Together Bound

Introduction Centuries years ago, cataclysmic natural disasters brought the world to its knees. For hundreds of years the people of North America struggled to create a new society on top of the ashes of the old one. The continent divided into protectorates that operated under a different kind of law for a different kind of world. People stayed on the continent of their birth and in some areas slavery became an accepted and ritualistic form of existence binding slave and owner. Once owner and slave were paired, commonly referred to as bonded, it was for life regardless of whatever personal relationship developed between the two. Ownership of a slave was only transferred upon the death of the original master or mistress. This is the world Todd Ruger was born into. As a child, Todd’s life changed when he was bound to an extraordinary boy named Nick and they became master and slave. Nick grew up, trained and educated in the ways of the sentry, hunters of the type of prey that should only exist in legends and nightmares, but were very real. On Nick’s twenty-second birthday, Todd took him away from the village he’d lived his entire life. It became Todd’s responsibility to care for Nick, to teach him what he’d need to know to survive and fight as a sentry in the real world. Nick’s ability to see signs of evil in not only people but the paranormal became a valuable tool. Now there was talk of war between New Colorado and neighboring West Caldera. Unrest, political posturing, and intrigue were everywhere, in every paper, in every tavern and café. Todd was of the firm opinion that sentries in general—and he and Nick in particular—didn’t mix well with politics. Unfortunately, Nick, his abilities, and being a slave as well as a sentry, made it impossible for them to steer clear of the things they wanted to avoid. Eighteen months after Todd and Nick bonded as master and slave, then became mates, the world of politics landed on them with a solid punch and it would take everything they had to survive.