Found Bonds E-Book

Eunice Amnell

• Herausgeber: Sentient Hen House
• Kategorie: Gesellschafts- und Liebesromane
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2023

Beschreibung

I have always yearned for a bond that would make my heart race, make my body sing, and ignite my soul.

Now, I have found four bonds that have woven themselves into my life, but the complications in our relationships threaten to unravel our entangled destinies.

I’ve dreamed about being with Levi since I was a teenager but he keeps disappointing me.

Caden embodies everything I've ever desired in a partner—gentle, kind, patient—a true Alpha who knows how to ignite the fire within my Alpha wolf half. However, he has a mysterious bond with Mateo and I’m not sure how I feel about it.

Mateo harbors a deep-seated resentment towards me and views me as a replica of the woman who ruined his father. Our instincts should make us enemies, yet an irresistible attraction pulls us together, defying logic and reason.

And then there's Aiden, the best friend I've always longed for, who wants to claim my heart. But as I navigate the complexities of these interwoven relationships, I hesitate to involve him in this twisted tapestry of emotions.

Found Bonds is book two of four books in Their Fated Mate series and ends on a cliffhanger.

*If you like these tropes: fated mates, reverse harem / why choose romance, badass heroines, cinnamon roll Alphas, childhood sweetheart romance, friends to lovers, enemies to lovers, werewolf romances, etc, this series is for you.

Leseprobe

Eunice Amnell

Found Bonds

Their Fated Mate Book 2

Copyright © 2023 by Eunice Amnell

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise without written permission from the publisher. It is illegal to copy this book, post it to a website, or distribute it by any other means without permission.

This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author's imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

For permissions, contact: [email protected] / [email protected]

First Published by Sentient Hen House 2023

Second edition

This book was professionally typeset on Reedsy Find out more at reedsy.com

Contents

1. Aurora

2. Levi

3. Aurora

4. Aurora

5. Aurora

6. Aurora

7. Aurora

8. Aurora

9. Aurora

10. Aurora

11. Aurora

12. Aurora

13. Aurora

14. Aiden

15. Aurora

16. Aurora

17. Aurora

18. Aurora

19. Mateo

20. Aurora

21. Aurora

22. Nyra

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1

Aurora

As we moved closer, I tried to get my heart to slow and tried to pretend I was indifferent while holding tightly onto Nyra’s arm and struggling not to squeeze Aiden’s fingers.

Every part of me, inside and out, was on high alert at that moment, especially when I locked gazes with Caden.

Before we could say anything, Caden unceremoniously pushed Alice off his lap, glaring at her so fiercely that she went to sit opposite him at the far end of the table with her head bowed so her hair could cover her flushed face.

Caden placed his elbows on the table and clasped his fingers together, putting his chin on them as he stared at me with a smug smile. It was a smile I was familiar with. And it held a lot of promises, as his lemon scent seemed to fill the air enticingly.

“Hey guys, this is Aurora Byrne, my baby girl, and her friend, Nyra,” Aiden introduced us.

I stepped on Aiden’s foot, ignoring the glare Caden directed at me at Aiden’s words.

Aiden corrected himself with a smirk. “Oh, pardon me, my friend and future girlfriend.”

I shook my head at how insufferable Aiden seemed to become when we were in the public eye. “Aurora, you remember Mateo, right? This is my twin brother Caden, and this is Ryan, Asher, Angelique, Leo, Nathan…”

“Nice to meet you,” I said with a polite wave, pretending not to notice the way Caden’s brows rose when I pretended not to know him.

The people at the table welcomed us with distant smiles. Then we sat and started eating. I focused on my food while listening to the discussions around me and studiously ignoring Caden’s glances.

“So, what’s with the gloves?” asked Nathan if I remembered his name right.

I’d already anticipated this question when I saw the weird glances they threw my way as I pulled off my full velvet gloves to reveal the fingerless gloves beneath them. “I have haphephobia. It—”

“Haphe what now?” Ryan asked.

“I don’t like being touched, and I react negatively to touch,” I said as I dipped a chip in sour cream before pushing it into my mouth.

“Really? Because we saw the videos and pictures of you and Aiden all over each other on Saturday, and you didn’t look averse to touch at all. Are you sure the gloves aren’t just an act to help you get attention?” Angelique, who had the straightest waist-long hair I’d ever seen, asked provocatively.

I ignored the challenge in her words. I knew her type: snobby rich girls who didn’t want to admit strangers they didn’t deem important or controllable enough into their inner circle. Just like Stella in Ni Daonni City.

Instead, I said, after taking my time to finish the chips in my mouth, “I don’t react to everyone.”

“How convenient.” She sneered.

I ignored her as I picked up the ketchup bottle and used it to knock away Ryan’s hands that were stretching toward my hand on the table.

“If I’m in my worst state, I could seize or get violent, so please don’t touch me just to try it out,” I said, squashing Nathan’s hand under the ketchup bottle when he tried to touch me while pretending to take the ketchup bottle from me.

Before Aiden could say anything, Caden spoke. “All right, I think we should respect Aurora’s wishes, since we respect everyone’s individual differences. Right, guys?”

There was silence for a moment before everyone started chiming in with fake agreements.

However, Angelique whispered in a sullen tone, “Since when did you care about respecting people’s differences? Hey—”

Ryan’s cough interrupted her, making everyone at the table go quiet as Aiden pushed his tray with an uneaten bag of fries between us.

We were quite familiar with each other, after spending much of the past two days together, so I picked up a fry while putting my unfinished sour cream dip beside the small bag.

The two gazes on me became more intense—Caden’s containing something deep and unhappy, and Mateo’s full of hostility.

To avoid their gazes, I looked down at my fries. I knew I’d made Caden mad at me by running away when I should’ve faced him the morning after our one-night stand, but when or how had I offended Mateo?

“What classes do you have left?” Aiden asked, opening the small pocket in my backpack where I kept my schedule.

He knew where it was because he’d driven me to school today and seen me pull it out and study it in the car.

“Interfaction Communication and Soul Animal Communication.”

“Whoa, what do you want to do with that?” Nyra asked, presumably unable to stop herself from breaking the silence she’d kept since we sat down.

“Oh, oh, I know this one. Aurora’s a Camdine Academy student, and she’s studying to become a warrior in the Supernatural Council. Her family has two adopted soul animals at home. Willow and Leto,” Aiden rushed to answer, as if to prove he knew more about me than anybody else.

“Wow, you sure know a lot about her,” Caden said through gritted teeth.

“Yeah, and they only met on Friday. And he spent all of yesterday afternoon and evening locked up in her room,” Alice said.

“Yeah, and they only met on Friday. And he spent all of yesterday afternoon and evening locked up in her room, and they didn’t even invite me to talk with them,” Alice said.

I stared at her in disbelief, but Aiden leveled an icy look at her, speaking in a disparaging tone I’d never heard him use before. “So what? Who wants to talk with the girl with the loosest mouth on campus?”

Caden made a small circular gesture in the air casually, and a guy in a black suit appeared out of nowhere and escorted Alice away from the top floor.

“I’m sorry. Don’t send me away. I won’t speak again…Aurora! Help me!” she protested, trying to look back at Caden, even though the man in the suit was doing everything he could to prevent it.

After an awkward silence, Nyra tried to change the subject. “So what kind of soul animal pets do you have?”

“Shh, don’t call them pets. Leto has ears everywhere. He prefers to call himself an important member of our family,” I joked, moving close to her and opening the gallery on my phone to show her the cuteness overload I’d grown up with. “Leto is the fox, and Willow’s the owl.”

“I heard soul animals think like people? But how does anyone know that? Can they talk?” Ryan said, sipping on his milkshake.

“Yes, they think like people. But they just sound like regular animals, except some people can understand them,” I said.

“And you can?” Caden asked, locking gazes with me.

I nodded in response before looking away.

“Hmph! Show off.” Angelique sneered again.

I ignored her as I explained to Ryan, Harper, and Caden, whose eyes were fixed on me. “It’s actually an inherited trait. Although, it could also be because I grew up with them and understand what their mannerisms mean.”

“Since you already understand them, why do you need to study soul animal communication? To show off your ‘wealth of knowledge?’” Mateo asked in an emotionless voice, though blatant dislike blazed in his eyes.

I glared at him. “Of course not, dumbass. I need the certificate to become a permanent volunteer at the Supernatural Council’s Soul Animal Shelter Facility like Uncle Brogan…” I covered my mouth.

“Your uncle? So you have an uncle in the Supernatural Council?” Aiden asked. “Have you ever been there?”

“No, and he’s not really my uncle. He’s just a close friend of my father, whom I call uncle,” I said, trying to remedy the situation.

“Ugh, now you’re just boasting about an uncle who’s probably not even as close to your father as you’re trying to make us believe,” Harper, a girl who’d been observing me intently since I sat down, retorted. “I hate wannabes the most.”

I leveled a careless look at her. “You can believe whatever you want.”

“All right, all right, let’s talk about other stuff,” Ryan said, changing the topic with a question. “Did anyone get the name of the long-legged exchange student in black leather pants?”

Everyone at the table forgot about me, groaning in annoyance as they taunted him.

2

Levi

As soon as I teleported back into my Supernatural Council Apartment from Les Fosses De Sang, I rushed to pick up my phone, ignoring the missed calls on it and the fact that I was dripping blood all over the rug. Instead, I opened a familiar album containing video and audio recordings of my true mate Aurora Byrne with shaking hands.

I picked one and then lay on the floor with her voice in the background, not really hearing what she was saying as I relived the memory of her trying to convince her mother to let her get her own soul animal.

It was that memory and her voice that drove away the madness roaring in my head after a trip to Les Fosses De Sang, popularly referred to as the Blood Pits by members of the Supernatural Council. As usual, I’d had to fight the toughest fighters in the pit, ensuring once again that none of them could win their freedom by knocking me unconscious.

Remembering their desperation and the relieved ghost of the last runner-up, whom I’d had to kill, I covered my face with one hand. I wanted to give them the chance to win and leave that hellhole of never-ending fights, but losing would cost me my sister.

I’d already lost my mother, and even though Sophie hated me and thought I was responsible for our mother’s death, I couldn’t lose her, too. I knew our differences were irreconcilable. After all, she’d been brought up by our stepmother and spent years under our father’s tutelage and his never-ending brainwashing. Regardless, I was beholden to the oath I’d made to my mother on her deathbed to protect her.

Once I was back in the right state of mind, I picked up my phone and looked through my missed calls. Even though I had the permission of Keane Galway, the head of the Intelligence department and Aurora’s father, to take an entire week off every month for my trip to the Blood Pits, there was always the possibility an emergency had come up.

Even though many people in the Supernatural Council felt that my promotions over the years from rookie to team leader was due to my relationship with Keane’s daughter, I’d earned it fair and square. Therefore, if there were emergencies involving the dead, I was still one of the go-to guys in the Supernatural Council.

However, all the missed calls and texts were from Aurora, other than the one from her father asking me for a report on my trip to the Blood Pits.

Before I could call Aurora back, a call came in.

It was from an unknown number, but I knew who it was thanks to the typical Blue Freedom number. Blue Freedom was my father’s human-facing company that lured and trapped vulnerable people in the Blood Pits by claiming to be capable of curing their addictions or bad habits and solving their problems.

I took a deep breath, ready for the unpleasantness this call would bring me, and picked up.