Page 173 of Gladiators of the Vagabond Boxset

The part about Fierce killing the pirate didn’t bother me nearly as much as it maybe should have.

If this was all tied to Fluffy, there was not a shred of doubt in my mind that he’d done it to protect her.

If anything, it was clear that Fierce was always going to be the protector of those smaller than he was—especially animals.

I’d seen it in action; he had an uncanny knack for reaching them.

If I were to believe what Jakar had told me, he’d picked up strays even when he was still a slave himself.

I was very much inclined to believe this was true, it just seemed so in line with what I already knew.

There was a little back and forth on the details of it all, which made me look at Fluffy in a new light.

I knew she’d killed that river creature when it tried to attack me, though most of that moment was a disjointed blur, because I’d already been suffering from hypothermia.

Now I understood that when she’d whacked that creature with her tail, she’d stabbed it with that venomous barb.

To me, hiding the Riho and hiding his involvement in the murder was just Fierce’s way of protecting his pet and himself.

Didn’t sound to me like anyone ever watched out for him much, he’d always done the watching over.

Then I remembered my suspicion that he couldn’t read either, and I started to wonder if he wasn’t feeling insecure about his spot on the Vagabond.

Even Jakar could read; he’d told me he’d learned from another slave he’d shared a cell with when he was still very young.

“Excuse me,” I said, getting up from the table. “I think I need to get some sleep.” Fluffy was full anyway, and my stomach couldn’t take much more of the delicious food, either. I had one goal in mind: locate Fierce so we could talk, and then I was going to sleep for as long as they’d let me.

It was Camila, whom I’d only just met at the dinner table here, who offered to take me to the quarters they’d prepared.

I followed her and her long, bouncy braid down several corridors in silence, unsure what to make of her.

She was stacked, with a confident stride and a very straight bearing.

Dressed in cargo pants and a snug T-shirt, she looked tough, so it didn’t surprise me when a guy who looked even more badass caught up to us.

He tugged on her braid with a smirk and then smirked at me, tipping his chin in greeting.

This guy had been introduced to me as Thorin.

His long blond hair was done in neat braids.

A chain with several medallions dangled from a ring in his nose to his pointed ear.

He was dressed all in leather, tattoos peeked out from the edge of his collar and at the edges of the sleeves of his jacket.

He was like the alien version of a biker, with elf-like ears, glowing blue eyes, and sharp canines peeking out from behind his luscious lips.

“Thorin, can’t let me have any girl-only time, can you?

” Camila teased, a smile warming her dark eyes as she pulled her braid free from his hands.

Her eyes went to me “Ignore the big lunkhead here, he looks scary, but he’s all putty.

” She grinned when he rumbled a warning.

“You’ll pay for that.” She threw back her head and laughed. “And I’ll love every minute of it.”

They were clearly a couple, and from the looks of it, still in the honeymoon phase, because Thorin already had the tip of her braid back in his hand.

He was looking at her as if he couldn’t wait to get her into his bunk.

It was entirely too private a moment to be part of, even if I was only on the fringes.

I felt a pang in my chest; I wanted Fierce. I didn’t want my own quarters.

Even if the Vagabond was a more familiar place, with its climate-controlled rooms, electronics, and amenities, I felt more unmoored now than I had down on the planet.

This was where I needed to fit in, find my place.

But what I really wanted was to find Fierce and make my place with him.

Maybe that’s how he was feeling, too. How did you make a life for yourself after all you’d known was captivity?

He was like one of those wild animals released into the wild with no survival skills; he was floundering, and I was floundering a little, too. But together, we might figure it out.

Camila had led me to a corridor almost identical to the one I’d worked in with Jakar on the hydroponics.

Doors to crew quarters lined it on either side, but here, some of the doors had gained identifying marks.

I saw a door with several lines of green paint, shaped to look like a tree reaching up to the sky.

I didn’t have to guess to know that one was Jakar’s.

There was a door with all kinds of colorful stickers and drawings in weird psychedelic shapes, fractals, maybe.

At my look, Camila said, “That’s Chloe and Kitan’s place.

Apparently, those shapes are what Chloe sees when she’s plugged in and guiding us through an FTL jump. ”

I was surprised to realize that the young woman with flighty hair was one of those special navigators who could plug in and use their brain to guide a ship through Faster-Than-Light speeds.

Though it wasn’t surprising to discover the pilot and the nav were dating, that was a very common occurrence.

Something about working that closely together seemed to foster that kind of relationship.

“That’s our door,” Camila told me, pointing at a door that had been decorated with two blades in brackets and a beautiful, colored array of Day of the Dead drawings along the edges.

“Thorin wanted blades. I wanted to remember my roots…” She shrugged.

“We made a day out of it—Chloe’s idea. The guys all acted like it was stupid, but they were all here, and they all did something.

Well… except for Fierce.” Her hand lifted to point out one of the undecorated doors in the corridor.

I felt a pang of pain for Fierce, noting that he’d excluded himself from what sounded like a fun activity. Thorin surprised me with an explanation: “I think Fierce is still stuck in captivity. You should know that if you want to try to be his mate. He needs someone to set him free. Truly free.”

Now my heart was really aching for him. It was a daunting task, but he deserved someone to take care of him. How was I going to reach him? When Camila indicated another plain door and told me that it was mine, I stared at it for a moment before looking at Fierce’s empty door again.

“You’re not going to find him there,” Thorin said, his tone morose. “He never sleeps there. If you want to find him, head for the brig.” With those final, tragic words, he and Camila ducked into their own quarters, laughter already coloring the air as they lost themselves in each other.

I remained frozen in place in that corridor for a long time, contemplating what I’d just learned. Then I looked down at Snarl, who was still patiently accompanying me. “Take me to him, please.”