Page 43 of Blood Bonds
I feel the moment the bond slips away and leaves North behind, but he doesn’t break away from my lips until he’s had his own turn. I sigh when he finally pulls away, stretching out next to me and curling an arm behind his head.
It’s quiet for one blissful moment between the three of us, I’m completely content, and then North and his big, bossy mouth ruin it.
“Get up and go to the bathroom.”
I huff at him and turn towards Gryphon, giving him the cold shoulder in the most literal sense of the term. “Stop worrying about your sheets, they’re already ruined. I just wanna sleep; leave me alone.”
He slides a palm under my arm and levers me into a sitting position like I’m made out of air, not at all listening to my demands. “You’ll regret it when you get a UTI. Just go pee, and then you can spread out all you want.”
I huff at him and throw a pillow at his head while my face heats up. “Never say the word ‘pee’ to me again, Draven, or I’ll go find somewhere else to sleep.”
Gryphon chuckles as he bends down to pull his boxers back on. “You should be glad he’s not insisting on following you in there to watch.”
I immediately regret fucking the both of them, both separately and together.
Once I’ve peed and washed up, trying not to wince at just how abused my pussy is feeling after coming that many times and taking Gryphon’s dick until I was goddamned rubbed raw, I take a small moment to breathe before stepping back out into the dark bedroom. I want to leave the bathroom light on so I don’t bump into every piece of furniture between here and the bed, but then North raises his palm and August appears, trotting over to me in his full Doberman size.
I make an embarrassing squeaking noise as I drop down onto my knees to give him all of the love he deserves.
“Dogs do not belong on the bed, even ones made out of shadows,” Gryphon grumbles, and I scoff at him.
I speak in my puppy-love voice as I reply, “And for that, August can sleep on your side and you can cuddle with him instead of me. You love cuddles, don’t you, baby? Yes, you do. Let’s get your brother out too, let him have some snugs too.”
When I lift Brutus out of my hair, he doesn’t snap or fight with August for my attention, both of them now very secure in my love because they know I’ll give it equally to both of them.
I turn the bathroom light off and let the puppies lead me over to the bed safely, their heads butting into me when I get too close to sharp edges and Gryphon’s boots. Neither North or Gryphon argue about me having the creatures wrapped around my legs, and August even rests his head against North’s thigh in the most affectionate gesture I’ve ever seen between the two of them.
Maybe I can fix whatever issue North has with his creatures.
I fall asleep with Gryphon warm against my back and North’s hand resting under my cheek, his thumb tracing over my face in rhythmic strokes that send me off to a peaceful and dreamless slumber.
I wakeup after the threesome of my wildest dreams feeling like myself again, finally.
So much so that I spend a good twenty minutes staring at North’s sleeping face and trying to figure out how the hell he went from barely tolerating me to being all in on the Bonded front. I mean, that’s not even the strangest thing that’s happened in the last few days of the recovery fog but staring at his long, sooty eyelashes as they rest against his high cheekbones I can forget about it for now. I’ve never really let myself look at him for this long and never this close before, so the image distracts me for a good three seconds before the rest of the ‘what the fuck’ situations filter into my head.
Like the whole waking up in Atlas’ head mess. I really need to figure out what the fuck happened there without actually telling anyone about it because they will freak—
“What the hell do you mean you woke up in Bassinger’s head?”
Fuck.
A frown appears between North’s eyebrows the moment he wakes up, and I elbow Gryphon in the ribs, both for doing that and for meddling in my head again.
He grunts and catches my elbow, turning me slightly to face him more fully. “It’s not meddling, you’re practically screaming in my ear with your thoughts. It woke me up. I’m not doing it on purpose.”
I roll my eyes and murmur back to him, hoping North will go back to sleep, “Well then, teach me how to stop mind yelling at you. I should be allowed a little privacy, right?”
He raises an eyebrow back. “I would say yes, but I just found out you’ve somehow managed to astral project and weren’t going to tell me, so maybe we’ll keep you like this until you learn to trust me a little more.”
“Did he just say ‘astral project’? I need a coffee,” North says in a sleepy rasp that does things to my body. He shouldn’t be able to do these things to me without even trying, that’s not fair at all. I watch as he rolls out of the bed in one smooth movement and walks into the bathroom, the tiny boxer briefs he’s wearing doing nothing to help with calming my raging hormones.
This has to be a Bonded thing, right? I’m not going to be this horny forever… right?!
I glance at Gryphon and shove a pillow in his smug face when I find him smirking at me. “Shut up. Shut up and tell me how to get you out of my head. My brain has been shitty the last few days and… well, if I had’ve ended up in Gabe’s head or Nox’s, I probably would have told you about it, but you’re all on Team Atlas-Is-A-Spy, so I thought maybe we should figure that out first.”
Gryphon glances towards the bathroom door and then murmurs back to me quietly, “If you have any control over the ability at all, don’t ever try it with Nox. If you never listen to another word I say, Bonded, just listen to this; stay out of Nox Draven’s head.”
Even with the quiet, gentle tone he’s using, a chill takes over me as I nod back at him, swallowing roughly. “I didn’t do anything to end up in Atlas’ head in the first place. I just went to sleep and then woke up staring at his bedroom wall feeling so goddamned bored my skin was crawling. It took me a full minute to realize where I was and… I just spoke with him for a minute. That’s it.”