Page 30 of Bound (Gladiators of the Gryn #3)

RYCH

I’ve never been good with ground transport. Although any flying we get in the dome isn’t long distance, at least when we are sent anywhere, it was usually under the influence of paraxio.

The nausea wears off quickly. My pride in my little mate and how easily she adapted to the controls of the hover craft swells in my chest instead. It makes the pulsar bolt injury burn at me, but it’s a small price to pay to see my Chrissie in action.

“Keep still,” Chrissie orders. “I need to get this on your wound.” She spreads a cooling salve from the craft’s medi-kit over my injury.

“Don’t like it,” I grumble, attempting not to move but squirming anyway.

The smell of it makes me think of the medi-bay at the dome. A place I avoided as far as I could. One night there was enough.

“Don’t be such a child! This’ll stop any infection and you’re already healing ,” Chrissie says with not a little awe. “How?”

“Gryn heal well. It’s one of the reasons we were chosen for the dome,” I respond, wrinkling my nose and turning my head away from where she has applied the salve.

Instead I shove my head into her hair and gulp down her scent. It makes Chrissie chuckle, something I like much more than the salve.

“Don’t get yourself stuck to me,” she says, her voice filled with mirth.

“I am stuck to you, little mate.”

As much as I hate to admit it, the salve makes the pulsar burn feel considerably better.

“We need to find shelter for tonight.” I look at the darkening sky.

“Do you think they’ll follow us out here?”

“Yes, which means we need to find somewhere which will make it hard for them.”

“Where?”

I heave myself to my feet and go over to the hover craft, activating the mapping console as Chrissie joins me.

“Oh, I didn’t realize it had a GPS,” she says, slipping her hand into my feathers and making my knees go instantly slack.

“GPS?” I slur.

“I don’t know what you call it here, but on Earth, a map like this would be generated by satellites above the planet. We called it a global positioning service.” She studies the vid screen. “It meant you could get directions to wherever you wanted to go.”

I pull her into me. “Every time you impress me, I wonder what else you will do, and you do something more, little spark.”

“That’s what your planet gets for underestimating a sick female,” Chrissie responds.

“You were never that to me.” I tilt her face up to mine and press a kiss to her lips. Her hand curls against my skin and my mind goes gloriously blank.

“There’s a settlement not too far from here,” Chrissie says, pulling me back to the present. “Do you think we should go there?”

I look at the map. The tiny speck of a settlement which the map names as Szar. Not the place I was hoping we’d get to today, but given we have our own transport, at least until we can find something more legitimate, it’s probably the best we can do.

I climb onto the transport and lift my little mate on in front of me.

“You want me to drive?”

“I do. I can’t operate one of these,” I respond.

“What?” Chrissie says as the hover craft fires up. “How did you know I could?”

“I didn’t, but it turns out you do.” I grin. “A happy coincidence.” I wrap my arm around her waist as we shoot forward, following the map and heading in the direction of the settlement. “Everything is good if it involves you, my Chrissie.”

I feel her growl rather than hear it and bury my face in her flowing hair again. Chrissie is my happy place.