Page 144 of The Bonding Games: Part 2

It’s silent for a moment, and when Cooper pulls back to see Ezla’s face, her lips have parted slightly.

“Love, are you oka—”

“Everyone get the fuck out before my Havoc reaches into your throat and yanks your intestines from your stomach!”

Jolting, I gape at Tate as he glares around the room.

“Out,” Ezla barks when the staff don’t immediately move. “He is one of my Bonds—you obey any one of these men as you do me.”

The sound of shoes scurrying across the polished floor meets my ears as the doctors and nurses all flee the scene in a flash.

When they’re gone and the door’s closed behind them, I turn back to Ezla and try again. “Are you okay, Love? How are you feeling? Do you remember everything?”

Her mismatched eyes slowly come to rest on me. “I believe I do.” Her words are slow, measured. “However, what I am remembering is wildly . . . improbable, I am finding.” A pause as her head shifts a miniscule amount on the purest-white pillow beneath it when she shifts her gaze to Cooper. “But you . . . Please repeat that, Cooper.”

“I said . . .” He takes a deep breath before beginning again, “I said, he’s gone, Vengeance. I killed him.”

Again, Ezla doesn’t make a sound, doesn’t move a muscle. All our attention drills into her, Alby’s and Tiger’s heads propped up to see her properly, though they still hold on to her desperately.

Finally, after far too long, when concern starts to rise in me again, she breathes, “He is gone . . . You killed him for me . . . I am . . . I am free.”

My throat clogs up at those words, eyes blurring. When Tate speaks, I swear I can hear the tears in his gruff timbre too. “Fuck yeah, Havoc. You’re fucking free.”

And our Bonded, the most feared woman in the world, the one who refused to show an ounce of vulnerability for so, so long . . . she bursts into tears.

***

The trip back to our Bonded chambers was hazy. Ezla’s emotions, her relief and motherfucking joy, have been leaking all over the place, and my brothers and I quickly decided she’d prefer our private space to continue to expose herself like this, even if we were the only ones in the infirmary. Now, after everyone’s taken the quickest showers possible to scrub our time in the home theatre off for Ezla and got changed, me going first while the others stayed with her before we switched so that she wouldn’t be alone for a second, I lie on my back on our bed in our shared bedroom with an arm around her. The weight of her head rests on my chest along with her palm, and after taking off the cleaned Avri suit we put on her for our journey back here, we’ve now replaced that for her pyjamas. Behind her, Tate’s face is nuzzled into her neck, and the weight of his arm thrown over her presses down on me. Cooper is on my right, and Alby and Tiger are at Tate’s back.

It’s never been this quiet, and I think everyone’s still processing the events of today, but mostly, it’s peaceful. It’s so damn peaceful despite the knowledge that this isn’t completely over, that there’s still more to do. Because this was our one biggest hurdle, and we’ve beaten it. And because Ezla is happy. Fuck is she happy right now. She’s said the least words of us all in the time between now and the infirmary, but she doesn’t need to give them to us when we can all feel the contentment radiating from her.

Gliding my fingers through her now-unbound hair, I press a tender kiss to the top of her head—

Ezla turns to stone.

Cooper shoves himself upright in an instant. “Vengeance—”

“The tablets.” She bursts into motion, rushing to get out of mine and Tate’s arms. “How could I forget about the citizen tablets? We must—”

My mouth claims hers, silencing her.

Halfway to sitting up, Ezla freezes, more like she can’t believe my audacity than anything else.

Pulling back, my hand that’s found its way to the side of her face smooths over her cheek gently. “Because you’re human, and you’ve got a hell of a lot to think about, Ezla.”

“I must—”

“Please,” I cut her off again, and her eyes narrow, but she stays in place. “Please, Love. You’ve been through hell. You need this rest—you deserve this rest. We can pay a visit to Peter tomorrow, okay?” My thumb softly brushes over her lower lip. “But we’ve already done so much today. All of us are exhausted. We just want to enjoy this time with you, to be here for you and soak up our first proper time together without the weight of him hanging over our heads.”

Throat working, she studies my face intently. “We do not have the time. I cannot let anything happen to you—”

I silence her with another kiss, and maybe that’s shitty of me, but I couldn’t give a single fuck about anything other than her right now, and she needs to relax, to be held and taken care of. I’m not oblivious to the danger, but I wasn’t lying when I said none of us are in good enough condition to be out there on another dangerous mission tonight, and so I can’t let her march off for both her sake and ours.

You are trying to seduce me, Ezla states down the bond, and it sounds like she’s thinking up all sorts of exciting, creative ways to punish me.

My lips twitch against hers. No, I’m trying to celebrate with you.

She scoffs, then hums in pleasure, and I pull back to see Tate’s large palm running over her side and his mouth planting a trail of wet kisses down her arm.