Page 293 of Gladiators of the Vagabond Boxset

Tori

My heart was still pounding with adrenaline from the fight a few minutes ago, and maybe from the punishing pace Eoin had set for us. I couldn’t quite believe that I’d gone and shot a man. My trigger finger still felt like a foreign piece of my body, as if it weren’t part of me anymore.

I’d just seen that guy scramble to his feet and lash out with that dagger at Eoin, and then all thought had fled my mind.

My vision had narrowed to where I wanted to shoot him, Camila’s teachings racing through my mind.

I’d aimed, breathed out, and pressed that trigger.

It had been so easy, it was a little appalling just how easy that had been.

With my hand clutched tightly in Eoin’s, I tried to analyze how I felt about him.

Though I was still angry about how he’d acted all day, I was not his mate, he had no right to act like he could lock me back up in my ivory tower.

That’s what he wanted: to keep me on a freaking shelf, where I was so damn safe I couldn’t even stub my freaking toe.

No more. I’d show him that I wasn’t going to go back to that spot he’d assigned me in his mind, that safe zone. I hated the safe zone.

This is why we couldn’t work out—nothing had changed that—but that didn’t mean I couldn’t prove to him that I’d grown, that I was not the same girl he’d met half a year ago. I was stronger now; I had my Novalee to protect, and I’d show him that I could protect him too, see how he liked that.

The docking area was crowded, like the shopping district had been, but it was a much more open space.

I felt like I could breathe a little better here, where I could see more than a few dozen feet ahead and the huge shapes of ships floated outside the windows, attached to the station via the many spidery docking arms.

In the distance, I saw the number of the berth that the Vagabond was assigned to. I’d learned just enough of the common trader language in this quadrant to read them; it helped when I was reading the alien scales in the kitchen.

When we got closer, I saw that Ziame and Abigail were standing just outside the airlock that led to the docking arm.

They must have just returned from their shopping trip.

I hoped they’d gotten all the things I’d added to the list. We were running low on the Alpara algae stuff, which tasted so much like bacon.

It wouldn’t be a proper breakfast without at least one dish of that stuff disappearing into the mouths of the many greedy eaters living on the ship.

“Come on, we’re almost there,” Eoin muttered, his eyes darting around the busy area.

Crates were ferried to and fro, ships were being unloaded and reloaded, and passengers disembarked to haunt the halls of the Yengar Space Station.

I would have been blown away and intimidated by what I saw here a few months ago, but this wasn’t my first time at a strange, alien port.

I had somehow managed to get used to this weird, eclectic collection of alien species.

Jogging to keep up with Mr. Bossy Butt, I tried to formulate the arguments I’d need to convince him I needed to come on this rescue mission.

If Camila was back from her own mission, she’d have my back; she and I had worked hard on helping me be more assertive.

Arianna would too, she was the ultimate cheerleader, and she loved to stick it to the man. Eoin was a prime target for her.

Fortified with those thoughts, I lost the last of my trepidation about reaching the ship.

That’s when I spotted Aggy and Sunder stepping out of the airlock, their kids in tow.

Aggy had Novalee on her hip, my happy girl staring out over the dock with her bright blue eyes in absolute wonder; I could see that even from afar.

Overtaking Eoin’s large stride, I started running for the airlock, ignoring his shocked exclamation.

Ziame swung his tail out of the way just in time for me to dash past, Aggy already holding my precious baby out to me with a huge smile.

“Look, there’s your mom, kiddo,” she said, just as I curled her in my arms.

I could forget all about my frustration with Eoin and my worry about him when I held Novalee in my arms. She was just what I needed to settle myself.

I was doing this for her as much as I was for myself.

I needed to show her that I was strong and that she shouldn’t let anyone walk all over her.

With nearly a dozen gladiator uncles, she was going to have a tough time of it when she got older and wanted to assert herself—or, God forbid, actually try to date. She needed me to be a good example.

Just remembering what it had been like to try to date anyone, with all my brothers trying to scare my dates… And I’d managed to fall for the one guy out here in the Zeta Quadrant who was just like them. I was such an idiot.

“Hey, baby, did you miss me?” I cooed at the chubby baby in my arms. She was growing rapidly, and now that she could eat solids besides milk, she was a joy to share the kitchen with.

I loved how she always wanted to try anything I was making, and all the exaggerated expressions she made when she tasted new things.

She didn’t say anything, but she made a chirruping sound and waved her chubby fists around before tangling one in my hair and pulling.

Then Eoin was at my side, leaning in over my shoulder to greet my kid with a warm laugh, a finger reaching out to rub over her cheek.

“Hey there, beautiful. Aren’t you a sight for sore eyes?

” he said, that lovely tenor of his all soft and mellow.

Oh, yeah, that’s why I’d fallen for him. He was just amazing with Nova. Besides me, he was her absolute favorite person in the world. He even trumped Sunder and Fierce, who spent by far the most time with her.

“She just ate some crackers, and I cleaned her diaper,” Aggy said.

“But she refused to go down for a nap, I’m afraid.

” That didn’t surprise me; Novalee didn’t like naps unless I napped with her.

Since she still regularly woke me up at night for a feeding, that was fine by me most days.

When I wasn’t tired enough to sleep myself, she often slept in the wrap, tucked tightly against my chest while I experimented in the kitchen.

“Thank you for watching her. I appreciate it,” I told Aggy, smiling at the former school teacher.

Then I saw the thunderous look on Sunder’s face, he stood right behind his mate, one leathery wing flared out to cup her around the shoulder protectively.

I winced, the weight of his handheld scanner burning in my pocket.

I shouldn’t have taken that without asking, I just knew he would have said no.

“Don’t look at her like that,” Eoin said, jabbing a finger Sunder’s way.

“She doesn’t need to hear it from both of us.

” I bristled, and Aggy’s eyes narrowed dangerously in Eoin’s direction, telling me that she, too, thought he was crossing the line there.

He was acting like he was my freaking dad, did he not hear himself?

One look at Sunder told me even he thought this was too much, but then they often butted heads—probably as often as Eoin and I did. Pulling Sunder’s handheld from my pocket, I stuffed it into his hand, then yanked Eoin by the sleeve away from the airlock so we could talk away from the others.

“Now listen up,” I snarked, then lowered my voice to a calmer, more modulated tone for Novalee’s sake.

“You don’t have any right at all to speak like that!

I can take care of myself. When are you going to get that through that thick skull of yours?

” I jabbed him in the chest for good measure, feeling a little wild, strong.

The truth was, Eoin always brought that feeling out in me, especially when he was trying to coddle me.

When anyone else did it, I folded like a house of cards, but not with him.

I didn’t understand why, but I was happy about it.

He opened his mouth, his expression furious, because he never backed down—so that wasn’t a surprise.

Then, he suddenly lunged at Novalee and me, his arms wrapping around us, his forward momentum sending us tumbling to the ground.

“What the hell?” I yelled, my backbone painfully thudding onto the metal station floor.

I had a good grip on Novalee, but Eoin had wrapped her in some kind of mesh sprouting from his arm, securing her against us as we fell.

For a brief, insane moment, I thought he’d lost his mind and attacked us.

Then the unmistakable whining noise of a laser impacting above us penetrated my brain.

We’d been standing there only a second ago; he’d tackled us to the ground behind a stack of crates—only just in time.

“Are you hurt? Is Novalee okay?” Eoin asked, a frantic edge to his tone telling me he knew how rough he’d been trying to get us to cover.

He’d wrapped me in his arm, protecting my head from the fall, and he’d pinned the baby to my chest with that weird metal sprouting from his skin.

I was pretty sure we were okay, although my backbone felt bruised.

“Okay,” I whispered, my eyes scanning Novalee as I spoke. The mesh was retreating back into Eoin’s arm, and she was grabbing at it with her pinkish, purple-tipped fingers, gurgling a baby laugh as if she were having the time of her life.

Eoin was propped up above us, leaning on one elbow, his palm tucked beneath my head.

A brief smile flitted across his face at Novalee’s laugh, then he turned all business as he disentangled himself from us and got to his knees.

I carefully followed suit but didn’t stick my head around the edge of the crate to get a better look.