Our Bonded.
I don't need to reach out to Oli to know that she's okay. I can feel her there in my chest, and she’s also content with the completed Bond. I’d only been able to stay calm about the whole fucking mess because Gryphon was in there as well. He was acting as a sort of ‘chaperone’ to make sure that Nox didn't hurt her in any way while she was so vulnerable to him, but I can't shake the feeling that I need to go and see it with my own two eyes.
I don't understand why he hates her so much.
I don't understand how her running away could’ve hurt him so deeply that he still couldn't see sense once the truth of it all was presented to him.
I get the feeling that the guy has some deep-seated mental issues or something from the way that everyone treats him. I have to admit that the idea of him being in our Bonded Group still pisses me off. He’s a liability and a danger to Oli. I’ll never take that shit lightly.
We’ve almost lost her too many times already.
I'm still sleeping on a mattress on the floor of my newly finished room, but I couldn't care less about it. I’m hoping to only have to sleep in here a few nights a week when Oli wants time alone with her other Bonded, so the idea of picking out anything and being fussy with it just doesn't interest me. Gabe had been a good sport about helping me get it done, as well as his room, while everybody else was away. There’s still so much to be done around here before the house is actually finished, he easily could’ve told me to fuck off.
He’s also a surprisingly patient teacher, and his dedication to getting this place finished, and getting Oli away from the rest of the community, is definitely something that I can get behind.
He’s someone I don’t mind sharing her with.
Once we’d finished grouting my bathroom and laying the carpets, we had moved on to North’s room, which needed the most work. The guy is fussy as fuck when it comes to interiors, which means more work for us. I would point it out to him, loudly and often, just to be an asshole, except that the guy also built an entire town for his community without once asking anything of them beyond their loyalty to each other and to help where they can.
I might cut him some slack for insisting on incredibly fussy tile work.
Gabe hadn't let me touch a single thing in North's room, not trusting me to not fuck it up, and I don't blame him. The only good perk there was that during the day, we had figured out how my power had grown.
Gabe had been working underneath a Jacuzzi large enough to fit eight fully grown men in it that North was having installed in his bathroom, when one of the temporary supports had given out and the whole thing had plummeted towards Gabe’s head and chest area.
It probably wouldn't have killed him, especially if we'd gotten him to Felix fast enough, but he definitely would have been seriously injured had it actually managed to land on him.
The moment I heard the wood cracking, my Gift had burst out of my chest, completely involuntarily and in a way that I had never felt before. I could see it though. I could see the protection that it had placed on Gabe. When the Jacuzzi bounced off his chest and back into place, he’d caught it and held it up with ease, as though he had all of the strength in my body.
He'd glanced over to me in complete and utter shock. “What the fuck was that?!”
I shook my head, but a small bead of sweat formed on my forehead as I snapped back, “Get out from under there! I don't know whether or not I can hold this.”
He scurried out and placed the tub back onto the ground, changing out the support and checking to make sure that it was secure this time with the practiced ease that he does everything. “Could you do that before? Is that something that you've always had up your sleeve and just forgot to mention to me or…？”
He let the sentence trail off and I took a second before I answered, staring down at my hands where they were glowing and then back over to him, that same glow over his skin. “I’ve never done that before. I don't really feel my Gift the way that you guys do. It's just a part of me. I can't manipulate it… or, at least, I couldn't before. Fuck. I don't even know how I did it now!”
Gabe cackled and pushed a hand through his hair, covered in sweat and dust from all of his work. “Well, I guess we can say now that we are definitely friends if your bond is deciding to protect me from shit. I wonder if it would do that for the rest of the guys too?”
I shook my head. “Fuck knows, but I doubt it'll do it for every one of the other Bonds.”
Gabe gave me a side-eye and slumped against the bathroom countertop. “You know you're gonna have to let that go, right? Oli is Bonded with the rest of them as well… or she will be soon. You’re only gonna hurt Oli if you keep kicking up a stink about him.”