Chapter 28 - Freya

Chapter 28

Freya

The next day, Flint asked me after breakfast if I was ready for my first hunt.

"What will we hunt?" I asked cautiously.

I wasn't sure I wanted to kill an actual coyote whose only crime was that it had ventured onto wolf shifter territory.

"Whatever the wildlands sees fit to present us with — could be rabbits, badgers, deer…" Flint answered.

"Just the two of us?" I asked.

"No, we want at least two alphas nearby if we're venturing into the wildlands," Flint answered. "Rowan will go with us."

Rowan had tucked me into my bed last night, and I'd heard him and Flint talking in the hallway after he left. Flint knew what had happened between us, yet he studied me as he announced the intention for Rowan to accompany us.

I raised an eyebrow, wondering what he was looking for in my expression. "And what about Heath?"

Flint grimaced. "He seems to think it's time to address some things with his father."

"I guess I could see that," I said, thinking back to their confrontation just yesterday.

Hard to believe it was only yesterday. So much had happened in such a short time period.

"But I hope he won't get us tossed out into the wildlands before Gage is ready to meet us at Moonblessed."

Flint grinned, the expression lighting him up in a way that I loved. "I may have said something similar."

After we cleared away our breakfast plates, I switched out of pajamas into a loose hoodie and sweatpants that I could easily take off. Then I met Flint downstairs, where he waited with his usual sling bag across his chest. He also held a similar one in his hand.

He smiled as I grabbed it and examined it, running my fingers over the colorful pattern. If I had to guess, he'd made it from some kind of animal hide, but the colorful beadwork obscured the bag beneath.

The back side of the bag was flatter than the other, meant to be the part that rested against my body. Even here, he'd spared no effort in creating a beautiful design in the shape of a heart. I grinned when I saw it, realizing the heart he'd created would rest near my heart in wolf form.

"I've been working on decorating it similarly to mine. I hope you like it."

His eyes held a hint of uncertainty that I absolutely could not allow to last another second.

"Of course I love it!" I rose up on tiptoes to steal a kiss.

As soon as our lips separated, I stared down at the sling bag again. "It's amazing."

Tears filled my eyes, and Flint pulled me in for a hug. "I hope those are tears of joy, moonbeam."

"They are…" I sniffed. "I never thought I would need one of these. I never thought this day would come."

Flint let me go, then grabbed the strap and lowered it over my head to rest on my shoulder. The sling bag fell across my chest to rest against my bellybutton.

"If I need to take the strap in, I can. We need to make sure it fits your wolf as well."

Flint had always talked about my wolf as though she might one day appear. Now that she had, hearing the words ‘your wolf' felt so surreal. Yesterday and last night still felt like a dream.

But when Flint grabbed my hand and led me outside, reality confronted me in the shape of a massive black wolf waiting in the yard. As soon as he saw me, his gaze sharpened.

"Are we shifting right now?" I asked in a small voice.

"We could drive to the border, but it's not far for our wolves." Flint gestured at my sling bag. "Go ahead and put your clothes inside it."

Without waiting for me, he began disrobing on the porch beside me. I loved seeing his long, black hair swing down in front of his muscular shoulders as he dropped his pants. Flint was the only one in the pack whose long hair rivaled my own. Flint shoved his clothes and his phone into his sling bag, then repositioned it over his chest, waiting for me in all his naked glory. He wasn't hard, of course, but he cut quite an impressive figure regardless.

I quickly shucked off my clothes, folded them messily, and shoved them into my new sling bag.

Flint nodded to me, and I glanced over at Rowan. I remembered what he'd told me about shifting last night. Getting to wolf form under the full moon was easy, because my wolf wanted to come out. Getting back to human form required me to remind my wolf why I might need my two-legged form. Maybe now I could do the opposite.

Let's hunt, I whispered to her inside my mind.

My body instantly began to change, and I leaned forward, expecting to fall on my hands, but instead finding paws on the porch in front of me.

"You're a natural already," Rowan's quiet yet powerful voice echoed in my mind.

"Thanks to you," I admitted as Flint approached me, still in his human form. He crouched in front of me, twisting the sling bag around a little.

"It's a little loose, but it'll do for now. I'll fix it later, love," he promised.

Then, only a couple seconds later, a big brown wolf stood before me, his moonmark prominently displayed on his forehead.

"Let's go," Flint said.

This time, it was Rowan who led the way. We trotted into the woods, where I could still scent all of our individual smells mingling from our run last night. If I really sniffed, I could pick out Flint's scent from Heath's, and theirs from Rowan's and mine. And of course, I smelled the scent of sex.

I dipped my head, feeling bashful about it for some reason, but Flint flanked me as if there were nothing out of the ordinary, even though I knew he could smell it just as much as I could.

"I'm glad you enjoyed yourself last night," Flint's quiet voice flickered into my mind, and I realized he spoke to me privately.

"I did."

"But what?" He sensed my hesitation.

"Sometimes I still feel guilty for wanting all of you."

"Freya," he chuckled inside my head. "You know I've always known you would be with all of us."

"I'm glad you can accept it… I still have trouble believing it sometimes."

"Don't worry about me, moonbeam. Your happiness brings me happiness."

Rowan unerringly led us through the woods until at last we reached a tree line blazed with yellow splotches of paint. A few paces beyond that, we reached another tree line blazed with red splotches of paint.

"This is how they mark their border?" I asked.

"Elder Forest is too large to wall off," Flint explained. "So, they just remind their packmates where the edge is. It also helps the patrols know how far to go."

"Children are expected to stay inside the yellow blaze," Rowan added.

"And the patrols stay inside the red?" I guessed.

"Exactly," Flint said. "Now, keep your nose peeled."

I laughed at the modified expression. "I guess ‘keep your eyes peeled' is also pretty weird," I mused.

We spent some time outside the Elder Forest border, but any animal scents we followed seemed old, even to my inexperienced nose.

"This area is overhunted, isn't it?" I asked.

"Let's go a bit farther," Flint suggested.

So, the three of us ran deeper and deeper into the wildlands. But instead of prey, we scented wolves.

"Are they wolves or shifters?" I wondered.

"Do you scent anything besides wolves?" Flint asked.

A moment later, I did. Humans. "They're shifters."

"Yes. But they haven't marked out a territory."

Flint's voice carried a note of curiosity… and wariness. I instantly felt Gage's awareness filling the pack bond, his anxiety bleeding into me and making me worry about what we might have gotten ourselves into.

"Gage?" I tried to project my thoughts along the mate bond as I had last night. "Can you hear me?"

I got no response. Perhaps we could only communicate along our one-way mating bond during the full moon. I suddenly felt very alone out here, even with Flint and Rowan by my side.

"Perhaps they're nomadic like the Howling Echo," I suggested hesitantly.

"We should turn back, love. Few packs operate that way, and…"

Rowan growled, pausing in the woods. I stopped beside him, with Flint on my other side. Both of them looked around in all directions, and I suddenly realized we were surrounded by five snarling wolves, all of whom were about my size.

Lightning crackled, making my ears perk up. I glanced back to see my fur roiling with chaotic bolts that jumped from tip to tip of my fur, which now stood on end thanks to the threat. It traveled all the way down to the tip of my tail and back.

Since I was looking behind me, I caught sight of a large alpha with reddish fur. Her growl cut off when our eyes met. She stood shorter than Flint but was clearly bigger than a natural wolf, much larger than her small, lithe companions.

"We mean you no harm," I projected my thoughts toward her.

"What kind of wolf are you?" The alpha tilted her head, taking a step toward us.

Rowan and Flint instantly growled, and she paused where she stood, but her voice carried no fear.

"I've never seen a wolf covered in lightning. You're no alpha. You're also not my packmate. How can I hear you?"

Normally, only alpha wolves were strong enough to project their thoughts outside of the pack bond. I'd just given away the secret of my mixed heritage.

"We sensed no packland markings," Flint sidestepped her question. "We don't mean to intrude if you are establishing your territory here."

The wildlands were up for grabs for any pack that could tame them.

The reddish alpha raised her snout, then gasped. "You're going into heat? Why are you out here?"

"We'll just be on our way," Flint took a step toward one of the smaller wolves, who cowered, lowering his head and tucking his tail. Unlike his alpha, he couldn't speak back to us, but he'd heard us all talking.

"Wait," the reddish alpha said. "We surrounded you because we sensed intruders, and we've been having trouble with a rogue who keeps stealing our supplies… among other things."

The anger in her voice told me he'd done a lot worse than that.

"You're an alpha," Rowan pointed out. "It's your duty to protect your pack."

She bowed her head. "I want to. But… I shifted for the first time a few months ago. He's… much stronger than me."

"Are you the pack alpha?" Flint's words held a note of shock.

"Not exactly… Most of our alphas were killed. Most of our other packmates were enslaved, treated as nothing better than omega wolves. We're all that remain now."

Her voice held such despair, that I found myself stepping forward.

"What can we do to help?"

All the subordinate wolves around us perked up at my words.

"Freya…" Rowan growled privately in my mind.

"If there's something we can do—"

"Your alphas could surely chase off that rogue," the reddish alpha answered.

Both Rowan and Flint growled. "We're not leaving your side," Flint said along our private pack bond.

"This could be a trap," Rowan pointed out.

"I don't think so. And we can stay together."

"Come, I'll show you the site of his most recent attack. You can pick up his scent from there."

Her words held a hint of desperation, as though she knew we might be about to slip through her fingers. It made me nervous. What if they were right, and this was a trap?

"Artemis!" a powerful alpha voice bellowed through the woods.

The crashing of underbrush was unmistakable.

"Gramps, no! Everything's handled." Artemis turned toward the direction of the voice, her legs coiled to run, but it was too late.

The older alpha crashed into the clearing with us, stumbling and almost falling. He only had one front paw remaining, and it was mangled almost beyond recognition. The other had been severed close to his body.

"Gramps, you shouldn't have come," she admonished.

"I won't let you fight without me, girl," he growled.

Then he took in the sight of the wolves before him. "If it isn't the Howling Echo pack!"

When his eyes landed on me, he staggered, nearly falling over.

"An Odinswolf!" His voice was filled with shock. "I never thought I'd see another of your kind."

— — —

We followed the ragtag group of wolves back to their makeshift camp.

"Even at a distance, I thought you looked familiar," the old alpha said, motioning toward Flint and Rowan.

He waved toward his granddaughter and the subordinate wolves, some of whom had shifted back along with me, Flint, and Artemis's grandfather.

Aside from him, none of the other wolves looked older than twenty. They were all new shifters, with only the two alphas among them — one a new shifter and one old and injured.

The older alpha went on, "You probably don't recognize us, but we're the survivors of the Dawn Chaser pack. My name's Hank."

"We call ourselves the Bloody Dawn pack now," a young female voice said.

When I turned around, I found a bright-eyed young woman standing behind me, already fully dressed. Her skin was almost as brown as Flint's, and her hair fell in dark braids on either side of her face. If I had to guess, she was probably around eighteen to twenty years old.

"Some of us do," Hank harrumphed.

"Why does Dawn Chaser sound familiar?" I wondered.

"We helped them escape Denraider once, but their pack was ultimately enslaved by another pack that killed all their alphas," Flint reminded me.

Then I remembered hearing that story back when we'd been on the run from Ironwood after fleeing with help from Shante and the witch of the woods, Brielle. I'd eavesdropped on a conversation between the Howling Echo, but that job had fallen through.

"Not all our alphas," Artemis growled just as Hank said, "The Howling Echo did what they could, and we appreciated it. You owe us nothing."

The proud old man stood with his twisted, gnarled hand in front of him. In his human form, it was obvious that this wasn't some accident of birth. He'd been tortured, his arm completely cut off, and his other limb mangled on purpose. Changing into a wolf should have fixed it, but I suspected his tormentors had repeatedly injured his body before he could fully recover, causing it to heal improperly. Bile rose in my throat.

Flint glanced over at Rowan, who unsurprisingly remained in his wolf form. "If you will tell us everything you know about Freya's kind, we will help you chase off the rogue alpha."

"Freya?" Hank looked toward me. "The person who named you knew exactly what you were, giving you a name like that."

"Maybe so," I said. Then, realizing they might trust me more if they knew the truth, I added, "But my pack was also conquered by Denraider. I was never reunited with my family."

"Someday, Denraider will get what's coming to them…" Artemis swore.

Her young peers squeezed their hands into fists and agreed. But Hank ignored them all, instead fixing his dark brown gaze on me.

"Hard to separate truth from myth when it comes to your kind," Hank admitted. "But it's a deal. Sorry if I don't shake on it." He winked at me, waving his mangled limb.

"Gramps," Artemis sighed, probably having heard that joke before. Then she faced me and said in a teasing voice, "Gramps would've told you everything anyway. He always complains the rest of us don't listen enough."

"You try playing Grandfather Alpha to a pack of ungrateful pups." Hank's words may have been harsh, but the twinkle in his eye revealed his fondness for his packmates.

I noticed all of them still had a rising sun peeking over the mountains tattooed above the bite marks on their wrists. The younger pups all wore a dark brand beneath it, like blood oozing from the mountains. The Bloody Dawn.

"Artemis will have to show you around," Hank added. "I have yet to lay eyes on the rogue… he's too fast."

"I'll show you where I last spotted the rogue," Artemis said to Rowan.

A growl tore from my throat before I could stop it. Artemis was young, but she was a female wolf of child-bearing age — a threat.

"Right," Artemis moved toward Flint. "If that one's your mate, I could show—"

Another growl tore from my throat, making Hank laugh. "An Odinswolf going into heat is very possessive of all of her mates, Artemis. You'll have to take her with you."

I took a deep breath, then put a hand on Rowan's head. Then I leaned down and whispered, "We may not have claimed each other yet, but we're mates."

"He won't forget it, moonbeam," Flint assured me, running a hand down my back. "And I'll stay here with you."

Opening my eyes, I looked up over at Artemis. "The full moon was last night, and we ran together for the first time. Logically, I know you can't take him from me but…"

Rowan chuffed, as if he found the notion preposterous.

"I'll stay in human form while he stays in wolf form," Artemis said. "If that helps."

I nodded, remembering how Rowan had stayed in wolf form so much around me in the beginning. Was that why? So he was less tempted?

With my blessing, Artemis set off through the forest with Rowan following along behind her. "The other day, he came through here and stole some supplies before running off. I'll show you where so you can pick up his scent."

I had a feeling Rowan had already caught his scent, but perhaps a fresh trail would help. What would happen if we couldn't find him today? Would all three of my alphas come back out here tomorrow? I couldn't imagine them saying no to helping the Dawn Chaser pack again, especially since we were just waiting for Gage's go-ahead.

"How do you know about Freya's kind?" Flint asked, bringing me back to the present.

Most of the young wolves had followed Artemis and Rowan, but a few stayed behind with us. They went about their business, heading inside a tall tent they'd erected.

"When I was younger, Odinswolves mixed in with many packs, but most kept to themselves in their own packs. But even back then, their numbers were dwindling. Shifters with my ancestry and yours," Hank gestured between himself and Flint, "didn't like how Odinswolves ‘stole' mates, collecting more than one. Other shifters challenged them to fights and killed them off when they could. Since Odinswolves shift later in life, they were at a disadvantage. Their younger wolves couldn't fight until later, leaving them vulnerable to attack."

"How many types of wolves are there?" I asked.

Hank shrugged. "In this area, at least three major kinds, but it depends how you break things up. We are probably all branches of one big wolf shifter family tree. Moonblessed wolves like your mate there tended not to pick fights with Odinswolves quite as much, while those of my ancestry certainly did. Odinswolves called my kind Lokiswolves. Some said Odinswolves were descendants of Odin's two companion wolves, Frekr and Gerr, while Lokiswolves descended from Loki's son, Fenrir, or perhaps the wolves that are destined to bring about Ragnar?k, Hati and Skoll."

"Who will eat the moon and the sun," I suddenly remembered Pack Alpha Hugo telling of such legends at the Moonblessed equinox party.

"So they say," Hank nodded.

"And my kind always shift late?" I asked.

"That's why your kind is dying out. Easy enough to kill you while you're young." He gave me a wry smile. "Congratulations on surviving."

His smile revealed missing teeth, and that, combined with his ruined arm and missing arm, told of his own survival. He'd been through much, but lived to tell the tale.

Artemis reappeared with her packmates in wolf form beside her. She looked like a wild queen, walking through the wilderness with ‘tamed' wolves.

"He wouldn't let us come with him," she grumbled by way of explanation as she took a seat near the campfire.

"This doesn't surprise me," Flint said. "He'll be stealthier alone."

"He did kinda disappear," one of the other wolves said as soon as he finished shifting.

I averted my gaze as the teenager put on clothes.

"I don't know how we lost him."

"He's a hunter," Flint said. "He knows how to hide in plain sight so his quarry never knows he's coming."

Artemis ran her hands through the fur of one of the smaller wolves, who didn't shift back.

"You hear that, Ria? He's a hunter. He'll deal with that rogue once and for all," she promised on a whisper.

"Is she… injured?" I asked hesitantly.

"She's recovering," Artemis said.

The small wolf shifter trotted off with some of the others, and Artemis scooted closer to me.

"A few weeks ago, that rogue overpowered Ria and raped her. I'm not sure what it'll take for her to recover, but seeing his dead body would probably help."

I put my hand on Artemis's. "It's good that Ria has your pack to lean on."

The young alpha hung her head. "I just wish I'd been there."

Flint shook his head and gave her the harsh truth. "You're new to shifting. He probably would have killed you. You can't blame yourself. We may be alphas, but we all still have our limitations. Especially when it comes to other alphas. Our job isn't just to protect our packmates, but to serve as their strength. Ria feels weak right now, but you can be there for her."

"I just feel so helpless… and then I feel stupid even saying that, because I can only imagine how much worse off she feels."

"You can be there for her, though," I said. "Listen if she needs to vent, be a shoulder to cry on, and help her find her way back if she gets triggered. That's how you can be strong for Ria."

With tears in her eyes, Artemis nodded. She had already lived through the horrors of Denraider conquering her old pack and most of the survivors getting enslaved by another pack. But here she was, trying to protect her packmates as best she could. She was already growing into a great pack alpha.

"While we wait," Artemis said, changing the subject. "Can I get you all anything to drink? It may be a while."

Flint and I shook our heads, then Flint asked, "What else can you tell us about… these Odinswolves?"

Hank resumed his story. "Your kind apparently often have other gifts aside from shifting, such as being resistant to alpha barks. For all the good it did them."

I nodded. That explained a lot. "What other kinds of gifts?" I asked.

"It's hard to make heads or tails of so many stories and legends." When he saw our expressions, he continued, "Well, seeing the future or weaving fate — definitely one I heard tell of. Illusions or curses, sometimes. Healing or protection spells. Speaking to the dead. And of course, the ability to seduce, bewitch, and manipulate other shifters." He shrugged. "Like I said, Lokiswolves don't much care for your kind, so it's hard to be sure."

"Some of those sound like…"

"Witch magic?" He nodded. "And maybe that's where the confusion comes in. But—"

He cut off at the sound of growling coming from the forest. Artemis, Flint, and I instantly rose to our feet, and my heart raced with fear for Rowan. The growls got closer and closer until we could hear the thumping of galloping paws and the chaos of movement through the undergrowth.

Artemis yelled at her packmates, but I was too busy staring wide-eyed at the sight of a grayish brown wolf barreling through the forest straight toward us.

Inside of me, my wolf's hackles rose, and this time, the shift came over me without warning. One moment, my hands were clenching into fists; the next minute, I became a snarling mass of fangs and fur.

The grayish brown rogue burst into the clearing, scattering a small table with dishes on it. Glass shattered, and the camp erupted into commotion. Subordinate wolves scattered in every direction, but Artemis jumped in between me and the rogue with a growl that sounded too big for her body. She was fierce, and her hatred for the lawless rogue made me shiver in anticipation of violence.

As soon as the rogue's eyes caught sight of me, he sniffed and prowled toward me, heedless of the young alpha between us, even though she was slightly bigger than him. Flint lunged, growling straight in his face, but the rogue didn't back down from either of the bigger two alphas.

Foam oozed from his lips, but when I looked into his eyes, I noticed something — they were blue like mine.

"Flint!" I shouted across the pack bond. "He's an Odinswolf, too!"

"Surrender or die," Flint barked at the rogue.

"Alpha commands don't work on Odinswolves," Hank reminded us.

"We need to talk to him," I pleaded as Flint turned to keep himself between the rogue and the rest of us.

"He's beyond talking now, moonbeam." A wordless plea accompanied Flint's words along the pack bond. He would try to keep him alive if I insisted, against his better judgment.

But before I could reply, the rogue's hindquarters bunched, and he leaped over Flint's head to land directly in front of me. As soon as his paws were under him again, he lunged, bowling me over.

I yelped in surprise and pain as his weight landed on me. Fear gripped me, making me freeze in place as every nightmarish incident from my childhood and teenage years in Ironwood came roaring back. Whimpering between his forelegs, I braced myself for whatever abuse would rain down on me next.

A dark shadow peeled away from the forest, smashing into the rogue with such force that I actually heard bones crunch as the massive black wolf landed on top of him. Rowan didn't fight fair or let up. The violent snarls of a feral wolf silenced all other forest sounds. His fangs into the rogue's throat, spraying blood everywhere as the rogue continued to struggle.

Rowan didn't stop. When his fangs tore a chunk of flesh free, he darted in again, tearing deep into muscle and tendon alike. The rogue's struggles weakened, and still Rowan growled and snarled, his head shaking as he mauled the rogue to death.

All the other wolves in the clearing gave him a wide berth, clearly afraid to provoke the feral alpha in their midst.

Rowan snarled, completely and utterly lost to the frenzy. Blood flew through the air, coating me and Rowan alike as the dark wolf snapped a bone and tore it free, only to toss it aside and continue his relentless assault. Even after his opponent's body stilled, the dark wolf continued his terrifying growls, teeth still sunk into the body.

I stared in shock, my eyes fixed on the dead rogue's glassy blue ones, so like my own. Why had a fellow Odinswolf attacked me?

After what Hank had told me of my kind, I'd foolishly imagined us as the underdogs, persecuted by other types of wolf shifters. But this Odinswolf was just as bad as any other rogue — stealing, raping, and hurting this already defeated pack.

Flint came around the dead wolf's other side, falling into Rowan's line of sight. But our beastly packmate continued snarling, his fangs ripping off the dead alpha's entire back leg. Flint stared into Rowan's eyes, then raised his muzzle in the air and howled.

Instinctively, in spite of everything, my wolf joined her voice to his. Rowan planted one paw on the fallen wolf's muzzle and raised his own to howl along with us.

Then the dark wolf whirled on me, his golden eyes scanning me from head to toe. He approached me warily, his massive head lowered down beneath my own. The rogue's blood matted Rowan's dark fur, but my wolf stepped forward anyway, rubbing her flank along his.

All the tension in his body relaxed. Only then did Rowan exhale in a long snort.

"I shouldn't have let him get that close," Rowan said along our pack bond.

I wanted to reassure him, but I couldn't. All I felt was numb, like I was still in shock.

"The Bloody Dawn thanks you," Artemis projected in her alpha voice as she sniffed the rogue wolf's gory remains, as if uncertain he was truly dead. She raised her muzzle and called out to her packmates, still projecting her voice so everyone could hear, "The enemy is dead and will bother us no more."

"I'll… go get cleaned up," Rowan said along the pack bond before disappearing into the forest as surely as a shadow.

Flint came forward to bump his forehead against mine. The gesture soothed my wolf and grounded my human side all at once. His familiar campfire scent further reassured me, filling me with a sense of home I'd never had until Flint had found me in the wildlands.

"Are you okay?"

"Not exactly," I answered shakily. "But I will be."

"Your mates are amazing," Artemis bounded over to us, her body language playful.

"I know," I told her, thankful for her for lightening my mood.

In her I saw all the hope and joy I should've had after shifting for the first time. She'd been through hell, too, and yet she had a vivaciousness about her that drew my affection.

"Your white coat looks good with a splash of red," she laughed. "You look like you belong with the Bloody Dawn."

If my sister still lived, I hoped she might be something like Artemis. "Thanks. But I belong to the Howling Echo. Now and forever."

"It's so weird how I can hear you, even though you're tiny," she laughed, her tongue lolling out in a wolfish grin. "I don't perceive you as an alpha. I feel no need to challenge you for dominance or submit to you as more dominant."

"What about with him?" I asked, nosing toward Flint.

"No way could I challenge either of your mates."

"Your dominance is enough to keep your packmates safe if you work as a team," Flint advised.

She dipped her head, averting her gaze from him as she listened.

"Have your packmates patrol in pairs so that if a rogue alpha overpowers one of them, the other can race back to warn the pack. Then you can face the alpha. Sometimes, all it takes to warn off a rogue alpha is the scent of another alpha."

"Not that one," she said, swinging her head back toward the mangled remains of the rogue alpha. I was glad to see some of her packmates preparing a litter to cart away the… pieces.

"As an Odinswolf, your alpha status didn't matter to him," Hank mentioned.

"The scent of her upcoming heat probably attracted him. He seemed to seek out Freya even though she's mated," Flint growled.

"He must have sensed a fellow Odinswolf. Even though he'd gone completely feral, he still recognized Freya's origins."

Flint seemed to sense some worry in Artemis because he turned toward her. "You won't have to worry about your heat drawing unwanted attention. Your first heat won't occur until you find your mate. And since you're an alpha, your mate likely will be as well. As the alpha pair, you'll be even better at defending the pack. In the meantime, once you choose your packlands, be sure to walk the perimeter yourself from time to time so your scent warns off other rogues."

"The Howling Echo has no packlands," Hank pointed out.

"What are you getting at?" I asked, since that wasn't exactly true anymore.

"Perhaps my packmates might be interested in following in your pawprints."

Flint and I exchanged a glance. Over our private pack bond, he said, "With Frost Fang's assets, we haven't needed to take on any new jobs. But that doesn't mean our old clients haven't been contacting us."

"Maybe we could help train Artemis and her packmates to handle some of them?"

The idea gave me hope. The Bloody Dawn reminded me of a phoenix rising from the ashes of the Dawn Chaser pack. They wouldn't forget where they came from, but that didn't mean they had to rebuild their pack exactly the way it had once been.

Flint cocked his head and projected his voice so the others could hear. "It's possible we may be letting go of some jobs we used to take on. If you're interested…"

Hank shifted back instantly. After he put on his clothing, he pulled his phone out of his sling bag as well. "Just give me your number, and it's a deal."

Flint shifted back to exchange information with him and Artemis. Then he took some clothes from the rogue's sling bag and toweled off the blood from my body.

Flint smiled over at me. "Ready to go back?"

Still in wolf form, I licked his hand. He laughed and shifted to stand beside me, dwarfing my smaller wolf form. Then I remembered how the rogue Odinswolf had been smaller than both Flint and Artemis, and certainly Rowan.

"Was the Odinswolf actually an alpha?" I asked Flint.

His eyes darted back to the bloody spot where Rowan had torn apart the rogue.

"With all the chaos, I can't be sure, but I don't think so. My alpha side didn't recognize him as an equal," Flint answered. "He was definitely feral, though, which usually only happens to alphas."

Hank assured us that if he thought of anything else he knew about my kind, he would call us. As the mountain cast its shadow over us, we said our wolfish goodbyes.

"Let's run back," I suggested via the private pack bond.

I could feel Flint's smile in the bond, even in our wolf forms. "Anytime you want, moonbeam. I'll always run at your side."

As soon as Flint and I began trotting through the forest again, a shadow fell in silently behind us. When I glanced back, I saw no blood in his fur.

"Thank you, Rowan," I whispered along the pack bond.

"Don't mention it," his rough voice reached me. He hesitated, then added, "I'm… sorry you didn't get to question him. I went a little berserk when I saw you were in danger."

I chuffed in agreement. "Never apologize for that, my big, bad wolf."