Shackled (The Lord Series) by Carlos
281. Olivia - Reunion I

Another explosion follows, and all the cars' alarms go off. Pieces of concrete fall around, and one hits my shoulder, but I barely notice any pain.

The first one, which came from outside, made a hole in the garage door big enough to allow people to get through it. Armed, masked women quickly enter. Wasp and other hellstars. Many of them quickly spread out through the garage, disappearing up the stairs.

The first time we met, Wasp gave me a piece of paper with her phone number. After I memorized it, I destroyed it, fearing that I'd be punished if any of the guys found it. Asking her for help had not been a difficult decision. She is one of the few people who let me choose what I wanted to do.

Now I'm questioning if I did the right thing because one of the hellstars shot Mose.

Blood gushes from his chest, and I cover the wound with my palms. Fear of losing him grips my heart hard. It clouds my judgment. Tears blur my vision. How do I help him?

The bond between us starts to fade. A knot forms in my throat, and I swallow hard.

"If you fucking die, I'm going to be so pissed." My snarl comes out as a whimper. It took him being seriously hurt to realize how much I care about him.

If Mose dies, I can bring him back, as I did with Rueben, but I'm scared something will go wrong since Mose appears to have been consumed by his demon. What if, the moment the body dies, the demon is forced to go to the Catacombs, and I lose Mose forever? I feel like I can't breathe. Why does it hurt so much when I lose a loved one?

The hellstar who shot him crouches next to me. "I thought he was hurting you."

How the fuck did she come to that conclusion?

"You are not very bright, are you?" I snap at her. I don't care if I sound like a bitch. She tried to kill one of my bondeds. Who the fuck gave her a gun? "He doesn't even look entirely human."

What is that supposed to mean? I want to rip off the mask from her face and kill her with it. "He is a demon, *my* demon, and he was protecting me!" "I'm sorry," she says.

I exhale loudly. "I don't fucking care. Just leave us alone!"

She backs off.

The butterflies fly to me. Out of desperation, I say, "Save him!"

My hands glow, and the butterflies land on them. Slowly, the bleeding stops. I remove my palms only when I feel something pushing against them. The bullet. Does this mean he's going to live? Even the wounds gained during the fight with Azael disappear.

The bond returns stronger than before.

Strands of his shoulder-length hair cover his face, and I brush them away before I kiss him. His chest rises and falls slowly, and I press my ear to it. The steady beating of his heart comforts me.

"Thank fuck," I breathe when his arms come around me. Losing dear ones always adds more cracks in my soul. I don't even want to know the agony I would have felt if Mose died. I tilt my head, and our eyes meet. "Idiot," I mutter. He grins. I swear my heart skips a beat. Even covered in blood, he is handsome. "I-"

I stop myself just in time. I can't believe what I was about to say.

*I love you.*

Impossible.

*He* shattered my heart, and I swore I'd never love again.

But....

What do I feel about Mose?

Wasp's voice has my head jerking up fast. Mose is reluctant to let go of me so I can get up. It feels like he's making a sacrifice by letting me go. Loving Mose would be so easy, but I can't put myself through the same pain I endured with *him*. It took me years to come to terms with the fact that *his* love wasn't as strong as mine.

Mose also gets up and stands next to me. I know it might sound stupid, but he makes me think he sees me as his equal. This man is so infuriating because I don't know how to react to things he does for me. Why does he have to be so... considerate?

"Does he need a doctor?" Wasp asks.

She might have helped me before, and I might have even considered some sort of a friend, but I don't know why I'm so angry at her right now. She is not the one who almost killed Mose, yet I can't stop myself from yelling at her, "I called you here to help me get the experiments out, not kill my man!"

Did I just claim Mose as mine in front of everyone? Does it matter? I already bonded with him. He is mine.

"Cicada is new. This is her first mission," Wasp says. All I hear are excuses. "Besides, your bonded is all healed. Your power is one of the rarest out there. I feel there's more to you." Wasp tilts her head. "You've changed. When we first met, you were still struggling to accept who you were. You are stronger now."

I take a deep breath and rein in my anger. As much as I want to kick ass, this is not the time. Once we are out of here, I'm going to take Cicala's shotgun away from her and smack the back of her head with it so that she will pay more attention next time. "I had to. We need to get out of there. There's a bomb...that detonated a minute ago," I realize.

Was the second explosion the bomb Anton put in Azael's office? Did he set it right? Because it wasn't what I expected.