Page 49 of Hooded

“That’s some promise,” she says.

“One I will keep, as long as you do not…cry.”

My Fern dabs at her face with the cloth from the tray. “Well then, I guess I’ll have to do my best not to cry,” she says with a smile.

It’s a smile I’d crawl a thousand clicks for over broken metal with my wings bound behind me.

“Then we have an agreement.” I unfold myself from the bed, gathering up the clothing of hers I ruined last night.

I know it won’t be the last set I destroy in order to get to her delicious body, especially as she expands with our youngling inside her.

Another thought which makes my pants far too tight to contain my cocks. Was it always like this on the Tormelek ship? Or did I not wear pants?

“What did you say?” Fern asks from across the other side of the nest.

I don’t think I spoke.

“You did, you said something about my clothes,” she adds.

“Thoughtbond?” I turn back with a roar. “You can hear my thoughts?”

Fern looks up at me from the bed, flakes from the gelgy on her chin.

“You spoke to me,” she says, taking another bite. “Didn’t you?”

I’m back by her side in a second.

“I did not. It is the thoughtbond.”

“Thoughtbond?”

“A mental link between Gryn mates.” I can’t keep the excitement from my voice.

“I’m not Gryn,” she says.

“And I thought after what the Drahon did to me, it wasn’t possible.” I’m on my knees next to her, cupping her face in my hands.I thought I was damaged forever.

Fern studies my face, one hand on mine.

“You are not damaged,” she says. “You might be different from other Gryn, I don’t know, but what I do know is you are mine.”

I am hers. My heart thunders in my chest with the roar down the ages of every mated male.

“And you are my mate, myeregri, and my boundless flight.”

FERN

The medical facilities on Fenes are rudimentary compared to those in the rest of the galaxy but sophisticated compared to those on Earth. Narlix warned me this would be the case before she left. Not everyone wants to stay on Fenes, and she said she had other places she would rather be.

In the last nova-month, Klynn has remade our nest twice, and I have started showing, my little belly popping out like a half moon. He has absolutely no idea about Gryn gestation (not that I have much to go on with humans either) and this means we’re going to have to run the gauntlet of being in public.

After our time at the hands of the Tormelek, I do not mind being left to our own devices in the slightest. The food re-hydrator provides us with all our needs, supplemented with supplies I obtain from the outskirts of the local town. Klynn still doesn’t play well with others, not even the benign Fenere, who only seem to want to help and are super cute with their whiskers and paws.

My mate does not think so, usually sending them scattering with a growl. If I had any idea what living with Klynn might be like, I was entirely wrong.

Although he does manage to produce breakfast in bed every morning without fail. I don’t think there has been a single occasion where I’ve woken up and he hasn’t been staring down at me with a smile as wide as a nebula.

With anyone else, it would be creepy, but I know it’s just Klynn being Klynn. Any social sensibilities he may have once had were taken by his time in the dome. He eats as if he’s never going to be fed again, growls at anything he doesn’t like or understand, and is protective of me in a way which is both sweet and scary (although less for me and more for the Fenere).

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