I wake up in the giant bed in our new home feeling well-rested and a lot more calm and settled than I have been since the attack. I don’t know if that is my bond being pleased to have bonded with four of my Bonds or if it’s just a mental thing now that I’ve finally gotten some decent rest, but I’m so freaking relieved.
Gabe is still asleep beside me, the blankets pushed down to barely cover the curve of his ass. I let myself just enjoy the view because he’s freaking gorgeous. He’s snoring lightly, barely more than heavy breathing, and one small lock of hair falls over his forehead, making him look like a golden prince sleeping there.
We’d spent the rest of the day wrapped up in each other, utterly obsessed with mapping out the miles of skin between us and finding every little point of pleasure until I think I’ve become a master at making Gabriel Ardern come.
I’m more than happy for that to be my greatest accomplishment.
The curtains are thick enough that no sunlight reaches us, but I can tell with how good I’m feeling that it’s definitely morning and that I’ve slept a good twelve hours.
After a little while of resting there and enjoying the peace, I notice the tugging in my chest, the feeling that another of my Bonded is close by. I can already feel that it’s Atlas, thanks to our own connection, and I stumble out of the bed to find something to pull on.
Gabe makes a grumbling noise under his breath and, after I’ve pulled on one of Gryphon’s shirts and a pair of old shorts, I head back to him to smooth that golden lock back and murmur into his ear quietly, “I’ll be back in a minute. I’m just going to see what Atlas is doing.”
He huffs quietly and gives a nod without opening his eyes, rolling a little more onto his stomach, and the sheet slips down to uncover his ass. It is absolutely tempting me to give up on my search and climb back into the bed with him instead.
Priorities, Oli.
I’m thankful that this house is smaller than the Draven mansion, there are a lot less rooms to have to go searching through to find Atlas. I mostly follow the feeling in my chest, my bond leading me like a compass until I end up in one of the ensuite bathrooms staring at a very sweaty, shirtless Atlas as he installs a bathtub that could easily fit three people inside it.
He’s moving with ease, but without air conditioning, it’s like a boiler room in here. I find myself with a flush across my cheeks pretty quickly.
It’s definitely got nothing to do with how freaking hot he looks right now.
Nope.
“Did you have a good night, Bonded?” he drawls, and I raise an eyebrow at him.
“Really? We’re not going to have any boundaries here?” He grins and shifts the bathtub again until it slides into place, dropping a half inch with a satisfying thud sound that echoes around the unfinished room.
He turns back to me and says in a cautious tone, “How’re you feeling?”
That’s a much more appropriate, but difficult, question to answer. “I don’t think I feel any different, but until I let my bond out in a threatening situation, I won’t really know.”
He nods and shrugs at me. “Well, the world didn’t end. We’ll take it as a win, so far. And you’ve bonded with all of your Bonds now.
I pull a face back. “Not quite.”
He gives me a stern look back. “You’re not actually going to bond with Nox though, are you? All he wants is his power. He doesn’t give a shit about you, and you owe him nothing.”
I know that from the outside looking in, that’s how it looks. For all I know, Atlas is right, but there’s something about Nox that I can’t quite figure out, something about the way that he words things to me that sets off alarm bells, even when he’s being a complete asshole.
“He’s still one of my Bonds, and the Bond Group isn’t complete until I’ve bonded with you all. I’ll figure out the hows and the whys of it later.”
Atlas’ mouth tightens a little but he nods, accepting, as always, that it is my decision and he has no real power to change whatever it is that I decide to do with my asshole Bond.
He might be the first person ready to murder Nox if he tries to force me into something, but that doesn’t mean that he would try to take the choice away from me either.
I try to change the subject away from this because I don’t have any real answers for him. Plus, I don’t want to waste my morning-after glow arguing with one of my Bonded about Nox. “Are you enjoying working on this place? I can’t believe how much of it is already done and that I can move in already.”
He smirks at me and gestures around the room. “I don’t think I’m cut out to be a builder, and I’m nowhere near as good as Gabe is, but I’m finding myself very motivated to get this done.”
I grin back at him and shrug. “It looks pretty good to me.”
He steps away from the bathtub and dusts his hands off on his jeans. “That’s because you haven’t seen my tiling efforts yet. I’m gonna have to try to convince Gabe to help out. Otherwise, it’ll be the only bathroom in the place with tiles that are off-kilter.”
I roll my eyes and giggle at him, enjoying the early morning banter, even if I’m standing here in this hot-as-hellfire room without any damn underwear on. “I did some tiling work when I was with Gabe the other week. I’m sure between the three of us, we could knock it out today if you want?”
He stalks over to me and cups both of my cheeks in his big hands, swooping down to kiss me thoroughly. I’m reminded once again that we had our own morning-after stolen from us by the Resistance attack. Even though I’m feeling an itch across my skin to get back to Gabe, I’m glad that Atlas is here and that I’m getting to see him again.
“Are you hungry, Sweetness? I checked the fridge this morning to make sure that Gabe had thought far enough ahead to bring over supplies. I can whip you up something to eat, if you are.”
I nod back, my stomach rumbling at the mere mention of food, and rise back up onto my tiptoes to kiss him again. “I’m starving, actually. Is it okay if I grab a shower before I head down though?”
He nods and lets me go, bending down to grab his shirt from where he’d discarded it on the floor, and then he pulls it back over his head as he steers me out of the room.
His bedroom doesn’t have carpet yet, but the walls are painted and there’s already curtains up on both of the huge windows. When I duck my head into his closet to have a look in there, the shelving is already up as well, so it’s just the bathroom and some flooring left before he will be moved in as well.
He walks me back past all of the other rooms, dropping me off at my bedroom door before heading back down to the kitchen by himself. I watch him walk away for a moment, enjoying the tight stretch of his shirt over his shoulders, but the itching across my skin to get back to Gabe doesn’t ease up.
The post-bonding nesting is in full effect.
When I get back into the room, I find Gabe is stepping out of the bathroom, a towel wrapped around his hips and his magnificent chest on display. It’s as though the both of them are trying to kill me this morning with their nakedness.
“Was Atlas working already?” Gabe says, and I nod.
“He’s gotten the bathtub in, but he’ll need some help with tiling. I offered our expertise. I hope you don’t have other plans for today.”
He scoffs and steps back into the bathroom to head towards the closet to get dressed. “He certainly needs it. I wouldn’t let him tile anything by himself. It’s not fucking rocket science, but he can’t figure it out, no matter what I try.
I follow him through to the bathroom and strip to climb into the shower, soaping myself up and trying not to get emotional at the scents of him washing away from my skin. I already know that it is a nesting instinct to want that sort of marking, having experienced it three times over, but it doesn’t make it any easier.
When I turn to duck my head under the spray to wash out the shampoo, I find Gabe leaning against the door, completely unabashed as he watches me with hooded eyes. I might arch my back just a little more than necessary in a teasing motion and enjoy the groan that rumbles out of his chest as his eyes latch on to my nipples.
“I didn’t think you would want to go for another round while Atlas was here, but I’d never say no to you, Bonded,“ he says with such male satisfaction that it sends tingles down to my toes.
I smile like the Cheshire Cat and shrug with a flirty smirk. “Who said anything about going again? I’m just trying to wash my hair out. You’re the one with all the dirty thoughts.”
Then I hear him chuckle, except it’s not out loud, but in my mind. He’s also ended up with that connection and a grin bursts across my cheeks.
I can’t believe I was so upset about having my Bonds in my mind.
The fear in me was so strong that I didn’t have that connection with him as well. The teasing that they all do when no one else can hear has become vital to me and my happiness. The feeling of belonging and love and companionship, all of those things make being a monster a little easier to deal with.
“Come on then, Bonded. Let’s go eat something and get Atlas’ room finished so that I don’t have to share with him anymore.”
I roll my eyes and cut the water off, grabbing a towel and wrapping it around myself as I step out of the perfectly luxurious shower stall. “You guys are surprisingly good at sharing. I was not expecting the two of you to last in that room a whole day, let alone the weeks that you have.”
Gabe shrugs again, and his eyes roam over my body as I dry myself off, fixating on all of his favorite parts. I know this because he gets a very animalistic look in his eyes when he sees something that he wants to taste again and, God, do I want him to taste it all again.
“Stop it. If you’re insisting on helping Atlas, then you need to stop thinking that shit.”
Getting dressed has never been so freaking hard.
“I went to visit Sage yesterday while you were gone.”
At Atlas’ words, my head snaps up from where I was completely focused on the tiles in front of me.
He’d cooked us a full breakfast with all of the trimmings and made some awful jokes about being a morning-after chef, but Gabe had just laughed along with him, happily grinning and kissing me at every opportunity as the three of us ate together. Surprisingly, having the two of them together and Atlas making those jokes didn’t bother me. It felt more like the dynamic between Gryphon, North, and me than an awkward, kill-me-now sort of thing.
As soon as we had cleaned up the dishes, we went back up to Atlas’ room together to get to work. The bathroom isn’t small, none of them in the house are, and the tiling job could easily take all three of us the entire day to get through.
Gabe had checked out Atlas’ work anchoring the bathtub and measured up all of the points where the faucets were going to go before we rushed into the work. Then the two of them had gone downstairs to carry up giant boxes of tiles, tile glue, and grout.
I’d offered to help, but both of them had shot me down very quickly. As though I am some delicate flower who can’t carry a box. Once we had everything we needed, Gabe and I had gotten to work laying the tile while Atlas was mostly lifting heavy things for us and doing most of the manual grunt work.
“How did she look? Did you get to speak to her or just see her? Did you see Kieran or Felix? How did they look?” I fire off questions at Atlas, and he doesn’t react to any of them until the stream of words has tumbled out of me. Gabe’s movements stay steady and sure from where he’s working, but a small wrinkle forms over his brow.
“Sage looks devastated. She looks like a fucking mess, to be honest. She was in a room by herself, but Felix and Kieran are close by. Gryphon had originally instructed for the three of them to be roomed together, but Sage requested to be left by herself.”
I sit back on my heels, careful not to freak out and ruin any of the very careful positioning that Gabe and I have done around us. Atlas was not exaggerating when he said that he was terrible at doing this, and he has been relegated to mixing the tile glue for us instead of helping.
“Why would she ask to be alone and away from her Bonds? No wonder she looks like a mess.”
Gabe clears his throat, careful to keep his eyes on what he’s doing as he lays another tile and levels it off. “She’s afraid that she’ll hurt them, that’s why. She has no recollection of killing Dara, no clue how someone manipulated her into doing it, and she’s terrified that there’s some sort of ‘kill switch’ inside of her waiting to be flipped that could be used against either of her Bonded.”
My heart drops down to my feet.
I want to burst into tears for her. I know exactly what it feels like to be terrified of something inside of you that you have no control over. The thought that she is now going through this, and going through it by herself, locked in a cell so close to the people who love her the most but completely terrified to even seek comfort from them… I just want to scream.
I swallow my tears back. “I need to go see her. I need to do more to figure out what the hell is going on and get her the fuck out of there.”
Gabe nods, and I hand him another tile as he moves our positions further towards the open doorway where Atlas is waiting for us to finish up. We only have a few left to place before we need to leave the room to let everything dry, and I’m proud of how amazing they look.
“Sawyer has been obsessive about finding whoever has done this, and Gryphon went straight back to the cells when you guys got home to continue working through the prisoners there to figure out what happened. Now that we have Giovanna, we should hopefully get some answers.”
I make a disgruntled sound at the mention of that bitch’s name, and Gabe looks over his shoulder at me. “Did she say anything to you guys when you picked her up? Is there anything at all that we can go on?”
I hand him another tile and huff in frustration. “Not really. Only that she’s fully bonded now, which means that she knows who her real Bond Group is and that she had more power this time. Riley looked absolutely horrendous, like he was dying a slow death. She’s definitely done a number on him.”
Gabe winces and nods. “I still feel guilty that none of us realized what the hell was going on. We all just hated him for what he was doing to Sage, when really he was being assaulted by that woman for years.”
A shiver runs down my spine, a warning that my bond does not like the sound of that.
I’m careful as I stand back up to step out of the room, through the open doorway to Atlas. We both stand there and watch as Gabe places the last three tiles on the floor, lining them up perfectly and leveling them off as though he was born to do this.
Atlas takes a sip of his water before handing the bottle over to me. “We can take you down there once we’ve eaten dinner, if you like. I’m sure North and Gryphon won’t mind.”
I nod and smile, taking a long sip. The room had been horrendously hot, and even after Gabe had found a couple of box fans for us to use, it still was not the most enjoyable experience being in there. I have sweated more than the last workout session that I had with Gryphon and I probably smell horrendous right now, but neither of my Bonded seem to notice or care.
I hear the front door unlock and feel the tingling sensation of more of my Bonded arriving as North and Gryphon walk into the house together. I can’t hear what they are talking about from Atlas’ room but neither of them rush to find us, so there’s nothing urgent going on.
I glance at Atlas and Gabe before smiling sheepishly. “I’m going to grab a shower before I head down to see them. There’s no need for all of you to be forced to smell my stench.”
Atlas smirks at me and drawls back, “Yours is the only one that is working, so you might want to share.”
I plant a hand on his chest and shove at him playfully, though I might as well shove at a brick wall for how far he moves.”
“If I wasn’t allowed to get in with her this morning when it was just you here, there’s no chance you’re getting in there now with the rest of us here,” Gabe jokes, and I turn on my heel and scurry away from both of them before they can give me too much shit.
By the time I’m done cleaning myself up and pulling on a set of the silky pajamas that North insists on buying for me, Nox has arrived as well, and my entire Bond Group is sitting around the kitchen island breakfast nook with plates of dinner in front of them.
There are takeout containers at the counter, so one of them has grabbed food from the dining hall before coming over. I almost start drooling at the delicious smell of the burgers and fries. North’s chef had moved to the Sanctuary with us but had taken up work in the dining hall to feed the masses while we sort out the food supply and, boy, have I missed his cooking.
I might have to beg North for the lobster and fish sliders.
I also wasn’t expecting a family dinner. I’m a little shocked that Nox is here, especially given the sour mood he is so clearly in, but I smile and take my plate from North without another word. He gives me a stern once-over as though he’s checking me for mortal wounds, and I smile sweetly back at him.
Gabe and Atlas flank me at the table, and I tuck into my food without another word. The chef is freaking amazing at cooking huge quantities of food to feed the entire community and yet still making it delicious, so there’s nothing I want more than to just inhale this plate full of burgers. I’m happy to soak up the company of all of my Bonds together and just enjoy the peaceful moment with all of the people who mean the world to me.
It doesn’t last long.
“So, when exactly were the two of you going to tell us all that you have living bond beings inside of you the same way that Oli does?”
My fork stops midway to my mouth and I glance between Gryphon, Nox, and North. Atlas and Gabe both freeze on either side of me, and the silence in the room changes from comfortable to charged.
No one wants to speak first and I find myself desperate to defuse the situation. I answer Gryphon, even though he definitely wasn’t aiming his accusations at me. “I thought you already knew. You had mentioned something to me before about their abilities.”
Gryphon shakes his head. “No, I knew that they had extra. I knew that they had stronger gifts than anyone else. But while we were away, your bond came out while you were sleeping, approached Nox, and his bond came out as well. There was nothing left of him. Your bonds have been moonlighting while you’re sleeping.”
