Unbroken Bonds (The Bonds That Tie #6)(97)

I'm going to sleep in there with him tonight, no matter what else happens today, to see if I can ease away some of that tension that is building in his limbs.

“There's a vote happening for the council. Once we have that established, we’ll be able to take some time off. We don't all have to be here all the time.”

I nod and then I smile back at him. “Maybe I should get back to my schoolwork. Maybe that'll help me figure out how I'm going to spend the rest of my days now that we're not running after god-bonds.”

Atlas reaches under the table to squeeze my leg, nodding his head before he smirks at me. “It might be easier to pass your classes now that you don't have a professor failing you for absolutely no reason.”

I groan under my breath, not wanting to listen to the two of them go at each other's throats this morning, but Nox just sends him a haughty look back. “It'll be far easier for her to pass all of the classes considering she now knows enough to teach them if she wants to.”

I forgot about that, one of the least acknowledged perks of our soul-bonding.

It feels as though a weight has been lifted from my shoulders, and everybody gets back to their breakfasts, talking quietly among themselves. It just reinforces that this is our life now, happy and whole and together, working as a team to figure out exactly what it is that we're after. Exactly what it is that's best for us and for everyone else, because no matter if we have dealt with the Resistance, North is still a very notable member of the community, someone who will have to make decisions for the rest of his life. People's lives depend on his experience and knowledge, after all, but that doesn't feel as suffocating as it did when I first arrived here.

Now it feels hopeful, something to be proud of, something for us all. My phone chimes in my pocket, and I pull it out to find a message from Sage asking me what the hell had happened at the Wasteland and if we're all okay.

I message her back to tell her that I'm going to come find her and hang out today, that I'm going to check up on Kieran and the rest of their Bonded Group, and then I put the phone back in my pocket with a sigh, enjoying the sounds of my Bonded all here together. The way that they bicker with one another over small things and discuss big plans for the community. How they organize their time together and share their ambitions with one another, and the way that they're a family, just as vibrant and amazing and loving as the one whose ashes I scattered this morning.

It might be completely different, but in a lot of ways, it's exactly the same. I found my home. I've fought for it, I've bled for it, and now I get to enjoy it.

My Bonded and I deserve it.





EPILOGUE





Oli



The only thing better than waking up on a yacht moored offshore a tropical island is being woken up by your Bonded’s tongue burying itself deep inside your pussy.

I should know.

Every inch of my body aches, love bites cover my inner thighs and my chest, and my legs feel as though they might never stop shaking, but this is what my life looks like now.

It’s fucking incredible.

“Look at this perfect Bonded pussy, all red and swollen from being used. Do you need a break, Bonded? I’m not going to give you one. I’ve waited too long to spend my days fucking this pussy whenever the hell I want to.”

My eyes roll into the back of my head as my thighs clamp around Gryphon’s ears, his words spoken directly against my clit so that I’m practically weeping for him to finish me off. You’d think that having sex with my Bonded so much would get old, that maybe we’d all get over each other or need some time away, but I still go to bed every night naked and sandwiched between two of them, and every morning, I wake up to at least one of them demanding my time.

It turns out I had nothing to worry about.

After two years of living in peace, we finally decided the Sanctuary was running well enough that we could go on a nice, long holiday. North was sick of being interrupted all day long and the hours that he was still being forced to work even after the new council had been elected, so getting away for a while was really our only option.

Gryphon continued to run the TacTeams, mobilizing and coordinating the cleanups to get rid of the last of the Resistance. I’m sure we’ll be doing that for many years to come, thanks to how far that poison had spread, but I’ll take that over the constant attacks any day of the week.

Nox went back to teaching the moment the new university had been built. I’m pretty sure he just missed telling students how dumb they were and scaring them with his creatures, but he loved putting together the new units for Gifted 101 now that we’re written into history.

He wants me to teach a class on god-bonds, but I don’t think I’m the right choice to mold future minds at all.

Gabe took over his father’s position at their family’s construction company and used it to continue expanding the Sanctuary. It’s now eight times bigger than when we’d first moved in, and he’s the busiest of my Bonded after North, but he’s also the most fulfilled in his work. I never see him without a grin on his face, and nothing makes me happier.

Atlas is where the biggest change can be seen in my Bonded Group. After he came home to me with a change on his birth certificate proudly proclaiming that he’s a Fallows now too, he spent a lot of time trying to figure out what the hell he wanted to do with his life now that protecting me wasn’t going to be a full-time job. I was totally expecting him to continue to work with Gabe and help build the Sanctuary but instead, he works with Gryphon, teaching the TacTeams about the Resistance and their propaganda.