Page 22 of Hooded (Gladiators of the Gryn #5)

FERN

It’s been too long since Klynn was dragged away unconscious from outside our cell. There’s no obvious day or night here, only a changing of the guard, and there’s been three changes of the guard.

I haven’t moved from the ledge where we…mated. It smells of him, and I don’t want to lose that contact. Which is super weird for me. I’ve managed to get by in life with very little angst. My childhood was easy enough. My parents being military people, I grew up moving around a lot, until they sent me to boarding school, which I didn’t mind so much. My job was straightforward, well within my capabilities, and I like to think I had a good work-life balance. The life part mostly being around pizza, Netflix, and LJ Ross murder mysteries.

But today there’s something completely different within me. My chest physically aches, and I feel useless. I got us into this mess, and somehow I have to get us out of it.

The cell goes dark for an instant before the bright freezing light comes on and I can’t move. All I can do is watch as the forcefield comes down and the guards, metal clad as before, stomp in and deposit Klynn on the floor.

Inside, I rejoice. He looks angry but unharmed, his dark eyes glaring at nothing. I’m so happy he’s back with me I don’t notice the other guard until it’s too late, I’m grabbed and heaved over his shoulder. I want to scream, twist, do anything to stay with Klynn, but I can’t.

The light remains on as I’m carried down the passage outside the cells and through the airlock, where it finally switches off. I burst into a long tirade of cursing and squirming.

The guard pays me no attention, slamming his hand over my arse and striding onwards until I find myself in the weird pink room again.

“Lord Halfen says to check her,” he grunts as I’m pulled from his shoulder and released.

“Fuck you,” I say with as much feeling as my bruised lungs can muster.

Narlix looks at me, then back at the guard. “Why? Did the Gryn harm her?”

“No, he did not,” I explode.

“He mated her.” The guard guffaws. “He wants to know if she’s with young.”

Narlix mutters something under her breath.

“It doesn’t work like that with humans,” I spit at him. “And you can tell Lord Halfen from me, he will never hold me, Klynn, or any child we conceive.”

The guard snarls, lifting his metal clad fist above me as I glare at him.

“If she’s with young, you don’t want to injure her,” Narlix says quickly. “Lord Halfen won’t like that at all.”

“She can birth without all her limbs or the use of her voice,” he growls.

“Humans are a new species to me. I don’t know what she can and can’t do,” Narlix says rapidly.

With a dissatisfied grunt, the guard lowers his fist, puffs his chest at me, and turns on his heel.

“Tell Lord Halfen,” I call after him.

“Do you have a death wish?” Narlix demands as the door snaps shut behind him.

“Can it get any worse than my current situation?”

“If you’ve met Lord Halfen, you’d know.”

“I have met him. He’s a bully and I hate bullies,” I respond.

Narlix sighs, her tail swishing over the floor. “He is a bully, and he’s also extremely dangerous. You cross him at your peril.”

I hold out my arms from my sides. “Too late. He kidnapped me and Klynn. He took my ship. He crossed me first.”

To my surprise, Narlix laughs, her great beak opening and shutting alarmingly.

“Probably the first time I’ve ever heard anyone say that about Lord Halfen,” she says. “Look, I need to check you out. Do you mind?” She gestures to the slab she had me on last time. “It’ll make both of our lives easier.”

Some of the adrenaline I was feeling has drained away, and I don’t want to fight when someone is being polite.

“Fine.” I climb onto it. “But if you attempt to shove anything in my vagina, I will kill you.”

Narlix laughs again. “Having met your mate, I’d better take you seriously.”

“Is Klynn okay?” I ask urgently. “They brought him back but took me. I couldn’t speak to him.”

“He’s more than all right. He’s a killer.” Narlix sets a machine above the slab whirring over me. “And an entertainer. I’m not sure which one Lord Halfen wants him to be.”

“What do you mean?”

“Klynn was put in the holo arena, here on the ship, as a test fight.” Narlix shrugs. “Not that there weren’t credits being bet on the outcome, but only for a select few.”

“He’s being forced to fight here?” I half whisper.

“I’d hardly say your Gryn ever needs to be forced to fight. It’s in their nature, and as one of their commanders, he’s particularly skilled at it.”

There is too much in that sentence to unpack.

“Anyway, only one died, and not by his hand. I believe Lord Halfen is…considering his position.”

Ice runs through my veins. “What does that mean?”

“It means he didn’t know what he was getting when he picked up a gladiator and his mate.” Narlix looks at her handheld vid screen. “But I’m sure he’ll figure it out.”

“Could you be any more ominous?”

Narlix puts the vid screen down on a table which has risen out of the floor next to my slab.

“Ominous?” she queries. “Optimism died at the hands of Lord Halfen many nova-years ago on this ship, little female. It’s best to assume the worst.”

I feel my stomach harden. This is not exactly a pep-talk, and I’m not going to accept what she says, at all.

“He’d better be quick about it because Klynn and I won’t be staying long,” I say, my hands curled into fists by my side.

“In that case, you’d better make it as short a stay as possible. By my instruments, you are entering your fertile window, and as long as the Gryn continues to do the deed, he will impregnate you.”