“Oleander, but my friends call me Oli,” I say as I stretch out my hand to him.
I'm sure he already knows this. I'm sure everybody in this camp already knows this, thanks to the Bonded Group I belong to, but he takes my hand regardless.
“Tyrone Evans, I’m one of the Transporters.”
He introduces me to the other men and then tucks into his own sandwich, laughing along with the story that Gabe is telling about the buildings back home.
Rockelle takes a huge bite of his sandwich and chews once before swallowing, grossly efficient at getting food down his throat, before he asks Gabe, “How far away are the houses from being finished? I know that I'm speaking out of turn about it, but sharing with eight other personnel isn't my idea of home.”
Gabe smiles back ruefully. “Unfortunately, unless you find your Bonded Group, that's where you're going to have to stay. There's too many people on the entry list to start prioritizing single dwellings.”
Rockelle nods and takes a sip of the can of Coke before he sets it down at his feet.
Evans nudges at him with his shoulder. “You could always move into my house, but I’ve gotta tell you, living with three-year-old twins isn't going to be an easier ride than the frat house you're currently living in. Five a.m. starts ain’t shit when you’re not parenting.”
I raise my eyebrows at him. “And are those twins yours? That seems kind of intense.”
He grins at me, beaming with pride. “Yep, two little boys. I have a six-week-old son as well.”
I have to stop my mouth from gaping at him as I look him over again. He certainly does not look old enough to be a happy father of three. I'm clearly not doing a very good job at subtlety because he laughs at me.
“I found my Bonded Group young, and both of my Bonded weren't exactly keen on waiting around for the Resistance to be done messing up our lives before we had a family of our own. I’ve got to admit, having a family to fight for and come back to keeps me going when we’re out here facing all this shit.”
It's hard to argue with that.
Atlas nods and glances around at the other men, but they're all back on the conversation about the work Gabe is doing with the housing, and I’m too proud of my Bonded to interrupt his happy stories of errant nail guns.
Evans glances around the group and then clears his throat quietly, glancing back to me. “I don't want to speak out of turn here, but I just wanted to say thank you for coming and for helping out. I know that most people are terrified of your Gift and what it is that you can do, but I've served under Shore for a long time, and I trust his judgment.”
He looks out into the density of the trees before he continues, his face like a blank slate that speaks volumes on its own. “I’ve also seen the things that the Resistance do to the people that they catch, and I'm not going to bite the hand that feeds. Having your entire Bonded Group here has been the first time that I've actually thought we have a chance at winning this. Hell, it’s the first time that we've walked into a fight without knowing that we're completely outgunned. I might actually get the chance to see those little kids of mine grow up. They might have the chance to have Bonded Groups of their own too.”
He says it with the type of wonder in his voice that tugs at my heart, like he’s been out here fighting in the TacTeams without any sort of hope that they’ll win, but doing it anyway because it’s the right thing to do.
I wonder how many of Gryphon’s men have felt this way.
I swallow the last bite of my sandwich and look back over my shoulder at Gabe’s grinning face, the sun shining on his golden hair, making him look even more like the golden child of the group. He catches my eye and grins at me before I glance back at Evans.
“Whatever it takes, we're going to get rid of them all.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
Oli
I wake up in the darkness of the tent, feeling disoriented but content, aware that all of my Bonded are here in the space with me. It’s a rare phenomenon, thanks to Nox’s aversion to sharing my bed back at our house with everyone else, so I let myself enjoy it as I lie there with my eyes shut for a moment.
He’s sleeping closest to the tent’s opening, Procel and Mephis sleeping on top of him with their faces turned towards it as though they’re on high alert for danger. Azrael had also insisted on sleeping at the bottom of my sleeping bag, covering my feet with his wispy body as he guards me obsessively.
My chest still aches at the thought of what I might’ve lost if I hadn’t completed the soul-bonding.
I’m wedged between North and Gryphon, with Atlas and Gabe flanking the two of them. From where my face is pressed into North’s chest, I can see Gabe. He’s snoring just a little, one arm flung over his face and the other splayed out as though he’s searching for me in his sleep. Every inch of my being is content right now, none of the worries of what’s to come filtering into my mind while I’m surrounded by my Bonded.
The hot press of lips against my shoulder startles me out of my relaxed state.
I gasp and jolt a little in North’s arms, and his eyebrows furrow in his sleep, a rough groan rumbling in his chest underneath my ear. I see the white glow of Gryphon’s eyes changing light up the fabric walls of the tent as he calls on his Gift to keep North from waking fully.
A very sneaky use for it.
I carefully unwind myself from North and shift around to face Gryphon, biting back a smile when I see the lascivious grin spread over his lips. I quirk an eyebrow at him, but he just leans forward to kiss me, hot and demanding as he pushes me onto my back and covers my body with his own.
I want to push back against him, to stop him from fucking me in the middle of our Bonded Group while they’re all sleeping, but I’ve missed him and it’s caused an ache in my chest. He’s quick to reassure me.
I can keep them asleep. Come here, Bonded. Get that wet pussy on my face. I want your cum running down my chin.
It feels wrong, so wrong to wriggle out of the sleeping bag and straddle his face, my legs tucked up only inches away from North’s sleeping face, but Gryphon’s tongue is talented enough to distract me from that pretty quickly. His hands are firm on my thighs, holding me down against the assault on my most sensitive flesh as he drives me over the edge and covers himself in my juices.
He’s drenched by the time he’s satisfied, my legs shaking so badly he has to lift me off of his face and maneuver me back underneath him. When he kisses me, I groan softly at the taste of my pussy on his tongue, the way he shares it with me is such an intimate thing.
Almost as intimate as the hot slide of his dick as he impales me with one thrust, driving straight into my pussy as it pulses around him. I’m over-stimulated and sensitive, my clit throbbing at all of the attention he’s given it. When he tilts my hips just right, I almost scream at his hard thrusts against my G spot.
I almost forget we’re not alone.
We could wake them up.
My pussy clenches around the thick length of him inside me, his hips still moving at a lazy grind. I’m not sure which one of us he’s trying to punish with it.
We could wake them all up and make them watch me fuck you. Would you like that, Bonded? Do you want them to watch this gushing pussy get filled up? Or do you want more, Bonded? Do you want all of your Bonded filling your greedy holes up?