been close as boys. Our teenage shenanigans only brought us closer. But when he’d said ‘in all these years,’ it made me realize that while my own recent awareness toward him had come on suddenly, his must have been simmering for a long time. Much longer than I ever could have guessed.

And that… made things awkward. It left me on the back foot. I didn’t know if the strange awareness of him that had bloomed in me would ever actually turn into anything more, and I wasn’t willing to rock the boat, especially when Freya was so close to her heat. So, when he’d offered to ‘pretend things are normal,’ I didn’t argue.

Even though I’d wanted to.

Maybe I should have. Maybe I should have explained… but I’d feared that admitting to my own curiosity and uncertainty would only make things more awkward, not less. So, I’d taken the easy way out and kept my mouth shut when he stormed out.

Would that have made these next five days more bearable? Less awkward?

As pack alpha, I needed to think about the entire pack. And right now, the Ironwood threat was the most important thing, closely followed by my mate’s heat — unfortunately, Heath’s hurt feelings came third right now, and my own yearnings a distant fourth. Our entire survival depended on what happened in the new few days, and I refused to even imagine a situation where Ironwood came out on top.

I would never let Luka hurt Freya again. She wouldn’t have those scars if Luka had looked after his packmates the way an alpha should. Fury filled me, but it wouldn’t serve me yet. It would have an outlet soon… but for now, I pushed down those angry thoughts, thankful that they couldn’t leak to Freya over our one-way mate bond.

For now, my emotions remained completely private if I wished them to be. Sometimes I might accidentally let my feelings into the pack bond, but my control rarely slipped. My packmates only felt my fear or anger projected through the pack bond when necessary, like to protect Freya.

Knowing that she wanted to bite me back pleased me, but there was no guarantee she would during the heat. It was all-consuming, leaving her focused on her body’s needs, so she probably wouldn’t remember that she wanted to complete our bond until after we handled the Ironwood threat and her heat ended.

I was just glad we could all sense her now. It would make things easier on the two of us that ended up kicking Ironwood’s ass to know without a doubt that she was safe with the other two. With any luck, the two of us who ended up fighting Ironwood would return to her side, covered in the blood of her enemies.

“More,” Freya growled from inside the bedroom, breaking me free of my fantasies.

I went back in to find Rowan sitting in the corner chair with Freya on his lap. His arms wrapped around her, holding her tight against him as his hands played with her nipples. They’d draped her legs over the arms of the chair, leaving her splayed open. Heath fell to his knees between her legs to lap up both Rowan and Flint’s releases, and my dick jerked so hard, I thought I might come from the sight.

“Fuck.” The word escaped me before I could hold it back, and Heath paused to look up at me.

The sight of him kneeling there — his chin wet with cum and his eyes bright and hungry — did something to me. The sudden urge to stuff my dick down his throat nearly overpowered me, but then Freya moaned, and I jerked my eyes up to her.

The sight of her spread open like that made my fangs drop down, and I growled, “Give her to me.”

I shouldn’t be indulging any fantasies about Heath when Freya needed us all so desperately. Three hadn’t been enough to satisfy her during her first heat. She had all four of us this time, but it was starting to look like it would still be a challenge to keep her heat satiated.

Rowan got to his feet, grabbed our little mate, and pushed her into my arms. I squeezed her tight and blindly tried to lower her onto my dick, but she wriggled her hips impatiently, making my job more difficult. I gasped when a large hand wrapped around my base to hold me steady.

“There you go,” Heath encouraged as Freya slipped onto my crown, but whether his words were directed at me or Freya, I couldn’t be sure.

Flint and Heath had helped each other line up their erections for Freya before, but having Heath’s hand on me now had my balls tightening even as it left me feeling more confused than ever. Having both Heath and Freya touching my dick at once — Heath’s hand steadying me as Freya slid onto me inch by inch — made me weak in the knees. Especially when she slid down to reach his hand and let out a satisfied moan.

“That’s it, princess,” I growled in her ear, though it was always hit or miss as to what she would understand and respond to during her heat.

Heath let go and rose to stand behind her, kissing along her back. His eyes soon peeked over her shoulder at me, and the pure need within them had my hips twitching forward to drive myself up into Freya. She let out a moan as she seated herself fully against me, and Heath’s eyes fell half-lidded as he smiled in satisfaction.

He seemed content to make Freya happy, and I pushed aside my earlier worries. Just like me, Heath knew our priorities. And knowing that left me able to focus completely on Freya.

I took Rowan’s spot in the chair, which was just wide enough for her knees to fall onto the cushion under me. She grinned, giddy as she happily bounced up and down on my dick, showing no signs of being close to climax.

Behind her, I noticed Flint gesture to Rowan, and the two of them disappeared into the hallway, probably to get food and keep their strength up. That left me alone with a heat-crazed mate and Heath, who bundled her hair together, pulling it back away from her neck.

“Look at that beautiful necklace of bites,” he said, bending down to kiss Rowan’s mark on the back of her neck.

Freya gasped and stiffened like she’d been hit by lightning, and I felt her inner walls clench on me.

“Rowan,” she whispered the name of the man who had left his mark on her forever.

Heath gently licked the bite, and she bucked. I grinned and traced Heath’s bite on her breast with my fingertips, making her buck again.

“Heath,” she whispered, her eyes rolling back in her head at our touches on her most erogenous zones — our bite marks.

Heath’s mouth moved to Flint’s mate mark, and this time he bit down, making Freya scream out, “Flint,” as she came instantly, nearly pulling me with her.

Only his hand in her hair kept her steady on me, and I tilted my hips, giving her a better climax, even if she wouldn’t remember it. Our first heat with her had taught us exactly what her body responded to, and now we knew all her secrets. But we didn’t have as many mate marks to play with last time.

Through the Howling Echo pack bond, I sensed Rowan and Flint downstairs. What must they be feeling through their bonds as Heath teased their marks on our mate? I wouldn’t be surprised if Flint had to clean up a mess after hearing his mate scream his name while she came.

Heath grinned, his eyes meeting mine for a moment before he moved behind Freya. With his hand still tangled in her hair, he bent down, his breath ghosting along the mark I’d left on her shoulder. My dick twitched at the sight of his lips getting closer and closer to the mark that had changed everything between us all.

Freya was still catching her breath when Heath gently licked along the edge of my mate mark. She and I both groaned as pleasure hit us. Her desire flooded through the mate bond, which also conveyed the sense of his lips on her mate mark even as my eyes confirmed it. Thanks to the mate bond, it was almost as though I could feel his lips on me.

“Gage,” she moaned as Heath teased us both.

Then his eyes fixed on mine again, a mischievous light in them warning me to be ready. Heath lifted his mouth off her shoulder and Freya whimpered at the loss of contact. Then he suddenly lunged down, biting my mark on her.

She screamed again, her inner walls once again clamping down on me, but this time the word she yelled was, “Mine!”

I had a split second to see her fangs come in as her mouth partially shifted. Then Heath released her hair and she struck, her body curling forward, bringing her face to my shoulder. My eyes met Heath’s, and his hand dropped to his erection just as Freya’s fangs sank into my neck.

My entire body jolted, her climax and her bite pulling me into a state of pure bliss. My own roar deafened me to all other sounds. And all I could see were Heath’s lips curling up in glee as he watched me lose my mind. My release pulsed inside Freya as her body milked me, and her fangs remained latched low in my neck, her hair falling along my chest.

My throat felt raw, and my body moved of its own accord, bucking as Freya followed her instincts to claim all her mates at last. For some reason, having Heath here standing witness to it all felt right. I pulsed and pulsed inside of her until I was spent.

As I slowly came down from the high, my awareness of my body came back to me. The heaviness in my limbs. The rawness of my throat. The weight of Freya on my lap. And my erection slowly fading inside of her.

“Mate,” she said happily and leaned forward to kiss me.

The taste of blood — my blood — met my tongue, and I groaned in delight. Freya had claimed me at last. I only hoped that when the heat faded, she felt good about it. Some part of me feared she might be disappointed it had happened during the heat, when she wouldn’t remember it very well.

That part of me tensed in fear, remembering all too easily how furious she’d been when I’d bitten her. Her revulsion had horrified me, though I knew now that was because she feared I’d taken away her chance with her other mates. But at the time… the memory of my dawning horror at what I’d done filled me as she broke the kiss and sat back.

Behind her, Heath tilted his head. His eyes narrowed, and he slowly moved forward to help Freya off my lap. From the look on his face, he was trying to puzzle something out.

But before he could figure it out, Freya was pushing him toward the bed.

“Need more,” she growled, and he chuckled.

That chuckle always did something to me, and my softening dick twitched. I sat in the chair, still trying to catch my breath and process the fact that Freya had finally claimed me back.

We now shared a two-way mate bond, which meant, for the first time, someone else could spy on my emotions.

Dread clenched my gut at the loss of control. Heath’s head whipped toward me, an eyebrow raised as though he knew exactly what I was thinking. He’d always known me too well.

After we’d been exiled, the Frost Fang pack bond had been broken. For the first time, I’d lost sense of the overbearing presence of the pack alpha — first my father, and later my brother — in the pack bond. I’d felt free… but also untethered, and only Heath’s presence at my side had soothed me.

As a fellow alpha, he understood how important being part of a pack was. We both knew we might slowly go feral the longer we went without a pack. So we did our best to act as packmates, even without a pack bond. It was the loneliest I’d ever felt; being with Heath had helped me keep my sanity.

Later, Heath and I had created the Howling Echo. As the pack alpha, I could sense all my packmates, but no one could sense my emotions except when they were powerful enough to leak into the pack bond.

But now… Now, Freya had that power. Once the heat was over and she could focus, she would know all my secrets… All my doubts would be laid bare for her. And that meant—

She pushed Heath down onto the bed and mounted him. For a split second I considered what it would be like to wrap my hand around his base like he’d done for me, steadying him as Freya slid down on him. But the moment was over too fast, as Freya slammed home against him.

Still, the thought had awakened my dick, and it rose straight to full mast again without hesitation. I couldn’t shake the thought of how good Heath’s hardness would have felt in my palm. I got to my feet, my traitorous legs trying to give way after that mind-shattering orgasm. But I stalked toward the bed anyway, Heath’s eyes tracking me in the dim room.

Claim mates, my wolf whispered.

I reeled back in shock as my wolf’s desires hit me — not just for Freya, but for Heath as well. He’d never spoken so clearly about Heath before. But… that couldn’t be right. Freya was my mate. The only reason she had multiple mates was because of her Odinswolf and witch ancestry. I shouldn’t be able to desire anyone else, especially during my mate’s heat.

Perhaps her scent on all her mates made my wolf lust for them as well as her. And maybe that’s why I’d suddenly developed strange feelings toward Heath — because we shared a mate who was going into heat. Could this all be explained by her pheromones?

The only way I would know for sure would be after her heat ended. Once I was clear-headed again…

“Gage,” Freya moaned even as she sank down on Heath again. “More.”

I climbed onto the bed, and Heath spread his legs so I could awkwardly find a spot between them. Coming up behind Freya, I began playing with her breasts the way she liked as she bounced on Heath’s cock. She moaned, and I trailed my hand down toward her clit.

Heath watched as I stroked her, my fingers close to his body. “Fuck, Gage, she really likes that.”

I didn’t let up until she was coming again. Her body milked him, her pleasure echoing to us all through the mate bond, but my packmate held his own. He thrust up into her as her body lost the rhythm, and she moaned long and low as she rode out the orgasm.

No sooner was it over than she growled, “More!” again.

“She wants you in back,” Heath spelled it out.

I blinked, suddenly freezing. During her last heat, all three of us had taken turns double penetrating her at different points in time. But I’d never once been her back door man. I’d always let Heath handle it, considering he was the one with the most experience doing anal.

“Get the lube,” Heath motioned toward the end table where we’d left various supplies — mostly towels to clean up.

“I know how to prep her,” I grumbled.

Just as I had during her last heat, I grabbed the lube and coated my fingers. I suddenly remembered how good it had felt, being inside of Freya when Heath slipped into her back entrance, both of us sawing in and out of her…

“I know.” Heath’s words brought me back to the present. He gave me a saucy wink. “But prep her well, because otherwise there’s no way your fat cock is going to fit.”

The fat cock in question bobbed as though appreciating the compliment, and I stifled a moan as my balls began to ache. I teased a lubed finger down the cleft in Freya’s ass before easing it inside her. She stilled, and my finger slid in as her body welcomed my intrusion.

“That’s it,” Heath encouraged.

I added a second finger, my eyes jumping up to his face like an idiot, as though I expected to see his reaction. But if Freya’s moan was any indication, I was doing exactly what she wanted. She leaned forward and bit down on Heath’s nipple as though steeling herself for what came next.

“Scissor your fingers a bit,” Heath said, and this time, when I looked up at him, gold ringed his irises, his wolf coming close to the surface.

Was he imagining me doing this to him like I was? I couldn’t help but keep eye contact with him as I scissored my fingers as he instructed.

Freya gasped and wriggled, then growled, “More!”

A grin teased Heath’s lips, giving him that playboy look I loved so much. I jerked my hand back from Freya at the thought. What was the matter with me? I should be focusing on her, not on him.

So, as I rose up behind her, I looked down at her nice, round ass, spreading her cheeks with my hands as I notched myself against her hole. Heath and Freya both froze as I slowly entered her. She gasped, and I stopped.

“Give her a second to adjust,” Heath said in a whisper so quiet it seemed reverent.

As my dick slid deeper into Freya, I felt that intoxicating sensation I remembered from her last heat… the hardness of something just on the other side of her thin membrane.

“More…” She whispered it like a prayer.

Heath and I were both about to worship at Freya’s altar together… in the most intimate way possible.

“Keep going,” Heath encouraged, and I couldn’t help but wonder if he would have coached me the same way if I was entering him.

Then I reminded myself that Heath was too dominant to bottom. He wouldn’t want this. But Freya did. Somehow, that realization alleviated all my guilt about my confusing thoughts, at least for the moment. I bottomed out inside Freya, and we all let out a collective sigh.

This was for Freya. And as I slid in and out of her — gently at first, then more insistently — I felt her body sing.

Pure pleasure flooded the mate bond, enveloping me, erasing all doubts and confusion. The scent of Freya’s heat filled my nostrils, giving me a single-minded focus. In turn, I gave my mate exactly what she wanted.

Heath began to match my movements, gently tilting his hips at just the right moment to make Freya gasp with each thrust. And all the while, our dicks slid past each other inside of her… It wasn’t just her I was rubbing up against — it was him, too.

And suddenly, my climax felt all-too-imminent.

“I’m… close,” I groaned.

“Don’t hold back,” Heath answered as Freya moaned in agreement.

The scent of pure arousal filled the air alongside Freya’s heat, and I drank it all in. Freya twisted her head, and I leaned forward to kiss her. It was an awkward angle, but we made it work. Then I pulled back. Remembering what Heath had done earlier, I waited until Freya turned her face down to kiss Heath, and then I leaned forward and nibbled on Rowan’s bite mark on the nape of her neck.

She came, instantly squeezing, and the stranglehold she had on us made me lose my mind right along with her. Especially when I felt the answering pulse of the other hard cock inside of her. That tipped me completely into bliss. Like one interconnected organism, we all moaned and came together.

Heath’s enjoyment felt clearer than usual through the pack bond, and it created a feedback loop as their combined pleasure fed my own. My climax felt like it took days to end, and by the end of it, I could barely hold myself up.

I put my hands down on either side of them on the bed and pushed, pulling myself from Freya’s body. She sighed but let her entire weight rest on Heath. I raised my eyebrows, silently questioning if she was falling asleep. His contentment met me across the bond in response, and I helped slide her onto the bed beside him. Her skin felt cooler, and I took that as a sign that she would be able to sleep for a while.

Flint appeared in the doorway and held out two damp cloths to each of us. Then he went around the bed and began cleaning up Freya as she slept.

“Fuck, that was…” I started to say, then kept my voice down, glancing guiltily at Freya.

“It really was,” Heath chuckled.

With Heath and me sitting side by side on the bed wiping down our dicks, it almost felt like I’d fucked him instead of her.

“Didn’t know what you were missing last time,” Flint whispered with a smile on his face.

My stomach clenched again as guilt ate me. I forced a laugh, but couldn’t shake it. This was Freya’s heat. We were supposed to be focused on her pleasure, not our own. This may have been a new experience to me, but I should put her first, regardless. But doing it with Heath there to coach me along felt… too natural.

“Does it bother you?” Flint asked.

A trickle of his unease came across the bond. I tilted my head, confused as to how he’d picked up on my worries.

“He’s the pack alpha, so nothing really changed for him,” Heath said to Flint. “He hasn’t figured it out yet.”

Flint’s unease turned to worry as he shooed us both toward the door.

“And I bet neither of you have figured out this part yet.” Flint’s voice echoed in our minds.

Surprise nearly knocked me off my feet. How was that… possible?

Rowan waited for us in the hallway, and Flint closed the bedroom door behind himself.

“It’s about to get a whole lot easier to coordinate taking care of Freya.”

I whirled on Flint. His lips hadn’t moved.

“What…”

Heath’s eyes filled with a strange mixture of victory and worry as he stared at me.

“Remember after you bit Freya, and I told you I wished the pack bond went both ways, so I could tell what you were thinking?” Heath asked.

The bottom dropped out of my stomach as I put two and two together.

“Now that she mated all four of us, it seems we share her witch’s Bond,” Heath explained in my mind. “When witches choose to bond, all the witches become each other’s Bonded. None of them belong to just one. They all belong to each other. Which means, like all Bonded, we now share the Bond as well. All of us.”

“No more switching to wolf form to talk in private,” Rowan’s voice sounded awed even as a trickle of fear reached me.

Suddenly I realized why all their emotions seemed so much clearer than through the pack bond. Because I wasn’t sensing them from the pack bond at all… but through Freya’s mate bond, as her Bonded.

Which meant…

“Now he gets it,” Heath’s laugh echoed in my mind as full-fledged fear kicked in.

I’d been afraid of being unable to hide my emotions from Freya. But as my eyes met each of my packmates’ steady gazes, I realized this was much, much worse. Letting Freya claim me so the mate bond could go both ways came with an unintended side effect because of her witch heritage.

Becoming Freya’s Bonded stripped away all my secrets, all of my privacy. Now, I could no longer hide from any of them.