Page 57 of Galaxy Gladiators Romance Box Set #11-19

Chapter Nine

M aximus

I’ve gone into the arena to face formidable opponents hundreds of times in my life. Most matches were not fights to the death, but some were. The Gods were with me and I escaped with my life.

I can’t recall one time where I felt this anxious. When Raine asked me about it, I lied to her face and told her I’m fine. She just rolled her eyes and said, “Sure.” We may not have real feelings for each other, but we have a connection. Perhaps that’s why it’s as if she can read my mind at times.

Vell appeared ten minimas ago with the clothes my parents wanted us to wear. He accompanied me to my cabin and showed me how to wear what amounted to little more than a long piece of white cloth.

Initially, I thought it ridiculous that I would need help dressing. After he showed me what he brought I was thankful for the help. It wraps around my body and falls in folds to my calves. Although it hangs over my left shoulder, my right shoulder is bare. It exposes my chest and glowing mate mark.

When Raine and I were looking on the Database to find information about Addai, we saw pictures of similar robes. She laughed and said on Earth all they did was wear a ring on their finger that announced to one and all you were mated. I guess Addais have more of a flare for the dramatic.

When I meet Raine in the gangway, I stop in mid-step. When I met her, she was first dressed in that flimsy gown, then she didn’t wear clothes at all during her needing. While we’ve been on board the Playground , she’s worn the human female uniform of what they call leggings and t-shirt.

The robe looks like it was made for her. It takes my breath away. The color is the exact shade of my eyes and mate-mark. Her shoulders are bare, and gold cloth hangs in folds around her body. It hugs her curves while covering her in such a clever fashion no male could glance at her and not want her.

Despite the fact Vell is thirty annums older than me, I want to forbid him from looking at her.

“You look great,” Raine says, a close-lipped smile on her face.

“You take my breath away.” I shouldn’t talk like that. She’s made it clear she doesn’t want to complicate our contract with real emotions. We’re nothing to each other. She tells me often that she knows she’s just around to scratch my itch. It’s crude but true. We have no real relationship. I shouldn’t embarrass her with my praise.

Most of the crew will be taking shore leave while I conduct business with my family. I hope to have our problem cleared up in two days.

My jealousy rises as I say goodbye to some of my friends. Raine’s outfit exposes a small amount of her cleavage, and I don’t want them catching even a glimpse of her like this.

As we hover through the streets of Dresh on our way to my parents’ house, I try to remember being here in the past. Despite my effort, nothing seems familiar.

“It’s so much nicer than the other planets we’ve visited,” Raine says as she puts her hand gently on my thigh.

She’s right. Numa and Hyperion seemed seedy compared to the clean streets and well-dressed people we’re passing. We rush through the downtown and approach a more residential area.

I gave up on having a family long ago. For an annum or so after I was taken, I prayed for my parents to find me. I don’t recall how or when, but at some point I realized they weren’t coming.

Looking back, it’s obvious my captors made me impossible to find. As a child, though, I believed my parents never cared enough to look.

I try to push all that anger and hurt out of my mind so I can start fresh. These people seemed nice over comms. I’ll see.

Raine

The poor guy’s anxiety is palpable. I’ve spent most of the ride wishing I could ease his fears. I can’t imagine what it’s like for him to meet his parents for the first time in thirty years.

I know what to do to make this better. Although I resisted my urge since we left the Playground , I decide to go for it.

I unbuckle my seatbelt and scoot to his side of the hover. Sitting on my knees on the cushion, I face the seat so I can look at him.

“These people love you, Max. It’s obvious. You’ve got so many emotions swirling inside that you might have missed it, but I haven’t. The look in your mom and dad’s eyes is unmistakable. Don’t let this quest we’re on to reduce the demands of your mate-bond get in the way of the more important thing, which is for you to rekindle your relationship.”

He tucks me close to him, lays my head on his shoulder, and kisses the top of my head.

“My relationship with them isn’t more important than relieving you of your burden. I know you don’t want to service me for the rest of your life. We’ll figure this out.”

Service him. That’s what we call it. I don’t want him to know that long ago sex with him stopped being a chore. Actually, it never was.

Although I seldom allow it, this is one of the times my true feelings sneak to the surface. How many times over the past few weeks have I wished what we have is real? Countless.

At least once daily there will be a moment where our eyes meet, or he slides his arm around my waist as we walk to the dining room, or he shares a joke with me. At those times our connection feels intimate—and real. It fills me with sadness to know it’s not real, though. Who knows what would have happened between us if that damned mate-mark hadn’t appeared?

But it’s here. It makes him need me. Neither of us will ever know if his feelings for me are real. I doubt they are. They’re just lust-filled, biologically driven compulsions.

I force my attention out the windshield. Everything I’ve seen of Dresh is clean and well-kempt. His neighborhood would be considered upper class on Earth. The houses are large, most with white-columned porches and expansive lawns. I wonder how different Max would be if he’d grown up here instead of in a barracks being forced to master weapons on some backwater asteroid.

Perhaps Vell comm’d ahead, because two Addais are standing on the covered porch when our vehicle glides up the long, paved drive. His mom runs to the vehicle before it quits hovering and floats to the ground.

She picked the wrong side, though, because she’s standing outside my door. When I emerge, I assume she’ll rush to the other side, but she steps closer, wraps me in her arms, and welcomes me. It’s only after a long hug that she steps back and apologizes.

“Sorry, Raine. Maybe you’re not a hugger.”

My life has been such a whirlwind since I woke up in that auction house on Hyperion. I haven’t had much time to mourn the loss of my real life. Well, I have had time, I just haven’t allowed it. I’ve been afraid if I allowed myself a moment, the dam would burst and I wouldn’t be able to stop the deluge of emotion.

There’s something about Mema’s hug—she asked me to call her that in one of our frequent comms—that reminds me of everything I’m missing. Her generous affection brings tears to my eyes.

“I want to get to know you, Raine. You’re my daughter now. But I can wait until you’re ready. Just know, my heart is open.”

I’m a horrible person. Here’s this nice female, wanting to bring me into her family, asking me to call her mom, and the only reason I’m here is to figure out how to un-mate her son.

Max is on the other side of the hover in the middle of the galaxy’s longest, hardest, most heartfelt hug with his father. I may not be a hugger, but the Maximus family certainly is.

After I say, “Don’t worry about me, Mema. Go hug your son,” she hurries to her two males and I watch the three of them embrace for long minutes. Vell must have been with the family for years, his eyes are bright as he watches, an indulgent smile on his face.

Eventually we make our way into the house, are fed a dozen homemade dishes, and sit around the table talking about the last thirty years. It’s a delicate dance of sharing some pieces of information and hiding others—kind of a don’t ask don’t tell policy. Max’s parents don’t really want a lot of specifics about the hell their son was in for decades, and he doesn’t want to tell them.

Finally, after food has been consumed and small talk has ended, we get down to business.

“We didn’t want to get your hopes up,” his mom says, “but we spoke to the high priestess from the temple who has been looking into it. She has news for you. We scheduled a meeting for tonight.”

Max and I are shown to our room, and I attend his needs in a quick, mechanical fashion. He’s on emotional overload and is preoccupied with his reunion.

“It’s powerful, Raine. I gave up all hope of seeing them decades ago. When I did allow myself to think about them, to contemplate what I missed, I never permitted myself to imagine this. Their open arms and hearts are overwhelming.”

“You’re lucky to have such good people accept you back into the bosom of the family.”

Max may be exploring his softer side, but he’s still a gladiator, and the word bosom is too much for him to ignore. We have sex again for good measure, this time with more feeling and imagination. I can’t say I’m complaining.

Later, the four of us hover to the temple which is large, elegant, and like something out of ancient Rome. A dozen or more white marble steps rise to the wide bronze doorway. The white columns at the front of the structure scream of refinement and elegance.

When I’m halfway up the stairway, I see seven females in gowns similar to mine with yards of multicolored fabric. I can see from here their robes are far finer and more intricately woven than what I’m wearing.

“You’re meeting with the eight ruling priestesses,” Max’s father informs us.

It’s only now I realize Mema is the eighth. What have we gotten ourselves into?

The temple is lushly furnished. The walls are lined with thick velvet curtains and intricate tapestries that tell stories of their race. I see a lightning bolt coming from the finger of God that’s amazingly similar to the portrait on the Sistine Chapel. The tapestry shows an Addai male on the ground, his chest beginning to glow with the mate mark.

We’re escorted to the High Priestess’s office and gather around an oval, wooden table. After sitting in plush velvet-covered chairs, the meeting begins with quick introductions. We meet High Priestess Octavia and the other six priestesses.

Octavia looks to be around seventy, with proud bearing and long black hair. Her eyes are piercing blue and I’d bet my life’s savings, her mind works faster and with more precision than a computer. She looks as if she knows all the secrets of the universe. She also has a sly smile as if everything amuses her.

After brief pleasantries, we’re grilled for the better part of an hour. The discussion is polite and genteel, but these females get down to business in a hurry.

“When I was informed you did not want to keep your mate-bond I was shocked,” Octavia says at the conclusion of our diplomatic interrogation. “I’ve seldom heard of something like this. The mate-bond doesn’t occur unless it is between people who have a deep connection. Due to the physical changes it generates in the male, the love, affection, and fidelity it produces make the union profound and lasting.

“We’ve consulted with other clergy as well as scientists. We can find no reason Maximus is needing to copulate so frequently, therefore we have no suggestions on how to fix it. There may be something in Addai’s atmosphere that will lessen Maximus’s physical need for you, Raine. We can only see what will happen over time.”

Great news. Not only is there no known cure, but they’re suggesting we stay on Addai forever? That wasn’t in the plan.

“There is something else I can offer, though,” she says, her gaze seeming to penetrate to my very soul. “There is a way to sever the bond completely.”

Every eye in the room is laser-focused on me.

“It is a private three-day ritual performed between the two of you. I can give you instructions. Is this what you want?”

Is it? Do I want our bond severed? Waves of energy roll through my body, but I’m not sure whether it’s excitement or dread. Max’s expression is inscrutable.

After a long, awkward silence, Max says, “Can you give us the instructions? Raine and I will discuss it in private.”

Maximus

My tumultuous relationship with Raine has been upside down from the start. Within minimas of opening her eyes, she was furiously working her sex, trying to orgasm so she could relieve the effects of that drug. With a beginning like that, it seemed there was nothing we couldn’t talk about.

After the tables were turned, and I was the one with insatiable sexual needs, things became awkward. Where before we were able to communicate our basest desires and our loftiest thoughts, after the mate-bond, things changed. Since we’ve been onboard the Devil’s Playground , we barely communicate in words. Although our bodies speak eloquently to each other, I have no idea what’s in her mind.

“Raine, just tell me,” I ask for the fifth time, “do you want this bond dissolved?”

“I don’t want a male to be with me because he has to,” she repeats as if her words are on an endless loop. “I don’t want to be with you because of your biology.”

I’d hoped she would share more, tell me her deeper thoughts, but it’s just these two phrases over and over.

I try to discover what I want. On the surface, I want her. My body wants her, that’s indisputable, but it’s more than that. I’ve developed feelings for her. I can’t bear for her to be out of my sight for more than scant minimas . I worry about her when the smallest frown graces her perfect pink lips. My thoughts can’t stray from her for more than a moment.

But she’s a doctor. I’m an illiterate gladiator. She says my feelings, my attraction, my affection aren’t real. It’s just my body chemistry. What would make it real? If feelings aren’t chemistry and hormones, then what are they?

“If this is what you want, I agree to it,” I finally say with a sigh. “Let’s get some sleep. It’s late and the next three days are going to be grueling.” Although I don’t ask, she offers sex. The next three days without it are going to be difficult enough.

R aine

Vell drops us at the foot of the mountain. A moment later, both of us have climbed out of the hover, pulled on our backpacks, and are making our way up the steep incline. In addition to his pack, Max has his bow and quiver full of arrows slung over one shoulder.

We’ve been warned about the wildlife, especially some big cats that have been seen in the area. I don’t feel fearful, though. With Max by my side, I’m not worried.

When the path narrows, Max steps behind me.

“Maybe you should go first. I’m slow,” I tell him. I wasn’t exactly spending hours at the gym while I was in med school. Walking to campus from my apartment was about all the exercise I got. Between classes, study, and my after-school job, I had time for little else.

Since I’ve been on board, I’ve worked in medbay, had daily comms with Dr. Drayke from the Fool’s Errand , and studied up on the biology of ten different alien species. I’ll admit, I’m out of shape.

“Slowest goes first. It’s for safety,” Max says. “I don’t want you to get left behind.”

Addai is beautiful. This part of the planet at least. Sometimes the pathway borders the mountain, at others it travels through wide swaths of vegetation. The trees have blue, green, and red leaves. One of the most numerous types of trees has leaves bigger than Max’s hand and big red blooms interspersed between them. They remind me of humongous tulips.

This area is full of birds. I see them soaring in the sky—big ones that remind me of hawks except they’re blue. There are little red birds in the tree branches, blending in with the tulip flowers. They’re chattery little things, calling to each other as they hop from branch to branch.

I keep climbing and within fifteen minutes I’m panting. I’d like to think it was from the altitude, but I know it’s from my sedentary lifestyle.

“Let’s take a break,” Max says when there’s a convenient boulder near the path.

He lifts me onto it, perching me on an ass-sized divot. I’m only slightly uncomfortable.

“I’m slowing you down. Sorry.”

He cocks his head and smiles. “I’m in no hurry. You heard the priestess. To break the bond the only thing we have to do is follow her instructions. We have nowhere to be. It wasn’t mandatory that we get to the cabin tonight. Don’t worry. I’ll protect you.”

When we return to the path, I feel lighter. Why was I worried Max would judge me? He watched me through my desperate sexual needing. If there was ever a reason for a male to judge a female, certainly that would have been enough.

We stop from time to time. Sometimes it’s to give me a breather, at others it’s when the path forks. We consult the map when we need to and keep heading upward. My calves have been screaming for hours. I console myself with the thought that my glutes will look great after this workout.

“We’re almost there,” Max says, pointing his thick finger at the map.

“Just in time. It looks like the sun’s going to set soon.”

Finally, we see the cabin on the horizon. Octavia said it belongs to one of their wealthier parishioners who generously made it available to us.

It’s constructed of logs with round stones forming borders around the windows and doors. Although it’s like something out of a fairy tale, the back of my mind is wondering how many dead rodent carcasses we’re going to find inside.

Max uses the key the high priestess gave him, and we enter the cabin. It’s neat as a pin—no dead rats in sight.

There is a large room with exposed logs as walls, except for what I assume is a small bathroom at the rear. The cabin is equipped with a big bed covered in green and black plaid blankets. There’s a small table and chairs in the corner.

When I check out the bathroom there’s a toilet, sink, and tub.

“All the comforts of home,” I call as I wash my hands.

“I’m going to find us dinner,” Max says as he pulls off his pants then puts on his loincloth. “Want to stay here or come with me?”

I grew up in a decent-sized city where taking public transportation was as wild as things got. Staying in this remote cabin in the wilderness on a foreign planet? No way I’m staying here alone.

After he grabs his bow and quiver, I get to see Max in his element. He told me he mostly used a three-foot-long sword to fight in his matches, but his weapon of choice is the bow and arrow.

During some of the biggest games of the year, elaborate events would be held where teams of males were pitted against each other. It sounds like the Olympics, but these were bloodsports.

The archers didn’t kill anyone though. Their portion of the competition was judged for distance and accuracy.

I’m surprised when I see him slip his bow off his shoulder, nock an arrow, and pull the string taut. I can’t even see what he’s aiming for.

It’s only after I see the arrow fly and watch where it lands that I see the small rabbit-like animal Max felled.

“Two more of those and we’ll have dinner,” he says with an easy grin.

Half an hour later, Max is working by the dim light of the moon as he skins and guts the three critters. I’m completely useless as I watch. Good thing I’m a doctor or I would be putting all my effort into controlling my gag reflex.

“I take it you don’t have a lot of experience preparing wild game,” he says as we walk back to the cabin. “Watch your step.”

“Things are different on my world,” I tell him.

“Mine too. We were fed starchy tasteless stew for the most part. When we practiced for our archery competitions we slept outside. We weren’t fed, so we had to kill and cook our own food. Those were some of the best nights of my life. It was the closest to freedom I ever got.”

A pang of sadness clenches my heart and I force myself to step close to him even though he’s carrying three dead carcasses.

“Well, you’re free now, big guy.”

We both freeze silently. I wonder what’s going through his mind. I’m thinking that if this works we’ll be free of each other in a few days. My stomach clenches as I wonder if that’s really what I want. I’ve grown to care for the big lug. If only what feels real between us wasn’t the result of some chemical sleight-of-hand.

When we arrive at the cabin, I notice an outdoor firepit. Max must have spied it earlier, because he heads straight to it, sets the game on one of the flat rocks ringing the pit, and gathers firewood.

Suddenly I realize if my grandma were here, she’d tell me I was as ‘useless as tits on a boar hog’. I always hated when she told me that. I can’t let Max do everything for me.

I scurry to gather logs, and between the two of us, we soon have a nice fire blazing in the pit with three little rabbit-things roasting on a spit Max made as if it was second nature.

“How are you doing?” I ask as we eat our one-course meal while sitting on large stones arranged around the pit. Although it’s an open-ended question, we both know exactly what I’m asking. He hasn’t had sex for the better part of a day and he’s expended a lot of energy.

“I’m fine.”

Those two words speak volumes. He’s definitely not fine.

“Shall we complete our final task of the day?” I ask as I suddenly realize how tired I am. We climbed that damn mountain for hours.

“As soon as I take a shower.”

I wind up taking a shower first. As I wait in bed for Max, I settle into my own thoughts. I’m getting what I asked for, right? At the end of our ordeal, we’re going to be unmated, isn’t that what I want?

After just a moment of this, I shake my head, my way of changing the subject with myself. I focus on my senses. We cracked a window earlier, and I enjoy the crisp foliage-scented breeze. The air is a refreshing blend of pine and cedar.

A feline howl drifting in from the distance isn’t reassuring, but Max is here. He’ll keep me safe.

He opens the bathroom door and stands, his hip against the jam as he towel-dries his hair. Since the lights are off in the main cabin, he’s backlit.

I ball my hands into fists at the sight of him. My body responds to his immediately. My nipples harden and my pelvis fills with desire. How could it not? The two of us fit together so well. And look at him. Nothing could be sexier. All I see is his silhouette and the glowing marks on his chest.

My fingers itch to trace every line and curve in the patterns. I’ve wanted to since the day they appeared. It’s just that we made very clear boundaries from the get-go. No praise, no words of endearment, and no unnecessary fondling if we weren’t engaged in the act of sex. Nothing that could be construed as affection. Just the basics—sex.

The rules were firm from the beginning, but we’ve fudged from the beginning, too. A kind word here, a quick post-coital cuddle there. We’ve pushed the boundaries. But lying next to him and tracing the outline of the neon yellow statement that we’re mated? Nope, not going there. Even though I’ve wanted to for weeks.

And now as I look at his perfect body, his head dipped slightly as he dries his hair, his shoulders wide and his waist narrow, it’s hard to hold back. But I will.

“Ready?” he asks as he turns off the light. The room is bathed in darkness except for his radiant yellow glow. The way he stalks to the bed, as if he’s king of the world, makes my mouth dry.

“Yes.”

I put on my nightgown when I got out of the shower, but I pull it off now as per instructions. We both scoot to the middle of the bed so we’re naked and hip to hip, also per instructions.

Max tells his wrist-comm to ring a bell in thirty minutes and one hour.

Although Octavia’s instructions for this three-day ritual seem far more like magic than science, I’m going to follow them to the letter. For the first half-hour, we’re supposed to lie naked in bed, hip to hip, and make a searching mental inventory of every grievance we have with the other person. We’re to review each transgression in our minds in minute detail, leaving nothing out. The exercise is to be wordless.

When she described this part of the exercise, I thought I would need hours to complete it, but perhaps five minutes into it, I’ve run out of grievances.

Although Vartan called him a dracker , and the people on the Playground seem to think the worst of him, I’ve only seen him do a few things I thought were unforgivable. The first one that comes to mind was when he barreled over that ancient tiny purple female on Hyperion. He butted in front of her and propelled past her, almost pushing her to the ground.

I play it over in my mind in slow motion as instructed. This time I see the bigger picture. I watch a huge gladiator in a hurry to get to the theater. He’s someone who had never seen a moving walkway before and didn’t know how to navigate it. A male whose face told the tale of his contrition as soon as the error was pointed out and who held the elderly female’s elbow with utmost respect until he helped her off at her stop.

The second instance of his supposedly egregious behavior was butting to the head of the line at that restaurant. Now, months later, having heard a dozen hair-raising tales of his life in the gladiator school, I realize he never learned the first thing about manners.

His behavior at Vartan’s match floats through my mind. I recall how he screamed, along with the rest of the crowd, for one fighter to stomp the other, and the way he bullied those blue reptilians into vacating the seats he wanted. It’s easy now to chalk both of those incidents up to how he was raised among bloodthirsty gladiators.

My cheeks pinken as I recall, not two months into my time in outer space, how I was rooting for Max to stomp his Anthen opponent. It didn’t seem bloodthirsty when I was shouting, just . . . supportive.

It strikes me that over the last several months I’ve watched Max grow more thoughtful and civilized every day. Now that he doesn’t have to be first at the feeding trough in order to be fed, he’s not elbowing people out of the way.

Instead of anger, my heart opens to the male at my side. I’m aware of his warm skin and clean scent. Why was I so quick to label him an asshole?

The bell rings signaling time for the second half of our assignment. For the next half hour, we’re supposed to conduct a mental review of everything we like about the person at our side. “In order to acknowledge and let go,” Octavia had explained.

I doubt half an hour will be enough to enumerate Maximus’s good qualities. I start with the fact that, one credit or not, the male did buy me. I’d just bitten my previous owner and drawn blood. Max told me I still had rivulets of the melty-face guy’s blood caked on my chin. Yet he put himself on the line and paid for me knowing, as he later admitted, I was going to be trouble.

And my sexual desperation? Don’t get me started. A lesser male would have said no, or struck a bargain for further favors, or leered, or made me feel like the galaxy’s biggest whore. Did Max do any of that? Not for one second.

Instead, he offered his services and never pushed it. He was willing to deny his own release dozens of times so he could remain at the ready for me, for my needs. And he never once teased me about it and has never, not once, reminded me about it since we boarded the Playground .

Whoever winds up mated to him will be getting a catch.

We’re naked, and even though he pulled the covers to his waist, I’d have to be blind not to see his erection tenting the blanket. He’s thinking good thoughts about me, we’re naked and hip to hip, and he hasn’t fulfilled his mating urge in a day. He has to be in pain.

I can’t offer to ease him, though. Octavia made it crystal clear that would kill any chance of breaking the mate-bond.

When the second bell dings it’s impossible not to hear Max’s deep sigh. Our final instruction for tonight was for him to spoon me as we went to sleep. “To prove the lengths you will go to break the bond,” she had said.

I have no doubt there will be a rock-hard cock pulsing at my back all night long. Not acting on our urges will certainly prove something, although I’m not sure what.