Page 149 of Gladiators of the Vagabond Boxset

I spotted her right as Snarl did, and we both froze, taking a quick moment to observe her.

She was small, with pale skin and slender shoulders.

Her hair was black as night, like Camila’s, but it was not long and curly.

No, it was cut in a sharp line at the bottom of her small, dainty chin and was as straight as an arrow.

She didn’t look injured; she looked determined and strong, but small and fragile too, a contradiction.

Her shoulders suddenly stiffened. She turned around, and I finally got a full look at her face—fine-boned, her eyes slanted exotically.

Very different from the other humans I’d seen.

Pretty, more like the sharp, piercing gazes of the females I vaguely remembered from the Mother planet. The sight of her took my breath away.

There was a scared, panicked look in her dark eyes as they frantically scanned the bushes where Snarl and I were hiding.

She had sharp senses; she’d picked up on our eyes watching her, and now she picked out where I stood, where Snarl crouched.

Snarl was the first to make a move, slinking from the bushes with his belly low to the ground, a soft whine issuing from his throat as he tried to placate her.

I shifted my small bag with supplies more comfortably to the small of my back and followed Snarl’s example, raising my hands in a gesture of surrender as I slowly approached her.

I wasn’t sure if she had a translator or if she’d understand me if she did, but I tried to talk to her in a calm manner, assuring her that I meant no harm.

She smelled so good. I’d noticed that as I was tracking her, but catching a full lungful of her scent… It made my skin prickle and my belly clench with want. In an instant, I better understood why Snarl was calling her Fierce Female. She was Fierce’s Female, mine.

Then she turned on her heel and balked, rushing straight toward the black hole of the cave.

My stomach dropped into my boots in fear; I doubted she knew what was inside it, and humans had terrible eyesight in the dark.

She’d fall and break something. My body kicked into gear on pure instinct, racing after her in a mad dash, my only thought was to stop her from doing something so dangerous.

At the last moment, she spun and turned around the side of the cave, my heart leaping at a danger narrowly averted.

As I followed her around that tight bend, a scream tore from my throat, the last thing I saw was her body plummeting straight into a dark abyss.

I didn’t pause, didn’t hesitate. My hand found the grip of my ax, freeing it, and I leaped after her free-falling body with my arms wide.

She’d spun around enough that I could see the terrified expression on her face, that I knew she saw me coming.

The long strands of my filaments streamed behind me.

My heavier body, my leap, gave me the momentum I needed to catch up with her.

I curled her into my free arm, twisted my body, and slammed the blade of my ax into the crumbling rock wall.

We slid, the ax finding loose gravel first before abruptly arresting our fall when it hooked properly behind a firm rock.

My shoulder screamed in pain as we jerked to a stop, dangling from my grip on the handle of my ax, my feet skidding against the rough surface of the rock wall.

The small female in my arm was suspiciously quiet.

When I chanced a look, I saw her pale face, eyes scrunched tightly closed.

Both her hands had curled around my neck, and she was holding on extremely tightly.

Good, at least now she wasn’t running from me.

Glancing up, I realized we’d gone over a hundred feet, and the rock wall was extremely smooth, not the easiest climb, even without the female to carry.

A look down told me we were closer to the bottom of this damn hole, and there appeared to be several tunnels branching away from this spot.

Coming to a quick decision, I urged the female to curl her legs around my waist by simply sliding my grip on her down until I could pull her into position.

She clamped onto me immediately, and now I had my other hand free for climbing.

Finding a grip with my hand, I freed my ax and tucked it back into its loop on my hip.

“Prrrruh?” A sound issued from my bag, just as I started to climb down.

I froze immediately. Oh no. I knew that sound.

“Don’t tell me you’re in my damn bag, Pet.

You silly Riho.” When I was immediately rewarded by the sound of another purr, I cursed internally as I hurried to climb down the rock wall to the bottom.

The tiny human female was shaking when I reached the floor and started pulling her off me.

It wasn’t that I objected to her closeness; if not for Pet, I would have gladly kept holding her a little longer.

But if the Riho was in my bag… I had to check that she hadn’t gotten injured when I leaped after this crazy female.

I briefly worried whether she would try to run away again when I set her on her feet, but she cast a quick look around herself and then stayed in one spot. Her eyes were huge as she stared at me, her breaths coming in rapid bursts.

Dropping to my knees, I slung my bag from my shoulder and set it down on the floor in front of me. My gaze darted around to appraise the three black holes that led into different tunnels, making sure there was nothing there. Then, I pulled open the flap and looked inside.

Yup, there was Pet—sneaky thing that she was.

The small juvenile Riho female lay curled on top of the few things I’d thought to bring: rations, rope, and a blanket.

Her thick, multicolored pelt was a little ruffled, and her small snout was drawn into a disgruntled look, but she appeared completely unharmed, scampering out of the bag and into my arms. It didn’t take more than a few pets before she was loudly purring and headbutting me beneath my chin.

I chuckled at her antics. “Silly Pet, why did you sneak into my bag? Don’t you know this planet is dangerous?

” I lifted my eyes from the purring Riho in my arms to look at the small human female I’d just rescued.

Somewhat, at least, because we were definitely still in trouble down here.

She looked at me with huge, dark eyes, then looked at the purring Riho, then back at my face.

I didn’t know what was going through her head, but I figured I’d let her have a look.

Petting the wiggling creature in my arms, I centered myself on my other senses—my sharp hearing in particular—just to make sure we were alone in this place right now, that we were safe.