I’m drunk and I’ve lost all of my friends.
Okay, so Gabe and Atlas are glued to my side at all times and I can see Kieran glaring at everyone around us, but Sage disappeared into a closet with Felix half an hour ago and I haven’t seen either of them since. Sawyer and Gray had both already made out in every room of this house, something about a dare that I was too drunk to listen about properly, and now I’m pretty sure that they’ve found a quiet flat surface to fuck on. I both love that for them and hate them passionately for it.
The house belongs to one of the lower families on the council, which is to say that it is still a mega-mansion with a pool and ridiculous catering, but that the council members themselves don’t feel the need to attend and no one is worried about the dress code when a shit-tonne of TacTeam guys show up to watch over us all.
I’m giggly and enjoying the warm night air a little too much for Kieran’s liking, but both of my bonds are watching me dance by the pool with a kind of lightly inebriated rapture that has butterflies exploding in my belly, a riot of fluttering and tingling.
The music here is surprisingly good.
“Alright, you’re cut off. Any more and you’re going to hate the world tomorrow,” Gabe says when I finish off the last of my glass of champagne and bat my eyelashes at him for a refill.
He laughs at my pout when he shakes his head at me.
Atlas isn’t impressed with anything around us. He’s not obvious about it, he smiles and speaks to people when they come over to us, but there’s a coldness about him that I’ve noticed at Draven as well, like he’s looking down on all of them for their many sins against us.
I can’t help but lean into him, cozying up and tucking myself as close to his body as I can get, because that kind of absolute loyalty will always mean the world to me.
I’ve had it for them from the moment I’d heard their names in that stupid hospital room, when my world was breaking but I still had a long way to fall. Fuck, if only I knew how far away I still was from rock bottom.
A hand smooths down my spine, a soothing motion, and Atlas leans down to murmur into my ear, “It’s okay, Sweetness. Whatever you’re thinking, none of it matters now. I have you.”
Gabe threads his fingers through mine but when I glance over to him, he’s still talking to one of his football buddies, bitching about some shit to do with the next season. He noticed my mood change without even looking at me, another sign that I’m losing the fight to keep them all from being attached to me.
The bed sharing might be settling down my bond but it’s making everything a million times more complicated.
“Let’s go home, Sweetness. There’s nothing left for us at this party,” Atlas murmurs, and I shrug at him.
“Everyone else is having fun, we can’t leave without them. Why don’t you get another drink and let off some steam.”
He grins and shakes his head. “If I drink, I’ll end up fighting someone… possibly even Gabe for the way he keeps speaking to these spineless assholes. I’ve never seen so much groveling and sniveling.”
I giggle at the look Gabe’s friend gives us both because we’re not trying to be quiet about it, but Gabe just smirks at us, lifting my hand up to his lips to kiss the back of it, like I’m some perfect treasure to him.
I’m about to drag Atlas over to the dance floor by the catered table for a dance when Sage comes stumbling out of the house, her eyes round and glassy, and my stomach drops.
I pull away from my Bonds to rush to her, my bond sluggish with the alcohol but still perking up at the very idea of destroying whoever has upset my bestie.
Kieran beats me to her.
“What’s happened? I thought you were with Felix, why’s he left you alone?”
She blinks at him, her lip trembling a little, and I’m ready to slit his throat for snapping at her, but she just croaks out, “He sent me out to find Oli. Gracie is… Gracie drank too much and now she’s talking shit. It’s not a big deal, but Felix might need some help getting her down.”
Down?
Kieran gently pushes Sage towards me and stalks into the house, barking orders at the other TacTeam guys around us so that they close in on us. I wrap Sage into a hug and she immediately melts into me.
“This is why I don’t go out, Oli,” she mumbles into my hair. She sounds so miserable that I want to punch Gracie in the face all over again.
There’s some shouting and arguing in the house and Gabe steps up closer to us both, but then Felix walks out with an absolutely vicious look on his face, dragging his sister behind him.
Gracie is trashed.
So trashed that she pukes in the potted plants by the door and whimpers when Felix snaps at her, “You never fucking learn! I wanted one night, and you couldn’t just keep your shit together for one night.”
Kieran stomps out behind them, his nose scrunching up at the foul smell of Gracie’s vomit, and he locks eyes with me, jerking his head in the universal motion for ‘can we please leave this fucking mess now’ and I nod back.
We’re done.
Atlas loses ‘rock, paper, scissors’ against Gabe and has to go find Sawyer and Gray to drag them both home with us. Felix corrals Gracie into one of the Tac vehicles and then leaves her there to come hold Sage, kissing her hair and murmuring reassuringly to her while she rocks a little on her feet.
When I find out what that bitch said to her, Felix’s sister or not, Gracie is going to feel my goddamn wrath, and I’m going to make sure she never pulls this shit again.
Everyone needs to stop shitting on my girl.
Sawyer takes one look at his sister and the good mood he’s in just evaporates into thin air. He and Gray had come downstairs, still wrapped up in each other, their hair all mussed up and their clothes very obviously rearranged. I’d been so relieved for them to have this time together.
Another mark against Gracie.
“Try not to be too harsh on her, she’s not exactly the picture of stable and mentally well,” Gabe whispers to me as he gets me into Atlas’ car. I’m shocked to find that Atlas didn’t drink at all, his good mood had nothing to do with alcohol and everything to do with being there with me.
I scowl at Gabe but he pulls a face back. “She lost her Central Bond years ago. He was only a kid when he died. She’s never really been stable since. It’s not an excuse but… just keep it in mind.”
Fuck.
I still hate her but at least this time around, I’ll leave her to Felix to deal with. He’s still scowling and pissed looking as he slides into the backseat, taking the middle spot so that Sage can tuck into his side without being up in Gabe’s space.
I know it wasn’t for me, but it’s just another reason that I’m on Felix’s side here, even when his sister is a raging nightmare that I want to deal with in the most horrifying, blood-soaked ways.
“Take a breath,” Atlas murmurs, his hand resting on my thigh as he directs the car into the traffic to get us back to the manor.
I glance down and find Brutus on my lap, sniffing at my clothes like he’s trying to figure out what’s pissed me off so much. He’s always extra cute in his puppy form, and I curl my hand around his little body to cuddle him up properly in my lap. He takes it and licks at my fingertips, the sensation weird because I can feel it, but there’s no physical evidence that he’s doing it, no puppy drool left behind from his big tongue.
“Jesus, fuck, I forgot you had that for a second there, Fallows,” Felix says from the back, sounding a little sick, and Sage cranes her head around to get a look at Brutus who is now rolling onto his back for a belly scratch.
“He’s cute! I mean, I wouldn’t touch him ever, but I can admire what a good boy he is,” she says and Felix shakes his head at her.
“Is it weird for you two to know that she has an extension of a Draven with her at all times? Do you guys make him sleep out in the hall at night or are we okay with him now?” Felix says and I stiffen for a second, thinking he’s heard about the hallway incident, but then I remember that the entire campus knows Nox isn’t a fan of mine, so of course he has some questions.
Gabe sounds very nonchalant as he answers him, “The more eyes on Oli, the better. The more eyes on all of our friends and families, the better, to be honest. Draven might be a little happy bubble for us all, but it’s definitely not safe.”
Sage scoffs at them both, her words slurring a little thanks to all of the champagne she’s had for the night. “Oli doesn’t need eyes on her, she could take us all out before we had the chance to blink in her direction. She’s the biggest badass I’ve ever met. Nox is just spying on her because he wants to control her. You all do, at least a little bit. That’s a part of being in a Bond group. None of you want her to have the freedom to be her own person, unless you’re involved in the process. That’s it, that’s her whole life now, and even with Riley and Giovanna fucking loathing me, it’s my life too. Gracie was right. I’m a freak of nature, and if my Bond doesn’t want me, then I am a reject. Now I’m ruining Felix too because he’s got someone out there waiting for him and I’m complicating it all. Fuck, Atlas, I’m going to throw up.”
He swerves the car off of the road safely enough, but the Tac vehicles escorting us all come off of the road with us as though they’re about to wage a war on whoever has threatened us.
I will fucking murder Gracie.
Kieran flies out of his vehicle and bolts towards us, coming up short when he gets an eyeful of Felix and me holding Sage up between us while she pukes. Gabe grabs her hair and twists it away from her face, wincing when she sobs into Felix’s chest when the heaving finally eases up.
“Is she okay? I can get a healer here pronto,” Kieran says, his eyes glued to Sage’s sobbing form, and I shake my head as I point to Felix’s glowing hands.
“He’s got this covered. It came on too fast for him to help before it… came to this. Sorry for the stop.”
He finally looks away from them but there’s a hesitancy there. “It’s fine. Bassinger drives like a pro, so we all had time to get you guys covered. Do we need to stay put for much longer? I’ll set up a perimeter.”
Felix shakes his head, coaxing Sage back towards the car, and I get them in the front passenger seat together. Atlas helps get the seatbelt around them both but with Sage tucked into Felix’s lap, it’s an easy enough switch up.
I listen to Sage’s rattling chest the entire way home, cursing every person in this stupid town for hurting her like this. Gabe holds my hand, scowling and bouncing his knee like he’s full of anxious energy.
I don’t have words to reassure him right now, I only have rage and vengeance pumping through my veins.
The car is quiet and when Atlas pulls up in the garage at the Draven manor, we all just sit there for a second to evaluate what the fuck this night has ended up turning into.
“Well… we’re alive, right? All breathing and in one piece was the plan,” Felix drawls, still fuming at his sister but attempting to lighten the mood.
I shrug at him and snark back, “The night is still young. I could definitely still rip someone in half, if provoked.”
I’m only half joking.
I’m glad that I didn’t drink too much at the party, all of the alcohol burning out of my system the moment that I step out of the Hellcat, because tonight is Gryphon’s night with me in his bed. After his scorching hot demand for me to be there in this outfit, my legs want to buckle at the thought of it.
I can’t Bond with him.
Fuck, I want something with him tonight though, anything. Maybe the pain of holding back the Bond will be worth being able to have him. A shiver runs through my body at the thought. Atlas wraps an arm around my shoulder, mistaking the shiver for me feeling cold, and I let him lead me into the manor to grab a drink.
Gabe starts directing people to spare bedrooms like he knows every room in this place, and I let Atlas take me back to my room for a glass of water before I head down to Gryphon.
I grab a handful of my Bond’s clothes to change into in Gryphon’s room, ignoring the raised eyebrow Atlas gives me when I don’t just get changed before I head down there. I might implode if I have to talk about the way Gryphon had been so demanding.
It was hot as fuck, and I need a lot more of that side of him in my life.
I drink one last glass of water before I kiss him on the cheek and head down to the first floor alone, my bare feet silent against the plush carpet. The house is quiet and peaceful and when I check the time on my phone, I find a text from Gabe to say he’s gotten everyone into rooms and goodnight. There’s a somber tone to it and I know I’ll have to talk to him later about what Sage had said.
She wasn’t wrong.
I’m not saying that I mind it. If I weren’t being hunted and a danger to them all, I would love nothing more than to coexist with them in that very codependent way that Bonded groups have.
But that’s not the life I was given.
When I get to Gryphon’s door, I have to knock twice, but there’s no answer either time.
It’s after midnight and his car was in the garage, so I’m pretty sure he’s home, but I don’t like going into my Bond’s rooms without their permission. Nox is the only one who literally never lets me in, but that’s also part of our routine. I get up there, pass out and know that sometime, hours later, he’ll be asleep on the couch with his creatures everywhere.
Gryphon always lets me in.
I blow out a deep breath and try the door handle, letting myself into the room and closing it quietly behind me. I sigh when I hear the shower going, relieved that nothing too out of the ordinary is going on here, my Bond is just getting ready for bed.
That is until I pull the covers back on his bed and the smell of perfume hits me.
I freeze, but my bond takes full control of my body before I have the chance to process what the fuck I’ve just found.
THE PERFUME IS all over the bed.
It’s on his pillows and his sheets, the perfectly pressed duvet is smothered in it, and my bond slowly descends into madness.
Who dared to touch my Bond?
How could he ever let another woman into this room, into his bed? This is all mine. Mine. He’s mine; his room, his bed, all of it belongs to me. I’m going to find this woman and I will bleed her out, present her lifeless body to my Bond, and show him what happens to anyone who touches what is mine.
Brutus whines in my ear, a feeling, not a sound, and I reach up to pluck him out of my hair, setting him down on the carpet and firmly demanding that he go home to Nox.
I don’t need witnesses for this.
The bathroom door opens and Gryphon steps out naked, the towel wrapped around his waist covering him a little, but I search his body for marks regardless. He falters and comes to a halt, lifting a hand to push back his hair. When his very muscular body ripples with the movement, my eyes narrow.
Did she see him like this too?
Did she see every inch of him tense and move as he fucked her on my bed? Did she watch as my Bond pumped inside her body?
“Oli? What’s happened, why is your bond—”
The moment I look at him, I know that I don’t want to talk to him. I want his bond, I want to deal with this directly because the man might have done something fucking abhorrent, but the bond belongs to me.
Mine.
I will prove that to the very core of him, the base and animalistic truth of him, because the man cannot be trusted right now. The man has betrayed me and everything we’ve built together.
A growling sort of gasp rips out of his throat as his eyes flash to white, his legs stumbling as I trigger his bond to take over, and when he looks at me again, there’s nothing of the surly and scowling man left.
Only the bond.
He takes a deep breath, looking around the room as though he’s not sure where he is anymore, and I get frustrated quickly, enraged that he’s not taking me and claiming me right now.
“Mine.”
My words break his stillness, his hand dropping the towel as he charges at me in one go, taking me down onto the bed so he’s pinning me there.
I barely get a look at him but it doesn’t matter, none of it matters, except that he needs to Bond with me now.
I grab a fistful of his hair and yank his lips down to mine, our tongues fighting for dominance as he nips at my lip like he wants to punish me. I taste blood but I can’t tell if it’s his or mine, and his hands scramble at my clothes, tearing and ripping at the playsuit until it’s in pieces on the ground.
He growls at the tape covering half of my chest, and he’s not nice about getting it off either, leaving red marks and stinging skin as he goes about baring me completely, his tongue soothing the skin afterwards.
I don’t want soft.
I want him to fuck me and Bond with me so that there’s never a question again about who he belongs to. I’m not some soft Central Bond who needs hand-holding. I need his cum dripping down my legs and my scent replacing that fucking perfume on his sheets and I need it now.
I get another fistful of his hair and shove him down my body, leaning up to strip my panties off. He grabs my legs, throwing them over his shoulders until my thighs are wrapped around his head, his tongue hot as he tastes me, tastes the slick between my legs and finds out just how ready for his cock I am. The moment he stepped into this room, I was ready for him, ready to take what is mine, and it doesn’t matter how fucking perfect his lips and his tongue is on my pussy, I need more.
When my legs begin to shake, I pull at him again, demanding and moody because I need him inside me when I come, I need him to join with me to complete the Bond properly.
“Fuck me. Bond with me now,” I snap, my voice coming out dark and venomous, and his eyes flash even brighter at the command.
If I thought for a second that I’d be controlling what was happening here, he’s quick to change my mind as he shoves a pillow under my hips, a hand wrapping around my throat and holding me still as he lines his cock up and pushes in with one stroke, groaning like a dying man.
Somewhere in the back of my mind I register that it hurts, that he’s too big and this is all too much, but my bond shoves out of my body and wraps around him, binding us both together until I can’t breathe.
His hips push into me, the friction building until he’s slamming into me, a Bond with only one thing on his mind. Claiming me, tying me to him, owning me, and having me forever because there is no me without him. We were made from the same dying star, put on this earth to search one another out and bind ourselves to one another for all of eternity.
The sound of our bodies slapping together echo around the room, obscene and fucking perfect, and when I moan into his ear, his hands tighten on my skin and he deepens his strokes until his hips grind into my clit with each thrust.
I’m so close to coming, so close to taking him as mine, and when he leans down to kiss me again, I turn my face to his neck and bite him there, marking his skin somewhere that everyone will see it and know what it means.
We come together and when my bond releases into him and takes his bond into me, it’s like nothing I’ve ever experienced. Orgasms are incredible, but this? This is everything and more, this is my entire world coming down to a single pinpoint and then exploding into a million pieces. This is a jumble of things that make a lot of sense and exactly none, and I’ve never felt so whole in my life before.
He roars as his hips stutter in their strokes, his hand tightening around my throat, and when his head rears back in ecstasy, I can see the bright light of his bond shining through his skin now that we’re Bonded. I give him a piece of my power and he returns that gift to me tenfold.
Mine.
When he collapses back onto the bed beside me, my bond leaves me all at once.
The horror of what has happened sinks into my being.
I don’t have time to say a word to him because the door flies open so quickly that it bounces against the wall, North storming into the room with an absolutely livid expression on his face. I do the most awkward and embarrassing squeal as I roll myself into a cocoon with the duvet.
I hear more footsteps but Gryphon’s eyes flash and they stop at the door, two of my Bonds, who would have to be Gabe and Atlas, and I want to just die.
Die.
There’s a horrified sort of silence and then North snarls, “What the fuck did you do?”
How the hell am I supposed to answer that? I don’t know what I did. I didn’t have any control over my bond and now I’m in a freaking mess, except I glance over at Gryphon, to gauge how he’s reacting to all of this, and I find North focused on him. To my horror, Gryphon looks down at his hands and the smears of blood over them and, Jesus, on his thighs are bright like a freaking red flag.
This is really, really bad.
Then they both look over at me and I really would like to die now. The bond has cleared entirely from my head now and I’m left with the consequences of the haze, the consequences of completing the Bond and making Gryphon my Bonded.
Something about the bonding has opened up the floodgate of emotions inside of me and my stomach is a riot of nerves. I feel sick, euphoric, sad, ecstatic, and a million other conflicting emotions, all at once. My skin feels tight and sore as though it’s about to burst open, and the extra power growing in my gut terrifies me.
I want to burst into very overwhelmed tears because I’ve just ruined everything. Either it’s obvious that I’m on the verge of a breakdown, or they both decide at the exact same time to just put me out of my goddamn misery, because Gryphon turns his back on me as he steps in front of me, as close to giving me privacy as this hellscape I’ve found myself in will allow.
“Oli, do you need to sleep somewhere else tonight?” North says quietly, his eyes still cutting as he stares Gryphon down. It takes me three tries to reply but I have to force the words out.
“I need to stay here. I can’t leave.”
Without another word, North turns on his heel and steps out of the room, carefully blocking me from the view of Atlas and Gabe who are both still stuck at the door thanks to… whatever the hell Gryphon has done to them.
I’ve ruined everything.
