Page 62 of Bound in Blood

His right eyelid twitches. “I am afraid you do not.”

His response is unexpected, hitting me like a punch to the gut and knocking the breath from my lungs. I wish I could hide my reaction from him, but bond or not, there’s nothing I can keep from him. “I don’t?”

“You seem surprised by my response, Axl. Did you think I would not want to bond with you again? That I would allow you the freedom to leave our family unit?”

“I would never leave,” I insist. How can he even suggest such a thing? The mere thought of it flays me.

He tilts his head. “Well, of course you would never leave Ophelia.”

Is that what he thinks? “I would never leave any of you.” I ball my hands into fists and grind them into the sand. Anger simmers beneath my skin, and I have no idea why this conversation is eliciting such strong emotion. Better yet, why didn’t I simply tell him the truth—that of course I want to bond again? Fear that he wouldn’t want to has been tearing me apart since we got here last night. So what the hell is stopping me from being honest with him?

“If you would never leave, why do you want a choice?”

Tears burn my eyes, and I blink them away. “I don’t.”

“Then tell me why you asked for one.”

I clench my jaw tight and turn back to the ocean. Each wave deposits a white foam residue on the shore, leaving behind the parts of itself it no longer wants.

But Alexandros keeps on. He knows I won’t be able to avoid answering for much longer. It’s a particular skill he has. I’ve seen him use it in the classroom too. A gentle interrogation that always gets to the root of the truth, even if the person being interrogated didn’t realize what that truth was before he dug it out. “Why did you not simply ask me what you wanted to know instead?”

I grind my teeth. “And what is it you think I want to know, Alexandros?”

He holds up a handful of sand and allows it to run through his spread fingers. The silence seems to stretch between us for an eternity before he answers me. Perhaps he’s hoping I will find the answer myself, but even if I know it, I’m not sure I can put it into words. “You wish to know why I did not come to you first. And if by not doing so, it means I favor you less now than I did before.”

I growl, angry that he’s so easily able to verbalize what I’m feeling when I can’t.

He sighs, following my gaze out toward the horizon. “I still recall the first day I saw you. Sitting on a bench in the park, staring at the water, much like you are now. So handsome and confident in your finery. Catching the eye of every pretty maid who walked by and so sure of his prowess that no one would dare believe him anything less than a man with the world at his feet. Yet those who cared to look directly below the surface, as I did, would have seen a boy. One filled with sadness and self-doubt and a deep gnawing yearning to begood enough.”

Some of that self-doubt creeps in right now; it churns in my gut and ignites a chain reaction of negative emotion that swellsinside me. I do my best not to let the memories of my past life take hold and drag me into their abyss.

“I suspected it was to do with your father, but I was not entirely sure. And then I met him, and… Well, I do not need to remind you of the kind of man Alastair Thorne II was.”

That abyss opens up into a soul-sucking chasm at the mention of his name. My old self calls to me, reminding me of my true nature. And I wonder whether we can ever truly escape the lives we were born into. The people we were born as—the ones that are inherent in our DNA.

Alexandros places his hand on the back of my neck and squeezes possessively, and it anchors me back to the present. “I chose you because you reminded me of my daughter Imogen. She was a beautiful, spirited soul, much like you. Your heart had been hardened by a cruel world by the time you and I met, but your humanity has always been what draws me to you. Your passion and your resilience.” He turns my head and presses our foreheads together. “You have always been good enough, Axl Thorne. Much too good for your father. But more than good enough for everyone else. For your brothers. Xavier, Malachi, and Frederik. For Ophelia. For me.”

“I have?” Tears run down my cheeks, and I cannot recall the last time I cried openly in front of him.

“Yes, you have and you are. I cannot choose between the three of you, and I never will. You are all a part of me in different ways, and without each of you, I am decidedly less. So no, you do not have a choice, Axl Thorne. You already belong to me, and I will never let you go.”

I suck in a shaky breath. The memory of being turned creeps up on me unexpectedly, reminding me of the agony I endured to become what I am.

“It was changing that hurt. The bond will not,” he says softly. “Without the agony of the turning to endure, you will no doubt enjoy it.”

He straddles me and pulls me into his arms, and the heat from his skin burns against my flesh. He rubs his nose over my throat, and I close my eyes, listening to the gentle sound of the waves caressing the sand. I feel nothing but euphoria when he sinks his fangs into my throat. My blood hurtles to the spot where his mouth greedily suckles, and pleasure ignites in every cell of my body. I tip my head back, my mouth open on a moan when he presses his wrist to my lips, and I act only on instinct, sinking my teeth in and letting his thick, metallic blood coat my teeth and tongue. And then I feel so much more than the pleasure of bonding.

I feel power. His power. He may be less without us, but that is surely true of us without him. I forgot the feeling of invincibility that comes along with his blood. My strength is derived from him. It was not only the blue poppy that made us weaker.

There is my boy.His deep voice washes over me, and I seem to melt bonelessly into the sand, so relieved to have our bond back in place.

It’s so good to have you back.

He hums while he goes on feeding.It is good to be back. I have missed you.

I’ve missed you too. It was quiet without you in my head.

He stops feeding and laughs. “Even with Xavier, Malachi, and Ophelia inside there? Surely there is never a quiet moment in any of our heads.”

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