Page 23 of Forbidden Bonds
I call Lucian.
He answers on the second ring.“Welcome back,”he says, dryly.“I’m assuming you’ve come out the other end unscathed.”
“Not exactly,” I say bluntly. “We need to talk.”
“Fucking hell,”he roars.“Tell me you didn’t.”
Yeah, no can do on that one.The silence stretches. I can hear Larissa moving around in the other room. I’m fucking sweating. Her scent is all over me. I should take a shower, get it off me, and see if I can undo this shit.
Undo it?
Not a fucking chance. Being one room away from her is wreaking havoc with my brain. The need to touch her, to keep her close, feed and care for her. A compulsion so strong I sway a little on my feet.
“I’m coming up,”he growls into the cell.
“No,” I bark out, nostrils flared, ready to kill my own brother if he tries to set foot in here. “You’re not coming anywhere near her.”
“You’re pulling this aggressive shit with me? Really?”
“Like you were any different with Madelyn?”
That must hit a spot because all I get is cursing for a good long while.
He blows out a breath.“Fine. In my club office, now.”
With a last lingering look in the direction of the bedroom, I head for the elevator.
He’s already waiting when my elevator opens onto his club office.
“I should shoot your motherfucking brains out,” he snarls before the elevator doors have even managed to close behind me. “What part of don’t bond her did you not understand?”
I’m already suffering enough self-recriminations; now all that rage redirects to Lucian. “You dumped an unmated omega in heat in my room! I’ve never been a soldier, nor a controller like you were—I’ve never even been with an omega! What the fuck did you think would happen? You weren’t exactly the paragon of rationality when you claimed Madelyn. How can you even give me shit for this? As for Ethan, every dime in the motherfucker’s account will be transferred to a gecko sanctuary if he gives me any shit.”
We stand glaring at one another. My chest is heaving, and my hands are curled into fists.
Lucian raises a brow. He can be volatile and aggressive—my bullshit probably gives him high blood pressure every day—but he also deals with Chimera’s elite and their brand of veiled fuckery, so he can also be pragmatic and unerringly calm.
His lips suddenly twitch, and his eyes slide down me. “You have more money than god stashed away in that fake gecko sanctuary. Maybe consider not dressing like you’re homeless, for the sake of your mate.”
I glance down at myself, seeing my favorite T-shirt with a gecko making a lewd gesture, my sweatpants, and no shoes. He has a point… also crazy just kicked off inside when he called her my mate. It’s a battle to keep a stupid grin in check.
“This is a fuck-up of epic proportions,” he says. “Sasquatch is going to bust a blood vessel. He wanted me to hold her as leverage against the government. Whatever happened between him and Larissa wasn’t good. His haunted look when he brought her in suggests some dark shit went down.”
Nope, not liking the sound of that, warning bells are going off. “You mean how he got her out? Why would that make him look haunted?”
He ignores my question to ask his own. “I assume she was okay with this bonding?”
Fine, I’ll park Ethan, but you can bet I’ll be doing some fucking digging. Also, I’ve no idea if she is okay with the bonding, but I strongly suspect she is not. And that crushes every drop of joy in me. Lucian and I need to talk shit out, so I should go ahead and sit down, but sitting down takes me further away from the elevator and her. “I don’t know.”
He scowls at me. “What the fuck? How can you not know?”
My eyes slide to the elevator. Anxiety crawls up my throat as I consider how many floors are between us. Is she eating some of the food? Drinking more water? The claiming mark on her throat was pretty savage. I should have stayed and dressed it for her… “It’s not like we had an in-depth conversation about our respective pedigrees.” I gesture toward myself and my less-than-polished facade. “She doesn’t know about me and my problem. Doesn’t realize what she’s bonded to. When she does?—”
“Bullshit.” A tic thumps in his jaw. “Ninety percent of the time, I want to strangle your ass. You snoop into shit you shouldn’t, work on important shit in your own sweet time, bribe and blackmail everyone, including me. You have questionable moral standards—and I’m a fucking criminal, so that’s saying something. But I fucking love you. You’re my brother. It was us against the system for a long fucking time. Ten years ago, some motherfucker in the government made a decision that nearly killed you. You were in a coma for months! If she hates you for what happened, she’s a bitch, and I’ll toss her goddamned ass out myself.”
I growl. My hand is wrapped around his throat before I even realize my intentions, and I’ve slammed him against the nearby wall.
He holds up his hands.
