Unbroken Bonds (The Bonds That Tie #6)(67)

I know exactly what he's talking about.

“Do you really think she doesn't know? Or that she's just convinced herself that she does? I can't imagine not knowing.”

Gryphon shakes his head again, rolling his forehead against the soft flesh of my thigh as he groans at the firm tension of my fingers as I scratch.

“You know what this feels like because you have felt a true Bond between us. How else are they getting everyone into the wrong Bonded Groups? Unless they really have been manipulating people's minds… Except that none of these people know what a Bonded Group really feels like. They get butterflies at the idea that someone belongs to them, and they think that's it, that's enough. They haven't felt what it's like to look at someone and have their entire world shifted on its axis so that that person is the center of it. They don't know what it feels like to look out and see your heart living and breathing outside of your own body. They don't understand what I felt when I saw you.”

My throat closes, and I bend at the waist until I'm hugging him, awkwardly laying myself over his back that's draped over my legs. We’re a messy pile of limbs, but it's perfect and exactly what I need at this moment. It’s what he needs too.

“Well, that means that you weren't a product of a Bonded Group. North and Nox weren't either, or Atlas. I guess that leaves me and Gabe.”

It’s never occurred to me that I could rerun my parents blood, but I suppose there’s a way that I could. Do I need that information? Do I want to have it? Will it change the way I think of them? Has it changed the way that Gryphon thinks of his?

I'm not sure, and I don't want to ask anything of my Bonded right now, not at the moment anyway.

Instead, I revel in the way that he's enjoying my touch, in the pleasure of us being here quietly together. Honestly, for now, it's enough.





The prospect of my parents not being Bonded weighs heavily on me. It's not until a few days later, when I am holding pieces of drywall in place for Gabe to fix them, that I finally find a way to speak to him about it—a way for the words to come out of me and not sound broken and desolate or just plain wrong.

“Do you ever wonder if your parents were Bonded or if they were also part of the Resistance scheme?”

We're alone in the house.

Atlas just left on one of the ATVs to go and pick up more grout and boxes of nails for us, leaving with a kiss for me and a slap on the shoulder for Gabe as he got to work. He's flourishing now that he has picked up the basics of building under Gabe’s tutelage. The first time that Gabe had declared some of his work as perfect, I saw Atlas beam with pride.

It occurs to me that he's never had to really work for anything before.

Being a Bassinger on the East Coast had made his entire life very easy, and I'm reminded of when he'd first started training with Gryphon and I. Gryphon had declared his form and technique lacking, thanks to overpaid trainers who wanted nothing more than his parents’ money and prestige. They didn’t really give a shit about whether or not Atlas truly knew how to defend himself.

I remember exactly what it looked like the first time that Gryphon had also declared his form perfect. Atlas gets serious pride from working hard at something and doing it right, and doing construction with someone that I now see is absolutely his best friend is no different.

Gabe tacks the drywall into place and then shoots me a wry grin. “I’ve done my best to make sure that you never have to meet my mother, and I don't really want that to change. I don’t need Sawyer to rerun the bloods to know that my mom was definitely Bonded to my dad at least. You don't break the way that she did without there being a Bond in place. She's not really here anymore.”

I have accidentally stepped on my Bonded’s trauma, one that he has always been so careful about keeping hidden from everyone. When I wince, he chuckles under his breath at me, bending down to give me a quick peck on the lips as he moves to the next piece of drywall to tack down.

“Don't worry about it, Bonded. It's not something I feel ashamed of anymore. It’s more like frustration that she's just chosen to tap out. Gryphon has assured me that this isn't a choice for her, that her mind is absolutely broken, but it still feels like a choice to me, no matter how hard I try to see it any other way. Meeting you helped a little, because I know how badly I would take anything happening to you, but she's still my mom, you know? It still feels like a rejection.”

Even feeling that way, he’s taken care of his mom with all the understanding in the world. No matter how he felt internally, he’s cared for her, and that speaks volumes about the character of my Bonded.

I nod and bend to help him lift up the next sheet, doing exactly as he asks, carefully and with consideration. I know that this is the one area of his life where Gabe is a perfectionist, the one area that he holds himself and everyone else to a very high standard. I don't want to be the person to mess his work up for him.

“Do you think we’ll feel differently when we have kids?” I ask quietly, shifting my weight on my feet as he straightens up with wide eyes.

I realize what I've said, and my cheeks turn red as I fumble to explain myself. “I mean, if that happens, I guess. I just—I'm trying to figure this out and how it relates to me and my parents, because I'm thinking about running their blood as well, and, shit, I've really put my foot in it—”