Chapter 30 - Freya
Freya
After everything we’d experienced recently, returning to the familiar scents of our Moonblessed den felt like stepping into another world, a comfort I’d forgotten existed.
Exhaustion had worn me down, but I didn’t feel exhausted now. My wolf paced, pushing forward to take what she wanted if I wouldn’t. Her alphas needed her, and she wasn’t about to leave a single one of her mates out.
“We did it,” Gage said quietly, his deep voice carrying a note I’d rarely heard from him. Relief. Pure, overwhelming relief. “We’re all safe.”
The words settled over me like a warm blanket.
No more Denraider forces advancing across our borders.
No more witches infiltrating packs or stealing wolves.
No more Dryden pulling political strings to destroy us.
Even Valkyrie — my sister, my blood — was free, rescued by her own three mates just as Tor had foreseen.
For the first time since I’d shifted into my Odinswolf form, I could simply be without scanning for threats.
“Look at you,” Heath murmured, stepping closer to brush a strand of hair from my face. His caramel eyes held that familiar heat, but underneath it was something softer. Wonder. “Your shoulders aren’t up around your ears anymore.”
I hadn’t even realized I’d been carrying that tension until it was gone. My entire body felt lighter, like I’d been wearing invisible armor that had finally been removed now that we found privacy.
I understood why the pack alphas — no, pack protectors — looked to me for guidance, but it took some getting used to. I now carried the responsibility for not one but many packs on my shoulders.
“I was so afraid that they would imprison my sister again,” I whispered. “Or that the packs would devolve back into disputes over territories the moment the battle ended. And during the battle… I was so afraid I would ruin things with the pack mind somehow.”
“You could never ruin the pack mind,” Tor reminded me. “It isn’t solely created or maintained by you.”
I smiled. “I know that now.”
Flint’s arms came around me from behind, solid and warm. “You did it, moonbeam. The pack mind, the Astral Packs — all of it.”
Through our bonds, I felt their collective agreement, their pride and love washing over me in waves. But underneath it all was something else, something that made my pulse quicken despite my exhaustion.
Desire. Raw, undiluted want that had been building for days, held in check by necessity and danger.
“How about we shower first,” Zak suggested with a knowing smile. “We’re all covered in battlefield grime, and our radiant deserves better than that.”
The next hour was a study in exquisite torture.
We took turns, and somehow each of my mates found ways to touch me, kiss me, tease me while we waited for the others.
Gage’s possessive hands mapped my curves as I helped him out of his torn shirt.
Heath’s playful tongue traced my lower lip during a too-short kiss.
Flint’s strong fingers working knots from my shoulders with touches that sent sparks straight to my core.
After I showered, Zak’s magic-warmed hands heated my skin even after he ripped away my towel to tease my nipples with his tongue.
Rowan emerged from his shower like some primal god, water still beading on his unmarred skin, and pulled me against him for a kiss that tasted of wild promises.
And Tor — my newest mate, my fellow Odinswolf — watched hungrily with those ice-blue eyes, just waiting for me to say the word.
By the time we were all clean and gathered in the bedroom, anticipation crackled between us like electricity before a storm. I was wound so tight I thought I might shatter from wanting them.
“You smell so good, my warrior queen,” Heath’s breath teased my ear so very close to Tor’s mate mark.
“Want to try something different this time?” Tor said softly, making us lean in to catch his next words. “Let us show you something only Odinswolves can do.”
Tor’s eyes met mine, and I felt the tingle of Odinswolf magic recognizing its own kind.
“Together,” he said simply, extending his hand.
“Everyone on the bed,” I said.
As I got up onto the reinforced king-sized bed, I reached for Tor. When our fingertips touched, our combined power surged through the room like the beginnings of an electrical storm.
Tor didn’t even voice the words, but we all knew what he planned to do next. And because we trusted him, we all laid down on the bed together, limbs entwined, heads laid on chests or thighs, fingers carding through hair.
The moment my eyelids fluttered shut, reality shifted.
The bed became insubstantial. The familiar walls of the Moonblessed den faded like morning mist, replaced by something vast and infinite. My stomach dropped as gravity released its hold, but instead of falling, I found myself floating, suspended in a sea of starlight.
“Open your eyes, my astral,” Tor whispered.
I gasped.
We hung suspended in space itself, surrounded by countless stars that pulsed with living light.
But these weren’t distant suns — they were close enough to touch, close enough to see the magic flowing between them in streams of silver and gold.
And there, directly above us, blazed our heptagram, seven stars connected by threads of pure starlight.
“This is what we are,” Tor said, his voice filled with wonder as he gestured to the celestial display. “Seven stars bound together by fate and choice. The sacred seven.”
The magnitude of it hit me hard. Just a few months ago, I’d been nothing, a nobody.
Rankless, the lowest of the low in Ironwood, barely tolerated, constantly reminded that I didn’t belong anywhere.
Luka had always treated me as insignificant, never more so than when he rejected me.
To the pack, I had either been worthless or invisible.
Then they exiled me, leaving me packless and disgraced, too.
Now I was the center of this magnificent constellation of love and power and belonging.
Lightning danced along my skin, blue-white sparks of pure joy given form.
Beside me, Zak’s magic spiraled like sapphire flames that soon wove through my lightning like a dance.
Tor’s starlight magic joined ours, silver threads that bound our power together.
These distinct types of magic beckoned even more magic to come and play… calling forth our seven wolves.
For the first time, my wolf’s magic was called forward apart from me. Normally, I saw through her eyes, but now she broke free to dance with six other wolves, who I was intimately familiar with.
“Extraordinary,” Heath breathed, his voice rough with awe as our seven wolves danced among the magic.
Through the fully opened bonds, I felt their love as actual physical sensations flowing through my body.
Flint’s pure adoration anchored me like bedrock, solid and unshakeable beneath everything else.
His love was the foundation that held me steady, patient and enduring and always, absolutely certain.
Gage’s protective love poured into me like warm honey, thick and golden and utterly reliable. It settled in my chest, a steady, safe warmth. His love felt like finding a place to belong at last.
Heath’s fierce devotion crackled across my skin like electricity, sharp and bright and impossible to ignore. It made my nerve endings sing, every inch of my body suddenly hyperaware and alive with sensation.
Rowan’s passion burned through my veins like wildfire, hot and consuming and beautifully dangerous. It made my heart race and my breath catch, filling me with the urge to run and hunt.
Zak’s grateful worship sparkled through my mind like magic itself, light and effervescent and full of wonder. His love felt like discovering something precious you never knew you were looking for.
And Tor’s understanding and acceptance flowed through me deep as starlight, ancient and wise and infinitely patient. His love felt like recognition — like coming home to a part of myself I’d never known was missing.
“I went from packless to this,” I whispered, tears streaming down my face as the full reality of it overwhelmed me. “Beloved by six incredible mates.”
“We were all packless at one point,” Gage said fiercely, floating closer until his hands cupped my face. “It’s because you were always meant for this. For us. We all were.”
I nodded. “Fate chose us for one another.” I smiled through my happy tears. “And I’m so glad.”
And yet I felt restless. These emotions were too big for my skin. I needed to touch them, to feel them, to show them how I felt. I wanted their skin on mine, to feel the truth of our connection.
The dreamscape responded to our emotions, the space around us shifting and expanding.
Soft surfaces materialized beneath us — not quite a bed, but more like an upholstered platform to support us however we needed.
The stars drew closer, their light warming our skin as reality bent to accommodate our desires.
“In dreams,” Tor explained, “we’re not bound by physics. By awkward positions or whose legs go where.” His grin turned wicked. “We can have everything we want, exactly as we want it.”
The implications of that statement sent heat racing through all our bonds. Through the pack mind, I felt their collective arousal spike, their individual desires flowing together into something that made my head spin with want.
Zak moved first, his hands sliding into my hair as his mouth found mine.
The kiss was electric — literally, as our combined magic sparked between us.
But before I could lose myself in it completely, Flint’s lips found the side of my neck, pressing soft kisses just beside the spot where he’d claimed me, teasing me.
“We have all the time in the world,” Heath said, his voice rough with promise as his hands skimmed down my sides.