by Zara Starr
Tanya looked around. Where was she? It didn’t take her long to realize she was in a transport pod like the one that had brought her to the stage.
That would be bad news. She didn’t want to walk out onto the stage right now and be found instantly. So, she pressed a button that was lowest on the small screen. She had seen the guards do it when they were in the pod with her. Hopefully, it would drop her off in the prize quarters and she could pretend she had gotten lost.
Maybe she could start all over again when she got another chance.
The pod moved, slowly going downward, and Tanya sank down onto her haunches, her back still against the door. It was the first time she had a chance to breathe since she had run out of the lab, and her hands were trembling. Her legs were suddenly heavy and she wondered if she would be able to run another step.
The pod came to a halt a moment later. Before the doors hissed open, she backed away so that she wouldn’t fall.
When the door opened, she realized that she wasn’t in the prize quarters. There was no soft lighting or the smell of perfume drifting through the hall. The light was harsher and the nearest doorway opened up into what looked like a gym.
Were these the gladiator quarters?
Tanya wanted to go somewhere else, but she had no idea what she was doing with the pad and the buttons, and she knew she had to move if she didn’t want to be discovered. She didn’t have a choice.
She moved through the hallways again, picking up speed, running. She didn’t want to run anymore. She was tired. But she didn’t know what else to do, where else to go.
Up ahead, there were two choices – left or right. She didn’t know which to take. But she had a feeling that she was very far down in the belly of the gladiator dome and all she had to do was to stay safe.
She chose right, turning the corner sharply in a run. She slammed into a block of a man. Hard. Large hands curled around her shoulders and she swallowed down a scream.
Chapter Nine
Mal
Of all the things Mal had expected when walking down the corridors in the gladiator quarters, seeing the human female was not one of them.
She came around the corner with such speed, he had barely recognized her face before she had run straight into him. The moment she did, she had seemed blind with fear. He had wrapped his hands around her shoulders and held her at arm’s length so that she could look up at his face and recognize him.
When she did, her face softened and Mal was relieved to find that she didn’t see him as a threat.
“What are you doing here?” he asked. It would be nice to think that she was there for him, but the way she was running and the air of fear that clung to her skin and her clothes suggested otherwise.
Up close, she was spectacular to look at. Her dark hair framed her face beautifully, the corals disheveled by her running. Her bright eyes shimmered with an emotion Mal didn’t quite understand – most creatures had very emotionless eyes.
“I escaped,” she said, swallowing hard. “I need to hide. If they find me…” She didn’t have to finish her sentence. Mal knew that she would be in a lot of trouble if they found her. How had she escaped? He would ask her as soon as she was safe and calm.
“Come,” he said. “We need to get you out of the hallways.” He took her hand in his and led her down the corridor, to his room. It was a small, plain room. But he didn’t have a porthole window in his door the way she had in hers, and as long as the door was closed and she was inside, no one would find her. They didn’t search the gladiators’ rooms as a rule.
Mal was relieved that he had been the one to find her. He didn’t even want to think what would have happened if she had been found by any of the other gladiators that stayed in these quarters.
Tanya sat down on the cot Mal slept on. Even though she was sitting down, she was clearly not relaxed. She scrubbed her face with her hands, unable to stay still. Her hands fluttered around, touching her hair, her clothes, moving to her lap only to move up to her face again.
“I’m in trouble, aren’t I?” she asked.
Mal nodded slowly. She definitely wasn’t in the best situation.
“I don’t know how you escaped or how you managed to find your way down here,” he said. “But you are welcome to stay in my room as long as is necessary.”
“Thank you,” she breathed, clearly relieved. Mal was glad that he was able to help.
“Will they look for me here?” Tanya asked.
Mal shook his head. “I don’t think they would expect you to come here, of all places. It’s not exactly safe.”
Tanya nodded and ran her fingers through her hair, trying to brush the curls out of her face. “I must admit, it isn’t where I meant to go. But now that I’m here… I’m glad.”
Something jolted inside Mal when she said that. Really? Was she glad to see him? He had to admit he felt the same – he hadn’t been able to get Tanya out of his mind since he had met her in her quarters. When she hadn’t been with the other prizes on stage, he had really started to worry. Even though no one else thought it was a problem.
Tanya looked around, her head moving with jerky movements as if she was still uptight and tense. She was listening, Mal realized, her eyes moving around without taking much in, her concentration on the sounds around her. Slowly though, she started to relax. Because no sirens or alarms were going off and no Saithin guards stormed the gladiators’ quarters.
Finally, she sat back a little on the cot and looked at Mal as if seeing him for the first time. Her face changed, a smile playing around her lips. Mal couldn’t believe how it transformed her face, how much more beautiful she had become.
“You’re that gladiator,” she said. “The one that has been winning a lot of the fights.”
“Mal,” he said, reminding her of his name.
“Right, Mal,” she said, trying it out, and he liked the way his name sounded when she spoke. Since it was a name, the chip they inserted in her neck didn’t translate for her. She said it in her own tongue. It was beautiful – like music to his ears. He wanted her to say it again. And again.
“Have you been a gladiator for a long time?” she asked.
Mal nodded. “As long as I can remember.”
“Really?” she asked. She looked surprised. “Do you like it?”
The question surprised Mal and caused him to think. He had never thought about whether he liked it or not. There had never really been a choice – you did what you had to do. He didn’t know how to answer the question, but Tanya asked another and he was saved.
“How does it work?” she asked.
“Well, you go into the ring and fight,” Mal said.
Tanya nodded. “I guessed that part. But do you get to choose who you want to fight?”
Mal shook his head. “My Master chooses the fights. He enrolls me in the tournaments.”
“Master,” Tanya said. “So, you’re a slave too.”
Mal nodded. “All my life. It’s all I know.”
For a moment, sadness flickered over Tanya’s face. It disappeared again quickly. Why was she sad?
“How old were you when you started?” she asked.
“Very young,” Mal said. “I started training when I was just a child. When I was old enough and strong enough to start fighting, I was bought by my first Master. When you are a good fighter and turning heads, you are in high demand. I fought for a few Masters before I was acquired by my previous Master, who owned me for a long time. But someone else owns me now.”
“I’m so sorry,” Tanya said.
Sorry? Mal didn’t understand why she was sorry. She seemed to be sad about his life and his Masters. It was amusing – there was nothing to be sad about. They had never been cruel to him and he was a good fighter. It was his life.
“Why do you want to escape?” Mal asked.
“Are you kidding me?” Tanya asked.
Mal shook his head, looking at her, confused. Kidding? Why would he be kidding?
A
moment later, Tanya’s eyes widened. “Oh, you’re serious? You want to know why I want to escape?”
Mal nodded. “You are a prize. And not just any prize – a grand prize. You will be taken good care of. You are very rare.”
Tanya shook her head. “But my life will never be my own again. I have a life on Earth, where I am from. I have a job, a family. People that I love and people that love me. I can’t just give that up. I don’t want to. I can’t imagine what it will be like if I never get to see my sister again.”
Mal frowned. How was it possible that this woman – a slave – owned so much. And people who loved her? A sister? Mal didn’t even know if he had any siblings. But he could feel the shift in Tanya’s emotions when she spoke about her life on the other planet. She really seemed to care, and she was very sad about what she had lost.
“Explain to me,” she said, looking at Mal, back in the present. “What will happen to me if I don’t escape?”
“Well,” Mal said. “You will belong to the gladiator who wins you. Or the gladiator’s Master.”
“So, I will be a slave.”
“It is not a bad life,” Mal said.
“Only if you don’t know anything else.”
Mal didn’t quite understand her statement. Why would he know anything else? There was no such thing as having one life and then having another. Not usually.
Instead, he offered, “My Master, Slinin, has his eyes set on you. He wants me to win you for him. He is a just Master, understanding and kind.”
Tanya shook her head. “I don’t think I will be treated in the same way you are.”
Of course, she wouldn’t, Mal thought. After all, she would be a grand prize and he was just a fighter.
“What exactly does your Master plan on doing with me?” Tanya asked. “The prizes are all female. I’m not stupid. It has to be for a reason.”
Mal shifted his weight from one foot to the other. He was uncomfortable with this question. “Who is to know what the Masters really want?” he said vaguely.
“Oh, don’t give me that,” Tanya snapped and Mal was surprised by the sudden intensity of her emotion. “The female prizes are up as sex slaves, aren’t they?”
Mal nodded, taken aback by her outburst but unable to lie to her. After all, she was going to end up in the same way – it was best that she knew. But she seemed to understand.
“Usually, yes,” he confirmed. “Unless you are won by an asexual species.”
Mal watched Tanya as her expression changed yet again. He had never met any creature who had as many expressions as she did. Was it a standard human thing? Or was it Tanya specifically? Mal wanted to see more of her expressions, he liked knowing what she was thinking just by the way her face moved and her eyes changed.
The expression on her face now suggested that whatever she thought was unpleasant. Her expression had turned dark, her eyes sharp.
“Explain to me,” she said again. “Why are you not the person who would own me, even if you won?”
Mal pulled up his shoulders. “It’s not how it works.”
Never before had Mal questioned how things work in his life, and he had never cared before that his Master would be the person who got the prizes if he won. It was how it had been since he could remember – it was what it meant when you were owned as a gladiator.
But with Tanya’s questions, Mal was starting to realize that perhaps it wasn’t like that throughout the galaxy. She seemed shocked that slavery was normal. It was strange.
One thing Mal was very aware of was the fact that she would belong to his Master if he won the tournament. It would not have bothered him before, but something about this human female intrigued Mal and he didn’t want her to end up in the hands of his Master.
Especially not as a sex slave, as Tanya had put it.
It hadn’t been because of the questions she had asked and how he had become aware that things might not be the same everywhere in the galaxy. He had started thinking that he wanted to know her better, possibly own her, after he had met her.
But that would never happen. As he had said to her, if he won, she would go to Slinin. It was just the way things worked. There was no use questioning it because there was an order of things. It was better to put it all out of his mind, to accept the facts.
He would do that. The sooner Tanya did that, the better it would be for her. It was a pity that she would have to endure such a fate when she did not understand slavery and how it worked. But she would learn. Everyone learned eventually. Even the prizes that had once believed they owned their own lives.
Chapter Ten
Tanya
Tanya sat on the cot in the gladiator’s room. She couldn’t believe her luck. That she would run into him of all people had been an absolute miracle – anyone else might have either turned her in or taken advantage of her. The other gladiators all scared her.
Technically, Mal should have scared her too. But there was something about him that was different. Something that seemed gentle.
And attractive as hell.
Tanya didn’t quite understand it. He was an alien species, much taller than she was. His skin had a bluish color to it, very different from humans. But despite his different appearance, his body seemed very human-like.
He was a damn good specimen too. Muscular and well-built. She knew that she was in trouble, that she would be caught in living hell if they found her. She should be fearful for her life.
Instead, she was staring at this male creature in front of her and she could only think lustful thoughts.
She couldn’t help it. Her eyes slid over his muscular body. He was in perfect proportion, with bulging arms, six-pack abs, power pistons for legs and a face that seemed almost regal. His jaw was square, his nose as straight as an arrow and his deep-set eyes were intense. His lips were perfect too. Tanya couldn’t help but wonder what he tasted like, what it would be like to kiss this warrior.
What was wrong with her? Maybe it was the euphoria of the escape, the adrenaline in her veins messing with her mind.
Or maybe it was the first time that she wasn’t under the watchful eye of the mantis guard. Instead, she was in the presence of someone she actually liked.
Heat washed through Tanya’s body and pooled between her legs. She looked at Mal, and she knew that he picked up on the change in her mood. His nostrils flared as if he was picking up her scent, and his dark eyes seemed to grow even darker, bottomless pits of black. He parted his lips and his tongue darted across them.
She wanted him. She should have been afraid of him, but she wasn’t. Not really.
What was wrong with her? She scolded herself for being so sexed up. This was hardly the place or time.
Except soon, she was going to belong to some kind of disgusting mantis creature and she was going to be used as a sex slave. She wouldn’t have a say in it. She shivered just thinking about one of those creatures trying to mount her.
While she still could, while she still had her freedom, Tanya wanted to do what she wanted.
She wanted to do Mal.
Mal was looking at her and his eyes were riddled with the same lust that Tanya felt growing deep in her gut. Could it be that he wanted her too?”
“Your feelings have changed,” he said. His voice was husky and he had to swallow hard, his tongue darting out to lick his lips yet again.
Tanya nodded. “You can tell my emotions.”
“Sometimes,” Mal said. “I don’t always know what they mean. But I know when they change.”
Tanya nodded. “They changed.” As she looked at him, she became more aware of her breasts, of her nipples hard against the material of the shirt she was forced to wear.
“Why?” Mal asked her, almost breathlessly.
Tanya pulled up her shoulders and her breasts moved. Mal’s eyes slid down to them and Tanya arched her back, pushing them out, letting him get a good look. His breathing changed, picking up pace.
Tanya could feel how wet she was getti
ng. She scissored her thighs together and groaned. The lust was so strong, so thick in the air around them, and she had no idea where it had come from.
Mal came closer, slowly as if he was unsure. Tanya looked at him, staying just as she was, not wanting to discourage him.
“What is happening?” he asked.
Tanya didn’t know how to answer that. It was a strange question – did he not know what this was?
“Do you want to touch me?” she asked.
Mal nodded, swallowing hard. “I do.” His voice was hoarse. When he stood in front of her, his cock was just above face height, the bulge in his pants so large Tanya wanted to know how big he would be. He was so tall, she imagined that he would be well-endowed.
The thought made her blush, but she couldn’t help that she wanted to see it. She wanted to see him and touch him – she wanted to feel him inside of her.
“You can touch me if you want,” Tanya said. Her voice had lowered almost to a whisper.
Mal lowered himself so that he was sitting on the cot and the entire cot shifted under his weight. Tanya was surprised that the cot was able to take his weight.
Slowly, Mal lifted a hand and reached for Tanya’s face. When his fingertips touched her cheek, electricity passed between them and her breath caught in her throat. He dragged his fingers down, over her throat and onto her collarbones.
His hand was so large, he could cover her entire shoulder with his palm alone. But the way he touched her was so gentle, more gentle than she had ever been touched before. This warrior, this giant, seemed to understand his strength. He knew when to hold back.
And that was hotter than his muscles and his strength and everything else that had made her want him so badly.