Page 156 of Wicked Bonds

I was never given one before, she realized, the memory of that fated day coming back to her.

She and Balthazar had been walking through the woods, hand in hand, enjoying the day. He’d intended to fuck her up against a tree. They were always playing. Always laughing. Alwaysliving.

A tear escaped her eye at the beautiful nature of their existence.

So carefree andhappy.

Love, she thought, sighing.We were in love.

And their souls still were today.

They’d been chasing each other for an eternity, trying to reach this very moment of matrimony between their spirits, to finally exist as one.

But the Seraphim had stolen everything from her.

Patreel had arrived that day, taking her from Balthazar and directly to Dian.

He’d been furious at her partial bond—something that had just happened only days before whilst making love. Balthazar hadn’t returned the bite because they’d still been discovering what it all meant. She’d bitten him because it had felt right. Not for any other reason at all, just a moment of bliss.

Leela had learned the importance of that inclination after being taken into custody.

“You initiated an illegal link,” Dian had roared. “With anabomination.”

She’d stood frozen, ensnared by his magic and confused by his words. The notion of a blood bond had made no sense to her. Because no one had explained the possibility to her.

Seraphim rarely spoke about blood bonds and how they were created. The links were ancient and forbidden because emotions always followed, or were what led them to the arrangement.

And Seraphim were not meant to feel.

Blood bonds also required monogamy, the souls refusing to dance with another, thereby making pregnancy impossible.

Dian could have used her with a partial bond in place, but he’d chosen not to. He’d chosen to subject her to this torment, to erase the events from her mind during reformation.

However, he’d made her watch Balthazar lose his memories first.

Her heart clenched at the remembrance, her breath stilling in her lungs.

Balthazar being forced to forget by having his experiences replaced by visions of Melanythos.

Which had required the two of them to actually meet and her half sister to seduce him—an act Leela had been forced to observe.

A sob caught in her throat at the horrible memory, the pain that had followed, the absolute agony of having her soul shredded before her.

“He’ll live a life of debauchery, never finding his true mate and indulging in everyone else except you,” Dian had said. “He’ll crave touch, sex, carnality, and eroticism, all because of his ties to you and your treacherous sensuality. Thereby defiling your bond every day for the rest of your pathetic existence.”

Leela hadn’t been able to reply, her body immobilized by the damn net.

The same one I’m wearing now.

Oh, how he’d ensnared her.

So many times over the millennia.

Because she’d kept going back to Balthazar, always finding him, sleeping with him, indulging in a bond neither of them understood.

Just to be caught and sent back to Dian.

Memories erased each and every time.