Page 126 of Gladiators of the Vagabond Boxset

Camila

Thorin and I had shared a shower after that workout, and I’d gotten dressed in a pair of sturdy cargo pants that were a little long in the leg but otherwise fit.

There were no shoes or bra that fit, but I could handle that for now.

Thorin certainly wasn’t complaining about the lack of a bra; he’d been particularly appreciative of that fact all day. I’d caught him staring more than once.

We’d gone down to the brig area to collect my EV armor pieces.

They were made to fit precisely and uniquely for each marine.

I’d had this particular suit for close to two years now and maintained it myself.

It was a little disconcerting to see the pieces scattered across the floor, tossed where they’d landed with no respect.

Muttering in annoyance, I checked each piece for dents.

As I turned, I caught Thorin’s smirk, he’d just leaned up against the desk in the corner and was watching me.

He didn’t offer to help, probably checking out my butt each time I bent over to pick up another piece.

Of course, my thighs were still a little shaky after he’d fucked me in his shower following that workout.

I had never dated a guy before with this much stamina—or a dick that felt as great as his.

Especially those piercings—they always seemed to rub me just right.

Finally, I located the piece that held my camera feed, and I tapped the panel to see if it was still in working order.

It lit up, indicated a low battery, and turned itself back into hibernation mode.

“Empty battery, damn it,” I said, waving the piece in Thorin’s direction.

“I need to get this charged, but I doubt you’ve got the right equipment for that… ”

“Ah, I guess we need to visit Da’vi in engineering,” he offered, and started leading me out of the brig, only for us to run into Fierce and his hell-hound.

The tall male, with camouflage-like coloring and a bone ridge across the top of his skull, paused in his approach.

His bright yellow eyes were focused on us with an intense expression.

He gave me the shivers, as if he wasn’t quite socialized, as if he was a little feral.

Almost more feral than the huge, black creature at his side.

“Going for a nap, are you?” Thorin asked, hand curling around my waist in a warm caress I felt all the way to my toes.

He had no qualms about brushing the bottom curve of one of my breasts with his thumb, in full view of his gladiator brother.

Fierce didn’t say anything, just stared at us with those yellow eyes.

Huh, now that I thought about it, in some ways Fierce was more alien than Ziame.

Despite the fact that Fierce just had odd coloring and a bone ridge that made him look different.

It was all in the behavior, and Ziame was fairly normal once you got over the fanged snout and green scales, or the many knife-like blades that covered him.

“When you’re done, maybe you and Snarl here can help me sniff out a Riho.

There’s one hiding out in the ship’s walls.

” Thorin shrugged, apparently not expecting an answer, already urging me down the corridor past the huge beast and his master.

I felt a prickle of apprehension, because there was just something about the hound-like creature that was too fluid, too quick, too unnatural for me to be comfortable around.

“Snarl and I will conduct a search,” Fierce said.

His voice was low and deep, which was not unpleasant.

Thorin tapped his chest with his fist, dipped his head in a brief bow, and then got us moving again, but I caught the surprise on the other male’s face, as if the last thing he’d expected was that respectful greeting.

I hadn’t seen the engine room yet because it hadn’t been included on my tour of the ship, and while Thorin had come around, I hadn’t wanted to press my luck and go exploring.

The place was huge, with many panels and interesting coils, some in unexpected colors.

The engine core was humming, glowing a soft green that lit up the space.

A male was leaning over one of these coils, a panel at the foot opened where he’d stuck his head and both hands inside.

We couldn’t see what he was doing, but I had enough time to notice the Engineer wore only a pair of greasy overalls, with no shirt beneath them.

His black skin was cracked and lined with purple streaks that almost had a bit of luminescence to them.

When I first saw this male yesterday, he’d been a shock, so alien and strange.

I was used to the extremely alien members of the two races that were part of the UAR, but I rarely shared a ship with any of them.

Joined missions usually just meant multiple ships, generally speaking.

Encountering this much diversity on a single ship was something entirely new.

I mean, I knew there were many, many more races in the Alpha Quadrant, just like there were in this one.

They usually lived under UAR control, confined to their own planets or solar systems because they weren’t advanced enough.

Or they lived in lawless space, which was a no-go zone for us.

“Yo, Da’vi, got a moment?” Thorin asked, banging his fist on the top of the panel Da’vi had his head stuck in.

It made a godawful noise, and the male jumped, pulling back and lifting his head—with elegant horns and wild purple hair—to glare balefully at the intruder.

His face had very human features, which was relaxing to see, though the purple eyes were definitely glowing far more than eyes should.

“No,” the Engineer snapped. “I’m busy. Go bother someone else.

” He stood, wiped his palms on his pants, and stalked to a toolbox open on the floor a few feet away.

My eyes snagged on the strange gloves that covered him all the way to the elbow.

They looked mechanical, or like segmented pieces of armor.

Matte black, they nearly disappeared against his dark skin.

If it weren’t for the lack of purple lines, I wouldn’t have noticed.

Thorin rolled his eyes and shifted his body so he was propped against the panel Da’vi had been working on.

Now, the male couldn’t get in. He stared at Thorin with a mixture of frustration and something that very neatly conveyed that he wasn’t surprised.

He just turned around and headed for another panel, opening it up and sticking his head inside its innards.

“This won’t take long,” Thorin wheedled, and from his tone of voice, I could tell he was enjoying himself.

“Don’t care, I’m busy. You do want to live on a ship that’s actually running, right? Without blowing us up?” the male shot back, his voice rumbling with sub-harmonics, matching the hum of the engine. Neat trick, it sounded very intimidating.

Thorin obviously wasn’t bothered, but he did bark out a laugh. “What! Blowing up is an actual possibility right now?” Yeah, that didn’t sound so great to me.

“Not if you let me finish my work in peace,” the engineer shot back.

His voice muffled from deep inside the panel, he’d disappeared all the way up to his shoulders now.

“Get lost, Thorin.” He was a real friendly guy, loved to chat.

I tried and failed to suppress my laughter, pressing a hand over my mouth.

I was just sure that Thorin was purposely being obnoxious to get a rise out of Da’vi.

The sound came out anyway, almost a giggle, and Thorin’s head snapped up to look at me, while Da’vi actually pulled his head out of the panel to turn and look my way with an incredulous expression on his face.

He was probably thinking I was completely loca—hanging out with Thorin after he’d tried to jail me, and laughing after someone told me the ship I was in could blow up if they didn’t finish what they were doing.

“Hi,” I said, smothering another giggle because their expressions mirrored each other.

“I just need some help charging this panel from my EV suit. I think the feed on it might have captured the reason my superiors suddenly tried to kill me.” I stuck out the panel in the engineer’s direction, letting him see what I was holding.

The purple eyes swept from scrutinizing my face down to examine what I was holding.

He frowned at it and tilted his head first to the left, then to the right, before shrugging and taking it.

“You are in Earth’s military, correct?” he asked.

Moving to a bench against one wall, he plopped the piece down on his desk and started rummaging around, hooking various nodes and wires up to it and taking readings with a handheld scanner.

“I was, until they turned on me, a Sergeant in the Space Marines—with the UAR. That stands for United Alliance of Races. There are three. So technically, it’s not Earth’s military—it’s a joint operation.

” I wasn’t sure if he was interested in that explanation, but he nodded, back to us now as he hunched over what he was doing to my EV panel.

“I was a commander in the Kertinal army for nearly ten years,” the Engineer suddenly volunteered, the sub-harmonics dropping nearly all the way from his voice.

Seemed to me like he’d lost some of his grump now and was actually making small talk.

I sent Thorin a look, noting the raised eyebrows, he was surprised at this and now gestured for me to keep talking.

“Oh, I see. I served for nine years before this happened…” I explained, unsure what to say exactly to give Thorin what he wanted and draw the male more out of his shell.

I mean, I imagined not needling him the way Thorin did went a long way, but I didn’t think Thorin had that in him.

“I know the UAR wasn’t perfect, but it’s been all I’ve known for so long… ”