Chapter 8

“Mate!”

The moment that those words left Lady Marie’s lips, Iris felt a chill travel down her spine.

She was familiar with this bond. It had happened once, a long time ago, when she was newly enhanced. It did not end nicely.

***

It was when Iris found herself in a random forest somewhere in England when she was only a century old, most of which was either spent in a Japanese temple learning to become a samurai or in a Russian laboratory as a lab rat. She had finally broken out of her lab prison and was currently trying to survive the cold English winter night when an amazing feeling hit her. It felt like home and comfort and warmth.

She stood on her guard, ready to run again if need be. She had been through enough already. But that smell materialized in the form of a handsome blonde man with blue eyes smiling kindly at her. That is how she realized she had found home and comfort and warmth in the form of a man. But before that, she had already promised