Page 13 of Bound (Gladiators of the Gryn #3)
CHRISSIE
I do not want to crash.
After everything which has happened to me, crashing into an alien planet is not the way I wanted to end my days.
“What do we do?”
“Escape pods,” Rych says. “Now.”
I find myself in his arms as he rushes through the ship to the rear and an area I’ve not entered before. It is more utilitarian, the luxuries stripped away.
I’m placed on my feet, and Rych slams his fist on a glowing green patch on the wall. A door snaps open, and I peer into the small space inside.
“You’re not going to fit.”
“This pod is for one. I’ll be in the other one,” Rych says as he gently pushes me inside. “Strap in.”
He presses another lit up square and straps of glittering metal, slide out. He crosses them over my chest, and his wing feathers brush my face as he fastens them around me.
“Don’t…” I breathe.
He lifts his head, his liquid dark eyes searching my face.
“Don’t leave me.” I feel the words more than hear them.
“I’ll be right behind you, my little spark,” he says, stepping back as the door drops shut in a snapping movement.
Before I can even scream, I’m forced back into the embrace of the pod by the g-force of the movement away from the main ship. In front of me, a screen flickers to life, and I wish it hadn’t because all I can see is the silver streak of Fenek’s air transport as I move away from it and it almost gracefully drops out of the sky, slamming into the ground before being obscured by the dirt and debris it throws up into the night.
Then it is dark, wind whistles around the pod, and I am helpless. I didn’t see Rych’s pod leave the ship, and I can’t see it as mine tumbles down and down.
I’m thrown around again as there is a roaring, deep, rasping resonating through me. I brace because it surely will turn out this is the way I die.
“I’m so sorry, Dad,” I cry out as the sound intensifies. “I should have tried harder to get back to you.”
Roaring and whistling fills my ears. I close my eyes, tears streaming down my cheeks, and my last thought is of Rych, of the hope he escaped this hell and is safe and unhurt.
Then there is nothing.
A rasping crack enters into my consciousness. The noise is loud enough to pierce the veil. It is completely dark. I struggle pathetically for a few seconds before I get out of the straps in the pod and slump to the bottom. My muscles scream at me, my legs half dead from the harness.
The pod appears completely dead, the screen which was lit up no longer there. This place is going to be my tomb.
I release a sob.
The cracking noise gets louder.
Something is crushing the pod, and it seems I’m going to die sooner rather than later. I close my eyes again as there is a rush of cold air.
“Hello, little spark.”
“Rych!” I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone I wanted to see more as his silhouette reaches for me. I practically leap into his arms, and I’m dragged clear of the ruined pod. “You survived!”
“I am a gladiator, little mate. I cannot be killed by anything so mundane as a crashing air transport,” Rych says, moons’ light flashing off his fangs. “But losing you would have killed me,” he adds quietly. “Are you injured?”
He places me on my feet, his hands running over my body. I can’t say I dislike it.
“I’m sore, but no worse than before I got in the pod,” I say. “Except I lost my stick.”
“I can carry you,” Rych replies.
“I know, but not everywhere.”
“I will not accept any argument.”
“Rych.” I put my hands on my hips. “Sometimes there are places a girl needs to go where you can’t take me.” My huge, hulking gladiator looks at me blankly. “Like if I need to urinate?”
“I do not care. You are mine to protect, little spark.” He leans closer, his lips pulled back and his fangs on display. “Mine to nest for and mine to mate.”