Page 41 of Chained

“So, you getting stuck inside me means I’m your fated mate?”

“It does.”

A warmth rises within me, coming from deep inside. Maxym wants me. Fate wants us to be together. I’m not some abandoned pregnant human anymore. I have him.

“How long does it last?”

“Until my body chooses to release you,” he growls. “And my body likes you very much, little scrap, so be prepared to be here for some time.”

I’m scooped up easily as he shifts his position to make us both more comfortable. The flames of the fire are reflected in his eyes as they flicker.

“What do we do about the Bogarok?” I ask. I don’t want to ask because I want to stay in this moment, all the good hormones running through my body, my brain wanting to sleep, but this can’t last, and it’s that thought which keeps me from succumbing.

“We can’t stay in Tatatunga,” Maxym says, gently stroking my face. “We’ll need to find out how far this invasion has spread. Past attempts to take Trefa have not gotten farther than this city.” He chuckles. “I guess the place eats invaders.”

“I doubt anyone is going to be eating a Bogarok,” I say with a grimace.

“If the invasion covers any other parts of Trefa, we’ll find a way off world,” Maxym says practically.

Maxym finally slips free of me and, having found a soft cloth, I’m carefully cleansed (something we both enjoy) before he helps me back into my clothing and stacks up the fire.

“How many of you were there in the dome?” I ask as he hands me a cup of hot joh.

“There were five,” he says. “We all came at different times, all with our own problems.”

He has brought a pile of round baked rolls. I watch as he carefully slices one in half using his now clean sword, then spears it on the tip, holding it to the fire.

“Now there are two of you.”

“Sylas, Blayn, and Rych found their mates. They were free to leave the dome,” Maxym says, staring into the fire. “And theyhad good reason to. We were not always farmed as we believed. We have a planet. Somewhere, there are others, other Gryn that is.”

“How do you feel about that?” I ask. “Because if I had a chance to go home”—I dip my head, not sure about looking him in the eye as I know I’m revealing too much about myself—“I’m not sure I would.”

“I don’t know what I want to do. I feel like the other Gryn should have come looking for us,” he says quietly. “But they didn’t.”

A mixture of anger and sadness fills me as Maxym inspects one of the rolls, using his claws to handle the hot snack before using his dagger to spread it with a bright green jelly and handing it to me.

“Eat,” he exhorts.

I take a bite, and the flavor spreads over my tongue, sweet with a hint of salt. The hot bread melts in my mouth.

“Wow! This is good. What is it?”

Maxym grins, and it makes him look so much younger. “It’s a lekvar, a fruit from Choban, made into a spread. We occasionally got it as a treat in the dome.”

He spreads some on the other half of the roll and takes a large bite, chewing with cheeks bulging as he eats his treat, his feathers shivering a little as he clearly enjoys it immensely.

My heart flips over in my chest as I watch him, my hand covering my stomach as I feel the evidence of the life growing within me. Seeing my huge gladiator revel in a simple pleasure makes me happy. He’s a big, broken thing really, forced to fight for his life, forced to face death, forced to kill, whereas it strikes me his species are not killers.

I eat my roll and savor the sweet taste as Maxym makes another, again handing half to me and taking half for himself.It’s domestic and pleasurable on a planet where neither of us know what’s going to happen next.

Only I feel so completely safe, here with him, in this moment. It’s bliss I haven’t experienced for a very long time.

Pryax wanders past, the tip of his tail twitching as he does his best to ignore us. For an instant my face heats until…

“Maxym, I know where we can go.” I put my hand against his chest, feeling his heart beat slow and steady. “We can go to my employer, Retah. He has weapons, all the things we need to get away.”

Maxym furrows his brow.

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