Page 131 of The Bonding Games: Part 2

And when Ezla tells us ten minutes later as Scotty returns with her dinner, “You are all mine. I will keep you forever. You will not escape me,” I’ve never been more certain of the fact that I’m finally right where I’m supposed to be. I’ve finally found a home, a group of amazing people who see who I am and love and accept all of what’s before them. Unlike every moment, room, or building I’ve ever stepped foot in before I met Ezla and became a Bonded, there’s no part of me that wants to leave the place I’ve found myself in, and I hope with everything in me that I get to stay here forever, clutched tightly in the woman I love’s unfaltering grasp with my new brothers by my side.

37

TIGER

My arm shoots up straight. “I volunteer to ride on the back of your jet!”

Scotty sighs, rubbing gloved palms over his face. “We’re not going on our jets. We’ve already talked about this. Even if we wanted to, we couldn’t for a number of reasons, the first being that the hatch up there has been reinforced and we have no idea if Ezla’s fingerprint is on it this time, and the second most obvious being that we don’t have our helmets anymore. It’s far too dangerous to go up that high without them.”

“Pretty sure if we fell we’d already be dead with the helmets from that height,” Cooper mutters under his breath, arms folded across his chest as he leans back in his chair at the dining table in our Bonded chambers.

“You are all wasting time. I would like to find your citizen tablets, and I would like to find them now,” Ezla snaps, back in full Bonding-Games-Champion-mode after our heart-melting time together last night. At the end of the glossy black rectangular table that her hands press down on as if she’s aiming to crack the taalk, she digs her fierce glare into the five of us, roaming it around to allow each of us to feel the full force of it. I’ll miss my alien head, but I can’t say I want the helmets back too badly when the lack of them allows me to see Ezzy’s insanely divine face every hour of every day. She continues, “They have already been in Joseph’s possession for far too long.”

“Agreed. But do you really think he won’t see us coming?”

“Do not be ridiculous, Scotty, of course he will,” she hisses, pinning her infamous glare of death solely on him. “But I have not yet had the time to learn more about the cameras, and as I have just made clear, this cannot wait any longer. We can only work with what we already have, and that is my access to the Techtis Council building, my name, and the fact my— Joseph is scheduled in for a meeting. He does not waver from his routine, and he will not be able to watch any cameras during this meeting.”

“It’s incredibly fucking risky, Vengeance. I can’t allow anything to happen to you,” Cooper says lowly.

Unimpressed, Ezla emphasises, “This is our only option. This is what we will do, end of story.” Her jaw tenses. “As I have already stressed, I do not want you with me for this, but I have compromised. However, it is now your turn to do so, as I will not change my mind.”

Scrubbing a hand over his stubbled neck, Cooper nods once, stiffly. I’m surprised by how little of an argument he puts up, really, though I think he probably has more to say but is honouring Scotty’s wishes to hash things out more peacefully within our Bonded group. “I don’t particularly want to be chemically altered or some shit either, HC. If this is the only way in, I’ll take your word for it.”

Humming, I could swear the muscles in Ezla’s face relax a fraction. “Good boy.”

Cooper dips his chin, but I don’t miss that cheeky little flush on his cheeks.

“Alright.” Scotty looks over all of us. “So is that it? Everyone ready?”

“Yes,” Alby says from beside me, and he sounds steadier than usual today despite his naturally softer voice, as if something has solidified in him and made him stronger.

More affirmations sound out around the table, and then Ezla gives a firm dip of her chin. “Very good. Then we leave now.”

***

Eyes doubled in size, I hurry to keep up with my Bonded as she strides down the long hallway that leads us to the Techtis Council building. Then they triple in size when we pass through the last opaque door before another stretch of hallway and a set of clear double doors is revealed to us along with the far-too-posh space behind them.

They open automatically, and I keep my mouth shut as me and my brothers all agreed to on the way here so as to attract as little attention as possible, but it’s hard when there’s all this new stuff around me.

Speak to me through the bond, my wild one, Deadly Nightshade orders, and my belly flips all over the place—backflips, front flips, cartwheels, you name it—at her consideration.

Ohhh, thank you, Wifey!

Glancing around at everything, I take in the glass, glass, and the glass. Oh, and look, there’s silver too!

Hmmmm . . . Ezzy, I’m not sure if I’m overwhelmed or underwhelmed, I tell her, a frown creasing my face. There’s another set of double doors in the middle of the expansive wall of glass to our right, which is evidently the main entrance, coming in from the outside, and then there’s also what I’m guessing is the reception area in the middle of the lobby on our left. Evots, Exots, and Neutrals move about, but over the past weeks, the mixing of the social classifications has somewhat lost its touch to see.

In the future, you may have more colour in your home.

My neck whips around so fast I’m surprised I don’t experience motion sickness.

Eager gaze boring into Ez as she strides for the lift, my pace ups so that I’m almost skipping after her, earning me a few side-eyes that I can feel flicking over me from the workers. Like pink? Blue? Gold? Then I narrow everything down to the most important part, the unmentioned part. It’s gonna be our home, right? You meant to say ours?

From the corner of my eye, I notice my brothers’ attention drilling into our Bonded, too, all of us waiting to hear her response.

One beat passes . . . two . . . three . . .

Nerves are building up and up until she replies without inflection, Yes.