“No,” I replied, letting my fangs free. “I warned you on the first day to be careful, Bechora. You decided not to heed my warning, so now you’re going to face the consequences.”
“Get the fuck off me, Gabriel, or I swear to God I’ll have Zypher tear your ass to pieces,” she snarled.
Scoffing, I used my hold on her to pin her higher on the wall so that we were eye level. I nearly laughed when I realized that left her feet dangling just barely off the ground. Unamused, Bechora swung her leg in an attempt to kick me.
“You missed,” I smirked, pressing her against the wall harder. “Now, as I was saying. I warned you about not knowing your place. You’re a dud, completely magicless, and from what I’ve witnessed in combat class, wholly unable to defend yourself. You are the weakest student at the academy, yet you still deem yourself worthy of speaking down to your betters. I’m going to do you one last kindness. I’m going to make you my thrall so that I can ensure you learn your lesson.”
Bechora’s nostrils flared, my words only seeming to enrage her. She squirmed in a pathetic attempt to break free of my hold, and I smirked at her just as one of her palms cracked across the side of my face.
“Put me down, you fucking piece of shit, or I’ll scream,” she hissed.
Chuckling darkly, I used one hand to keep her pinned against the brick wall and wrapped the other in her hair. With one harsh jerk, I used her hair to pull her head to the side, exposing her neck, and I struck. The moment my fangs broke her skin, I knew something was wrong. Something inside me took notice and rose up, pulling taut before snapping so hard I slumped against her. I was flooded with a rush of anger and fear that didn’t belong to me, and I knew instantly they belonged to her. My head jerked back in shock, and I searched her face for anything that would explain the sensations away as anything other than what I knew had just happened.
“No, no, no, no, no, no. This isn’t possible. This can’t be possible. I… I didn’t.” The words spilled from me as my mind raced to figure out how the fuck I’d just formed a mate bond with Bechora Knight.
“Get the fuck off of me, asshole!” she shrieked, shoving her hands against my chest.
This time, the action sent me flying into the wall of the opposite building. My bones rattled and dust flew around me as I slammed into the bricks with a sickening crack. Dropping to my knees, I snarled, baring my fangs at Bechora in warning, before I bolted down the path toward the heart of campus.
“That’s right! You better run, bitch!” I heard her call outbehind me.
Under any other circumstances, I’d have turned back, but my mind was reeling from what I’d just done. It wasn’t supposed to be possible for Vampires to create a mate bond with a simple bite. Bonding took conscious effort because of the very specific pheromones we needed to release in addition to blood being exchanged by both mates. I’d most definitely not released the pheromones, and Bechora hadn’t taken my blood, yet the flow of her emotions and the growing need to be near her were there. As impossible as it was, I had no doubt that I’d managed to bond us as mates with a simple bite.
I raced across campus to my room in Noctus House, barely shutting my bedroom door behind me before I was tearing through my things in search of the phone my older brother had gifted me. The supernatural realm had co-opted quite a bit of human technology, including cell phones, even though we still turned to magic more often than not. When my older brother defected from the brood, he knew he’d need to hide himself from magic to prevent our father hunting him down and ending his life. Though I’d never used it, the phone was his way of ensuring I could find him if I ever needed to, without magic as an option.
Finding the small black device tucked into the back of one of my drawers, I pulled it out and hit the call button on the only number it held. My hands trembled as I put the phone to my ear, panic threatening to overtake me with each ring as the reality of what I’d done settled in.
“Gabriel?” My brother’s voice came through the phone in the middle of the third ring.
“Rafe,” I choked out, letting my body sink to the floor. “I fucked up.”
“I’ll meet you in the town outside campus. We can get you somewhere safe before Father—”
“Father doesn’t know. He will kill me if he finds out, but I was hoping you might know a way to fix this before he does,” I interjected.
Rafe let out a heavy sigh. “Tell me what’s happened, and I’ll see what I can do to help you.”
I paused to gather my thoughts. My brother had defected from the brood because of our father’s views on those he deemed lesser and the iron hand he used to foist those views on us. Rafe wouldn’t understand my need to put Bechora in her place to please our father. He’d been happy to defect and live a life on the run, leaving me behind to shield our younger sister Dina from Father’s cruelty.
“Gabe, are you still there?” Rafe asked gently, tearing me from my thoughts. “I can’t help you if you don’t tell me what’s happened.”
Puffing a breath through my nose, I dove straight in. “I mated a dud.”
“I see…”
“It wasn’t intentional. I just wanted to scare her a little, and before you lecture me about that, I have my reasons.”
“I know you think I couldn’t possibly understand, but I do, Gabriel. I remember what it was like under his thumb—the threats, the beatings, him always seeming to know what I got up to at the academy, causing me to walk on eggshells. I didn’t forget any of that just because I left. There’s a lot you don’t know about what led up to that, but now’s not the time to get into it. Just… just explain to me what happened with this mate bond.”
“I don’t know,” I replied, shaking my head. “I didn’t initiate anything; it just snapped into place when I bit her.”
“I’m assuming she didn’t bite you back.”
“No, she didn’t. She shoved me off her like she’d suddenly gained supernatural strength.”
“If you terrified her enough, she might have, due to adrenaline, but that doesn’t solve your problem. You’re certain you didn’t initiate the bond?”
“It’s not something we can do by accident, Rafe,” I retorted. “You know this as well as I do. I’m pretty sure I’d remember if I’d said the words ‘I bond thee’ before I bit the girl.”
