Chapter 26 - Freya #4
“That, I’ll allow,” Gage said, giving Tor a light swat to the back of the head that made Rowan snort.
Leaning forward, Tor’s fingers brushed mine, a warm, grounding touch. “Freya… from the first snowy clearing in my dreams, I knew you’d always fight for those you loved. I love your determination — the way you refuse to give up on anyone, even a sister you’ve never met. I love you, my guiding star.”
The words hit like a simple, unshakeable truth thanks to the bonds between us, and my eyes stung.
“He’s right. How could we ever resist your ferocity?” Zak teased, trying to hide how bright his eyes had gone.
Tor turned his attention to him, thumb absently tracing circles on the back of Zak’s hand where it rested on his knee. “And you, Zak… you survived so much cruelty and still chose to trust your new pack. I love that sharp mind and sharper magic of yours. I’m glad you’re ours.”
Zak’s mouth fell open, and through the Bonded link, he privately gasped, “Is he… saying he loves me?”
“That’s right,” I sent back, warmth curling in my chest as Flint’s fingers found Zak’s hand on the other side, idly stroking over the skin as if to soothe him. But instead, it provoked a nearly identical shock in him.
Tor’s gaze snagged on Heath next. “Heath. I felt your loyalty through the Bonded link long before I met you in person. Only later, when I learned you’d followed Gage into exile, the way you’d risk everything for your packmates?
I love that about you. That you’ll throw yourself in front of danger for any of us, and somehow still crack a joke while you’re bleeding. ”
“Someone has to keep you all from brooding yourselves to death,” Heath said lightly, but he leaned into Tor’s shoulder-bump this time.
“Gage,” Tor went on, voice turning more serious, “you could have clung to Frost Fang and its old traditions. Instead, you walked away and let something new form around you. I respect that more than I can say.”
“Our pack is evolving,” Flint acknowledged, his knee pressed against Zak’s. “Because we stopped pretending only one kind of wolf deserved to lead.”
Tor tipped his chin toward Flint. “And you… you’re the foundation of this whole thing, the one who sees the best in everyone. The one who never wavers when the rest of us are flailing. I lean on that more than you know.”
Rowan snorted. “Flint’s the strongest of us and we all know it.”
Tor’s eyes slid to Rowan last. “And you, my feral alpha. Watching you on that battlefield, I knew exactly why Denraider should be afraid. You fight like a force of nature. I love your wild heart, your fierce spirit. You’re untamed, dangerous to enemies but gentle with those you love.”
Rowan bared his teeth in something that wasn’t quite a smile. “I’ll tear Denraider apart to keep you all safe.” His gaze flicked from Tor to me and over to Zak, the promise ringing through every bond.
Tor blew out a breath. “So no, I don’t plan on dying tomorrow. I just wanted it said out loud, even though these bonds we’ve forged make it known.”
“We know,” Gage said firmly. “And we’re going to win.”
“Because we have each other,” Zak added.
I thought about how far we’d all come. How Heath and Gage used to dance around their feelings, and now they were openly intimate.
How Rowan had feared magic, and now he accepted first me and then Zak completely.
How I’d been rankless and alone, and now I was surrounded by love so vast it threatened to overwhelm me.
Tor reached for me again, and the moment his fingers touched mine, the world tilted.
The vision hit like lightning.
I saw Tor’s eyes go wide, saw him start to fall, saw Heath move to catch him, and then I was falling too — back into my mates’ arms as the world dissolved into images and sensation.
Elder Forest. Warriors moving toward us from the southeast, from Wyoming. A massive caravan of vehicles, far too many for a simple ambassador convoy. They were coming for blood, coming to avenge Dryden’s death.
And from the other direction, from the west — Denraider. A sea of wolves, more than I’d ever seen in one place, converging on our position like a dark tide.
We were going to be caught between them. Pinched. Crushed. Just like my vision had once shown.
Then all the lights of all our allied packs winked on, and I saw them move together, as one. Then I saw Denraider move in, and I came back to myself gasping, Tor doing the same. Lightning crackled along my skin, and I immediately opened the Bonded link wide, sharing what I’d seen.
My mates absorbed it in silence, their expressions grim.
“Elder Forest,” Heath said, fury making his voice shake. “They heard I killed Dryden and they’re coming for revenge.”
Heath’s guilt punched through me. Watching Heath kill him had felt like justice to all of us. Now it seemed like a lost opportunity. If we’d dragged him back in chains…
“If only we could have taken him alive,” I muttered. “We’d make Elder Forest see what he’d done instead of letting them turn him into some kind of martyr.”
“We barely got out of there with Heath breathing,” Gage said, jaw tight. “Dryden would have found a way to twist anything we said. You know how good he was at it.”
Zak’s mouth flattened. “Even so, it would be easier to sway them with a living traitor than a dead one.”
“At least in the vision, it looks like Denraider will get to us first,” Gage said. “Before Elder Forest arrives. If so, we can take the threats one at a time.”
“Small mercies,” Zak murmured.
I swallowed hard. “I want a chance to talk to Elder Forest. They wouldn’t yield to the coven, forced them to go around. They might listen if we can get proof in front of the right alphas.”
Tor’s eyes lit with hope. “We’ll make sure you get that chance. But first we live through tomorrow.”
As if summoned by his words, a howl rose in the distance. Then another. And another.
The sound was meant to break our morale, to make us afraid. And it worked — ice flooded my veins as I recognized the sheer number of voices joining that terrible chorus.
As one, my mates turned to look at me.
Their astral.
The one who could unite them all through the pack mind.
It was now or never. Time to see if I’d mastered my magic, or if I would lead everyone I loved to their deaths.
The pack bond, the mate bonds, the Bonded link — they all blazed to life, ready to be woven into something greater.
“It’s time,” I said, my voice steadier than I felt.
Time to open the pack mind to the entire alliance.
And I prayed to Grandmother Moon and the stars above that I was ready.