Feral Bonds

Chapter 4

When she awoke, she was on the ground, still in the corridor. Vincent had pulled her onto his lap and had his wrist pressed against her mouth. There was a cold, sticky substance in her mouth and she swallowed before she realized that it was his blood.

Natania shoved his arm away and gagged. "What are you doing?" she wheezed. Her kind ate flesh, they didn't drink blood. Gods and why was it cold? Disgusting.

She hastily wiped her mouth and stood up, stumbling a little as the world spun. Vincent was up in an instant, steadying her. He taped her nose, making her scowl. "The blood of my kind can heal others. I decided part of my protection duties included not allowing you to be driven mad by the pain of a broken mating bond."

Natania scowled even more. "It wasn't a mating bond. Those don't exist." It was just the connection that resulted when two purebloods merged their packs, not unlike her bond to her pack, just more powerful. Mating had nothing to do with it, it was just the most common reason two alphas would join their packs.

"Pack bond, alpha bond, whatever you call it, that broken strand of your connection burned when it was severed." He shrugged. "So I fixed it while I ripped the rest of the pack from you."

Natania blinked, remembering the pain she had experienced when she had first completed the ceremony to join packs with Rigaldo. Back then, she had had a uniquely powerful bond to Leah, her actual mate, that had resulted from months of feeding Leah power, and that had been ripped away in the tide of Rigaldo's silver power. It had felt like her soul had been set on fire, until the link to Rigaldo had calmed it. Now there was an aching loneliness in her head, but nothing more than a lingering soreness where there should have been agony.

"I," she scratched her head, then sagged her shoulders, "thank you."

"Just doing my part of our deal," he said. He turned and started walking down the hall, gesturing for her to follow. "You don't have much experience bargaining, do you?" Vincent asked, an edge in his voice that made Natania pause.

She narrowed her eyes. "What makes you say that?"

He gave her a small, almost apologetic smile and said, with just a touch of command, "Natania, crawl to me."

Natania snorted. "Why would-" Her voice cut off as invisible chains snaked around her neck and dragged her to her knees. She fought against it, but her body no longer responded to her efforts, the magic of their bargain binding her to his will. That was not what happened when she had given orders to her wolves.

No, no, no, no. Suffocating panic filled her head. What had she done? There was no breaking a blood bargain, not once it was sealed. She was chained for a year.

"Enough, stand up," Vincent ordered, once he'd made his point.

Humiliation burned her bones as Natania stood, refusing to meet his gaze.

He reached out a hand and held her chin, forcing her to look at him. "I know not everyone is quite educated on how these bargains work, but to agree to take the same bond as my children? You gave up your entire will. Do you not understand the danger of that?" His breath sent goosebumps along her throat, seconds before his teeth dug into her neck.

Natania stiffened, but the bite didn't hurt as she'd expected it to, as the first one had, and he didn't take much before backing away.

"The blood of your kind is valuable," he said. "You could have bargained much better than that."

"Cheap advice after our bargain is sealed," she growled.

"Maybe," another small smile, "but with consequences, you'll learn better. Such as this, you cannot protect yourself without being very specific. I can't order you into bed with me or mine, and I wouldn't want to, but," he held her chin again, "I don't need to. My children can be made to do, or feel anything. All I have to do is tell you that you want to."