Chapter Thirty-Two
Gabriel
I was sitting at my desk, pen scratching against paper as I tried to outline my portion of the Human Studies project.
The words blurred in front of me when a sudden surge of lust ripped through my body with enough force that I nearly toppled from my chair.
A strangled groan escaped me before I could stop it, and I doubled over, bracing against the desk.
My fingers clawed at the wood as my fangs dropped with a sharp ache.
Heat flooded my veins, scorching, insistent, every nerve ending screaming with want.
Pressure built inside me with a ferocity I couldn’t explain.
One moment, I was clawing at my desk, trying to regain my composure. The next, it tore through me.
A violent, shuddering wave of ecstasy crashed down, dragging a guttural sound from my throat.
My body convulsed, my back bowing as pleasure ripped me apart from the inside out.
My fingers dug deeper in the desk, leaving deep grooves behind, desperate for something to anchor me as the sensations dragged me under.
Pleasure raced through me like a fire, consuming everything in its path.
My fangs ached, my skin flushed hot, and I felt as if every nerve ending had been set alight.
The intensity left me trembling, panting like a starved beast, as it crashed over me.
When it finally released me, I collapsed forward.
My chest heaved, and sweat dampened my brow.
I stared down at my lap in shock as the evidence of my release soaked through my pants.
“What the fuck,” I panted, trying to make sense of what had just happened. My mind whirred as I tried to determine what sort of magic could cause this—what vile magic could grip me so tightly and make me come in my pants like an inexperienced teenager. “Shit,” I hissed, realization slowly dawning.
Shoving away from my desk with enough force to topple my chair, I stood and tore through my room to clean up and change.
Anger coiled in my gut, burning away the lingering vestiges of desire as I snarled my disgust at my soiled pants.
The feelings that had ripped through me weren’t the doing of a spell—no—they belonged to Bechora Knight.
The bond had chosen to force them down my throat, to make me feel what she was feeling.
The lingering understanding that the bond granted me was enough to know she'd claimed another mate.
Jerking my clean pants up, I let them hang, undone, on my waist and stalked to my dresser to retrieve my hidden phone.
This bond had to go. I refused to be held captive to the sensations of a woman I loathed.
“Rafe,” I hissed the moment my brother answered my call. “Tell me you’ve found something to help me.”
“What happened?”
“Is it not enough to be bonded to someone I don’t want?” I snapped.
“You wouldn’t have called me if something else hadn’t happened,” he replied. “You know how risky this is for us both.”
I sighed and moved to the wall, leaning my forehead against the cool stone. “She’s bonded another. I felt it. As if it weren’t enough that the bond drags us together in my dreams, it deemed it necessary that I experience her bonding, too.”
“Gabriel,” Rafe hesitated. “Are you sure?”
“Of course, I’m sure!” I snapped. “I was given the same education about the bond that you were. This cursed bond I’ve somehow created with that— that female—will ensure I feel it every time she bonds with another.”
“You sound almost jealous, little brother.” Rafe chuckled. “Are you sure your feelings aren’t changing about your mate?”
“Absolutely not!” I snarled.
Rafe’s laughter softened into something almost sympathetic. “I’m only teasing. You’re wound so tight a breeze could snap you in two.” He paused, taking an audible breath. “I’ve found nothing about breaking the bond. What I have found… I’m not sure you want to hear it.”
My chest tightened. “There has to be a way. Maybe in whatever it is you’re withholding.”
“There isn’t,” he said firmly. “What I’ve uncovered—”
“Tell me.” I insisted. “I need to know.”
Rafe exhaled, long and reluctant, before speaking. “All our lives, we were taught that vampire mates are chosen—that a spell must accompany the bite to create our bond, and without it, the bite means nothing. But that’s not the whole truth.”
My blood ran cold, dread washing over me. “What do you mean?” I demanded.
“If the texts I’ve uncovered in my search to help you are true, our kind doesn’t need spells to bond.
Not when it’s fated.” The words carried a weight that crushed the breath from my chest. Even as my mind railed against them, some part of me knew them to be true.
“If she’s your fated, the bite alone would have initiated the bond.
The bond forms instantly because it’s blessed by the gods and ordained by fate herself.
You don’t choose a fated mate, Gabriel. You find them. Or they find you.”
I squeezed my eyes shut, pressing my head harder into the stone as nausea rolled through my stomach. “So, you’re saying…”
“This is permanent. The bond will continue to draw you to her until it’s completed.
There is no breaking it, not that I’ve found.
Every text I’ve uncovered implies that once a fated bond is initiated, that’s it.
Deny it all you want, but the pull will get stronger, more insistent, until fully sealed.
You bit her, and that was enough. That can only mean she was fated for you from the start. ”
My hands curled into fists, nails biting into my palms. “No. No, I refuse to believe that. There has to be a way—you just haven’t found it yet.”
Even as I spoke, I recalled my interaction with the demon prince.
He’d made similar claims—gone so far as to outright state I was bound to Bechora Knight for all eternity—adding weight to my brother’s words.
The truth settled into my soul like an anchor dragging me to the deepest depths, drowning me in an unwanted bond.
“You can refuse to accept it all you want,” Rafe replied, pulling me from my thoughts.
“That doesn’t make it any less real. Whoever this woman is, she’s your fated.
You can spend eternity trying to fight it, or you can do as I suggested when you first called me for help.
Get to know your mate. I have faith that the fates wouldn’t have given you this bond if she weren’t worthy. ”
“I can’t accept this,” my throat tightened. “Dina needs me. Father—”
“To hell with Father,” Rafe snarled, his voice a growl that vibrated down the line. “He’s ruled our lives with fear long enough. It’s time you stand up to him.”
“You don’t understand,” I spat. “You ran. I’m the only one left to keep her safe.
You know as well as I do—one wrong move, one sign of defiance, and he will dangle her safety in front of me like a noose.
” My throat burned as the words spilled out.
“Every step I take, every decision, it’s all to keep her safe.
If I fail to uphold his expectations, Dina will suffer.
You may be able to live with abandoning us to Father’s whims, but I can’t leave her behind the way you left us. ”
Silence crackled through the line, heavy and suffocating. For a long moment, all I could hear was Rafe’s breathing—measured, forced, like he was holding himself back from unleashing the storm I knew brewed inside him.
“I didn’t abandon you,” he said at last, his tone low and ragged.
“I left because it was the only way to fight back. If I’d stayed, he’d have ground me into his obedient lapdog, the same as he’s doing to you.
I wouldn’t have just had the threat of Dina’s safety hanging around my neck, but yours as well. ”
My jaw clenched with anger. “Easy for you to say when you’re not here. You left and nothing changed, except that I became the one choking on his leash.”
“And yet, you’re still breathing,” Rafe shot back.
“You have no idea the weight I carry. The guilt that threatens to drown me because I left you there. I had no choice.” His voice cracked before he bit it back, steel sharpening his words.
“Don’t mistake my absence for apathy, little brother.
Everything I’ve done has been for you and Dina.
I needed to leave so I could find a way to end that monster for good.
I won’t stop looking until I’ve found what I need to end him. I promise you that.”
I pressed my head harder against the stone, forcing back the burn in my eyes—another weakness Father would punish me for.
“If he finds out about this bond, if he discovers I’ve managed to shackle myself to a mate who isn’t powerful, he will see me as weak.
You know weakness has only one price in his house. ”
“He doesn’t get to decide what’s weak,” Rafe growled.
“He never did. You want to keep Dina safe, stop letting him use her as a cage. She’s a child, Gabriel.
She should be laughing, playing, dreaming about nonsense, not existing as the blade he holds to your throat.
I swear to you, I will find a way to keep her out of his reach, but you have got to stop pretending your bond is the enemy when the real monster is the man who sired us. ”
“You make it all sound so simple.” I huffed.
“It could be,” he replied softly. “Do you truly think fate would saddle you with a mate that’s a liability and not a source of strength?”
I opened my mouth to snap back, to spit another denial, but the words stuck like ash in my throat.
Against my will, an image of Bechora surged to the forefront of my mind—not fragile, not weak, but standing her ground in combat class.
I could still see the way she’d been knocked down, dirt smearing her face, only to rise again with that same infuriating fire blazing in her eyes.
She had fought back, again and again, long past the point most would have yielded. Stubborn. Reckless. Relentless.
“You don’t know her,” I forced out, though my voice had lost its sharpness. “She isn’t—she can’t be—”
Rafe let the silence stretch as if he sensed my denial crumbling to dust. When he spoke, it was clear he’d chosen his words deliberately.
“She already is, Gabriel. Otherwise, you wouldn’t be fighting so hard to deny it.
The fates don’t make mistakes, little brother.
She may not be what Father would deem worthy, but what is his opinion compared to the gods? ”
A shudder ran through me, and for the first time since the call began, rage gave way to something heavier: fear. Fear of my father, fear of the truth, fear of the ways he could use the bond thrumming through my veins like a second heartbeat.
“I can’t…” My voice broke, rough and weak. I swallowed hard, hating myself for it.
“You can, Gabriel.” My brother’s voice was laced with comfort. “Everything I’ve found in my search to help you tells me so. Fated bonds aren’t just a blessing; they’re a source of strength—one our kind has seemed to have forgotten. I envy you. What I wouldn’t give to be handed such a gift.”
I let out a sardonic laugh. “A gift? More like a curse.”
I could practically hear Rafe roll his eyes on the other end of the line. “Always so stubborn,” he chuckled. “Only you would start to accept the truth and then shove it away in a box.”
“I’m not—” I started, my protests cut off by my brother’s laughter. “This isn’t funny, Rafe.”
“Oh, but it is.” He breathed, reigning in his laughter. “Let me worry about Father. You stop being a stubborn ass long enough to see what’s actually in front of you.”
“And what, exactly, is it you suggest I do?” I demanded through clenched teeth. “It’s not as if I’ve been kind to her. Should I show up at her door with gifts like a love-sick puppy and beg her forgiveness?” The thought seemed preposterous.
“Not forgiveness,” Rafe countered. “Not right away. If I know you as well as I think, you’ve made a mess of things, and it will take time to recover from it.
Get to know her. Show her the real you—the one you keep hidden away so Father doesn’t discover you’re not the cold-hearted bastard he demands you be. ”
I scoffed, but the sound came out hollower than I intended. “Why would she give me the chance to prove I’m anything other than what I’ve shown her? She’s the most infuriatingly stubborn female I’ve ever encountered.”
“Do I hear a hint of admiration in your voice, little brother?” I could hear the smirk in Rafe’s voice before he grew serious again.
“You won’t know until you try. If everything I’ve learned is anything to go by, the fates don’t care how many times you’ve snarled at her or pushed her away.
If she’s truly your fated, the bond will find a way—you just have to let it. ”
I shoved away from the wall, forcing out a bitter breath. “If she spits in my face, I will make it my life’s mission to find where you’ve hidden away and make Father’s cruelty look like a pleasant dream.”
Rafe chuckled, unshaken by my threat. “Then I’ll be waiting. But something tells me it won’t come to that.”