Page 2 of Forging Bonds: Part Two

The castle leads me quickly through the wide corridors, and it’s not long until I’m standing outside a set of double doors. I knock quietly, my heart inmy throat. It fascinates me how she can make me feel like this after so many years of knowing her.

“Coen?” Neith asks, looking confused for only a moment before she throws herself at me.

My arms wrap around her tightly, as she clings to me. I don’t want to risk being seen out here and being told to leave, so I walk into her room with her, the castle closing the door behind me and locking it with magic.

She lifts her head to look up at me, and I smile.

I never feel whole until she’s with me, and it’s always been that way, before Kylen and all of that shit. She has always been my home, and I hated that there was no way that I could be with her permanently.

She was the main reason that I decided to go into SID, I was unsure for a long time and then everything happened with Dimitri, and she ended up in the clutches of HID, I knew how they were treating her, and I figured that my best bet to help her was to be in SID.

There were other reasons too, I wanted to figure out what the fuck was going on with Dimitri because my best friend would never do the things that he was doing, especially to Neith. Well, Neith is safe, and now I am reasonably sure that I know, or at least have a fairly good idea, what is going on with Dimitri.

I don’t know how I’m going to help him, but I will. I have no idea how I’m going to convince everyone that he wasn’t in control and someone else was, but I’ll figure it out and I know that Neith will help me because as soon as she realizes she’s going to see fucking red. The guys think they have seen the darker and more bloody side of Neith, but honestly, they haven’t seen anything until they’ve seen her when someone she cares about is threatened.

She’s fucking spectacular.

All thoughts flee my mind as she kisses me, the kiss is fiery and passionate and full of all the things that neither of us has said, even though we both feelit. Her being human would have only set us up for more heartbreak. I would have taken anything, any time that she would give me. I would have given her all of me, hell, I have, and she doesn’t even realize it.

Dimitri did too.

Kar said the same as Neith always said and told us we were just going to make shit a thousand times harder for ourselves, but we pointed out that it was too late, we were already in a thousand percent, and we had been from the moment that we laid eyes on her. From the second that she gave us both shit, being her sassy self even though she was beaten, broken, bloody, and near death, from that moment we were hers.

That image of her still haunts me, but that bloodied smile that was screaming with strength and bravery is the one I fell in love with.

Kar admitted that he understood, not in the same way. He has never felt anything but brotherly love for her, but he got it.

I know how the guys feel about her, and quite honestly, I thought I would have a problem with it, so I’m surprised to find that it’s the opposite. I like that they care about her like I do, and I like that she’s got them to protect her. I am becoming more and more certain that she is going to need all of the help that she can get, there’s a churning feeling in my gut, and my dragon instincts are practically screaming at me.

I need to get this fucking control off me, she needs me, all of us, more than ever.

Having said all of that, although I was willing to have whatever time I could get with her, she always put the brakes on it. Saying things about our mates, or in Dimitri’s case, about a supernatural that could keep up with him. She even brought up sex, saying that we can’t have it because she’s human. She was right, but we made sure to show her the ways that we could enjoy her without threatening her life.

I grin, biting her lip in memory of all the things that we’ve done. I am suddenly ravenous to have my lips and tongue on an entirely different part of her.

That thought that I had in the dungeon, the one that I pushed away so that Kylen doesn’t try to pull it from me, that thought tries to come forward again. I saw her, she wasn’t moving and fighting like a human, but then again, she never has.

My mind scatters as her hands weave into my hair and my hands grip her ass, but before I can throw her on the bed and taste her like I want to she pulls back.

“What the hell are you doing here?” she asks, as she wriggles to be put down, and I reluctantly let her go. Her eyes narrow slightly as she watches me. “Are you okay?”

I smile, wanting to reassure her that I’m fine, “I’m okay, don’t worry. It’s nothing that I can’t handle.”

Her eyebrow raises, she’s not stupid, and she knows me better than anyone. Like the man I am, I decide to avoid her probing gaze by wandering around her room and seeing what I can find to distract her from her question. My eyes quickly land on the sword that she was wielding, well enough that old Getty would have been incredibly proud of. The cantankerous dragon sword master always did have a soft spot for Neith, although he worked her hard. He would be proud.

As I reach for the sword, Neith says, “Whoa, hang on be careful he doesn’t like . . .” she trails off.

The sword buzzes lightly in my hand, and I grin, Neith’s enchanted sword, “He doesn’t like what?”

“I guess I shouldn’t be surprised,” Neith chuckles, her hands on her hips as she watches me closely, far closer than I would like her to right now. However, my dragon is practically purring at her attention. She continues,“He doesn’t allow anyone but the guys and me to touch him. Coen meet Asael, Asael meet Coen.”

My smile widens. I’m not going to lie, it makes me incredibly happy that Asael recognizes my connection to Neith enough that he is allowing me to hold him. I take a few practice swings, ignoring the twinges of pain from the very nearly healed wound in my stomach.

“Why are you in pain?” she asks me sharply.

My eyes snap to her face. I don’t know how I could forget just how observant she is.

I shrug, trying to brush it off, “I’m not.”

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