Chapter 30 - Freya

Chapter 30

Freya

The look of sheer betrayal on Heath's face had me laughing.

"Aww, poor alpha's not used to losing," I said, patting him on the head.

He growled, and I laughed harder. But on the inside, I was still reeling. Heath had always been the one who went hot and cold on me. And during our little game, he'd scared me again. It reminded me of a time when Heath had once said that he and Gage were ‘too dangerous to love.'

But, even though he'd scared me for a second, in my heart of hearts, I'd known he wouldn't hurt me. My wolf would've reacted if she'd felt like I was truly in danger. Instead, she'd wanted me to give in, to submit to Heath's game. Because she loved being chased.

The way she'd shifted back when Rowan chased me down proved that she loved being caught just as much. The thought of Rowan gave me a moment of sadness — he'd been acting strange ever since our encounter with the Bloody Dawn pack.

I shoved those thoughts aside to focus on the alpha before me.

I loved all of my dangerous men, but some of them couldn't seem to accept that yet. Heath still didn't believe it when I told him I loved him, even after we'd admitted it to each other. I needed to show him. Then maybe eventually it would sink in.

Still between my thighs, Heath lowered his head, gazing up at me through his eyelashes. "You win, my warrior wolf. And there are so many ways to celebrate your victory…"

He slid his hands up my thighs, and the promise of the orgasm I'd been denying both of us made me want to give in and let him finish what he'd started.

Instead, I smacked his hands away to regain some mental clarity. "I'm the victor. I get to decide."

"Fine," he growled. "What do you want?"

I grabbed his hands, looked into his eyes, and spoke my deepest desire. "I want to bite and claim you. I want to mark you so your father knows you're mine, so he can't try to take you away from me. I want undeniable proof so anyone who looks at you knows you're mine."

As I growled the last word, his pupils dilated so far that black nearly overtook his caramel irises.

He rose to his feet and pulled me up with him, trapping his hardness between us. Moon goddess save me — he felt hard enough to explode already. No wonder he'd been pissed when he lost.

"During your heat," he rasped, "you bit me. It was only with your human teeth, but… I wanted it so badly. I've wanted that ever since."

"Good," I said, running a hand along his smooth, freshly shaved jawline. "And I want you to bite me back."

He grinned, his caramel eyes shining with a mischievous glint. "But you won, little wolf. You could choose to bite me and disallow me from biting you back. Wouldn't you like to lord it over me for a while, spying on me and my emotions, checking up on me, making sure I'm not running away with a witch coven?"

There was the Heath I knew so well. He always used humor to diffuse the situation… and to hide his true feelings. He wanted this so badly it almost hurt him to admit it.

So, I turned his questions back on him. "Wouldn't you like to be able to feel how I truly feel about you? With an equal mating, there will be no doubt."

Or so I'd heard. I hoped it was true.

Heath gulped in a breath and held it. That span of silence felt like the longest in my entire life.

Then he said, "We always planned to put Flint first, just in case you could only have one… Then Gage ruined that."

"My wolf has no doubts. She plans to mark all of you. Besides," my eyes narrowed. "It's my choice. I want to mark you, Heath. And I want you to bite me, too."

His eyes met mine for a long moment. Then he silently nodded.

A thrill raced through my body. This time, I chose the mark of my own volition. This time would be different. And I knew Flint wouldn't mind as long as he and I claimed each other in a mutual mating soon.

In fact, this gave my initial three mates ‘firsts' — Flint was the first I'd fallen in love with, Gage was the first to claim me, and now Heath would be the first I claimed. I hoped Rowan and I would find our own first together eventually.

I slowly pulled away from Heath and put my naked body on display for him on the bed. "It's time you stripped for me."

Heath grinned and began peeling off his clothes, taking his time. As he slowly unzipped his pants, he met my eyes and asked, "You're sure about this?"

"Absolutely sure," I said.

It was exactly what we both wanted so badly. There had always been so much doubt between us, and this would remove it at last. We both needed it.

As soon as he stood naked, he ran a hand down his length as if to tease me. But I knew he was still having his doubts. There would be no going back from this. We would both be giving up our privacy for something we craved far more — certainty.

"Come here," I said when he reached the third upstroke.

As Heath's powerful body covered my own, I felt truly naked and vulnerable with him. His eyes shone with a complex emotion I couldn't fully untangle — joy, desperation, and… fear, I realized. I'd never imagined seeing that in an alpha's eyes.

He positioned himself at my entrance, and his lips parted as if to ask me again if I was sure. So instead, I wrapped my legs around him and urged him on with my heels on his ass.

We both moaned as he pushed his way inside, and my hands went up around his shoulders to draw him against me. I wanted to be as close to him as possible. I wanted to get under his skin so he could never deny the truth of what connected us.

Heath and I moved together as one, and I realized we'd never truly made love. He pulled back, his caramel eyes studying my face, lighting up with joy at what they found there. I smiled up at him, relishing the stretch of him inside of me.

His body shuddered with pleasure, and it made me want to send him over the edge. I squeezed my inner walls, and he groaned.

"Not yet," he said. "I want to feel you come first."

Propping himself up on one elbow, he reached between us with his other hand, stroking the places his tongue had teased earlier. With all that foreplay, it wasn't long before he had me teetering on the edge. Then he bent his head down to my neck. The thought of him biting me so close to Gage's mark had me gasping for air.

Instead, his tongue swirled over the mark and his lips latched around it, sucking my skin into his mouth. That sent me flying, making my back arch with the pleasure of Heath's mouth on Gage's mark.

Meanwhile, Heath's fingers stroked me to greater and greater heights. My climax crescendoed, and it took me a few minutes to realize he'd released me. His caramel eyes studied me as his lips curled up in a knowing smile.

"I bet Gage felt that from tip to root," Heath's wry tone was laced with an alpha's power.

"Let's see if he feels this," I said, wrapping my legs around Heath's waist and pulling him down against me.

His hips twitched in anticipation. When my hand came up to the back of his head, he settled his body over mine, his face beside mine, baring his shoulder to me.

But instead of biting the top of his shoulder, I aimed higher. As my hips ground against Heath's, I unleashed my inner wolf.

Bite and claim him echoed in my mind, the words coming from the deepest part of me, where wolf and human were one.

My mouth partially shifted as my fangs descended, and I sank them into Heath's neck. The connection felt instantaneous. Elation filled me as my wolf finally got what she'd wanted for so long.

Heath's hips slammed against mine. He groaned as his heat filled me. His whole body shuddered, but my lips remained locked to his throat, and Heath's breathing hitched. I lapped up the blood that filled my mouth, then withdrew my fangs. With one more lick, I wiped the wound clean.

Then worry took root in my chest. What if it didn't work? What if Gage was the only one who could bear my mark?

Still inside of me, Heath rose up on his hands. Relief filled me when I spotted a familiar rune on his face. His eyes latched onto a spot at my collarbone, and I tried to bend my head down enough to see.

"You have another mark," he whispered in awe. "It's identical to the other."

He pulled out of me and offered me a hand, letting me sit up so I could see it for myself in the mirror. The rune had appeared right next to the other one, under the same collarbone.

In the mirror, I let my eyes devour the alpha I'd just claimed. His well-defined stomach muscles were more of an eight-pack, and covered in curly hair from his powerful pecs down to his happy trail. A pink scar traveled from his upper ribs to the edge of his sexy V, well below his belly button. With his brawny arms and legs, I knew he could have taken me however he'd wanted me, regardless of who had won the game. That only made me feel even more powerful for having been the one to bite and claim this powerful shifter.

Heath's hand rose to his face, as he also spotted the same rune prominently displayed on his cheekbone, just below the outer edge of his eye. And as soon as his fingertips touched the glowing mark, I felt it. A connection ignited between us, and I sensed his wonder, his joy, his… nervousness.

"Why are you worried?" I asked, immediately wanting to put his fears to rest.

"I'm not…" he denied. Then his eyes met mine in the mirror, and he laughed. "I guess you know better than I do what I'm feeling." He turned around and grabbed my hands. "I know someone we can ask about these runes. They're all the same, and I think that's important somehow."

"Heath…" I growled.

He wasn't meeting my eyes, and I could feel the unease inside of him.

"You're supposed to bite me back, remember?" I growled.

"I wasn't… I didn't want to make the same mistake Gage did."

"We talked about it already!"

"In the heat of the moment…"

"Heath," I growled. "Don't make me beg."

He stilled at that, his eyes going dark with desire again.

"Would you?" he climbed back up onto the bed beside me, his hand pushing me back into the mattress.

"Please, Heath," I whispered. "I want your mark."

Joy filled the bond between us, and his hand slipped over my hip. "Then you're going to want something to clench on when I bite you."

My eyebrows drew down as I tried to figure out what he meant. Then his fingers slid inside my wet heat, and he groaned.

He growled as his fingers sank deep. "I'm going to mark you while you're full of my seed."

I moaned as he quickly sent me back up to the edge, and my hand came down on his lap. He was hard again already, probably thanks to my upcoming heat working its magic.

Heath positioned himself between my thighs again, his tip at my entrance. "I'm going to mark you and fill you so full, my seed will be spilling out of you tomorrow," he growled.

The lust-drenched need I felt in the bond between us had me gasping, "Yes, please, Heath, give it to me again."

He slid inside of me easily, filling my aching center. We'd both already come, and yet we already stood so close to the edge again.

"I'm going to bite you so hard, baby, mark you so everyone will know you're mine."

"Yes," I moaned. "Give me your mark. Claim me. I'm yours."

In the pack bond, I felt Gage's acceptance… and more than that. His anticipation. He'd probably already sensed my elation alongside Heath's feelings through the pack bond. Now he was ready for what came next. As was I.

"I'm ready, Heath, please."

Heath moved his hand down behind my upper back, forcing me to arch up for him again. I gazed up into his golden eyes just in time to see his fangs descend. He snapped his head forward, sinking his fangs deep… into the flesh of my breast.

Despite my shock, the pleasure tore through my body, making me scream and throw my head back as I clenched down on his cock.

Even as I was coming and moaning and twitching with my release, Heath pulled back and said, "Gage can have your neck. I'll mark what's mine."

He licked the wound closed, sending pleasure zinging around my body with every movement of his tongue over my sensitive new mark. My hips went wild, my orgasm still not through with me yet.

And as our mate bond flared between us, our pack bond also flooded with joy. Gage felt the new connection through my mate bond with him, and he celebrated with us. My climax crested even higher, sparking Heath's own.

His hips jolted and he growled, "Mine" just as he spilled into me a second time, filling me just as he'd promised. Had Gage's presence helped tip him over the edge a second time like it had for me?

Heath gasped for air, his hips losing their rhythm as his climax roared through him. I loved watching his face as he lost control. Through the mate bond, I could feel Heath's bliss.

As soon as he came back to me, I pushed on his shoulder, willing him to roll over. The muscular man rolled over on his back, pulling my smaller form on top of him while keeping us connected. I gazed down at him, loving the way his features softened in the wake of everything that had happened.

"You're mine, and I'm yours," I promised. "I love you, Heath."

I leaned in and kissed him, then teased my fingertips along the fresh bite mark on his neck. He twitched inside of me.

"And now everyone will know that you're special to me," I continued.

Yet I still felt a faint thread of doubt clinging to the mate bond between us.

"Even if we all bite each other," I said, guessing at the root of his doubt. "You'll still be special to me, Heath. Feel it," I willed him, putting my hand over his heart. "Can't you feel it in the mate bond?"

I shoved all my joy and happiness and certainty toward him, and the awe on his face nearly undid me.

"I love you so much, Freya. I… never believed… I never knew…"

Leaning over him, I kissed him again, and then said, "We figured it out in the end."

"Gage knows," Heath's words echoed in my mind, even though his lips hadn't moved.

I gasped in shock. "We can talk… telepathically? We're not in wolf form."

"It's the mate bond." He smiled up at me, then spoke out loud again, "Supposedly we can shut each other out if we need to…"

He reached up to run his fingertips over the fresh mark on my breast. My inner walls clamped down in pleasure, and he moaned as I squeezed him.

"Why would we want to?" I sighed, enjoying this moment.

"Because once there's four of us in your head," Heath grinned up at me, "you might get a little sick of us."

I mentally reached toward Heath and tried to whisper into his mind, "I can't get enough of you, Heath."

He smiled gently at me. "Maybe not right now, while we're… in some kind of honeymoon phase."

I mentally reached for Gage, trying to push my thoughts toward him. "Can you hear me this time?" I asked.

But as usual, I couldn't hear him in my head over this distance. Only a reassuring push from the pack bond reached me.

"I still can't do it with Gage," I mused.

Heath nodded. "Maybe the full moon helped, but it's still just a one-way mark, so…" he shrugged beneath me.

I chuckled and disengaged from him, letting him sit up. "So, I guess I need to bite Gage after all."

Heath motioned to my left collarbone, where two runes now appeared. "Clearly, you'll be able to. You have two mate marks from two alphas' fangs. And you have two Bonded marks. So, we now have definitive proof you don't follow the ‘wolves mate in pairs' rule."

He grinned at me, and I felt his pride through the mate bond. He relished the fact that I was a rule-breaker like him.

"You can bite all of us." His smile faltered, and I grabbed his hand.

"Our bond is special, no matter what," I swore to him. "But maybe I'll give it some time before I go chomping down on the others."

"It's your choice… I can't blame you for wanting a bite of any of those hotties."

I grinned. Heath had loved Gage for years, but it wasn't surprising that he'd also admired his other packmates as well. If he hadn't been hung up on Gage, he might have seen if one of the other two would have been receptive. He found them both attractive in their own ways. I could sense all of that through the mate bond, somehow.

Heath leaned down and kissed me on the lips. "Come on, I want Flint to smell my seed trickling down your thighs when I tell him he was wrong."

"What?" I laughed, unsure of whether to be outraged or not. "Wrong about what?"

"He once thought that the mate mark might trigger your heat to instantly begin, remember?"

I did remember. He'd kept me warm in the wildlands after I'd fled Moonblessed to keep them safe from Ironwood. We'd made love, but he refused to bite me in case it triggered my heat. We couldn't afford to spend five days in the wildlands, especially with Ironwood hot on my trail.

Now, Heath had bitten me, and my heat hadn't started. I wasn't sweating anymore, despite our tussle on the bed. I glanced back at it, seeing how rumpled the blankets were. But then Heath pulled me from the room and toward the stairs, both of us still naked.

"I guess we'll have to wait and see when my heat decides to show up," I grumbled.

In some ways, it might have been easier to deal with if the bite had triggered its start. We were safe here on Elder Forest packlands, and this house was comfortable enough.

"That's fine because in the meantime, we have a mystery to solve. The runes."

I grinned as I followed him down the stairs. Heath was on Cloud Nine, and I was so happy to feel his certainty and confidence filling the mate bond. I poured my enthusiasm over him and felt it amplified and reciprocated in return. The connection I felt between us was far deeper, and it went both ways.

Love.