Page 67 of Forging Bonds: Part One

Heading over to the decanter, I fill up my glass and turn back to face him, “What?”

“Neith’s going to be in the Choosing,” he says. “They’ve just announced it.”

I freeze. My heartbeat pounding in my chest. No, no, she can’t be. It’s a struggle to keep my face neutral as I sip my drink and shrug.

“Good for her,” I reply with absolutely no feeling in my voice whatsoever. “Get me Karhu.”

The man nods, and I don’t detect any suspicion at all as he spins on his heel and rushes to do as I’ve asked.

I’ve avoided Karhu for a while now. I don’t want him to become a target of Casimir since, along with Coen, he’s my best friend, or at least he was. He was Neith’s too, and he hates me for how I have treated her. I hate me, too, far more than he ever could.

This probably isn’t going to go very well, but I can’t just leave it. She’s in so much fucking trouble, more than she probably realizes, and I’m going to needhelp to ensure that she’s safe. Karhu is the only one in this fucking place that cares about her.

The door bangs open, and the huge shifter storms in, his boots thudding on the ground. He looks down at the dead supe on the floor and rolls his eyes.

“What the fuck do you want, Dimitri,” he growls.

I wince at his harsh tone although I know that I am deserving of it and so much more, “Help.”

His eyebrows hit his hairline, and he crosses his arms over his chest as he studies me closely. He obviously sees a change because he frowns and nods.

“With what?”

“First, if I start insulting or threatening you, it’s not me,” I say. For the first time, I have been able to tell someone that.

He scoffs like it’s a joke, “What do you mean like you have been doing for the last six years?”

I nod, “Yes, Kar, exactly like that.”

The use of his nickname, that I haven’t used in six fucking years, makes his eyes widen. Thankfully, one of the reasons that he was always my number two until six years ago is that he is incredibly intelligent.

“Are you telling me that something is controlling you and has been this entire time?” He asks. I nod, “Well I had been toying with the idea, I mean it’s the only thing that would explain how you could treat Neith the way you have when at one point you slit the throat of someone who called her a bitch.”

I growl. “The cunt deserved it for calling her that. I deserve much worse.”

He tenses, and his expression fills with horror as he realizes exactly what has been going on and that I was aware of it, “Fuck Dimitri. I’m so fucking sorry. I can’t even. Shit.”

He realizes he knows what it’s done to me because he knows me. He knows how I would die for Neith.

“She’s in trouble, I need your help,” I say.

He nods, “You’ve got it. Wait, are you still being controlled? Is it Casimir?”

I nod again, I have no idea how long I’m going to be able to speak freely, “Yes and yes. I’m attacking it, but it’s slow going, and he’s got something that can top it up and put me back to square one. He’s done it before. I’m playing his game.”

He nods, “Gotch ya. What do you need? What’s up with Neith? I knew she wouldn’t really be dead. She’s too smart to let the fuckers at HID kill her off.”

Chapter Twenty-Two

Dimitri

Igrin. I know that I can trust him because although he doesn’t love her like I do, he loves her like a sister, and I know that he hated not being able to see her. Although he’s kept his distance in order to keep her safe.

“She did die,” I explain.

“No fucking way, I knew it,” he grins. “Alright, quick, tell me what’s going on before you go psycho, or rather an evil psycho because you have always been a psycho.”

“Fuck you,” I grin. I have really fucking missed him. “She’s in the Choosing.”

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