Forced Bonds (The Bonds That Tie, #4)(68)

“Thank God, I honestly thought I was going to have to come and fight Kieran for your honor.”

She snorts into my shoulder, a very wet sound that I will not judge her for, and mumbles, “Sawyer beat you to it. We tried to keep him out, but he just used his Gift to unlock the doors and bitch me out for the state of myself. He's dragging me to dinner tonight with our parents. It'll be the first time that Kieran is coming to see them in a formally Bonded capacity, so feel free to snatch my soul right out and get me the hell out of that situation.”

I bite my lip and glance at Keiran, ignoring the way that he glowers down at me, as if daring me to say something.

Joke's on him, I give zero fucks about his feelings on the matter.

“Meeting the parents! Do you feel nervous? I should probably let you know that their opinions on their daughter's Bonds have always been pretty weird, so you're gonna have your work cut out for you. I can totally give you some tips though. I won them over pretty damn quick. How do you feel about walking into burning buildings?”

Sage grimaces and buries her face in her hands. “Don't remind me! My dad is still falling over himself trying to get my forgiveness. Even after this whole ‘Neuro hacking into my brain’ debacle, he's been even more protective about it. He's trying to convince us to move into the same house as him, my mom, and Maria, but I honestly can't think of anything worse.”

Gryphon greets Kieran with a clap on the shoulder and then reaches past us all to scan his card to get access to the building. Gabe and Atlas are squabbling over who beat who in the running race, and I throw an arm over Sage’s shoulder to tuck her into my side tightly, already feeling like today is going to be a million times better than yesterday, thanks to Sage’s appearance.

We step into the center together and out of reflex, I duck my head so I don’t have to see any of the curious and wary looks that I know will be slung my way.

I distract myself with my bestie. “So, are you here to see me to do training or because Kieran refuses to let you out of his sight, because he's a typical boorish Bonded man?”

Sage scoffs and kicks her feet against the concrete. “A mix of all three I suppose. I heard about Atlas’ power surge, and I'm interested to see if Gabe has one too. I hope you guys don't mind having an audience. I can go back home, if you want some privacy.”

I glance back at Gabe, just to check in, but I’m also desperate to hang out with her, so I’m sure all he’s seeing on my face is that.

He shrugs and replies to her, “There's still no sign of my power surge, which I'm taking as a sign that I was already the most powerful shifter on record and there's no upgrading what's already perfect.”

I smile back at him, and Atlas makes a gagging sound of annoyance. Their friendship is mostly a competition of who can be the most childish. “You're so full of shit, Ardern. You just need to have a bit more patience, or maybe we need to drop a bathtub on your head again without me saving your ass and see if it finally draws something out of you.”

Gabe clutches a hand to his chest. “I would, but your Gift got in the way last time without you even trying, so I doubt it will work.”

Sage turns her head until her lips are close enough to my ear that they won’t hear her and whispers, “Since when have these two been best friends? It's weird.”

I giggle and pull her with me towards the training room. “It’s freaking bizarre, and they figured it out all on their own. We're very proud.”

When we get into the training area, I immediately move over to the mats to start stretching out, something that is even more important than it was before, thanks to our competitiveness running down here. Sage drops to the mats next to me and follows through my stretching routine with me. She's a little more subdued than what I'm used to, more like the shy girl that I had first met when I got to Draven, but I'm not surprised at the change in her at all.

There are a lot of TacTeam personnel eyes on us.

It doesn't take a genius to figure out that they're all put off by Sage and I being here. I'm used to them all looking at me, but today I’m hyperaware of it because I don’t want anyone making her uncomfortable now that she’s finally ready to join us out here again.

Kieran and Gryphon both notice it too, and while my Bonded is good about ignoring it most of the time, his second-in-command is not quite so calm. Within the space of the time it takes the two of us to stretch out, every single TacTeam personnel who dared to side-eye us is put on some sort of terrible job, groaning and muttering under their breath as they are sent off in all different directions.

Sage grimaces as though she feels bad for them, and I give her a sardonic look back. “If they were smart enough to keep their opinions to themselves, they wouldn't be in this mess. That hasn't got anything to do with us.”

She shrugs. “I don't blame them though. They're all just looking out for Kieran. I can't blame them for that, can I?”

I shrug back. “You can because their superiors have told them to get the fuck over it, so they're not the good little soldiers they should be, are they?”

Gabe scoffs at me from where he is stretching out next to us. He’s not usually so enthusiastic about it, but I think that the extra attention has him on edge as well. “Since when have you been a good little soldier, Bonded? You’d have to keep your opinions to yourself for that.”