Page 92 of Bonded Through Bite

“You—you are talking with it?”

“Well, he’s in my bloody head, ain’t he?” I thought I was slow, but the men seem to have taken leave of their senses too. Rafael goes completely silent and Zack is growling again. When Santiago strolls back with several blood bags in hand, I point at him.

“I need at least one of you to stay house-trained and coherent. These two are lost causes, so the burden falls to you.”

“Uh-oh. What’s going on?” he asks and tears into a bag. The smell of blood seems to snap Rafael out of it a bit and Santiago hands him the bag before attacking another.

“I named the thing Jim and these two act all surprised that I talk to someone who literally is in my head.”

Santiago chokes on the blood, coughs for a bit, opens his mouth, closes it, looks at Rafael and Zack, and then opens his mouth again.

“Okaaay…” He takes a closer look at me. “You don’t look so out of it now.”

“I’m not. At least I don’t think so. I don’t think he realized how much he was hurting me. He let up when he realized I was in pain because of him.”

:I’d never purposely hurt my mate.

“I wasn’t talking to you.”

Santiago lifts a brow at that.

“Jim. I wasn’t talking to Jim. I was talking to you.” I point at Santiago to make myself clear.

“Hmm… So you feel more in control now?”

“Sort of, not that it couldn’t become a problem again.”

“But he’s in your head constantly and can hear what you say?”

“I think so,” I say.

:I can always hear my mate, comes the smug voice.

“Yep, he definitely can hear what I say,” I huff. “And for the last time, I’m not your mate!”

“I can see how someone would get a reputation as a crazy person,” Santiago mutters and I snarl at him. Rafael has finished the blood bag and Santiago hands him another one. He’s sipping his bag a bit slower, but soon moves to the next one too.

I poke Zack with my toes and his growling face turns to me. “Snap out of it,” I say and poke him again. For a moment, I’m sure he’s going to change, but then he really seems to come to his senses.

“Sorry, dove.” He looks sheepish. “It’s just the thing⁠—”

“Jim.”

“He’s not really⁠—”

“I don’t care, it’s Jim now.”

“Fine, okay, fine.” Zack lifts his hands to placate me and I realize I’m snarling and showing fang. “Jim. It’s just that our bond is new and my wolf doesn’t like Jim encroaching on his territory.”

“Oh boy.” Santiago sighs.

“His territory?”

“I’m sure he didn’t mean it like that, darling,” Santiago says, sticking out his neck for Zack.

“Oh really? Then how did he mean it then?” I snap at him, irritated beyond belief. Somewhere at the back of my mind, there’s a little voice that tries to claim that I’m overreacting, but I ignore it. I’m no one’s fucking territory. What’s next? Pissing circles around me to stake a claim?

“The same way I do when I say I want to yank him out of you and burn the traces.”