A Blackened Bond by Isla Davon

Annex starts the book off by describing what happens after he dies. It turns out his family line can come back again and again. He still feels pain when he dies, and his mind gets a bit crazier each time he comes back. But this time is different. While in death, he meets with his cousin Val, who is always there to greet him. But this time, Annex doesn’t want to linger, he wants to go back, because all he can remember is Micai’s pained face.

Micai meanwhile is still holding Annex, but the boys tell her she doesn’t need to worry, as Annex is part of the Porter Clan, who are immortals. They need her to let go, because they need to take him somewhere safe to heal and wake up. Creed, meanwhile, is still suspicious of Micai, specifically because now he has seen her fight, and he doesn’t understand when she was so weak a few months back. Micai takes them to her training grounds. When Ezra learns that, he wants to train her even more. But Creed doesn’t want her in their space. Annex finally wakes up, and they go back to the academy. Everyone is still confused about the massacre, not sure who did it, but teachers are making students go to their rooms, forcing the boys to leave Micai. Although, Annex and Ezra sneak in later to help her pack so she can spend the night with them. While packing, Ezra finds the bracelet that her sister gave her; the one Micai took off when she came back from the prison. Ezra doesn’t like it at all, and says that it has dark magic in it, and it is sucking his own magic out of him. He takes it with him, because he wants to know more about it. That night, Ezra and Micai share their first intimate night together while Ezra is out helping Creed. Now that Micai is there, Mallim starts to show feelings toward her as well, and Micai feels the same way.

The next day, the school council announces that they will be doing an investigation, and winter break won’t start until everyone has been interviewed. Gadriel also finds Micai and checks in on her. Remembering that she left her necklace and elven dagger from Gadriel in the forest, Micai goes out searching for them. She finds them, but also runs into two students who followed her to attack her. While she is fighting them off, and winning, the boys pull out a black pill and take it. They shift into their wolf forms and become much more aggressive. Although, it quickly fades and she is able to fight them off and leaves them unconscious in the forest. Exhausted after a rough night and morning, she goes back to her own dorm room and has nightmares about her time in prison. Creed continues to be suspicious of her.

Micai runs into the council, and they decide to do her interview. A councilman named Verod tells her she is weak and a disgrace to the family. Micai tells a story of her night, but leaves out all the fighting, playing into her story that she is weak. On her way out, she runs into Knox, one of her old childhood friends who is now with her sister Seria. He claims to not feel good, but then Seria shows up and tries to comfort him, as do the rest of the boys. Before Micai fully leaves, she attacks Xander, wanting him to know that they mean nothing to her now.

She meets back with the boys, and Annex, Ezra, and Mallim all decide to take her out to the city to spoil her. Mallim and his inner beast have decided that Micai is their mate, and now he is fully head over heels for her. After a full day together, Annex and Micai finally sleep together. They also talk about her marks, as the boys thought they were tattoos, but she tells Annex she is not sure what they are.

All of the boys are summoned for their interviews, which ends up taking hours. During that time, Micai runs into Verod again, who reminds her that she is nothing, but Gadriel comes to the rescue to save her. The two then go spar so Micai can get her feelings out. Gadriel meanwhile realizes that he is falling for one of his students, and he doesn’t know what to do about it.

Later that day, Micai goes to get lunch and runs into Creed’s sister and her friend, Morrigan. Normally Morrigan is with her two shifter boyfriends, but they are nowhere to be seen, and people are attacking Morrigan. At one point, they even try to poison her just for being Creed’s sister. Micai defends her, attacks her bullies, and makes a big statement that no one touches what belongs to her, or they will pay. The whole school is shocked, and Morrigan can’t wait to tell the boys what happened. Which happens rather quickly as the boys leave their interview, attack Seria’s men, and then go find Morrigan and Micai.

That night Creed needs the boys on a mission, but Micai wants to come with. They take her and they learn more about the black pills, and Micai shares what she knows about them as well. While investigating, they are attacked, and Micai kills three men and saves a civilian. They take her back home, and Creed is upset they brought her. He starts to yell at everyone, but then Ezra and Annex both reveal that Micai is their mate. Micai realizes that is the feeling she has been having, and it excites her.

Christmas is fast approaching, and Creed is busy planning a party that he has invited some high profile guests to. The boys are also getting all the presents for Micai. At the Christmas party, Creed tells them all to behave. As everyone is doing their own tasks, a stranger comes up to Micai and tries to attack her. Another man comes in to save her. He introduces himself as Nathan, and after the attack, he tells Micai that she is weak and needs to leave the boys behind. Nathan has a whole plan: his sister, Veronica, needs to be with the boys instead, she will be much better for their bloodline. After Nathan suggests Micai leave and come be with him, Micai punches him, right when Creed comes out. Creed is furious and tells Micai to leave.

As Creed is trying to clean up the mess with Nathan, he realizes he was wrong, and that Micai was right. He tells Nathan and Veronica to leave, ruining his plans that he had for the Christmas party and securing some strong allies. The three boys come out, and Creed has to tell them what he did to Micai, their mate. They are pissed and tell him to go find her and apologize.

On her way back, Micai is forced to take the long path to the academy, when she runs into Verod. He tries to attack her, but then a massive beast comes for both of them. She fights the beast and wins, but also comes away with a scratch. The boys find her in her apartment passed out. They aren’t sure what happened to her, and they bring in all sorts of doctors to find out.

While she is dreaming, Micai has an odd dream about using magic and getting marks on her hand. While Ezra is watching over her, he hears Micai mumble Zrael, and is surprised that she knows his full name. He also reveals that he is a siren.

Days later, Micai wakes up and the house is under attack. She goes to help the boys. As the attackers are pointing a gun at Ezra, Micai uses her magic to stop a bullet, but in return gains a strange mark on her hand. She passes out again, and dreams of her past mate Zrael. She wakes up to realize that Zrael, her mate who got her through prison, is actually Ezra.

Seria then gets a chapter POV. She is at home for winter break, and gets a strange relic from a mysterious man. The man tells her not to screw up, as this is her last chance to get things back on course. Seria starts to think of everything that has gone wrong, starting with her sister changing personalities, but also that her four boys are starting to question her, and her magic isn’t holding them as well as it used to. Seria promises to go back to school and put everything back in its proper place, starting with Micai.