Alex

ALEX

S ylas scoops me up against him, carefully placing me in a position where I won't be crushed by his massive bulk. One wing drapes over both of us as slowly our collective chests stop heaving and at least my mind finally starts firing on all cylinders.

What the hell did we just do? What did I do? I had the best sex of my life with the biggest, baddest gladiator of them all, and I've only just met him.

Who am I?

I thought I was the abductee human, resigned to her fate in a far-away galaxy, expecting death and hoping for freedom.

Turns out, I'm the girl who steals away a gladiator and gives in to her deepest, most hidden desires.

Which is when it hits me, hard. We had unprotected sex . Can a human get pregnant with a Gryn? Is that even possible?

"Little feather." Sylas burrows his head into the side of my neck, his nose huffing and his tongue lapping over my skin.

"We shouldn't have done that," I say, attempting to keep the panic from my voice. "Not without protection."

Sylas is still hard inside me, his hips flicking occasionally as his release continues.

"I'm here to protect you," he says, voice taking on a sleepy burr. "Always."

"I mean, I could get pregnant." I hate how scared I sound.

What would Ixor do if I did get pregnant? Probably sell the baby to the highest bidder.

"Oh, sweet mate, what a thing that would be," he murmurs, eyes half-lidded as his hand drifts over my stomach. "To fill you with my youngling." His voice is wistful, far away, and his response is not what I'd expect from my killing machine. "I was changed too much in my time on the farm. Too many experiments on my body. It's highly unlikely I've been left able to breed."

His eyes open, and he searches my face with a hunted look, the one I saw on him just after the explosion.

"They didn't want to repeat the same mistake," he says in a rush.

My heart goes into overdrive, pounding against my chest as if it wants to break free. I didn't mean to hurt Sylas with my words or concerns.

"You are no mistake." I cup his face, and for an instant he shies from me before leaning into my touch.

I've been hurt and controlled by my treatment since I was abducted, but it's nothing compared to Sylas, that much is clear.

"We should go," I say quietly after a while where there are no sounds other than our breathing.

"You are mine, little feather, and wherever you go, I will always be there."

"Sylas," I say carefully. "My master, Ixor, thought that maybe I was your…mate?" I don't want to believe anything Ixor said was true, but we're here now, and I've just banged this huge gladiator in a stranger's house in the heat of the moment.

Sylas's face breaks into the goofiest smile. "Mate," he repeats dreamily.

Guess I have the answer to that particular query.

"Which is a problem," I go on, loathing myself with every single word. "He wanted me to get you to provide him with protection in the dome, to show him the best place he could be in order to carry out his work."

Sylas is still smiling. "His work?"

"Ixor is a Habosu bounty hunter. He's after a high-profile politician here in Tatatunga. This bounty is dead or alive and Ixor specializes in dead," I say, averting my eyes from his.

The growl Sylas releases is blood curdling.

"The Habosu no longer has any claim over you. He never did. You are destined to be mine," he says, words barely able to pass by the fangs which fill his mouth. "He will not succeed in using you or me to get to his filthy prize."

I should be terrified.

I am not.

"This isn't your fight," I say, sliding my hand into his warm feathers and taking meagre comfort from their silky softness. "I don't want you to get hurt."

The smile returns to Sylas' face, only this time he has a wicked, wicked glint in his eye.

"The only creatures getting hurt will be those who seek to take you from me," he says. "You will stay with me and not return to this Ixor ." He sneers Ixor's name as if it pains him. "You are free, little feather."

Unable to stop myself, I kiss him on the lips, laughing in delight, my heart lifted for the first time in a long time. Perhaps I shouldn't throw my lot in with seven feet plus of muscles and feathers who wakes up and chooses violence every day, but why the hell not?

And, after knowing him for all of an hour, he's made my body sing like a canary and throb like a rock concert in the 1980s. I've never believed in love at first sight, but maybe that's because I was never in love before.

My life was as lonely as they come. A single roomed bedsit, a job which was hardly taxing, and family I disowned at sixteen. No one wants the lonely girl eating her lunch in the corner.

Except Sylas.

He helps me on with my clothes, after insisting on cleaning me up…with his tongue…and by the time we exit the tiny dwelling, it's dark outside.

Which, when it comes to hiding an enormous winged gladiator, is something to be glad of. Plus anything in the night which might think I'm a target is going to have the surprise of their lives.

Sylas moves like a big cat, silent, not even rustling a feather as he pads beside me, his long legs easily eating up the distance while I hurry on like a scurrying mouse.

I feel like prey when every so often I glance at him and see his hungry, hunted expression as he returns my gaze.

What have I got myself into?

We reach the rear of Ginka's bakery. As usual, the back door is open, and I slip inside, followed by Sylas.

"Stay here," I whisper to him. "I need to speak with my friend before I introduce you."

Sylas furrows his brow and shakes his wings, which rattle like knives. Only he also raises a cloud of flour too. It settles on him gently.

"I do not like you to go alone."

"I'm not," I retort. "I told you, this is my friend's place. We're both safe here, but I need to warn her about the gladiator in her kitchen."

Sylas snorts. "You are safe as long as you are around me."

"Which is wonderful, but what are we going to eat and where are we going to sleep on the planet, Sylas?" I query.

He huffs and runs a clawed finger, not the one he bit off in order to touch me, through some of the fallen flour on a countertop, making a sigil which doesn't translate.

"Fine," he growls.

"So, stay here?"

"I'm not going anywhere else without you."

I hurry through the kitchen and out into the main bakery. Ginka has an apartment above the shop itself, but she's still cleaning up after the day's trading.

"Hi," I say, hoping not to startle her.

Ginka turns, and without warning, she pulls me in for a hug.

"Oh, ! I heard about the explosion at the dome, and I was so worried about you! Thank the gods you are unhurt." She releases me, her bright eyes searing my body. "You are unharmed, aren't you?"

Well, other than having my lady bits completely destroyed by a gladiator I met today…

"I'm fine, Ginka, I promise. But I need some help." I grasp her thick forearms. "I've run away from Ixor,"

Ginka opens her mouth into an O shape.

"That's not all. There's something else." I avert my gaze from her.

"What do you mean, ‘that's not all'? It's a big thing, , a really big thing to do."

"Sylas," I call over my shoulder. "Can you come out?"

He steps through the kitchen door, looming out of the darkness, his scarred body and vast wings filling the place with a deep menace as he glares at Ginka.

She swallows.

"Yep, you were right, . That is very much something else ."