Forced Bonds Novels & Stories

"Terrified of being that connected again. Terrified of feeling you. Being vulnerable like that. The first time you rejected me through the bond it nearly killed me. If you did it again—if something happened and you—" "I won't. I swear on everything I am. On my pack. On my life. On our love. I won't hurt you again. Won't reject you. Won't leave you. The bond will be permanent. Unbreakable. Forever. Until death. Beyond death maybe. That's what I'm offering. That's what I'm asking for. Will you accept?"

The way the fracture impact, when the seal finally broke, would travel through the sacrifice bond to its living anchor. She told me what that meant for Maren. She told me about the transfer. If an anchor bond was completed correctly before the seal broke, the fracture found that instead. Moved through it. The endpoint transferred from the sacrifice bond’s anchor to the voluntary anchor standing in the clearing. She told me all of it, then stopped talking, looked at me across the desk, and waited. I was quiet for a moment.

" I was frozen by what he said. Long before either of us understood what that meant, you were mine. His hands remained firmly in place even though I fought against them. Sturdy, but neither brutal nor crushing. Like he had been keeping me in place for years without my knowledge, he was steady. "No," I shook my head and hissed. "You have no right to say that. You were never my choice. Fire sparked in the depths of Thorne's black eyes. Rin, choice had no bearing on it. Bonds don't request authorisation. They simply are. And long before either of us realised what it meant, ours was there.

For my powers were stripped off. So I sat there, trapped, forced to listen as my so-called value was tossed back and forth like a game. “Ten million!” “Fifteen!” “Twenty!” “Twenty-five!” The words came sharp and fast, each one hitting me like a dagger. I could feel the greed in the air, thick and choking, as mortals shouted over each other, hungry to claim what they thought was theirs. And then…. “Thirty million!” That voice cut through the room like thunder splitting the sky, sharp and impossible to ignore.

“This? This is bigger than you refuting to acknowledge that your mate walked right into your territory.” Ronan tilted his head, unmoved. “She is your mate.” A disturbing silence settled into the den. Arthur just looked at Ronan the way a wolf looks at another who dares step on its throat. Ronan didn’t back down. “You have been clear about what you think of a wolf bond. You have called it a weakness, and that you will not be chained down.” His voice dropped deliberately, steady. “But you can not say this is not under consideration. You can not refuse to act while her people burn and are killed. Think of this as having leverage over them.”

One of the safest in the country, they said, with the promise of a new beginning. But in Chicago, new beginnings aren’t written with freedom, but with genetic tests, digital signatures, and compatibility algorithms. My mother enrolled me in the bonding program because she wants me to be a married woman as soon as possible. But before I could even choose my future, they demanded tests. Lots of them. "It’s part of the protocol," the nurse said, handing me a sterile container. "It’s all for your safety and that of your future husbands." They were all women. Uniformed, silent, professional. Maybe to make the process easier. Maybe to pretend it wasn’t livestock evaluation.

I knew because she went very still for a moment and pressed her hand flat against her sternum, which was the thing she did when the bond did something she hadn't been prepared for. "What was that?" she said. "The bond," I said. "It got louder." She looked at me. "Louder." "When two bonded people are together properly," I said, "the bond reinforces. I read about it." "Of course you read about it," she said, which was almost fond and then immediately wasn't. "This is a problem." "We can deal with it," I said. "You keep saying that," she said. "We can deal with it. As if dealing with it is a thing that's actually available to us."

She resolved to keep her child safe, even if it meant surrendering the tender bond between mother and daughter. Guided by her unwavering love, Navana sought counsel from the ancient Oracle, a venerable seer whose wisdom spanned the ages. Deep within the sacred grove, where whispers of prophecy echoed through the ancient trees, Navana stood before the Oracle, her heart heavy with a mixture of hope and apprehension.

"I know. He's been taken by a bad demon. And he's going to come after me? " "What? " "I was in the WorldMind, a place where I can see minds and thoughts". 'You need to go far from here', she thought. He heard her thoughts . 'No, I'm not'. She heard his reply. "I can hear you". "So do I". They now had a psychic link. "What does this mean? " "I'm bonded with you". "That term is too far out". "It's not. We've bonded emotionally, physically and now mentally". "How about financially? ", she joked.

“Just three months, and it’s the only vacant position I can use to slip you in. Just endure it; you’ll be rewarded handsomely.” “How much?” “Fifty million. You can pay off your debt to me for saving your life. Think about it—” “I’m in.”