Page 259 of Gladiators of the Vagabond Boxset

Da’vi

Ignoring the chaos in my engine room, I unhooked the broken com device and stuck it safely into my pocket.

Then I gave each of the Strewn mechanics a firm glare, warning them to be on their best behavior.

I meant to stalk away, calmly heading for the Vagabond’s bridge, where Ziame probably was.

Instead, I was jogging, and then sprinting, before I’d even made it down the first hallway.

I smelled Thorin and Kitan more than I saw them when they stuck their heads out of the gym as I passed.

I heard them muttering in surprise, but I ignored it—along with the tease shouted after me by the Sune male.

By the time I thundered onto the bridge, I realized I’d gathered a following, as if the males thought I had something entertaining to say.

Following the smoky, sharp scent of our Lacerten Captain, I charged into the ready room just off the bridge, with Ziame’s office beyond.

The growl that met me was followed by the solid THUNK of something heavy hitting me square across the chest. I stumbled back, the purple lines across my skin flaring with bioluminescence, my skin tightening, my head dipping to angle my horns for defense.

I took in Abigail, perched on the edge of the large table that was the centerpiece of the room.

She was hurriedly closing the buttons of her blouse.

Ziame stood protectively in front of her, all his knives flared up, his huge head angled low, ready to meet a blow from my horns.

I’d lose that fight if I tried to attack; Ziame was a giant brute, and I was still gasping for air through bruised ribs from his tail slap.

Raising my hands in surrender, I put my back against the wall next to the door, ignoring the laughing sounds coming through the door from the bridge.

“Sorry, brother, I didn’t mean to interrupt.

” I should have checked before I barged in, but this was just so urgent.

I couldn’t stem the frantic pounding of my heart at the thought of Arianna out there in the dead zone, starving.

“Then leave,” Ziame growled, but his posture relaxed a little now that his mate was covered and I was clearly not a threat.

His green eyes glowed fiercely at me, letting me know that he was not amused by my interruption.

I couldn’t bring myself to care that I’d just cock-blocked him, this was more important.

“No,” I said, and that resulted in another frustrated growl, tendrils of fire escaping from his gold-ringed nose with a clicking noise.

The sound of this firestarter always made me wince, my fingers aching with remembered pain, but I ignored those sensations this time.

Ziame was a levelheaded male and a good captain; he was compassionate and fair.

So I didn’t have to wait long before he settled his possessive, aggressive impulses, even if he did step more in front of his mate and curl his tail snugly around her middle.

“What is going on, Da’vi? Something wrong with the repairs?

” he asked, his voice now much calmer. I was glad that he knew I wouldn’t bother him right now unless it was for something truly important.

What surprised me was how hard it was to pull the com device from my pocket, my only means of reaching Arianna.

I hadn’t expected to feel any kind of possessiveness over the thing, over her, but it was hard to speak her name.

She wouldn’t be completely mine once I did.

Putting the com device on the edge of the table, I gave Abigail a look, making sure that she understood I wanted her to hear me, too.

“I got this from Drameil’s safe,” I started, tapping the edge of the casing with a metal finger.

“I intercepted a distress call with it, from a female. Her name is Arianna.” Her name, falling from my lips, made my belly clench, and I drew in a jerky breath of air, my ribs protesting in pain.

“That’s a human name,” Abigail said, leaning around Ziame’s big, scaly shoulder to peer at the com device. I felt the urge to snatch it back off the table and tuck it into my shirt where nobody could see it.

“She is human,” I forced myself to say, giving in to the urge and carefully grabbing the device.

“And she’s stuck on a very damaged ship in a dead zone; she needs help.

” I had already promised her that I’d come for her.

It hadn’t crossed my mind that Ziame and my gladiator brothers wouldn’t want to.

If they didn’t, I’d ask for my share of the credits we had, and then I’d charter my own way on Strewn.

As soon as I had the thought, I tried to shake it from my head, it was just so irrational. That wasn’t normally me.

“Oh no!” Abigail said immediately. “We have to rescue her!” But I saw how Ziame’s stance hardened, remaining protectively in front of his mate, his eyes narrowing on me.

He knew what a dead zone was, how long it meant we’d have to travel.

This wasn’t just a few weeks; this was months of our time.

It was a very big ask, and it could be dangerous.

“And you are certain this is not a trap?” Ziame demanded, his mobile ears flicking back toward his mate when she sucked in a breath of surprise.

As I’d had the exact same suspicions, I knew I could assure him of this, at least. There was just no way that Arianna wasn’t the real thing.

I’d watched her again during this last call, and she was just so…

human, and so very clearly alone and lost.

Thinking back to that call, I flashed to the moment when she’d accidentally twirled over the coms console.

I’d gotten a look straight up the long, flowery skirt she wore, and the sight of a pair of shapely, pale thighs was engraved in my brain.

Just thinking of it made my pants suddenly, uncomfortably tight.

Harsher than I meant to, because I was so unused to the feelings surging through me, I growled out what I knew.

“Akri and I checked it out last night. We’re very certain that she’s what she says she is.

She needs our help. She only has a single month’s worth of food.

We have to leave now.” Any delay could be fatal to her.

As it was, I’d need to do some very harsh tweaking to the engines and push Chloe and Kitan to cut a two-month journey in half.

My head was spinning at what I was about to do to help us make that journey.

“Hmm,” Ziame said, but he finally relaxed, pulling out a chair to sit down at the table, and nodding at me to do the same.

As soon as I did, I realized that more of my brothers were leaning in through the open doorway.

Ziame and I shared a look, and though I didn’t really want to—because it just didn’t feel right to share Arianna with the other males—I agreed that they should have a say.

No matter what the rest decided, I was still going to rescue her. I’d already made up my mind. It would be better—faster—if I could do it with the Vagabond. Star Class Cruisers were made for speed, space exploration, and scouting.

In not too long, the entire crew was sitting around the ready-room table, and I shifted uncomfortably in my chair under their scrutiny.

When Babbit strutted through the door, I was relieved as he leaped onto the table to park his fluffy ass in front of me, staring at the others with his sharp blue eyes.

“I vote we rescue the human,” Jakar stated immediately, his two upper arms crossed over his bulky chest. The bottom two were restlessly tapping at the table. I wasn’t surprised, Jakar desperately wanted his own mate, but he wasn’t getting Arianna. They’d be a terrible match.

“We have to, we need to look out for our sisters out in the Zeta Quadrant,” Camila said, casually flipping a throwing knife between her fingers.

Her dark brown eyes pierced everyone in the room, lingering on her own male, Thorin, who wore a glare and crossed his arms. Like me, she was pretty sure that he was against it.

“I agree!” Abigail said, and more of the human females chimed in, agreeing with her. I drew in another deep breath, my ribs aching; they were definitely cracked from Ziame’s blow. I’d need to have Luka take a look at them when I found the time.

I laid out the particulars carefully once silence returned, explaining Arianna’s predicament and the perils of our journey if we wanted to make it in time.

The words tasted sour in my mouth. I might not like people all that much, and I didn’t like company, but I hated that she was out there alone—that there was a possibility my brothers didn’t want to take the risk of rescuing her.

“How sure are you that we can reach her in time? I thought we were finally putting the Vagabond in good shape. Won’t this put our ship at risk?

” Ziame asked. His long, prehensile tail waved around the room as he indicated their surroundings—the ship.

I could see the apprehension on the faces of some of my brothers and their mates.

I understood that this was home, and we couldn’t risk it. I was asking them to anyway.

“I can do it,” I said, even if it meant doing something I’d sworn I’d never do again.

The very thing the Master of Strewn had tried recruiting me for.

The problem was that we still had several days’ worth of overhauls left.

I could speed some of that up, but we had to wait until those were done.

It wouldn’t leave us much more than three weeks to reach Arianna, when that normally would take the Vagabond two whole months.

“Let’s vote,” said Ziame. “Raise your hand if you wish to rescue the female.” One after another, the people in the room cast their votes.

*

Arianna