Page 329 of Gladiators of the Vagabond Boxset

Jakar

My mate had run away, and I wanted to curse.

I wanted to yell at the black-haired female who had interrupted the moment.

Our moment. I wished we were still there, staring into each other’s eyes, trying to decipher the very heart of the other.

I might not have grown up on my home world, stolen from it when I was too small to remember, but I knew the stories from other Pretorians about finding a mate.

That first shared look—it was important—and that silly female had interrupted ours.

I had never felt the urge to yell at a woman before, but I was this close to showing this particular one disrespect.

My spots had all turned brown in intense dislike for the way she spoke and flaunted herself.

Mostly, I disliked her for ruining a moment I’d been waiting for for years.

The dream that had kept me going through the darkest of days, my worst injuries, and my most painful losses.

“Female, the doctor is ready for you now,” Sunder rumbled from my left, his words translated by a box on his hip.

His clawed hand pointed to the nearest medical cot, where a young male was just jumping off.

Her sibling. I felt ashamed now that I’d fantasized this female could be my mate when I’d first seen her.

I hadn’t known there was another woman on the ship who had been rescued.

Would my thoughts have been different if I had known?

My nose wasn’t sharp like Fierce’s, it was about as good as a human nose, according to the doc.

So I had to cut myself some slack. I couldn’t sniff out my mate like some of my brothers could.

They had ushered the flirty woman onto the cot, her focus turning to Luka, her motions sultry as she let him scan her with his handheld device.

From across the room, I could see Noa’s head come up, her eyes focusing a glare on the black-haired woman.

My credits were on Noa—she’d run that female off in no time, and I would happily watch the show.

“I brought Meena aboard. She had already been sold, and she managed to kill the Rummicaron who bought her,” Sunder confided.

He’d turned his translator box off, so his words were for my ears alone.

He had my full attention, my freckles turning yellow now that I was hearing about my mate—happy, curious—but that mood dampened immediately when he warned me that he didn’t know what she’d been through before she’d escaped.

I felt my anger surge again; I wished I could return to Yengar Station and kill the male all over anew for her.

I had no outlet for this anger, but I knew I’d do anything to make sure she’d never have to go through something like that again.

I had experienced what it was like to be helpless, to be forced to do things for survival that I didn’t want to do.

I wanted to leave the med bay and look for her—to talk to her, to let her know that she was safe, that she was not alone, and never would be again.

I was just pretty sure that would be “coming on too strong,” as Camila would call it.

Maybe I needed to find Hina to get her advice on how to proceed.

Until she had a translator, she wouldn’t know what I was saying to her anyway.

That would make courting her much harder.

My eyes darted to the translator box on Sunder’s belt.

It was crude, but it might work. Sunder caught me looking and folded a hand around the box, shaking his head.

“I know what you’re thinking, but don’t.

She needs space first. She was this close to bolting before I even got her safely onto the Vagabond.

After what she’s been through, give her a bit of time, brother.

” He held his thumb and foreclaw together until barely any space separated them.

Sunder was our teacher, the oldest of us.

He was the male whom Ziame leaned on the most when it came to making decisions.

I needed to heed his advice, even if I disliked it immensely.

Though it was difficult to get my mind to focus on anything but my mate, Meena, I forced myself to get busy helping the new humans.

I did my very best to avoid the flirty female, trying to keep the entire room between her and me, if I could.

I didn’t want my mate to think that I was interested in anyone but her.

Most humans were willing enough to have the translator implanted; a standard procedure that Luka could probably do with his eyes closed.

I hoped Meena would feel the same way about it soon.

I wanted to talk to her so badly. I wanted to know what she had to say, what she’d been through, what her hopes and dreams were.

I was still pumping with excitement over finding my mate, and when my mind flashed to what she’d been through in the short time since she’d been woken from stasis, anger surged through my body.

So, when Luka dismissed me from the med bay, I rushed to the gym, hoping that I’d find at least one of my brothers there.

Maybe Fierce or Thorin would help me blow off some steam.

When I went into the gym, I did find Thorin there, but my brother was sitting on one of the weightlifting benches in a pair of shorts.

His bad leg was up on the bench, while Camila was massaging him.

From his expression alone, I could tell it wasn’t pleasant.

He still smoothed it out and waved at me when I ducked inside.

“Hey there, brother. I heard the good news—congratulations!”

The Elrohirian male had come a long way since we rebelled against Drameil and freed ourselves.

While Fierce and I had been owned by Drameil the longest, it was males like Ziame and Thorin who had received the worst treatment.

I knew Thorin, for example, had been experimented on, something that was still causing him medical issues and a great deal of pain.

Once, he wouldn’t have congratulated me, wouldn’t have acknowledged my presence, but Camila had helped him be happier.

“Sunder had a big mouth,” I said, and I was rewarded with two identical grins from the mated pair.

“I need to spar. Did you get hurt during the raid?” I eyed his sprawled-out leg but didn’t notice any obvious injuries, so it had to be the underlying issue that plagued him.

I tried to recall if he’d run with an obvious limp on the docks, but I couldn’t remember.

It was better if I called Fierce, anyway.

That male was always up for a fight, and we knew each other well.

We were a good match on the mat. Thorin could get a little too intense when fighting sometimes, and I needed a calmer head than my own right now to balance things out.

I didn’t want to accidentally hurt one of my brothers.

“No,” Thorin said, his bright blue eyes shifting away from my face so he could gaze at Camila.

The charms dangling from the chain connecting his nose and earring chimed when he moved, and I felt a burst of happiness at seeing him wear the Vagabond clan symbol we’d conceived with pride.

I’d embossed my leather vambraces with it, each piece of furniture I’d crafted, and each of the hydroponic pods I’d installed, I’d engraved with one too.

It made me happy to be part of the whole here aboard the ship.

I hoped that Meena would soon feel the same way.

Camila made an exasperated noise, rolling her eyes.

Immediately, Thorin’s hand went to the long braid dangling over one of her shoulders, and he lightly tugged on it.

“He’s just being stubborn about admitting when he’s in pain.

” Eyeing her mate sternly, she added, “You know the Doc can’t treat you effectively if you’re not honest with him. ”

“Call Fierce,” Thorin said, deflecting the conversation away from himself.

“He’s still running hot from the rescue, too.

He can probably stand to burn some energy.

” Nodding, I grinned at the com strapped to my wrist while I typed out a quick message to my friend.

Now that Hina had been teaching him to read, he was always eager to message me, sometimes about the most mundane things—and I absolutely loved it.

He jogged into the gym not long after, Snarl, his bonded Ferai beast, in pursuit, and Fellow, the tiny rodent he’d rescued, clinging to Snarl’s neck.

Nowadays, Fluffy was often with Hina, and since the pink Riho beast was maturing, she also liked to hang out in the engine room with Babbit, the grown Riho male who kept Da’vi company.

That left Fellow with the hound, but Snarl seemed pretty okay with that.

Fierce was not a male of many words; he just kicked off his boots near the mat, gesturing at me to hurry up.

I was down to just my coveralls in a moment, leaving my knives and boots on a bench near the wall.

Then the two of us got into it, trading punches, wrestling, and just letting off steam.

I really needed that, so I could clear my head and not get so freaking angry each time I thought of what my mate had gone through.

What I needed was to find that place inside me where I could think of the future, of the good things still ahead of all of us.

I’d done it for myself, for my brothers.

Now I needed to work through this so I could help her.

*

Meena

A shuffling noise brought my head up from where I was sitting.

Arms folded around my pulled-up knees, I sat with my back safely tucked into a corner.

I wasn’t even in a room exactly, just a corner off a corridor that seemed to go nowhere.

It hadn’t seen any traffic so far, but I imagined everyone on this ship was busy with the humans in the hospital room.

Maybe they hadn’t noticed I was missing yet; a girl could hope.