Page 67 of Gift from the Wing

“No, absolutely not.” I laugh at the mortification in her tone, then clear my throat. “Our bond strengthened again, just like after you bonded the first time, but more…if that makes sense.”

“Holy shit, it does. You…you’re fully bonded too. I felt it,” she whispers before squealing so loud I have to pull the communicator from my ear. “This is the coolest and weirdest thing ever.”

We fall into fits of laughter. This, by my definition, isn’t the weirdest thing that’s happened, but it’s something, that’s for sure. It makes sense now, though, why I haven’t felt a desperate need to see her like I normally would. Both of our bonds are a little distracted with the bigger bonds taking over our emotions currently.

Once our teasing and laughing tapers off, we easily jump right into catching up on everything that’s been happening for both of us. I tell her about the memories, the south wing, CC, and like the amazing sister she is, she laughs, cries, and cusses him out on my behalf. Her excitement for me having almost all my memories returned matches my own, though, and her support means the world to me.

“What is that noise coming out of you?” I ask as she lets out a long, exaggerated groan.

“My parents are blowing me up. They’ve been blowing me up since Corentin sent out the announcement of the academy shutting down. Theylaid off a little bit when I told them I was selected to join the mission we were going on, you know, excluding the part about kidnapping an ancient vampire, but since we’ve gotten back, they’ve been relentless. They want to know where I’m staying, who I’m staying with, blah, blah, blah. Well, last night they took it too far. I kinda snapped…”

“Snapped how? Don’t leave me hanging like that.”

She lets out a sigh and I swear I can see her eyes rolling. “They had invited me to dinner last night, which I know I should’ve just said no to, but then I would’ve had to come up with an explanation as to why I didn’t want to come, so I just ignored them. Right before bed, they started blowing me up again. So then I got scared that something had happened to one of them and I answered. Wrong freaking shit to do. My dad went ballistic on me about how much I made a fool of him and embarrassed him.”

“I don’t understand. How did you make a fool of him and embarrass him by ignoring their calls and not going to dinner?” I ask.

“They…” Her voice wells with emotions and her sudden sniffling has me sitting straight up.

What have those assholes done?

“Oakly, what did they do?” I accidentally, not really, growl.

“They’d arranged me a Nexus and I was supposed to meet them at dinner. The Razy Nexus. Fucking elite brats who are higher up in the Central and Aeradora society.”

My ears ring as the rage, sadness, and abandonment vibrate through her broken tone. I have to breathe through my dragon’s immediate need to defend her and my own fierce emotions make my skin hot at hearing her so upset.

This is the shit I just can’t understand about some families in this society. She’s a true Primary to a wonderful group of men. Hell, if we want to get technical, Ry’s standing elevates the entire Nexus to the point you’d think her social ladder parents would be thrilled. What should matter is her happiness, the fact she’s cherished, cared for, and not just that, those men build her up and encourage her to be more than a pretty face.

She’s a badass.

“So you snapped and told them you had a Nexus, a true Nexus,” I conclude.

“Yeah, and they didn’t take it well. Demanded I come home and introduce them,” she mumbles.

“Are you going to? I mean, fuck them. I’ll fly over there right now and tell them to fuck off. We’ll show them how high up in society you are when you roll up on a dragon’s back.” She thinks I’m kidding by the way a small laugh breaks through her tear-drenched voice, but I’m not.

“Yeah, we’re going to go the day after tomorrow. The last damn thing I want is to spend the remainder of break with my parents. It’s not going to go how they believe it’s going to, though. Ry’s already declared they’re taking full Nexus responsibility over me, and I won’t be leaving that house as a Folder but a Mercie. He’s supposed to be talking to Corentin and Tillman today about it. You know since we technically broke quite a few rules.”

“You lost me completely. What the hell does that mean? And why would he need Corentin’s and Tillman’s permission for that?” I ask, completely confused in the conversation now. The only thing I understood was the part of changing her last name to theirs.

“I forget sometimes you didn’t grow up here,” she snorts before saying, “I’m not sure how to put this without it being a long explanation or pissing you off.”

Oh, welp I already know it’s going to piss me off now.

“Might as well just spit it out.”

“There’re rules written within the academy handbook. Rules specifically for unbonded females, Primaries,” she says vaguely, not explaining shit.

“Get on with it, Oakly. I don’t have time to go hunt down this so-called handbook I’ve never heard of until this second.”

Shitty on my part, yeah, but Corentin never brought it up, so it’s not that important for me to know, I guess.

She sighs deeply, and I already know from that alone, whatever it is, is some shit that’s going to irk my nerves.

“You wouldn’t have heard of this because it doesn’t too much apply to you. Because you’re a…charge, so to speak, and you’re already your Nexus’s responsibility. For those of us females who aren’t, who have parents, they have to sign off on our Nexuses while we’re still at the academy. True or chosen. They decide when to give up their responsibility over us until we finish the academy. I wasn’t supposed to fully bond the guys without my parents’ knowledge of them.”

She delivers the news softly as if me being called a charge would hurt my feelings, but I couldn’t give a fuck about that part. That’s not the part that has my blood boiling.

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