Chapter 34 - Freya

Chapter 34

Freya

Outside Shante's house, I found a big, black wolf waiting for me. I didn't even acknowledge him as we headed back toward the Howling Echo's den. Rowan had a problem with my witch side, and Shante and I were about to go hang out with another half-breed, so I doubted he wanted to come along.

Shante glanced over her shoulder at him, then back at me. "Oooh, is someone in the dog house?"

A grin cracked over my face in spite of myself. "How did you know?"

"C'mon, the tension between you two is off the charts."

"Rowan is just acting like a good subordinate wolf, waiting until his pack alpha approves his choice of mate," I said in an imperious voice, designed to piss off a certain alpha.

Sure enough, he growled.

"Or maybe he wants a proper wolf shifter as a mate, not a half-breed like me," I went on.

His rumbling growl continued as he loped behind us.

"Well, if you don't want others talking on your behalf, maybe you should shift."

Shante glanced back again, then huffed out a laugh. "Didn't work."

I shrugged. "He prefers that form."

She waggled her eyebrows. "Oh yeah?"

Rolling my eyes, I picked up the pace. "Shush, you."

As we passed people and wolves on the street, some of them stopped in their tracks, their nostrils flaring as they scented my heat. Every time that happened, a little growl from Rowan sent them on their way. Others eyed Gage's mark on me as they passed without pausing, thankfully. By the time we reached the den, I'd warmed up in spite of the November chill in the air.

Shedding my winter coat by the front door, I called out, "Flint! Shante's with me."

"Put some pants on," she called after me, grinning at the expression on my face.

A moment later, Flint's footsteps rumbled down the stairs, and he rushed over to grab and kiss me as if he hadn't just seen me less than an hour ago. Then he turned to Shante, who took a step back.

"No hugs this time. Freya's still in heat."

"I can handle it," I said, squeezing my hands together.

They hugged briefly then put plenty of distance between themselves. My wolf didn't growl, but she did rise to her paws inside of me, her fur bristling.

Flint smiled and took my hand, then addressed Shante. "I'm glad to see you made it back unscathed."

"Ironwood never even showed up to threaten us properly," she admitted. "Once they realized Freya was out in the wildlands, they left us alone, just as you planned." She smiled at me. "Hard to believe your heat has lasted so long."

"It's… uhhh… not the same heat." I winced. "I went into heat over the Harvest Moon. Gage's bite must have started it all over again."

Flint's lips parted, but before he could speak, Shante blurted, "Wait… this is another heat out of season?"

"It didn't phase you when I said I could finally shift and that I had four alpha mates. Now you're surprised?" I laughed. Then I turned to Flint. "Shante and I were going to go talk to Brielle about the Bonded marks and everything—"

"I'll come with you," Flint said before I could say more. "As will Rowan, I'm sure."

"Perhaps," I grumbled.

The massive alpha hadn't come inside the den. I had no doubt he was waiting outside like an oversized guard dog.

"Let's shift!" Shante grinned as she grabbed my shoulders.

She took off her sling bag and started stuffing it full of her clothes. A growl slipped from my throat, and she laughed.

"Right, right." She slipped around the corner as Flint and I started disrobing as well.

Flint opened the door for us, and a little gray wolf with brownish legs bolted past us outside.

I grinned and asked my wolf, Wanna play?

In an instant, my claws clacked on the hardwood floor of our den.

"Go on," Flint told me.

He didn't have to tell me twice — my wolf didn't like being indoors. Outside, Shante and I sniffed each other, and I noticed we were about the same size. For once, my lightning seemed to have disappeared, which I was glad for, so I didn't have to answer any questions about it.

Flint closed the door behind us and put the key in his sling bag before shifting and following us. And behind him trailed a big, black wolf.

Shante led the way through the maze of Moonblessed streets to get to one of the smaller gates in the wall. A brownish wolf yipped at her as she passed, and she twisted to look at her before continuing on.

"What was that about?" I asked her.

Shante leaped to the side, startled. Only then did I realize… Shante wasn't an alpha. Neither was I, but I could project my thoughts like an alpha. She couldn't.

"She won't be able to answer you, moonbeam," Flint reminded me just as I realized the same thing. "She's not our packmate, nor is she an alpha."

"Sorry, Shante," I said. "I forgot to tell you that my wolf is… different. In more ways than one."

She chuffed out a laugh, then paused by the gate, probably talking to her packmates and convincing them to open it for us. As soon as we stepped outside the wall, she and Flint flanked me with Rowan following behind. She and I took off with the alphas keeping pace. I wondered how the alphas felt about slowing down for us shorter wolves.

Even with my inability to talk to Shante, running by her side felt invigorating. My wolf felt alive and carefree, especially with two alphas here to protect us. I felt unstoppable running beside my best friend through the wildlands.

As soon as we spotted Brielle's cottage through the trees, Shante paused to shift back, so Flint and I did the same. He and Shante put a few trees between themselves as they got dressed, but my wolf still paced around inside my mind, ready to shift back at a moment's notice.

"It's because we haven't claimed each other yet," I realized when Flint came out of hiding fully dressed down to his colorful moccasins.

He nodded. "Your wolf will likely be less territorial for future heats after we're mated, because her mark will warn off any other wolf who might look my way."

That made me grin. I'd always thought alphas were the territorial ones, but everyone knew better than to get between a wolf in heat and her mate.

"Freya, is your wolf an alpha?" Shante asked from behind me.

"No," I said slowly… "But I can project my thoughts like one." I gestured toward Brielle's house. "I'll explain to both of you at once."

As we approached Brielle's one-story log cabin, her silken voice reached us from inside. "Ladies only. I'm allergic to alpha pheromones."

Flint winked at me and motioned for me to go ahead. He took up position on one side of the door while Rowan prowled back into the woods, never once having spoken a word to any of us. I sighed, then followed Shante inside.

Brielle looked much the same, as did her home. Her mismatched kitchen appliances and wooden countertops surrounded her dark wood kitchen table and chairs. Brielle's long red hair remained braided in much the same fashion as before, and she still wore her fluffy purple slippers as though we'd caught her before she'd changed out of her pajamas.

The scent of herbal tea reached my nose as she handed Shante a mug, revealing the scars crisscrossing her hands. For some reason, seeing those scars made me feel closer to her, as though we were kindred spirits.

"None for you, Freya. I remember how much you hated my tea."

I smiled and sat down as three wooden chairs magically pulled back from the table without Brielle so much as lifting a finger.

"I wish I knew how to use my magic," I said wistfully.

"If you can convince a coven to break the curse, I'll happily train you, my dear." Brielle eyed me. "I'm glad to see you recovered from that nasty wolfsbane, but I had hoped to see more meat on your bones by now."

I shrugged helplessly. "You should've seen me before Heath started plying me with tasty treats, and Flint got me into daily training."

"But you've learned to shift, and that is wonderful news," Brielle took a sip from her mug.

"And how to shift back, thanks to Rowan." I smiled, but it soon slipped.

"So… tell us about your crazy not-alpha voice and everything!" Shante demanded.

"Pack Alpha Hugo once told me he knew of a wolf who shifted on the full moon after his twenty-fifth birthday." I opened my hands, gesturing at myself. "Apparently, I'm the same way. I met a survivor from the Dawn Chaser pack, who are now calling themselves the Bloody Dawn. He told me my kind of wolf is called an Odinswolf. Have either of you heard that before?"

Shante raised her eyebrows and Brielle shrugged and shook her head. She may have been a halfbreed like me, but this was news to her. She'd suspected I might be a rare type of wolf, but she hadn't known about Odinswolves.

"He told me a lot of mythology, so I don't really know what's true and what's not, except for what I've experienced for myself." I ticked it off on my fingertips. "One, my kind shifts late, like Hugo said. Two, I can project my voice like an alpha can, even though I'm definitely not an alpha. Three, my eyes don't change colors when I shift. And four, uhh… Sometimes, lightning crackles along my fur."

"What!?" Shante pushed back her chair. "I've got to see that!"

"I was kinda surprised it didn't happen while you were around, to be honest."

She grinned. "Your wolf feels comfortable around me."

"And the fifth thing that makes your wolf different," Brielle continued. "You're still on the cusp of your heat?"

I shook my head and explained how I'd already had my first heat.

"Ah," Brielle's too-knowing green eyes flicked toward the front door. "You have another mate. That must be what triggered it."

"Right, so the other way my wolf is different… I have four mates," I noted. "When I ran with my Howling Echo packmates under the full moon, my wolf picked them all."

Just as Flint knew she would.

"But you hadn't met the other alpha outside before, had you? The darker wolf?" Brielle pressed.

I pursed my lips, thinking back to when I'd noticed my scent changing. It wasn't until Rowan and I were alone in the wildlands together. If Gage's bite had triggered it, wouldn't I have noticed it while I was still in Luka's clutches?

"You're right," I muttered, suddenly realizing this upcoming heat wasn't Gage's fault after all.

Shante grinned and said in a singsong voice, "Rowan triggered your heat."

I stuck out my tongue at her and she grinned.

"I've never heard of there being different types of wolves before," Brielle mused, sitting back in her chair. When her uncanny green eyes met mine, she raised her eyebrows. "But I'm guessing you didn't come out to see me just to talk about wolf business."

"I suppose I also have some witch business to talk about."

Brielle raised an eyebrow. "Have you joined a coven, my dear?"

I barked a laugh in surprise, then remembered that the term "witch" was reserved for those in a coven. Brielle and I were both mages, the witch equivalent of lone wolves or rogues.

"Right, mage business, sorry."

"No need to apologize, but I was shocked you'd found a coven to join during your adventures."

I snorted. "There has been a lot going on. So… When Gage claimed me as his mate, a mark showed up on his face, and an identical rune appeared here." I pulled my shirt down, revealing the two ansuz runes sitting side-by-side under my collarbone. "The second rune appeared when Heath and I claimed one another."

Brielle's bushy eyebrows climbed her forehead. "When witches or mages share magic, they become each other's Bonded. They mark each other in this fashion." She gestured at my runes. "But I've never heard of any mage doing it instinctively. There's usually a ceremony so that everyone involved knows what they're getting themselves into. Once two or more become each other's Bonded, well…" Her hand dropped to the table. "Let's just say it's not a bond that's easily broken."

My breath froze in my chest. Gage had marked me without asking first, but I'd unknowingly done the same in return. And it sounded like my bond might be harder to break than rejecting him under the full moon to erase his claiming mark. What had I gotten all of us into?

"What else can you tell me about it?"

Brielle went on, not noticing how she'd overwhelmed me. "Sadly, many witches bond to gain access to each other's power, more so than for romantic reasons. This is one reason I've eschewed the very possibility of bonding with a fellow mage."

As much as Brielle intrigued me, making me want to know more about her past, I needed to know more about my own.

"And can we… learn to block out those emotions? How does a mage get used to having so many people in her head?"

Brielle chuckled. "You can't expect to share magic without becoming deeply connected in other ways, my dear." She smiled softly. "I only hope one day you can experience it."

I blinked. The thought of having four mates was quite enough — I couldn't imagine also being bonded to a witch or mage. But my mother and father must have been bonded to each other.

"So, you believe my parents were bonded?"

The faraway look left Brielle's eyes as she refocused her attention on me. "It's possible to conceive a child without being bonded, though less likely for wolf shifters, who only go into heat after meeting their mates."

I nodded, though I knew in my heart of hearts that my parents must have been bonded. From what Ingrid had told me, I believed my mother had multiple mates, and that she and my mage father had done their best to protect me. They had been committed to one another and to saving their child. Even if it meant leaving me behind. My father probably didn't realize his sister Pandora hated wolves so much or that she would be so callous to her own niece.

"From what we've been able to piece together," I said, "My parents were of the Winter Wind pack. They left me in the care of their siblings and tried to draw off the Denraider pack. I guess it didn't exactly work, since my parents' pack no longer exists and no one came to reclaim me. Apparently, I briefly ended up with the Nightsinger pack before they got absorbed into Frost Fang, but I went on with other refugees to Ironwood."

Brielle's eyes went wide. "The Winter Wind pack was famous for bucking the hierarchy. Their alphas swore never to use their alpha commands on their packmates. They valued equal mate bonds and never took omega slaves. They were welcoming to outsiders and other types of shifters."

"Were you—"

"No, my parents never joined the Winter Wind. They tried to join a different pack, farther away from Denraider, but were rejected. They planned to leave this area, get away from places ruled by pack law. Their goal was to reach the Chicago Collective, or at least Kansas City, but they never made it."

"I've seen maps of the US, but… the Chicago Collective?" I didn't remember seeing it on the map. Shante shrugged.

"Supposedly, all species live in harmony in Chicago and the surrounding territories the Collective has claimed." Brielle rolled her eyes. "From what I've heard, however, it's predominantly controlled by witches and fae. There's no such thing as paradise. Kansas City also exists outside of pack law, which means control of the city goes back and forth every few years from witches, to fae, to shifters, and back again. I'd rather live under pack law. At least it's less confusing."

I'd never thought much about what life might be like outside of the pack-controlled Northwest, but I could see her point. Brielle's gaze softened as it landed on me.

"I'm sorry to hear the Denraider pack killed your parents… they killed mine, too. They hate witches, and they especially hate wolf shifters who are ‘traitors to the pack' who will mate with witches or mages, like our parents did."

"Apparently Denraider isn't unique in hating hybrids," I growled. "It was Pandora, my father's sister, who bound my magic as a child. She claimed it was for my own protection, since hybrids are hated by both shifters and witches. However, she recently tried to steal my magic, and she didn't seem to care if it killed me."

Brielle's knowing gaze seemed to look through me. "Obviously, she failed. Your own aunt cursed you…" She shook her head and glanced at the door. "Did your mates kill her?"

"No. She tricked me into believing Flint accompanied me, when in fact I was all alone. She got away."

"When I sensed the magic upon you, I noticed it all shared the same magical signature. She must have wanted to ruin the Frost Fang / Ironwood alliance and accomplished it by putting the fake fated mate bond on you. Since she already had one curse on you, it would've been easy for her to accomplish this, even from afar."

I nodded. It seemed Heath wasn't the only one with family willing to use them to get ahead.

"Yes, my little warrior wolf?" Heath's wry voice filled my head. "You rang?"

"I was just thinking about how we both have family members who would use us for their own selfish plans."

"Too true," he growled in my mind. "Have you been reunited with Gage yet?"

His question came through with hesitation, as though he didn't really want to know the answer. But before I could reply, I heard Shante tell Brielle, "She's ignoring us and talking to her mate, isn't she?"

"She'll get better at hiding it," Brielle laughed.

"Not yet," I told Heath. "It seems we got here first. Talk more soon."

I mentally blew him a kiss, then refocused my attention on the two women snickering over their tea.

"As I was asking before…" I mock-glared at Brielle. "Is there any way to shut that off?"

Brielle shrugged. "I've heard you'll start to get a feel for keeping your thoughts to yourself over time, much like how children learn not to voice every thought in their heads. But," she opened her hands on the table. "I certainly have no first-hand experience or advice to impart." Then she added, "But back to what I was saying before your mate interrupted… I see your aunt's curse over your magic remains intact."

I nodded.

"If your pack can track her down, you may be able to break the curse if you can find the object she's using to keep the curse active."

"Thanks, I'll keep that in mind." Since Pandora wanted my powers, I wouldn't be surprised, but that was a problem for another day.

Brielle's services and advice didn't come for free. I glanced at Shante, remembering that last time, she'd paid the price on my behalf. Only this time, I could get funds from my packmates, thanks to Gage taking over the Frost Fang pack.

"Thanks for sharing what you know," I said. "My packmates can arrange payment—"

Brielle waved me off. "I'm invested in you now."

"But I'm sure there are things you need, living out here all alone," I said, looking around the kitchen.

"True enough. If it makes you feel better, I'll get you a list, and Shante can bring them to me later."

"You make it sound like I won't stick around to bring them," I harrumphed.

"You shouldn't expect to stay long in Moonblessed. Although your magic is contained, you tread a unique path because you're also a powerful type of legendary wolf."

As Brielle sipped her tea, her eyes flashed with lightning I thought I'd only imagined before. Her next words made me shiver.

"Your destiny calls."