Page 3 of Twisted Bonds

Mouse will serve.

two

Mira

“It wouldn’t kill us to ask for directions.”

Two sets of eyes, one feline, one swirling with blue Chroma, glare back at me. Throwing my hands up in mock surrender, I shake my head. “I’m just saying, if we’re lost…”

“We are not lost,” Sunder snaps at me. Bobble Cat merely flicks an ear at me in response, choosing instead to back up the First Shard of their shared soul. I cock my head at him in disbelief.

“Really, Bobs? We’ve been wandering around aimlessly for… I lost count after ten days. But it feels like forever.” I cross my arms with an annoyed huff. Instead of having a sure-fire ally in Bobble, he sometimes sides with Sunder now.

Ever since my mate bond snapped into place with Bobble, the two of them have gotten… friendlier. Not in a back slapping buddy way. It’s more a quiet acceptance, at least from Sunder. Odd when compared to the open hostility he used to hold for my orange tabby cat.

Currently, however, my feelings on their relationship are neither here nor there. Just like us, apparently. We’ve been marching through this forest, away from Yurghen’s tower, for what feels like a year now, searching for some lost apprentice of Yurghen’s who may have some answers on how to merge the souls of my shattered mate.

“We cannot be lost,” Sunder grumbles. “I have roamed every inch of this realm. I have scoured every tree, rock, and lake. I have marked it as my own and know this territory better than anyone alive or dead.”

There’s a flickering of Chroma, and then instead of a fluffy orange tabby cat, Bobble stands before me as a very naked man. Well, a fae really. The tips of his ears stand just slightly above his unruly auburn hair. He tilts his head like he’s listening for something, then shakes it. “I also have mapped this,” he says lightly, “and I know us to be on the right track.”

“Okay. But like… how long ago?” I say, trying to focus my eyes somewhere that’s not the hard planks of his body. He is undeniably attractive and distracting, but I need to keep my mind on task.

While I would love nothing more than a little roll in the hay right now, even I can tone down my raging libido for long enough to have a civilized discussion. I’m just not used to two hot men wanting me. Usually at the same time.

Bobble’s pecs flex in the sunlight, and my heart flutters. Okay. I’m pretty sure I can tone it down at least. I clamp my thighs together, lifting my gaze to the sky as if I might glean something interesting about our predicament up there. The Frenzy from our bonding, it seems, is a little more intense than I had accounted for.

I tightly fold my arms, using every ounce of self-restraint to keep from launching myself onto Bobble like a crazed animal. The tension between us crackles in the air, like an electric charge ready to ignite at any moment. My heart pounds in my chest, matching the frantic beat of drums in my head. All I want to do is reach out and touch him. Instead, I grip my arms tighter and try to steady my breathing as I battle the urge to pounce.

My gaze drifts to the subtle bob in his throat as we hold each other’s gaze.

Later, Mira.

“Have you figured out how to change forms and keep your clothes on yet?”

“A sane query indeed,” Sunder rumbles from somewhere up ahead.

“No,” he frowns, looking down. “Why would I need them?”

With a soft sigh, I try to explain, “Yurghen was literally about to turn you into a sex toy with no issues, and pants would have at least given him some trouble.”

I’m treating it lightly, but my heart still tightens in fear as I think of how terribly things went in that tower. The mention of Yurghen makes my skin crawl, a creeping sense of nausea quickly extinguishing all earlier thoughts of fun and games. Sometimes I can still smell the burning hair and flesh as I burned him alive in retribution. He was supposed to be the one who would help us Merge, uniting all the fragments of the soul that have been forced into Shards.

One, apparently, who doesn’t believe in pants at all.

“You really need to figure out how to at least keep pants on when you shift,” I say to the fae shifter formerly cursed with permanent cat form. Breaking that curse is the only good thing to come out of the experience.

“I don’t think pants would have kept him from doing anything,” Bobble frowns, genuinely confused by the request. “Besides, this way, I am more accessible when you need me.”

A single wink from him and we both break out into grins like foolish children.

“Okay, I suppose that is a bonus,” I concede. “But still. We can’t just like… at it whenever you turn into a human.”

“Fae,” Sunder growls out a correction under his breath, but I pointedly ignore him. I know what they are. I just like to push his buttons too much to correct myself. The way his eyebrows pinch ever so slightly over the bridge of his nose when he’s vexed by my human ways delights a part of me I never knew existed until I met him.

“Well, we could.” Bobble is so matter of fact that I almost start laughing.

Barely keeping the smile from my face, I say, “Because then we’ll be even more lost than we already are.”

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