Page 122 of Wicked Bonds

Patreel’s mind had provided some of the details, but Balthazar wanted to know more.

He needed his memories back.

He wanted to know what had happened between him and Leela. Why she’d bitten him. Because he refused to believe Patreel’s mental review of events.

She bit him to soil her bloodline,Patreel thought.

If that were true, then why did she keep finding Balthazar? Because of the link? Or was it something more?

Balthazar had witnessed the intensity between Issac and Stas. That hadn’t just been because of Issac biting her first. They were meant for each other. Everyone who had seen them together knew that.

So what did that mean for Leela and Balthazar?

He understood the blood bond. Once fully established—whereby both parties bit each other—they would remain together for eternity.

Utterly faithful.

That’d been the reason for Stark’s annoyance with Issac. He’d warned him not to complete the bond with Stas because of the resulting fidelity clause.

It was automatic and very real.

However, Issac hadn’t cared in the slightest.

Stas was it for him.

Balthazar had heard the vows in his thoughts soon after meeting Stas.

Had Leela bitten Balthazar, knowing full well he’d never bite her back? Was that the point? Had they made an agreement where it would always be a partial bond?

Or had he once considered engaging in monogamy?

If there was any woman in the world that would give him cause to desire such a state… it just might be her.

She fit him.

She understood him.

The passion between them was undeniable, probably one of the most potent of his existence.

A connection thrived between them as well. Because of the bond? Or something more?

He needed to understand. To see more. Toremember.

Patreel had fallen silent, his explanation of Osiris’s involvement with reformation complete. Now he observed Leela with a semblance of sadness, one his mind was struggling to comprehend.

This male of however many thousand years had never allowed himself to feel.

But every rule inside him had fractured upon learning the truth about Osiris.

He no longer knew whom to trust, what to think, how tofeel.

Leela felt similarly, the nameDianrevolving in her thoughts. A childlike part of her was terrified—likely the part that remembered some semblance of reformation.

But as the seconds grew, a strong part of her surfaced.

A fighting spirit that called to Balthazar on every level.

And that spirit was fury incarnate.