9. Quin
Holy. Fucking. Shit.
Listening to Simon recount his past to us with no half-assed excuses to absolve him of responsibility cuts me, deep. I thought I had the monopoly on betrayal, guilt, and self-loathing because of who my parents are, but Simon has me beat in that regard, hands down. His story also answers a few questions as to why he’s here. I mean, one of the primary tenets underpinning the principles of Vieux Sang is the study of fated mate bonds and how they impact on shifter bloodlines. To be able to get their filthy hands on a shifter who’s experienced a rejected fated bond must be like winning the lottery for them.
“I find it unlikely that you’d advertise your history to the wider public, so how did my parents learn about you?” I question, a small voice in the back of my head telling me that there was more to Simon’s story that he had yet to share.
Simon’s snort speaks volumes.
“Oh, didn’t you know? It turns out that Catherine, her father, and their Leo are all in Vieux Sang’s pockets. They’d heard of me through their contacts in the Shifter Council, no doubt the swan being among them. But it was Catherine and Brantley L?nnberg and Chadwick Corbin who handed me to them on a platter. They were at a Council tribunal for the sentencing and execution of two Councilors, one of whom was the swan. During a break in the proceedings, I went for a walk to get some air and to just… breathe. I happened upon the Catherine and the others in the parking lot, and Corbin grabbed me after sneaking up from behind me and injecting me with some sort of sedative. Then I woke up here, in the same room with Nick and Luc as O’Hare was doing something really fucked up to them.”
Simon pauses, and we both look over at Nick and Luc, their ashen faces not putting us at ease in the slightest.
“What did O’Hare do to you both?” I ask softly, knowing deep in my gut that whatever it was, it will have lasting effects on the two men.
Nick buries his head in Luc’s chest, with Luc wrapping his arms around the smaller shifter, and for the first time it hits me—they’re not behaving as per usual. Nick has always been the smallest and frailest of us all, and until Aodhán disappeared, the three of us would take turns shielding and protecting him the best we could. However, something has changed between him and Luc, there’s a new edge of intimacy to their interactions.
Luc’s chin lifts in defiance as he breaks my heart with his words.
“They somehow managed to give Nick and I fated mate bonds. With each other.”
My stomach drops. I’ve never heard of fated mate bonds forming between couples of the same sex. Conscious bonds, yes. Even the occasional true bond. But never a fated one. My parents and their compatriots absolutely detest anything that could be seen as polluting shifter bloodlines and firmly hold fated bonds accountable for so much “inbreeding.” So, for them to create such a bond between two shifters from such different species… and on top of that, neither of them being a hundred percent straight?
Something stinks around here, and for once it’s not the overpowering stench of the scent-suppressant cologne the guards and scientists all wear.
“What… what are they planning for the two of you by giving you such a binding bond to each other?” Simon, bless him, is still ignorant of the depraved depths O’Hare will stoop to in the name of “research,” and with the full blessing of the board of directors.
“Nothing good,” I mumble, my words lost under Luc’s response.
“I think they’re going to see just how much Nick and I can endure being linked like this, whether we can mentally ease each other’s pain, and possibly even if we can experience particular… physical stimuli… while it’s occurring to the other person.”
Fuck. O’Hare’s going to separate them, torture them, and then observe to see if they react to each other’s torment. Worst of all, he’s going to violate them to test their connection to each other. Simon’s presence here makes a lot more sense to me now.
“And because they’ve never had access to fated mates before, this is a whole new area of study that’s been opened to them. They basically fucked around until they were able to successfully chemically induce the bond, but now have no idea how to reverse it. Simon’s not only got a boatload of severed bonds, but he also has a rejected fated one as well. They’re gonna use him to figure out how to chemically dissolve a fated bond, aren’t they?”
The others are silent as I spell it all out, their expressions mirroring the horror that I feel.
Fuck. If they’re successful, we’re all fucked. Especially me.