Sylas

SYLAS

M y eregri is exhausted. She slumbers in my arms, and I'm spellbound, unable to quite believe she is mine.

It soon became clear in the shower , any activities which involved mating would have to wait a while. Instead I cleaned her up, spun the water from my wings, and carried her to the seating area.

"?" A pair of sleepy eyes meet mine. "Sorry, I fell asleep."

"It's still the light, my eregri ," I reply. "You can sleep some more if you wish."

"Where are we?" She pushes up from me, rubbing her face with her free hand.

"I nested." I reply proudly. "For you."

"You…" Alex sits up fully and takes in my work. "Nested?"

I hum with pleasure. I'm not sure I've ever felt like this before, all warm inside. I'm also not entirely sure what a nest is, only that I have created one, in this room, with the things I found in the boxes from the other room…while my mate was sleeping

"Do you like it?"

"It looks like you exploded…everything," she says, taking hold of some of the long colored strips I made from the material I found. Her eyes are rounded as she takes in the flooring I made and the bright twinkling things I've hung everywhere to make it perfect. "You did this?"

I nod, not entirely sure how Alex is taking my nest, my chest tighter than it's ever been when I was in the dome facing down my opponents.

"I can change it if you don't like it," I suggest, tugging at some additional sparkles I found in the final box but haven't put up.

"No, don't." Alex puts her tiny hand over my gnarled, scarred one. "It's…wonderful, ."

"It is?"

"Yes," she breathes. "Beautiful."

"I've never made one before."

"This is your first nest?"

I nod.

"Do all Gryn nest?"

I can't exactly help the growl which escapes me due to the thought of other males showing Alex a nest which slides into my head.

"I think so."

She puts her head to one side and rubs my hand.

"I don't remember any time before I came of age. All I do remember was the lab and the farm. The others, the other Gryn in the dome"—my voice is harsh as I think of them as rivals—"they don't remember much about their time before they came of age either." I shake my head, like somehow the answer which has eluded me all this time might miraculously appear. "It might be a Gryn trait, or it might just be me."

I look around at what I've done, and the warmth settles in my stomach in a way I don't think I've felt before, not even when I was slaughtering in the dome. It's as if my head has come to a halt and I can breathe. Even my feathers feel lighter.

If it isn't a Gryn instinct, I don't care. It makes me feel like I could take on the universe, especially with my mate right in the center.

"Either way, it's lovely, . Thank you." Alex snuggles into my side, still toying with the strips of fabric.

I hadn't realized this feeling could get deeper, but it just did.

"I've been thinking," I say.

"Could be dangerous," Alex says before peeping at me with mirth in her eyes.

"Where I'm concerned, everything is dangerous," I rasp and delight in the shudder which runs through her fragile frame and the scent of arousal which follows. "But these thoughts are about us."

"Oh," Alex says.

I open my mouth to speak when the door to the room slides open, and the Remek pokes her head in.

"What the…?" She stares at my handiwork with an open mouth.

" nested," Alex says swiftly, "for me."

"O-kay," the female says slowly. "There's someone here to see you, Gryn."

"How does anyone know I'm here?"

"I would not know, but I have not informed anyone of your whereabouts, if that's what you're thinking," she replies.

I unfold myself from the nest. Alex takes hold of my arm.

"You don't need to go."

"It's another one of your lot," Ginka adds.

"A Gryn?"

"Yeah, a big dark one with about as many manners as you." She huffs.

"Sounds like Maxym. He might have brought Blayn too."

"Oh gods, they multiply," the Remek mutters.

I push past her and into the rest of her small dwelling. Maxym has his back to me as he inspects something on a countertop.

"Gladiator," I rasp.

", you're not dead then?" He turns to face me with an insolent smile on his face.

"Takes more than a small explosion such as the one at the dome to take me out." I'm across to him in a stride, gripping his arm in our standard greeting. "The others?"

"Blayn has gone missing, believed to be somewhere in the dome, but they've yet to flush him out. He's probably looking for some more devices. Klynn got into the beast enclosure and is sleeping off a meal to end all meals." Maxym chuckles.

"Rych?"

"He was at the rear of the training arena when the device went off. He was completely unharmed, lucky vrexer, and has managed to get himself sent off to the Pompas for the night to recover his wits ."

I can't help but bark a laugh at Rych's ability to manipulate any situation to his advantage. There's a feeling of relief they're all accounted for, save for Blayn, but he should turn up. He usually does. If not, we can find him where the guards and clerks cannot.

"Hi?" Fingers grasp at my feathers, and I'm instantly growling at Maxym as Alex is in the same room as us both.

"Is this your eregri ?" His eyes are huge as he takes her in.

I tuck Alex farther behind my wings.

"Yes."

"I'm Maxym," he continues, ignoring my raised feathers and the snarl I release. "Fellow gladiator in the dome to ."

"Nice to meet you," Alex says, her voice muffled in my wings.

"Calm down, ," he says. "She's your eregri , anyone with eyes can see it. I'm not interested in the slightest."

"Stay-the-vrex-back," I snarl. It fills the room.

He holds up his hands and moves across the room to where there is a shattered chair and the remnants of something ceramic. I'm reminded of the Remek female's complaint about manners.

"How did you find us here?"

"You're hard to miss, even when you're trying to be hidden. I have my ways," he says slyly.

"And yet, you're the one who isn't supposed to leave the dome." I raise my eyebrows

He shakes out his feathers at me with supreme insolence. "I didn't do what they say I did, and you know I didn't. Rules were made to be broken," he says, defiant as always. "I leave the dome when I want to, sentence or no sentence."

"Have you come to take back?" Alex asks, moving out from behind my wings and standing boldly by my side.

"On the contrary, tiny mate of ." Maxym reveals far too many teeth at her. "I've come to suggest he gets the vrex out of Tatatunga."