Page 36 of Forced Bonds

He fidgeted with his hands, still not lifting his head to look at us. I was beginning to worry, but then our alpha stepped in front of him and tilted his head up. As their eyes met, I felt Benji’s relief and longing. I felt it clearer than before. Either Benji had finally accepted us, or the claiming had helped solidify our bond further.

“Alpha,” Benji breathed and then they kissed. It was tender, soft, loving and I wanted in on it. I stepped closer, hugging them both tight as they continued to kiss. Their kiss ended and they both looked at me, their lips wet and their eyes hungry. I claimed Chris’ lips first, needing the reassurance that he was truly okay after his shift. Then I kissed Benji, tasting his sweetness as I pulled them further into me. Chris’ lips were on my neck, licking and tasting. Benji’s hands were on my waist, firm and strong.

We just stood there, exchanging kisses and touches, allowing ourselves this moment of privacy. Then my phone rang and our little bubble of peace was broken. We all sighed and walked to the elevator holding hands, like we couldn’t bear not to touch. Perhaps I needed it more than them at the moment, but I didn’t care. It had been a scary fight and I kept fearing I would fail my men. They would soon learn all about it and help me carry this burden of knowledge. Even if I wished they could remain oblivious to it, they needed to know. For their safety. For our future.

Once we were back inside the hotel room, I finally called Altaur back. He wasn’t very happy to be left waiting. However, my master also knew this wasn’t a matter to be discussed out in the open.

“Master,” I greeted once he’d picked up.

“I’m trusting that your inability to reply to my call was simply a matter of bad timing, and not because of your lack of loyalty,” he drawled. From his tone alone I could tell something was off. This was Altaur from before he’d bonded to his Yanus.

“We were in the hotel’s parking garage,” I hurried to explain, then dared to ask, “Has something else happened?”

He sighed long and loud. “Because of the spectacle yesterday, the news of the book has reached the Greenwren Coven.”

I blinked and then felt a rush of something. Fear. It was fear I felt, because the Greenwren Coven was the most powerful vampire coven in the world. They held the eldest and strongest vampires. The coven never interfered with us, never bothered, really. They kept to themselves on the other side of the globe and dealt with their own matters. They didn’t follow any laws except their own. The fact no one dared to go against them proved just how much power they held.

“They want the book?” I asked, my voice strangely even.

“What do you think?”

I tried not to let his anger bother me, but I’d done nothing wrong. “It wasn’t my fault Beatrice got hurt,” I reminded him. “I’m doing my best out here, Master.” Beatrice had been hit by a bullet which had left her in pain until the fight had been over. There had been a lot of witches and they’d used weapons against us that had made the fight that more real.

He sighed. “I apologize. Yanus is extremely affected by this and hasn’t left our rooms since I told him the news.”

That explained his bad mood. No Yanus meant a bitchy Altaur. I ignored his apology, like I knew he would prefer. “What do you wish for me to do, Master?”

“They haven’t contacted me yet. I don’t know if they want the book for themselves or if they wish to destroy it. For now, we keep it safe while you three find the source. I have more allies coming in a few hours to help out, even some witches who believe the book is best kept hidden.”

“You got witches to help?” I couldn’t help but blurt out.

“I did. Now, find the source so we can be done with this.”

“Yes, Master.”

He hung up and I felt my men eyeing me with worry.

“So,” I said, putting on a fake smile. “We have witches controlling rogue vampires.” Their eyes widened. “Oh, and the Greenwren Coven knows of the book and its location.” If possible, their eyes widened even further. “We don’t know if they want the book or not, so my master ordered us to find the source so we can end this now.”

“Um, what?” Benji asked after an uncomfortable long silence where the three of us just stared at one another. “Witches who can control rogues? How is that even possible?”

“They had these red glowing gemstones around their necks and used voice commands to make them do their bidding. It made fighting them hell because of the control they had,” I explained. “The witches and the rogues all wore them.”

“Did killing the witches affect the rogues?” Chris asked, thinking strategically like the alpha he was.

“No, they just seemed to return to their blood lusty stage and attacked randomly,” I replied, then remembered. “There’s a lot of witches involved in this and we saw different witch covens at the fight, which means they’ve all banded together to fight us.”

“Fun,” Benji muttered, looking resigned.

“We’ll eat and shower and then go track down the source, this time without being attacked like last time,” I said, grabbing the phone to order.

They ate in silence after having showered separately. I could feel their unease over this looming fight. Even though Benji seemed to have his walls down around us, it was still hard to work through his feelings. He was simply feeling too much all at once and I couldn’t grasp just one feeling and go with it. I would need to actually ask him what I could do to help, but I feared he wouldn’t even have an answer for that himself. Chris was torn between his loyalty to the pack and his need to keep us safe. I was with him on the staying safe part, but his pack could live or die for all I cared. It was only his love for them and his sense of duty that made me want them to stay alive through this.

With the dreadful mood in the room, I decided to lighten it up a bit before we headed out. “You two were fucking hot, by the way, would love to watch you again like that without my attention being split between fighting and watching you.”

Chris smirked like he knew what I was trying to do while Benji blushed. “I can’t believe we had sex in front of witches, vampires, and werewolves,” he whispered, eating one of his fries with unseeing eyes.

“My pack won’t say anything and I doubt the vampires got close enough to really get a good peek, not with Sal there.”