Page 218 of Gladiators of the Vagabond Boxset

I raged internally at the crude words, at the disrespect for the female, but I said nothing.

Giving Uron a cold look, I shrugged. “Whatever.” Stalking away, I hoped that this posturing about the human was enough to keep her safe, and that she wouldn’t mind should she find out.

I knew from Camila, the mate of one of my brothers, that Earth females didn’t much appreciate being claimed by a male; they liked their independence.

Then I had to scoff at myself, as if it mattered.

This female might be kind to her wards, but she was still here willingly to train young kids to be gladiators.

I shouldn’t worry about her safety, or think about her pert breasts, even if they were very pretty breasts.

An image of her soulful, dark brown eyes flashed through my mind, even her damn eyes were pretty.

I managed to get through the rest of the evening routine with no more altercations, except one that ensured my position here.

Sharing the late meal with dozens of other guards, all posturing to gain position, I knew that game well and excelled at it.

It wasn’t until after several rounds of gambling games—where I made sure to win and lose in equal measure—that I could finally slip away.

I stepped out of the barracks into the heavily walled and fortified compound that made up this extravagant home.

The last intel had indicated that this place was still owned by Drameil, but word on the ground was that another crimelord had snatched it from his hands and moved the oldest of the trainee gladiators to a new location.

It didn’t matter, because I had managed to assure myself that Jett was still here.

Though my heart went out to those other boys, there was nothing I could personally do for them.

Spreading my wings, I took off into the cool night sky, winging my way over the wall and into the forest that surrounded this place.

The air was damp with fog, which clung to my skin and swirled like playful wisps in the currents my wings created with each steady beat.

I climbed at first, angling toward the glowing moons high above.

It felt good to stretch my body this way, to truly fly.

A spaceship simply didn’t have the space for it.

Curling my body, I send myself into a tight corkscrew spiral, rapidly descending to a clearing in the forest. The thrill heated my body and made my heart race. I loved this, but I loved living aboard the Vagabond too, especially when I could have Jett at my side again.

Spreading my wings at the last moment, I braked and landed in a deep crouch on the spongy, wet moss.

I sank my claws deep into the ground, enjoying the clean, fresh feel of the place.

I needed a breather to cleanse my senses of the disgusting males who guarded this palace.

The horrible practices that went on behind the scenes here.

A few cleansing breaths later, I dug my com device out of the pouch on my belt and engaged the encrypted channel Akri and I had set up.

It took a few seconds for the call to connect, but then Kitan’s cheerful voice came through, loud and clear.

“Sunder, my brother, are you ready to call in the cavalry yet?”

I laughed, happy to hear the young male’s exuberant enthusiasm.

“Not yet, Kitan, I haven’t got the codes yet to get you landing access.

” The Sune male made a scoffing noise, indicating what he thought of landing codes.

Though he was an amazing pilot who probably could, to some degree, outfly a planetary defense system, I wasn’t going to let my brothers risk it.

“Any other news?” Kitan asked. “We’re still on our way to your position and should be closing in within a couple of days.

” I contemplated what to say about the human female.

Should I sate this curiosity I had about her?

In the end, I decided that I should have Akri dig up what he could on her, maybe together with Thorin, if necessary.

“There’s a human woman here,” I said, and Kitan promptly interrupted what I meant to say next by making a low growling noise.

I understood where that was coming from; most humans in the Zeta Quadrant—the part of space we were in—were not free people.

With a human mate, Chloe, whom he was extremely protective of, it made sense that Kitan leapt to this conclusion first.

“She’s a free agent; she works here willingly to train the gladiator younglings,” I hurried to say.

“Akri, I need you to dig up what information you can on her. She is called Agatha Munster.” I needed to arm myself with all the knowledge I could get, because she was far too tempting to stay away from otherwise.

I hadn’t felt this kind of attraction in more than a dozen years; I was pretty sure I was too old to fall in lust like this. Apparently not.

“Got it,” Kitan affirmed. “Akri will look into it. Oh, and by the way, that intel about the ship relocating those young gladiators, Yashan and Jasmin intercepted it. Good job.” That was a weight off my shoulders.

Good. That was half a dozen youngsters saved from the pits.

Yashan and Jasmin had made it their mission to carry out these kinds of rescues.

The boys would be in good hands, and the couple had all the necessary resources to find their homes—or at least a home.

“I’m glad to hear that. Is everyone else on the ship alright?

” I asked. It hadn’t been until I’d already arrived on this planet and infiltrated the guards that I’d heard that Luka and his mate, Noa, had safely come aboard the Vagabond.

I’d run off without saying goodbye to them immediately after their rescue.

I couldn’t sit on the knowledge of my son’s location while I got tangled up with the Aderian authorities as they sorted out arrests and testimonies.

I was pretty certain my brothers understood that, but I still felt bad about leaving them without a word.

“Tori doesn’t seem to like Eoin much, but I’m pretty sure the new addition is completely smitten,” Kitan explained, his voice dropping into a gossipy tone.

He rattled off a few more tidbits about some of the others on the ship, like how Da’vi was still refusing to come out of the engine room much, and that Luka had made another attempt to open the broken stasis pod we’d found in the cargo bay, but had failed again.

My mind was stuck on the news about Tori. I had met Eoin, the adoptive son of Yashan and Jasmin. I had once shared a cell with him when he was a young teen. Back then, the couple had managed to escape and taken the boy with them. Now, the kid was all grown up and ready to spread his wings.

Yashan had done good work training the male, and in the three weeks I’d been on the Vagabond with him—just before Luka’s rescue—I had done my best to polish those skills.

I now wish I had realized the boy had a crush on a female I considered my daughter; I would have gone harder on him in training, a lot.

“Stay safe, Sunder. I’ll get back to you with what information we can find.

Hurry and get us those landing codes, or I’m landing this bird without them.

” With that warning, Kitan broke the connection, and I was met with the deep silence of the forest. Immediately, the urge to fly back to the palace and locate Aggy struck me.

I should get to the bottom of this now. Why wait?

I squashed those impatient urges with practice. Acting without having all the facts could only lead to disaster, even if my brain was supplying me with ample ideas for how to extract this information from the pretty little human.

Spreading my wings, I took to the skies, forcing myself to fly away from the palace. A good, long flight to exhaust myself was going to have to be my entertainment for the night.