Page 147 of Gladiators of the Vagabond Boxset

I smirked at Thorin when I saw his chagrined look, while Camila jabbed him in the side with her elbow.

“You’re a horndog!” she hissed at him, her eyes warm with laughter.

I wasn’t sure what horned animals had to do with this, but it was good to see Thorin throw back his head and laugh, tugging on Camila’s braid as he did so to get another rise out of his mate.

Beyond them, over Kitan’s shoulder, I could see more of the planet come into view.

I was anxious to get my feet on the ground and explore for a while.

I didn’t mind living aboard the Vagabond—especially not since Akri was running things—but nothing beat breathing in a planet’s fresh air and going on a good hunt.

For me, it didn’t even matter that this hunt consisted of looking for human survivors.

Snarl was alright with our last stretch of flight now that his paws were back on the ground.

He was sitting at my feet, casually grooming himself, acting all nonchalant now that the scary bit was over.

I shook my head at him and focused on checking my ax in its loop on my belt and the bag I’d slung over my shoulder, so that I was ready to go as soon as we landed.

When the hatch opened, I was on my feet and out of it before Sunder could even start on another round of instructions.

We were here to find out if there were any survivors after this small ship had crashed.

Their mission had been some kind of trade offer or goodwill gift to the independent Strewn spaceport—of all places.

They’d never made it, and after we’d rescued Thorin and Camila from the human spaceship secretly running a trade mission with a thousand stolen humans to our previous slave owner, Drameil, we’d become invested in the fate of all these humans.

The ones on the big human ship had been rescued, taken in by the Kertinals, whom I was told would treat them right.

But this ship… The Kertinals wouldn’t bother going to find it, so we were.

Jakar was hoping we’d find more human females so that he could get himself a mate, just like three of our brothers had already done.

I couldn’t believe that Thorin was one of those brothers, he’d been so angry and sarcastic before he met Camila.

Now… granted, he was still a sarcastic bastard, but he was smiling all the time.

As soon as I had my feet firmly planted on the ground, I drew in a deep breath of the planet’s air, taking stock of the many scents, the trees, the plants, the wildlife.

The most prevalent scent was still that of the smoke from this crashed portion of the ship we’d located.

I took in the chunk of the hull, which, even to my untrained eyes, appeared to be only a fraction of the actual ship.

Then I noted the three stasis pods that had spilled out of that broken shell.

“Roasted meat. Decay. That is not good, is it, Fierce Hunter?” Snarl said, as he sniffed at the air from a spot at my side.

His long tail swished back and forth behind him, and his paws were digging into the soft soil.

He was eager to run, to explore. “Go check the perimeter of this crash site, see what you pick up,” I told him.

Tongue lolling out of his fanged maw, he gave me a happy smirk before he dashed off into the underbrush, completely disappearing.

Even though this foliage was purple and pink, his shadowy black fur made him blend in almost entirely.

One stasis pod had a body dangling out, while the most intact-looking of the three smelled heavily of burned meat.

The third pod, though… that one intrigued me.

It was on its side, and when I walked around it, I immediately saw the indent where a body had lain next to it.

Someone had been here, had they gotten up and walked away? Or had a predator gotten hold of them?

I trailed my eyes over the ground, noticing the footsteps; they went all over the crash site.

They were small enough that I had a feeling they belonged to a female, even if she wore some kind of shoe with a heavy tread.

I couldn’t pick up her individual scent yet, covered beneath the heavy scent of the smoke that had blanketed the area.

“What did you discover?” Sunder asked me.

For a big guy, he knew how to walk quietly.

I had good ears, and had picked up his approaching footsteps.

Crouched at the edge of the site, I appraised the set of steps leading up into the mountains.

I had a feeling the female had walked off on her own, wisely thinking to leave this place where the risk of a sudden flood was quite real—or so we’d been informed by the Vagabond’s ship IA, Akri.

Pointing at the steps, I explained my discovery.

Almost immediately, Jakar popped up on my other side.

“A female? She walked off? We have to go find her!” he eagerly exclaimed, practically bouncing on his feet as he scanned the thick foliage around us.

When I pointed out the tracks again, he stared dutifully, but I could tell he couldn’t see what I was seeing.

“We do need to find her,” Sunder agreed.

“Any idea how long ago she left?” I shrugged.

Not a clue. I had no idea how long ago this ground had last seen rain, or how long it would hold a footstep.

This was not the Mother, where I’d spent the first eight years of my life learning to hunt at my father’s side.

This wasn’t Aura or Yulae either, where I had lived for most of the rest of it as a slave.

I knew how the ground behaved on those planets; I’d have been able to give an accurate assessment, but not here.

“The small steps make me think she’s not going fast. We can catch up regardless of her head start,” I assured Sunder.

Just then, Snarl darted out of the underbrush, his nose to the ground as he sniffed.

He was filled with excitement, his long tail lashing behind him, curling and twisting.

His mouth was open in a flehmen response, trying to soak up as much of the intriguing scent he’d caught. “I smell Fierce Female,” he said to me.

Sunder turned to wave at Thorin and Camila, who were standing next to the body dangling out of the broken stasis pod.

The human female waved back with a grim look on her face.

“Found a survivor?” she asked hopefully.

I would be too if this was about finding another of my species.

In all my years as a gladiator and slave, I had not come across a single other of my kind, though, so I didn’t hold out any hope for that.

“Cam, you’re in charge,” Sunder told the female. “You and Thorin guard the ship with Kitan until we get back. Fierce has a trail on a possible survivor. We’re checking it out.” My blood got pumping immediately. Yes, the hunt was on. I had already turned back to the trail, jogging up it after Snarl.