I WATCH as the tension leaks out of my Bond’s body more and more the further we get from the town site of the Sanctuary.
I have no real idea of where the fuck we are, other than the fact that we’re still in the States, but there’s a sandy sort of desertscape on the edges of the town and a warren of caves out here that I spent a few days walking through after we’d found my sister. I’ve been struggling just as much as Oli has been with the close quarters, especially with not having any sort of alone time with her thanks to Ardern sleeping a foot away from us in his own bed.
Not that I’m pushing for anything with her.
Never, and especially not while she’s still battling the bond living inside her that is nothing like mine. I’m nothing like the men in my family, and I’m definitely not a fucking Draven.
Not that North has turned out so bad, but his brother? I’d kill him in a heartbeat if Oli gave me the word. I’ve been watching him closely enough to know his weak points, and those nightmares of his? They can restrain me, sure, but they’re never really going to do damage.
I’d have his fucking neck snapped in a second.
“What’s wrong? You’re breathing like you’re trying not to kill someone,” Oli murmurs, her voice pitched low and sweet.
I calm down the second she opens her mouth. Her voice is more than enough to break me out of my murderous thought spiral.
“It might seem like I’m doing something extra thoughtful for you, but it’s also pretty selfish. I needed this as much as you did.”
She nods and looks out over the mountains that surround us, their peaks casting shadows over the entire valley. “I get that. The others all grew up together and have had a whole lifetime to get used to living in each other’s pockets. We’re both sort of on the outside with that.”
I catch her hand in mine and bring it up to my mouth to kiss the back of it. “It’s worth it. All of it. Having you here safe is worth it all. As much as I loathe admitting it, Draven outdid himself with this place. It’s like he knew that we’d need it for you, and he just did it. He just poured all of that Draven wealth into keeping our Bond safe… I can get behind that. I also didn’t have to learn a new language just to keep you safe, which is handy because I barely passed Spanish at school. I’m really shit at pronunciation.”
She giggles at me like I’m telling a joke, but I’m really not.
We get over the last of the small ridges to the opening of the first big cave, the one we’ll be camping out in tonight that the cameras cover the opening of. It’s clean and dry and secure, everything we need for a night out in the wild.
While also being completely safe at all times.
“How the hell did you ever find this? And are we taking bets on how long it takes someone to come find us, because I’m not sure we’re going to make it the whole night.” She giggles at her own joke, which is cute as hell, her eyes lighting up like she’s already feeling giddy about our time alone.
That makes two of us.
I park the ATV and kill the engine, sitting back in the seat a little and letting the cool afternoon air wash over us both. “I took one of these things out when we brought Aurelia back from the camps. I just needed to clear my head, and then I found this place. I’ve been planning on bringing you out here since I found it, I just wasn’t expecting you to be needing it so badly.”
She looks over at me and grins, pulling off her helmet and getting out of the ATV to walk around the rocks. I point out the cameras to her so that she knows we’re being watched and are safe enough here, and she waves to Sawyer.
And I’ll bet North has a live feed of us directly into his office as well, but at least we have complete privacy inside the cave.
I grab the bags I’d packed from the back and follow her up to the opening. There’s a small outlook there that is the perfect viewing point for the town lights and the giant, fortress-like concrete wall that North put up at either end of the valley to keep this place a secret from anyone who might stumble upon it.
I watch as the awe settles over Oli’s face, and it’s a fucking beautiful sight. Her eyes light up and she sort of backs her way up the path so that she doesn’t have to look away from the view. The sun is already starting to fall into dusk, low over the trees, and the brilliant burst of oranges over the sky warms her skin in a gorgeous glow.
I take a photo of her.
Then I make it my background on my phone like a complete sap, because she looks like a fucking model, absolutely breathtaking and mine.
She glances over to me and blinks a little like she forgot what we were doing here. “Did you happen to bring dinner? I forgot about food during my bond’s weirdness, but now it’s taking a nap and I’m starving. I should’ve thought of that.”
I grin at her and brush past her to put the bags down a little further into the cave where I’m sure they can’t be seen by the camera. They’re my maker, my way to know if I’ve set our bed up too close to the opening and Sawyer is getting a free show of my Bond sleeping.
Or of us at the very least making out, which would cause me to kill the man. He should never know the way that her cheeks pink up or the fall of her chest when she’s struggling for breath because she’d rather the taste of my lips than oxygen.
I pull out the sandwiches I’d thrown together for us both as I’d packed and take one to her, holding it out and watching her face light up all over again. She’s sweet behind all of the sass she throws at everyone. I feel smug that I get to see it so often, a perk of being her safe place when the others were still up their own asses about her.
She giggles at the overloaded state of the sandwiches, the only way to eat them, and opens hers up right away, acting as though it’s a big deal as she takes a bite. “My bond is having a field day right now. Two of my Bonds cooking me food in the same day? This is practically the dream.”
Ah.
The old trick North had used to his advantage back when he was pretending to hate her. I’m still not convinced that any of his bad feelings were real because the way her treats her hasn’t really changed, just the delivery and how it’s received.
She’s a lot better about doing what he says now they’re Bonded.
“What are you thinking? You’re frowning again,” she mumbles with her mouth still full.
“You. I’m thinking about how to make things better for you here.”
She walks over to the small ledge and sits down, hanging her legs over the edge and kicking them out. There’s a small drop, only a couple of feet, but I park my ass next to her straight away in case she falls.
She’d probably barely scratch herself on the way down, but I’m not taking the risk.
She swallows her mouthful and says, “Things are fine. They’re good, really. I’m not as scared anymore. I’m— okay. I mostly feel guilty now, but I keep telling myself that everyone is safe here, thanks to North pulling the trigger on the move. I don’t think he would’ve if I wasn’t in danger, so those kids running around that new school? They’re safe, thanks to his need to protect me.”
I scowl at her. “Why would you feel guilty?”
She groans and shoves the last of the sandwich half into her mouth like she wants to avoid the question. I wait her out, patient enough to plow through the rest of my own sandwich while she chews at the pace of a geriatric.
“I’m not an idiot. I know that Davies will have a list somewhere with my Bond’s names on it. Yours? Not so much, thanks to your family, but the rest of them? A Shifter who can become any living animal? A Neuro like Gryphon, whose range is better than his? The Dravens, who need nothing more said but their name to strike terror in the population? Yeah, he knows about them all, but he’s never hunted them before. Not the way that he will now that he knows they’re in my Bond Group. Andrews was the very first, easiest test. They’re going to come, thick and fast, and I brought that on you all. I’m no real help around here because all of the work I’d be good at, North refuses to let me do because he’s… overprotective of me. I’m a liability with a bond who eats souls.”
I nod slowly, taking the last bite of my own sandwich and balling up the paper wrappings to pack away for recycling back in town. “Are you pissed at me as well then? Because I’m finding safety here too. My mom couldn’t keep my being here a secret forever. I’m sure now that Aurelia is gone, my dad and Peter have figured out that I’m here too. They’d have found me and killed me if I weren’t here. I know exactly nothing about building houses. I’m a security risk for joining a TacTeam, so I’m only allowed to go if I’m your protector. Other than my knowledge of the Resistance, I have nothing to offer this place, and even my knowledge is starting to run out. There’s not a huge amount of intel left to tell North and Gryphon. I’ve gotten all of the important shit out already.”
She frowns and bumps my shoulder. “There’s a million things you can do here. The best I can do is wash dishes in the food hall, which is fine! That’s work that needs to be done, but it also makes me feel like I’m letting everyone down. Gabe is literally building houses. He was tiling a bathroom while we were gone. We’ll have more space for people soon.”
I nod. I’ve been impressed with what he’s been doing as well. I’m probably going to go over there to help out in the next few days as well, but my building knowledge is at a zero. I’m not great at taking instructions from surly, asshole men who think I’m an idiot, so I’m not expecting great things.
When I say this, Oli giggles and hands me the last of her sandwich. “Elliot is pretty great. He let me use a nail gun, and it’s definitely the highlight of my building career so far. Is there a job where that’s all I do? Just nail things?”
It’s so cheesy, but I can’t help it. “Yeah, nail me. That’s literally the only job you really need to do here, Sweetness.”
She snorts and rolls her eyes, the tiny dimples at the edge of her cheeks deepening beautifully, and I feel like I’m a fucking hero for getting them out of her like that.
“You’re playing your cards right. If there’s a comfortable bed in that bag of yours, I might even be tempted to second base.”
Fuck second, I’m getting her naked and begging underneath me. Fuck, then I want to have her naked and begging on top of me. I want every variation of my Bond fucking me that I can get right now.
Her eyes flare and I know I’m doing a shit job of keeping my thoughts off of my face, but she’s mine and it’s impossible to not want her. Every part of her was made for me in a way that I’ve never really experienced before.
None of my family act like that.
My dad barely tolerates my mom’s presence. Thomas is the same way. Three out of four of Aurelia’s Bonded treat her like a power source and a pair of tits. It’s why I hated them all so much, even before I figured the Resistance shit out for myself and realized that my family are the bad guys in every superhero movie ever.
None of them act with the worship I feel when I look at my Bond.
I take her hand and help her off of the ledge and back over to the cave. I get her settled on one of the small boulders there with a bottle of water and get to work unpacking the bed rolls and pillows I’ve brought out. There are solar lamps in there as well, and I set a couple of them up to light up the space for us. I do a quick sweep of the place just to be sure that no animals or creepy-crawlies have set up camp since I was last here because I’m not sure how Oli would react to a furry friend creeping up on us.
She watches me with a little smile, glancing over her shoulder at the view and the cameras every now and then. “Are you sure we’re not going to be giving Sawyer a free show? He’s a little too interested in all of my Bond’s dicks for my liking, and I don’t really want him getting an eyeful.”
I shoot her a grin over my shoulder and nod. “I’m sure. I made him go through all of the cameras to map this place out. Is he still talking about us like that? I’ll kill him for you.”
She scoffs and slides off of the rock. “No. He hasn’t in months, but you never really forget that sort of thing. We also can’t kill one of our most trusted friends over a small amount of voyeurism.”
I could.
I would, but I let it drop.
“How do you know so much about camping? I thought the Bassinger’s were the type of filthy rich that comes with ski resorts and hotels on the water in the Bahamas.”
“They are, but Jericho, Aurelia’s one decent Bond, grew up on a farm. He took me camping a lot after they Bonded, mostly as an excuse to get away from my family. He’s probably the only one of them who is actually missing her. I don’t exactly feel sorry for her. She was at the camps and there’s only a few things she’d be there to be doing, but she followed everything our parents told her to. Then she did everything her Bonds said. I guess… meeting you, knowing everything you’ve done, it’s made me judge her a lot more harshly. You would never have let any of us talk you into joining the Resistance. You’d… break your own heart to do the right thing. I know it. We all do.”
She ducks her head like she’s trying not to cry, and I move to duck down and fuss with the pillows to give her a minute. Normally I’d be up in her space, pulling her into my chest and trying to fix everything for her, but we’re here because she’s feeling like she’s under a fucking microscope, so I’ll cool off for a day.
I can handle a day.
“That’s an awful lot of pillows,” she says as she slides off of the boulder to come over.
I nod. “My mattress wouldn’t fit on the ATV, I’ve already measured it.”
She scoffs as she steps over to me, checking for the camera, so I pull her another step closer to be sure that it can’t see her. I try to keep my expectations low, but she bites her bottom lip and I almost haul her up into my arms to find a good cave wall to fuck her against.
Calm down, Bassinger. Don’t ruin it now.
Except I don’t need to keep going with that pep talk because she tugs my hand until I duck down to meet her lips, my hands moving to her ass to pull her back into my chest. She feels so tiny against me, so fucking fragile, and it’s been years since I worried about losing control of my gift and crushing someone, but when I feel her bond come out and brush against me as well, calling out to mine, I almost snap and lose my shit on her.
She feels too fucking perfect.
I barely break away from her to speak, and the whimper she lets out is my new addiction. “Tell me I can get you naked now, Sweetness. Tell me that you want this as much as I do, because I’m going to have to take a walk otherwise.”
She giggles against my lips and nods. “I want you. I want this. I want to Bond with you and keep you forever. Even if it’s selfish—”
I cut her off with another kiss, no more of that shit, and my hands move to get her shirt over her head. Her hands fumble against my clothes as we scramble at each other desperately. There’s nothing practiced or suave about us, just two idiots who need each other more than they need air.
I’ve already seen her mostly naked. I had her in my arms with our chests pressed against each other as she pulled power from me to recover, but that moment was all about getting her well again. a I’d had to threaten my dick so that I wasn’t getting hard over my unconscious and mostly lifeless Bond.
Seeing her naked with her consent and participation is about a billion times fucking better, especially when she grins at me as she steps back to shove her jeans and underwear off in one go, kicking them away.
She grimaces when they end up a little too close to the cave opening, but I smooth down the silvery locks of her hair as I try to distract her back into us again, to forget about cameras and discretion and Sawyer’s monitoring, because none of that shit matters.
I’m definitely not going to let that asshole bother her about it.
I run a reverent hand down her chest, between the swell of her breasts, and watch as she shivers, her nipples tightening up like an invitation. Everything about her is inviting actually, every inch of her is open and here and wanting.
Wanting me and what I’m so fucking ready to give her.
I finish unbuckling my jeans and belt, getting them off and placed a little closer than hers are, just in case. Just in case some fucking idiot shows up here and thinks about getting anywhere near my Bond.
She bites her lip again and I break, using my thumb to swipe along it and get her to stop. If anyone is biting that plump, pink flesh, it’s going to be me.
I’m already as hard as fucking stone and I reach down to give my base a squeeze, something to hold off the load that is already growing heavy in my balls at the mere sight of her.
Her eyes flick down to the movement and she grins at me. “Well, I already know how you like it.”
I grin back at her, groaning when she reaches over to knock my hand away as she wraps her fingers around the base of me. Her grip tightens and twists just how I like it. Her hand is smaller and softer than mine, and it does all the right movements. She’s seen how I like it, but my Bond actually doing it? I’m going to be lucky not to shame myself here.
“Turn around, Sweetness,” I say, grabbing her wrist and moving her around until she’s where I want her to be, braced with both of her hands flat against the rock wall behind us and her back arched perfectly.
Fuck, the sight of her smooth legs and pert ass pulls a groan out of my chest, bringing me to my knees behind her to finally get a taste of her. She makes a surprised sound and moves like she’s going to pull away from my mouth, but I get a firm hold of her hips to keep her right there while I feast on her until her slickness coats my tongue.
I might hate myself for fucking around while she was in the camps, but knowing how to make her legs shake like this is a definite perk.
As I eat her out from behind, her arms collapse until her face is pressed against the smooth rock of the cave walls, her hips pushing back against my tongue as she rides my face. Next time, I’m going to lay back and have her sit on my face so that I can watch her expressions and play with her tits while she rocks and grinds on my tongue exactly how she wants to.
When I slap her ass with one hand, the other keeping her spread open, she groans and rocks back, her body begging for more. She doesn’t have to beg, I’ll give her whatever the fuck she wants.
When I move to roll her clit with my tongue, her thighs clenching around my shoulders like she’s trying to pull me in closer, she starts begging, her words more moans than anything coherent. “Atlas, fuck, I can’t— I need to come with you. I need to Bond with you, please, please, fuck, please—”
I can go straight to hell right now as a complete man. Her words ring in my ears as I stand up, my hands staying on her hips, before I move her over to the blankets and pillows, her back tight against my chest even as I curve over her to kiss her again. She’s not worried about her wetness all over my lips and chin. If anything, I think she likes it. When she tries to turn around in my arms, I stop her with a hand on her chest until I get us both kneeling on the bedroll amongst the pillows and blankets.
I hold her there with that hand on her chest as I use the other one to line my dick up with her dripping pussy, pushing in as easy as fucking pie because she’s already shaking with her need to Bond. Her need to come with me, to come on my cock and seal us together for the rest of time.
One last kiss and then I push her down until she’s on all fours, my hips picking up the pace until I’m pounding into her, the wet sounds of us echoing around the cave. Thank fuck the cameras don’t have microphones because neither of us are even trying to keep it down, her moans like music to my ears.
I run my hand down her spine, enjoying the way that she flexes up into it, and when I get to her head, I grab a fistful of her hair, jerking her head back to bend her back to my lips as I kiss her, my tongue fucking her mouth the same way my that cock is pounding her pussy.
She makes the best noises, like she’s been surprised to be taking everything I’m giving her, but also terrified that it’s going to stop before she comes.
Her bond is ready to burst inside of her.
I can feel it growing and swelling inside of her, racing to get out of her and take me over the moment we come together and Bond. My own bond is pushing at my skin, reaching out for hers and ready to be tied to her forever. I’m almost angry that it’s happening so quickly, that they’re both so desperate to be with each other that they’re pushing us both right to our limits.
I don’t want this to end.
Oli’s arms wobble a little and then she ducks down to rest on her elbows, biting the pillow when I slap a pink patch on her ass again. The skin there is hot when I rub my hand back over it, but the rhythmic clenching of her pussy on my cock tells me everything I need to know about whether my Bond likes a little pain with her pleasure.
It also pushes me right over the edge, my hand slipping around her hips to brush over her clit and pull her right over with me, into the greatest orgasm of my life. Not only because it’s with her, my Sweetness, but because the euphoria in my bond at finally connecting with our other half has me seeing stars.
I almost pass the fuck out.
That’s embarrassing, but Oli just collapses underneath me into the blankets, my body following hers like she’s the goddamn sun. Her body trembles as her breaths come out in sobs and her skin glows unnaturally as my bond washes over her and gives her everything. Fuck, she writhes there on my cock and I almost come again.
I didn’t even know that was possible.
I wait until I can see again and then I pull out, taking her into my arms and bundling her into my chest, kissing her soundly on the lips even though she’s still barely coherent. The haze settles over her eyes and, fuck, it’s incredible to see. As much as it had grated on me to see on her after she’d Bonded with Gryphon… when it’s my Bond she’s settling into, it’s fucking amazing. When it’s my neck she’s wrapping her arms around tightly so that I won’t even let her go… I could die the happiest Bonded on Earth right now.
There’s a moment right after our bonds settle and slip away from us that I see the panic rise a little in her, the terror of what might happen if she gets stronger, and I have to clamp down my own feelings about her bond in that moment. I have to shut down the frustration that it’s scared her this badly with everything that it’s done, because it was all to keep her alive and as safe as it could manage.
It’s my family that I should hate.
She blinks rapidly, trying not to let the tears fall, and scrubbing at her cheeks when they do regardless. “You promise not to regret this, right? Even if— even now that my bond will get stronger and start something else new and gross?”
I stoop down a little so we’re eye to eye, grabbing the back of her neck in one hand gently so that I’m sure I have all of her attention. “Oli, I need you to listen to me right now, because I’ve never been so fucking serious about anything in my life. You’re my Bond. If you get stronger and burn the whole world to the ground, then I’ll be there at your side, watching it burn. I’m not the good guy, Oli. I’m not one of the Dravens or Shores of the world. It’s you and me, and nothing else matters to me.”
She ducks her head back down into my chest and I can feel the tears there. She’s had a long day, but it still rips me apart that she’s feeling like this. “Don’t cry, Sweetness. Don’t cry, because it makes me feel violent, and this whole town is going to end up rubble around us if I lose my shit right now.”
My lips chase the hot stream of tears down her cheeks and, fuck, I would do anything to take this fear and pain away from her. Anything to stop this world from hurting her any more than it has. Every time I shut my eyes, I can see her laying on that table with Silas fucking Davies standing over her with a knife, and I can’t take it anymore.
“Oli, I want you more than I’ve ever wanted anything in my life… except for how badly I want you to be safe. I want you as strong as we can get you, even if that means your bond starts eating every soul it comes across. Does that make me as bad as my father and the rest of the Resistance? Maybe. Maybe, but that’s the price I’ll happily pay. The road to hell for me is paved with everything I would do for you, and that list never fucking ends.”
I wake up just before dawn to pee. I hate to leave the comfort of the blankets and my Bonded, but when I get back to the cave entrance, the dawn sky brightening around us, Oli looks perfect laying there on her stomach amongst the blankets.
There’s one thrown over her waist and ass like she was attempting to be modest as we fell asleep together but failed miserably at it. Her hair is fanned out and her cheeks are a little rosy from the warmth of the cave. It was the perfect night, one I don’t want to leave behind any time soon.
I want to remember this moment forever.
I would take a picture of her there, but I’m monitored by the Dravens and Benson so much that they’d end up seeing it, and this moment isn’t for them. This is for me and my beautiful Bonded, glorious and dangerous that she is, and I wouldn’t share it with any of them even if my life depended on it.
I grab my phone out from my jeans where they lay forgotten on the cave floor after I kicked them off last night. There’s a voicemail from an unknown phone number blinking there, and dread pools in my gut.
I have no loyalty to my father after everything the man has done. I have nothing for my mother’s other Bonded either, but my mother… she tried. For the wrong reasons, but she’s the same brainwashed human that my sister is too.
Aurelia.
I don’t want it to be one of her Bonded on the line either. I’ve been chasing my own demons for so fucking long that it’s almost impossible not to feel shitty over every little part of this.
There is a little bit of guilt too because I know I’m on the right side of history now, and I will always choose my Bonded. I will always choose my Bonded, no matter what happens here.
I glance over my shoulder at her again and enjoy the sight one last time without the bullshit waiting for me on my phone clouding the moment. She sighs in her sleep as though she can feel my eyes on her, rolling over onto her back, and the blanket slips away from her body until she’s completely bared to me.
Fuck, she is magnificent.
I know that it’s natural for a Bonded to think that way, but Oleander Fallows is the most gorgeous woman I’ve ever laid eyes on. Every inch of her was created to draw me in, and there was never a world in which I’d choose my family’s suicidal ideology over her.
I turn back to my phone and step out of the cave, wearing nothing but my boxer shorts in the sticky night air.
“Son, you need to stop and think very carefully about what you’re doing here. I get it now. I understand what you were so angry about, but we need the girl. You’re thinking with your bond too much. Take a step back and look at the bigger picture here.”
Useless fucking drivel.
How he ever thought he’d be able to convince me to sell out my own Bonded with this is unfathomable. Is this all it would take for him to sacrifice mom? Cold fingers of dread creep down my spine. Thomas would never. I take a deep breath, secure in the knowledge that even if my father has fallen this far from what is right in the world, at least mom’s other Bonded wouldn’t.
He’s loyal to the Resistance, but not above her.
I can hear someone trying to get through to me while I listen to dad’s voicemail one last time, hoping for some indicator of what he’s got planned, but I let it go to voicemail as well.
The moment I play the newest recording, I wish I’d picked the damn thing up.
Mom’s voice is strong down the line. “Call me. Your father is coming for you, and he’s not thinking straight. Peter is with him. Neither of them are thinking straight, Atlas. Call me back and… keep the girl away from them. If they get her, they’ll use you both.”
Peter.
My sister’s asshole Bonded that I once caught slapping her. When I confronted him about it, he laughed at me, told me she was indestructible and could take a hit.
I broke his skull in four places.
It took three Healers hours to stop his brain from being permanently damaged. Aurelia didn’t speak to me for a month. She told me I’d understand when I found my Bonded, but the very idea of anyone raising their hand to Oli makes me sick.
There’s no way they can find us, no way that they can actually make it through the Shields, but I hit dial on North’s number anyway, my loyalties firmly with the beauty over there on the floor of the cave with me.
In the distance, with the sun rising slowly over the wall, I see the massive gates swing open right as Draven picks the line up. All the security measures in the world mean nothing when they have someone on the inside.
“They’re here, and someone has just let them in.”
