Chapter 17 - Heath
Chapter 17
Heath
During the party with Astrid’s pack, Gage and I made the rounds. At all times we always made sure that one of us remained by Freya, which was only one of the reasons I was sitting next to her. We never left her alone without a Howling Echo alpha at her side, and especially not when Astrid was nearby. Not that she would overstep with our mate, but Gage and I could feel Freya’s unease.
Rowan went on a run with some Frost Fang and Midnight Path wolves, one of whom was fortunately an alpha that could project her words to Rowan if needed. Freya might’ve been jealous if she’d noticed, but she’d been deep in conversation with a female coyote shifter.
Regardless, Rowan would mind his manners. His feelings for Freya had only deepened with their recent date.
Flint mingled with some of Astrid’s pack members that I guessed had native ancestry, just based on their clothes and beaded accessories. Like Flint, they clearly tried to keep their ancestors’ memories alive.
While Gage was mingling elsewhere, and before Freya or I could get too intoxicated, I told her about Astrid and me.
"We made out, but it didn’t go anywhere. It was a long time ago, and it doesn’t matter, Freya. I’m yours. Fully and completely.”
As she turned to face me, Freya’s jealousy poured across the mate bond, enough to draw Gage’s attention from across the party. He disengaged from the Midnight Path shifters he’d been talking to and joined us in a small circle of chairs.
“You told her?” he asked.
“Yes,” I answered, annoyed he felt the need to check up on us.
“You… only kissed?” Freya asked.
“I wouldn’t say only …”
Gage glared at me as though I had intentionally misled her.
“We never actually had sex,” I clarified.
“And you no longer… want to?” Freya asked.
“My days of sleeping around are in the past, little wolf. There’s nothing to worry about — you and I have claimed one another, and I’m happy to be yours.”
“Thanks for telling me.” Freya took my hand, and the mate bond calmed. “I’ve got you locked down, huh?”
She flashed me a playful smile, and that’s when I knew she was okay.
“And I will never stray,” I promised, raising her hand to kiss the back.
“Good,” Gage said, once more raising my hackles.
Did he doubt my faithfulness to our mate?
“And you never spent a night in Astrid’s bed?” Freya asked him, making me smirk.
“No.”
“That’s right, that was back during your woman-hating days,” she teased.
“Only you could change my mind,” Gage swore, kissing Freya on top of the head before moving away to mingle with our hosts once more.
Even though the Howling Echo no longer had to do jobs anymore, we fell into our old habits of trying to keep good relations with our allies. It would serve us well, considering they would be on our packlands in a matter of days. And having our Frost Fang packmates with us to enjoy the party, too, would help them integrate better while we were gone.
A Midnight Path shifter roared with laughter not far away, but their loud conversation proved they were oblivious to ours. An eagle shifter elbowed the boisterous one, making his drink spill. They only got louder, until one challenged the other, and they both shifted to fight it out.
It would’ve been fun to watch the eagle kick the wolf’s drunk ass, but I focused my attention on Freya.
“If Astrid wants an alpha wolf so bad, why didn’t she ever go after Gage?” Freya asked.
“Gage was never much for playing around, even before Nira killed Garth and he found out his father’s wives helped,” I told Freya.
“You mean even before his exile?”
“Right. He could’ve had anyone he wanted in Frost Fang, but his father made it clear alphas were supposed to produce more alphas. So, Gage stopped pursuing the subordinate wolf he was most interested in and eventually got together with Nira.”
I couldn’t hear Freya’s growl over the party, but I felt it through the mate bond.
“You’re saying… he was only ever with Nira and me.”
“He had a few teenage dalliances but not much more than that. He’s very loyal.” I took a drink of my beer, still feeling a little irritated at Gage.
“So are you,” Freya pointed out, squeezing my hand.
That startled a laugh out of me. “Loyal… isn’t a word anyone has ever used to describe me.”
“Heath,” she sighed. “You are loyal. When Gage got exiled, who stood by him? Nobody but you. You’re the only one who was willing to go into exile with him.”
“That was… obsession. Pathetic obsession. Not loyalty.” I smiled over at my na?ve mate. “You have no idea how many shifters I’ve been with, Freya. Hell, neither do I.”
“Yeah, but the reason you slept around so much is because you were trying to get Gage’s attention. You know, make him jealous so he would notice you.”
I shook my head. “That was probably part of it, but it wasn’t only about making Gage jealous. I also did it to discourage my father’s attempts at using me to form alliances. It doesn’t matter anyway, because it definitely didn’t work.” At least I’d had fun while chasing impossible dreams.
In the distance, Flint moved to get another drink, but I noticed he only sipped it, politely listening to the other shifters talking around him. Gage stood beside Astrid’s second-in-command, Ony, an older alpha wolf shifter who once told us he owed her his life.
“It doesn’t change the fact that I think you’re a very loyal person,” Freya insisted. “ You didn’t confront Gage with your feelings you knew he might not share, but you’ve always been there for him. Even when he was exiled. You left with him because you cared about him and couldn’t stand the thought of being separated from him while he was in danger.”
“How would you know? You weren’t there.” She wasn’t wrong, but her insight was a bit unnerving. Combining that with the topic had me more defensive than I should be.
“Because it’s how you feel about me,” she pointed out. “You’ll always stand by him, just as you’ll always stand by me. I feel the truth of it in the mate bond.”
I took a long breath, wondering why Freya was pressing this point. I knew how stupid I’d been, trying to win over Gage for years. But I couldn’t deny the truth in her words.
“I will,” I agreed. “I care about you both, and I will always protect you both. But you are my mate, little wolf. My feelings for Gage don’t matter, because he will never feel the same. And you’re enough for me, Freya. I don’t need him. I never have. And I’ve survived this long.”
“I still think there’s something there.”
The alcohol must be getting to me, because my skin felt thinner than usual. Freya wouldn’t let this drop, and I was getting annoyed. I didn’t want to feel that way toward my mate, for any reason.
“Yeah, for me,” I answered. “Not for him, though. I had all of this repressed, and you keep dredging it up. The next heat is going to kill me.”
I met Flint’s eyes and gestured him over.
“If I get to have four mates, there’s no reason you and Gage can’t also be together. Or any of you. I just want to make it work,” Freya grumbled.
“Trust me, I’ve tried. Gage isn’t into men.”
Trying to move things forward with Gage always proved to be a lost cause, and he’d made his disinterest clear enough over the years.
“How can you be so sure? When you two were pressed together in that closet—”
“He told me not to make it weird, okay? And that’s what I’m going to do. Follow my pack alpha’s orders.”
Gage might have gotten hard in that closet, and I might have smelled his arousal, but it was all because of Freya. Not me. Never me.
I got to my feet as Flint approached, glancing at me and Freya.
“Your turn to play bodyguard,” I said.
“Everything okay?” Flint asked, automatically seeing right through my facade. Freya loved that about him, but right now, it only made me more irritated.
“Everything’s fine. It’s my turn to blow off some steam.” I let go of Freya’s hand and headed to the keg for a refill.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to upset you, Heath. I care about you both, and I just want you to be happy. Fully, completely happy.”
Freya’s words followed me across the party, because of course I couldn’t elude her anymore. Not since we’d claimed each other.
“I am happy,” I insisted. “With you, Freya. And that’s the way it’s going to stay.”
I felt like an asshole for speaking so brusquely to my mate, but Freya’s love poured across the mate bond to me. I knew she meant it to be comforting, but it only made me feel more like an ass. She loved me unconditionally, but at the first sign of discord between us, I stalked off.
I guzzled down another drink, cursing myself for being bad at relationships. Freya deserved better.
I watched my packmates mingling with the Midnight Path like long-time friends, and I kept some space between me and Freya. Gage kept space between me and him, which was good, so I couldn’t say anything stupid as I got drunker and drunker.
We partied with the Midnight Path until late in the night, or early in the morning, depending on how you looked at it. Then the Howling Echo made our way to our own private lodging for the night. Frost Fang wolves headed for the pack house and to the vehicles, taking turns standing watch.
With the world spinning around me, I leaned on Flint, and we trailed along behind Gage and Freya. Once we reached our lodgings for the night, I decided to spend the night in wolf form so that I could sleep off the alcohol. In our furry forms, Rowan and I each guarded a separate entrance of our temporary den, while Flint and Gage slept in human form beside Freya.
I could sense them both pressed to either side of her in bed. With her heat so close, she was always a little aroused these days, but they were all too tired to do anything fun. The only thing that finally lulled me to sleep was the sense of Freya’s contentment.
I woke with a start when I heard someone walking around. The Midnight Path packlands was coming awake in the early morning hours, despite our late night. I stretched and shook out my coat as I got to my paws. Shifting back, I felt completely fine, hangover nonexistent. I shivered in the cold and pulled on my clothes from my sling bag, noticing the plains all around us had frosted overnight, the grass crispy underfoot.
The moment I opened the door to our temporary den, the smell of bacon and eggs made my stomach growl with hunger. I expected to find Flint at the stove, so finding Gage there instead caused me to pause in the doorway. For a moment, I let myself ogle his nearly naked backside — he wore nothing but tight-fitting boxer briefs. His nice, rounded ass ended in powerful thighs and strong calves. His wide shoulders tapered down into a V that brought my eyes right back down to his perfect ass again.
I loved Freya, and I would be forever loyal to her. Still, as much as I wished otherwise, I wasn’t sure I’d ever get over my equal desire for my childhood crush. But I couldn’t let Freya’s hopes get mine up again. I needed to be realistic.
Even if Gage returned my interest — which would never happen — I doubted he’d want the same things I wanted from him. And Flint and I might mess around, but it was nothing serious. He and Freya were meant for one another, which had been obvious from the beginning.
Luckily, I tore my gaze away just in time, because Gage paused after he’d flipped the bacon to look back at me.
“Freya’s not up yet,” Gage whispered, as though I couldn’t sense that for myself through the mate bond.
I rolled my eyes, annoyed — I didn’t need the reminder that our focus should be on our shared mate, not on each other. Freya was all we would ever share. Sometimes our bodies might touch during Freya’s heat, but I would handle it, just like I’d handled it last time. It might be more painful this time since I’d been so recently reminded of what I couldn’t have — Gage — but I would get over it. Just like I always did.
So, if Gage wanted to keep the focus on her and avoid talking about what had happened, so be it. Moon goddess forbid things get weird between us after our dicks touched.
So I answered, “It’s about time you cooked for her.”
Things were good with Freya. She’d chosen me for her first mutual mate bite, and we both loved each other. If she would just stop bringing up Gage and rubbing salt into the wound, I would be content to be with her and only her for the rest of my days.
With that decided, I turned toward where I sensed Freya and took Gage’s spot next to her in bed. She moaned in her sleep, and Flint’s arm dropped across her. Even in his sleep, he took care of her. His breathing pattern changed, proving he was awakening. When he opened his eyes to find his arm draped across her and his hand on my biceps, he didn’t rush to pull back. Instead, he squeezed my arm and gave me a calm smile.
Butterflies instantly started flapping in my stomach.
Something akin to panic took root, racing up my spine. I’d just shoved my feelings for Gage back into their box. I wasn’t ready for a fresh assault from a different side.
Freya had encouraged Flint and me to explore each other, and he’d seemed at ease afterward, yet I’d never stopped to wonder what Flint thought beyond that. Maybe things between me and Flint weren’t as straightforward as I thought.
Until the day we messed around, I’d assumed Flint was straight as an arrow. After all, if he’d been interested in me, he could’ve come onto me a long time ago. I’d made it pretty obvious I didn’t just sleep with women.
Then again… maybe that was exactly why he hadn’t. In contrast to Flint, I had always messed around and showed no interest in long-term relationships.
Meanwhile, Flint was all about long-term relationships. He’d been with Shante for quite a while before it ended. Did my stability with Freya make me more attractive to him?
My entire world seemed to shift in an instant as I reevaluated everything I thought I knew about my packmate. He must have caught some look on my face, because his smile widened into a grin — a handsome grin that left me even more off-kilter.
Neither of us said anything, not wanting to wake up Freya. But with the scent of bacon in the air, it wasn’t long before she stirred.
When her eyes fluttered open and she noticed Flint and me to either side of her, a soft smile lit Freya’s sleepy face. I stole the first kiss, not giving a fuck about her morning breath. To me, Freya was perfect, no matter what, and I poured that feeling straight into our mate bond.
Traces of her arousal scented the air as Flint took over, turning her face toward him. As my hand moved along her hip and Flint plundered her mouth, the scent of her arousal flooded us both. I nipped at her ear, grinding my erection into her leg.
But when Flint let her go, he said, “It smells like breakfast is almost ready, moonbeam. I wouldn’t want Gage’s first time cooking for you to go to waste or get cold before he can feed you.”
Freya groaned, and I laughed, teasing my fingers along the underside of her breast.
“Just wait til we get you back to our den,” I growled.
Freya sighed, her whole body going limp when she remembered, “That’s right, we have to drive back today, don’t we?”
“Hopefully soon, if Astrid liked what she saw and our Frost Fang packmates unloaded the goods for her pack.”
“You really think she’s up already?” Freya demanded. “Did you see how much she drank?”
She put a hand to her stomach as though just thinking about it made her sick.
“You can shift if you have any lingering hangover, little wolf,” I pointed out.
“Oh, I feel fine,” Freya waved me off. “I sipped my drink all night.”
“Astrid’s a gigantic bear,” I explained, “so shifting would purge alcohol from her system even more easily than it does for us. And sleeping it off the entire night in our animal forms makes it even easier.”
I kissed her temple and then moved to get up. After Flint helped Freya disentangle herself from the sheets, she slipped into the bathroom.
Flint wrapped an arm around my shoulders and said, “Let’s get some breakfast, big guy” before pushing me through the doorway.
The heat of his arm around me seemed to linger as I headed back into the kitchen. Glancing over my shoulder, I wondered if Flint knew the effect the simple touch had on me. His wink confirmed it.
My lips quirked up, and I found an extra pep in my step as I entered the kitchen. Those butterflies in my stomach flapped some more, and I knew Freya would be excited when she noticed things changing between me and Flint.
As soon as Freya joined us, Gage held out a piece of crispy bacon for her, resulting in a delicious moan after her first crunch. When all three of us adjusted ourselves, she laughed.
“I can’t wait til we’re back to our den,” she murmured, before Gage held the piece of bacon to her lips again.
“Neither can we,” I assured her.
Watching the way his eyes devoured her as she ate what he’d cooked for her was almost erotic. Gage had no idea how desirable he was. He was completely absorbed in providing for our mate and giving her what she needed. And that made me long for them both.
“When are you going to bite him back?” I asked her across our private link.
Freya’s eyes met mine as she took another bite from Gage’s hand. She licked her lips, gazing at me from half-lidded eyes.
“Maybe as soon as we get back? Before my heat, hopefully. I think he’s ready. Are you?”
“I am.” And to my surprise, I was.
I wanted Freya to be happy, and I wanted Gage to be happy, and they would both be happier once their mate bond went both ways. Even though it meant I would no longer have the advantage or privilege of being her only mate with access to her mind like this, I was ready.
“I’m ready for you to claim all of us,” I added. “And it’ll be good if you do it before your heat, so we’re prepared for Ironwood’s attack.”
“Ah, so it’s strategic,” Freya teased as Flint and Gage fussed over getting her a plate so we could all finally sit down.
“Thank you,” Freya said before she stuffed her mouth full of a hot, fluffy biscuit.
After that, neither of the other two seemed surprised she wasn’t talking. And our mental conversation continued unimpeded as we all focused on our own plates.
“It’s practical, yes, but it’s also… right,” I gave a shrug that neither Gage nor Flint seemed to notice. “I’ll feel better once you properly claim all your mates. My wolf hungers for my packmates to reclaim their spots in the hierarchy. You’ve thrown it all on its head by claiming me first.”
“So, your wolf might feel some kind of way if I claim Flint or Rowan before Gage?”
“It doesn’t matter,” I answered her. “Just as long as you claim us all soon.”
“Good, because I can’t guarantee it’ll happen in ‘the right order’ for your wolf.”
“Lady’s choice.”
She gave me a knowing smirk. “And did I sense something simmering between you and Flint this morning?”
“Maybe so. I guess you’ll just have to wait and see,” I teased.
“I guess so. But I think you’re right. It’s time. My wolf wants you all, and so do I.”
She gave another soft moan with her next bite of bacon. I smirked, knowing her moan wasn’t just about the food, but the thought of claiming all her mates at last.
“Then give us all what we want, my little warrior wolf. And let’s show Ironwood they picked a fight with the wrong pack.”