The Unexpected Bonding Vow

by Michelle Howard

  “Tell me!” he roared, leaning forward.

  “I can’t!” she snapped, all her rage at being forced to reply combined in the answer. “I can’t tell you everything right now. Just...please, can you please let it go for now? I promise once we’re away from Quantoon, I can tell you anything about my time here.”

  Garik continued to stare and Saedra was scared he would push until she revealed the truth. Then it would be all over. She firmed her shoulders and drew in a deep breath, waiting for the fallout. Not only would he not like her, but he’d probably not want her to be his bond mate any more despite what he said about it being a life long commitment.

  “Don’t you think that’s important information for me to have?” he asked. His tone was milder but it wasn’t hard to hear the condemnation.

  Thoughts and answers ran through Saedra’s mind until she settled on one. “If you knew who I was, who my father was—you would not have left that cell with me.”

  It was a certainty she couldn’t explain. If Garik knew Maurin was her father he wouldn’t have trusted her, he wouldn’t have escaped with her and she wouldn’t have made it by herself. Call her selfish, but she wasn’t the only one who’d benefited from her actions.

  Garik snorted, “Fine, rabische. In this, I will allow you to hold your secrets longer.”

  Stunned. That was how she felt right now. Saedra licked her lips. “Are you trying to trick me?”

  “No, but just remember this—lies have a way of coming back at the worst of times.”

  As if she didn’t have enough to worry over. Fear straightened her spine, though a part of her wanted to cower from his barely leashed anger. “Will you still help me even though I can’t share everything with you right now?”

  “Yes.”

  Saedra swiped a hand over her hair, wishing she hadn’t looped it in a bun. She turned away from him, the instinct to hide her relief as much a part of her as her scar.

  A hand landed on her shoulder roughly, stopping her before she could get far. Garik turned her to face him. “Bond mates don’t lie to one another.”

  Tears burned the back of her eyelids, but Saedra didn’t let them fall. He was calm now but his voice held a layer of ice that hadn’t been there before. She sniffed in determination. “I’m sorry, if it means anything.”

  She wouldn’t use her fear and the terror she lived under daily as justification. Lying no matter the expected result was wrong. She could at least own that. Her only hope, her only saving grace, was that the bond he’d reluctantly entered with her would salvage some thread of a future together.

  Garik tipped her face up, ensuring she met the metallic glint of his gaze. “Don’t keep any more secrets, sesi. This one is enough and bothers me deeply that you are unwilling to tell me.”

  Breath wooshed out of her at hearing the endearment she’d thought lost to her. She tried to convey how earnest she was in her reply. “I won’t. I can’t say it won’t happen again because my future is up in the air, but I’m going to try my best not to hold things back.”

  “You misunderstand me. No lies, petti coincin. That is not negotiable.”

  Right. Hard line. “Alright. No lies. None.”

  Her breathing settled as soon as she made the promise. They were in this together.

  “Good.” His smile started small then grew until it stretched his lips wide over the even rows of his teeth. Saedra gaped as corresponding joy exploded inside of her.

  She leaped into Garik’s arms and he caught her weight with ease. A moment later, she pulled back slightly but kept her hands on his shoulders, needing the contact. Was it her imagination or did he look much improved from his stint in her father’s dungeons? She could have sworn he’d been far more injured when she’d broken into his cell.

  His face was less strained. He was definitely getting his strength back. She had no idea how he’d gone from the weak, beaten condition she’d found him in last night to this version. “You’re healing, aren’t you?”

  He nodded. “Almost full strength. Possibly by tomorrow.”

  Perhaps his genetics, but she didn’t quite believe that in this instance. “How?”

  She noted his hesitation and worried he wouldn’t trust her with the answer. Had she already ruined something she hadn’t known she wanted until this moment?

  “The bonding vow. One of the effects is that it can jumpstart the healing process for a Gerelin. To better protect a mate.”

  The words took a moment to comprehend. “Bonding with me helped you?”

  That was a positive and meant her actions weren’t completely selfish. She’d managed to help him though she hadn’t been aware.

  He caressed her from shoulder to arm. “Yes. It’s a natural reaction for the bond to feed the weaker of the two if there is an injury.”

  Saedra let that sink it. Hiking one brow, she said, “No more omissions after this, though, right?”

  This got her another corner curl of his mouth and Saedra had never felt warmer inside. Garik squeezed her waist one more time before releasing her. “Exactly, sesi. We should get as much rest as possible. I have a feeling Maurin is going to launch an all out attempt to get both of us back.”

  If only for spite. Her father wouldn’t come after her because of any sense of concern. It would purely be because of his feelings of ownership toward Saedra. And vengeance. Definitely vengeance.

  ***

  Mentally, Garik cursed. There had been a brief flash of fear in her gaze when he confronted her about the relationship with Maurin. It tore at him. He didn’t want Saedra scared of him. That wasn’t how bond mates worked.

  Not knowing the truth made him leery. What could she possibly have to hide by telling him how Maurin maintained control over her? He let it go for now. The pleading note as she begged was more than he could endure from someone who appeared as gentle as Saedra.

  Whatever Maurin had done to her, Garik would make him pay. He focused all of his anger toward Maurin. Maurin was the one who ordered his torture and Maurin was the reason Garik had been locked in a small dark cell.

  Still his mind nagged, she had to be important to Maurin for him to put so much effort in getting her back. That made Saedra the perfect weapon to retaliate against Maurin.

  His mind violently rejected the idea. She was his bond mate and he was honor bound to protect her. How many times would he need to remind himself of that to fight the training he’d received at the Guild?

  Except his growing feelings for Saedra weren’t strictly due to his Gerelin nature. No, it was more. More than the bond working on the connection between them. Something else was at play and Garik shied away from probing too deeply at these new feelings until he had a chance to give it his full attention.

  “Tell me about your life in Maurin’s household. Were things good until something major happened?”

  Why else would she be so desperate to escape? Her actions and planning screamed years of abuse in some form for her to seek a means of getting away.

  Saedra snorted. “Something like that. It is common knowledge he abused his wife for years before her death. He has an extremely low tolerance for perceived weakness in others.”

  “He wanted you to be stronger...physically?” Garik ran his gaze over her slender form, remembering how she limped during their mad run the night before.

  Her face flushed and she looked away. “Yes. That.”

  There was more. He could tell by the sudden hunching of her shoulders. Taking a seat at one of the stools, he waved her to join him. When she sat across from him, he studied her strained features. “You said he abused the woman he married. Did he abuse you as well?”

  The very thought caused an instant reaction in Garik. It gave him more fuel in his reasons for striking back at Maurin when the time came.

  Saedra rubbed her hands over her forearms as if chilled. The heating unit was still running so it had to be her thoughts. “He was not, is not, a good individual. In any way.”

  Then she proce
eded to tell him all the ways Maurin had treated her through her years growing up and Garik used the knowledge to create a greater list of reasons to kill him.

  “That last time—when he flung me across the room and damaged my leg—I knew then I had to get away before he killed me. It took years to get to the point where I believed I had a chance at success. Years of saving credits and learning how to use comm units to search for what I needed without being caught.”

  A swift death would be too kind for Maurin. Garik wanted to drag his torture out until he felt every bit of the pain he’d dealt the woman who had been a child in his home. “And the scar on your face?”

  “From another time when I’d angered him. He did it when I least expected it. Came upon me with calm questions. A smile at my answers.” Her features cringed in memory. “Before I could read the change in him, he slashed at my face and I fell to the floor in shock and pain.”

  Garik resisted the urge to roar out his rage at the abuse she’d suffered. The day was coming soon for Maurin to pay for all he’d done to his sweet mate. “What about your parents? Did they not have any say so in his abuse? Were they afraid to leave and take you with them?”

  Garik had never contemplated having kids but if he did, there was no way he’d allow someone to hurt them the way Saedra had been hurt. Her gaze dropped and Garik braced for a lie. “My parents couldn’t help.”

  Her shrug was hard to decipher.

  “Are they dead?”

  Tears glimmered in her eyes, then she blinked them away. “As good as.”

  He decided to let it go for now. The expression on her face spoke to a sadness he assumed related to the loss of her parents.

  They talked of other things and while Garik struggled with giving personal details about himself due to his role as assazi, Saedra managed to get him to talk about his parents.

  “So they were good to you?” she asked when he finished explaining their deaths and how he ended up on the streets living with other kids who were orphans.

  The few memories he had of his mother and father were positive ones. He’d had clean clothing and food enough to keep him full. Neither of them had talked much of his future beyond their small city and Garik had assumed he would one day work in the labor force as his father had. “They were good. Decent.”

  She nodded, accepted the fact. “How did you end up with the Guild?”

  Garik tensed. He didn’t talk about Nevo Xyman, the man who’d given him the card to contact the Guild. Nevo was no longer an assassin with the organization and now pursued mercenary and bounty contracts independently. Their paths didn’t cross often and when they did, Xyman never acted as if he remembered Garik as that lost youth. They acknowledged each others presence and went about their business.

  Which was for the best because if Garik’s reputation sent targets running, Nevo Xyman’s had those on his radar screaming in terror and making extreme back door deals to escape his notice.

  Saedra touched his arm lightly. “If its too much, you don’t have to tell me.”

  “It’s complicated. Simple story is, I joined and went through the training process. Once done I started taking assignments and the rest is history.”

  Along with a fortune earned from his assignments, Garik had amassed a ton of favors. One of which he planned to use to get them out of here and have a place for them for the night. “Come on. Let’s head out. Staying here doesn’t give me a sense of security.”

  Staying anywhere he didn’t personally plan and arrange would never sit well with Garik.

  Chapter 12

  Saedra slung the straps of her pack over her shoulder and stood next to the door of the shed. She waited until Garik finished shutting everything off and wiping down anything they touched on their way out one last time. He went to the hover-cycle along the wall and pushed it through the door then threw his leg over the saddle once outside and turned toward her.

  Her breath caught. The clothes she’d purchased were low quality, but the black fabric hugged his body like a lover. Long sleeves followed the lines of the muscles in his arm and the pants stretched taut over his thighs down to the foot he had planted on the ground. Scarred black boots completed the look.

  With his disheveled hair and jagged features, she shouldn’t find him appealing. But he was. An assassin with a reputation of being ruthless and lacking in mercy yet he’d not treated her unkindly. He’d vowed to protect her, held her in his arms and gave her an unknown before gift of passion. And asked nothing in return.

  “Saedra?”

  His gaze roved over her from head to toe as she drew near. Saedra swallowed. The gray stare burned with a fierce light she couldn’t identify. His chin tipped up, sending strands of dark-colored hair to spill across his forehead.

  “You need to hurry, sesi.”

  Sweetheart. He’d told her the word was an endearment. No one called her by an endearment. Not even her mother.

  This time, Saedra wasn’t as hesitant to get on the hover-cycle. She climbed on behind him and leaned forward, resting the side of her face against his back.

  Her nerves might not be as bad as the first time, but her pulse did leap and dance in anticipation. When she tightened her arms about his waist, her thighs naturally aligned snugly against his. The position felt overtly intimate from the crush of her breasts on his back to her parted legs exposing her center. “Ready.”

  Garik released the guiding bar to caress her upper thigh, then took her at her word and they shot down the lane they’d used to get to the hideaway. Wind whipped about Saedra’s face and she closed her eyes to protect them from any debris. At one point, she peeked to see how far they’d traversed. The ground was a black and gray streak flying by. She squeaked at one sharp turn and closed them back.

  Garik seemed to take the curves at unsafe speeds. She could only hope he knew what he was doing. As a safety measure, she locked her fingers tighter about his torso. Garik reached down and squeezed her hand. Something in Saedra’s chest melted.

  “We have company,” Garik yelled.

  Saedra’s eyes popped open. Forcing down her fear at their speed, she looked over Garik’s shoulder and saw empty road for many kilometers ahead.

  “Behind us!”

  Saedra risked a glance back and her pulse jumped. Riders. At least three, on hover-cycles coming up the road behind them at incredible speeds. Their cycles, to her eyes, seemed as good as the one she’d purchased. Helmeted heads prevented her from seeing their faces but they wore black synth jackets with a bright blaze of red down the sleeves. Black and red were her father’s signature colors and his guards all wore it from their uniform to these specific jackets.

  Fear exploded in her chest. Facing forward, Saedra had to yell as well to be heard. “What do we do?”

  “Try to outrun them. If we can get to the main roads of the city, I can try and lose them in the cross streets. I should also be able to find a communication device to contact someone to help us stay off Maurin’s radar.”

  Saedra had to press closer and strain to hear but she caught Garik’s words. She just hoped they could do it. Sparks pinged on the stretch of road ahead of them and Garik suddenly leaned lower and steered the cycle in an erratic pattern. A loud retort followed on the heels.

  Her mind was slow to make the connection and then the answer was right there. The guards were shooting at them! Squeezing her arms harder around Garik, Saedra wanted to shut her eyes again except she had to know what was going on around them. The sound of the cycles got louder. She twisted to look over her shoulder. The riders were closer than before. Wind snapped strands of her hair loose and in her eyes. “They’re gaining on us.”

  Four, not three guards, and the one on the far left had his weapon out and aimed at them. Saedra ducked, wishing she could burrow into Garik’s back. It was all she could do not to scream as she clutched tightly to his mid-section.

  Laser blasts fired, creating sparks and black divots in the road. Garik zoomed around them. There was ba
rely any pause as another round of lasers rang out. Saedra almost swore she felt the heat of it on her right shoulder.

  “Hold on!” Garik instructed.

  With a twist of his wrist, the hover-cycle gained more speed and gave off a low whine from Garik pushing it harder. Saedra bit down hard on her bottom lip to hold in her panicked scream. Wind whipped around them and her eyes blurred with tears. Soon the sound of weapons fire faded. She couldn’t hear the other cycles.

  Saedra risked another glance behind and didn’t see anyone. Garik’s speed had pressure pushing on her shoulders and neck, so she faced forward again and mashed her forehead onto his back. She wasn’t sure how long they rode. Only that they eventually slowed when they entered the city limits.

  Streets here were more narrow and cluttered with early morning traffic and vendors preparing to start their day. Anything could be had at the marketplace. Saedra should know since she’d ventured here once to meet her contact before requiring all further communication to be electronic.

  Their hover-cycle’s engine was back to silent level speeds and Garik had engaged the wheels, so they were no longer in hover mode. She glanced around, unfamiliar with their exact location. Garik seemed to know, because he was navigating without using the cycle’s automated system.

  They slowed then came to a complete stop. Garik propped one foot on the ground and tapped Saedra’s thigh. “Off.”

  She eased from behind him, her legs shaking as she stood upright. Saedra lifted her hand, unsurprised to see her fingers trembling. Their escape had been harrowing, to say the least. Garik dismounted with practiced ease and when he faced her, Saedra wanted to feast on his mouth. In thanks, relief and all sorts of reasons.

  She held back and offered a small grin instead. “Well.”

  Garik’s stern features didn’t crack but he did knuckle her chin up and studied her face silently for the longest time before nodding and letting her go. “This way.”

  Saedra swallowed, not sure what that was about but followed close behind him. There were members of varying races going about their business and none paid any attention to the sight of Saedra and Garik walking by. He drew to a halt near a building with faded painted sides and windows with ratted frames. Garik’s brisk knock was met by rustling from inside. Holding her breath, Saedra waited before it opened abruptly. The owner, she assumed, glared at them with dark green eyes and his upper lip curled in a snarl. A Chamele. His gaze locked on her first then shifted to Garik. He growled and started to slam the door closed but Garik stuck his foot in the gap and shoved.