Chapter 16 - Freya
Freya
When Gage had crowded Zak against the wall, I’d felt arousal spike through the Bonded link — from both of them.
“You want me to hurt you?” Gage asked. Even though the words weren’t directed at me, heat pooled low in my belly at the raw authority in his tone.
The question seemed to hang in the air between them, loaded with danger and promise but seeking Zak’s full consent.
Through our mate bond, I felt terror spike as panic flashed across his face, afraid that he’d asked for too much. “You— I didn’t mean… Don’t worry about it.”
His lashes fluttered as he tried to play it off. My heart clenched as I recognized the defense mechanism as one of the ways of pretending not to need things he desperately craved.
I wanted so badly for all of my mates to get along, to have their needs met just as mine were, to have every desire fulfilled. I wanted our bonds to be full of nothing but pure joy and bliss.
But right now, they were anything but. The guilt, shame, and fear stained the beautiful tapestry we’d been weaving together only moments before.
Zak had given up everything to find us, to become part of this. For him to think we wouldn’t want him to live his truth with us hurt me on a visceral level. Through the bonds, I felt every one of my mates’ wolves howl with the need to protect what was ours. We wouldn’t let him go without a fight.
“Zak…” I sighed. “We want to give you whatever you desire.”
“I don’t want to cause any trouble,” he said quietly, and there it was — the heart of his fear laid bare.
Rowan’s snarl vibrated through the room, his protective instincts flaring at hearing our mate sound so defeated. Through our bond, I felt his fury at anyone who’d ever made Zak feel like his needs were a burden.
Gage hands lashed out to grab both of Zak’s nipple piercings through his shirt. The way Zak gasped when Gage tugged, the spike of arousal that crashed through our bonds, sent heat racing through my veins.
“The only trouble would be if you denied what you need. What you want,” Gage growled.
“He’s right,” I echoed privately to Zak. “You’re part of this, part of us. If you deny yourself, you also deny us.”
Zak’s uncertainty teetered on the edge of understanding. He wanted me to be right, but he feared what would happen if I was wrong. Would the alphas cast him out?
“You’re mine,” I growled in his mind. “You’re here to stay.”
Heath soon returned to my side, threading his way between Tor and me so he could touch us both. As my mates’ hands began roaming over my skin, I kept my gaze fixed on the scene unfolding.
I wanted this moment to be about Zak’s desires, not mine. I wanted to watch what happened when he got everything he so desperately craved. Only when my mates felt safe in this relationship we were building would I be free to fully enjoy it with all of them.
Gage’s mouth worked Zak with deliberate intent, building his pleasure only to pull back and leave him wanting. I remembered this game all too well, and so did Flint. He nipped at my earlobe and whispered, “Watch him edge our beta while I lick you.”
When Flint dipped his head between my thighs, it sated the ache that had begun there while I watched Zak surrender to his desires. Rowan approached, careful to stay out of my sight-line as he teased my lips with his cock.
When our pack alpha reached between Zak’s legs to tug his balls hard enough to make him cry out, the sharp blend of pain and pleasure pulsed through our connection. For the first time, I understood how pain could transform into pleasure.
“You don’t come until I say so,” Gage commanded with absolute authority. “Understood?”
“Yes, alpha,” Zak breathed, and the submission in his voice sent heat racing through every bond in the pack.
From behind me, Heath’s voice carried amusement. “You like seeing Gage take control, don’t you, little wolf?”
My cheeks burned, unable to deny how the display affected me as I sucked in just the tip of Rowan’s cock. It was deeply satisfying to watch my pack alpha torment Zak the way he had tormented me in the past.
What followed was a symphony of desire and claiming that left me breathless.
Sensation blurred into connection until the details mattered less than feeling like we were part of something larger.
As mouths and hands moved with purpose, pleasure flashed through me and around me in equal measure, all of us sharing the moment and caring for each other.
Gage and Heath worked together to give Zak everything he craved while my other mates pleasured me and each other, sharing joyfully in this fateful experience.
When the moment finally came for Gage and Heath to claim Zak simultaneously — Gage’s teeth at his nape while Heath bit his wrist — the explosion of power through our bonds was overwhelming.
Purple runes blazed to life on their faces and the mate bonds snapped into place with an intensity that left me with tears in my eyes.
Zak was finding his place among us, slowly but surely. I hoped he would bite Gage and Heath back soon. There was no joy greater than a mutual mate bond.
“Ready for the rest of your Christmas present, my queen?” Gage’s question startled me, bringing me back to the present.
He nudged the butt plug between my cheeks, making pleasure light up my entire body.
Flint’s concern was immediate and gentle. “Do you still feel good, moonbeam? Can you handle more?”
I lay boneless on the bed between Flint and Rowan, my body still humming. Every movement in the room caught my attention — Gage and Heath still tangled together, Zak’s satisfied glow, Tor watching me like a man standing on the edge of a cliff, wanting the jump and not quite trusting the drop.
Instead of answering immediately, I reached for them through the Bonded link.
Using what Zak had once taught me, I let our shared strength flow toward whoever needed it most. Muscles unknotted, fog cleared, exhaustion burned away under a rising tide of warmth and arousal.
Even my mates’ wolves felt reinvigorated, their human sides stunned by the way my hybrid magic wrapped around all of us.
“I can,” I answered Flint with a slow smile, then turned to Gage, letting desire brighten my eyes. “What did you have in mind?”
Heat flared in Gage’s gaze as I deferred to his dominance. When he touched the butt plug still nestled inside me, I writhed with renewed aftershocks of pleasure that made my toes curl.
“Do you mean to claim Torsten tonight?” came Gage’s private question along our mate bond, the words meant only for me so Tor wouldn’t have to hear my denial if I wasn’t ready. Gage’s question came with the sense of a warm hand on my back, promising to support me whatever I decided.
“I want to,” I responded without a flicker of doubt.
The Bonded link widened as I let my emotions flow freely — trust, joy, that bone-deep rightness of an Odinswolf calling to the mate the stars had promised me. Gage’s wolf answered in kind with a low, eager, rumbling growl that spoke volumes about what he thought Tor should mean to all of us.
“Tor,” Gage said with authority. “You’ve been patient long enough.”
Tor’s pulse kicked in his throat as every gaze in the room locked on him.
In our Bonded link conversations, he’d always seemed steady, unshakable.
But here, with six wolves watching him and bonds already tangled thick between us, I felt a faint tremor run through his energy in the link, which in turn triggered Gage’s protective urge.
Tor’s throat worked, his hands flexed at his sides.
We would put everything right. I sat up and reached out a hand, letting my joy and affection for him pour through the bond. “Come here, my sixth star.”
Tor crossed to me in three long strides, and despite his impressive size, every movement around me was careful — big hands braced either side of my hips, his body angling so I could guide the pace.
“I’ve waited so long to truly touch you,” he murmured, kissing gently along my jaw.
“Then don’t wait anymore,” I whispered, my free hand cupping his face. My pupils had blown wide with desire, and need was a living thing inside me, desperate and consuming.
Tor rose over me like a nature god given form, taller even than Heath, shoulders thick with muscle. And yet the way he touched me was gentle, caring. Protective, not possessive.
As Tor kissed the runes along my collarbone, I looked over at Zak. “Your alphas want your mark.”
I could sense the truth of it through our bonds. Time for them to stop dancing around what they all wanted.
“It’s your turn, beta,” Gage growled out a warning.
Zak lifted his hand, drawing a quick sigil in the air which I recognized as Zak’s handy cleaning spell that he used for everything from ‘brushing his teeth’ to taking a shower-free bath. I suppressed a laugh when Gage startled as the cleaning spell wrapped around his length.
I shared a knowing smile with Tor, whose kisses had paused when he heard Gage’s sound of surprise.
“Relax,” Zak grinned. “Just a cleaning spell.” He tipped his chin at Heath. “He’ll thank me when your dick’s in his mouth.”
Heath huffed a laugh, glancing between them. “So. Time for a sixty-nine?”
“Ready?” Tor asked me, pulling my full attention back to him as he positioned himself between my thighs.
I loved the way his eyes scanned my face, checking for even the smallest hint of hesitation as he notched his tip against my entrance.
“More than ready,” I answered, my hands on his hips urging him on.
Our gazes locked as he slowly entered me, his thickness stretching me more than I was used to.
All of my mates were well endowed, but Tor’s girth tested my limits.
I thought that was why he was being so careful, but when he slid in further, I was abruptly reminded that the butt plug was still inside me.
For a moment, the intense sense of fullness swept everything else away.
“Tor…” I moaned. “Maybe without the plug?”
Gage popped his mouth off Heath’s cock long enough to growl, “Keep it.”