Page 1 of Forced Bonds

Prologue

Benjamin

Blood. So much damn blood. Monsters with glowing red eyes and fangs. And blood. I could only see red. Red eyes, red blood, red, red, red.

The screaming. There had been so much screaming. Had I screamed?

“He’s in shock,” one of the men who’d helped me escape said, like I wasn’t right there next to them.

“Poor kid,” a woman said, gently walking me away from my house, away from all the blood.

“He’ll need protection,” the man said.

“The pack will help with that,” the woman assured him.

I had no idea what a pack was, but then again, I’d never once seen a human bite another like the ones that I’d just seen killing my family. And the wolves… the wolves had helped me. I was pretty sure both my saviors were wolves too, somehow.

“Let’s just get him to safety,” the man said and then we left, leaving behind all the blood and my family.

I swallowed. I would be fine. I would be okay.

I would be okay.

Chapter One

Benjamin

The shot rang true and I relaxed my posture, feeling pleased that the rogue vampire went down faster than his friend did. All around me the city was alive with sirens and cars, the lights enough to make people believe they were safe. They weren’t. I might’ve known that vampires and other supernatural creatures existed, but the human population didn’t. I was the unknown hero who made sure they stayed alive. Not that it mattered if they thanked me or not. It wasn’t as if I was doing it for them.

When my family was brutally murdered by rogue vampires, I’d been too young to understand the threat of them. But as I grew older, I realized I wanted one thing in life. Revenge. I’d been a vampire hunter for over fifteen years and was one of the best, if not the best, in the business. This call today had been from a panicked witch who’d been chased to her apartment by two vampires. We weren’t allowed to just shoot vampires without reason, so I had to track them down and wait until they did something nefarious. It hadn’t taken long. Sadly, these vampires hadn’t been rogue ones, just bad souls doing bad things. Rogue vampires were those who got turned but their brains couldn’t function after the change. They basically became blood thirsty animals. These two had been of normal mind, just with a lack of respect for human life.

I couldn’t kill regular vampires up close. They were simply too fast and would kill me in seconds. I had to shoot them from a safe distance with my special bullets made of iron and infused with sunlight. Witch made, but damn powerful. Often, regular vampires thought themselves on top of the food chain, so to speak, and that became their downfall. Like these two. They hadn’t expected a mere human to end their lives. But I had. Rogue vampires were another thing entirely. They were easier to kill, but still strong. They weren’t as fast as regular vampires, but I still preferred to kill them from a distance. They could also be killed by regular bullets, just like humans could and lacked the self-healing abilities that regular vampires had.

My phone beeped, alerting me I needed to get away. I always left the bodies. The corpses turning to ash within minutes meant I didn’t have to do any clean up. Not that I’d bother ever cleaning up filth like that, but it was still nice that no one would stumble upon the truth I had to live with. That monsters existed. Others had families, loved ones, people they cared about. But I didn’t. No. Vampires had made sure of that, so I decided to keep it that way. Having no one to care about meant no one would be sad when you died. Doing what I did meant death was always just one mistake away.

I ducked out of the alleyway, dodging people as I made my way through the crowd that was too wasted to walk straight. When I finally reached the parking garage, I located my bike and got the hell out of there. I hated the big city. Hated the noise. The people. The fucking air.

Traffic wasn’t too bad and soon I was winding down calmer streets until I reached my home, or where I simply lived at the moment. I hadn’t had a home since it was destroyed with my loved ones’ blood seeping into the floorboards.

Shaking off those dark thoughts, I went inside and hurried to text my boss the job was done. He’d make sure the witch who called would be informed that the vampires were taken care of. I much preferred it like that, keeping a distance between other supernatural beings while I hunted the vampires. I’d met werewolves, witches, vampires, shifters, and even a demon once. Sadly, I was only allowed to kill vampires, otherwise the demon would’ve been dead, or at least slightly wounded. I had no idea if they could even die, but the annoying piece of shit I’d met deserved to remain in hell. It was punishment enough for the mortals landing in hell to just be around that demon.

My phone rang and I groaned. I wasn’t allowed to ignore my boss but I really wanted a nice hot shower and some sleep.

“Hazi,” I said in greeting.

“Benji,” he replied in his gruff no-nonsense tone. “I have a serious case on my hands and I need my best hunter.”

“Where and when?” I knew better than to bask in his compliments. I’d earned the title of the best, there was no need to act bashful about it.

“Keen, and tomorrow,” he replied.

Keen? “I thought Keen was a werewolf run town?” I asked, wondering if I’d heard him correctly.

Hazi sighed. “That should tell you how bad their situation is. Werewolves don’t like others in their territory, and yet, they asked for my best man.”

“So, what I’m hearing is that I have to work with werewolves? Fun.”

“You’ll be fine, Benji. You have a meeting with the town alpha tomorrow at ten. Get on the road early.”