Page 52 of Hooded (Gladiators of the Gryn #5)

KLYNN

“The shield Proto has in place doesn’t allow for any ships to land here,” Mylo says, digging into a container in his ship. “Which means we need to take it out.”

“How did you get here?” I look around us.

“With some considerable difficulty,” Mylo responds, most of his upper body in the container, his wings flailing. “I used this.”

He levers himself from the container with a grimace, holding a small orb.

“That isn’t going to help the ships in orbit much.” I look at what he has in his hand. “What is it?”

“It’s a jammer. The container you were sent to the surface in probably had something similar.”

“I wasn’t paying that much attention.”

Mylo grins at me. “Rough?”

I shake out my feathers. “You could say that. I probably should have taken the paraxio on offer.”

Mylo grunts. “I’d give anything for some paraxio right now.” He grumbles. “Take this to the top of the crevasse. I don’t want to reveal this ship’s location to Proto yet.” He hands me the orb. “It will deploy once you put it on the ground.”

I turn the thing over.

“Probably best to do it now, before Proto blasts them to oblivion,” Mylo suggests.

I exit the craft, open my wings, and beat hard up through the jagged hole cracked into the surface of the planet. Gray dust rises as I fire myself through the gap and out into the weak light above, spinning over and landing as swiftly as I can. I release the orb, and it rolls a distance away from me before three legs extend from it, spearing into the surface and emitting a blue glow.

I crouch down, feathers pooling on the dusty surface. I scan the sky for bots. I don’t have to wait long.

With a dull roar, the low, dirty clouds part as one by one, ships descend. In turn, they kick up enough dust to obscure anything other than their bulk. I dip my head to keep from being blasted by the force until all the engines slow and I stand up.

Either these ships contain foe or friend. If they are Varangy, I will be dealing with them as I see fit. If friend, I will be expecting them to help me destroy the Proto, or they are no friend at all.

The dust hangs in the air. Shapes appear, moving towards me. Large shapes. And one small one. Instantly my entire being is filled with heat and desire as it hits me, and her scent fills my mind.

“Fern,” I breathe. “My eregri .”

There is nothing else but her.

Nothing, nothing, nothing.

My heart, so often twirling in my chest in such a way I thought I might die, booms in my chest. It hits my ribs as if it can get to her.

“, I thought I might have lost you,” she says, face buried in my feathers.

“I would move worlds for you, my mate. The stars are no obstacle to me. I will destroy them all to get to you, to have you in my arms, like this, once again.” I tip her face up to mine. “You are my center, my wings, my breath, and my heart, until the end of time.”

I kiss her because if I don’t, I will see her tears, and they destroy me more than anything else in the entire universe. Her lips taste as sweet as nectar. Her scent is the only thing I ever want. It sustains me in a way I couldn’t have ever imagined as a gladiator.

“I would have returned to you,” I murmur.

“And I would have always looked for you,” she responds. “I never want to be without you again.”

“I am sorry, my sweet mate, for abandoning you,” I say, with another kiss to her lips. “I erred, badly. I thought I wanted a fight, any fight. I thought the unquietness in my soul would be soothed by violence, and I was wrong. There was nothing to be calmed. There was only you.”

“You did it for the right reasons, . You did it to protect others and that is what makes you the best male I could have ever chosen.” Her eyes are bright as they gaze up at me.

I am not in trouble.

“But don’t do it again,” she growls, running her hand over her stomach. “Because pissing off a pregnant lady is not something any Gryn, or any gladiator , ever wants to do.”

“Is this your mate?”

I look up to see a large Gryn, flanked by many others. I snarl as a default because all of them are too close to my Fern. The best distance being the other side of the galaxy.

“Yes,” Fern says, “this is .”

“Guv.” Mylo strides past me to greet the other Gryn. “I see you brought the team.”

“When there’s Proto to be dealt with, I could hardly stop them,” the big Gryn says.

“You are here to deal with Proto?” I look down at my Fern.

“I’m here for you. These Gryn believe there’s an old enemy here,” Fern says. “One which has been stealing Gryn for a long time.”

“It’s about time Proto was destroyed and the galaxy being safe for all Gryn,” the largest of the Gryn says. “I am Strykr. This is my team, Vypr, Ayar, Syn, and Jay.”

The three Gryn directly behind him variously nod, or in Ayar’s case, growl at me.

“Destroying Proto is only the start,” I respond. “The Galactic Council is complicit, or at least some of them are, and until they are dealt with, until their hold over the galaxy is managed, their desire to control all those who might challenge them will keep us at risk of a similar situation.”

Strykr looks me up and down and his lips hitch into a smile.

“The gladiator,” he says. “The fighter.”

I shake my feathers at him. “We are all fighters.”

He straightens. “We are. But fighter or not, it remains for us to kill the unkillable.”

“Nothing is immune from death,” I growl. “I have seen enough of it to know.”

Fingers slide into the downy feathers at the base of my wings, and all my troubles, all my grief at losing my sweet Fern are gone in an instant. She is here, with me, and has a grip on my heart I never want her to let go.

“Is he drooling?” one of the other Gryn asks.

“With a ripe little mate, of course he is,” the response comes back.

I want to growl, I really do. I don’t like having all these Gryn so close to my Fern, but having her in my arms once again, a mate who came for me, who found me, who forgave me when I let her down…

I am the luckiest male in the entire universe.