Page 117 of Gladiators of the Vagabond Boxset

Camila

Face-to-face again with this crocodilian monster of a creature, I struggled to comprehend just how alien he was.

Thorin, in comparison, looked almost human, even if he was incredibly big and had elfish ears.

Then there was the doctor, he was like an elf too, except all in monochrome colors, with a gentle bedside manner and a friendly smile.

The guy with the hell-hound was a bit freaky, but with two legs, two arms, skin, and hair that all fit normal parameters, I could make sense of that.

This guy, though… Shit, he had a tail with spikes, horns as wide as his massive shoulders, and scales I couldn’t quite wrap my head around.

Now Thorin was saying that the beautiful African American woman—with her hair done up in the same pretty braids as my elfish buddy—was that monster’s mate?

“Hi,” the woman said, waving at me from half behind a scaly green shoulder.

She had on a badass set of high-heeled leather boots, making her already tall frame taller, but she was still extremely dwarfed by the huge green guy.

“I’m Abigail, and from what I understand, you were aboard Akri?

And you were on a trading mission with Drameil? ”

Thorin’s body, in front of me, went tense again.

I yanked back my hand from his belt, embarrassed I’d even thought to try to keep him with me for comfort when the green guy had started telling people to leave.

He and the green guy, Ziame, were in a stare-off, just focusing on each other.

Maybe this was a tactic from their captain: have his safe and friendly mate ask the questions while he made the space feel tense and intimidating with his presence.

“Camila, I was a space marine for the UAR, who was indeed running a mission of trade with, uh… that individual. But since they tried to kill me not too long ago, I can’t say I’m very invested in any of it now.

” And I still didn’t even know why they had tried to kill me, damn it.

I wanted to know that, and I really wanted to know why they hated that Drameil guy so much. I didn’t like being this in the dark.

Abigail tilted her head, braids sliding over one bared shoulder, her dark skin glowing in the daylight lamps that lit up the brig area. “Why did they try to kill you?” she asked.

I was done answering questions, it was time I got some answers too, and with Thorin still blocking the beastly Ziame from charging directly at me, I felt I could finally ask. “No clue. Now please tell me why you guys hate Drameil so much. I know nothing about this dude, and it’s driving me crazy.”

Thorin snorted out a laugh, turning his head and finally breaking his staredown with his captain to look at me over his shoulder.

That sexy smirk in place, he said, “Why, Camila, you could have asked me earlier.” No way, I was way too worried he’d turn on me at that point, trying to figure out how to keep myself out of this mess that my life had become.

Also, I’d gotten entirely distracted by his pain.

I wondered how he was managing now; I couldn’t tell if it was still hurting him or not.

It was the Captain, Ziame, who answered, “Drameil is a crimelord in this quadrant. He’s got his fingers in many pies, though he is just one of many who run the scene out here.

He is also the very male who, until recently, owned each of us.

We were part of his gladiator stables.” I put the dots together.

In the Alpha Quadrant, there were rumors of gladiator games in other quadrants.

Sometimes we’d get bootlegged recordings of some of those fights, though they were considered contraband.

When Ziame said ‘owned,’ however, that implied these men had no choice in the matter—slavery.

Horrified, I pulled back a step from Thorin and looked up into his bright blue-green eyes.

An angry scowl darkened his features as he seemed to be recalling something unpleasant.

“What? That’s terrible.” I mean, the part where this Drameil was a crimelord and not some politician for a world here didn’t really surprise me.

The UAR was desperate for better weapons to defeat the rebelling Clade.

If this guy could deliver, they wouldn’t worry about his standing in the Zeta Quadrant; it had no bearing on their own politics back in Alpha.

But that he owned slaves, that these people were freed gladiators—that made their response make so much more sense.

“I’m so sorry you went through that. I wish I could say the UAR would care about the integrity of whom they are trading with…

” I was more focused on Thorin than the others as I spoke, as if it was him I wanted to convince and not these newcomers. Convince of what exactly, though?

“They are fighting the Clade and are desperate for better weapons. I’m not surprised, even if I don’t agree.

” I had relaxed a little in the presence of the huge green beast, aware that he’d actually held himself calmly and carefully at a distance.

Thorin now moved a little, sinking onto the cot at my side into a casually lazy sprawl.

I wondered, though, if he did that to hide whatever the hell was wrong with his leg, giving himself some respite.

Feeling calmer myself, I took a moment to explain as much of the mission as I knew and what had happened to me, which had caused Akri to find me.

It was then, really, that it hit me: I would likely never see my family again.

Returning to the Alpha Quadrant would likely result in either a court martial or a silent execution.

I just hoped that, by staying away—likely appearing to be dead—they wouldn’t go after my family.

In the end, Abigail was the one who spoke for my freedom, saying that she wouldn’t feel right locking me up in here.

I could tell that Ziame agreed with her, though he wanted to keep a guard on me for the time being.

To my surprise, it was Thorin who was frowning.

He didn’t say anything, didn’t agree—though he also didn’t disagree.

Did he not trust me? He’d let me keep my knife, for God’s sake.

Why wouldn’t he want to agree to free me?

Or was this one of those macho things, where he’d decided to lock me up and now couldn’t admit it was the wrong decision?

“There’s a free room next door to mine,” Thorin murmured, after what felt like far too long a silence.

“She can stay there, and I’ll keep her under tight guard.

” My skin prickled, him my guard? I wasn’t sure that was a good idea.

For one, my libido liked that far too much.

Two, though my cheek was healed now, he’d packed one hell of a punch, and he still didn’t seem to want to trust me.

On the other hand, he’d protected me. He’d stayed because I’d been a little scared initially of his captain.

Who was the real him? What was I supposed to think?

I couldn’t make heads nor tails of this guy.

Not much later, though, I found myself escorted by just Abigail and Thorin as they took me on a short tour of the ship and introduced me to everyone.

Ziame had gone to engineering to oversee the integration of Akri’s personality core into this ship; their mechanic was extremely excited about it, and Ziame wasn’t sure if he was being overly zealous.

While Abigail pointed out the highlights, Thorin was just a hulking, silent shadow at my back.

He made no sound when he moved, though he wore several chains that should have made noise.

So I’d be surprised at just how closely he was standing near my back whenever I felt his heat brush up against me.

If I were being honest, I liked those moments—they felt a little illicit, like he was flirting with me without words, staking a claim in front of the other gladiators we met.

There were two more human women aboard, and I learned that each had been rescued from stasis pods.

As far as they could tell, Tori and Abigail were both from New York, around the year 2000, while Chloe had been taken from somewhere on the West Coast during a holiday with her family as a young girl.

She couldn’t remember the precise year, but she did recall there being a female president in office.

That meant it was before the time of space colonization, before the UAR—so closer to Tori and Abigail’s era than mine.

It was bizarre to witness: these women taken out of their time, integrating their lives into the Zeta-Quadrant, with alien males for mates.

Or at least, two of them had; Tori had awoken to find herself pregnant and had since given birth to a beautiful baby girl named Novalee.

I saw a gym, the bridge, the mess hall, and the medical bay.

I walked past some labs where the Aderian doctor, Luka, was working on a gently humming stasis pod.

Seeing that had something prickle at the back of my mind, but I couldn’t quite put my finger on it.

Why was that stasis pod making me think I knew something about those? Had I seen them anywhere?

I knew the UAR Battleship had them because this long journey meant we were working security in shifts. Half of the personnel slept in pods while the others ran shifts, rotating through our team throughout the long journey. And yet…

By the time I was alone—by myself—in a set of crew quarters along a corridor with many more such rooms, I was exhausted from everything.

Abigail had left us at that point, and Thorin had pointed to his own door so I’d know where he was, indicated that the other rooms already had occupants, and then locked me in here.