Enslaved Book III: The Gladiators

by Kaitlyn O'Connor

  “Hates me, too,” Shara said, sniffing.

  It occurred to Loren that she ought to try to think of something to say to offer solace, but she couldn’t think of a damned thing.

  “And the worst of it is, I’m pregnant!” Karen cried.

  “An’ I not!” Shara seconded her.

  Karen blinked her tears back and stared at the other woman. “How could that possibly be worse than being pregnant?” she snapped indignantly.

  Shara sent her a resentful look. “’Cause I want baby and no have!”

  Karen’s chin wobbled. “They’re going to think it isn’t theirs because I didn’t tell them and those bastards raped me and now they’ll think it belongs to the bastards that raped me!”

  Loren’s wobbled. She sniffed. “Me, too. Not that they weren’t already angry with me! And that’s why I didn’t tell them and now I can’t.”

  Karen blinked at her. “Don’t you think they’ll notice? I mean, eventually?”

  “Thanks a lot for helping my feelings!” Loren snapped.

  Karen stared at her for a long moment and burst into tears again. “Everybody blames me for everything!”

  Guilt smote Loren. She reached for Karen after a few moments and hugged her and let her cry all over her a little longer.

  “What are we going to do?” she asked after a bit.

  “We can’t go home even if we could find home!” Loren wailed, abruptly bursting into tears herself.

  When they’d finally calmed down and begun trying to mop up, Karen glanced at Loren curiously. “Why were they angry before?”

  Loren felt like bursting into tears all over again. “Because I told them I couldn’t get pregnant. I thought I couldn’t.”

  Karen frowned. “Then you did tell them.”

  “No,” Loren said, sniffing. “I’d forgotten all about it. I asked them what the spawning was all about and … I was just so surprised. And then they asked me how often we spawned and I told them we could pregnant any time.”

  Karen stared at her. “Uh oh.”

  Loren sniffed, nodding, but then resentment flickered through her. “How was I supposed to know they could? Get me pregnant, I mean.”

  Karen looked uncomfortable. “I didn’t think so either, but I didn’t stick my foot in my mouth.”

  “Well! Thanks a hell of a lot!” Loren snapped indignantly.

  “Why no?” Shara asked curiously. “Gots dicks. Nice dicks.”

  Karen and Loren shared a look.

  “Ok,” Loren said, “so that’s very succinctly put, but I get the idea. I guess you’re right. I should have thought they were so much like us there might be a chance but isn’t as if it was something I wanted to worry about under the circumstances … or something I could do anything about.”

  “So … stop feeling guilty,” Karen said. “It was a misunderstanding. You can explain it.”

  Loren looked at her unhappily. “That should go over well,” she said sourly. “Sorry! You’re an alien. It never occurred to me you could get me pregnant!”

  “Well, don’t say it like that, stoopid!” Karen said irritably.

  “I don’t know any way to say that and not sound like a bigot!”

  Karen lifted her brows at her, but she apparently decided they had enough race issues to deal with at the moment. Sighing, she thought it over. “I’ve got it! Lie! Tell them you desperately wanted their baby and you lied so they’d get you pregnant!”

  “That isn’t going to fix it! They were angry because they didn’t want me to get pregnant and they thought I’d lied and gotten pregnant … or just lied and might have gotten pregnant.”

  “Because of the spawning?”

  Loren nodded.

  “Well!” Karen said indignantly. “It isn’t as if you could’ve fought them off! Believe me, I tried ….” She stopped, looked uncomfortable and blushed. “At least I did at first, because I wasn’t sure what they had in mind.”

  “They know you did! And they know I didn’t.”

  “I did also,” Shara put in helpfully.

  Loren looked at her irritably. “Fight? Or not fight?”

  “Fight. Scary mens.”

  Loren covered her face with her hands. “Could I possibly have screwed up any worse?”

  “I don’t know. That seems like a pretty thorough fuck up,” Karen said helpfully.

  Loren dropped her hands and glared at her.

  Karen smiled faintly. “You don’t have any sense of humor. Anybody ever tell you that?”

  “I don’t feel like laughing. I feel like crying.”

  “Well, don’t do that anymore. Right now you’re red, white, and black and blue.”

  Loren’s mouth curled downward. “In other words, I look like shit—besides everything else.”

  Karen studied her for several moments. “Do you know you’re pregnant? I mean positively?”

  Loren was about to inform her that she did know, positively, but it occurred to her that she actually didn’t. “I’m way past starting.”

  “You’ve never been late before?”

  “Not like this.”

  Karen shrugged. “Ever been kidnapped by aliens before, packed in a pod, and shipped across the known universe?”

  Loren smiled faintly. “This is my first time.”

  “Well! There you go. All this breast beating might be for nothing.”

  For a handful of seconds, Loren felt her spirits lift. Then they plummeted again. “I was actually starting to get used to the idea,” she muttered. “I mean, kind of, sort of starting to like it … in an unhealthy, self-destructive kind of way—because I’m totally fucked if I am!”

  Karen and Shara exchanged a look and Karen surged to her feet. “I think what we all need to do is find something to take our minds off of our problems. Let’s go explore the ship.”

  Loren got up from the floor when Shara did and then glanced at the control console doubtfully. “Do you really think it’s a good idea to leave the bridge? I mean … what if something happens?”

  “This thing has a fantastic computer!” Karen said dismissively. “Computer—we’re going to explore the ship. If there’s any problem, please locate us in the ship and alert us.”

  “Affirmative.”

  “Voila!” Karen said triumphantly. “Let’s see if we can find something to cheer us up. I honestly think the guys just didn’t want to find us any clothes. Those creepy machines took mine when I got here. If the trader made a habit of that, and we know he did, there must be all kinds of things. We’ll go shopping! That always lifts my spirits!” She halted uneasily when they reached the lift. “Uh … what did they do about the creepy robots?”

  Loren frowned at her thoughtfully. “They didn’t say anything. I guess they didn’t see them.”

  Karen uttered an angry snort. “I expect he put them in storage after he used them to get us over to the slave auction. The guys said there were people in pods somewhere on the ship. I don’t guess he needs the robot bullies until he lets them out again.” She paused when the three of them got on the lift, her finger hovering over the control panel. “Bottom to top? Or top to bottom?”

  “Let’s just start at the next level down. I don’t want to get too far from the bridge. It still makes me uneasy.”

  “Good thought!” Karen pressed the button.

  They heard meaty thuds and grunts as soon as the door opened and the three of them exchanged wide-eyed looks of alarm.

  “Fight,” Shara said in a low, uneasy voice.

  “But about what?” Karen muttered.

  “I don’t think we should get off here,” Loren whispered uneasily, but Karen was already heading off the lift. She followed her, grabbing her arm. “I’m serious. I think this is a really bad idea. Let’s just leave.”

  Karen looked at her irritably. “Don’t you want to know why they’re fighting?”

  “No,” Shara and Loren both answered at the same time.

  Karen gave them both an irritated look. “Well,
I do! I like to know if I’m in trouble before it comes looking for me.”

  Put that way, Loren and Shara decided she might be right. The three of them tiptoed along the corridor, pausing to listen every few minutes as they tracked the fight by sound. They finally found them in what looked like it might have been a gathering area before that was used for storage now. Enormous crates had been pushed back to make a clearing in the center. The moment they peered around the edges of the open door, however, they saw the three red-skinned aliens, their hands on their hips, their feet planted in a wide-legged stance that made it clear they were itching to join the fray.

  Loren couldn’t actually see much more than flying arms and legs. She could see that there were six men paired off, though, and clearly trying to pound each other to death. All of them were already bloody from flying fists—either theirs or their opponent’s. She finally managed to catch a glimpse of two of the men fighting closest to door. She sucked in a sharp breath when she recognized Kael.

  He heard it. His head whipped her in direction just about the time his opponent slung a meaty fist at him. The blow caught him on the jaw and sent him reeling backwards. Loren clapped a hand to her mouth. Karen and Shara both whipped their heads to glare at her.

  Unfortunately, so did the three red aliens. The tallest of the three, waved an arm at them in a shooing motion. “Go!”

  Karen and Shara took flight. Loren gaped at him as he headed toward her, too paralyzed to move.

  His expression twisted with anger. “You go!” he growled. “No watch!”

  Sucking in another gasp, her paralysis vanishing when he kept coming, Loren whirled away from the door as he neared her and nearly fell over Karen and Shara, who’d only retreated far enough to be beyond the alien’s view.

  Karen let out a yelp of fright when she threw a frightened look back and saw the alien, and tried to claw her way through Loren. Shara took to her heels and vanished. Buffeted by Karen’s retreat, Loren stumbled against the wall of the corridor.

  “Dey work de shame. You go!” the alien said again.

  Loren blinked at him in incomprehension, but she wasn’t about to argue with him. The only reason she hadn’t already retreated was because Karen had spun her around and disoriented her. The moment she realized the ‘demon’ alien was in front of her, she whirled and took off in the other direction. It would probably have worked better if she’d been able to resist the urge to look back and make sure he wasn’t on her heels. Fortunately, she didn’t manage to get up to full steam before she slammed into the wall on the other side and bounced off.

  The alien pounced on her before she could scramble to her feet. Grasping her arms and hauling up, he looked her over. “Hurt?”

  Loren blinked at him, but if he was offering she certainly didn’t want any. “No! No, thank you!”

  His eyes gleamed with a mixture of amusement and irritation. “Hurt self?”

  She felt heat rise to her face. “Oh! No. I’m fine.”

  “Hit hard. Knot here.” He lifted a hand to her forehead and she sucked in a sharp breath when he lightly touched the goose egg. She didn’t even remember hitting her head!

  “Hit ass, too. Want rub make better?”

  Loren felt her jaw go slack with surprise. She met his amused, appreciative gaze and realized abruptly that he was flirting with her—she thought. Her vision seemed to sharpen on his face for the first time when her mind had processed that and she really looked at him.

  His face, like his other physical characteristics, were far more alien than the Hirachi, and yet it wasn’t a fright mask—far from it. As strange as his individual features were, she discovered with a jolt of surprise that his face as a whole was attractive—hard, angular and very masculine but appealing. It intrigued her and she met his gaze again. “What did you mean?” she asked hesitantly.

  He frowned, but it was as if he was scanning his mind to collect the memory, not angry.

  “About the shame?” she prompted.

  His expression tightened with anger. She thought it was directed at her for several moments and her pulse jumped up several notches.

  “No honor, dem mens,” he growled. “Hurt little tings. Take what no give. Hirachi shame, no protect when gib word. Shame dere honor. Angry.”

  Loren had already felt indignation surge through her, because she’d thought he was saying the Hirachi had no honor—and she knew better than that! The indignation scattered into confusion, though, when he’d finished and she realized he’d been talking about the assaults on her and the others.

  Daeman studied Lau-ren’s features hungrily, wondering absently why it held so much appeal when she looked nothing like his own people, but he supposed it was the exotic look of her that did appeal to him.

  He supposed, wryly, that it could be argued that any female would considering how long it had been since he’d seen one—let alone had the opportunity to get so close to one—and he had tried to convince himself of that. He hadn’t succeeded, though. The other two were pretty enough he would have been very happy to have had a chance with either if he had not seen Lau-ren. Once he had, though, all he had been able to think about was her. The thought of touching her had created such a fever in his mind that he had scarcely been able to sleep for thinking of it and he found that he could not resist the opportunity to touch her now to see if her skin was as soft and smooth as it looked.

  Loren was so deep in thought she didn’t notice he’d lifted his hand to lightly stroke her bruised cheek until she felt his touch. She thought she would’ve retreated if she had. A jolt still went through her. He dropped his hand to his side. “No be scared ob Daeman. I no hurt.” His expression tightened again as he met her wide, unnerved gaze. “You go now.”

  Loren nodded jerkily and backed away and then turned and fled down the corridor in the direction Karen and Shara had disappeared. She nearly ran into the wall again when she cast a look back and discovered he was still in the corridor, watching her.

  Karen grabbed her wrist and jerked her around the corner. Her own eyes were as wide as saucers. “What happened?” she gasped.

  “I nearly knocked myself out running into the wall,” Loren confessed, abruptly feeling the embarrassment she’d been too stunned to feel before and covering her face. “Oh! I am so mortified! I’m sure it was all he could do to keep from laughing!”

  “What he do?” Shara asked breathlessly.

  “He helped me up and asked me if I’d hurt myself,” Loren muttered, testing the knot on her head carefully. “Does this look as huge as it feels?”

  Karen blinked at her. “It matches the rest of your face now,” she said distractedly. “What else did he say?”

  Loren’s lips tightened. “Beat it. Go away. I think I’ve lost interest in exploring. I’m going back to the bridge.” When she’d peered around the corner and discovered Daeman had propped a shoulder against the doorframe and was still staring in her direction, she jerked her head back. “He’s still watching,” she mouthed.

  Karen and Shara stared at her wide eyed for a moment and then peered around the corner themselves. They jumped back. “You’re right!” Karen mouthed at Loren. “Let’s go this way.”

  “But the lift is the other way!” Loren hissed at her.

  Karen stopped. “Are you sure?”

  “We lost,” Shara stated the obvious. “No pay attention.”

  “I’m sure it’s that way,” Loren said a little uncertainly.

  “I’m going this way anyway,” Karen said firmly. “The corridors have to intersect somewhere, right?”

  Loren and Shara both looked at her doubtfully, but they shrugged and followed her.

  They hadn’t gone far when Karen slowed until she was walking beside Loren. She glanced at her a couple of times, apparently trying to decide how to broach the subject uppermost in her mind. “It seemed to me that you talked with the demon guy a lot longer than it would’ve taken to ask if you were hurt,” she prodded.

  Loren sent her a
vaguely indignant look. “What are you suggesting?”

  Surprise flickered in her eyes. “I wasn’t suggesting anything! I was just wondering if he told you anything.”

  “Oh.” Loren wrestled with whether or not to repeat it and finally dismissed her qualms. It wasn’t as if Karen and Shara weren’t going to notice. “He said they felt shamed because they’d promised to protect us and failed … and that was why they were fighting.” She shrugged. “I guess they needed to work off their anger. Dakaar was really, really angry when he noticed the bruises.” Her chin wobbled. “I know he figured it out because he found fingerprints on my thighs.”

  Karen stared at her, her mind obviously working that over. “Men!” she snapped irritably after several moments. “If we blamed them, I could see why they might feel bad about it, but I certainly didn’t! I’ve never been more happy to see anybody in my life! It wasn’t as if they could help it that they were locked in!” She considered it. “In fact, I don’t know how they managed to get out and get to me as quickly as they did.”

  “I certainly didn’t complain!” Loren said. “I’m like you. I don’t see how they could’ve gotten there any sooner than they did. I didn’t figure out what was happening myself until those guys grabbed me—not that there would’ve been anything I could’ve done about it anyway. They were right behind Lecur when he unlocked the door and let them in. There was no place to run.”

  “Feel tings not always reasonable. No just men,” Shara offered.

  Loren glanced at her unhappily. “I don’t think they’re going to work it out, although I suppose it might help some to have an outlet. If they’re ashamed of their performance, though, they aren’t going to want to hang around any of us, you know, not when they’re reminded every time they look at us.”

  “That is so unfair! That’s almost as unreasonable as blaming us for getting assaulted.”

  Loren sighed. “I suppose any time anything bad happens that you can’t accept you always think there must have been something you could’ve done to prevent it. Maybe, in the back of their minds, they think the same thing about what happened to us? That we could’ve prevented it if we’d tried harder?”