Chapter 6 - Rowan

Chapter 6

Rowan

Now that Freya could shift, I couldn’t hide from her in my wolf form, so I haunted the trails near the mage’s cottage. I didn’t want to spend any time in our den. Being indoors in wolf form would disrespect our hosts, and I couldn’t stand to stay on two legs for long. My human form had become even itchier for me ever since I’d met Freya — full of urges I couldn’t handle. I was pathetic — too afraid to talk to my mate but craving her presence anyway.

Seeing Flint with her made something inside me tighten like a bowstring. The unfamiliar sensation baffled me: something like joy for my packmate mixed with envy.

Flint had always been the most loyal among us. I’d heard how he sacrificed himself so his beta littermate didn’t get exiled to the wildlands. Then when Gage had offered him the chance to join our pack, Flint had carefully discussed it with the Moonblessed alpha pair before joining the Howling Echo. But for the first time, Flint’s loyalty annoyed me, because now he was loyal to Freya.

It made no sense. She confused and confounded me at every turn.

Freya spent the afternoon in magic training with the mage. I hated the telltale scent of magic wafting from the cottage. The part of me that had promised the Howling Echo my loyalty warred with the part of me that had once defended my wolf pack against witches… and failed.

Afterward, Flint escorted her back to Moonblessed. I trailed them back to ensure they made it safely through the walls, but I didn’t follow them inside.

Instead, I hunted rabbit for dinner and let my wolf roam through the wildlands. Over and over, I found myself drawn back to our trail through the wildlands, my wolf hungry for the scent of his mate.

I circled the mage’s cottage as close as I dared, then startled when I caught sight of her outside it.

“Rowan, is it?”

I faced her, still in my wolf form, refusing to shift. I didn’t owe this mage anything.

“Your mate has two natures. If you ever wish to become hers, you’ll need to accept that.”

I growled low in my throat, but to my annoyance, I didn’t smell a whiff of fear in the air. We faced off, neither of us backing down. Her eyes met mine until my dominance forced her to look away.

That’s when I remembered — like Freya, Brielle was also half wolf shifter. Except unlike Freya, she fit into the dominance hierarchy. And her dominance didn’t hold a candle to mine.

Her averted gaze soothed my alpha aspect, and I found myself curious. Normally, I had no issue shifting in front of other shifters, but today, I felt compelled to hide my body behind a tree until I had the important bits covered. When I stepped out on two legs, Brielle smirked at me.

“If nothing else, that action alone tells me your intentions. You want her as your mate.”

I gazed off in the direction Flint had taken Freya, my heart longing for something I wasn’t sure I could bear. It irritated me, as did being in this form.

“Why did you call out to me, witch?”

Brielle growled right back. “I’m a mage, not a witch. I hate witches.”

That took me aback, and I raised an eyebrow.

“You hate rogue alphas, don’t you?” She gestured to the surrounding woods. “You’ve been keeping them away from my place the entire time you’ve been here.”

I shrugged. “I’m not usually one to pick a fight. But if they attack, I put them down.”

“It’s similar with witches. They ignore mages unless we get in their way. But hybrids… If the coven that attacked you and your mate had found me alone out here, they would’ve tried to kill me, too.”

I narrowed my eyes, trying to understand why she was telling me this. By now, twilight faded into night, and we peered at each other through the dying light of a waning crescent moon.

She huffed. “Mages owe no allegiance to a coven, so we meet on neutral terms. Hybrids tend to help each other when we can, because we’re often ostracized from both sides. You see? Hybrid mages are always outcasts. Witches will always try to kill Freya when they realize what she is. They’re her enemy, Rowan, just as they’re yours.”

“Sharing a common enemy does not always make for good allies,” I pointed out, even though we both knew I’d already risked everything to protect Freya.

“Keep telling yourself that,” Brielle muttered, turning her back on me in a deliberate display of disrespect that had my wolf bristling.

I dropped my jeans, shoving them into my sling bag, and shifted.

Brielle said over her shoulder, “Don’t make me show you how I deal with rogue alphas, Rowan. Your mate would never forgive me.”

I growled, annoyed because I knew Freya would be furious if we fought.

“Stand down, Rowan,” Gage’s voice echoed in my mind.

I whirled, but although he was close enough to speak to me over the pack bond, he wasn’t within my line of sight just yet. Leaving Brielle and her cottage behind, I took off through the wildlands back toward the wall to meet him midway.

I caught his scent before I saw him. It made my mouth water, confusing me until I recognized the sweet smell entwined with his own. He brought the scent of Freya’s upcoming heat with him, which could only mean one thing — they’d had sex recently, and he hadn’t showered afterward. Why would he? It was our pack alpha’s right to wear his mate’s scent like a badge of honor.

Even if it tortured the rest of us. My wolf whimpered, hungry for his mate.

When my pack alpha appeared, I averted my gaze momentarily. Then I remembered my promise to myself. After everything that had happened, I no longer believed Freya had bewitched any of us. But I had to be sure.

I circled Gage, sniffing him from all sides.

“Is Freya asleep?” I asked.

“I’m sure she will be when Flint’s through with her.” Gage’s mental voice carried an all-too-human smirk. “He’s enjoying their alone time.”

“Take off your sling bag and run with me,” I demanded.

I wasn’t actually more dominant than Gage, so my command rolled off him, but he obliged me by dropping his head and backing out of his sling bag. He picked it up with his mouth, then dropped it under a bush.

“What else do you need to believe Freya’s not out to get any of us?” Gage grumbled across our mental link.

“Open your mouth and show me you didn’t just pick up a talisman when you moved that sling bag.”

He chuffed out a laugh, then let his tongue loll out from his fangs. Circling him again, I even looked up under his forelegs to check for any sign of a witch’s talisman there.

“I didn’t put anything up my ass, if that’s your next thought.”

I laughed, feeling foolish. “I’d never dream of it.”

Gage joined me in laughter, smashing his head against me in mock battle. “Come on, let’s run.”

Together, my pack alpha and I charged through the wildlands, circling Moonblessed until we reached the mountains. It felt good to have a wolf companion with me for once.

I should remember how lucky I was to have a pack alpha like Gage. Most packs would consider what I’d just done to be treason. Making demands of my pack alpha like that? I’d be lucky to keep my life.

But it seemed I wasn’t through putting my paw in my mouth.

As we trotted downhill through the near-dark, I asked, “Do you think witches would ostracize Freya if she tried to enter their lands?”

“I don’t know as much about wolf-witch relations as Heath,” Gage pointed out. “That’s a better question for him. Is that what’s holding you back?”

“No. Ever since Freya unleashed her magic, you seemed distant from her… it made me fear you were also concerned about—”

“I have unwavering faith in Freya’s loyalty to our pack, Rowan.”

I dipped my head, accepting the chastisement but also just impertinent enough to press the issue. “You claimed Freya. That makes you the alpha pair, and when there’s discord between the alpha pair, the entire pack crumbles.”

“Surely you can smell that we’ve resolved our issues,” Gage pointed out.

“I thought you meant to torture me.”

Gage chuffed out a laugh. “You don’t have to worry about the Howling Echo, Rowan.”

“Good, because if the Howling Echo disbanded, it would be too painful to be among shifters, knowing that Freya exists and yet being unable to have her. And I know I will never fit in with another shifter pack aside from ours.”

“The Howling Echo is stronger with Freya in it.”

“Then I can’t be the one to destroy the pack. It’s the only thing I have left, Gage.” I found myself desperate to make him understand. “I scared Freya when I killed that rogue Odinswolf. And when those witches attacked, I went feral. Imagine what would happen if I went feral while the Howling Echo fell apart. Nothing could pull me back.”

“That won’t happen, Rowan. Freya’s wolf chooses yours. She chooses all of us. Our pack is more stable if you accept that she’s your mate.”

“Unless it’s just… her heat?”

I still found it hard to believe that I might share a mate with my pack alpha. Her scent still lingered on him, even in this form, and yet Gage spoke to me about becoming her mate as though he sincerely wanted me to. He trotted along beside me as if we were equals.

Gage went on, “Flint was the first to realize her wolf would choose all of us. I doubted it at first, too. Heath fought it all the way. And in the end… I realized how well our pack can work together. Freya completes us. Even after her first heat, we shared her. Don’t you sense it, Rowan? Now you’ve become the missing piece. We need you, too.”

“I just… don’t know if I can become a witch’s Bonded.”

“It doesn’t hurt. I know what witchfire feels like now, and it’s nothing like that.”

Gage reminded me of his own wounds sustained from our battle with the witches. A battle that Freya had turned in our favor.

“I didn’t think that it did. I just…” I sighed through our mental link, frustrated at myself.

“Love her as a man,” Gage suggested. “Fight for her as a wolf. Both our natures are necessary for the good of the pack.”

His words hung between us as if asking me to agree. “They are…” I trailed off, trying to see where he was going with this.

“We need to accept that Freya’s dual natures are also necessary for the good of the pack. You saw how her Odinswolf defended her. Imagine how powerful she’ll be once she learns to wield her magic — in defense of the pack.”

I let out a rumbling growl. I wasn’t sure I wanted to see that. It would only remind me of the differences between us. Brielle had tried to point out how Freya and I were the same — we shared the same enemy. But even though I recognized she was also a wolf shifter, I couldn’t ever quite forget about her other half.

“What would happen when we’re all her Bonded?” I wondered, trying to imagine it. “Witches bond with each other to gain each other’s magic. We have no magic to give…”

“Wolf shifters are inherently magical,” Gage disagreed. “It’s just different.”

“So… maybe her wolf will become more powerful?”

“She’s already powerful.” He leaped over a boulder that had fallen from the heights above. “But I’d love to find out.”

Gage froze, his paws skidding to a stop in the soft pine needles. When I scented the beta wolf ahead, I instantly flanked my pack alpha. Lucky for us, the wind’s direction favored us. The unfortunate rogue didn’t know we were here yet.

“I’ll chase him off,” I offered.

My wolf enjoyed any chance he got to show off for his pack alpha, and a rogue beta was too far beneath my pack alpha’s notice.

But Gage didn’t give me the go-ahead. With his snout raised, he sniffed the air. That’s when I smelled it too… traces of Moonblessed.

Gage trotted downhill, then snarled out one word, a name. “Tork.”

The other wolf yipped as he caught sight of movement. He tore off in the other direction — wisely fearing two alphas, but stupid enough to act like prey. We both instinctively gave chase.

Though my wolf took over, my human side tried to remember why that name sounded familiar.

“Who is he?”

“One of Heath’s old lovers.”

Gage growled as though that were reason enough to tear him apart. Maybe it was, because Heath was ours. Freya’s, rather.

“A Moonblessed wolf?” I asked. Executing another pack’s beta would invite pack war.

“Not anymore. He betrayed Freya to Ironwood.”

Now a growl tore from my throat as well. This wolf had tried to give Freya over to her worst enemies, the very wolves that had spent most of her life tormenting her. He would pay as surely as they would, if Gage ever let me back on Ironwood packlands.

The beta ahead of us whimpered when he realized our longer alpha legs helped us close the gap. He wouldn’t stand a chance against two alphas. And since he wasn’t an alpha himself, he couldn’t even beg us for mercy.

My tongue lolled from my mouth, reveling in the scent of my prey’s fear. This would be too easy.

“Wait,” Gage called, as if realizing the same thing.

He paused, and my wolf paced beside him, wondering at the delay. Perhaps he wanted to give the beta a running head start, a chance to survive. He would fail, but the hunt would be more fun for us.

“We owe it to Heath not to kill him,” Gage said, his own reluctance clear. “The Moonblessed alpha pair banished Tork to die out here. He should serve out the rest of his sentence in fear.”

I wordlessly snarled, though I kept my eyes downcast from my pack alpha’s glare.

Gage raised his snout and projected his alpha voice through the wildlands. “Run and hide, pathetic beta. You’re not worth hunting.”

A challenge rumbled from me, daring the beta to face us.

“He… You’re letting him go?”

Gage turned his tail, and I felt torn in two, wanting to obey my pack alpha while simultaneously wanting to avenge Freya.

Tried to hurt mate, my wolf snarled inside of me.

“C’mon,” Gage urged. “Let’s return to the den.”

“But… that beta…” I trailed after Gage, turning every few strides to glance back over my tail. “He’s a rogue, a criminal. The Moonblessed alpha pair won’t be—”

“I’m sure some will be disappointed to know he’s still alive, but I won’t have his blood on our—”

“We could wash off after…”

“I meant figuratively, Rowan.”

I snarled, but followed my pack alpha until the beta’s scent faded from my nostrils.

Once I regained control, Gage asked, “What is it that pissed you off so much? That I stopped your hunt?”

“No,” I grumbled.

“That he used to be Heath’s lover?” Gage’s mental voice took on a rough edge, as though the thought made him angry.

“It makes me a little angry to think of Heath with him,” I admitted.

I’d gone with Heath to bars in various packlands, including Moonblessed, and he’d hooked up with various wolves of any gender. That had never irked me, though.

“Because he belongs with Freya?” Gage prompted.

“Yes,” I ground out, annoyed that he knew better than I did what had raised my hackles.

“Does it make you angry that Freya is with the rest of us? That she’s not your mate alone?”

He brushed past a sapling as I contemplated his question, ready to let both my human side and my wolf mull it over. My wolf’s answer was immediate.

“My wolf likes knowing she’s with the rest of you. That you’ll protect her when I’m… not there.”

“Good. Because we’re pack?”

I sighed, frustrated that Gage kept pushing me, not letting me come to my own conclusions.

“No… because we’re all her mates.”

“That’s right.”

His voice didn’t come across as smug. Instead, he sounded pleased. His approval flooded the pack bond to me, appeasing my wolf. Our pack alpha’s approval meant everything to him.

“She’s ours…” I voiced my thoughts through our mental link.

“And we’re hers,” Gage answered.

“Yes,” I answered.

It seemed so simple now… and yet, I knew the hard part was yet to come. I could admit I wanted to be with her. But actually doing it? Could I actually go through with claiming her?

“None of us will push you to become her Bonded,” Gage said, as though reading my thoughts. “For now… we’ll all be glad you accept her as your mate.”

“What if I never claim her? Never let her…”

“You both will always have the pack bond,” Gage reminded me.

Tension eased, knots untangling in my gut. For the first time, I let myself imagine courting Freya with no end goal in mind.

I enjoyed her company, and she — strangely — seemed interested in me in return. She appreciated my attempts to train her to be a better wolf. My feral side didn’t always scare her. She’d pushed my boundaries, but she’d also promised not to ask for my bite.

What if I just… ran at her side? Protected her? Enjoyed my time with her? Chased her down again and—

“Whatever you’re thinking of… I think Freya would love for you to show her.”

I clawed my lust out of the pack bond, feeling chastised like a stupid teenage pup who couldn’t control his hormonal urges.

One last concern lingered… that regardless of whether we claimed each other, I would have to share her during her heat. Last time, her heat had nearly driven me moon mad, and that was only through the pack bond. Being in her proximity, being allowed to touch her… I couldn’t be sure how I would handle the heat with my packmates being there, too.

But first things first. I wanted to show Freya I accepted her as my mate, even if I wasn’t sure yet about anything else. Freya had enjoyed our chase, but she probably also wanted me to woo her properly, not just as a wolf.

“How do humans… and witches… court each other?” I asked.

Gage padded along beside me as he considered his words. The Moonblessed walls rose ahead of us.

“Flint cooks for her all the time. Heath took her to a restaurant once. We… brought her gifts. She seemed to like those things.”

“A date night…?” I asked, dredging those words from memories of listening to shifters and all different species chatting at various bars Heath had taken me to.

“Yes,” Gage’s approval pleased me once more. “I’m sure she would love a date night.”