Page 19 of Ondine: Vol. 2

“Well, now things are different. You’ve bonded a feral alpha. Which looks like it’s done two things: one, it’s established a wilding bond.” We all want to ask about it, so she puts up her hand and explains, “Freddie is, or was, feral, and now has a healthy bond, with a scent match. Bonding in that case results in a wildling bond. It essentially means that Ondine’s feelings take priority over his own. He’ll default to her first most of the time. He is hers, more that she is his. His alpha bark may not even be effective, but I’d encourage you not to test that.”

I’m ready to apologize to him. I didn’t know that would happen. He should have known before that that was a possibility. Freddie grips my knee.

“It feels like my hands are connected to her heart. Is that not how a standard bond feels?”

Freddie looks to Dr. Chen and then to Sebastian.

Sebastian answers, “I don’t feel that at all with Shadow or Jake.”

“I haven’t heard that either. I would safely say that’s the wildling bond.”

“How does it feel?” Sebastian asks.

“Incredible,” Freddie answers and I feel the truth of it through the bond. I nod. It does feel incredible.

“The second thing is, as long as you stay with Freddie and solidify the bond, I don’t think you’ll have issues with bond-sickness. It’s a healthy bond. As long as he takes care of you.”

“Always,” he promises.

Dr. Chen leaves me with a script for vitamins and a low-dose hormone supplement to take as needed. Sebastian takes off to go to the pharmacy to pick it up.

Freddie orders us lunch and then takes me back to the nest.

We wrap up in each other in the nest. I’m so happy he’s mine. I stroke his hair away from his face and he closes his eyes and gets lost in the process. How strange is all of this? A wildling bond. A scent match. Freddie. I want it all to be true so much.

“Freddie,” I say.

He makes a mhmm noise.

“What do you need? You seem…agitated.”

“Oh, that.”

“Yeah, that.”

I run my fingers through his scalp. He was thinking a lot and I felt the strain through the bond.

“I need to talk to my handler, Alpha Kam-po. At the monastery.”

“In person? We can go to the monastery.”

His eyes open. “You want to come to the monastery?”

“I don’t want to be apart from you.”

He nods like he agrees, but he looks conflicted.

I ask him, “What is it?”

“And we have to talk about what we will do next. We can’t stay at Sky Nest forever, with Sebastian running our errands.”

“Why not? Aren’t you rich?”

He rolls his eyes. “Rich? I’m not the only one here with a trust fund.”

I scoff. “It’s like 25k a year. How much is yours?”

“A little more than that.”