Chapter 13 - Torsten #2
“She’s been dreaming about you for weeks,” Heath added. “Waiting for you to get here.”
Gage nodded slowly. “Freya’s already brought you into the Bonded link through her dreams, but you’re lacking the pack bond. That was the next step I had planned for you.”
He raised an eyebrow to Heath, who smiled anything but innocently.
“I’d be honored,” I said, determined not to push either of them faster than they were ready for.
“Then let’s gather whoever is available to witness the ceremony. Before our enemies decide to strike again.”
He was right. Once Denraider quashed their rebellion, their gaze would turn back toward those who had caused it.
And the Ashworth Coven no doubt craved Freya’s power all the more now that she’d stripped Dryden’s wolf.
The lull would come to an end soon, and my ravens would ensure we knew the moment it did.
“No doubt there are plenty who would be honored to stand as witnesses,” Flint suggested, his voice warm with certainty.
Heath ticked them off on his fingers. “Representatives from Frost Fang, Ironwood, Bloody Dawn, Moonblessed if any are around. Jasmine and her mates from Snow Moon. Brielle’s here somewhere, I saw her checking the wards earlier.”
“You’ve assembled quite the alliance,” I said.
Heath nodded. “And Astrid and her pack, the Midnight Path, should arrive in a few days, we hope.”
“All these alphas defer to you?” I asked Gage.
“They recognize we all serve a greater cause. If they rally around anyone, it’s Freya.”
It all made sense, then. “She’s becoming a leader. A wolf who can unite different packs without force, who leads through wisdom and consensus rather than dominance.”
“The way my ancestors believed all good leaders should,” Flint said.
I knew I liked him.
“There was an old term for leaders like Freya, who aren’t alphas. Odinswolves would call her Astral.”
“Astral? Of the stars?”
“The stars have blessed her,” I pointed out.
Flint nodded. “It is a good word for her.”
For a moment, they all went silent, processing this idea. Instead of rejecting it out of hand like some alphas would do with any idea that undermined their authority, they turned it over.
“Witches, fae, and the rest say that pack laws are too primitive and divisive,” Heath mused. “Maybe with an astral in charge, we could change their view of wolf shifters.”
Through the Bonded link, I sensed no reservations, no disappointment, no resistance to the concept. Only their acceptance, understanding, and a sense of rightness.
My wolf internally howled, pleased that they would make good mates.
Freya wouldn’t have mated them otherwise, I reminded him.
“Heath, round up anyone who wants to witness the pack bond ceremony with us,” Gage ordered. “I’ll go check on our three missing packmates.”
“It’s time you joined the pack, big guy,” Heath smiled as he took off, his phone in hand.
“That’s right,” Gage confirmed. “It’s time we make you one of us. And there’s one more bond to fix after that.”
My wolf stirred with anticipation. As Heath and Gage moved off, Flint hung back with me. He pulled over a foldable camp chair, bringing it close enough our knees nearly touched.
As we waited for everyone to assemble, Flint settled in, then glanced down at my untouched wrists.
“Your wrists are as unmarked as Freya’s once were. Did you never join another pack?”
“My mother and I left the Snow Moon pack before I’d shifted,” I explained once more. “She died protecting me in the wildlands before I ever had the chance. Moonblessed gave me refuge, but I didn’t feel at home there. I left to find other Odinswolves.”
“That’s how Hugo knew,” he gasped.
“Knew what?”
“What feels now like ages ago, Hugo told us that he’d met a wolf who didn’t shift until the full moon of his twenty-fifth birthday. That was you, wasn’t it?”
I nodded, because who else could it have been? I hadn’t found any other Odinswolves in all my searching.
“You didn’t tell him you were an Odinswolf?”
I shook my head. Back then, I’d been burned by so many harsh reactions to my nature that I’d decided not to confide in him.
Now I wished I’d chosen differently. Hugo and Idori led Moonblessed with honor, which had become apparent to me in the way they treated their packmates as equals last night, honoring multiple traditions.
His packmates had kept Hugo so busy that he and I hadn’t gotten the chance to have so much as a word. He’d merely waved at me across the crowd.
“He told Freya about you in her darkest hour, and it gave her hope that she would one day shift. She’d all but given up.”
The revelation struck me like lightning. Even before we’d met in dreams, I’d somehow given Freya hope. Our connection stretched back further than either of us had realized — threads of fate weaving together long before we were conscious of them.
“I never knew,” I said quietly. “All those years searching, and I was already part of her story.”
Flint smiled. “The stars work in mysterious ways.”
“What will it feel like?” I asked. “The bond?”
“It’s straightforward. Gage will ask if you’re willing to join.
You’ll pledge loyalty to the pack, then to Gage as alpha.
We’ll witness and pledge back. Then you’ll submit to him, and he’ll bite your left foreleg to establish the pack bond.
Only hurts for a moment.” Flint’s voice carried gentle encouragement.
“You’ll feel him in the back of your mind afterward.
The connection, the knowledge that you’re not alone. ”
“And then?”
“Then you’re ours,” Flint said with a spark in his eye. “After the ceremony, you’ll officially be a Howling Echo wolf by both pack bond and Bonded link.”
Flint shifted closer, ostensibly to show off his pack tattoo, but I caught his scent more clearly — woodsmoke and pine and the peace after recently fallen rain. My wolf pressed toward him, filing that scent away under ‘safe.’
I looked down at Flint’s forearms, which revealed two old pack marks crossed out with raised red scars on his right forearm, and the clear and obvious current pack on his left.
Crossed out were a snarling wolf’s fangs in front of a frozen mountain, which I’d noticed on other Frost Fang’s pack members’ forearms, and the familiar dark wolf of Moonblessed raising its muzzle in a howl in front of a huge, bright moon.
A light-colored wolf howled in front of dark mountains on his left wrist, the mark of the Howling Echo pack that they all shared.
His brown eyes held understanding. “It should feel like coming home. Though for you, with your Odinswolf sight… you’ll probably see things the rest of us can’t.”
I nodded.
“You nervous?” he asked, his voice warmer than with simple friendship.
“Excited,” I admitted. “I’ve been alone for so long. The idea of finally finding my pack, of being wanted…” I let the words trail off.
Flint’s hand settled briefly on my shoulder. “You’re already wanted, Torsten. This ceremony is just making it official.”
The way he said my name, with that quiet conviction, made heat pool in my chest. A relationship was slowly building between us, patient like everything else about Flint. No rush, no pressure — just the promise of good to come.
“Looks like word’s already spreading,” Flint observed, nodding toward the edges of camp where wolves had begun moving in our direction.
I watched them gather with a mixture of amazement and gratitude.
At yesterday’s festivities, I’d met many of them, though I couldn’t remember all of their names. Now I spotted someone from nearly every pack making their way over to us.
The gathered witnesses formed a loose circle around us.
I caught the obvious longing in my friend Jasmine’s eyes as her mates gathered around her.
I wasn’t sure how they would choose which pack to join from so many different packs, so many wolves who had chosen to stand together despite their differences.
Squeezing my shoulder as he stood, Flint walked over to the four of them to talk as more and more wolves approached.
Thatcher and Lee represented Ironwood, standing tall but relaxed, their pack members scattered throughout the crowd. These were wolves who’d learned to trust again after years under cruel leadership.
I spotted Varden, Fern, Bretton, and Brooke from the Frost Fang contingent, all standing together. Though I sensed some tension between them, they stood together as packmates.
Artemis led a small group of Bloody Dawn wolves, young survivors whose pack had been destroyed by Denraider like so many. Despite everything they’d lost, joy still shone in their eyes after last night’s celebration. Their spirits remained unbroken.
A few Moonblessed wolves trailed from their walled city, including Shante, who caught my eye and offered an encouraging smile.
She’d introduced herself as Freya’s ‘bestie’ last night, and I’d sensed her watching me as the evening wore on, getting a sense for me.
By the end of the night, she’d given me her approval to become Freya’s mate, as long as she chose me back.
I’d laughed, and told her I was glad Freya had friends like her watching her back.
Brielle stood slightly apart from the others, her hybrid nature setting her apart just as my Odinswolf nature did.
Gage reappeared, alongside Freya, Rowan, and Zak. Freya’s white hair caught the morning light like spun silver, and her snow-blue eyes found mine immediately across the crowd. Through the Bonded link, I felt her joy and anticipation, her excitement at seeing me officially join their pack.
Rowan walked beside her, and I couldn’t help but notice the matching marks decorating both sides of his neck — Freya’s bite on one side, Zak’s on the other. Though I couldn’t see the marks beneath Zak’s clothes, the hybrid looked satisfied in a way that made my wolf rumble with approval.