Page 50 of Baited

“Maybe Maxym can contact Sylas and you can speak to his mate?” Blayn says. “It’s important to you to speak to another human, isn’t it?”

I stroke his cheek, feeling the tension there. “Not as important as getting you back to somewhere you won’t keep fighting,” I reply.

I see some of his concern drain away instantly. “Time to go?”

“Time to go.” I smile, digging in my pocket for the device which calls on the ground transport for the pleasure house.

Blayn releases me from my fragrant cage of feathers, but he still tucks me behind him as he faces his colleagues.

“Time to go,” he says and he’s smiling.

Well, a sort of smile. Probably too much fang to be something you want to see regularly.

All three Gryn take a step back.

“What the vrex is that?” Klynn says.

“I think”—Rych cocks his head on one side, staring at Blayn intently—“I think it’s a smile.”

“Vrex!” Maxym says. “Rather you than us, Izzy.”

I hook my arm into Blayn’s and give them my best smile. It causes another few steps away from us, enough to clear the way to the door.

We get three bows as we pass, and I feel a tiny bit like a queen. Blayn puts his hand over mine as we exit the eatery where the transport is waiting.

“Wait! We need to pay.”

“They’ll charge it to the dome,” Blayn says with a swish of his wings.

“You have credits?”

“We get some bonuses,” he says coyly. “I don’t use mine much.”

The transport whisks us back to the pleasure house, but I find my heart sinking as we get closer. We’re pawns in all of this, both me and Blayn, and it’s wrong somehow. Not that my massive gladiator is concerned in any way. His feathers prick, and he twirls them violently like a thousand batons before they settle into place, and a look of bliss spreads over his face.

“What was that?” I laugh.

“Rouse,” he says, as if the word is unfamiliar. “Feels good,” he adds, putting his hands on my waist and pulling me against him. “Feels good to be near you,eregri.”

“You keep saying that word. What does it mean?”

Blayn’s brow furrows. “I…don’t know. I’m not sure any of us know much about where we came from.” He taps the side of his head. “They messed with our brains.”

His hand returns to my waist, and I’m pulled closer still to his hard, muscular chest. “But what I do know is I have claimed you, little mate, and if the word means anything, it means you are mine.”

BLAYN

There is another knock on the door, and I growl under my breath. Despite all my snarls, I still very nearly had to end the other Gryn in order to get her back to the pleasure house. All of which means I’ve had no time at all to complete the nest with the items I ordered in Solyom.

The nest for my mate. My beautiful mate, Izzy. The mere fact I thought for a moment she was gone has made my desire to nest for her verge on desperation.

I have to finish it.

“Give me a nova-minute,” I call out.

“The madame is coming,” Izzy replies. “You have to let me in, Blayn, or she’ll want to know why I’m out here and you’re in there.”

I tweak a few final things, wincing at what I think is a poor job, and then I open the door, filling the frame with my body and wings before I usher her in.

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