by Anna Hackett
Silence reigned for the span of a few heartbeats, then chaos exploded in the narrow hallway. Voices rose in confusion and surprise. Neve slipped out of Corsair’s grasp and lunged at Magnus, slamming a punch into his gut before Corsair dragged her back.
“Oh, my God,” Dayna murmured.
Rillian’s arm flexed. “This is…an unexpected development.”
Galen stepped into the bedlam. “Enough.”
Silence.
Neve glared at the cyborg, her gaze shooting daggers.
“I don’t have answers for you, yet.” Magnus’ face was impassive. “I was imprisoned in the desert for several days a month ago. It appears I met your sister in that time.”
“You don’t remember?” Neve’s voice rose, her eyes sparking.
“My memory was impaired during my rescue. And I have certain programming that means I cannot procreate.” A muscle ticked in the imperator’s jaw. “So, I don’t have all the answers for you yet, but—” his voice lowered “—I can vow that I will find those answers, and I will protect your sister and that child with my life, with all the resources of the House of Rone, and everything that I am.”
Neve vibrated with tension for a long moment, then she sagged weakly against Corsair and nodded.
“Everyone get some rest.” Galen stepped forward. “We’ll meet again for dinner to celebrate Ever’s rescue.” His icy gaze met Dayna and Rillian’s. “I’ve organized a room for you. Once you’ve rested, please join us for dinner. We couldn’t have found Zaabha or Ever without your help.”
As the crowd dispersed, Rillian kept his arm around Dayna, and they followed a House of Galen worker to their room. Her old room. She hadn’t stayed in it long before she’d been snatched again, but walking inside, she saw they’d kept it just as she’d left it.
The airy room was dominated by a large bed covered in fur rugs. A well-appointed bathroom contained a huge bathtub.
Rillian opened his mouth to speak, but Dayna moved to him, tearing his shirt off. She pressed her palms to his skin—over his shoulder, his stomach. Over where his wounds had been.
“Dayna—”
She shook her head, nudging him back to sit on the bed. “I need to see that you’re okay. I need to feel it.” Her voice caught. “I need to hear your heart beating.”
He went still under her touch. She stroked him all over, loving his quiet groans and the heat building in his eyes.
She stepped back, sliding out of the simple clothes she’d pulled on after she’d showered in Medical. Naked, she climbed onto his lap, pulling his face to hers. Their kiss was long and slow.
But it didn’t stay that way. Need grew and turned molten. She undulated against him, feeling his hard cock beneath her. One of his clever hands slid between her legs.
“Do you need me here, Dayna? Deep inside you?”
“Yes.”
It took him seconds to free his hard cock. Then with his help, she lifted her hips and slid down, taking that thickness inside her.
She moaned and started to ride.
“Just like that.” He gripped her hips, pushing her down to meet his thrusts. “I love you, Dayna.”
“I love you, too.” She gripped his shoulders, staring into his beautiful silver eyes.
Heat built. He surged deeper inside her, and her husky cries echoed off the walls. Pleasure slammed into her like a hard, silk-covered fist. She arched back, trusting Rillian to hold her, anchor her. Another circle of her hips, and she felt him drive deep, holding her there as he ground his cock inside her and came hard.
He pressed his head against her breasts. “Be mine. Now. Always.”
She sank her hands into his silky hair. “I feel like I’ve been waiting for you all my life, and I never knew it.”
Kissing her chest, he fell back on the bed, pulling her with him. He wrapped around her and Dayna sighed, feeling a sense of contentment she’d never experienced before.
His fingers slid up her belly, one hand cupping a breast while the other caressed her symbiont stone. “How’s your symbiont?”
“I think it’s happy. Content.”
“Good,” he said.
She stroked his back, her fingers brushing over his symbiont. “And yours?”
His eyes flashed and he pushed her onto her back. “I think it’s feeling hungry again.”
“You seem…more accepting of it.”
He paused. “It’s content too, Dayna. I unleashed it when I had to, but thinking of you, seeing you, it helped me rein it back in.”
She smiled. “See, having someone close isn’t a scary thing.”
He nipped her lips, his cock prodding between her legs. “Only if that person is you.”
Rillian sat at the large dining table in the gladiators living area, talking with Galen.
“How’s Ever?” Rillian asked.
Galen lifted his drink. “Awake and doing fine. Magnus is with her.”
Rillian’s gaze drifted to Neve…who didn’t appear to be having a very good time. “The baby was unexpected.”
Galen raised a brow. “For Magnus, most of all. She’ll move to the House of Rone tomorrow. The first priority is removing her implant.”
Across the table, the women were trying to be happy, but Rillian picked up on the somber mood in the room. Everyone was excruciatingly aware that one human was still missing.
“So, Zaabha can move wherever the Thraxians want to move it,” Rillian said.
Galen nodded. “It explains how it’s remained a secret so long. The guests—”
“The scum,” Raiden said from the other side of Galen.
The imperator nodded. “The spectators receive an invite to a location in the desert that changes every time. From the brief amount that Ever has shared, it only sets down for the fights and to take on supplies.”
“I’m assuming that it’s moved from the location where we encountered it.”
Galen stared into his glass. “Yes, Ryan and Zhim have confirmed that. But—”
“But?”
A flash of an ice-blue eye. “I don’t care. We know what it is now and I will find it again. I will not leave Samantha Santos there.” Galen’s hand tightened on his glass. “And I will destroy Zaabha and the Thraxians.”
“Whatever I can do to help, you only have to ask.”
“Thank you, Rillian.”
A burst of laughter made them both look up. Rillian watched Dayna laughing with Regan and Rory, and something settled inside him. A heat that warmed his soul washed over him. He hadn’t even realized how cold he’d been before. His controlled, empty life had been missing one very important thing.
“Something tells me the lovely Dayna won’t be returning to the House of Galen,” Galen said, his voice desert-dry.
“You can’t keep them all, Galen.”
Dayna spotted Rillian looking her way and shot him a saucy wink.
“This one is mine.” Her body, her heart, her soul.
“She looks happy,” Galen said.
“I’ll enjoy keeping her that way.”
“Oh, my God.” Rory suddenly stood, cradling her giant belly.
From beside Rillian, Kace shot to his feet, his gaze on his wife. In a swift move, he leaped over the table, setting glasses and plates rattling. He jumped down beside Rory.
“Rory?”
The redhead’s eyes were wide. “I…I think the baby’s coming.”
Rillian froze and saw the gladiators do the same. The looks ranged from happiness to terror. Nothing like a baby to panic a group of huge, muscled fighters.
Dayna rose, completely calm and collected. “Okay, Regan and Winter, let’s get Rory and Kace down to Medical.”
The women leaped into action.
“You’re going to have a baby,” Winter said.
Kace swept Rory off her feet. “Let’s move.”
Dayna smiled, ushering the group out. As she touched Rory’s shoulder, her body bent close to Rory’s, Rillian had the perfect image of Dayna’s belly,
swollen with a child. His child.
He smiled, taking a sip of his drink.
One day. Rillian was a man who always got what he wanted.
Dayna leaned against Rillian, once again standing outside Medical. Waiting really sucked, and everyone was tense and tired.
Dinner had ended hours ago, and everyone had been listening to Rory’s screaming and cursing echoing through the corridors of the House of Galen. She’d called Kace some pretty colorful names, sworn off sex, and threatened to murder her husband if he came near her again.
Nero had already vowed to never impregnate Winter, and the other mated gladiators were all looking a little pale.
The last time that Kace had come out to update them, the brave, military-trained gladiator had been white-faced.
Nearby, Raiden was pacing, while Regan and Madeline were playing some sort of card game. It had been quiet for a while, and Dayna wondered what was happening behind the doors.
Rillian’s arm tightened. “Do you feel it?”
She stilled, opening her senses. There. She smiled. A bright, new burst of energy. “You have to teach me more of what my symbiont is capable of.”
“It’ll be my pleasure.”
All of a sudden, the doors opened, and Kace stepped out. He held a tiny bundle in the crook of his arm.
He was beaming. “I have a son!”
Cheers erupted, and the women surrounded him.
“How’s Rory?”
“Can we see her?”
“Let’s see the little cutie!”
Dayna watched everyone study the baby. She could hardly believe it. A half-human baby born here. After everything they’d all been through, all the terrible moments since their abduction, Dayna had never, ever imagined anything like this. That a new life would be born from the darkness.
Her eyes roamed over the women, all of them smiling and happy. Then she took in the handsome gladiators standing beside them, protectors who would give their lives for these humans.
Love and new life. Out of the ashes of their terror, something beautiful had been born.
“What’s his name?” someone asked.
Kace frowned. “Rory and I haven’t decided yet.”
“That’s code for they can’t agree on a name,” Regan said with a smile.
“Go.” Rillian nudged Dayna forward. “I know you want to see him.”
She joined the others, and saw that Regan had pried the baby off Kace. She was cooing to the little bundle, and the baby was looking up at them curiously with wide, green eyes.
The gladiators were all slapping Kace on the back and offering congratulations.
“Hello, little cousin,” Regan murmured.
“He’s gorgeous. And so alert,” Madeline said. “My Jack slept for the first two days.”
“He’s a spitting image of Kace,” Harper said.
“But he has Rory’s eyes,” Regan said with a smile
Saff leaned in, a curious look on the female gladiator’s face. “He’s very small.”
“Actually, he’s pretty big for a human newborn,” Winter said. “And they grow fast, Saff.”
Mia pushed forward, a dreamy look on her face. “I want lots of these.” She cast a glance back at Vek. He was standing beside her with his arms crossed. He made a growling sound, and Mia poked her tongue out at him.
“So, are you planning some of these with Mr. Sexy Casino Man?” Harper asked Dayna.
Warmth spread through Dayna’s chest. “Right now, I’m just thinking about hot sex.”
Regan giggled and pressed her lips to the baby’s head. “Don’t listen to Auntie Dayna.”
“One day,” Dayna said with a smile. “I’d never really thought about kids before. I was so focused on my career. Right now, I think I’ll just practice how to make them a lot.”
Saff raised her brows. “I do not blame you. That man is liquid.” She winked. “And an invaluable ally, of course.”
“Of course.” Dayna smiled, but then a heaviness filled her. “But we still have to shut down Zaabha.” She hated to dampen the happiness of the baby’s arrival. But as she looked down at Kace and Rory’s baby, it firmed her resolve. If nothing else, they needed to rid the world of this evil, and make it a better place for this child.
“We’ll do it,” Harper said with a nod.
“We’ll rescue Sam,” Blaine added.
Dayna nodded. “And we’ll show the Thraxians once and for all that they messed with the wrong species.”
Soon, Kace reclaimed his son, and the women were allowed to visit Rory.
A strong arm slid around Dayna’s shoulders and she breathed in Rillian’s scent.
“A new life.” Rillian glanced at the baby, safely nestled against his father’s broad chest.
Dayna nodded. “I love you.”
“I know,” he drawled. “How about we head home? I bet Chef Derol has a special meal prepared for you.”
“Always trying to feed me.”
“Be prepared for a lifetime of me spoiling you.”
She tapped a finger against her lips. “I think I could get used to that. There is one thing I want.”
“Anything.”
Dayna took a deep breath. “I’d like to join your security team. I have skills they could utilize—”
“Done.”
She tilted her head. “Tannon isn’t going to be happy.”
“The man is never happy, but I think you’ve grown on him.”
“Like mold.” She grinned. “No getting rid of me now.”
Rillian pulled her closer, his palm resting over her symbiont stone…and her heart. “Never. You’re mine, Dayna Katherine Caplan. Everything I have is yours, and I will protect and love you to the end of my days.”
With a happy laugh, Dayna pressed her lips to his, her hand sliding up his back to stroke his symbiont. “And you’re mine. I’ll ignore your orders, push you when you need it, chase off all the women who dare to touch you, and love you. Always.”
“Best deal I ever made,” he murmured.
I hope you enjoyed Rillian and Dayna’s story!
Galactic Gladiators continues with CYBORG, the story of the cyborg imperator of the House of Rone, Magnus, and human survivor Ever. Read on for a preview of the first chapter.
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Preview: Cyborg
Her bare feet were quiet on the stone floor.
Ever Haynes walked down the darkened corridor, surprised to find the stone was warm. When you thought of gladiatorial houses in the bowels of an alien arena, you didn’t expect underfloor heating.
She pushed her dark hair back from her face. It was getting late and she should be asleep. Strangely, the reason she couldn’t sleep was because her bed was too soft. She fought back a bitter laugh. For months, she’d dreamed of having a soft bed instead of a hard, cold floor in a cell. Now she had one, and she couldn’t sleep.
Memories crashed over her, and even as her pulse sped up, she let them come in. She stopped, breathing deeply. Broken images of the alien attack on the Fortuna Space Station, where she’d worked as a scientist, her abduction by horrifying aliens, the fear, the pain, the fighting, having no idea if her sister was still alive.
Ever blew out a shaky breath. She’d been through so much over the last few months, culminating in being dragged across the galaxy by Thraxian slavers and sold to a wild desert arena. She’d been forced to fight for the sick pleasure of bloodthirsty spectators…until she’d been rescued.
Her throat tightened, one of her hands curling into a fist, and she struggled not to fight against the memories. She knew blocking them or ignoring them would only make things worse. She had to confront what happened and find a way to move on. Ever itched for her notebook and pen. She was a scientist at heart and jotted everything down
in her notebooks. Hell, it had started long before that…as a young girl pouring out her broken heart in her diary.
She pulled in a deep, steadying breath. She was alive. Her sister, Neve, was alive, and that was what mattered.
Ever felt a soft kick in her belly and she smiled, the now-familiar mix of shock, wonder, and nerves filling her chest. She rubbed her palm over the small mound of her stomach. This was one other thing that had definitely changed. She was now pregnant with a half-alien baby. A sense of love unfurled. Oh, she still felt the trickle of holy shit panic, but this baby was hers, no matter what happened in the future.
Ever had always wanted children. Her own happy family had imploded when her parents died, leaving her and Neve in the hands of their bitter, old aunt, and Ever had vowed that she’d one day fall in love. One day, she’d look at a man the same way her mother had looked at her father. One day, she’d be surrounded by beautiful babies.
Okay, so she’d thought it would happen after love and marriage, and without the alien bit, but dammit, she was going to rock the hell out of being a mommy to her peanut.
She heard a door slam nearby, followed by the sound of deep voices echoing off the stone walls. She looked up at the stunning blue wall hangings lining the corridor. They all depicted gladiators fighting in a huge arena made of cream stone. House of Rone gladiators, fighting in the Kor Magna Arena. She hadn’t seen these particular ones before. She’d only been here for three days and was still busy learning her way around.
Following the sound of the voices, she paused, taking in several muscled gladiators wearing simple leather harnesses across bare chests, and leather trousers. There was one tall female as well, also dressed in fighting leathers. They’d just entered through the large double doors, the four of them carrying a twisting, screaming man between them.
Ever gasped. The man was covered in blood and had numerous terrible wounds on his arms and chest.
Then another big man stepped into the corridor and blocked her view. “Take him to Medical. Now.”
That deep voice whispered through her. So cool, so emotionless. A shiver worked up her spine.