The Bond

Sound

The pleasure of his voice faded from me and rage drew up in its place like a foul beast. Sound.

I had heard Luka. Sound had come so naturally from him. So clearly. I had never felt such completeness. From the rise of elation, I instantly fell. I felt like I was sinking into a putrid, bubbling tar of fury. To compound it, although nothing compared to the clarity of Luka's laugh, I could hear muffled sounds and it was very disorienting.

I felt someone grab my shoulder and shake it for my attention, but my vision had darkened away to nothing but a tunnel with Luka's broad back at the center. I felt like a bullet in a gun barrel as I launched myself at my target. My hands were contorted into claws before making contact with Luka's shoulder blades.

Time had slowed, my fingers temporally softened when his warmth hit them but I didn't given in. I stiffened my arms and shoved him hard.

Luka stumbled forward, caught off-guard. He turned back to me shocked that I had laid hands on him.

I felt it. The fear, anger, and loss coalescing within me to rise from my throat in a single vindictive call with my teeth bared. My eyes were alight with hate as I watched Luka spasm as if shocked with a jolt of electricity. I watched the wonder rise in his face before crashing down terribly.

His skin turned pallid and he stared at me in a short lived horror that quickly rotted to sickness. He knew who I was. My wayward mate. In that moment with our calls completed, I could feel the bond between us tangibly and it felt tenuous and twisted.

The girl beside Luka registered that I had pushed him. I heard the murmur of her voice with my newly unsealed ears as she started towards me angrily. Luka's arm came across the front of her shoulders to keep her from approaching me.

"Don't." Luka said aloud and I gritted my teeth against the liquid gold of his voice as I read the meaning in the shape of his lips.

His touch on her simmered something poisonous in me. He noticed my gaze on the hand he had around the girl and swiftly pulled his arm away as if burnt. This was her. The girl who I had thought was Miles' mate, she was the one my mate had soiled with.

The girl glanced back and forth between us after Luka recoiled from her. A light sparked in her eyes and her countenance changed. Possessively she pressed herself into Luka, his arm held securely in her grasp as she pulled at him to leave with her. Her eyes bored into me. Luka began to relent, the arrogance drained out of him to leave him meek and ill looking. And that's when she flashed me a small triumphant smile.

I hated him. I couldn't care less about her. And yet I snapped. I don't even remember making the choice, I just knew I had to get to her. Luka registered my intention before anyone else. His eyes widened and he surged forward to intercept me on my way to her. His arms came around me in a restraining embrace.

I had never felt dainty or overly feminine until his body matched up against my own. It was like every soft curve was made to fit into his hard, rigid form. Something fizzled in his touch and for a moment he squeezed me tight to himself for no reason I could fathom considering he had successfully captured me already. It filled me with a conflicting need, but before I could respond Liam appeared behind Luka like a shadow.

Luka's eyes bulged as Liam snaked an arm around his neck and pried him away from me. Emmie was immediately there smoothing my hair back and mouthing words at me that I was too distracted to pay attention to. Liam had Luka in a chokehold. The girl Luka was with simply watched as Liam dragged Luka back. Luka's feet stumbled in surprise at first, but his face quickly changed.

Luka pushed off the ground catching Liam by surprise. Liam fell forward when Luka's weight came down and Luka quickly turned his body and ducked his head out of Liam's grasp. It was too smooth to be improvised.