Blood Bonds (The Bonds That Tie, #3)

by J. Bree

There’s a fresh bunch of flowers in front of the family portrait in the foyer, the shrine that Nina keeps so that mom doesn’t lose her shit on the off chance she walks down here. It’s a good photo of the three of us, taken a few weeks before Oli’s disappearance, and we’re all genuinely happy in it. Fuck.

“Mom? It’s Gabriel. I’m home to see how you’re doing.”

There’s a sigh from the lump on the bed, and I try not to let it dig under my skin. That tiny sound makes my skin shrivel in shame, like I’m a burden to her for being here to see her. Like she just wants to be left here to waste away to nothing and I’m forcing her to stay.

“Gabe, Mommy is tired. I’ll come and play with you after a nap.”

My stomach sinks even lower, practically in hell now. She does this sometimes, loses track of where and when she is. Like her mind is reverting back to when her life meant something and it wasn’t this endless hell without either of her Bonded.

“To die, mom? You need to find someone who will let you waste away until you actually die? Because you’re not far off. You can’t fire Nina. I have power of attorney over you, remember? I hired her. I pay her. I take care of everything around here, because you can’t!”

I don’t get why she ties herself in knots over her Gifted 101 shit when North would pass her no matter what, just for being his Bonded, and Nox will never pass her for the exact same twisted reason.

They’re both beyond fucked up over her, but I’ll take North’s brand over Nox’s any day of the week. I don’t need to know the exact reasons for it to know that whatever the hell happened in the Draven house messed with him in a very particular way.

She looks up at me with a soft smile, one that reaches her eyes, and I attempt to not trip over my own feet at the sight of it. She’s fucking gorgeous, made perfectly just for me, and the m...

trail a hand over the swell of her ass and she hums under her breath happily at the touch. The waiting to Bond might mess with us all, but there’s something about the anticipation that makes me enjoy the fuck out of it.

Knowing she’s just as desperate for me as I am for her is everything I ever needed.

I love this girl already.

“August is being pouty. I told him I’m sleeping in with Gryphon tonight, and he won’t let the creatures on the bed.”

I chuckle under my breath and lean into her. “You can always come back to my room. I might not love them like you...

The grin she gives me is like looking directly into the sun, brilliant and bright, and August turns to sniff at me like he’s checking to see if I’m being honest. It’s still a little bit jarring being this close to North’s mean...

pressing our foreheads together how she likes. Something about our noses being pressed together makes her grin like a child, so I do it as often as I can.

“No. No, this life of knowing we’re all in danger is a million times better than the life without you.”

Her lip quivers. “I feel selfish for thinking the same thing.”

“Never. We need you as much as you need us. We all need you, Bond.”

I pull her into my chest, damn near preening when she just moves into my lap to wrap herself around me and rest her head over my heart. She’s tiny there, I can barely feel the weight of her, but when I bury my nose in her hair, I get a lungful of her scent that calms my bond inside me. I’ll do whatever it takes to keep her right the fuck there.

When he stalks back over to me with his arms full of books, he swoops down to give me a kiss. Brutus huffs at him but August moves over to sit between us, scooting Gabe away from me, and then turns his back on him to ignore him entirely. It’s cute.

“A list. A list of everyone Atlas has ever known in the Resistance and what he knows of their gifts. There’s a lot of names on it. He proved that it’s real by telling North how they got you out of the hospital in the first place. The invisible guy? Turns out he’s a scout for the Resistance, and now that North knows how to look for him, they’ve found him in a lot of meetings and intel spots. Atlas might have just moved the needle in our favor.”

but Gabe nods. “But he’s betraying his family, and you feel terrible for him? You should speak to him about it. I did and… I understand his reasoning. He’s wanted to talk to you about it since he got here, but he was scared you’d hate him the second he opened his mouth about it.”

“I knew he was too good to be true. No man, Bond or not, takes being run away from like it’s nothing. I didn’t trust him one bit. When I realized he knew, he knew your code name in the Resistance intel and he knew what your gift was, I beat the shit out of him. Not that it did all that much, he’s indestructible, but it helped get some of my anger about it all out. Then once I heard Gryph interrogate him, had it confirmed as the honest truth… he’s in this Bond Group. He belongs to you as much as I do. It would be a pretty shitty thing for me to cause shit just for my own feelings about it. I’m not going to do that to you.”

My jaw drops. “They’re Bonds?!” Gabe grins at my excited squeal and shakes his head. “No, but they’re in the same Bonded group. They haven’t found their Central yet, but the new testing is still going through the old samples. Sawyer has become very motivated to help with it.”

Sage shoots me a look. “Oh, nothing much. Except that I’m definitely a Central Bond. Kieran is one of my Bonds, and I have four that flagged in my dad’s very secure, very secret retest. So, you know. Business as usual around here.” Four. Holy shit.

Sage glances over and shrugs at him. “That’s August, one of North’s creatures. We met when Oli came to grab me from The Great Fire Incident. You really think after Oli was captured and hurt he wasn’t going to add his own little spy to the mix? I’m surprised he only gave you one.”

August looks up at the sound of his name and I give him a scratch to settle him back down. Brutus wakes up and immediately asks for some love too, which he gets like the precious baby he is. “I might ask for the snake as well. My bond liked that one a lot.”

When I get to Atlas’ door, I take a second to collect myself. It’s stupid. I was in his damn head yesterday, but it still feels like there’s something between us now. Something that’s changed him from the Bond I was closest to, could rely on without question, to now being someone with secrets and a very questionable past.

“I missed you so fucking much. I used to think sleeping separately four nights out of five was bad but, fuck, Sweetness. I can’t go that long without you again.”

“I came here to hear it all. To hear from you about your family and… how you’ve decided to not be a part of the Resistance with them.”

“I’ve been planning how I’d do this for months and now that it’s time to do it, I feel like I’m about to fuck it up. Please just… hear me out. It’s not all wonderful and virtuous. I’m a shitty human for big chunks of it, but I came home to you. That’s what counts, right?”

“I grew up in Resistance propaganda. My family is pretty high up in the ranks. My dad is even close personal friends with Silas Davies.”

“He was always leaving to check in on various different camps and going through the Gifted who had been taken. He knew they were after you for years before Silas took you. There had been rumors about your gift, but your parents moved you around a lot to keep you hidden. They were smart but outmatched by Silas’ arsenal.”

Silas had told me all about this, about how I’m responsible in every way that counts for my parents' deaths. About how we moved constantly because I couldn’t stop using my gift or showing off my void eyes at the worst of times. I know it, but it still hurts that he knows it too.

So, I found out right after that you’d gone missing. My dad made a fuss about it, but he was actually happy that I wouldn’t be coming here and being around the Dravens. I… thought the same as the rest of the Bonds, that you didn’t want us, and I acted like a fucking idiot. I went out with my friends a lot, drinking and partying, and I… slept around a lot. I thought I was getting back at you for leaving me behind before you’d even met me. I was a stupid, selfish dickhead.”

I mean, I knew that all of my Bonds hadn’t waited for me. Even the two closest to my age had very obviously chosen to sleep around before they’d met me, but I don’t really want to hear about it, and knowing that he ramped it up in retaliation for something I’d never done… yeah, this isn’t my favorite moment for us to share.

On her computer, I found videos. I got my friend out before he saw anything really, but then I sat for two days while my parents were gone and watched the recordings of Silas Davies torturing you. My fourteen-year-old Bond being carved open as though you were nothing but a slab of meat to a butcher.”

“No. Just North and Gryphon. I wouldn’t let them keep the footage because I didn’t want Nox seeing them. I know that you’re still on the fence with him at least, and I wasn’t letting him… see you like that. The other two had to see them to understand why I won’t ever side with my family. Ever, Oli. I would never side with people who did that to you.”

I can believe that, even without Gryphon’s lie detecting ability, because I can feel just how badly he needs me to believe him pouring out of his soul in my direction. He’s being very careful about keeping his bond away from mine, obviously so that I don’t assume he’s using it against me, but I can still read him like a book right now. He means every word.

“I confronted my mom about it. She didn’t want to tell me anything, but when I told her I was going to the Dravens to help look for you, she broke and admitted that she knew about them taking you. She’d lied to me about you so I wouldn’t go looking for you, and she ‘forbade’ me from finding you because of what Silas wants from you.

The problem with her plan was that I was already nineteen at that point and had access to my trust fund. There was nothing she could do to stop me, not without telling my dad or the others what I was doing. So I planned out how I was going to find you and be with you on the run, and when I say that I had everything planned out, I mean everything, Sweetness. From moving my trust fund into an offshore account so that my dad couldn’t trace the money to knowing the exact whereabouts of all of the Resistance camps and having them mapped out so we could stay away from them.”

“Getting you a passport without it flagging with Silas was hard, but I did it. I was going to try to talk you into going to Singapore with me. They have really strong anti-Resistance measures there, lots of security and surveillance. While I didn’t love the idea of being monitor...

“My mom. That’s how. She knew that Silas and my dad would both sacrifice me for their goals without second thought. My mom might be a part of the Resistance, but she’s my mom first. She hates you, hates the Dravens, hates every part of this situation, but she loves me more than she hates. So, the day you escaped, the reason Silas finally left the camp? My mom. The reason you stayed a step ahead of them all the way? My mom. Every time something went your way that shouldn’t have, my mom was behind it. She manipulated security footage, organized holes for you to slip through, and used her own gift to take out lower Resistance members to keep an eye on you. Then, once you were captured by the Dravens, she had the coordinates for the GPS chip sent to her as well so that she could keep an eye on you easier. Before you ask, I didn’t know about it until Sawyer mentioned it. I knew it had to be her, and I called her to ream her about it. She just won’t give up.”

It’s strange the different ways that my bond protests being separated from each of them. Gryphon and North are different now that we’ve Bonded, but my need for Nox is a slow itch, Gabe is an ache in my chest, and Atlas is this energy that won’t leave me, egging me on to find him and wrap myself around him.

“You Bonded with North.”

“I did. It was my choice this time and… I don’t regret it.”

“I don’t want you to regret it. I’d kill any of them for pushing you. But what did it do to your power? Did you have a surge or anything new pop up?”

“I feel stronger. Not more powerful or anything, I just feel more sure of myself and what I can do.”

“I’m not just saying this because I want you. I do want you, nothing will ever change that, but after you and Gryphon Bonded, I’d been watching for some big change that never happened. Oli, have you ever considered that maybe your bond won’t grow in power because it’s already at full capacity?”