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Just like that, the two of them took their coffees and left Gage and me alone. The house fell silent around us, and I dared to meet the alpha’s gaze once more.
Chapter 14
Gage
Unfamiliar emotions blazed through me as my two packmates left me alone to deal with Freya. Pride at Flint for trusting me with his mate’s safety, despite my anger. Annoyance at Heath for giving away my secrets. And a strange sort of fear that this would change how Freya felt about me.
But alphas didn’t feel fear, they felt anger. That’s what my father had instilled in Garth and me. After a lifetime of converting every unwanted emotion into anger, I wasn’t sure how to stop, even when I wanted to.
And so that anger turned on Freya now.
“We have a deal,” I said in a low, dangerous voice. “A deal you benefit from. We’ve put our lives on the line for you more than once. Is that not good enough for you? Now you have to dredge up my painful past?”
I wanted to throw dishes on the floor and hear them shatter. I wanted to break the legs off the chairs and bash out some windows. I wanted to purge myself of this anger through violence.
But my iron control held strong as always.
“No, it’s not good enough for me.” Freya crossed her arms, glaring at me, though I noticed how glassy her eyes were. “You’ve been punishing me for misery another woman put you through. You take it out on me instead.”
Another woman? Her choice of words stirred something in me. Was Freya… jealous?
Maybe it was because of the heat. After all, she hadn’t liked us even looking at that female wolf in the restaurant.
Some small part of me dared to hope for more than just the heat. I hoped that this was a sign of a deeper connection between us, just like Flint said. His words had left an impression, and my head had been a mess ever since.
Maybe Freya’s was too, because I had the feeling Flint hadn’t just talked to Heath and me about it. She hadn’t protested when Heath had gotten her off yesterday as I watched. In fact, it had seemed to turn her on even more.
To test my theory, I strode forward, forcing her to step back or get pushed back. As soon as her backside hit the wall behind her, the scent of her arousal bloomed in the air between us.
And suddenly my unwanted emotions had a different possible outlet instead of anger and violence. I caged her in with a hand on one side of her head, tilting her chin up to meet my gaze with the other. She’d been challenging me this entire conversation, refusing to avert her eyes. But I loved it. It drove my inner wolf wild with desire for her.
Bite her,he insisted.Make her ours.
And for the first time, when he said ours, I realized something. He wasn’t saying ‘ours,’ as in his and mine… he would’ve just said ‘mine’ if that’s what he meant, because me and my wolf were one. No, my wolf meantours, like she belonged to the Howling Echo.
Maybe Flint was right, and our wolves already knew who her wolf would choose — all of us.
“There is no other woman,” I told Freya. “Nira is nothing to me. If I ever come across her again, she’ll be lucky if I don’t tear her head from her neck for killing my littermate.”
I lowered my nose to Freya’s neck, to that spot where I’d once thought I would bite Nira to make her my mate. Now I knew better. When I inhaled Freya’s scent, it consumed me, inside and out. Nira had never had a tenth of the grip over me as Freya now had.
But the alpha in me didn’t want to let her know that. As the pack alpha, my power protected the pack. Because of that, I couldn’t let anyone else have power over me.
Freya let out a tiny whimper as my lips grazed her neck.
Maybe Freya was right, and what Nira had done to my brother and to my old pack had left me twisted up. Maybe I couldn’t find it within myself to fully trust Freya just yet. But damn, I wanted to.
So, I gave her just a tiny glimpse of the power she had, hoping my offering would be enough to satisfy her, to make her realize how much I craved her.
“You’re the only woman I want, Freya.”
I pulled back to look into her eyes, to let her see the truth in my own. She stood frozen against the wall, her fingers curled as if holding herself back, her expression torn as she bit her lip with desire even as her snow-blue gaze bored into me from beneath lowered brows. Maybe she was still mad at me.
I chuckled, the sound low in my throat. Maybe we both needed an outlet for unwanted emotions. And I knew just how to purge us of them.
“Take off your top,” I demanded, letting a hint of my alpha power bleed into my voice.
She shook her head, her spine straightening as she stopped leaning against the wall and prepared herself to face off against me. My inner wolf loved it. He wanted his mate to challenge him so he could prove he was worthy of her.
