Page 158 of Gladiators of the Vagabond Boxset

Hina was still weak, so I was happy that she let me lift her back onto the rock and tuck her into the blanket next to the fire.

She smelled of her arousal, a sweet musk I could still taste on my tongue.

She also smelled of me; she’d let me mark her with my come.

Inside her blanket cocoon, she was still completely naked, and I wanted nothing more than to spread her out on the blankets and lick her everywhere. If she’d let me…

There were too many things to do right now.

We were not out of danger yet, and the longer we lingered here, the greater the chance they’d find us.

So, with some reluctance, I pulled on clothes and weapons before returning to the animal carcass and cutting off more chunks of meat to drape across a flat rock right next to the fire.

I was a little unsure about whether to continue eating some of the bones for myself when Hina was awake.

It tended to be a thing even the other gladiators found disgusting, so I tried to avoid eating in front of others if I could.

Right now, I needed all the strength I could get if I wanted to be on top of my game and get Hina safely out of here.

She hadn’t seemed too bothered before, so maybe humans didn’t find it as problematic as other species.

Pulling free a good section of bone, I made sure to stay as clean as I could while I cracked it with the blunt, flat teeth at the back of my mouth.

My jaw was especially strong, designed precisely to eat bone.

It was why I had a ridge of bone along the top of my skull, I’d learned, to anchor my jaw muscles and provide the leverage I needed.

Hina was softly talking to Riho, petting the small creature, her head tilted down so she wasn’t looking my way.

I made short work of crunching through my chosen bone, then pulled another free and chewed through that one, too.

The extra-potent acid in my stomach would do the rest of the work and dissolve the bone splinters I had swallowed.

“How can you eat bone without hurting yourself?” Hina asked me.

So, she had been watching after all, but the question was full of curiosity, not judgment.

I shrugged, unsure how to explain it—just that my species seemed specially adapted to eating bones.

I’d never heard of anyone choking on a bone splinter until I’d been captured as a small child.

It was a little strange to discover that most species in the universe could not eat bones as I could.

“Right, I hope you can update my translator aboard your ship. I wish I could understand what you’re saying,” she said with a smile.

My heart pounded at hearing that desire expressed.

At the same time, fear struck me—what if she wouldn’t want me for her mate when she had more advanced, smarter males to choose from on the Vagabond?

I shoved the thoughts away; I’d solve that problem when we got to it.

Right now, I had her all to myself. Her cunt juices were still thick in the air, and her skin bore the marks of my seed. She was mine—for now.

Forcing thoughts of breeding my female out of my head, I swallowed the last of my food.

Then I checked on the meat I was cooking for Hina, concluded it was definitely cooked past the point of all good sense, and offered her a strip of the now-ruined meat.

“Thank you. Safe to eat?” she asked. I shrugged again.

My stomach was pretty impervious, I could eat anything, really.

For a short time, this was probably going to be alright for her too.

The meat smelled good, healthy, and without parasites, to me.

She nibbled on the edges of the browned strip, nodded at me, and then gulped down the rest. Wordlessly, I nudged the rock with the rest of the meat toward her, and she grinned before eating the remainder.

I felt a surge of pride at having provided something good to eat for her, even if I hadn’t made the kill.

I reached out to pet the Riho, who seemed to prefer being called Fluffy, and murmured my thanks to the juvenile for protecting Hina when I wasn’t there.

I shuddered to think what would have happened if Fluffy hadn’t been there in time to kill the predator with her poisoned barb.

Soon I had everything that was dry packed up again and was urging Hina into her clothing.

Much though I preferred to continue to see her naked, we needed to get going.

She was flagging, the meal and our bed play had tuckered her out, as had her ordeal in the water.

Snarl was already off to scout ahead, looking to find a way to exit this ravine.

All I had to do was help her down from the rock.

She was putting on a brave face, but I could see that she struggled to stay upright.

This was asking too much of her, but I could go on, I felt strong again after I’d eaten my fill.

It was no trouble at all to sling her up into my arms. Maybe it would be more convenient if I slung her over my shoulder, but I wanted to be able to see her face, so I kept her cradled in my arms.

“Hey!” she started to protest. “I can walk.” Hating the language barrier, I simply shrugged, hugging her slight body closer to my chest. She made a harrumphing sound, her delicate face pulling into a fierce frown that I found absolutely adorable.

Tension left her body on a long exhale, her arm coming up to curl around my neck, my filaments eagerly sliding over her bare skin.

“Yeah, I suppose this is faster. I just hate being a burden…”

I gave her the only word of hers that I had: “Hina safe.” As long as she believed me when I said that, everything was going to be all right.

She responded by smiling, her dark eyes lingering on my mouth for a moment.

Long enough that I gave in to the urge and dipped down to brush my lips against hers.

“Hina mine.” I had a feeling she understood that word as well.

Adjusting my grip, I set off at a steady pace.

Fluffy was darting ahead of me, slinking between and over rocks, her bright fur standing out against the brown rock.

I didn’t see Snarl, but I knew he was scouting the way, searching, just like I was, for a way out of this canyon.

We needed to reach higher ground if we wanted to be found.

I might not be tech-savvy, but even I knew that no shuttle would be able to land in this narrow place.

When Hina suddenly pulled on my wrist, I stumbled and nearly lost my easy stride.

“Your com! Fierce! We should try it now that we’re in the open air again!

You might get a signal.” Her words sent heat scalding across my face, unease prickling along my spine.

I should have thought of that. Why hadn’t I remembered the com?

I’d been thinking of the shuttle, but not of how to reach my brothers.

Pausing in the shade of a few tumbled-down rocks, right where the canyon became even narrower, I slid my mate to her feet.

I was uneasy—we’d been down in this funnel for some time now, and I had yet to see any sign of the red-scaled creatures that had been chasing us.

We were in cover here, but they would know this terrain.

Would they want to expend energy to continue chasing us, or had we gotten away?

They had appeared awfully determined to catch us.

“Why are you pausing, Fierce Hunter? This is no time to mate with your female,” Snarl chose that moment to inject into my mind.

My eyes found him crouching on a ledge against the rock wall, sniffing at the air.

He was a black smear against the darker rock, his red, glowing eyes the only thing giving him away.

“We need to try to contact the Vagabond,” I said to him.

“If I wanted another round of mating, I wouldn’t bother with talking.

” In response, Snarl said nothing, but he made a chuffing sound that indicated laughter.

He slunk away, back the way we’d come, without another word.

It was obvious that he was going back to check for pursuers.

Hina had quietly observed me as I conversed with Snarl.

Now, she tilted her head to the side, her sleek black hair gliding across her softly rounded cheek.

“I swear it looks like you have actual conversations with him,” she said.

The Riho found her pants leg and scuttled up it with her claws, curling herself around Hina’s throat and staring up at me with her green eyes.

A steady purr started thrumming between us, and I found myself responding to it, rumbling in my chest. It was a very content picture, looking at my female with the Riho.

I loved that Fluffy had taken to Hina immediately; it told me more about her character than words could.

I tilted my head at her with a smirk and raised a shoulder in a shrug before giving her a nod.

I was almost certain that meant yes for the humans.

Indeed, her eyes went huge. “You can talk with him? Wow, what does he say? Is he sentient?” I knew what she was asking, but with no words to explain my bond with Snarl, I couldn’t do much more than nod again.

Diverting attention to what I’d really stopped for, I raised my wrist and checked the com device strapped to it.

I had made it a habit on the Vagabond to simply strap it on, just like everyone else did, because while I struggled to handle the device, I had managed to figure out how to answer a call.

Tapping at the screen now, I was relieved to see it light up, at least our dip in that river hadn’t broken it.

I could make no sense of the squiggles and symbols that filled the device, so I just tapped at them at random, hoping I’d manage to call any one of the stored contacts in there.

Kitan had loaded them into all the devices before handing them out, and he’d given us a breakdown on how to use it.

I knew Jakar had taken to using it like a starving man; that first week, he’d called me a dozen times, and always for the silliest reasons.

Just trying it out, getting familiar with it, I supposed.

Too bad I was the only one who couldn’t fucking read.

None of the instructions had made any kind of sense to me.

If not for Jakar’s calling spree, I wouldn’t even know how to answer the com.

Now, I just hoped that Hina didn’t realize how little I actually knew.

I was desperate to get this thing to work for her sake.

I knew I could protect her, I knew I could keep her safe on this planet, but it wasn’t fair to her.

She deserved to be rescued by my brothers on the Vagabond, and, truthfully, I really wanted to be able to talk to her too.

There were a few beeps, followed by a more strident one that I hadn’t heard before.

Did I break it? I had clearly done something very wrong.

“Let me look—maybe I can figure it out?” Hina said, her small hands curling around my wrist to angle the device toward her face.

I almost let pride get in my way, not wanting to admit to her that I had no clue what I was doing.

Surrendering my arm and the device to her, I tried to focus on the points of contact her fingers made around my forearm.

The way her side pressed against my body when she stepped in closer for a better look.

“I can’t read your language, and this device is a little different from the one we use in the UAR territories.

But I think this here means we have no signal.

Correct?” She lifted her dark eyes to look at me, the black fans of her lashes delicately curling.

Did I nod? Shrug? I had no clue what that symbol meant.

My indecision decided for me. Her eyes widened.

“Oh, you don’t know? Okay, that explains the button smashing.

Let’s see if I can find another familiar point.

But the no signal thing… I guess it means we need to get out of this canyon.

Something in the rock is probably causing interference. ”

Unstrapping the com device from my wrist, I pushed it into her hands.

If she couldn’t read this language, then she wasn’t much better at figuring out the device, but at least she had prior knowledge to fall back on.

She fumbled it a little when she caught it, but then strapped the band around her dainty little wrist. “Okay, I’ll be in charge of the com.

I guess you’re not as used to technology as I thought when I noticed you had it. ”

There was zero judgment in her eyes; she was just asking a question, trying to get her facts straight.

But I felt the shame of not knowing anything in this huge universe heat my skin.

My body struggled to hold on to my semi-camouflaged skin tones that matched the surrounding rock—red and vibrant green creeping over my chest in blotches—before I got control of it.

Her hand patted me between the pectorals, and Fluffy let out a rumbling purr.

This time, my own rumble didn’t echo hers.

“It’s okay, Fierce. Once we can properly understand each other, you can tell me your story,” Hina said.

Then I saw uncertainty waver across her face, her blunt white teeth nibbling on her bottom lip.

“That is… if you want to. You’re not required. ”

I reached out with my thumb and gently rubbed it across her soft, mildly abused lip.

“I will tell you,” I said in my own language, giving her a nod to convey my affirmation.

Then, because I couldn’t resist at least telling her some of what I was feeling, I spoke in my native tongue.

“Your scent tells me you are my mate—mine. Which means that I am yours.” I tapped my chest and hers, right over where I could feel her heartbeat.

It was in the same spot as my own heart, which was reassuring; our bodies were different enough as it was.

Not that I disliked any of those differences.

Heat surged through me when I saw her eyes glisten, and I scented a hint of arousal curling through the air.

She liked it when I said that word, mine.

She definitely knew I was stating a claim when I did that.

“Come, Hina,” I said, curling her into my arms and pressing her tightly against my body, tight enough that, for a moment, she could feel my hardening shaft press against her belly.

Then I lifted her into my arms and started jogging down the slender beach, hoping for a way out.