Page 83 of Burdened Bonds

“You’re a horrible liar. That wasn’t nothing.”

I glare at him and dare him to press me. He doesn’t, he simply shakes his head.

“So what now?” Winnie says. “We can’t go back to Los Magicos. I’m sure the capital is going to be full of the Lord Protector’s spies and you – as well as us – are on the most wanted list.”

“Congratulations!” Renzo says.

Winnie looks at him like he’s mad, which he probably is. “And now it seems that the West may be after Rhi too. So what are we going to do?”

They all begin to debate this. Renzo wants us to go hide out in the mountains. Stone thinks we should leave the continent. And Azlan wants to try and reason with his uncle. They go round and round in circles, and all I really want to do is ask after Tristan and Spencer. I know Tristan’s alive. I can feel him through the bond. But Spencer? I haven’t seen him since the night of the attack on the academy. Is he even alive?

Something, however, keeps me from asking. Tristan may be my mate, but his father is now Lord Protector and aftermy head. Tristan has always considered me to be below him, not good enough to be his mate. He told me so himself. Okay, so he had a temporary change of heart, but now his dad’s running the republic, it’s likely he’s returned to his original way of thinking. He’s certainly not here, is he?

And as for Spencer … He left the academy. He chose to turn his back on the bond.

Maybe I’m a fool to think of either of them at all.

32

Spencer

“Is she pretty, your mate?”

It’s darker than usual and I struggle to see the other man’s face through the gloom.

I wet my lip, the metallic taste of blood dissolving onto my tongue.

“Yeah, yeah, I guess she is.”

He lets out a weak chuckle. “Sounds like you really believe that.”

I frown. “She is pretty,” I say with more conviction. “Maybe not in the conventional way. She’s no blonde bombshell. But …” I still can’t see his face and maybe that makes it easier to tell him the truth. “There were times I’d catch myself staring at her and I’d realize I’d been holding my breath the whole damn time, because …”

“Yeah, I know what you mean. My Daisy,she could do that to me too. In her human form she was stunning, would have heads turning everywhere we went. But in her wolf form,” he chuckles again, “fuck me, she was terrifying. Fierce and strong and unstoppable. Freaking terrifying.”

I think of Rhi, chin raised in defiance, eyes spitting with insolence. Maybe that’s what I found most beautiful about her. Maybe that’s what pulled me towards her. Her inability to back down, to give up, to refrain from fighting.

“And she wasn’t ashamed, you know, of what she was,” the were continues. “She wanted me to love both her forms and I did.”

“Weren’t you frightened? That you’d hurt her? That your beast would?”

“No, we would never hurt her. We loved her. Both of us. She was ours.”

“I’m scared I’ll hurt her. That he’ll hurt her.”

“What does he feel about her?”

I sift through my memories, through those glimpses of the beast’s emotions. “He wants to make her his.”

“Then why would he hurt her?”

“He attacked her.”

“And he hurt her?”

“No, no … he wanted to devour her.”

“He sounds like every other beast, head over heels for a girl.”