Page 80 of Forging Bonds: Part Two

So I stay silent. There’s not much else I can say. It’s not like I can tell him that we’ll sort it, and we’ll make sure that he gets freed, because he could pass that information on to Kylen, even if he doesn’t want to. If Kylen gets suspicious, and since I’ve now saved Fetrick’s life twice, Kylen will think that he has put two and two together, and that we’re in cahoots or some shit, which would just be amusing, except for the fact that it would mean that Kylen will interrogate Fetrick and force him to tell him the truth.

And me.

I can’t risk him asking me about Neith and having to answer honestly. I am not putting her at risk, or risking them not being able to get me out of this fucking situation. I know that they’re doing that, although I’m not sure how. I do have a few ideas since they sent Ribit to have a look at the necklace and I don’t want to fuck everything up because I have no choice but to speak.

So, I don’t say anything to Fetrick, we’re too close to the top now to say anything anyway. We do, however, share a look. I hope that he recognizes the understanding in my expression and maybe even the hope. I want him to have hope that he’s going to be his own person again. He’s been trapped for years longer than I have. Fuck knows what that has done to him, and his relationships. I lost Neith when Kylen stopped allowing me to go back to the keep, and of course, I lost the guys before that. They all thought that I hated them and wanted to be on Kylen’s team because I told them that myself.

Not only that, but if I had family, then I would have been made to cut ties with them as well.

There is a very good chance that Kylen has stopped Fetrick from contacting his family, or even made sure that any familial ties have been well and truly broken. That sounds like a thing that Kylen would do, and to be honest, I have never heard Fetrick speak of his family. He’s a shifter, and they always live in packs. They don’t have to live in packs with shifters of their kind, mixed packs have been known to exist, but tend to present their own challenges and get complicated. Shifters are always in packs, though. So it’s very unlikely that Fetrick doesn’t have family, if not parents, then there should be aunts, uncles, cousins, all manner of extended family, both related and technically not related, that would care about him.

River is the exception because of the way that Kitsunes' work and because he’s so much stronger than all the other Kitsunes, and that presents a lot of issues. River adopted the guys and me as his pack though, and somehow it works for him.

Although Kylen doesn’t seem to take his anger out on Fetrick like he does on me, and looking back over their interactions, I am reasonably sure that it’s more orders than anything else. Kylen wants to make me miserable because he hates the guys. As if he can read my mind, Fetrick speaks up one last time.

“It’s different,” he says, and I glance at him. Trying to be careful, he adds, “Orders only.”

My eyes widen slightly. “Can you read my mind?”

Fetrick grins, he holds his finger to his lips, briefly letting go of the cliffside, “Not usually, but I caught some snippets then, I think because it was aimed at me.”

I nod, “Well, I didn’t know that about you.”

“No one does,” he says, and I hear the meaning behind his words, and incline my head slightly to let him know that I understand and won’t say anything to Kylen and the others. Not that I would be likely to anyway. He continues, “Of course, there’s a chance that everyone knows now.”

I grin, “Yeah, there is that.”

He shakes his head, and we carry on climbing up to the top.

I silently vow that I’m going to help him. I absolutely can’t leave him in the situation that he’s currently in, not if I can help him.

Kylen’s a vicious and ruthless cunt.

Neith

Reed helps to pull Coen over the edge and then reaches down to help Fetrick too, which seems to shock him.

I don’t know what it is about him, but there’s something about the way that he’s behaving that I don’t like. Not that he’s behaving suspiciously or I think he’s a threat, but rather that he may be under threat. He’s staying close to Coen, like he considers him to be safe, which he is, but Fetrick should feel like that about his other team members as well, and he clearly doesn’t.

He’s behaving like someone abused, and I am even more convinced that’s the case after Kylen calls for him.

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Neith

“Fetrick!” Kylen growls in warning simply because he’s close to us.

Fetrick’s eyes narrow, but instead of getting angry with Kylen for pushing him off a cliff, Fetrick’s eyes lower submissively and he fucking apologizes to Kylen. My eyebrows rise in disbelief. Something is definitely not right with that situation.

Fetrick is not a small supernatural, although few are. He’s got broad shoulders and a full beard, with dark hair shoved up haphazardly on his head. He’s actually bigger than Kylen, but he’s behaving like Kylen is a threat.

We all know that’s true, but only because he cheats. If he went toe to toe with Coen without the necklace he’s got on, then Coen would decimate him without even breaking a sweat.

Kylen knows that, which is partly why he insists on controlling him the way he does.

Hopefully for not much longer though.

“What was that?” River suddenly asks, tilting his head to the side like he’s listening to something.

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