Page 393 of Gladiators of the Vagabond Boxset

Jakar

Pacing in front of the airlock, I kept glancing down the hallway to see if Akri was approaching yet.

The Dart was dark and gloomy, just like Drameil.

I’d walked along the hallways of this ship more than once and never thought I’d find myself on it again.

At least the news had been passed along that Ziame had struck the bastard Crimelord the final blow.

Now, where was Akri? He’d pulled off a miracle and somehow prevented this ship from incinerating with half of us still on it. I wanted to thank him for doing that, and I wanted to make sure he knew he never had to do anything on his own again. If he had a mission, we’d all be on it, damn it.

“Calm down, brother,” Thorin said from my left, where he was leaning against the wall.

He had one fist clenched on his leg, which meant he was in pain, but his expression was calm and open.

“They’ll get here. Sunder and Ziame haven’t made it back yet, either.

” The rest had. Da’vi and Kitan were inside the small Lacerten shuttle, preparing it for takeoff.

Luka, Fierce, and Eoin were in the hallway with me, watching for the return of our brothers.

My stomach clenched when I remembered racing for the shuttle to beat that deadly timer—only to discover that just half our number had made it by the time the counter had almost hit zero.

If not for Akri’s interference, we would have had to return to the Vagabond to tell half the females their mates were dead.

A noise alerted me to new arrivals, my upper hands flexing into fists in case it wasn’t anyone friendly.

“Akri, are you meeting us at the shuttle?” Ziame rumbled in his deep voice.

He and Sunder were approaching from our left, dried blood coating our captain’s chest and face.

Looked like he’d been hit by some serious arterial spray…

Ziame’s green eyes met mine, and then he made eye contact with each of my brothers while he tapped his fist over his heart.

“Drameil is dead,” he announced, the statement met with loud cheers and foot-stomping.

Thorin surprised all of us by dragging Ziame into an embrace, risking the impalement of his hand when he slapped the captain on his back.

“Akri and his mate are on their way,” Ziame said once the commotion died down.

We all settled in to wait, though Sunder ducked into the ship to share the news with our mechanic and pilot.

I saw that Ziame was raising his comm to his mouth to have a quiet conversation with his mate, his expressive ears twitching this way and that as he talked.

There he was at last, jogging down the hallway with confidence, a human female tucked under one arm. One of his tentacles was curled around her neck and shoulders too, like he couldn’t resist having as much contact with her as possible. Definitely mated.

His approach was met with cheers and greetings, and I waded to the front, using my extra arms to my advantage.

Lifting Akri with my upper arms, I yanked him into a hug.

“My brother, so glad to have you back! Congratulations!” He let out an “oomph” as I slapped the air out of him, but the grin on his face was huge, his strange eyes shimmering with little red and orange flickers.

It was obvious from the way he handled himself in the loud crowd that he had full control of his body now.

He also never once let go of his female and eagerly introduced her to each of us as Jenny, wearing the widest smile.

Yeah, Akri had fully “integrated,” as he’d call it, and he now carried himself as a warrior, as one of us.

When we returned to the Vagabond on Akri’s former little shuttle, we were forced to stand packed together in the small interior.

I was grateful that the trip was even shorter than the ride to the Dart had been; the Vagabond no longer needed to hide, so Chloe and Oliver were meeting us halfway.

Our only male human addition to the crew had taken to flying like a fish to water, allowing Kitan a little more downtime when we were traveling.

In the hangar bay of the Vagabond, the round of eager greetings started all over again, this time from all the women on the ship.

I sought out my Meena, grinning when I spotted her crown of dark hair in the mob.

More gently this time, I elbowed my way through the crowd and scooped her into my arms. “Mate, you are positively glowing!” I told her, and she smiled back at me.

“Come on, I want to greet Akri. I wouldn’t be here with you if not for him!” she said, and, doing as she wished, I carried her to where Akri and his Jenny were surrounded by our family. “Akri!” Meena called out, and I was glad to see that Akri immediately turned to her and started smiling widely.

“Ah, Meena!” He dipped his head into a bow.

“I see you are well. Come meet Jenny,” he said, indicating the brown-haired female beneath his arm.

She had freckles across her face, much like mine, and I liked that.

I put my mate down on her feet when she reached for Jenny and watched with a smile as the two hugged, though they didn’t even know each other.

“Jenny, Akri was the one who made me feel welcome on this ship when I first got here. Please, let me return the favor and do the same for you!” Meena was saying.

My chest filled with warmth. Yeah, now my family was whole again, all my favorite people back together on the Vagabond.

There was nothing that could make this better.

I was the luckiest male in the Quadrant.