Forced Bonds (The Bonds that Tie Book 4)

A fucking dragon.

Never in my wildest dreams did I think I would have the ability to shift into a fucking dragon. When I’d first realized I could shift into any living creature, hell, I thought I’d won the jackpot. The possibilities seemed endless, and I’d spent months researching different animals to figure out just which ones were the most useful to me. I loved the wolf and the panther the most, the predator nature of them both had called to me.

Wearing the skin of a dragon is different.

I can’t describe it any other way. When I shift into any other predator, it’s as though my own mind is blended with the beast. I still have control, but my own thoughts and cravings and impulses become wild.

The dragon is something else.

The dragon wants things for himself. The dragon doesn’t want to listen to my directions and impulses. The dragon wants to burn them all alive.

How dare they touch what is mine?

I have no choice but to sit in the back of my own mind as the dragon takes over, taking off in flight and letting out a medieval roar as it rises up and up into the sky, until I can barely see my Bonded and the others I’d just left behind. I’ve shifted into birds before, flown around Draven just for fun, but this is something else entirely.

We’re hunting.

We’re going to burn them all.

From up here, I can see the magnitude of the situation we’re in. The Wastelands are at least five times the size that North had first told us they were, and I can see the amount of Resistance who are still alive and moving towards my Bonded. They’re clearly being used by Davies and the higher-level Resistance leaders as a test of our powers and what we’re willing to do, but none of that matters to me or the dragon.

Burn them all.

The panic I felt at hearing that voice in my head disappears, because it’s right. My Bonded Group is being targeted, there is evil heading in my Bonded’s direction with every intention of hurting her and taking her away from me and using her to hurt others.

All of them must burn.

I have no clue whether or not it’s even possible for me to breathe fire. I didn’t know I could shift into a fucking dragon an hour ago, but I surrender completely to the dragon. I stop fighting it for control. I stop trying to dampen the thirst in me for death and destruction, and I let the ultimate predator take full control.

It lets out a roar, a booming sound that cracks out across the sky like a physical thing, and then it dives down, the huge jaws opening as we get closer to the men on the ground. It roars again, but this time, acid pours out of my throat. The acid bursts into flames the moment it hits its target, the sounds of screams tearing into the air as I wipe the first group out in one pass.

The dragon is satisfied with the kill, but we want more. All of them, they have to burn.

I soar back up into the sky, circling as I watch the destruction I’ve wrought, and when I’m sure that they’re all dead, I move on to the next group.

One by one, I destroy them all.

One by one, I keep my Bonded safe and secure and by my side.

I find North and Atlas at the Transporter zone, both of them staring up at the sky. Although I can’t see them clearly from this distance, I can imagine pretty easily what they’re both feeling. The look of shock and disbelief on Gryphon’s face is still echoing in my mind. I’ll have a great time mocking him for it later.

Nox had taken it surprisingly well, but I’m not surprised. He has a living being inside of him and creatures that have their own personalities that can appear out of his body at any given time.

I’m sure it’s hard to be surprised by things when that’s your reality.

I swoop down towards the last group of Resistance who are working their way to the Transporter zone. There’s an uneasy feeling inside of me about the one whose skin is glowing, a sure sign of a Trigger. I’d seen Unser go off once before in a controlled environment, and he’d done the same thing.

I don’t want him dead though. I mean, I do want him dead, but not right now.

The dragon is mindful of my directions to aim the acid that comes alight carefully, and before the Trigger has a chance to go off, I swoop down, the flames touching my scales but not harming me in any way, and grab the Trigger in my talons.

It’s risky, but I get one of the long claws around his neck, cutting off his airway until he passes out. I can feel that he’s moving and struggling, but it feels as though I have a kitten in the palms of my hands, absolutely useless in his fight.

My wings beat quickly against the wind again, taking me back up into the sky, and I let them stretch out more fully as I fly. The cargo in my claws is too important to sit around with. It only takes a matter of minutes before I spot my Bonded again.

They’re all moving as quickly as they can towards the rest of the Bonded Group, but on foot, it is still a long way to travel.

I swoop down low and watch as they all look up at me, my Bonded reaching up one hand as though she is beckoning to me, and I circle slowly until I can land once again. I keep one talon off of the ground as it clutches our enemy.

I want to shift straight back, but the Dragon will not let me take hold again. Instead, it moves the Trigger around until it can deposit the man at our Bonded’s feet, snuffling out air through the giant nostrils as it takes in a deep breath of the small slip of a woman that belongs to us.

This pattern of thinking is a little bit terrifying.

Gryphon steps forward and nods. “He sounds like the bonds do. Like Oli and the Dravens’ bonds. The dragon sounds the same.”

Well, fuck.

“Did you bring me a gift? I love it. Delicious. Strong souls are my favorite,” my bonded says, and the grin on her face makes it very clear she’s not lying.

She lifts both hands over the unconscious body and her eyes take on that otherworldly glow that they do as she works. There’s nothing that you can see as she tears the soul out other than the body jerking a little as it releases its last breath, but the euphoria on her face as she takes in that level of strength is a beautiful thing.

My dragon wants to go hunting.

It wants to find more of these beings to bring to her feet as a sacrifice to our love, to bring her everything that she could ever want.

Everything.

Gryphon groans under his breath. “Jesus fucking Christ. If there’s going to be more of these for us to have to contain, we’re fucked.”