Page 124 of Gladiators of the Vagabond Boxset

Camila

I was sitting on a mat in the gym, my back to the wall, while I watched the gladiators work out and spar.

I couldn’t complain about the view, not at all.

I had to admit, I’d even gotten used to Ziame’s extremely alien appearance and could now see the appeal.

I mean, those abs were phenomenal, and I’d watched in fascination as he used the unspiked tip of that tail for extremely dexterous things.

Nudging Abigail, who was sitting next to me, I grinned.

“So that tail must come in handy in the bedroom.” I waggled my brows at her and watched as she struggled to reply, tugging on some of her braids.

If it weren’t for her dark skin, I bet she would have gone beet red.

But she didn’t deny it either, a sly smile eventually formed, a mischievous twinkle in her eyes that all but confirmed it.

“What about you?” she asked, nodding in Thorin’s direction. He was bare-chested, all the various ink that covered most of his arms and torso on full display. Most of it was intricate geometric designs that worked well with his body. They were absolutely drool-worthy.

Thorin was currently sparring with Fierce; the two seemed fairly evenly matched.

It was very obvious how different this fight was compared to what I’d walked in on the day before.

When he’d fought with the Sune male, Kitan, who was apparently some kind of shapeshifter, it had looked wild and desperate.

This was controlled, with moments of banter and a wicked smile on Thorin’s face the entire time.

“Did you bang him yet?” Abigail asked, derailing my thoughts of admiring Thorin’s fantastic body and amazing fighting prowess. “I totally did, repeatedly,” I confirmed with a smirk.

Last night, we’d spoken with Da’vi—the gladiator who’d taken over the engine room.

He had two bionic hands, wicked horns, and glowing purple eyes.

He’d been another extremely alien creature.

The surly attitude hadn’t helped, either.

We’d collaborated with Akri and the engineer to figure out what kind of creature could have gotten into the ducts.

It was obvious from the scratches and droppings that there was some animal on the loose.

Doc now had the not-so-enviable task of analyzing those droppings and figuring out what it was.

After dinner, I had planned on heading to my quarters, but Thorin had yanked me into his bunk instead, proceeding to make love to me several times.

Including some fantastic cunnilingus and at least half a dozen orgasms for me.

I’d woken up this morning sore between my legs, my thigh muscles still aching, but my body feeling entirely satisfied—especially since Thorin’s quarters didn’t have four small bunks but an actual king-sized bed with a great mattress.

Thorin himself hadn’t been anywhere, but Akri had, at my request, informed me he was in the gym.

So here I was, like some lovesick teenager, admiring his form while he trained with the other gladiators.

I should get up and join in and get a workout done too, but I was feeling far too well-loved right now to make myself get up.

Also, it was quite fascinating to watch as Kitan got knocked on his ass by Ziame, in what he called his hybrid form.

Shifting into something closely resembling a rhino with far too many horns, he slammed himself into Ziame in that form, and the green-scaled giant slid back a few feet before getting traction and pushing back.

The shifter was like quicksilver, sliding into another long, slinky form—like an anaconda—and coiling around Ziame, pinning his arms.

“Get him, babe!” Abigail cheered. “Whack him with your tail!” Ziame promptly did, curling the end of his tail into a hard knot and slamming it into the snake-like head of whatever anaconda creature Kitan had turned himself into.

The fight continued like that, the shapeshifter fiercely holding his own against Ziame while sliding through a dozen different, outlandish shapes.

Suddenly, Thorin dropped onto the mat at my side, grabbed my braid, and planted a firm kiss on my lips.

My toes curled when he swept his tongue into my mouth, angling my head dominantly with that firm grip on my hair.

His other hand was propped against the wall next to our faces, holding up his weight.

I could see his sweat-slick bicep, ink crawling all over it.

When he pulled back after a loud round of catcalls from the other guys, his green eyes were hot and possessive.

His lips pulled into a satisfied smirk. Oh, I knew what this was about.

Staking his damn claim in front of his buddies.

I wasn’t sure if that thrilled me or pissed me off.

This was a hookup, damn it—I wasn’t here to stay.

Once I figured out how to fix my life, I needed to get back to my family.

“Watch it, loverboy,” I told him, slapping his shoulder.

“You don’t own me.” Maybe my own confused, tangled mess of feelings made that come out sharper than I meant it to.

But Thorin’s expression shuttered, eyes going flinty, while one of the guys—shamelessly eavesdropping—made a hissing sound.

I had just totally put my foot in it, hadn’t I?

I was talking to a bunch of former slaves…

and here I was half-accusing Thorin of trying to own me.

“Oh shit, I didn’t mean…” I started to say.

Thorin held up a hand. “It’s fine. I know what you meant.” His lips curled again in a cocky smirk, which I’d realized was all just armor to hide his vulnerable heart.

Reaching up with my fingers, I gently touched his lips, rubbing against the two rings piercing his bottom lip. “Are you done with your workout?”

“Are you any closer to figuring out why they tried to kill you?” he demanded in return.

Twisting, he sat down, back against the wall, shoulder rubbing against mine.

I felt his warmth seep through my skin at my shoulder.

Abby had shown up with a stack of clothing, so today I was wearing a shirt and actual jeans, a nice change out of my EV undersuit.

“Not a clue. I was only doing routine drills, both the EV stuff and just patrolling the ship, training in the gym. Shooting range… I wasn’t in any of the restricted areas aboard the UAR Battleship.

” I yanked on my own braid in frustration.

I had to figure this out. It had to be something big, or they wouldn’t have decided to execute me on the spot.

“Can you explain this UAR thing to me again?” Abigail asked. She’d let me know she had a hard time wrapping her head around all the changes on Earth since her abduction. It had to be so bizarre to be taken out of your own time and into the future—several hundred years into the future.

“The UAR has been around for a few centuries, but it’s an alliance of the three dominant races in the Alpha Quadrant.

They bring peace to about seventy percent of the quadrant, running the colonies and trade.

Beyond UAR territory, there’s lawless space where the riffraff of the quadrant has gathered. ”

“And this riffraff is mobilizing and fighting the UAR? That sounds bad, especially if it’s making Earth reach out to unsavory sources to get better weapons,” Abigail mused.

Abigail and I brainstormed ideas as much as we could while Thorin sat quietly at my side, his hand on his thigh as he kneaded the muscle.

He was frowning as he listened to us talk, his eyes on his brothers, some of whom were still practicing.

Though both Ziame and Kitan had already left, I could see that Fierce, with his hellish pet, was playing tug-of-war.

“Any news on what kind of creature we’ve got infesting the ship?” Abigail eventually asked, when it was clear we were getting nowhere.

She was frustrated with the lack of information she had on the UAR and her lack of understanding of what the world back at ‘home’ was like nowadays. I happily switched the topic for her. “I think Doc is still working on his analysis in the lab?”

“We should go visit Luka,” Thorin suddenly barked out.

He was on his feet and yanking me upright before I had fully processed what was happening.

“Hey, watch it,” I said, objecting to the manhandling, but he was already striding out the door.

I looked down at Abigail, still on the ground, and she gave me a “What’s that about?

” look and shrugged. I considered staying with her just to spite him, but I worried he wanted to go see Doc because of his leg and didn’t know how to ask for my support.

So I shrugged and jogged out of the gym in his wake.

*

Thorin

I knew I was being a prickly ass about Camila refuting my claim on her.

All my brothers understood that she was mine, my girl.

Now she just needed to get it through that stubborn head of hers.

Elrohirian mated for life; many species in the Zeta Quadrant did.

I had all the hallmarks of a male fully engaging with his chosen female.

Camila ticked all my boxes: defiant, fucking sexy, and loyal.

I had been too angry at first to see all that, to see her loyalty, her moral compass, and her compassion.

But I had seen it in how she’d been there for me, despite my being a colossal dick to her most of the time.

And I didn’t have my head so far up my ass as to think that some good fucking was enough to convince her she was mine…

She wanted to go home, to her family. She’d talked so warmly and enthusiastically about all her siblings and their kids.

How could I not want to make it safe for her to go home, somehow?

And on top of that, whatever they had tried to kill her for might very well be the thing that could help us defeat Drameil.

If only she could remember what she had seen.