Page 53 of Bound (Gladiators of the Gryn #3)

CHRISSIE

Rych looks at me unsteadily, one wing folded unnaturally under him as the bot cleans up the laser wound on his leg.

The clarity I see things with is incredible. After so much time not knowing what was going on inside me, to finally understand is like waking from a long sleep.

I know what I want. I know how to get it, and I’m linked into anything I want to be.

Except one. Rych. Somehow, I’m linked to him in another way, a way which means I see through his narcotic addled brain as he thinks about nesting and…

“Oh!” I feel my core pulse at his thought.

I hold out my hand, and a bot hands me a hypo-syringe. I inject the contents into Rych’s arm, and he blinks at me a few times before I’m pulled into his arms and he kisses me to oblivion.

I’m not complaining.

“How did you know what to do?”

“I didn’t. I just thought it and the…bot…did it for me. I’m connected to them all,” I say, unable to keep the wonder out of my voice. “It connected me to everything.”

“Not possible.” A high-pitched voice comes from above where Felia dangles. “The virus was designed to be removed and to kill its host if it wasn’t.”

“Is that the case?” Rych gets to his feet, swaying slightly. He looks up, fixing the Drahon above us with a predatory stare. “You fully intended to let my mate die if you didn’t get what you wanted.”

“Yes.” She glares down, unapologetic. “But now she’s…something else, I want to study her.”

“I remember what your ‘studies’ are like, even if I don’t recall anything else,” Rych growls, swiping out a clawed hand at her leg like a cat at a bird.

She shrieks and wriggles. Completely the wrong thing to do to in the face of a large, hungry predator. Rych’s hands twitch with anticipation.

I shove my fingers into his feathers, and instantly, my vicious predator is putty.

“.” He slurs my name, whether from the residual effects of the narcotic Felia gave him, weaponizing what she could, or from my touch, it’s difficult to tell, but if it stops him from ripping her limb from limb at the moment, I’m grateful.

“Rych.” I cup his cheek and his eyes close in ecstasy.

“I thought I’d lost you,” he murmurs.

“This galaxy is going to have to try harder if they want rid of me.”

“But you’re here, and I have to nest for you, to breed you, to own you,” he says, voice rasping and sending shivers all through me.

Above us, Felia snorts her disgust. Rych leans in to kiss me as he swipes upwards again, this time connecting with the Drahon, and she hisses like a cat.

“As long as you are mine, the stars continue to burn, the planets to spin, and the galaxy to sparkle. It’s all I want, it’s all I’ve ever needed, eregri ,” Rych says. “Fate has brought me my very own super-nova, and I will cherish you until the end of time.”

My heart thumps in my chest, both at my new existence, where part of my head is filled with naughts and ones, and the rest of it is filled with the desires of my mate, my huge gladiator who is going to do very bad things to me the moment he gets an opportunity. Not only is he not hiding the thoughts from me, he is in fact displaying them openly in my mind.

“I think not,” Felia says from overhead. “It’s time I got my specimen and you died, Gryn.”

There’s a clicking sound, and as we unpeel from each other, the room is filled with Drahon, armored, armed, and with all their weapons pointed at us.

“Maim the female and kill the male,” Felia shrieks.

Rych flings us both to the floor behind a large console as the pulsar bolts fly.

“Vrexing Drahon,” he grumbles, spotting the pulsar pistol a short distance away. “Don’t go anywhere.”

He flings himself out, somehow miraculously avoiding any further bolts, grabs the pulsar, and is back with me.

“I didn’t go anywhere,” I say. “Can you let me have that?” I nod at the pulsar.

Rych grins, looks puzzled, looks at me like he wants to eat me, and hands me the weapon.

I feel the tech inside it like a series of musical notes. Notes I can tweak to make the song greater. I hand it back to him.

“Should work better now,” I say.

Rych shrugs, leans around the side of the console, and fires. The force nearly blasts him from behind our makeshift screen. He stares at the weapon.

“I usually prefer a blade, but this is…” He drops his head back in ecstasy. “Loud.”

He grins at me, grasps the thing with two hands, and lets rip. Smoke fills the air and Felia screams into the din, any noise she makes lost in the sounds of destruction.

“Vrex it, Rych!” A voice we both recognize spears through everything.

“Maxym?” Rych ceases fire, lifting the pulsar up to his face.

“The same.” The huge Gryn intones as he looms out of the fog.

“How did you get out of the dome?”

“Some vrexer called Axel freed us. He was lucky Klynn wanted Drahon blood, or he’d have settled for Voltes.” Maxym chuckles, spinning his sword and spearing a Drahon who has somehow escaped the mayhem and is racing at us.

“Yeah, we found him annoying too,” I say.

“And look, your little mate is well again.”

“She can control bots,” Rych says proudly, his arm and wing curling around me.

“The virus has bonded with my DNA, just like the Drahon said, but it didn’t kill me. I don’t understand exactly what’s happened, but I can…speak to tech.” I explain.

“She can control bots.” Rych nods at Maxym with a grin.

“Only you’d end up with a mate who could do such a thing,” Maxym rasps.

Rych turns his high wattage smile on me. “I would, wouldn’t I?” he says with tenderness. “She’ll keep me from the dark, no matter what.”