Page 16 of Wolf Bound

My peryton bumps me and ruffles her feathers against my back to get me up. The sadness in her from before is gone, now replaced with happiness and anticipation. She wants to meet the rest of our mates and I'm right there with her. The connection with Penn alone was enough to erase so many years of darkness. I have four more mates I haven't even met yet, so I can only imagine how much more whole I'll feel when those bonds snap into place as well.

Pulling myself out of the valley, I start to sense and feel everything around me. There's a whirring sound, almost soft like a hum, around me. My head feels warm and cushioned, my body lying down in a propped up position on a soft, silky bed. There's multiple people breathing around me, some sounding much closer than others. That should fill me with fear, except I know it's my mates without even opening my eyes.

The bonds are unlike anything I've felt before. There's a magical pulling sensation where I picture my soul. Pushing my consciousness down, I open a different type of sight inside of myself. It's like opening my eyes to see the threads of magic and life that are normally hidden to the naked eye. Tendrils of magic are flowing to me, tying themselves delicately and securely on my own magic. My teal magic is pulling those ties, merging them with themselves until it's impossible to see where the threads from my mates end and mine starts.

My magic forges these bonds to my soul, filling in spots to create a beautiful swirl of colours. They aren’t thick like my ownmagic, though. These colours are still more transparent than my own. Maybe as the bond deepens the colour will as well.

“How much longer are we all stuck in this stupid vehicle?” a deep male voice asks in annoyance. “It’s fucking confining as shit in here with all you fuckers.”

Blinking open my eyes, I shift my head towards the sound of the voice only to get trapped by a pair of pale blue eyes looking down at me. Wavy dark hair falls on his forehead, accentuating how bright the blue is.

“You’re awake,” he mumbles, the deep, rumbling tone of his voice making my mind go hazy. “How are you feeling?”

“Yes,” I whisper, answering the first part that wasn’t even a question and blanking on the question he actually asked. There’s a lot of intense feelings flowing towards me from multiple directions, the bonds glowing brighter now that all of their attention is on me.

“You’re feeling yes, baby girl?” Penn asks, his head popping over the seat by my feet. “I don’t think I know how yes feels. Care to explain?”

“Leave her alone, she’s overwhelmed,” a deep timbering voice flows from the front seat where two very large men sit.

“Yeah, leave me alone,” I say, forcing my voice out with only a small amount of squeaking.

The other men laugh, giving me the exact reaction I hoped for. Penn smiles widely, his blue eyes crinkling at the sides as he wraps his arms around the seat, his tattoos flexing with the movement.

It’s been so long since I’ve spoken aside from a few things to Penn while we were imprisoned. It feels good to talk again, but especially to talk to people who actually want to hear what I have to say. To make them laugh? That’s a feeling I’ll cherish for a very long time.

I pull myself up, the man whose lap I was lying on, helps with a gentle support on my back. It takes all my effort not to move right back into him and soak in more of his warmth. The scents around me are intoxicating, each mate’s scent sends shivers down my spine.

“Um, hi,” I squeak again, looking at the faces of the four men I haven’t met yet. “I’m Talia.”

“It’s nice to finally meet you, Talia. I’m Drayton,” the man I was lying on responds, a small, lopsided smile on his face. “In the driver’s seat is Alaric, beside him is Wes, and behind us is Penn, who you know, and Forrester.”

“All of you are my mates?” I question, looking over my shoulder at Penn for confirmation. At his nod, I turn back in my seat with a small smile.

“We are. Is that okay with you?” Drayton asks, sitting up more and leaning towards me.

Nodding my head, I smile bigger as I look up at him shyly. “Yeah, it’s more than okay. I’ve never really had a family before, all I’ve known is the prison, so having a lot of mates is good. It means I won’t need to be alone anymore.”

The car we’re in swerves a little. Alaric, the one driving, cusses and slams his hands on the wheel. “Fucking shit. I’m going to tear them apart.”

My eyes go wide in concern, the eerie quiet after his outburst of anger has me on edge. I don’t know what upset him so much, but I just want to reach out and take all of his bad feelings away.

My peryton pushes against my mind, urging me to reach out and take away his bad feelings. Much like when I healed Penn, my instincts kick into overdrive to heal, this time with comfort and soothing words. The gentle chirping of my peryton is encouraging and supportive, letting me know without words that this is what we do. This is as much a part of our magic as theteal tendrils that stitch together injuries. I find myself moving forward, my natural instincts guiding me.

“Alaric?” I ask softly, reaching my hand forward to touch the back of his arm. “Are you okay?”

Alaric jumps a little at my touch, his dark hazel eyes meeting mine in the little mirror on the window. “Yeah, sweetheart. I’m okay, I promise. I’m sorry if I scared you.”

Another smile blooms on my face, my cheeks burning slightly from all of it. My hand twitches in my lap, the urge to reach out and touch the scruffy blonde beard on his face. Instead, I sit back again, resting my head against the seat behind me and bask in the feeling of my mates all around me.

After a moment, I look over at Drayton, sensing his gaze on me with intent. Breaking the sudden silence again, I ask the question that just occurred to me. “Where are we going?”

Drayton smirks, reaching a hand towards me and taking one of my hands fiddling in my lap. “We’re headed to our packlands where we live. It’s only going to be another twenty minutes or so until we’re there. The Forntida pack lives in a heavily wooded area a few hours from the coast that we rescued you from.”

“The Forntida pack is a wolf shifter pack?” I look between all the men, noting the dark haired man named Forrester in the back seat refuses to look in my direction and he looks angry. Frowning, I look forward instead. Wes, the long haired one beside Alaric, on the other hand, perks up for the first time in a while.

“It is. Our shifter lineage goes back to the original wolf shifters created by Adessa herself,” Wes explains, turning to smile at me for the first time since I woke up. “The Forntida were the sentinel wolves, created to protect one of the original mythical shifter lines. We’re extremely rich in history and powerful among shifter-kind.”

“Oh,” I murmur, processing the large amount of information just given to me. “That— Well, that makes a lot more sense now.”

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