Baited (Gladiators of the Gryn #2)

Izzy

IZZY

I shove my face into Blayn’s wings, drinking down his soft spicy scent and luxuriating in the feel of his soft feathers. I’m as weak as a kitten after fainting, discovering Blayn had dropped out of the sky, and then somehow our minds linking, resulting in another period of unconsciousness for us both.

Something which seems to have amused Blayn’s fellow gladiator, Rych, significantly. Although I note he’s not far from us, arms folded and eyes watching our every move, even if he does have a smug smirk on his face.

The two madames, having confirmed we’re staying conscious, have bustled off together somewhere.

“What is a thoughtbond?” I ask Blayn as I trace my hand down his chest, swirling over his tattoos.

“I’m not sure.” He gives Rych the side-eye. “But I felt you in my head and heart. Maybe it’s that.”

“You were in my head too.” I lean against him. “Are you okay about the baby?”

“I’m here with you, my eregri ,” Blayn says. “I am the happiest I’ve ever been because I have you and you have our youngling in your belly.” He grins at me.

Blayn doesn’t do his little hitched smile, he genuinely grins at me, his entire face holding the smile as he slides his hand over my stomach and pats it.

“I don’t think you can tell anything’s in there yet.” I put my hand over his, feeling the gnarled flesh and the bumps where his claws retract. “It’s probably the size of a pea or something.”

Blayn flaps a wing against the wall where we’re sitting. “A pee?”

“A small, very small vegetable.” I measure out the size of a pea between my thumb and forefinger.

“A vegetable?” Blayn queries.

I stare up at him. His mouth quivers at the corner.

“You’re terrible at lying.” I lean my head back against his chest. “You know what a vegetable is.”

The feeling of exhaustion I had earlier is growing. I don’t want to fall asleep out here, even if the courtyard is quiet, and Blayn is warm, and there’s the scent of flowers in the air which mingle with the scent of his feathers. I thought I’d never see him again, and yet here he is, large as life.

My heart seems to swell in my chest. This male, who is in my head. And thinking about vegetables…

“This thoughtbond thing, can we turn it off?” I ask.

Blayn shrugs. “I didn’t turn it on.”

“Can you stop thinking about vegetables then? You’re making me hungry.”

“If you require food, I will get it for you.” Blayn shifts and I cling to him. “But I’m comfortable.”

“Then…” I see his mind moving through the options, selecting Rych and then growling silently at him before coming back to him as his only option. “Rych can get us food.”

Blayn has zero filter and with the thoughtbond I can see every thought. Actually, I can’t see his thoughts, I can feel them, and it means I also feel growly, hungry, and…horny.

“I’m not getting involved,” Rych responds, his feathers lifting and then slicking back down. “If you want food for your mate, you’ll need to get it yourself. I don’t want to risk losing a wing.”

He flashes me a bright smile before pushing away from the wall where he’s been leaning and walking down the courtyard into the building.

“He does know this place is a pleasure house, doesn’t he?” I query.

“Rych has plenty of experience with pleasure houses,” Blayn says, and I’m treated to a little flashback to the Lux.

“Something he does when he’s not helping you kill things in the dome?” I ignore the rumble in my stomach and cling to my gladiator.

“Females request him for night activities, or sometimes he gets sent.”

“Night activities?” And when it hits me, because Blayn’s mind is blank, he flinches. “Oh. Does he like it?”

Blayn frowns. “I don’t think so. But he does it because otherwise he’d be sidelined for the games, and he loves to fight even more than I do.”

Images of fighting dance through my head.

“We’re going to have to get a grip on this thoughtbond thing or I’m going to get whiplash.”

“I like it,” Blayn says happily. “Your head is a nice place.”

“My stomach is not.” I put my hand over my stomach as it growls.

“Food.” Blayn also growls, and he gets to his feet, lifting me in his arms.

“I can walk.”

“What if I don’t want you to walk?”

“What if I kiss you?”

“You would ky-ss me to use your legs when you can use mine?”

I kiss him, allowing the images of what he wants to do to me to flood in as I send my own back until we are both panting.

“I found food,” Rych interrupts.

He stands a short distance away with a platter in his hand, slowly consuming the contents as he stares at us.

“I can’t believe you found a mate,” he adds.

“Where. Is. The. Food?” Blayn growls at him, his words entire sentences dripping with menace.

With his mouth full, Rych jerks a clawed thumb over his shoulder in the direction we saw him take. Blayn snorts and stalks past his fellow Gryn, firing out a wing as he passes and causing Rych to duck, although he keeps careful hold of his plate.

I can smell the food before we enter the building which causes yet another series of images while Blayn imagines what we might find as well as his intentions should anyone attempt to attack us. My big gladiator has to duck to enter, and we find ourselves in a large, bright room which has two tables groaning with platters containing every dish imaginable.

I wriggle against Blayn, and he allows me to slither down his hard, muscular abdomen, every bump noticeable as I end up on my feet. And I mean every bump. As if the thoughtbond hadn’t already told me he was aroused.

Blayn locks eyes with me as he adjusts himself. The absolute lust bomb which he drops through the thoughtbond sends my core clenching. His nostrils flare and his eyes darken.

“I missed you, . My cocks missed you too,” he says. “You are my entire galaxy, and I’d fight it all to get to you.”