Baited (Gladiators of the Gryn #2)

Izzy

IZZY

A side from discovering, via the thoughtbond, exactly what organs the procurator’s species keeps in their neck, which is an image I don’t think I’ll ever be able to unsee, the last thing I want is for Blayn to cause some permanent damage to the horrible creature.

Even if he deserves it, given how fucking smug he was when he sent Blayn away. If he’s going to die, then it won’t be by Blayn’s hand.

I push everything I have into the thoughtbond, wanting my sweet gladiator to remember he’s better than the procurator and the dome.

But he’s managing to block me. And regardless of the procurator’s ability to breathe without using his neck, the chances are Blayn will permanently injure him if he doesn’t let go.

I swallow my anger, tamping it down hard inside myself. It’s as pointless as trying to find a way back to Earth, and Blayn doesn’t need it. I don’t need it.

We need each other.

I need him. I’m carrying his child, and I need him.

Blayn turns his head and drops the procurator, who slumps to the floor in a heap of limbs. My massive Gryn has me in his arms in seconds.

“I’m sorry, my sweet . I’m sorry,” he croons into my skin, head buried in my hair. “I need you, more than I need my wings and claws. You are my orbit, my stars, my fated mate. You shine for me in the dark and stand with me in the light. You have captured my soul and made it yours for eternity.”

What flows through the thoughtbond brings tears unbidden to my eyes. It’s love, pure, pure love. Blayn sees no one but me. His words are completely honest, unfiltered versions of what’s in his heart.

I belong to him and he belongs to me.

I brush my lips over his, gazing into his dark eyes as I do.

“I am yours, forever, Blayn.” I hold his face in my hands. “Let’s get out of this place. You don’t belong to them anymore.”

Blayn shivers, his wing feathers rattling, and without removing his head from my touch, one arm fires out behind him, and the procurator is dragged into view, a ray gun dangling from his limp fingers.

“Did you hear my mate?” he asks the panting procurator who is scrabbling at where Blayn has him, claws buried deep in his blue flesh. “I belong to my now, not you.”

“Yes, yes. Just don’t tell the council or the resistance and please, please let me go!” he pleads.

Apparently another part of his genitalia is contained within his wrist, an important part.

“All of us? We’re all free?”

“Those of you I have the capacity to free, yes,” the procurator whines. “But Maxym and Klynn are here by order of the galactic council, so I cannot free them.” Blayn growls, redoubling his grip on the procurator who cries out in pain. “It’s true! I’d release them if I could.”

I completely doubt that he would, given how much the Gryn make for him, but in the face of losing something dear to him, I don’t think he’s lying about the powers he has.

“I told you,” Maxym rumbles from across the room. “My fate is here.”

Klynn stomps on one of the bots again, wings flaring, and says nothing.

“You will provide us with evidence of freedom?” I query.

“Y-yes,” the procurator moans. “If the Gryn gives me my limbs back.”

Blayn looks at me. I nod as our bond floods with love.

He drops the procurator once again, kicking the ray gun over to Rych, who picks it up, inspects it, and puts it in his pocket.

The procurator limps back to his half-destroyed desk and pulls out a small projection cube and dictates a short paragraph confirming he has released Rych and Blayn from their indenture and their debts before handing it to me.

“Now go. I don’t want to see either of you again,” he says dismissively.

“What about the bonuses we’re owed?” Blayn queries, much to Rych’s delight. “They were earned in the dome, and they belong to us.”

The procurator grits his dental plate and glares at us all before reaching for a drawer in his desk.

“Slowly,” Rych says, the ray gun back in his hand and trained on the procurator.

“I need my credit chip to transfer the credits,” he says.

“Go ahead.”

He reaches into the drawer and my world turns upside down. All I can hear down the bond…I think it’s down the bond, is the sound of Blayn calling for me.

And calling for me.

And calling for me.

Until everything goes dark.