Page 60 of Gladiators of the Vagabond Boxset

He paused for a moment and gestured for me to step further out from behind the stasis pod.

With a wary look at how close he stood, I shuffled a little closer to him.

When he backed up slowly and started walking toward the cargo bay exit, I followed—still worried, still scared, but trusting, for now, that I might actually be somewhat safe for once.

“The Krektar gambled and bought a batch of faulty stasis pods, hoping they’d get some females out of them.

” He gestured at the six empty stasis pods stacked near the cargo bay exit.

I’d seen them brought in and had wondered who had been in there; they had been turned off and empty, giving me no clues.

“They got Abigail and Tori out of that—two human women like you.”

He stopped walking to look at me over his shoulder, as if checking to see what that information meant to me.

I shrugged. So, they had more human women aboard.

Not like I’d be able to relate to them; I’d pretty much grown up among the pirates.

There wasn’t much I could probably share with them.

I was more comfortable around a bunch of rowdy men—I knew what to expect there.

“Abigail managed to disable the pain collar on Ziame—that’s our captain—they instigated a revolt, and we took over the ship.

” He turned as he reached the exit and looked at me, noticing that I hadn’t followed him as much as he probably hoped.

I had shuffled along, but getting out of the cargo bay seemed like an almost insurmountable step.

Instead of something snappy or annoyed to urge me on, he simply waited; he even casually propped himself against the nearest wall.

That made it clear to me, all at once, that he didn’t intend to rush me and that he was fine taking it at my pace.

I kind of felt angry at the fact that I even needed that kind of delicate treatment.

I was tougher than that, wasn’t I? But still, I didn’t make my feet move closer.

“That’s how I got injured, you know,” Kitan said, as he pointed at his bandaged chest and broken arm. “In the revolt. It’s damn annoying that my kind doesn’t heal broken bones as fast as some of the others, and now I’m stuck, unable to shift.”

I shrugged. “It looked painful when you tried.” The words slipped from my mouth much more easily that time, I was getting used to talking to him. His gold eyes were kind and full of mischief at the same time, it was nice.

He snorted. “I came here so no one would see that embarrassing attempt.” That could have been an angry remark—where he’d take it out on me—instead, he gave me another of those self-deprecating grins and a tight shrug.

“Not that I’m complaining, mind you, just, uh…

maybe don’t tell that part to the Doc when you see him? ”

Much to my surprise, I found myself smiling at him. The expression felt a little foreign to my face, tight in my cheeks, but it was worth it when he smiled back more fully, and I felt this warmth flutter in the pit of my stomach.

Then his eyes dropped down and focused on the edge of the pain collar, just barely visible over the neckline of my voluminous blouse.

I raised my shoulders and ducked my head to hide it, but he hissed, his sharp fox-like snout pulling into a snarl.

“You have a pain collar. Let’s get that damn thing removed right now. ”

He grabbed me by the wrist—coincidentally, the one with which I was holding my rusty pipe.

He didn’t make me drop it, though; he just started pulling me along with him out of the cargo bay.

I considered fighting; already, my pulse was racing again, and the urge to do so was strong.

But his grip was far stronger than I expected from how injured he appeared.

Was he just faking that to gain my trust?

There was a nonstop stream of noise coming from his mouth at this point, by far the most he’d said. Previously, he’d talked gently to me, pausing each time to let me listen and evaluate, but now it was more like he was angrily talking to himself.

I wanted to fight, but I had trained myself over the years to quickly assess the futility of such a thing, and I knew this was, sadly, one I’d lose.

I had underestimated how strong he was and how fast he could move.

I was quietly freaking out about what he was planning to do and where he was taking me.

This whole thing had been set off by the pain collar.

Was he dragging me to some holding cell?

No, come on, Chloe! Think rationally. This wasn’t that—he just told me he was a former slave. I needed to stay alert, pay attention. But through the pounding of my heart and my panicked breathing, it was hard to focus on the stream of angry mutterings coming from his mouth.

He was snarling more than speaking when he said, “Curse those damn pirates! Pain collars! Never!” We were in a corridor now, heading for the nearest lift that would take us to deck one or two.

The cargo bay was on the lowest level. Was he taking me to his captain?

I tried to slow my steps—not so much fighting as slowing just enough to maybe delay the inevitable.

The moment I slowed, the Sune male suddenly stopped walking and twisted to look down at me.

“Oh, shit…” he murmured, and then he dropped my wrist. “I scared you! I didn’t mean to do that…

” His snout twitched as he appeared to fight twisting into another angry snarl.

“That pain collar just makes me so damn angry!”

My mouth dropped open, and my panicked brain finally realized that he was angry on my behalf. “I’m sorry, Chloe. Shall I call Abigail on my com for you? She’s probably much better at making you feel welcome. I should have done that in the first place.”

The thought of him calling some stranger on the com to help manage me sounded really embarrassing and also…

just overwhelming. I’d spent my entire life aboard this ship trying hard to fly under the radar, to hide in plain sight, or just plain hide.

Having to deal with yet another new person—I didn’t want that.

He was already calling someone on his com.

I had never, ever initiated first contact with another person, but to my shock, I reached out now and grabbed hold of his arm, stopping him.

“No, please, I just didn’t understand.” The texture of his furred arm beneath my fingers was shocking too.

It was far softer than I expected, and the muscles of his arm were much firmer, stronger than my own skinny arms felt.

I didn’t want to let go, and since he didn’t shake me off, I didn’t need to.

Kitan had frozen the moment I touched him, his head angled down toward me so his shockingly golden eyes looked straight into mine.

That weird, magnetic connection I’d felt the first time this happened was back in full force.

Neither of us moved. Not until a voice broke the silence: “Uh, Kitan? Why did you call me?”

The weirdest thing happened then. That voice—it was a woman with a low, melodic tone; she sounded warm and friendly.

But she spoke in a language I hadn’t heard in so long…

I thought I would feel scared and overwhelmed dealing with another human—and a woman to boot—but this sounded so right.

“Oh, she speaks English.” The words left my mouth before I could censor them.

“Who is that? Kitan? Is there a woman there with you? What’s going on?

” that wonderful voice said. She didn’t sound angry or alarmed, just curious.

Kitan didn’t break contact—not with his eyes, and definitely not with his arm—but his next words he directed at this woman on his com.

My heart was racing again; it seemed it was getting one hell of a workout today.

“Abigail, I think you’d better meet me in the med bay. Alone, okay? I found a woman—Chloe. She hid when the Krektar killed the pirates; I think they kept her as their slave…” He seemed to need confirmation that what he’d just told Abigail was true, so I gave him a slight nod.

“A stowaway? A human woman?” Abigail asked, and when Kitan said yes, she crisply told him she’d meet him at the med bay.

When the com winked off, Kitan didn’t move, though.

He kept his eyes on mine and his arm poised awkwardly toward me where I held him.

“In the med bay, our Doc can get that awful collar removed and make sure you’re healthy.

After that, we’ll go get some food in you, alright? ”

This was too good to be true. I felt like this had to be a dream—maybe I’d already run out of water and was hallucinating.

I felt like my alarms should be blaring full-on, and I should run and hide.

Instead, I kept my hand on Kitan’s arm for as long as he let me and allowed him to lead me to the med bay.