Page 275 of The Bonding Games: Part 1

Then Tate, the moron, takes a step towards her, eyes darkened with that crazed look of obsession. “Havoc, baby—”

The hand that had been reaching for Ezla is trapped in her unforgiving grasp in under a second, and before I can blink, Tate’s on his back with the dark crimson blade of an Avri dagger at his throat, the glow illuminating his helmet.

And still, he doesn’t heed the warning.

Eyes half-lidded, his free hand reaches for her ass as he thrusts his hips up right into where she straddles him.

The dagger moves from his throat to his wrist in a flash.

“Do not. Touch. Me.”

I swallow thickly as that low, lethal voice rolls over me. My body is tensed, prepared to intervene if things go even further south. But I’m acutely aware of the fact that I couldn’t stop my Bonded if she decided to slice Tate to pieces right now.

“I will slit your fucking wrists and dance in your blood as it spills from your severed veins.”

For once, Tate obeys, eyes widening a fraction as he recognises the promise in her words.

Although I suspect he’d let her kill him without argument and die happy if it weren’t for the fact it’d take him away from her considering the way there’s also even more hearts in those eyes after her threat.

“I’m your Bonded—you can’t kill me, Havoc.”

Her glinting, Avri-adorned helmet leans right into his face. “It would benefit you to know that I do not care for rules or expectations unless they suit my needs. I will gut you like a pig without hesitation if I see fit.”

Tate licks his lips like the threat tastes delicious, but he’s playing nice because he’s either enjoying himself too much to stop this or is possibly smart enough to know his life is currently on the line and could very well end with a flick of his obsession’s hand.

“And I will never, ever call you mine.”

His expression falters, and I almost feel bad for the guy as I catch the brief flicker of hurt and confusion in his grey stare.

Ezla shoves to her feet, then directs her next cold statement at all of us as a group. “You made a mistake in bonding me.”

Spinning on her heel, she strides out of the room without a backward glance.

None of us follow, but Tate’s features harden into what can only be described as a deadly determination. He hasn’t been deterred at all. Quite the opposite. And I’d advise him to proceed with caution here if it weren’t for the fact I think he wouldn’t at all mind being burned by Ezla’s scathing flames in his mission to make her his.

19

ALBY

We haven’t seen Ezla in three days.

Not in the Training Centre, not our Bonded washroom, and certainly not in our Bonded chambers. We even tried to contact her through the connection our newly linked bonding cubes allow, but it was like there was a taalk wall between us. So she’s become a ghost.

It’s . . . not nice.

No one terrifies me quite like she does, and yet I want her around. Don’t ask me why; I don’t understand it myself.

Is this a crush?

I’ve never had one of those before, so I don’t really know what to do with that information. Then again, maybe my mind and body are still in shock from surviving Game 1, and I’m either not understanding the signals being sent my way, or those signals are malfunctioning.

“OW!”

My gaze snaps to Tiger and Cooper as the former shakes out his gloved hand.

“That’s exactly why you don’t aim for the head,” Scotty sighs. “Those gloves will protect your knuckles from splitting, but they won’t absorb all the impact.”

“I know that!”