Page 272 of Gladiators of the Vagabond Boxset

Da’vi

The air was wet, moisture hovering like fine mist in the air.

Beneath the thick canopy of silvery green trees, hardly any light penetrated, and when it did, it arced like rainbows.

Every time we saw one, Arianna would laugh and point it out, sometimes grabbing for my hand or patting my shoulder.

It was hard not to smile, too, when she looked at me like that.

I wanted to complain about the wetness, about how it made my boots soggy and interfered with my scanner’s readings.

Then she’d smile again, and I held my tongue.

I still didn’t understand why she was here to begin with; she’d been voted onto this damn mission unanimously.

I had the feeling my brothers and their mates were trying to interfere in my personal life, ensuring Arianna and I had to work together like this.

I had voiced all the objections I could, even pointing out the dangerous wildlife that inhabited this forest planet.

Then Arianna herself had had the gall to ask me if I thought I couldn’t protect her, and—well—I’d seen that deviant little smile in her eyes, knew she was teasing, and I’d taken the bait anyway, so here she was.

In front of us, Jakar and Eoin walked, their footsteps quiet on the spongy, mossy ground. Occasionally, Jakar would turn around and point out a rainbow to Arianna, which made her laugh and smile at him. It made me want to wring his thick neck.

The ping on my scanner yanked my vengeful thoughts away from the red-skinned, four-armed Pretorian.

I liked him, I had to remind myself as I perused the readings; I couldn’t go around bashing his skull in just because he made the female I desired laugh.

She wasn’t mine, she could laugh at whoever she wanted.

I just really wished all her smiles were still mine alone, that she was my secret, talking to me on the coms all day, every day.

“Almost there. We should be reaching the deposit in another minute,” I said.

My eyes were well adapted to work in low-light settings, but it was still a struggle to make out the rocky slope of a cliff through the fog and the dense foliage.

I’d picked this particular deposit of ore because it was right at the surface on the side of a cliff.

Easy to reach, easy to access. Now I was wondering if I should have picked one accessible from inside a cave.

This was an exposed area; despite the thick vegetation, predators could easily sneak up on us.

We needed a lot of ore if I wanted to use it to coat the inside of the Vagabond’s engines, fixing any micro-fractures and strengthening them for future use.

Eoin was the only male on the ship who could extract and refine the ore for us.

If it weren’t for him, we’d be out here for weeks, mining it and then running it through a refinery I’d have to build from scratch.

If we had to wait that long while I rebuilt the engine, we’d never reach the Yengar Space Station in time to do anything meaningful for the humans Drameil had taken there.

My eyes lingered on Arianna’s slender back, her dark hair dangling in two braids over her shoulders, a holster with a laser pistol strapped to her hip.

I had seen how Camila had given her a rundown on the weapon before we left, but she’d had such a look of distaste on her face when she accepted the weapon that it was obvious she disliked violence.

Didn’t make her look any less sexy, especially in the Vagabond jumpsuit that the Doc had altered to fit her.

The sturdy, warm fabric clung lovingly to every part of her body, outlining her tailless behind and the curves of her calves and thighs.

I could even see her breasts if I leaned a little to the side.

Who knew gray could look that good on her, after I’d admired the colorful fabrics she’d worn so far?

The weapons belt only accentuated her curves, drawing my eyes to her hips like they were magnets.

All she’d been doing was driving me crazy with her soft, sweet scent and her radiant smile.

Not to mention her voice. She was always talking, and the sound of her voice made my spine tingle.

It made me want to feel her hands along my tail, and other body parts…

I had work to do. I couldn’t let myself get this distracted.

“I think this is it,” Eoin announced from ahead of us. We stopped our trek in front of the sloping wall of a cliff. The trees grew almost right up against it, but rubble had fallen down over the years, leaving larger stones scattered about the base.

I ran my scanner near the surface of the towering stone wall to verify if it was the spot, while next to me, Eoin did the same with his hands.

We shared a look, and without further prompting, the younger male closed his mercury eyes and started to work.

“Let’s make camp; we’ll be here a while,” I said to the others.

I left it to Jakar to pick the best spot, then helped to set up the small, lightweight tents.

“There are only two?” I demanded, a growing sense of panic rising as the first one was up and I held the second in my hands.

Arianna had managed to make a fire; she’d even lined it with rocks and cleared the ground around it of fire hazards.

She looked up at me with an enigmatic smile, her eyes sparkling, her hands outstretched to warm them on the merrily crackling flames.

“I’m pretty sure we can figure something out,” she murmured, which triggered a loud snicker from Jakar.

I shot the Pretorian a glare, but he just crossed all four of his arms over his chest and kept smirking.

I wasn’t quite sure whether Jakar was thinking he would get to share a tent with her or if he was teasing me about it.

Regardless, the thought of anyone—especially me—sharing a tent with her made clammy sweat break out across the back of my neck.

If she were in my tent tonight, I would not be able to keep my hands to myself. I knew I was welcome, but it wasn’t right, not as long as I was keeping secrets. Glaring at the younger gladiator, I barked out, “Shouldn’t you check the perimeter? You like climbing trees, don’t you?”

He laughed, pretending I hadn’t just said something offensive.

Demonstrating that he was, in fact, an amazing climber, he leaped up, caught a tree branch, and disappeared into the canopy above us without a single sound.

“Whoa, you’re not kidding. Where did he go?

” Arianna exclaimed, a look of astonishment on her face as she stared at the spot where Jakar had disappeared.

I just grunted to let her know I’d heard her, then focused on getting the last tent set up and the rest of the camp sorted.

We’d walked for a good four hours to get here, as the trees made landing the shuttle safely any closer impossible.

I was hungry, and I was sure my brothers had to be as well.

Arianna wasn’t complaining about the physical exertion; she still looked pretty, and somehow clean, too.

Actually, she looked right at home at the campfire she’d built herself.

She had camped out before, maybe it wasn’t so strange to take her along after all.

At the very least, she hadn’t been a burden.

She’d even carried a backpack filled with supplies.

It was impressive, considering the long period she’d spent in a stasis pod.

There were systems in place to help a person retain body and muscle mass, but such a long duration still weakened you.

Behind my back, as I tried my hardest to ignore that she was here, I heard her sing about someone being her sunshine, her favorite tune to hum.

My tail twitched, and then it brushed against her arm, electricity shooting up my spine at the contact.

My skin was starting to glow, the purple striations that bisected my flesh giving expression to my desire for her.

Opposites definitely attracted in our case, she was day to my night. I shouldn’t find her this… perfect.

“There’s enough here. I’m drawing it to the surface now,” Eoin suddenly said.

I started to yank my tail away from Arianna, not wanting to be caught touching her when I was trying my damndest to stay away from her.

She folded her fingers around the end so quickly that I couldn’t pull without hurting her with the blade at the tip.

So I froze in place, staring at Eoin while I tried hard to pretend that she wasn’t touching me in such a sensitive spot.

“Okay, what’s your estimate for how long it takes to mine what we need?

” I asked, my voice rasping through my vocal cords like they were suddenly made of sandpaper.

I caught the satisfied smile on Arianna’s face from the corner of my eye and realized that she liked having this kind of power over me.

It almost broke my resolve right then and there.

I wanted to teach her a lesson so badly—the sensual kind of lesson she wouldn’t ever forget.

“Eight hours. I’ll have half by the end of the day. You could take that in the morning and head back for the ship so you can get started on the repairs.” He didn’t expect a response, turning his back to me so he could continue whatever it was he was doing to the rock face.

I spun on Arianna and pointed a finger at her grinning face. “Give that back.” My growl only made her smile widen, and even through the wet, slightly rotten smell of the woods around us, I could tell that she was aroused by my tone. She liked to play like this, did she?

Stepping forward, I was about to touch her for the first time voluntarily since that kiss, but a noise made me pause.

My hands were on the hilt of my blade before I could fully process what I’d heard.

With the familiar weight of the claymore in my prosthetic palms, I planted myself squarely in front of my woman—just as a predator hurled itself from a tree on top of me.