Baited (Gladiators of the Gryn #2)

Izzy

IZZY

I do not know what I’ve walked into, except there are now four huge Gryn gladiators where I only left the one. Four Gryn who seem to want to kill each other.

Having pronounced me as his, Blayn is snarling up a storm and a half, but at least the others seem to be more amused than annoyed.

“I’m Rych,” the gladiator with the gold cuffs and jewels around his neck says to me to yet another peal of growls from Blayn. “This is Maxym,” he introduces a Gryn with dark wings and a brooding expression. “And this is Klynn.” He points to the Gryn with a dagger in each hand who is contemplating the upholstery with a practiced eye before flinging one of the daggers at the center of a pattern where it buries itself deep.

I’m trembling in the face of these huge, trained killers, but I want to be strong for Blayn, as having me here seems to be the only thing which is stopping him going over the edge.

“You’re ?”

I nod, holding on to Blayn’s arm and sliding one of my hands into his warm feathers which are bristling wildly.

At my touch, the vibrations slow, then cease.

“These are…” Blayn forces out through his fangs. “My…” He thinks about it for a second. “Friends.”

I look at the three Gryn. Rych shrugs, Maxym glowers, and Klynn appears to be distracted by something sparkling on the ceiling.

“So, why fight them?” I ask.

“Because…you,” Blayn answers, hanging his head. “You are mine.”

“A fact firmly established,” Rych says. “And not disputed by any of us,” he adds, holding up his hands in supplication.

“We are not interested in your mate, Blayn,” Maxym says, deliberately taking a step back.

“Mate?” I look up at Blayn who is glaring at the others.

His gaze shifts, dropping down to me, those stunning, dark eyes softening. “Mate,” he murmurs.

“I don’t…that can’t be right.” My mind is whirling. I know some species mate, in fact many species mate, but not usually with other species.

“If he lets you touch him, you have to be his mate,” Rych says gently. “Blayn was never going to let anyone else in.”

“Is this true?” My voice has become a whisper because all of this is not what I expected, and yet the way my heart is pounding, it’s as if the organ has wanted confirmation all this time.

“ Eregri ,” Blayn breathes. “I didn’t know what it was like to live without the dark and the light until I met you. You chase it away. You make my cocks hard and my heart soft. I can see again.” He points to his chest. “In here as well as with my eyes. You are the axis on which my galaxy turns.”

I put my hand on his cheek, and he leans into it like a cat, eyes closing, depriving me of their dark depths.

“What if I’m not your mate?” I voice the tremble in my heart. “I’m human.”

“You are,” Blayn responds simply.

“You are,” Maxym echoes. “Humans and Gryn can be mates. Sylas has a human mate.”

My already quaking world crumbles. Things spin around me. My body heats. “Another human? Here on Trefa?”

“Yes.”

“Wow,” I breathe. “I thought I was the only one.”

Blayn surrounds me, blocking out the others with his great wings. I can see the strain in his jaw, the muscle ticking, and I know enough about mates to know how difficult he’s finding being here, with me and the other Gryn.

“Maybe Maxym can contact Sylas and you can speak to his mate?” Blayn says. “It’s important to you to speak to another human, isn’t it?”

I stroke his cheek, feeling the tension there. “Not as important as getting you back to somewhere you won’t keep fighting,” I reply.

I see some of his concern drain away instantly. “Time to go?”

“Time to go.” I smile, digging in my pocket for the device which calls on the ground transport for the pleasure house.

Blayn releases me from my fragrant cage of feathers, but he still tucks me behind him as he faces his colleagues.

“Time to go,” he says and he’s smiling.

Well, a sort of smile. Probably too much fang to be something you want to see regularly.

All three Gryn take a step back.

“What the vrex is that?” Klynn says.

“I think”—Rych cocks his head on one side, staring at Blayn intently—“I think it’s a smile.”

“Vrex!” Maxym says. “Rather you than us, .”

I hook my arm into Blayn’s and give them my best smile. It causes another few steps away from us, enough to clear the way to the door.

We get three bows as we pass, and I feel a tiny bit like a queen. Blayn puts his hand over mine as we exit the eatery where the transport is waiting.

“Wait! We need to pay.”

“They’ll charge it to the dome,” Blayn says with a swish of his wings.

“You have credits?”

“We get some bonuses,” he says coyly. “I don’t use mine much.”

The transport whisks us back to the pleasure house, but I find my heart sinking as we get closer. We’re pawns in all of this, both me and Blayn, and it’s wrong somehow. Not that my massive gladiator is concerned in any way. His feathers prick, and he twirls them violently like a thousand batons before they settle into place, and a look of bliss spreads over his face.

“What was that?” I laugh.

“Rouse,” he says, as if the word is unfamiliar. “Feels good,” he adds, putting his hands on my waist and pulling me against him. “Feels good to be near you, eregri .”

“You keep saying that word. What does it mean?”

Blayn’s brow furrows. “I…don’t know. I’m not sure any of us know much about where we came from.” He taps the side of his head. “They messed with our brains.”

His hand returns to my waist, and I’m pulled closer still to his hard, muscular chest. “But what I do know is I have claimed you, little mate, and if the word means anything, it means you are mine.”