Page 48 of Marked for the Pack

“Just as you have sworn loyalty to me, I swear I will not abuse this power over you. You are now our packmate, the newest member of the Howling Echo pack.”

“You can… sense what I’m feeling, can’t you? But I can’t sense you back?”

“Only your strongest emotions, or when you’re in danger.”

“Sometimes our packmates’ strongest emotions will bleed into the bond, allowing us all to sense it,” Heath explained. “But as pack alpha, Gage can sense more than the rest of us.”

“I mainly use the pack bond to check on the safety of my pack.” Gage cupped my jaw with his hand. “I will keep you safe.”

“We all will,” Heath swore.

Gage’s sky-blue eyes searched mine. “You’re ours now, princess. For good.”

The way Gage held me was possessive, but somehow different from the way a pack alpha normally felt toward a new packmate, I was sure. Flint had given me his permission to be with his packmates — my packmates, now.

But had he expected this new thing blooming between Gage and me? Because right now, in Gage’s strong arms, I couldalmost believe in the possibility of… us. Now that they accepted me as their packmate, I could almost imagine them caring for me in other ways, of me being with them all, not only Flint.

I tilted my chin up. Whether it was from his newfound sense of my emotions through the pack bond or not, I couldn’t be sure, but Gage read my desires and met them. His lips descended on mine, but that only made me want more. I slid my arms around him, and his iron grip locked me against his hard body. It seemed the hard-on he’d been sporting before his shift had returned.

For a moment, I lost myself completely to the kiss. Gage’s mouth plundered mine like it belonged to him and always had and — now — always would. I met his tongue with my own… Then I suddenly remembered we were outside, standing in front of Heath and Flint, and pulled back.

Gage withdrew and then placed a kiss on my forehead, stirring up a mix of feelings I didn't know how to handle. He’d treated me like he owned me, fucked me senseless, then cuddled me in bed, and now brought me into his pack.

My head was spinning with everything that had happened in the past few days. My brain was still making sense of it all, but it felt… good? Not perfect, but a good start to a better future.

Flint wrapped his muscular arms around me from behind. “Congratulations, Freya of the Howling Echo,” he said.

I grinned. “That sounds right.”

Flint nodded, then bent down to kiss me. Any fears I had that he felt any sort of jealousy about me and Gage disappeared. His kiss felt every bit as possessive as Gage’s, yet… left me with the freedom to explore whatever might happen with his packmates.

My packmates, I reminded myself, glancing over at Heath, who held himself slightly apart from us. His jaw tensed, but he made no move to come closer as the moment stretched. Flintstepped back, but before I could decide how to celebrate with my third packmate, our pack alpha spoke up.

“Freya and Flint, pack up the house and all our clothes and things. Heath, you’re on weapons and ammunition. Hurry and eat, because we leave by ten sharp.”

“Got it, boss,” Heath said, turning his back on us.

Without a backward glance, he strode across the field back toward the house.

My heart splintered a little, and I mentally chastised myself for being greedy. Flint and I worked well together. And there was definitely something deeper waiting to be explored between Gage and me… It was silly to feel like something was missing.

“Get moving,” Gage growled as he started across the field after Heath.

“So bossy,” I laughed as Flint took my hand and led me along with him.

“You’ve sworn to obey me, don’t forget,” Gage warned.

“No, I swore to be loyal. There’s a difference.”

Up ahead of us, Heath turned around and called back, “At this rate, you’ll be back to hate-fucking in no time.”

“No time for fucking of any kind,” Gage growled. “That’s an order from your pack alpha.”

But when he glanced over his shoulder at me, Gage gave me a wolfish grin. I smiled back, curious to see what new side of Gage I might discover as his packmate.

“Once we’re back from this job, we’ll get you a tattoo to match,” Flint said, holding out his left forearm. A matching circle of teeth marks ringed his wrist just below a black tattoo of a wolf howling in the mountains.

I smiled and squeezed his hand. “I can hardly wait.”

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