Page 117 of Hybrid Heroics

“Closing the bonds is a hard limit for you?” I guessed.

“Yeah.” He nodded, smiling softly when I pulled him into my sitting-area-turned-office.

I sat on the couch, my back propped against the arm, as I dragged him down beside me. I turned to face him, tossing my legs over his lap. His left hand rested across my ankles, right hand splayed on my thighs.

“I think I understand, but I’d like to hear it from you.”

“My mom lived years with a broken bond, Barbie. I couldn’t imagine what she went through until—” He stopped talking, shaking his head.

“Until I closed ours,” I finished for him.

I stroked my fingers along his shoulders just to touch him… Because I’d realized that was his love language. I was all about actions, acts of service. He thrived on the physical touch of the people he cared about.

Briggs sighed. “Our bond was closed for little more than a day, and I knew you would come back. But that fraction of time was enough to show me what she must have gone through, except she knew my dad wasn’t coming back to her.

“The primal side of a shifter is just that. Primal. An animal. And when the bond is suddenly broken, it puts the animal in a corner. She lived with that until Bay and I were old enough to take care of ourselves. Then she couldn’t take it any longer.”

“I’m sorry,” I whispered. “As shitty as this may sound, I’m grateful that you understand her choices more. I won’t close our bond again. But I need to know that you understand my choice and why I did it.”

He stared at me, his thumb absently rubbing the side of my right thigh. I waited for him to respond, losing myself in the depths of the forests in his eyes. Cyprus and pine swirled, swallowing me in his embrace.

“You feared,” he told me, licking his bottom lip. “Not for yourself. Never for yourself. You feared for us. For everyone who’s mentally connected to you.”

“What did I fear?” I pressed.

“Losing us to Alric.”

I nodded, relieved that he got it.

“I understand you closed our bonds as a precautionary measure,” he added. “You had no idea if he could reach us through them, and you’d rather be safe than sorry. I would have made the same decision in your shoes.”

“I don’t regret making that decision,” I admitted. “I would have liked to talk it out with you guys, but—”

“Alric was in your head,” he cut in, squeezing my ankle. “You didn’t know what he could hear or see and what he couldn’t. No one is mad about it. We were worried, panicked, until York kicked us into gear. It was a shock. We were more upset about the stasis. Doing a head dive with your arch nemesis was ballsy, not that we expect anything less.”

I laughed lightly. “Sometimes you know what to do, just not how to do it. But if you take a running start, jumping off that cliff isn’t scary. It’s exhilarating.”

“Risky.”

“I’ve always been a risk taker. That isn’t going to change, Briggs.”

He raised his hands. “I like risky shit too, but not if it puts your life in danger.”

“Walking down the stairs puts a mortal’s life in danger. Just since we’ve met, I’ve been shot and stabbed numerous times, blown myself up, bitten by a venomous reptile, kicked in the chest by a unicorn, and had a hole blown straight through my chest…”

He snorted, then frowned.

“That’s all happened in six weeks. Before I met you?” I whistled. “I’ve been decapitated, had my heart and spine removed, arm cut off, neck snapped…”

“I get it,” he rumbled. “Eternal is a massive concept to understand when you’re used to thinking decapitation can kill you.”

“It won’t anymore,” I joked.

He chuckled. “I’m not willing to risk my life to experiment.”

“I’m not asking you to. All I’m saying is that I’ve never feared my death, so taking an insane risk doesn’t really phase me the way it does other people. I know I’ll land on my feet when I jump off the cliff, so I don’t worry about the fall.”

“And I don’t want that to change,” he explained. “I’m just asking for a warning next time.”