Page 68
Story: Bonding Beasts
He says it like a demand, and my eyes narrow as I tilt my head back to see him clearly. Whatever he sees on my face doesn’t cause any reaction, and my eyes narrow further.
He presses his forehead to mine and whispers, “You will choose to fix it.”
It's still demanding, but better wording, I guess.
A throat clears from behind Mitri, and I try to pull farther away to see, but he doesn’t release me, and I pause, staring back at him.
I can feel his breath on my lips and find myself leaning forward the tiniest bit before the throat clearing turns into a cough.
Mitri’s hand tightens on the back of my head as my arm drops from around him in embarrassment. He stands straight and pivots slightly, allowing me to see past him to Kimi, standing stiffly behind the dining room table, arms behind his back like an impatient butler.
He’s still golden-skinned with his tail coiled behind him, wearing a loud Hawaiian shirt sporting hot pink flamingos tucked into a faded pair of skin-tight jeans in the front. He had to have cut a hole in those for his tail to be out. His face is expressionless, and his body is so still he seems like a statue. I get chills looking at him, and not the good kind.
He gracefully gestures toward the only chair across from him when he has my full attention.
That’s odd. Ben has at least six at the table. Where are the rest? There’s a massive candelabra on the left-hand side with sixteen candles lit despite all the lights being on. A black tablecloth I’ve never seen is spread across the surface; with various items I can’t quite see all over it.
Well, there’s two of the other chairs. King and Mal aretied to them?
I meet Mal’s glaring eyes with wide ones of my own. His muscles bulge as he tries to break free of whatever has him chained to the chair as I gape in shock.
King sits beside him, lounging back as if he spends every day tied up and gagged, eyeing Mal as he struggles. He seems almost… bored.
“What the fuck?” I gasp in shock. Not exactly the reunion I was expecting. “Why are they tied up? Did something happen?”
“Bees, deep breaths,” Ben says calmly behind me.
“Did they do something to you? Hurt you?” I grab Mitri’s tie and yank. He turns back to face me from his stare-off with Kimi.
No, it isn’t lost on me that I’m demanding the who-knows-how-old immortal tell me if the bad man hurt him. I havecompletelylost my damn mind.
“He killed you,” Kimi says in the calmest tone I’ve ever heard him use.
I lean past Mitri to give Kimi the most incredulous look I can muster. “So what? It wasn’t him, I’m pretty sure. He’s looking a lot less puppet-like right now.”
“So what?” Ben snarls and stomps up to my side.
Mitri straightens to his full height, pulling my arm up as I hold on to his tie. All three males give me varying judgy stares that make me cringe inside.
“Mal? Help?”
He grumbles from behind the square of cloth covering his mouth and glares at me, shifting side to side while raising an eyebrow as if to say, “I’m a little tied up at the moment.” I can actually picture him saying it, too.
“Okay, hold up,” I release Mitri’s tie and try to step back from him, but his grip tightens, holding me in place.
I raise both hands in surrender and say as calmly as I can, “Mitri, let me go.”
His reply is an instant, “Nyet.”
“Mitri,” I snap and try to pull my head back. His arm doesn’t budge, and he seems to be getting angry, eyes narrowing slightly and brows tilting down the tiniest amount.
“Nyet,” he says, like it’s the only word he knows now, and the hand shifts down to grip the back of my neck.
It immediately makes my hackles rise, and I push back on my feet to yank myself out of his hold. Due to my weakness, or his apparent strength, I manage to lean while getting nowhere.
My stomach twists in sudden dread. It snuck up on me from out of nowhere and gets worse as Mitri pulls me towards the table. Crap, he’s pissed that I hesitated, isn’t he. Damn it, why did I hug him again?
My feet slide across the floor, made smooth by the swelling there, and make me wince.
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