By
J. Bree

They say to keep your friends close
but your enemies closer;
What if they’re one and the same?

The stable foundation I thought I’d built in the Sanctuary has been ripped away, and I find myself on the front lines of the war against the Resistance. I might have my Bonds on my side, but there are darker schemes in motion.

Can I prove myself and turn the tide to protect our most vulnerable, or am I nothing more than the monster they’ve always claimed I am?

Will we make it out of this without tragic consequences?

NOTE:
Forced Bonds is a full length reverse harem PNR novel with material that may be difficult for some readers. This book will end on a cliffhanger. It’s recommended for 18+ due to language and sexual situations.

If you haven’t read the other books in this series, STOP! Go back and read them first. This book begins where the last one ended.

We saw the horrific scene of Sage killing Dara at the end of the last book and I think every one of us screamed NO, it couldn’t be Sage! Well obviously, it was but it’s not that straight forward.

Things are pretty messed up right now with the contaminated water, and the fact the Sanctuary isn’t a secret anymore. Keeping everyone safe is a priority and finding out just who or what caused Sage to murder the shield is also top of the list. Sage’s brother Sawyer and Oli are determined to figure it out, starting with going to the day before this happened.

Knowing Giovanna’s gift is mind control and she’s bonded with Riley is cause for suspicion. Whether or not she could get to Sage through Riley is anyone’s guess at this point. It is reason enough to go after them. They are staying at her parent’s lake house and it’s decided that Nox, Gryphon and Oli will go bring them in.

They aren’t there the first day and that night we learn something very interesting about Nox and Oli’s bonds. Apparently, they get together while the two of them are sleeping. Gryphon witnesses this and has a lot of questions but business first.

The conversation about the bonds is very interesting and offers up things regarding North’s feelings about his bond. Nox has a very different relationship with his and it becomes very apparent why.

All this leads back to Sage and her bonds. This is just part of the conversation before they release her. Lots of information here too.

As soon as North and Nox had arrived, we let Kieran, Felix, and Sage out of their cells, and now everybody is sitting around the interrogation table together as we try to figure out what the hell could be going on here. Sawyer has managed to contain his accusations and threats so far, but he is eyeing Nox like he’s plotting out where he might stab my Bond.

I do my best not to watch him, but I find my eyes continually sliding back to him, and I know it is my bond’s interference.

We don’t turn our backs on threats.

Ahh perfect, just what I need from my bond right now. There’s no real point in attempting to reason with it, but for some stupid reason, I give it a go.

Sawyer is not a threat. He won’t be a threat. Is there anything that you would like to input into today’s discussion about void eyes?

My bond’s answer is less than helpful. It’s a threat.

I snap back, irritated, Perfect! That gives me all of the information that I need right now to figure out how to get through this.

They’re a threat, girl. They’re a threat of something coming, something old that we did not want to be dealing with, but soon will have no choice.

A shiver runs down my spine. We. The collective we? As in, you and me? Or me and my Bonded?

It doesn’t answer me. Instead, it curls up in my chest and goes back to watching Sawyer obsessively, taking Nox’s safety to a whole new level of crazy.

I glance over and find Gryphon staring at me as though he’s seeing me for the first time. “You’re talking to it.”

I shrug and roll my shoulders back, uncomfortable now that I have everybody’s attention. “Yeah. I told you she’s a cantankerous, unhelpful bitch.”

He doesn’t find that amusing, he just doubles down. “You’re asking it questions though.”

Why the hell does that even matter? “Yes, well, it is an independent thing that lives inside of me and has its own thoughts and opinions and knowledge.”

Gryphon leans forward in his seat, planting one hand on the table in front of him as though he’s trying to get something through to me that I’m too dense to see for myself. “Where does it get this knowledge from? If it’s only ever lived inside of you, how does it know more than you? How does it know anything that you don’t?”

I have no answers, but my eyes flick towards North.

His jaw is tight and he looks incredibly irritated that this conversation is even happening, but he speaks for me. “They’ve been here before. Our bonds are far older than we are, and they aren’t joking when they say that they belong to each other. This isn’t their first time on this earth, or their first time being bonded to each other.”

I don’t let the shock that I feel show on my face, because I don’t want to call him out like that, so I’m very careful about sending just to him, blocking Gryphon out, I didn’t think you spoke to your bond. I didn’t think you guys got along.

He doesn’t look back my way either as he replies, After I found out that Nox’s bond was spending time with yours, I had a conversation with it to assess whether or not it was coming out and speaking to your bond as well. There have been some nights that you’ve slept in my room where I’ve woken up tired, and I wanted confirmation and to know what exactly goes on between them.

Holy shit. And what did it say?

It said that it couldn’t stay away from your bond any more than I can stay away from you. There is something going on here, Oleander, something bigger than us, bigger than our community, and bigger than the Resistance itself. We need to figure out how to get all of us through it alive and unscathed.

I swallow and glance at Nox, the only other person in this room who might have some input on our bonds, to see how he is taking all of this in, but he is just staring at his hands, stretching his fingers out and then curling them into a fist, over and over again.

Gabe groans and rubs a hand over his eyes like this day has drained his will to live. “Do you think we would know if we came across someone else with these sorts of bonds inside them? Do you think that we could tell? Or is this all just us walking around in the dark until someone comes and attacks us again? Another bond like yours, but one who’s aligned to the Resistance… What a fucking nightmare.”

“Thank God it isn’t another Death Dealer,” says Nox, finally breaking his silence. Sawyer snaps back at him, “A Neuro is just as bad.”

Nox rolls his eyes back at him, sneering, “It’s highly doubtful that a Neuro is worse than somebody who can manipulate shadow creatures to kill indiscriminately, Benson. Just because you are furious that your sister was used as the weapon, doesn’t mean that we need to be stupid about this.”

I glance over at Sage and her eyes meet mine.

She’s sandwiched between Felix and Kieran, both of them glued to her side now that they have been reunited, and there’s a little color coming back to her cheeks as she is piecing herself back together. I think the confirmation that it definitely was someone in her head was the news that she’d really needed, but also finding out that it was someone with unimaginable amounts of power has helped as well. There’s no way to fight my bond, and I’ve never seen anyone fight off North or Nox’s bonds either, so how could she have possibly fought back against a Neuro like that?

Impossible.

It was never her fault.

Nox says, “We need to go through the history books. If this isn’t the first time that they have lived together, then there has to be some records somewhere of it.”

Gryphon shrugs. “The last time someone was able to Soul Rend on this earth, they could only kill a handful of people at a time, and their eyes flashed white. When I found out what Oli could do, it was the first thing I looked up. That was all I found.”

Nox glances at North and says, “The library at the Hail Mary. There’s books there that are under lock and key. If there’s anywhere that will be able to tell us about the bonds, it’ll be there.”

I glanced around the table again, but no one has anything left to say.

“Well, I guess we’re going to the Hail Mary.”
Bree, J. Forced Bonds (The Bonds that Tie Book 4). Kindle Locations 2203-2250. Kindle Edition.

From here things get even crazier. There’s still so many questions without answers and with humans becoming more wary of them they need some answers quickly.

More battles in places we haven’t been yet,  more bonds, some new folks and lots of more we get to know.

I couldn’t put this book down and it also gave me a book hangover. I read it twice before I could even start this review. So much yet so little information.

I really can’t wait for the next book, I’m on pins and needles.

5 Contented Purrs for J!

J. Bree

J Bree is a dreamer, writer, mother, farmer, and cat-wrangler.

The order of priorities changes daily. She lives on a small farm in a tiny rural town in Australia that no one has ever heard of.

She spends her days dreaming about all of her book boyfriends, listening to her partner moan about how the wine grapes are growing, and being a snack bitch to her two kids.

If you want to hear more about all things Mounts Bay then join my readers group! There’s a lot of creative ways to dispose of a body in the Bay so come join the fun.