We sit in complete silence for what feels like hours but I’m sure it’s only ten or so minutes.
It’s excruciating. A living nightmare. Sitting there with four of the five men who are supposed to be drawn to me, to someday love me the most in the world, while they stare at me with utter contempt… I get it. I do, I know what I did, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t feel freaking unbearable.
Finally, Gabriel huffs and snaps, “Should we even bother asking where the hell you’ve been? Or why you left?”
It’s hard, but I hold in my flinch at the betrayal in his tone. North and Gryphon both watch me closely, but it’s the smirking glare on Nox’s face that has the hair on the back of my neck rising. It’s not just that he hates me… he’s ready to torture me, to find some sort of payback for me leaving him.
I take a deep breath and blow it out slowly, ready for whatever venom he’s going to spit at me. I can see it slowly filling him up and it’s only a matter of time before he bursts out with it.
“You have been very hard to find. I’ve wasted a lot of resources tracking you down,” says North, picking at some invisible fleck of dust on his suit.
He and Nox look very similar, all dark eyes and pitch-black hair. North’s is cut short and styled perfectly, where Nox’s is longer and curling softly around his cheeks. Both of them are cold as ice, completely cut off to what is happening.
My bond is keening in my chest but I tell it to knock it the fuck off.
I did what I had to do for us all.
Gryphon doesn’t say a word. He just scowls at me like he’s trying to find something written under my skin, something he’ll find if only he looks hard enough. I’m too freaking good at staying the perfect blank canvas though, so he’s getting nothing out of me today.
Nox sneers at me. “I did wonder at how you were surviving out there. I’m assuming you were selling yourself, there’s nothing else you have to offer. I’ll have to wait for the test results to come back before I complete the bond and get what I’m owed from you.”
Ex-fucking-cuse me?
What he’s motherfucking owed?
That helps me to deal with my mourning bond, because there’s no fucking way I’m letting some entitled rich-boy Bond tell me all I’m worth is a quick fuck to complete our bond and give him more power.
Not fucking likely.
I grit my teeth and try to speak civilly. ‘That assumes I want you to touch me. Not fucking likely, Draven.”
The smirk only gets wider. “And how exactly will you stop me, Bond? Your blood work didn’t show your ability, what teeth are you hiding from us? Or are you Ungifted and a total fucking waste of space?”
Did he just… say he’s going to attack me? I’m about to slam my foot into his dick and call it a day but his brother comes to the rescue.
North slides a large, bulky envelope across the table in my direction while he’s looking down his nose at me. ‘This phone is also to be on you at all times. If I call you, you will pick up. If I have to call you a second time, there will be hell to pay. If you fail to pick up, I will assume you have either run or been kidnapped and I will send every resource under my command to find you. Is this understood, Fallows?’
Fallows, like I’m one of his subordinates. I speak through my clenched teeth, ‘Understood.’
Nox scoffs. “You’re pretty agreeable to him. Looks like you’ll get to bond after all, brother.”
My eyes snap back over to him. “I’m not touching any of you. If you try to lay so much as a finger on me, then you’ll be committing a crime, and I’ll happily stand in front of the Council and tell them exactly how much I don’t want any of you.”
Gabriel stands abruptly and walks out, the door slamming shut behind him. I’m too fucking furious to feel bad about it, my attention is entirely on Nox and his shitty attitude.
Me not wanting them touching me, it goes beyond just the emotional stuff. I mean, I don’t want guys who hate me trying to drag me into bed just so their abilities strengthen, but if my abilities heightened?
Fuck. No.
Absolutely not.
“I’ll be back tomorrow morning to take you to your dorm room. The file Noakes gave you has everything you need to know about your life now. Read it, learn it, and live by it. There’s no other path for you now, Fallows.”
Then he stands and the other two stand with him, walking out the door and locking it firmly behind them.
I’m trapped in this fucking room all over again.
And still, no one has fed me.
I BARELY SLEEP.
The bed is horrendously uncomfortable, springs sticking into my back and the thin blanket doing nothing to keep me warm.
A different woman comes in the morning to take me to the bathroom, the clothes she hands me much better than the sweatpants and sweatshirt nightmare from yesterday. There’s clean underwear, a dress, and ankle boots. My stomach is aching with hunger, the dry crackers from last night were nowhere near enough food to keep me going, and after a night in the braid, my hair is looking like a mess.
This woman is a little nicer though. She helps me with my hair and even slips me a little bag with makeup in it.
I smile at her. “Thank you. I’m sorry you got babysitting duty.”
She smiles back, shaking her head a little. “I don’t mind it so much. I’m sure Olivia made it a nightmare for you yesterday.”
Olivia, so that’s the bitch’s name. “Yeah, she wasn’t very happy with me. I’m not sure why she hates me so much.”
The woman grimaces. “She’s… in love with one of your Bonds.”
Oh.
Oh, fuck.
“Sorry. I know it must be hard to hear that. I’m not sure if Gryphon ever… reciprocated.”
Gryphon. My silent, scarred, biker-boot-wearing Bond who looked at me like I was nothing to him. Like he didn’t care if I came back or not.
I have to ignore my weeping bond again and, fuck, I hope this isn’t going to be a regular thing now. Am I always going to have to deal with it fucking keening in my chest for men I can’t have? I think I’d rather die. I shove it down in my chest, further and further, until I can breathe again.
“Thanks for letting me know. I just thought everyone in our community hates me for running. I know it’s not… something that happens a lot.”
The woman, fuck, I should ask her name, she shakes her head. “It doesn’t happen a lot but… ultimately, it’s your decision if you don’t want to complete a bond.”
I give her a smirk. “They have me chipped like a stray dog, it’s not my decision anymore.”
She ducks her head, obviously uncomfortable with what her superiors have done but not quite enough to help me, and I let it go. She was nice enough to me and the makeup means I’ll be heading into college today without looking like a complete mess.
I’ll take what I can get for now.
She walks me back to the interview room where we find North waiting for me, another immaculate and freshly pressed suit on and his phone in his hand.
“Thank you, Carrie. She looks much better today.”
He speaks without looking at me once, but the smile he gives Carrie is warm and kind. So there is a soul somewhere there under the suit and tie.
His eyes are much less kind when they finally touch me. “We have a meeting with the dean of Draven University, then I’ll take you to your dorm.”
I give him a sharp nod, it’s not like I can say no to him anyway, and then I follow him out of the building. He waves and smiles at most of the people we pass, all of them looking at me like I’m some sort of science experiment. My skin prickles uncomfortably with all of the attention. I’ve done everything I can to blend in for the last five years, suddenly being the center of attention is… jarring. Uncomfortable. Fucking weird.
There’s a Rolls Royce with a driver sitting at the curb, and I take a second to pray that it’s not here for us.
Of course it is.
North freaking Draven has a driver for his Rolls Royce. I want to puke. No wonder everyone hates me. I knew he was a Councilman but I wasn’t expecting this sort of… wealth. The sort that comes with drivers and suits and hell only knows what else.
My parents had been well-off but even they didn’t have a freaking driver.
“Are you getting in the car, or do I need to force you in? Are you going to fight me at every step today? I’m attempting to be civil.”
This is civil? Fuck me. “I got distracted by your obscene show of wealth.”
He opens the car door to usher me in, a completely fake show of chivalry. “Obscene? This is a necessity.”
My stomach rumbles as I move into the car. “So glad your driver is a necessity but letting me eat isn’t.”
He slides in next to me and glances at me. “They didn’t feed you?”
I squint at him. “They’re your people, right? You should know then that it’s been four days since I last ate. I have a little money, I offered to buy something myself but was told I had to wait for you. So yeah, can we hurry this up because I’m about to fucking pass out.”
He doesn’t react at all, just blinks at me. “They know better than to just starve you. If you’re aiming for sympathy, then you’re woefully mistaken.”
Right.
Fuck him, I’m done being civil.
I cross my arms and shut my mouth. I don’t speak another word to him for the rest of the drive over to the college campus, the scenery outside beautiful but not enough to cheer me up. Fucking Bonds. I knew it was going to be bad but I wasn’t expecting to feel so… much. I feel everything through the bond inside, every glare and harsh word cuts through my soul like a knife.
When the car finally pulls up, North gets out and opens my door for me again, the perfect mockery of a gentleman, because I’m now feeling woozy with hunger.
Fuck him.
I’ll just keep thinking it until he disappears.
He walks me up and into the building, charming his way there with those same warm smiles, and I start to feel like I could puke watching him. It’s all so freaking fake.
The dean sees us straight away, seating us and then hurrying out of the room to grab paperwork. I guess this is the best time to tell North that I dropped out while I was on the run and there’s no way I can get into this place, not even with his help.
His name is on the freaking building.
North’s eyes are cold as he takes me in. ‘What do you mean you didn’t finish high school?’
Despite all my efforts, my cheeks heat with embarrassment. Damn him, why do a few simple words from him have the ability to cut my freaking heart to ribbons? ‘I moved around too much to stay in school.’
I spent all of my spare time in libraries, doing what I could to always stay learning, but I don’t want to say that to him. What if he laughs at me? What if I just look freaking pathetic to him, even more than I do now?
His jaw tightens and I wait for his scathing comment, my heart back in my throat no matter how hard I swallow to move it. I need to find my freaking spine around this guy. Why do the others not affect me like this?
The door to the office opens again and the dean walks through, a stack of papers in his hands. ‘I have everything you need here to enroll, you just need to supply your SAT scores and identification.’
Neither of which I have.
I open my mouth but North cuts me off. ‘We will have everything to you by this afternoon. If it’s ok with you, we have other appointments we must get to today.’
The dean nods and hands the files over as we both stand. I’m not sure how North is planning on handing stuff over that doesn’t exist, but I keep my mouth shut. No need to poke the bear.
I wonder if he is a bear? I don’t know why they’d make such a big secret of him being a shifter though, so that doesn’t really make sense, but also maybe that’s why I’m so terrified of him. Maybe it’s my own instincts telling me that Bond or not, he’s bad freaking news. Fuck.
He places a firm hand on the small of my back and directs me out of the room. I flinch but manage to stop myself from scrambling away from him, thank God. He doesn’t notice, just pushes me out of the building and into his car, the driver opening the door for us both and shutting us firmly in the backseat together.
I want to crawl out of my damn skin.
‘Something wrong, Miss Fallows?’ he asks, his eyes firmly trained on his phone. I really don’t matter to him at all, just our fucking bond.
‘Nothing at all. No problem whatsoever.’ I can’t help but let the sarcasm drip from my words.
His eyes narrow at me. ‘I understand that you are a petulant teenager but if you could attempt to be civil, this will go far more smoothly for us all.’
It nearly fucking kills me not to tell him, to keep my secrets and not throw them in his face, but my lips stay sealed shut.
‘Nothing to say? I wonder why is it that I’ve been cursed with a selfish Bond? Bad enough that you’re practically a child, simple and plain. With the power of all of your Bonds, I assumed you were going to be something… spectacular. How disappointing.’
I will not cry. I fucking will not cry.
The driver pulls over in front of the student accommodation and quickly gets out to open our door.
I blink back the tears. ‘Is there a reason we’re here? I can’t attend the college.’
North gestures for me to get out before him, his eyes steely and cutting. ‘You will be attending. I will make the necessary arrangements. I suggest you spend your time here wisely, I will not tolerate laziness and if you think having wealthy Bonds means you don’t have to work and provide for yourself, well… you have misjudged us all.’
My cheeks sting as if he’s slapped me. Did he just—did he just call me a fucking gold-digger? The fucking gall of this man.
I would rather fucking die than bond with him.
‘Thank you for the ride and for pulling strings for me.’ I nearly choke on the words, but I’ll be damned if he gets to call me a petulant, selfish child again.
He steps out of the car after me, dammit, and nods to the driver. ‘I’ll see you upstairs. There’s other things we have to discuss about our situation.’
Oh, hell fucking no.
If he thinks he’s going to form a bond right now, to just take the extra power he so desperately wants, he has another thing coming.
Why don’t I have a knife or a gun or something? I need to protect myself against these guys.
I follow him up the stairs, sizing him up carefully. He’s taller than I am by at least a foot, and he fills out the suit nicely. When I’d tripped and he’d caught me earlier, I hadn’t felt any softness to him at all, his entire freaking torso was rock hard. What part of his office job makes him so damn ripped?
Basically, short of using my gift, which I cannot do under any circumstances, I don’t stand a chance against him if he tries to force the bond. I need some pepper spray or, fuck it, a gun. I smirk at the picture my mind conjures up of his face if I pulled a gun on him.
It’s pretty freaking good.
We get a lot of curious looks as we move through the dorms and more than a few flirty smiles. North’s entire face changes into a stunning, smiling, warm mask of schmoozing councilman. I can’t contain my eye-roll. Of course he’s beloved. Of course he’s the type of guy the other woman will drip for.
Of-fucking-course.
He leads me up a set of stairs, why the hell isn’t there an elevator, and then to a room at the end of the hall, ushering me in ahead of him. The room is plain, nothing but an old, spindly looking bed in the corner and a cheap, pine desk.
‘This is your room and where you will spend your evenings. You will be in here by six every night, and you will not leave again until at least seven in the morning. Any exercise, study groups, or socialization will take place outside of these hours. You will attend all of your classes, hand in all of your assignments, and you will pass every class. I was unaware of the holes in your education when I signed you up, but I’m sure you’ll be able to catch up.’
My cheeks burn again and I swallow back the rage that builds in my gut at the sheer fucking nerve of him. ‘And if I don’t stick to these little rules of yours?’
He turns on his heel to face me finally, running a hand down the line of buttons on his perfectly tailored jacket. “Having you here where I can keep an eye on you is a means of freedom for you. The alternative is to chain you by the throat to the floor in my cellar. I won’t be pleased to do that but make no mistake, Fallows, I will keep you here.’
The air leaks out of my lungs in a wheeze.
My Bond is a fucking psychopath.
He steps forward to the door again, his hand around the door handle as he casts me one last look. ‘You cannot possibly grasp the damage you’ve wrought by leaving us. I intend on ensuring that will never happen again. You’d do well to learn your lesson here and submit.’
Then he’s gone and I’m left staring blankly at the empty doorway.
Sub-fucking-mit.
I think I’d rather die.
