Page 48 of Caged

I think some sort of sling would be the best idea, given this is the only way my mate is going to travel, her warm body pressed against mine, her hair whipping in my face, her scent burned into my brain.

“This is amazing,” Alex sighs, her words whipped away as she looks down and I circle.

“Navigation?” I query.

“Oh! Yes.” She smiles. “This is so much better than the transport!” She looks down at the small screen, and I can see the direction we need to take.

I swoop low over the trees, capturing their rising heat to avoid having to expend much energy.

“It’s up ahead,” Alex says. “There.” She releases me to point, then grabs straight back on.

Ahead of us, rising out of the green, blue, and purple trees, is a small triangle of light. As we get closer, it reveals itself to be a glass atrium of a dwelling raised high above the ground. I land on the spacious balcony, my wings lifting up debris and flinging it into the air.

Alex slides down my body but doesn’t make any other moves.

“Is this it?” she whispers.

“This is ours, little feather. I will nest here, worship you, and protect you. I will take the sky and the wind and gift them to you because fate has come for me and delivered a mate I hope I’m worthy of.”

ALEX

Sylas is a fast worker. I watch him fly back and forth between our new home and…wherever it is he goes to collect items, arms full and his face a mask of slightly confused concentration.

He knows what he’s doing, but at the same time, I’m not entirely sure he knows why he’s doing it.

This is how a seven foot plus scarred, winged former-gladiator with claws like scimitars and a growl which could clear an arena becomes a cute, fluffy creature I want to kiss…and do other things to.

He’s now been in the room he designated as a bedroom for quite a while. I potter about the open plan living space, which has a large sunken seating area looking out of the large window over the trees. Light streams in, warming the place perfectly.

There’s a food preparation area which oversees the open plan seating area, and the only thing we’re missing is a table to eat at, but so far, Sylas is more than happy to have me in his lap while we eat, and I’m not complaining.

The decor is an array of muted grays and browns, and, other than a good sweep up of the dust, as the power module has been off, meaning the automated cleaners (not sassy ones, I’velearned my lesson!) have not been working. It already feels like home.

“Alex?” Sylas leans against one of the pillars, arms folded and a smile curling the corners of his mouth.

“Hey.” I make my way over to him and slide my hands around his waist, pushing my digits up and into his feathers.

I adore his reaction when I touch his wings, a slight limpness in his strong muscular form, the glazing of his eyes and the little hums and grunts as I trip through them.

“You like me doing this, don’t you?” I shove my hands deeper.

Sylas groans.

“Feathers. Good,” he slurs. “No touch by mate before.”

It seems it also robs his ability to string a sentence together. It makes me love him even more.

Wait.

I love him?

Sylas spreads the tips of his flight feathers, and they swish like steel on steel. “Nest,” he forces through his lips.

“Have you nested for me, big bad warrior?”

I’m touching the skin underneath the soft down at the very base of his wings, and Sylas has his eyes half closed. His cocks are hard too. He rocks against me, as if in a trance. The times I’ve done this, and he’s gone from bristling ball of anger to a pool of feathery goo—it is incredible.

And gorgeous.

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