AllFreeNovel
Share Us
It would be my first ever tattoo, and though I’d heard tattoos could hurt, I was ready. The bite had hurt too, but onlytemporarily. Out of all the pain I’d suffered in my life, it was nothing.
“We can’t either.” Flint’s grin lit up his face. “We want everyone, even the fae and vampires, to know that you’re ours.”
I loved seeing the possessive side of Flint.
Back at the house, we all moved to do our assigned jobs. As I watched Gage and Heath work together to load up the old Ford van, I marveled at actually being part of their pack, at the pack bond in the back of my mind.
The bond tied us together, though Gage’s presence was clearer in my mind than the others. I could actually feel his pride and confidence in his packmates bleeding over to me, and it made me respect Gage even more.
We were the Howling Echo. To anyone else, we might look like a pack of exiles, rejects, and rogue alphas. But we were so much more than that.
I had never experienced such a profound sense of belonging until now. My adoptive mother had described the sense of comfort and safety the pack bond would give me, back when we both assumed I’d shift as a teenager. Instead, the Ironwood pack had either pitied or bullied me.
But now, as part of the Howling Echo… I finally knew what she meant. We were connected, and what hurt one would hurt us all. Threatening one meant threatening us all.
I started to believe I would never again have to face anyone — or anything— alone.
Chapter 17
Freya
We traveled for three days through the mountains in order to circle around to the backside of Frost Fang pack territory, on the opposite side from the Ironwood packlands. This part of the job was simple — meet with the informant from Frost Fang and report back the details on a secure transmission away from Frost Fang packlands.
It sounded like something out of a spy book I’d once gotten a chance to read as a teenager, before all my leisure time had been stripped away from me completely.
“Is Frost Fang really so advanced that they could tap into a phone call on their packlands?” I asked when I overheard Gage and Heath talking through the plan on the drive.
“I doubt it,” Heath answered.
Gage added, “They’re paying us to do it their way, so we’ll do whatever it takes to satisfy their paranoia.”
Eventually, we reached the rendezvous point not far from Frost Fang packlands. We were technically still in the wildlands, but close enough that Frost Fang could’ve taken issue with our presence if they caught our scent. The small, flat clearing made all of us a little uneasy.
But soon, an old, beat-up little sedan pulled into view with only one person inside — our informant. When she got out of the vehicle, the guys searched it anyway, guns drawn.
“Ingrid?” Heath asked, and she nodded.
Then she said, “Watermelon soup.”
I blinked, but Heath just nodded back. Apparently, that was the secret phrase they’d been expecting to hear, because he answered, “With a cedar sandwich.”
I cringed in disgust. I could understand using unlikely phrases, but why did they have to choose such awful food-related combinations.
Ingrid’s dark braids had begun to go gray, but her bearing revealed a spry youthfulness, and her tanned face wrinkled with an amused smile.
I smiled in return, hoping to put her at ease.
Then her nostrils flared and her eyes widened. “Why would you bring a woman in heat into danger like this?”
All three of them growled, and our informant crossed her arms, her dark eyes locked on me. “Are any of them your mate, dear?”
I pursed my lips, uncertain of whether I should answer.
Of course, my pack alpha answered for me. “You’re here as our informant, not the other way around. We’ll ask the questions.”
But Ingrid came toward me, holding out her hands, palms up. I tentatively placed my hands in hers, and her eyes widened as she glanced me up and down.
“What is your name, child? How old are you?” she asked in a steady voice, unconcerned by the bristling alphas all around us.
