by J Bree
She huffs and puffs under her breath but I ignore her. She doesn't know what I can do, so she's hesitant to actually try to drag me out. That's a good thing because I can't use my abilities, so I'd be forced to punch her in the throat.
And I would.
I would enjoy every freaking second of it too.
Finally, when I can't procrastinate any longer, I follow her back to the tiny interview room that is now my hell on Earth. Nothing has changed, the file is still sitting there, waiting for me. The woman leaves me there without another word.
I finally crack and open the file.
Fuck.
Big mistake.
There's updated photos of my Bonds in there. Hell, if my life weren't such a giant freaking mess, I'd be ecstatic. Every photo just gets hotter and hotter. They're all ridiculously good looking, too good looking for someone like me.
Okay, I know I'm not, like, hideous or anything, but the photo of Gabriel is of him jogging shirtless and I think the guy has an eight-pack. I have to tell the bond in my chest to settle the hell down because I can't have him. I certainly can't complete the bond with him.
I definitely don't have an eight-pack. I have a little pouchy tummy that says I enjoy chocolate too much when I'm hormonal and let me tell you, I'm not ever giving it up for a flat stomach.
Nope.
I also didn't realize two of my Bonds were brothers. That's going to be... different. The Councilman and his scholar brother. Hell, this entire thing is a fucking mess.
I sift through the other photos, hellbent on finding some sort of escape route. I mean, the killer GPS tracker means it'll be tricky but I've gotten out of shit before. I'm sure I can figure it out, and I need to do it soon. It takes me a second to realize there’s something vital missing from the documents and I scour each page just to be sure.
Their gifts aren’t listed.
There’s a field on each of the documents that says ‘gifts’ but on each and every page, it’s been left blank. There’s not even a clue to tell me what any of them is capable of, and I suddenly find myself insanely desperate to know what they can do.
I’m still fixated on the documents when the lock on the door turns, and I feel the tug in my chest that tells me one of my Bonds is here. Every muscle in my body turns to stone as I wait.
My entire body is practically vibrating with tension as the door opens and I glance up, making eye contact with the eight-pack hottie himself, but he looks away immediately.
Hell.
I had always assumed they'd be upset or disappointed in me, but I am not at all prepared to see the pure, unadulterated loathing in their eyes when four of my mates walk into the interview room.
Freaking loathing.
I swallow and duck my head.
One of them scoffs at me but I ignore it, keeping my eyes glued to my hands where they lie folded on the table in front of me. I don't need to see more of their hate. I hate myself enough for all of us, any more and I might end up finding a fucking bridge to jump off of.
Murderer.
Nope. Can't think about it right now, not when I'm already on edge and freaking out. Where had the fire in me gone? It's like it was sucked out the moment they all stepped into the room.
I hear the scraping of chairs and I grow a spine, glancing back up. I stare around at each of them, slowly taking them in. It’s easy to distinguish them all from each other, even without the photos spread out in front of me on the table.
Gryphon is scowling and grumpy looking, the scar running through his eyebrow standing out even more. He looks exactly like his photo, right down to the frown.
Gabriel fusses with the coffee cup in his hands, just as nervous about this as I am, apparently. The smiling hottie is nowhere to be seen. I mean, he's still hot but he looks... miserable.
Fuck.
North, the Councilman and the reason for my GPS chip, sits there in his perfectly tailored suit. He's the only one who's trying to mask the loathing a little. He's failing at hiding it but I appreciate the effort, I guess.
Nox just keeps staring at me like I'm the worst thing that has ever happened to him. And, fuck, maybe I am, but at least I won't be the worst thing to ever be unleashed on the entire population of the country.
I can live with being hated. I hate myself enough to know just how easy it is to loathe me.
Chapter Two
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 a
ny 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 s
hut. 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.
