Chapter Thirty-Two #2
“Alright,” Liora said calmly, lifting a hand when she clearly sensed the unease spreading through the room. “I can see that some of you are struggling to understand this. So let’s take this back to what we already know.”
She paced slowly at the front of the classroom as she spoke.
“Shifters, demons, and dragons all possess another counterpart, their animal within. As such, many of their thoughts, actions, and behaviors are dominated by instinct.” Her gaze swept the room.
“A mate also triggers those instincts. They will feel compelled to please their mate. To make sure they are fed, happy, satisfied...safe.”
Anabelle swallowed.
“If a wolf, for example, loses control, for whatever reason, anger or fury often rises to the forefront of their mind. That’s the instinct takes the reins.
” Liora paused deliberately. “However… if their mate suddenly appears, you will find that all instincts except protect, love, and obey fall away.”
A murmur rippled through the room.
“That,” Liora said firmly, “is what we mean by control.”
She folded her hands behind her back.
“The female has the ability to shift the animalistic instincts within the male. Now, just because fallen angels and fae do not possess an animalistic side does not mean the bond does not affect them in the same way.” She shook her head. “It does.”
Liora’s tone softened slightly.
“To serve is simply another manner of loving. Bonded males feel that serving their female is the highest honor. It reassures them that the bond itself is being satisfied.”
A girl near the back raised her hand, hesitation clear in her voice. “You speak as if the bond is… alive.”
Liora paused mid-step.
She looked around the room, then sighed quietly.
“Yes,” she said at last. “That’s because it is.”
The air in the classroom shifted.
“There are two types of bonds,” Liora continued. “Dual bonds...where there are two individuals within the bond. And group bonds.”
She turned toward the board.
“In essence,” she said, picking up a marker, “a bond is like a tether. Two intertwined strings linking people together.”
She selected a red marker and drew a single wavy line. Then with a blue one, she drew the same line on top of it, deliberately, she twisted them together into a double helix.
“In a dual bond,” Liora explained as she worked, “when either side cares for their mate, spends time with them, connects emotionally or physically, it fuels both tethers.”
She drew small lines with a black marker joining both the red and blue lines together at various intervals much like a strand of DNA.
“That ensures the bond itself is being cared for. Nurtured.”
Then she wiped her hands and picked up the markers again.
“In a group bond,” she said, “let’s use a familiar example, the Queen.”
She drew a woman at the center of the board. Beneath her, slightly spaced apart, she sketched five male figures in a line. From the woman, she drew red wavy lines to each male. From each male, blue lines entwined with the red stretched back toward her.
“At the focus of a group bond is the female,” Liora said. “Every time she spends quality time individually with a mate, she strengthens and cares for that specific tether.”
She joined each of the connections individually with the same black dashes. “This is necessary. And extremely important.”
Then she drew a large black circle around all five connections.
“But a group bond works differently,” she continued. “For the bond to feel truly nurtured, she must also spend time with them together. That is how the bond as a whole feels satisfied.”
Jesus fucking Christ, Anabelle thought.
Her gaze drifted to the right, toward Dominik. For the first time, he wasn’t looking at her. He was tense. Beyond tense. His jaw was clenched so tightly she could see the muscle jumping, and she realized only then that his hand had stopped tracing those soothing circles on her shoulder.
“Are you okay?” she whispered.
Dominik nodded, but didn’t meet her eyes. Something twisted uncomfortably in her chest.
This is weird, she thought. But Liora was already continuing, and Anabelle forced her attention back to the front.
“Now,” Liora said, clasping her hands, “are there any questions?”
Five hands shot up.
She chuckled softly. “Every term, this is the class I find students are most engaged in.” Her gaze settled on one raised hand. “Go on, Miss Turner. What’s your question?”
“For group bonds,” the girl asked, “how do you know how many males will be in the bond?”
“Ah,” Liora said approvingly. “Very good question.”
She nodded. “You’ll find that most males in a shared bond are drawn together in more ways than one, long before finding their female. That said, it’s not uncommon for a bond to be incomplete.”
Anabelle leaned forward slightly.
“Fortunately,” Liora continued, “our High Queen implemented a solution last year. There is now a system in place where you can upload an image of your mark. The system catalogs it for easy reference. If you believe your bond is incomplete, you may search for your mate.”
A few students murmured among themselves.
“Next question.” Liora pointed toward the front row. “Yes.”
A boy cleared his throat. “Does the bond change anything besides instincts?”
Liora tilted her head. “What do you mean?”
“I mean… do you feel anything physically? Other than just recognizing that’s the love of your life.”
Liora considered that for a moment. “Well,” she said slowly, “physically, beyond the tingling sensations some factions experience....no.” She paused. “But there are two things worth mentioning.”
She straightened.
“We spoke earlier about humans’ capacity to cheat. If a bonded mate were to cheat, which I will preface by saying is extremely unlikely, as it goes against not only our beliefs but our very souls, it would manifest in the other bonded partner as physical pain.”
The room fell into stunned silence.
“I’ve heard it described,” Liora continued evenly, “as similar to heart attacks. Or stab wounds.”
No one breathed.
“Yes,” she said, nodding at their expressions. “It is extreme. But it is also rare. Less than one percent of registered mates have ever committed such an offense...and it is an offense,” Liora finished. “Chargeable by the High Council.”
She let that sit. Then her gaze turned distant, thoughtful, as the weight of her words settled over the class.
Liora didn’t hesitate as she continued, her tone shifting into something more precise, more careful. “The other manifestation in supernatural pairings include the sharing of emotions,” she said. “It is a highly documented phenomenon that bonded mates will feel what the other is feeling.”
A ripple of interest moved through the class.
Polly’s hand went up immediately.
“Yes,” Liora said, nodding toward her.
“You said supernatural pairings,” Polly said carefully. “Does that not happen with humans?”
Liora’s lips curved into a faint, knowing smile. “Ah,” she said. “Now we’re getting to the good stuff.”
She clasped her hands together in front of her.
“Yes and No. Matebonds that include humans manifest differently. In most cases, only the supernatural partner receives the emotional feedback.” Her gaze swept the room.
“The human, however, will not be able to detect what their partner is feeling. Unless... the human is bonded to extremely powerful individuals, then the bond could manifest the same for both mates.”
She paused, then added quietly, “Unfortunately… none of you, unless bonded to exceptional individuals will be able to feel the emotional transference in a bond.”
Silence fell over the classroom like a dropped curtain.
“I know,” Liora said, acknowledging the weight of it. “It is unfortunate. But casters are still, technically, human. We possess no additional abilities beyond the manipulation of energy.”
Anabelle’s hand shot up before she could stop herself.
“Yes, Anabelle?” Liora said.
Anabelle swallowed. “What about offspring?” she asked. “How does that work? If we’re born outside a mate-bond, will our children inherit our abilities?”
Liora nodded slowly. “Good question.”
She turned toward the board, wiped it clean, and began again.
“Everyone take this down,” she said. “There are a wide array of possibilities, both within mate-bonds and outside of them.”
The marker squeaked softly as she wrote and Anabelle barely registered the sound. She just stared.
Supernatural + Human (Non-mate) = Caster
Supernatural + Human (Mate) = Supernatural (dual bonds) / Mixed Supernatural (group bonds - All dominant traits)
Supernatural + Supernatural (Non-mate) = Supernatural (Dominant faction)
Supernatural + Supernatural (Mate) = Mixed Supernatural (All dominant traits)
Caster + Human (Non-mate) = Human
Caster + Human (Mate) = Caster (Less potency than parent)
Caster + Supernatural (Non-mate) = Caster (Higher potency than parent)
The room went utterly still. Everyone just stared at the board. Anabelle gulped.
“Miss?” came a hesitant voice from the middle of the room.
“Yes, Thomas?” Liora said.
“I think you missed one,” he said. “What about caster and supernatural mates?”
Liora blinked, then she stilled. “Ah,” she said slowly. “Funnily enough… there has never been a recorded fated mate-bond between a caster and a supernatural.” She furrowed her brows, studying the board as if expecting something to appear where nothing was written.
“So,” she finished, turning back to the class, “we don’t actually know what the offspring would turn out to be.”
A beat passed.
“Okay,” Liora said briskly. “Moving on…”
But Anabelle barely heard her. Because something in her chest had gone very, very quiet, and very, very loud at the same time.
She couldn’t stop staring at the board. The words were still there, etched in black marker, neat and clinical, yet they felt anything but orderly inside her head.
They blurred together until they stopped being information and started being possibilities.
Futures. Things she hadn’t been prepared to think about yet.