Page 37 of Chained

I find I’m looking up into a cave roof. Lights are dotted within it like stars. They’re almost too bright.

“Hello, little scrap,” Maxym intones, his face coming into view.

I’m lying in his arms. He’s sat on a large couch which is covered with blankets. When I turn my head, a fire burns brightly in a small grate.

“Where are we?” I croak.

“It’s a long story,” Maxym says. “Here, drink this.” He lifts a glass with pale green liquid to my lips.

I take a sip. It tastes like orange, and I take a gulp of the cool liquid which is like a silky balm to my rough throat.

“Easy,” he rumbles. “You’ve been out for nearly twenty nova-hours.”

“The dome…the creatures…” I splutter over the glass. “I was…injured?” I inspect my arms, even though I know it was my back. I’m wearing a long dress I don’t recognize.

“Healed,” Maxym rumbles, a strange look in his eye.

“The Bogarok invaded. They do that.” A male Cirmos, his stripes much darker than Tibi’s, appears from around the couch.

I look at Maxym. “Those things were Bogarok?”

“Foul creatures,” he growls.

“More than that, they only attack somewhere if they’re being directed to do so,” the Cirmos says. “So, it means they’re the advance party. Something else wants Trefa.”

“Who is this?” I ask Maxym, who seems surprisingly unconcerned about the proximity of the Cirmos.

“This is Pryax. He saved you and treated me.”

It’s then I see the bandages wrapped around his arm, along with a long tube snaking from it to a fluid-filled bag hung nearby.

“You were hurt? We were hurt?” I gasp, tears springing to my eyes as my hand goes to my stomach.

“You will all be fine,” Pryax says soothingly, although I note he keeps his distance. “The treatment to remove the poison from your system worked, and your unborn young is unaffected. The gladiator will live. I’m sure he’s had far worse.”

Maxym gives him a rather wet grin. “I have,” he slurs proudly.

“What have you given him?”

“Something to relax. He was on edge, wouldn’t stop pacing, and this space is not designed for those wings,” Pryax grumbles. “Plus he kept opening his wounds.”

“So, you drugged him?”

“He consented…sort of.” Pryax pulls the tube from Maxym’s arm.

I watch as the light comes back into my big Gryn’s eyes. He blinks a few times, half smiles, and then releases a growl, which is quickly cut off as I shove my hands into his feathers.

“See, you do it too,” Pryax snaps as he walks away, tail lashing.

“Do what?” Maxym asks, his voice soft.

“Look after you.” I smile at him. “Like you look after me.”

“You got hurt.” The confusion on his face indicates he hasn’t rid himself of the drug as quickly as I thought. “I failed. You are my mate. You should not get hurt while I can wield a sword.”

“You plan for a Bogarok invasion regularly then?”

“No.” His brow furrows.

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