Page 24 of Caged

“Oh, Alex! I heard about the explosion at the dome, and I was so worried about you! Thank the gods you are unhurt.” She releases me, her bright eyes searing my body. “You are unharmed, aren’t you?”

Well, other than having my lady bits completely destroyed by a gladiator I met today…

“I’m fine, Ginka, I promise. But I need some help.” I grasp her thick forearms. “I’ve run away from Ixor,”

Ginka opens her mouth into an O shape.

“That’s not all. There’s something else.” I avert my gaze from her.

“What do you mean, ‘that’s not all’? It’s a big thing, Alex, a really big thing to do.”

“Sylas,” I call over my shoulder. “Can you come out?”

He steps through the kitchen door, looming out of the darkness, his scarred body and vast wings filling the place with a deep menace as he glares at Ginka.

She swallows.

“Yep, you were right, Alex. That is very muchsomething else.”

SYLAS

The Remek female has reasonable sized furniture, but it’s still too small for my frame. And my wings keep getting in the way.

But I’m next to myeregri, my mate, and with her scent in my nostrils and her soft voice in the air, I think you could probably cut my vrexing wings off and I wouldn’t care a jot. All I need for her to do is…

I barely contain the groan as she slips a hand into my feathers, her tiny fingers ruffling through the soft down next to my skin. I’m certain my cocks will simply explode, or I’ll end up mating her on the floor. Unlike the last place we found ourselves in, I don’t think the couch will take my weight.

My eyes want to roll back in my head as Alex chats to her Remek friend, her hands tripping through my feathers without a care for the destruction she’s about to wreak on my pants.

“Is your Gryn feeling okay?” the Remek female asks. “He’s drooling.”

I growl because her observation means Alex has withdrawn her touch.

“My female needs food and a bath,” I grumble, wiping my mouth with the back of my hand.

“You need a bath.” The Remek sniffs disdainfully. “When did you last bathe, gladiator? Before your last killing bout?”

I don’t think she likes me much. Feeling’s mutual.

“I bathed in the blood of a Remek warrior who was foolish enough to try his luck in the dome,” I snarl back.

“Then I’ll need to avenge that warrior,” she retorts, amusingly pulling out a curved blade from behind her back.

I unsheathe my remaining claws, each one the length of her blade.

“With pleasure,” I growl.

“Stop it!” Alex is on her feet looking despairingly between the two of us. “I’m in enough trouble as it is. I don’t need you to fight each other.” Water appears in her eyes, and before I can stop her, she runs out of the room and a door slams somewhere in the little dwelling.

I’m on my feet, feathers bristling, but the vrexing Remek is in front of me, her horns lowered like she could take me on.

“Stand aside, female. I do not wish to fight you, regardless of my gladiator status.”

She snorts a laugh. “Have you heard yourself, Gryn?”

“My name”—I lower my voice to keep it as menacing as possible—“is Sylas.”

“Oh, I know your name,Sylas. Most of Tatatunga knowsyou, gladiator. Scourge of the dome, slayer of all comers. Sylas the victor. You’ll have made a pretty credit or two doing what you do. But you don’t get to take my Alex along with your scheme, whatever it is. She’s suffered enough at the hands of the foul Habosu who believes he owns her,” she snarls.

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