Page 15 of Burdened Bonds

“Wander off,” she says, looking just as stormy.

“Wander off?” he spits.

“What did I just say? You’ve been acting like dickheads. All of you. You need to snap out of it and get your act together for our girl.”

“That’s what I’m doing!”

“No, you’re not. You’re going off in a huff.”

My huge cousin growls at Winnie Wence but Winnie Wence, to her credit and my surprise, holds her ground.

“You need to work together,weneed to work together.Fate made you Rhianna’s mates for a reason, and I’m guessing that’s because you are clever, talented and powerful. You need to combine those talents and powers, and use them to find Rhianna, because she’s special and it won’t be too long before bad people figure that out and come after her.”

“Bad people like your father,” Azlan says to me.

“Bad people like the fucking chancellor,” I snarl back at him.

“It doesn’t matter who the bad people are, what matters is that Rhi is safe!” Winnie says with exasperation.

“Winnie’s right,” Ellie says. “You shouldn’t be at each other’s throats like this. We’ve … we’ve already lost someone dear to us tonight,” she rests her hand on my shoulder, “let’s not lose another.”

Azlan peers at his sister and his demeanor softens, his shoulders slackening. “Okay, we can try to work together. For Rhianna’s sake,” he adds, throwing me a dirty look.

“Good,” Winnie nods, “I think we should start with a bit of honesty.”

“Honesty?” I say. “I thought we were looking for Rhianna.”

Winnie looks around at us all. “I’m serious when I say Rhi’s special, and not just in the I-love-my-best-friend way. Fated mates are freaking unheard of these days. To have one fated mate is rare. But to have four!”

“Four?” I say, peering at Azlan and then Stone. “There’s another–”

“Me,” Spencer says, stepping out from the shadows. He’s naked except for a blanket wrapped around his shoulders and his body is even more busted up than Azlan’s. “Rhianna Blackwaters is my fated mate.”

“Fucking hell,” Stone says, flinging his hands in the air. “You have to be kidding?”

Azlan ignores him, simply glaring at Winnie. “You knew about this?”

“Sort of,” she says, looking less confident than she did a few minutes ago.

“Rhianna knows about this?”

“Sort of,” she repeats.

“Sort of?” Spencer says.

“We talked about how she felt the pull towards you and Tristan. She was really confused about it. Especially considering the way you were treating her.”

“Assholes,” Stone growls.

“You were no better, Professor.”

“Wait?” Spencer says to Stone. “You’re her fated mate too? But you’re her professor. That is seriously …” Stone scowls at him and Spencer trails off.

“Four mates?!” I say. “Four? What the hell does this mean?”

And how the hell do I feel about it? I knew about Azlan. I knew about Stone. But Spencer too. The way I feel about this girl is like nothing I’ve ever experienced in my life before. I’m aware I’m obsessed, infatuated, fucking insane about her. But can I share her? Share her with three other men? Would I want to?

I stare down at the floor. I’m in my socks. My shoes are missing, the floorboards hard beneath the soles of my feet.