Page 19 of Forced to Mate by the Mad Scientist (Kindred Tales Spicy Shorts #3)

19

KROSS

“Kross? Kross, are you okay? Please, tell me you’re okay!”

The soft, familiar voice was distant, as though whoever was talking to him was calling from a long way away. Kross struggled to answer, but his voice didn’t want to work. His throat was burning— everything was burning.

It felt like something was at work inside him. Or maybe some things, he thought distantly. Many millions of tiny somethings that were acting on him—changing him in some strange and irrevocable way.

He groaned and tried to move, but movement made the burning worse. What was wrong with him? What the fuck had that bastard Barbarous done to him?

“Kross? Please, be okay. Please…please don’t leave me!”

He forced his eyes to open even though it hurt and looked up. Sylvia’s worried face was hovering over his own, her lovely eyes filled with anxiety.

“Kross?” she asked, her voice thick with tears and desperation.

“Can’t…talk,” he rasped. “Hurts.”

“I know. I’m so sorry!” She stroked his face gently, her eyes glimmering with tears.

Kross wished fiercely that she’d escaped when she had a chance. He didn’t want her stuck here with him, especially when was almost sure he was dying. There was no way the burning pain inside him could mean anything else. But before he went, there was something he wanted to say.

“Love…you,” he finally got out. “Always…loved you…Princess.”

“What? You what?” Sylvia swiped at her eyes and looked at him uncertainly.

“Love you,” Kross repeated.

And then the burning pain became too much to bear and everything suddenly went dark.