his photo, right down to the frown.
Gabriel fusses with the coffee cup in his hands, just as nervous about this as I am, apparently. The smiling hottie is nowhere to be seen. I mean, he's still hot but he looks... miserable.
Fuck.
North, the Councilman and the reason for my GPS chip, sits there in his perfectly tailored suit. He's the only one who's trying to mask the loathing a little. He's failing at hiding it but I appreciate the effort, I guess.
Nox just keeps staring at me like I'm the worst thing that has ever happened to him. And, fuck, maybe I am, but at least I won't be the worst thing to ever be unleashed on the entire population of the country.
I can live with being hated. I hate myself enough to know just how easy it is to loathe me.
Chapter Two
We sit in complete silence for what feels like hours but I’m sure it’s only ten or so minutes.
It’s excruciating. A living nightmare. Sitting there with four of the five men who are supposed to be drawn to me, to someday love me the most in the world, while they stare at me with utter contempt… I get it. I do, I know what I did, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t feel freaking unbearable.
Finally, Gabriel huffs and snaps, “Should we even bother asking where the hell you’ve been? Or why you left?”
It’s hard, but I hold in my flinch at the betrayal in his tone. North and Gryphon both watch me closely, but it’s the smirking glare on Nox’s face that has the hair on the back of my neck rising. It’s not just that he hates me… he’s ready to torture me, to find some sort of payback for me leaving him.
I take a deep breath and blow it out slowly, ready for whatever venom he’s going to spit at me. I can see it slowly filling him up and it’s only a matter of time before he bursts out with it.
“You have been very hard to find. I’ve wasted a lot of resources tracking you down,” says North, picking at some invisible fleck of dust on his suit.
He and Nox look very similar, all dark eyes and pitch-black hair. North’s is cut short and styled perfectly, where Nox’s is longer and curling softly around his cheeks. Both of them are cold as ice, completely cut off to what is happening.
My bond is keening in my chest but I tell it to knock it the fuck off.
I did what I had to do for us all.
Gryphon doesn’t say a word. He just scowls at me like he’s trying to find something written under my skin, something he’ll find if only he looks hard enough. I’m too freaking good at staying the perfect blank canvas though, so he’s getting nothing out of me today.
Nox sneers at me. “I did wonder at how you were surviving out there. I’m assuming you were selling yourself, there’s nothing else you have to offer. I'll have to wait for the test results to come back before I complete the bond and get what I’m owed from you.”
Ex-fucking-cuse me?
What he’s motherfucking owed?
That helps me to deal with my mourning bond, because there’s no fucking way I’m letting some entitled rich-boy Bond tell me all I’m worth is a quick fuck to complete our bond and give him more power.
Not fucking likely.
I grit my teeth and try to speak civilly. "That assumes I want you to touch me. Not fucking likely, Draven.”
The smirk only gets wider. “And how exactly will you stop me, Bond? Your blood work didn’t show your ability, what teeth are you hiding from us? Or are you Ungifted and a total fucking waste of space?”
Did he just… say he’s going to attack me? I’m about to slam my foot into his dick and call it a day but his brother comes to the rescue.
North slides a large, bulky envelope across the table in my direction while he’s looking down his nose at me. "This phone is also to be on you at all times. If I call you, you will pick up. If I have to call you a second time, there will be hell to pay. If you fail to pick up, I will assume you have either run or been kidnapped and I will send every resource under my command to find you. Is this understood, Fallows?"
Fallows, like I'm one of his subordinates. I speak through my clenched