Unbroken Bonds: The Bonds that Tie #6, page 1
UNBROKEN BONDS
THE BONDS THAT TIE #6
J BREE
Unbroken Bonds
The Bonds That Tie #6
Cover Illustration by Emilie Snaith
Cover Typography by Bellaluna Cover Designs
Interior Formatting by Champagne Book Design
Original Interior Series Design by Sloane Murphy
Copyright © 2022 J Bree
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
CONTENTS
Preface
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Epilogue
Also by J Bree
About the Author
CONTINUE READING FOR AN EXCERPT FROM
Also by J Bree
Prologue
The Gods have Woken
The Eternal lives within Oleander Fallows.
The Crux lives within North Draven.
The Corvus lives within Nox Draven.
The Soothsayer lives within Gryphon Shore.
The Draconis lives within Gabriel Ardern.
The Cleaver lives within Atlas Bassinger.
PROLOGUE
Gryphon’s bond
I wake.
A new body, a new era, the same threats to my Bonded as there always are; but this time, it’s different.
This time, we’re all here.
I watch as one by one, the god-bonds awaken, the vessels falling unconscious under our enemy’s attack. Eyes rolling back into their heads until they turn black, the voids wiping out the human life until we’re all standing around our Bonded as a living, breathing shield, filled with the souls of the dead, a gift of power from our Bonded. There’s nothing that can kill us now.
United at last.
I look over to my Bonded and the girl that it lives within, perfection incarnate, and every fiber of my being is filled with need. A need to have them, protect them, covet them, break them apart and build them back up in the way that only I can because we were made for each other. They are mine as surely as I am theirs, as surely as the world spinning endlessly in the vastness of the expanding universe.
Danger has come for us once more, but it always does. The world doesn’t want to see greatness like us happy. It wants to break us, hurt us, kill us, and bury us miles apart, just to extend our earthly torture forevermore.
I’ve lost my Bonded too many times.
Never again.
Protect the Gifted. The girl loves them, and they have been loyal to us always.
I glance over my shoulder to find a handful of Gifted there, blood running out of their noses as they bear the brunt of the god-bond’s attack and their bodies slowly shut down. I feel something extra in the girl there, the small Flame with a strong Gift, and though it frustrates me, I leave it alone for now.
It’s a problem that can wait.
Pushing my way into the other Gifted’s brains and building up their defenses is easier and as thoughtless as breathing, putting in walls of impenetrable protection against the assault of our enemy who stands before us wearing the body of an older woman.
She’d deceived us all for too long, a god-bond predator hiding amongst the human sheep.
“Don’t touch the Death Dealers,” she says to the two men behind her as they step towards us. I’m sure they’re strong for their kind, but they are nothing but men; flesh and blood and bond… not the gods that we are.
My Bonded smiles, cocking her head at our god-bond enemy. “That’s cute… thinking that will save you.”
Her hand rises and that unnatural shine takes over her skin, the inky black that is vibrant in a way that defies nature because she is Death incarnate, the true god of souls who can choose who lives and dies. She is as powerful and ruthless as the sun itself, burning away all lesser beings as though they are nothing but kindling for her flame.
Mine.
“You’re too new. Your Bonds have barely woken up. You might be stronger than me someday, but I intend on disposing of you all long before that time comes.”
The Cleaver raises his hands and his Gift pushes out of him in a violent burst, decimating everything around him in a single stroke. It doesn’t touch the god-bond before us, but the two Gifted men she had brought with her are torn to pieces. We watch with the type of apathy that only the Eternal can have as the chunks litter the ground, the blood soaking into the scorched dirt around us. There’s already bodies everywhere, the worst carnage of war laid out at our feet.
The Gifted at our side begin to stir with a groan. The Transporter looks to his Bonded the moment his eyes open, then to me as he waits for orders. The shock on his face at the sight of my void eyes has him faltering for a second, but his mouth sets into a firm line as he projects words to me, something he’s done with my vessel a million times before.
What is the plan here? We need to get our Bonded to safety.
Our Bonded.
My eyes flick down to the little Flame at his side, dirt and ash covering her body from all of the destruction she’d wrought on our behalf. She’s important to my Bonded’s vessel. She’s important to us all.
Important enough to save and not just from the god-bond before us all.
Take them to safety. All of the Gifted we care for. We will take care of this. Keep the Flame separated for now, the god-bond is taking refuge there again.
He doesn’t answer me or nod, no visible signs of his agreement that might alert our enemy to what he’s about to do. I fix my eyes back on the woman ahead of us as her lip curls in our direction. She surveys the fresh coat of blood and gore covering her surroundings.
“The Cleaver always did have such disgusting ways,” she sneers, her face a lot more animated than ours.
She’s been awake a lot longer than us.
While learning to blend in with the humans around her, it’s clear that she’s killed the vessel and is in full control. She slipped through our fingers with ease, because there was no battle going on beneath her flesh, no secondary being to flag with our sweeps of the area.
There’s a pop sound as the Transporter leaves us all behind, taking the vulnerable Gifted with him, and my Bonded shifts a little closer to the Death Dealer at her side, murmuring quietly to him as the shadows creep up his arm. The dog-like forms at their feet all stare forward without blinking, watching the threat before us with an unerring vision. They’re all still standing a little to the side where the Shield had cut her off from us all. I can see my vessel’s memory of the moment, the panic he’d felt and the instant relief as the Corvus had shifted through his shadows to get to her.
My vessel didn’t know he could do that.
It’s a standoff, all of us waiting to see who will truly make the first move. Whatever those Gifted could do, the god-bond was expecting a lot from them, and she definitely hadn’t taken the Cleaver into account. No, she’d waited on the sidelines and watched my Bonded funnel us energy and hoped that would weaken her enough to kill her, at the very least.
She has drastically underestimated the strength of my Bonded and those devoted to her.
She purses her lips at us all as though she’s disappointed with the way her Gift is merely bouncing off of us before she lifts a hand, her palm turning black as she calls on her power. The shadows all move at once, darting towards her like storm clouds rolling in, but she Transports out before they can tear out her throat.
As she disappears into nothingness, she leaves behind her parting words, a warning to us all.
“Until we meet again. Next time, I won’t come alone. Next time, I’ll wipe you from the face of the earth.”
CHAPTER ONE
Oli
I wake up as my feet hit the ground at the Sanctuary, my stomach churning horribly as my head spins. Bile burns a path up my throat, and I choke as I fight to keep it down.
Why does it always have to feel this way?
I wait for Gryphon to ease the discomfort, but when his hand doesn’t come up to cup my neck, I’m forced to slap a hand over my mouth instead.
A strong arm bands around my waist, hauling me back onto a broad chest as North snaps, “Are you going to give Gryphon back so that he can help her or not?”
I don’t understand what he means by that, and I’m too busy gagging to figure it out. Then Gryphon’s palm finally slides around my throat and his Gift flows into my body, flooding me and chasing the sickness away. It’s only once my head clears that I realize the room around us is silent, the kind of silence where a million things are floating around us unsaid, and that
He’s gripping my throat the same way that he would when we’re alone, when he’s whispering filthy demands and observations into my ear as his hips drive his cock into my body.
I glance up to find his bond staring back at me.
Blank face, black void eyes, I’m meeting the god within him properly for the first time. I’m suddenly very aware of all of the eyes on us both.
Kieran has brought us back to one of the training rooms underneath the Tac Training Center, smart decision, as always, and he’s already backed right away from this clusterfuck of a situation. He’s hovering by the door, close enough to help out the moment we need him, but he’s also perfectly aware that if our bonds are out, he’s more of a hindrance than a help.
I’m the only one who can really deal with them.
A quick glance is all it takes to know that none of my other Bonded are happy about his hands on me like this. Not the bond, because they might trust Gryphon to the ends of the earth, but they don’t trust the god that had lived hidden beneath his skin.
We all remember the warnings that Jericho had said.
The bonds kill their vessels.
Gryphon’s bond stares at me, unblinking as he reads me like a book. “I would never harm you. I couldn’t even if I wanted to. You’re mine. Nothing changes that.”
I’m not sure if he can just tell what I’m thinking by the look on my face or if he’s able to get past my defenses, but I nod slowly anyway, a slow sigh eking out from between my lips. His fingers flex around my throat, tightening just a little, and there’s murmurs of displeasure around us from the rest of our Bonded Group.
I should really focus on getting him to let go.
“No. You should tell them all to leave us alone. It’s been a very long time since I was with you last, Bonded.”
Oh, God.
Definitely reading my mind then.
A shadow twines itself around his wrist faster than my eyes can track, sliding along his palm and then wrenching his hand away from me. Gryphon’s lip curls as his bond snarls, but the shadows wrap around his body to keep him away from me.
“You’re effectively a stranger to us all right now, so you’ll be staying there until we know we can trust you,” North says, stepping between us and acting like a protective wall. I slip a hand onto his back, as much an anchor to myself in this moment as a reassurance to him.
I feel off-kilter at the turn the day has taken.
Kieran steps forward, approaching Gryphon’s bond the same way that you’d expect a man to approach a barrel full of pissed-off rattlesnakes.
As though he’s about to die for the audacity of breathing.
North shoots him a look, but Kieran ignores him entirely, speaking to Gryphon’s bond in a formal way that speaks both of respect and the fear that’s very obviously pumping through him right now.
“I’ve got Sage in one of the cells downstairs with the rest of our Bonded Group watching her. What exactly is in her head right now, and how do I get it out?”
In her head?
My eyes flash back to Gryphon and I snap, “What the hell is that supposed to mean? Why didn’t you say something sooner? What if she’s hurt right now or it’s doing damage?”
The bond, who hasn’t looked away from me yet, stays unresponsive to my words as his void eyes drink me in. I feel just a little bit uneasy at it, something I’d never felt around my Bonds or the bonds that live within them.
I don’t understand why.
“The god-bond is in her mind again. It’s been there before, therefore it’s an easy path for it to take to speak with us.”
The god-bond.
The one that had infiltrated her mind and used her body to kill our Shield, Dara, letting the Resistance into the Sanctuary and framing my best friend for a murder she would never commit. A violent sort of rage takes fire in my stomach, and I find myself moving before I'm really thinking about it, pushing my way past my Bonded and stalking down the rabbit warren hallways of the training center, all the way until I hit the elevator.
I can hear everybody bickering and arguing behind me, but I can't stop myself from jabbing at the elevator button, cursing under my breath as the doors open. I glance behind myself to find Gryphon's god-bond hovering behind me.
It's strange that even without seeing his eyes, I can tell that it's not my Gryphon. My Gryphon would have his arms crossed over his chest and a scowl fixed on his face as he assessed the situation, running through the possible outcomes over and over again until he had concocted a plan with the best-case scenario. His god-bond just stands and stares, so inhuman and expressionless as it takes everything in. Still, my heart tugs towards them both.
They both belong to me.
“Oli, what exactly are you going to do when you get down there? It's not like you can fight the god-bond if it's wearing Sage’s body like some sort of fucked-up puppet,” Gabe says as he steps alongside me, slipping his hand into mine and threading our fingers together.
Kieran shoots him a dark look for talking about his Bonded like that, but I only shrug. “If I can rip people's souls out, don’t you think it’s possible that I can also force the god-bond out? Especially if it’s inside of someone it doesn't belong to? It’s worth a try, and I’m sure my bond would enjoy eating something like that.”
Atlas chuckles darkly from behind me, his eyes still on Gryphon’s god-bond as though he's expecting it to attempt to touch me again. North, protective and furious at all of this, as always, and Nox are half a step away from us all, talking quietly between themselves as their eyes drift slowly between Gryphon and I.
I can't focus on that right now as the elevator dings and the doors open wide.
I can't think about anything except Sage.
When we get to the cell that Sage is being kept in, I find the rest of her Bonded Group huddled around the giant glass wall. Felix, looking harried and a little worn around the edges, is watching her every move as he ignores the other two bickering viciously behind him.
Riley still looks as though he is recovering from the years he had spent being manipulated and assaulted by Giovanna, a Resistance spy sent in to manipulate their Bonded Group. His eyes are sunken into his head and his skin is still stretched a little too tight over his bones, making him look as though he is halfway to the grave already instead of just attempting to rest and get his brain back together. Last I'd spoken to Sage about it, he was still getting frequent nosebleeds. Even with all of Felix's hard work, it was a slow and steady journey to get him back to where he needs to be.
The third man standing there is Sage’s fourth and final Bond, a man I haven't formally met yet.
After North and Gryphon had finally decided to contact him and bring him to the Sanctuary, all the background checks and monitoring they had done coming up with not even the slightest taint of Resistance, Wick had been put into isolation until Gryphon had finished off the vetting process. Sage had been thrilled to meet him before we'd left, having instantly felt the same connection to him as she'd felt with the others. I'm glad that this one Bond had been a little less complicated for her. I know the path with the other three was… less than smooth.
He turns to look at us all as we make our way over and snaps, “How long are you going to keep her in there? She hasn't done anything wrong.”
I don't bother introducing or explaining myself to him, it's easier to let North deal with that side of things. Instead, I give Felix a tight smile as he moves out of the way to let me face Sage through the glass. He trusts me. He knows what lengths I have always gone to for my friend. Plus, he knows that at the very least, he's going to get an explanation.
