Page 45 of Hooded

“It’s a spaceport. They’re traders. There will be other species,” I say gently.

“But can we stay here?”

I catch his arm as he paces past me, levering myself to my feet in order to hold him back.

“Do you want to stay?” I ask, placing my hand on his chest, feeling the drum of his heart racing far faster than it should be.

“I want to nest for you, my mate,” he says, his eyes dark pools of desperation. “I have to nest for you. I have to.” His huge hands curl around mine, his wings seemingly larger than ever as the spicy scent of his feathers surrounds us. “I need to nest for you before it is all over.”

“Before what is all over?” I breathe, icy fingers stealing through my chest.

“My life.” The muscle in his jaw ticks and his hands tighten around mine. “The Tormelek did something to me…something to my heart…it aches, it spins, all the time.”

The ice melts.

“And when does this happen?” I ask, holding back my smile.

“When I’m near you. It is something done to me to stop our mating, stop me nesting. To end it all too soon.”

He gazes down at me, so damn serious I could cry. Or laugh. Or both.

“Is it happening now?”

Klynn nods.

I go up on my tiptoes to kiss him on the lips.

“And now?”

“Worse.” His voice is agony. I press myself against him.

“Any better?”

He shakes his head solemnly.

“I think I know what you’re suffering from, Klynn.” I hesitate as his fingers tighten around me. “And it’s very serious.”

“What is it? Can it be cured?”

“Only if you can cure a matebond,” Narlix says, staring at the pair of us from the airlock. “Which I don’t think is possible for Gryn.”

Klynn lifts his lip in a half snarl before looking down at me. I take his hand and place it over my heart.

“I’m the same,” I say, my voice hoarse. “Because of you.”

“Matebond?” he rasps.

“What else? Did you think you were going to die?” Narlix snorts.

The look which Klynn gives her absolutely could kill anyone.

“I did not want to die, not until I nested for you, myeregri,” he says, gaze returning to me, soft and confused. “I never want to die while I have you.”

“You are not dying.” I slide my arms around him, pulling him against me so I can hear the steady rhythm of his heart and feel the downy feathers at the base of his wings, slippery in my fingertips.

Klynn is all about the sensation, all about filling every single sense I own, about being the biggest thing in the room and yet wrapping himself around me like a blanket to protect me from the unknown.

“I am not dying,” he murmurs into my hair.

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