Page 50 of Chained

“Nesting is hungry work,” she says with a half smile.

“Yes, it is. So is mating, and my pregnant mate is insatiable,” I respond.

Cleo gasps out my name, covering her mouth with one hand and her little rounded stomach with the other. I put my hand over hers, feeling the swell of her belly. “Tell me it isn’t true,” I murmur.

She attempts to look at me like her eyes are weapons, but other than completely disarming me with their beauty, my Cleo isn’t getting anywhere, so instead she takes one of the rolls from the tray and bites into it ravenously with her blunt little teeth.

My cocks nearly punch through my pants, again.

“Wow, Tibi!” she exclaims. “These are so good. How did you manage it?”

“I can make my food wherever I am.” The Cirmos shrugs. “Here is no exception.”

“I’m very glad for it,” Cleo says with a wide smile on her face.

She radiates pleasure, but not the sort from mating, the sort from being here, with me, with Tibi, and even with Retah. It should make me want to rip things apart, but it does not. It makes me…happy?

I take some of the rolls and follow my Cleo’s lead in consuming them. The soft baked items are as delicious as I was led to believe, made doubly tasty because we were rarely allowed such things in the dome, and the captain had got to most of the bakeries in the area around to stop them selling the things to us.

I can only think his zeal was probably wasted. These things give me energy and vigour like I’ve never felt before.

Or it could be the mating…

“Maxym!” Cleo hisses my name and jabs her elbow into my side. She squirms, and the scent of her arousal greets me. “Whatever you’re thinking, stop it!”

I wrap my arm around her and press a kiss to her dusty sweet lips. “How can I with you around?”

“You couldtrynot to think those things?”

“I could try, but I don’t want to, not with you so close.” I add another kiss and feel her shudder under my touch. “It is a curse and a pleasure for fated mates to have this link,” I say. “I rather like knowing how much you enjoy my cocks.” I run my claws through her hair.

“You just can’t help yourself, can you?” Cleo says, attempting to hide the smile her mouth wants to make.

“Not where you are concerned,eregri.You are the light from the stars which touches me every day, my celestial body, my wings and my claws. You make this world, this galaxy, this universe better for being in it.” I kiss her again, this time long and slow. “I will destroy it all piece by piece to make you mine.”

“It’s a good thing you feel that way,” Retah says, limping to the table. “Because we’re going to need your expertise with the sword in the next few nova-days if we’re to take back Trefa.”

He sits and pours himself a drink, taking a sweet roll as well.

“What makes you think I want to fight for Trefa? I’d rather get the vrex off this doomed planet and be done. It hasn’t helped me, so why should I help it?” I respond.

“Because I won’t lose another planet to an invader,” Retah says, thumping a closed fist on the table. “And because you care about the fight. It’s what you’ve been made for.” He lifts his horned head, and his glowing eyes bore into me. “And it will bring you closer to the truth.”

CLEO

Maxym and Retah glare at each other. I have no love for Trefa, but I didn’t think Retah felt so strongly about the place.

Maxym’s feathers prick, rising like a wave over his wings. Suddenly, he twirls them all back into place in a rushing shuffle both violent and purposeful. It doesn’t seem like an action he has any control over.

“Fine,” Maxym growls, looking down at me. “But my mate must be safe before I fight. In your condition, you can hardly help me look after her.”

“Wait, what?” I shake my head, attempting to access the supposed thoughtbond, but the fickle thing seems to be limited to emotions, not words at this moment in time. “You’re not sending me away while you defend this place. I won’t allow it.”

“Eregri, you are with young,” Maxym says in his deep velvet voice.

“Yes, I think that fact is well established,” I growl, “but that didn’t stop me being abducted and dragged millions, billions of light years from my home and deposited here. It didn’t stop me working for Retah or in the dome. You’re not sending me away with such a pathetic excuse.”

Both males stare at me like I’ve grown horns or wings. Tibi snorts a laugh.

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