Page 45 of Chained

“Remember hearing about their species, how they rose up against the tyrannical bots which took over their world, how they took it back. How they are searching the galaxy for those they lost,” Retah says, his voice tinged with sadness.

When I glance over at him, he’s in a terrible state. Slash marks cover his face and arms, bloodied bandages wrapped around them. What I mistook for a Bogarok leg is a stick he’s using as his leg is also heavily bandaged.

“I was trying to stop the invasion.” He gives me a wry smile filled with pain. “It didn’t go as well as it should have done.”

“Where’s Tibi?” I say, my heart seized with fear given how badly injured Retah is.

“She’s perfectly safe in the basement, grumbling about the cooking facilities. She’s fine,” he says, taking a step towards me and stopped by a growl from Maxym. “She told me you are with young,” he says quietly, eyeing Maxym carefully. “She says this warrior has accepted both of you.”

“Cleo and her young are mine,” Maxym snarls. “No one else can have them.”

“Question answered.” Retah holds up his hands to supplicate Maxym, the stick clutched in one of them. “I consider your mate like a daughter to me, Gryn,” he says. “She has been good for my business, and having a young creature around has been good for Tibi and me too.” He cocks his horned head on one side. “Whatever happens, I trust you will always consider this place home, Cleo.”

His words are delivered warmly even as he keeps his eyes firmly on Maxym.

I place one hand on Maxym’s chest and slide the other deep into his feathers. I’m rewarded by a stuttering breath and flickering eyelids.

All my huge gladiator wants is to be loved. He wants a simple kindness to pull him away from the violence, the only thing he’s known for a long time. I can feel his thoughts in turmoil, from not knowing what to do about Retah, to having me in his arms and my hand at the base of his wings. Maxym is confused and lost.

And he wants to be found.

MAXYM

Discovering the injured Remek warrior was not exactly a surprise. As soon as Cleo mentioned the basement, it was my thought he would be hiding there, surrounded by his armory. It made perfect sense for the place to seem deserted, and as I lift my head, I’m certain he’s been using scent repressors to hide the evidence of his occupation.

Even though he’s indicated he thinks of Cleo as a daughter, it hasn’t quite assuaged my feral side, the mate who hasn’t nested, who hasn’t claimed hiseregriin his nest. I give him a warning glance, and a tip of his horned head suggests he understands.

“Come and see Tibi,” he says to Cleo. “She’s been desperately worried about you after what happened at the dome.”

My Cleo hurries out of her bedroom and back in the direction I took when I thought the place was filling with Bogarok.

“What did happen at the dome?” Retah says to me, placing his stick on the floor and hobbling after my mate.

I don’t let him get far before pushing past.

“Carnage,” I growl. “What do you know about the invasion?” I turn to face him in the narrow passage, my bulk stopping his progress.

“I know the Bogarok were sent as an advance force,” he says. “I know they want every fighter, including you, in their usual scorched planet process, only this time it’s not to kill you all, it’s capture.”

“Why?”

“That I don’t know. I got as much information as I could before I got out of Sartak.”

“You were in Sartak?”

He nods his horned head. “Carnage,” he says wryly.

I step aside to allow him to pass. The old warrior knows a trick or two, and I expect I’m only still standing because he’s injured. Not that he would have me down for long.

Retah eyes me as we walk into his study, the hidden door to his basement open, light spilling from the stairwell.

“Cleo believes in you,” he says.

“Choose your next words carefully,” I growl.

He holds up his hands. “As long as she is happy, I’m happy. I’m just pleased she trusted you enough to tell her about her young. Tibi and I were worried she would never say anything.”

“You knew?” I say, unable to keep the surprise from my voice.

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