by Alana Khan
“Come here,” Plenum orders. “Lie down. Fair warning, you won’t be wearing that dress for long. Too bad you won’t be with me long enough for that hair to grow to your shoulders. What possessed you to cut it short and fashion it into spikes?” he asks with distaste.
Fuckers like you, I retort in my head. Grabby, rapey fuckers like Plenum of Trent.
He presses me into the chaise lounge and sticks his tongue down my throat, I try to push him off, but he’s a big guy, and strong. If I saw him at a bar, I’d think he wasn’t bad looking. But rotten character could detract from the appeal of Mr. Universe, and this guy is no Mr. Universe.
He retreats long enough to order Crom to start the game. After tonguing me again for half a minute, he sits up to watch.
I’ve already given the place a visual once-over. Two burly guards flank the viewing window. They have no job description other than to prevent little old me from hurting big bad Plenum. They’d tackle me within seconds if I try to run.
Crom listened to every word I told him earlier. I know I planted seeds of doubt, but there hasn’t been time for those seeds to fully mature.
Not one, but two ships are winging their way here. However, there are only ten gladiators onboard, and who knows if Plenum will stash me so deep in some underground cavern they’ll never find me.
There may eventually be a way off this planet, but it’s not going to be before the end of the competition playing out in front of me.
Beast enters the arena. Oh my God. He is totally fucking defenseless. One unarmed male, not even equipped with a shield against six well-armed gladiators. This is a travesty.
“You have to give him a weapon,” I demand.
“You,” he says as he grabs me around the throat, crushing my windpipe, “do not command me.”
I’m digging at his fingers, trying to pry them from my throat.
“The best you can do is beg. Come on. Beg. Like a canine.”
I catch Crom’s astonished face out of the corner of my eye. I think his master’s behavior has astonished even him.
I hate myself even as I ease to the floor at his side. If this goes on for thirty seconds more, I think I’ll die. I crouch on all fours, his fingers still squeezing the life out of me. White flashes of lights are flying in my vision.
He finally releases me with a hearty laugh.
“Tell them to begin,” he orders Crom, then gives his full attention to the spectacle in front of us.
I watch, mesmerized as the two archers aim, not at my Beast, but at the guards. The action moves swiftly as the seven gladiators look like they’re in perfect synchrony, all fighting as one against their masters, even through the shocking pain of their collars.
“You, to the arena,” he orders the two guards in the auditorium. “Call for backup!” Plenum screams at Crom.
I realize our male from Drulinius has chosen a side when he balks, in his own way. His branch-like arms take long, critical seconds to press the button, then more seconds are lost as he stutters into the comm on the wall before he finally sounds the alarm.
Good male, Crom! In this life-and-death struggle, every second we gain in our fight is precious.
“Your male did this!” Plenum screams at me as he pulls me to him, his hands again squeezing my neck.
I’m crouched on the floor, he’s sitting on the chaise, putting his entire strength into choking the life from me. Powerless over what’s happening in the arena, he has power over one living being on this planet—me.
My vision is fading. Pain and fear war within me as I realize I’m dying.
I haven’t taken a breath in a minute, maybe more. I can barely think, so I don’t know how the idea comes to me, but with perfect clarity, my hands leave his in their futile attempt to pull his fingers from my throat.
I grab the Louboutin off my right foot, hold it in the perfect position, and stab the motherfucker in his carotid artery.
Just like in the movies, blood sprays everywhere, covering my face and chest. I stay single-minded, I need to keep stabbing until he’s well and truly dead. I pull the six-inch stiletto out and sink it into the hollow of his throat, then pull it out again, ignoring the wet sucking sound it makes, and plunge it between his nipples, trying to reach his heart.
I’m not strong enough to push it past his breastbone, so I pull it out and jam it in again and again until I puncture the bone.
It’s only now that I dare look at his face. His eyes are sightless. His perpetual sneer is finally gone. He’s dead.
Beast
The moment I have confidence that we’ve won, I leave the arena at a run, enter the dark cavern of the barracks, and find the stairwell that leads to the viewing auditorium. Aerie! Gods only know what Plenum is doing to her right this moment.
I barge into the cool cavernous room to see Aerie kneeling over Plenum, who’s reclining on one of his lounges. She’s stabbing him, over and over, right in the heart. With one of her stilts.
“Aerie,” I call as I approach. She’s covered in blood, and appears to be in a trance. “Aerie, it’s Beast. You’re safe.”
She stops, shakes her head as if she’s returning to the present, and then drops her shoe.
I run to her, lift her into my arms, then check that Plenum’s dead.
“You killed him, love. He won’t hurt either of us again.”
“Crom,” I say with authority when I notice him almost hidden in the thick folds of the curtain, “pick a side.”
He stutters for long moments. He’s not stalling, I believe I’ve scared the words right out of him.
“He helped,” Aerie says. “He’s already picked our side.”
“How many guards are on the premises?”
Crom mentally calculates. “Fifteen,” he says, then, “no. Sixteen. Minus the carnage in Plenum’s office, of course.”
“That’s everyone? No one in their bunk on their day off? No one out shopping?”
“There are female house staff that aren’t slaves, Sir . . . Master . . . Beast, Sir. But no other males.”
“Use that comm to tell the gladiators to count the bodies. Tell them we need sixteen.”
When all of our enemies are dead and accounted for, I carry Aerie to the arena. Crom trails behind.
“I told the truth when I said two ships of escaped gladiator slaves will land here tonight,” I tell them. “We’ll have to confirm we’ll be welcome on their ships. Crom will release the remaining prisoners, fill them in on the plan. My female needs a moment of peace.
“I want no looting, no fires, no damage. Am I clear? We’re free males now. Not savages. We’ll each make our own decisions from here. Let’s ensure there’s something on this godsforsaken rock to salvage.
“We reconvene in four hoaras in the viewing auditorium. It’s blessedly cool as a winter day in there. Might I request Plenum’s body be disposed of before we return?”
Maximus says, “Yes.”
“And if any of you wondered if I’m the one who killed our sadistic dracker of a master, I wish I could take credit. But it wasn’t me, it was the five-fierto-tall female in my arms.”
With that, I stalk out of the arena, Crom scurrying beside us to hover us back to the guest cottage.
Chapter Eleven
Aerie
Beast carries me when we exit the hover. I protest that I can walk. “Of course you can, love, but I want you next to me,” his voice rumbles in my ear. It feels reassuring to have him so close, to feel his warm skin under my fingertips.
“Crom,” Beast says after we cross the cottage threshold, “are the remaining staff all female?”
“Yes, Sir.”
“Would you inform them that their services will no longer be required?”
“Yes, Sir.”
“I’m just Beast. And, Crom?”
“Yes, Sir?”
“Does Plenum give you credits to run the household?”
“Yes, Sir.”
“Please, Crom, call me Beast. Give each of th
em as much as you can afford—equal shares of what you have access to. Leave two shares for yourself. Tell the females to go back to their homes. Advise them to hide the money for several lunars. I wouldn’t want them accused of theft.”
“Certainly, Sir. Good idea.”
“Would you be so kind as to stay on the property until we leave the planet?”
“Yes, of course. Where else would I go?”
“Can you pick us up in time to be back at the auditorium at the appointed time?”
“Yes. Certainly.”
“Crom?” I ask, surprised by how shaky my voice is.
“Yes, Mistress?”
“Is Emmannee on the premises?”
“No, Mistress. All the . . . um, working females were sent off world recently.”
I guess my plan for revenge is foiled. Which is a good thing. Emmannee was just earning money any way she knew how. I shouldn’t hate her. Besides, I won the prize. His warm, granite-hard muscles are clutching me close right this moment.
Beast closes the door and sweeps me up the stairs to our suite. He pulls off the gold dress that Plenum dressed me in and tosses it out our door and down the steps. It’s not gold anymore. It’s covered in blood.
I’m watching all of this as if I’m underwater. Everything is hazy, like it’s a million miles away. I don’t feel my lips. Actually, I don’t feel my body.
Beast lifts me in his arms and doesn’t release me until we’re both naked in the warm shower.
“It’s okay, Aerie,” he croons while he washes me gently, as if I’m breakable. “You’re safe. We’re safe.”
He tips my head back and works shampoo through my hair. When I look down, I see blood still swirling around the drain.
“I killed him?” My lips almost feel normal; they’re not numb anymore.
“He’s dead, my love.”
I let his words soak in as I watch him carefully clean me, then himself. He turns off the water and towels me dry. My mind replays the last hour, and I try to come to terms with everything I just witnessed. No, not just witnessed. I killed a man. I’ll have to live with that.
No, Aerie, I tell myself. This isn’t something you’ll have to live with. This isn’t something you’ll have to carry around like a heavy burden of shame. He was squeezing the life out of you. He was prepared to kill every male in the arena, including the male you love—Beast. It was kill or be killed and you did the right thing.
The guilt that had been swirling in my belly is gone. It’s been replaced by . . . pride. I may be five-foot-one, but I’m strong. I’m capable of doing whatever needs to be done.
“What do you need, Aerie? Sleep? Talk? Food? Let me help you.”
What do I need? My foggy mind struggles with this simple request.
“Can we lie together? Can you pet my head until I’m asleep?”
“Yes, my love.”
“And you can keep using that word, my love. I like it so much. And don’t leave me? I got used to you always being close when we were in the pod.”
“Yes, my love,” his voice is warm and reassuring.
~.~
I don’t know how long I slept, but when I wake up, the first thing I see is Beast. Those beautiful green eyes are looking at me out of the most precious face in the galaxy. His face is different somehow. It’s softer.
“Did you sleep?” I ask.
“No. I watched you.”
“Boring, huh?”
“Fascinating. I’d like to do it forever.”
My tummy does a dive, then rolls. His sweet face is serious—he’s not joking.
“Really?”
“I’ve been lying here thinking for the houra and a half you were sleeping. A male can do a lot of thinking in that amount of time. I looked at my life like a stretch of highway. I examined all of it, from the beginning to now.
“Out of all those milles of highway, it’s only the last one that I’d want to travel again. The one since I’ve known this tiny Earth female with the heart of a warrior. I could see myself with her for the rest of the journey.”
My eyes pop open. For a moment I forget to breathe. I don’t think I’ve known him much more than a week, and for a few of those days I thought he was the devil incarnate because he shouted another woman’s name during sex.
His huge, gentle hand just keeps stroking my head. His eyes are staring off into the distance. He’s putting no pressure on me to respond.
“I’m a reckless male. I know it’s far too soon. I never expected you to say yes to being my mate. I know you, Aerie. You’re a thinker, a planner. You’re not brash like me. You’d never agree to my proposal so quickly. I don’t even want you to. I just want you to know it’s there, a safe harbor you can retreat to.”
“Proposal?” You can take a lawyer off the Earth, but you can’t take the lawyer out of the girl. If he’s speaking of contracts, I need to know the details.
“I know nothing of Earth customs. Many species mate. My first master forced my mother and father to procreate. I didn’t grow up watching loving mates. But I’ve seen it on vids. My heart has always yearned for it. One female to be by my side forever.”
He reaches over, places his palms above my ears, and dips his lips to my forehead. There he bestows the most chaste, sweet, respectful kiss, then lays his head back on his pillow.
“I don’t want an answer now, love. I’ve made other decisions. Want to hear them?”
I’ve been sleeping like the dead, and the male next to me has been planning his future. It makes me smile to picture that. This handsome male never had the opportunity to think about a future before. I’m thrilled that now he has a future to ponder over.
“Yes. Tell me everything.”
“I can’t think too far ahead. But in the short term, I’d like to stay with the gladiators. I haven’t met anyone on board who isn’t a good person. They’re all trustworthy. I like them. I can see myself staying with them. I’d like for the gladiators from Trent to come with us, for us to man the second ship. But that choice is for Zar to make.
“If I have my way, my cabin will be shared with a female with short blond hair and a stilt-buying addiction. But we’ll see about that.”
“And fighting, Beast?” Dahlia’s words still ring in my ears. She said you never know how you feel about someone until you see them fighting in the sand of the arena. I may not know if I want to be Beast’s forever mate, but I know I never again want to see him risking his life in a gladiatorial match.
“I love to fight, Aerie. I was bred for it. It’s in my blood.”
I feel punched in the gut. Maybe I was seriously considering his proposal, but this is a deal-breaker.
“But I don’t want to risk my life anymore. I want to earn credits to help keep the ship running, and I’ll be honest, I love the sport. There are things called Cestus fights. They’re unarmed. I might have to fight two or three males at a time, it would be hard to have one Cestus fighter get in the ring with a Pinnacle. But I’ll be safe.
“I’d go in naked, fight until my opponents are knocked to the sand, then leave. It will be fun.”
I glance up at him and see his happy, relaxed face. Yes. In Beast’s world that’s what fun looks like. I guess I could live with that.
It’s a relief that Beast doesn’t expect an answer right away. How crazy would it be to say yes to a proposal after knowing a big, scary, green gladiator for a week? But so far, the idea of staying together with my new friends sounds pretty enticing.
“I’ll think about your proposal, Beast. But I was always taught not to buy a pig in a poke.” I splay my fingers on his chest and drag them slowly down his torso until I grab his cock. “Think we should test things out? Now that you’re a free male?”
His cock comes alive under my touch. I love the feeling of power this gives me. My eyes stay focused on his expression, watching every nuance of his growing arousal on his face as I feel it reflected down below.
“You want this now? After what happened?” he
asks, his eyebrow lifts in question.
I can’t think of a better way to erase the feel of that asshole’s touch than to replace it with the fire of Beast’s caress.
“Promises were made, Beast. I distinctly remember you predicting certain things would happen when you were well and truly free. We’ve definitely crossed that finish line.”
He rolls me onto my back and my hands fly to his shoulders as he straddles me without putting an ounce of his weight on me.