Forced Bonds (The Bonds That Tie, #4)(71)

However, there are three smaller Wastelands that we have attempted to get to soon enough to shut them down before they get out of hand. Gryphon was the obvious choice, his team being the strongest and most experienced, but with only just completing the Bonded Group, I didn't want to split us up so soon.

The matter might have just been taken out of my hands.

The call comes in that one of our TacTeams has been wiped out, with a handful of prisoners taken, just as I'm about to leave the office for the night. I've had a fucking terrible day between dealing with the non-Gifted community summit fallout and Gryphon sending through the images of Oleander discussing her time at the camps. I'm not really all that interested in dealing with anything else, but to have an entire TacTeam wiped out is catastrophic.

The fact that Unser had gone along with them is an especially devastating blow.

I immediately send a message to Gryphon to come to my office so that we can figure out a plan of action, and then I make the call to Vivian to let him know the situation.

It’s bad, but not as bad as having to call Adella to let her know what's happened to her Bonded.

It's always the worst part of losing men out in the field, and losing someone who is a close friend to my Bonded Group makes it even more devastating.

“He’s not dead. I can still feel him.”

I rub a hand over my face and try to figure out the best way to explain the predicament of that to Adella. I go with just being honest with her. “That means that they have two Triggers, and that we have none. On a personal level, I am devastated, but it is also my responsibility as Councilman Draven to think about this from a strategic point of view.”

Adella is a no-nonsense sort of woman, someone who has dealt with having two TacTeam leaders as her Bonded her entire adult life, raising their children alone most of the time, and still maintaining perfect relationships with them both.

After losing my own parents’ Bonded Group at a young age, they were definitely the sort of people that I looked up to, and hoped that my own Bonded Group would look something like. I still have that hope today.

“I understand what you're saying, and so I'm telling you that you need to go and find him. He's alive, and it is a threat for him to not be with us. The same way that if the Resistance got their hands on you, or your brother, or your Bonded, it would be a threat to us all. There are certain people that we need to protect. He’s one of them, North.”

She's got me there, not that I need any encouragement to go after her Bonded… I just don’t want her getting her hopes up.

“I will leave Vivian here in charge with my Bonded, but I will personally go and find him. One way or another.”

She makes a tutting noise under her breath. “He's not going to like that. You know that he will want to go after Unser himself.”

Despite the shitty situation, I find myself grinning at her tone. “Like you said, there's certain people that take precedence. If anyone is going to be able to bring him home, it’s me.”

The elevator doors open and Gryphon steps into the office, Nox trailing closely behind him with a savage look on his face, a book tucked under his arm, and a bottle of whiskey in his other hand.

He hadn't taken the news of switching his sleeping patterns very well, mostly because I think he saw through my reasoning for it easily. I had been forced to explain it to him in no uncertain terms. If he's not willing to go back to therapy and figure out how to coexist peacefully with our Bonded, then this is the next best choice for him.

I turn my computer screen around so that they can both read it while I finish up the conversation with Adella. “I’ll get him back. One way or another. You just need to stay here and take care of Vivian and those kids. You'll have your hands more than full, I'm sure.”

She chokes out a tearful sort of chuckle, strong as ever, but still clearly worried about her Bonded. “The youngest one has already asked why the age restrictions on TacTeams haven't been lifted yet. I hope you're ready to face what we have brought into this world, because I'm not sure you're ready for my boys.”

The smile stays glued to my face, genuinely happy to hear it, and I sign off by saying, “They certainly can't be any harder to train than we were, and Vivian did a great job of that.”

The moment I hang the phone up, Nox says, “We need to leave now. If they get him back to one of the camps and we can't figure out which one, we're done for. One Trigger is bad enough.”

He's not saying anything that I don't already know, but a ripple of irritation runs down my spine.

“We’re going to need to take everyone,” Gryphon says, and I shake my head.

“We can't take everyone. It's not safe to have all of us in one place at the same time. We need to stick to the rules of one of us being here at all times. Oleander is still resting after the Bond being completed, so we can't take her. Her bond is volatile at the best of times.”

We both pointedly don't look at Nox, and I shrug back at Gryphon. “You, Atlas, and I are the only ones who have bonded and found our power increases. Everyone else should stay here.”

Nox reacts immediately and exactly the way I know he will. “There's no way I'm staying here. If there's a fight to be had, I'm going.”

I shake my head, not entirely sure why I’m fighting him when I know he’ll never back down. “You're in the same boat as Oli, you need to let the bond settle.”