Chapter 4 - Freya

Chapter 4

Freya

When Gage didn’t come back to the den until after I was asleep last night, I felt disappointed. But when I walked into the kitchen to find he’d already left without once saying a thing to me, my disappointment soured into resentment.

“Good morning, moonbeam,” Flint said carefully, searching my expression.

“Gage is gone, isn’t he?”

Flint nodded. “He’s coordinating things in Frost Fang. Heath should arrive back there soon.”

“And Rowan?”

“I… think he stayed out in his wolf form all night.”

He reached across the counter to squeeze my hand. We ate a hurried breakfast so we could continue my wolf shifter training, this time without Rowan.

The only thing I had to look forward to now was meeting up with Brielle to learn about my magic. Shante and Flint accompanied me back to her cottage, and seeing Rowan’s wolf flanking us through the trees comforted me a little.

He might not have known how to be with me yet, but he was trying, in his own way. Gage apparently couldn’t even be bothered to try. I let my annoyance leak through the bond toward him as I ran toward Brielle’s.

Unfortunately, my frustration only built as I entered Brielle’s and she immediately handed me a bucket of water. I held the heavy container and stared down into the clear depths.

“Is this a metaphor?”

She nodded. “It is. Think of your magic like a bucket of water. It has weight. It has substance. Water can be used for many things — good and bad.”

I frowned.

“It can sustain crops, quench thirst, cleanse, and heal. But it can also poison, drown, wash away, and destroy.”

“Okay… Is this how you learned magic?”

“Stay focused on the water, Freya,” she scolded.

I sighed, my arms already growing weary of holding it in front of me.

“Now, reach out and touch the water.”

My eyebrows drew down. The bucket was heavy and didn’t have a handle. If I let go with one hand, I wasn’t sure I could hold it with the other.

“It’s difficult to know how to interact with it, isn’t it?” Brielle said, standing serenely on the other side of the kitchen from me.

“If I set the bucket down…”

“You can’t set the bucket down. It’s your magic. It’s part of you. It goes where you go.”

I sighed, wondering if Brielle would be annoyed at her stupid pupil if I dunked my face in the water to show her this was a terrible metaphor.

“If I pour it, I’m going to make a mess of your kitchen.”

She smiled, but her only response was to raise an eyebrow.

I sighed again. She was going to be one of those teachers. The “wax on, wax off” kind. I could see it already.

Carefully maneuvering the water over to one arm, I tried to pour out a little onto my other hand. Water sloshed out of the bucket, splashing over my feet, the floor, and the legs of the kitchen table. I steadied the bucket, then glanced up at Brielle and raised an eyebrow of my own. Two could play that game.

“Good, you touched the water like you wanted, but you also wasted some.”

I nodded. “So… is this how it is using magic?”

“If you’re not careful, you’ll use more magic than you mean to, and you’ll waste it. The extra will end up unused and useless on the floor. You must learn to be precise.”

Brielle lifted a finger, and the water rose from the floor, turning into a small orb of liquid. Then it splashed back into the bucket.

“As you learn to use your magic better, you’ll also be able to call your magic back, to withdraw it from whatever use you sent it toward.”

“Okay.”

“Now… without trying to touch the water with any part of your body… Try to touch the water.”

“With… my mind?” I guessed.

“Something like that, yes. It will be your magic, not your mind. But if it helps to think of it that way, go ahead.”

I tried. I really, really tried.

Brielle encouraged me every which way. Minutes stretched on and on, until I finally growled.

“Is there a different exercise we can try?”

“You’re still trying to convince yourself that magic is real,” Brielle scolded.

With a single finger, the water in the bucket responded to her. It sloshed, then splashed up to slap me in the face.

She glared at me from across the kitchen. “How did I touch the water from over here?”

“Magic,” I grumbled.

I stared at the water. I closed my eyes. I let my nostrils fill with the scent of water. I did everything I could think of… but the only water I touched was the water droplets on my face.

My arms were starting to shake with the effort of holding up the bucket of water by the time Brielle called our lesson to a close. I tried to ask her for a different exercise, but she shook her head.

“Think about it today. Dream on it tonight. Then come back to me tomorrow and do it.”

With my lips pursed, I ducked my head.

Outside, Flint explained that Shante decided to go back to her packlands when she got a message, so I followed him back to Moonblessed while a dark shadow trailed us.

“How did it go?” Flint asked.

“Terribly. What if I can’t do magic?”

“You can. Don’t worry about today, moonbeam. No one succeeds on their very first lesson. Remember how hard it was to shift for the first time?”

“But I shifted the same day I tried. Today, I accomplished nothing.”

“Then tomorrow, you’ll try again.”

For once, Flint’s confidence in me felt unfounded. What if I really couldn’t do magic? What if it was because of what Brielle had said… that the magic within me wasn’t exactly mine?

When I didn’t reply right away, Flint spoke up again. “Don’t lose hope so soon, moonbeam. And remember, no matter what happens, you belong with our pack.”

By the time we got back to the den, my bad mood hadn’t improved. If anything, it got darker when I realized Gage had holed up in his study with the door closed.

“You’ll have the next few days to work things out with Gage on your own,” Heath had said.

But how could I do that when he avoided me at every turn?

Maybe it was time to take matters into my own hands.

If he wanted to avoid me, I would make myself unavoidable.

After a quick shower, I pulled on a pair of lace panties Heath had brought me before he stayed behind. By the time I went back downstairs, I wasn’t surprised to find the study door remained closed.

Flint followed behind me as I got closer to the study door. He tilted his head, then frowned at me.

“Sorry, moonbeam, it sounds like he’s on a call. He has a lot to do before we can return to Frost Fang, especially after what happened.”

“He came here to meet us,” I argued. “Other than… that night, he’s been avoiding us.”

“Wait til he’s done with this call,” Flint suggested. “I know he wants to see you.”

I shook my head. “After this call, there will be another. Or something else will come up. I’m done waiting.”

Before Flint could protest again, I reached out and opened the door. Just as Flint had predicted, Gage sat behind his large desk with the phone up to his ear. His eyes narrowed when he saw us. Raised witchfire scars stretched down the arm holding the phone, reminding me of the battle. It had scarred all of us, though mine were internal.

As his sky-blue eyes scanned me from head to toe, his nostrils flared, and pure longing hit me through the pack bond. When Gage didn’t budge, I stepped forward into the study.

His eyes grew distant for a moment, and he answered the person on the phone. “Bretton, I understand that. That wasn’t what I was asking.”

So, it was a work call after all. And from the tone of his voice, dealing with it frustrated him. Since Gage had made no movement to shoo me away, Flint didn’t stop me.

I turned to wink at him, then closed the door between us. Just before the door blocked him from view, my steadfast lover’s lips curled up in a knowing smirk.

When I turned back around, Gage hit me with a smoldering look. But his voice sounded all business as he spoke to Bretton over the phone.

“Heath can handle that. I need to know what’s happening up north.”

Apparently, he had every intention of making me wait. Bookshelves lined every wall of the study, so I bent over to read some titles on the lower shelves, putting my butt toward Gage. It was his turn to be impatient.

My wolf shifter hearing picked up the man’s voice on the other end of the call, but I couldn’t make out his words. Gage still made no move to tell Bretton he’d call back. I rose, leaning against the door. Time to be a little more overt.

Ever so slowly, I slid my hands down to the hem of my shirt. Gage’s sky-blue eyes traced the movement like a predator watched his prey.

Did he really think I would just sit in one of his armchairs and wait around for him to finish his call?

I raised my arms over my head, pulling my shirt off to reveal my lace bra. Gage sat back in his chair, his gaze heated, but still on the phone, looking every inch like the powerful pack alpha that had conquered another pack. The witchfire burn on his forearm made him look that much more formidable.

I loved the way his bicep bulged as he held the phone to his ear. But what I loved more was the way his gaze devoured me, and the fingers of his other hand tensed on the desk in front of him.

I traced my hands down my body, forging ahead despite feeling like an amateur at this whole striptease thing. When my hands reached the button of my jeans, I looked down, and my long hair cascaded around my shoulders.

I paused, waiting with my hands there as I looked up at Gage from beneath my eyelashes. His eyes jumped from the button to meet my gaze, and he gave me a slow, deliberate nod.

A grin stole across my face as I slowly unbuttoned and unzipped my jeans. With no rush at all, I slipped them over my hips and down my legs. I stood before my pack alpha with nothing but my matching set of lace underthings — let him see what he couldn’t have until he got off that damned call.

This little game made me hungry for more, and I stretched back to lean against the door, letting one hand slip inside my panties. Gage’s nostrils flared, his pupils dilating. Was that a trace of gold I noticed ringing the edges?

“And the alpha up there didn’t notify you of that?” Gage growled into the phone, his bicep tensing so deliciously.

For some strange reason, the growl in his voice went straight to my core, and wetness drenched my fingers as I toyed with myself. From the sound of things, this call might drag on. My patience couldn’t last.

It was time to break his, too.

I set both my hands on my hips, glaring at Gage. His gaze had gone distant as he listened to Bretton’s report, however.

Was the call important? Sure. But my heat drew ever closer, and my body refused to be satisfied with the attention of only one of my mates. Rowan remained distant, Heath was away, and Gage had been ignoring me.

My wolf took it as a personal insult. I wouldn’t stand it any longer.

He could call Bretton back. Whatever failings in the Frost Fang alphas he had just uncovered, the events had already happened, and Bretton and Heath could handle them now. Gage could hear about it later.

I strode across the study, rounded Gage’s desk, and grabbed the arm of his desk chair. His eyebrows drew down, his lips parting in surprise. Until my fingers found the button on his trousers. Then his expression turned heated, and he leaned back in his chair, giving me better access to unbutton and unzip him.

His hard and heavy cock sprang free, and I wrapped my fingers around it, daring to glance up at my pack alpha, who now gripped one arm of the chair as if struggling to keep control. No doubt he could smell my arousal, and my oncoming heat made it that much more alluring to alphas like him.

He couldn’t resist me, but he was putting up a fight with that phone still glued to his ear. I leaned forward and sucked on the tip, teasing him by keeping it light and soft.

Gage growled, and I could vaguely hear the questioning tone of voice on the other end.

“No, no, continue,” Gage said into the phone, but his voice caught as I took another inch of him into my mouth.

I chuckled around his cock, and Gage groaned, twisting away from me. Or so I thought, as I grabbed his hips and gobbled him down. He let out a yelp, and I heard something hit the desk. Now I could hear Bretton’s voice coming through on speakerphone, still rambling a report without any awareness of what challenge his pack alpha faced.

This was a dangerous game Gage was playing. His hands were now free, but Bretton might be able to hear us.

Before I could decide whether I liked how Gage upped the ante, Gage’s hands reached down. Thick fingers circled the base of his cock while his other hand palmed my head, forcing my mouth down his length to meet those fingers.

“Don’t try to play ‘just the tip’ with me,” he whispered as his hard length slid into my throat.

“Sir?” Bretton asked.

I did my best not to choke or make a sound as Gage answered, “Nothing, Bretton.”

“Right, well, as I was saying…”

Gage’s hand in my hair pulled my head back, letting me take in a deep breath as he gazed down at me with half-lidded, golden eyes. I’d challenged the alpha, and his wolf wanted to come out to play.

I smirked up at him, intentionally meeting his gaze, not letting it drop. He growled and shoved my head back down on him, forcing himself down my throat again. My hands slid up his thighs, gripping his hips, holding on for dear life. He began to face-fuck me, controlling my movements with his fist in my hair.

Pent-up frustration crackled between us as his hips angled so he could feed me even more of his cock. Wetness soaked my panties and rolled down my thighs as I kneeled before him. If anyone came in, the massive desk would hide me, but anyone could see Gage’s golden eyes spelled trouble.

I moaned around his cock at the thought of getting caught and slid my hand into my panties.

There was a long pause on the other end of the phone, and Gage and I froze.

“Ah, I sense now is a bad time,” Bretton said slowly. “Shall I call you back?”

Gage looked down at me, my lips wrapped around the tip of his cock, tears streaming down my face from how close he’d come to choking me.

Had I finally succeeded in getting my alpha’s full attention?

He smirked down at me. “There’s one more report you haven’t given me yet,” Gage answered.

Bretton snorted and launched into his report. Gage hit a button and said, “There. We’re muted. I want to hear those pretty little moans.”

Then he slid out of my mouth, grabbed my hand, and pulled me up to stand with him.

“You’re trouble, princess.”

He crushed me to him, kissing me hard, his tongue invading as if to taste himself in every corner of my mouth.

When he broke the kiss, he turned back to the desk as Bretton’s voice droned on and on. Sweeping his scarred arm across its surface, he sent folders and maps falling to the floor. Then he pushed me down face-first onto the cold wood. My nipples hardened, and I twisted to look back at him, finding him kicking off his pants. His sky-blue gaze met mine, revealing he’d regained control, just the way he liked it. With one hand on my lower back, he stroked himself slowly, his eyes darting to the phone for a moment as Bretton said something that caught his interest.

I growled, covering up Bretton’s voice, and Gage snarled. His hand clapped down on my ass cheek, then he grabbed a handful, staring down at my ass like he couldn’t wait to devour me.

“I couldn’t do this before. I would never raise a hand to you, because I honored my side of the deal, refusing to let anyone hurt you. But now… you’ve brought this on yourself, naughty princess.”

With one heavy hand on my back, he moved to stand beside the desk, putting himself in the perfect position to spank me. His hand clapped down on the other cheek this time, startling a moan out of me. He smacked the other side, then smoothed his hand along the burn, only to bring his hand down again and then again, making the burn even worse.

I gasped and moaned. “Please, alpha, I need you.”

“Tell me what you need, princess.”

I said the words I knew would break his resolve. “I want your hard cock inside me, alpha.”

“I bet you do. But I’ll decide when.”

His hand clapped down hard on my ass, and my whole body jolted with pleasure. Another spank, and another, and I could feel myself drenching the rounded edge of his desk.

“This reminds me of that time on the kitchen table,” Gage murmured.

He paused as his enforcer repeated something… a question. My lust-addled brain hadn’t been paying attention. But apparently my business-minded pack alpha had.

He leaned over me, his hard dick pinned against my thigh, as he hit a button on the phone. “I heard that from Heath already. What else?”

Then he hit another button, and I growled, starting to push myself up off the desk. His big hand spanned my back as he pushed me back down on it.

“Oh, you want my full attention, is that it?”

“Yes,” I snarled.

He grabbed one hand and then the other, bringing them behind my back, leaving me pinned to the desk.

“You’ll have to earn it,” Gage growled right back.

With one hand occupied holding my wrists, his other hand roughly pulled aside my panties. I moaned as I felt his hardness notch against my entrance.

“This right here?” Gage asked.

“Fuck, yes,” I growled. “That’s what I need, alpha.”

He chuckled, then slid in, teasing me with just the tip. How did the man have such control?

My hips twitched involuntarily, and I tried to slide back on him. I was so wet, I knew I could take every inch of him. But his hand on my wrists also kept me pinned in place on his desk.

“Please, alpha,” I whined.

“That’s better,” he said, sliding home.

We both let out a groan of satisfaction as he stretched and filled me, my ass tight against his hips.

Now that he had me where he wanted me, he released my wrists, his hands going to my hips. He set a punishing pace, slamming me against his desk over and over, making even its steady mass shake.

“Yes, alpha, finally, yes,” I cried as he slammed into me over and over.

“Fuck, princess,” he groaned.

I felt him throb within me, and that’s when he paused, leaning over me, his hips stilling against mine. In the background, I still heard Bretton’s voice, but it was quiet compared to the sound of my thundering pulse. My inner walls clenched on Gage’s length, and he growled in my ear.

“You’re trouble.”

Then he pushed a button on the phone and interrupted Bretton. “You’re right, Bretton, I’ll have to call you back later.”

From the sigh on the other side, I had to assume he was relieved to hear that. “Of course, alpha. Anytime.”

The line clicked, and Gage chuckled in my ear. “I may not have been doing a good job keeping my lust out of the pack bond.”

“Which pack bond?” I grinned.

“Either of them.”

Gage sniffed me, letting my scent fill his nostrils. “You smell so good.”

“You feel so good,” I answered.

Gage’s hips gently pulsed against me, and my lust roared to life.

“Caught your breath?” he asked, reminding me of that night so long ago, when he’d taken me over the kitchen table.

“Yes, alpha,” I said eagerly.

“Then put your hands on the desk,” he commanded, proving he remembered that night just as well as I did.

He’d made me do as he commanded, suffering through the edging of a lifetime as I begged and begged for him to let me come. The advantage I had this time was that he was already inside of me — and I could tell he wanted to come just as badly as I did.

“Yes, alpha,” I repeated, doing as he wished.

Then he picked up his punishing pace once more, and my fingers curled around the edge of the desk. I moaned with abandon as his hips slammed into me. But just as my inner walls fluttered, Gage pulled out of me.

I gasped with need as my wetness trickled down my thighs.

“Let me see you come,” Gage growled.

He grabbed my arm and turned me toward him. I expected him to push me back down on the desk, face up this time, just like he’d once done with me on that kitchen table as Heath and Flint watched. Instead, he gathered me up in arms, and I instinctively wrapped my legs around his waist. He pushed me back against the heavy door of his study, then lined himself up and lowered me onto his cock.

His sky-blue gaze devoured my expression as my head tilted back in pleasure. My fingers dug into his back as he began sliding in and out of me, buried deep within me. This time, when my inner walls fluttered, he smiled and nibbled at my lip.

“Touch yourself for me, princess.”

I slid my hand between our bodies, my fingers easily finding that sensitive spot that would send me flying. Gage’s arms supported me as he set the rhythm.

“I’m close, alpha,” I moaned.

“You want us to fuck you through another heat, don’t you, princess?”

“Fuck, yes,” I groaned. “More than anything.”

“You want us to take turns fucking you,” he whispered in my ear, recalling those words from our first time together. “Again and again.”

“Yes, all of you,” I moaned, my control slipping.

“Come for me, princess.” He pulled me against his hips, forcing my fingers tight against my clit. Then his head came down, and he licked his bite mark on my neck.

I saw stars as the pleasure crested over me, make me clamp down on his cock as I lost it. His teeth closed over the mate mark, and I screamed as my whole body lit up with ecstasy.

He pulled his head back, teeth gritted, his eyes devouring my expression as I came hard on his cock. He kept up the pace, giving me what I needed as the climax rocked me and my legs tightened around his hips.

The orgasm wasn’t even over when he turned and laid me on the desk. My snow-white hair spread around me and spilled over the edge. He pulled my legs up, my ankles resting near his shoulders as he split me open.

I cried out as he stretched me at this new angle. And this time, his hand came down to touch me. With his arms holding my legs against him, his thumb teased my clit, and that’s all it took to send me falling off another cliff.

Gage fucked me through a second climax, but he was relentless.

“Hands on your tits, baby,” he demanded. “Pinch those nipples for me.”

The post-orgasmic haze made it hard for me to even focus on his words.

“Do it,” he snapped, and my hands flew up to my breasts.

I moaned as my fingers pinched my nipples, and his thumb began circling my clit once more. Laying here on his desk where he’d been busy on a call only minutes before made me feel so wanton. I’d interrupted him, and he’d spanked me in punishment, but we both knew we wanted the same thing.

He slid in and out at a slow, steady rhythm until I felt a new wave about to crest. Then he fucked me hard, putting more pressure on my clit as if demanding I come again.

“Pinch them hard,” he growled.

His command, combined with all the sensations, sent me over the edge again. This time, Gage’s hips rocked, and his mouth opened on an O that made me come that much harder. At last, I’d broken the alpha’s control.

His teeth snapped closed, and for a moment I saw his incisors lengthen, his eyes going gold. Another wave of pleasure crested as I imagined him finishing me off with another bite. He gave me a few more powerful thrusts as we came together, and then my whole body went slack. I felt wrung out, my body sated — for now.

When the heat came, this would be nothing more than an appetizer.

Gage let my legs down and withdrew, and I again caught sight of the long lines of his witchfire scar on his arms. He glanced around and grabbed his pants, pulling them on. But no amount of straightening made him look presentable now. He looked wild and sexed up.

As my feet slid down to touch the floor, I grinned. I’d done that. I’d made him go crazy.

“See?” I laughed. “Paying attention to me has its perks.”

“It does.”

He growled and pulled me off the desk and into his arms, kissing me. Then he collapsed into the desk chair, pulling me down into his lap.

“Can we finally talk?” I asked.

The pack alpha stilled, then nodded. “Let’s talk.”