Of Human Bondage Goodreads Novels & Stories

The second man rubbed his chin thoughtfully before slowly licking his lips. "Sell them?" He scoffed. "What a waste." He gave an indifferent shrug. "We should keep them." His eyes moved back and forth between mother and daughter with the cold, calculating gaze of a merchant inspecting valuable merchandise. "They'd make perfect slaves." A twisted grin spread wider across his scarred face. "I can already see it." He let out a low laugh. "The mother serving drinks with that pretty face of hers..." His eyes settled on Anastasia. "...and the little one following right behind her."

Now Stormfang’s own Beta lay poisoned. “She’s human,” an older man muttered near the stairwell. “Maybe the bond was never blessed.” “You saw what she did during the raid.” “I saw her save children. I also saw wolves die because enemies wanted her.” Fear did not require logic. It only needed enough frightened mouths repeating the same possibility. I slipped into the abandoned storage chamber and pulled the door almost closed. Two women stopped in the corridor outside, their voices low. One of them was crying. “My mother told me stories about rejected bonds,” she whispered. “About what happens when the goddess binds what should never have been joined.”

I watched his reaction carefully. Eldric gasped sharply. He stepped back, almost stumbling. His eyes were wide with terror. “The Alpha Bond with a human slave. It’s written in the oldest scrolls that the bond marks the prophecy’s full awakening. But I never believed it could happen so completely between bloodlines.” “Is it possible, Eldric? Tell me the truth. Can a human slave become the Alpha’s destined mate and hold that bond?” I asked, voice tight with strain.

Idris said, his voice steady but laced with that quiet wisdom that always cut through my bullshit, “cutting it out might not be the play. The bond isn’t a tumor you can excise. It’s roots, deep and intertwined. Rip them out and you rip yourself apart along with her.” I laughed, the sound dark and bitter, echoing off the bookshelves lined with ancient tomes on pack lore and strategy. I poured again, the whiskey splashing messily. “Don’t fucking lecture me about the bond, Idris. I feel it every goddamn second—chains wrapped around my throat, dragging me toward something fragile enough to shatter if I breathe wrong. It’s a curse, not a gift. Makes me weak, exposes cracks where enemies can strik

“You were their pawn. Their weapon. Their sacrifice.” Serena sobbed, collapsing against her chains. “Then let me go. Please. I can’t take any more of this.” Stefano crouched before her, grabbing her chin in his iron grip, forcing her to look into his eyes. “You think it ends here, little dove? No. This is just the beginning. Because now I will tear their game apart. I will burn the board they played on. And I will make them pay for using you as their bait.”

Cassie sat cross-legged and opened it with trembling fingers. > They said the bond was a gift. A sacred vow. But it was a bond of blood and slavery. Not love. Not love. > My sister was tied to a wolf that she was afraid of. When she tried to run away, the elders restrained her. Told her it was her duty. That fate had been ordained for her. > I got out before they did it to me too. I loved freedom. I loved Cassie. > The writing was smudged by tears.

They all laughed. ‘Holy shit! What's actually happening here? Is this how the crime scenes look in the United States? Why am I having this conviction that Nikolai was right? He actually warned me not to get married to Massimo and here I am, battling for freedom on a chair and with my hands and feet tied and chained to the wall. I was a princess and the daughter of a very renowned figure in the Russian Pratva and this wasn’t the kind of treatment meant for me. Maybe I would have to think further on how to get off these chains before it’s too late. I wouldn’t want to end up like that lady.

"And the Citadel will burn. They who abducted my daughter will go up in flames with it." The chains that had bound him, the shackles that had imprisoned him in this desolate location, now seemed to be nothing more than a distant memory. The chains had been crushed, destroyed by his will, but they were nothing in comparison to the burden of the dark agreement he had entered into. He was no longer human. He was a tool of revenge, a bringer of destruction.

In my eyes he looked like a sac of meat and bones, one second away from these chains he’ll be six feet under. “You don’t want to send me to Kayla, I could give you more than she offers.” I bargained feeling the shiver of fear crawl down my spin. It was more of a thing of ego, I didn’t want to be at the mercy of that gutter-queen. “Oh really you’ll pay double of what she’s offering?” the man at the front said, slightly amused. “Money isn’t the powerful resource in this world, that book you hold have things that people would slaughter others for,”

“But the Scriptures you and Gavriel lent me helped me understand many things.” He leaned back slightly before continuing thoughtfully. “This devil was given authority over the earth, and for far too long humanity has been manipulated, deceived, and used by him. We were led to worship false gods and rely on powers rooted in darkness, making us believe we were above all other creatures.” His expression darkened faintly. “Even the mate bond itself became twisted. People forced bonds onto others against their will simply because they believed they had the right to claim them. It’s ridiculous when you truly think about it.”