Page 33 of Forbidden Bonds
He has been damaged… like me, and yet in a different way.
“You weren’t always agoraphobic.”
He shakes his head stiffly. “The government needed more alphas. An entire planet, previously untouched? Yeah, that yielded a few.”
It left him in a coma.For a long time, from what I can tell. Certainly long enough for Lucian to be trained and deployed as a soldier in the war. My heart is breaking for him. And Lucian? My knowledge of him is limited, but he took care of Rhett. So many images bombard me. Their lives were not always like this, but the unwavering love and loyalty between the two men is both pervasive and enduring.
“What they did was terrible. Inhuman.”
“We were losing the war. We still are,” he says coldly. “The virus changes everyone. But it can only make more of what’s already there. I mean, I’m an alpha. Only I’m not quite an alpha, am I? The virus switches traits, enhances them, and switches others off.” He pauses, searching for the words. “I was always good with technology, even back on Lyus as a kid. But after I came out of the coma, it was as if I could see the patterns, feel them, and sense their shape… I’m guessing you’ve pieced enough together enough to understand that my brother runs a criminal empire. He owns this building and a significant number of other businesses in downtown Chimera. A fight club. Restaurants… An interstellar shipping company. The list goes on. The seed funds, the intelligence that builds it, that keeps it going—I provide that.”
“You’re a hacker,” I say slowly.
“I am. One without a moral compass. After Lyus and what happened with the virus, I suspect my lack of giving a fuck runs in my blood. I do whatever I need to make sure no one gets in our way. Bribery. Blackmail. I’m not a good man, Larissa. You deserve a good man.” He swallows. “I shouldn’t have put my mark on you. I should have been stronger, but I wasn’t. Too late to change your mind. You’re mine and nobody’s going to take you away from me—not Black, not the fucking government, and not the Uncorrupted.”
The bond blazes between us.
“If something’s happening, I’ll know about it. If something’s going down, I’ll see. I have ears and eyes everywhere… Ethan’s going to return at some point. He wants to use you as leverage against the government. He’ll have reasons for going this route, and I need to find them out if I’m to keep you safe.”
A fire is back in his eyes. He’s not a conventional alpha. Oh, he’s big and strong. But he’s not a warrior—not the way Ethan is. Nor does he harbor the gritty edge I sense in Lucian.
He’s something different.
Dangerous in his own way.
Do I care that he’s a criminal? Do I care that he’s agoraphobic?
I cup his cheek and look him in the eyes, hearing his thoughts:You don’t want me, I’m broken.
“Do you think any of this makes me see you as less?”You are not broken, you’re just different—unconventional.
His throat works. “You say that now, but?—”
“I don’t know if I can go outside, either, if I’m honest. As for you being a hacker, a criminal, I’ve spent ten years with the Uncorrupted.” Bile rises in my throat, but I swallow it down. “I helped them as they tortured our captive soldiers, men like your brother, reading their minds and giving up their secrets. I’m responsible for the deaths, for the torture, the humiliation, pain, and suffering of thousands. My existence spawned their viral program. I have been their unwilling helper. I betrayed everything I once stood for.” Fresh tears trickle down my cheeks. “I betrayed my own kind!”
His arms wrap around me, crushing me to him, his purr loud and slightly off beat. “I hate to do the ‘back at ya’ thing, but also, that is not your fault.”
“I could have said no. I could have been stronger. But I don’t like pain, Rhett. Not good with it.”
“Baby, you shouldn’t have had to be,” he says softly. “I’ve seen the scars on your body. Everybody breaks under torture. Everybody, Larissa. Breaking when bad people do shit to you, that doesn’t make you bad, it makes you human. And now you have lumbered yourself with me.”
“God, this is a rollercoaster of a conversation. Now you’re making me mad! I have lived in a cage my whole adult life; I think I have the right to choose.”
“I’m the first alpha you’ve met. It’s hardly a balanced sample.”
“Incorrect. I have met thousands, and I’ve seen into the minds of every one of them. You’re the first alpha that I’ve ever trusted.”
Chapter Thirteen
Rhett
She has just blown my mind.
She trusts me.
That shit is heady. Also, she’s really fucking hot when she gets all feisty. I make a mental note. The more I learn about her, the more I realize just how layered she is. Mind-reading aside, the woman’s been through hell, and survived with her sanity intact. I’m not worthy, but fuck it. She wants me? I’ll make myself worthy, do whatever it takes.
When Lucian first brought her to me, I noticed the marks on her. Now I know the story behind them. Everybody breaks. It’s human nature to survive.
