by Zara Starr
The fight continued. At first, the power was in Mal’s hands. Although Gage had a weapon, the other fighter seemed very confident and very capable. Amelia had heard from some of the females that the gladiators who were slaves were often better because they had nothing else to do but train. They had to please their Masters and were not working by their own design. They could be sold if they weren’t good enough, so they all strived to be the best.
Gage was a gladiator who fought because he chose to, he wasn’t a slave, but rather his own Master. Did that create less of a driving point?
No, that couldn’t be right. Because Gage too had a string of wins on his name, tournaments behind him that he had won, and he was in the running to win again. It had nothing to do with who he belonged to, or whether or not he had his freedom.
Amelia just hoped that it would continue, that this wouldn’t be the end of his string of wins. She needed him to win this fight, she needed him to be strong.
The next few minutes were the most important and Amelia focused again on what Gage was doing. She watched his opponent, she watched him, and she tried to read the fight, to figure out what was going to happen next. She wasn’t as good at it, she hadn’t watched so many fights that she knew what was coming.
After all, she had only been on the stage watching the battle for a few weeks now.
Gage used his pistol to keep his opponent at bay. The crowd was on the edge of their seats, gasping and crying out, throwing their fist in the air, either in excitement or rage at how it was turning out.
Amelia was just as caught up in the battle, just as glued to the fight as everyone else. Before, she hadn’t cared. Before, she had been almost bored. She had watched the fight because of the details she wanted to remember, not because she cared what the outcome would be.
This time, it was completely different. This time, she felt like she was more invested than anyone else.
The females around her weren’t nearly as invested as she was, and she knew it was because only one of the others had been chosen as a prize for the finalist – Mal’s prize.
She glanced at the other females. They all seemed bored, except Tanya, who was just as invested as she was. She looked just as anxious, cheering when Mal got the upper hand, looking anxious when Gage landed a blow.
Was she the other prize? Probably, since the human females were a hot commodity, since they were used to promote the tournament, and everyone was so excited about the species.
Amelia didn’t quite understand the appeal, but there was a lot about this alien world that she didn’t understand.
Why was Tanya so involved in the fight? Why was she worried when Mal wasn’t doing well? She wanted to be his as much as Amelia wanted to belong to Gage?
That wouldn’t make sense unless Tanya was using the same idea for an opportunity to escape from the gladiator dome. They hadn’t had time to discuss much, to work out a plan to escape together.
Seeing that Tanya had been trying to escape from the moment she had arrived, and hadn’t made quick of it, Amelia imagined that was what she was trying to do.
Something choked in her throat at the realization. She wished Tanya well, of course, but there was only going to be one winner. Only one of them that would get out of here this way and Amelia wanted it to be her. She felt bad, and she hoped that Tanya would figure out another way to escape. Because she wanted Gage to win. She wanted to get out.
Just as the gladiators were fighting, every man for himself in the arena, it was the same to Amelia.
It was a dog eat dog world. Or alien eat alien… or something.
She didn’t like it. But she didn’t have a choice.
A startling thought emerged in her mind. Was this what Gage had meant when he’d said there was nothing he could do about slavery? They were stuck in a world that was twisted, and no matter how they might hope for things to work differently, they didn’t. And there was nothing they could do about it.
Turning her attention back to the fight, Amelia cleared her mind. The warriors were circling each other again and Amelia felt like she was going to go crazy if they just kept doing that. How long did they need to size each other up? How many times were they going to do that before they put an end to the fight?
Amelia just wanted it to be over. She had a feeling that it was going to carry on for a while, and she didn’t know if her nerves were able to handle it.
Part of her wanted to cover her eyes. But a part of her wanted to watch every moment. She didn’t want to miss a single thing.
If she was going to finally belong to Gage, she wanted to know about it. If she was to remain a slave for the rest of her life, hidden away in the belly of the gladiator dome, she wanted to know that right away.
Chapter Eighteen
Gage
At one point in the fight, Gage was starting to worry. The Karzem was a good fighter. He didn’t seem worried about the weapon Gage was using, and he continued to fight with strength and agility as if the attempts that Gage made to slow him down were worthless.
They continued to dance around each other, dodging blows, parrying, and making the fight a worthy one. At least, Gage knew that everyone would be happy about what was being broadcasted on television. This kind of fight would have everyone excited, anxious, worked up, glued to the screen. He could tell by the way the crowd reacted around him, he could feel their anxiety and their excitement.
He had threatened the game makers that he would forfeit the fight and they would lose a lot of money. Whatever the case, whichever way this went, they were making a lot of money through him now.
Gage hoped that it would all pay off for him too.
After watching his opponent’s moves for a while, Gage could predict his turn. It became easier and easier to know how the gladiator would move, easier to get closer and closer with his antimatter pistol.
Finally, he landed a shot. This time, he predicted that it wouldn’t be a myth like all the others had been.
He nicked his opponent’s bicep.
The fight was finally going in his favor.
Without waiting for another second, Gage fired again. The shot happened in quick succession, and even though the Karzem moved, trying to dodge the second shot, it was too late. Gage knew that the second shot would be a hit too.
Dark blood blossomed from the wound on Mal’s bicep, running down his arm, coloring his fingers almost black. The second shot hit closer to the chest, blood spreading across the chest and down his stomach.
Gage knew that he had avoided the heart. He didn’t want to kill, only to end the fight. He only wanted to win, not fight to the death.
Still, the injuries looked pretty bad. The alien might die anyway. But it wouldn’t have been because of what Gage intentionally did. He felt bad about it, but this was how things worked – this was the risk they all took. The fact that his opponent was a slave and didn’t have a choice in the matter was unfortunate. But Gage couldn’t dwell on that.
A moment later, Mal swayed on his feet. Gage watched him, knowing that he would lose his balance soon, that he would drop to the ground.
Not a moment later, the Karzem dropped to the ground, dead weight. The arena floor was covered in sand, which was the only reason why the opponent’s skull didn’t crack on the concrete beneath it. The fall hadn’t been a graceful one, it had looked painful, and if it was anything other than the final battle in a tournament, where Gage needed to win, he might have wanted to check on the alien to be sure that he was still alive.
But that wasn’t how it worked, and it would be frowned upon by all the viewers if Gage showed concern.
So, just as he had many times before, he swallowed his compassion, tried not to think about the warrior, and turned to the crowd.
The crowd had jumped to their feet when the gladiator had dropped to the ground, and now that Gage turned to them, engaging them the way he usually did, they started to cheer and clap. They chanted Gage’s name.
It was how it had been befo
re – he felt an incredible rush of adrenaline. He had won. He had won his third season. He was now a gladiator who could be reckoned with, a fighter whose name would be on everyone’s lips.
It was what he had aimed for and he had succeeded.
And now, after everything, Amelia would be his.
When he turned and looked up at the stage, he could see that Amelia was cheering and chanting along with the crowd. Usually, the females weren’t that invested in the fight. He wondered what the guards would think of it, if they would think it strange that she was so serious about the battle.
But the guards weren’t exactly being paid to think much of anything, and it didn’t look like anyone paid Amelia any notice. Gage was glad. It warmed him to see that she was so excited that he had won.
Even though she had been seducing him, had been faking her interest in him all this time, he knew that her reaction now wasn’t fake.
The excitement around him was contagious and Gage laughed from his stomach. He threw his hands up, engaging the crowd, and they roared in response. He walked around the arena, throwing his hands up again and again and laughed.
The other two wins had been satisfying. The first time, he had felt like a damn hero. The second time, he had felt like maybe this was a habit, something he could do again and again. He could make it something that everyone would look forward to.
This one was different. Everything about this tournament, this win, and everything else, was different. It was all because of Amelia.
He looked at her again and smiled, and she smiled right back at him, leaning forward on the railing as if she was trying to will herself to be right next to him.
Well, she would be soon. They would bring her to him, they would do their final walk around the arena where he would show his prize, and then she would finally be his.
Not just as a prize, but as someone who was clearly as interested in him as he was in her.
He couldn’t wait.
Chapter Nineteen
Amelia
It all seemed so surreal. Amelia had hoped that Gage would win, she had given herself into the fight and every minute had been excruciating when she had thought he would lose, and elating when she had realized he would win.
Now that it had happened though, it felt like a dream.
When he had turned and looked at her, smiling, she couldn’t help but laugh. He looked so proud of himself, so defiant, so arrogant. So Gage. Somehow, it was extremely attractive. Amelia couldn’t believe that he was hers.
Or, at least, she was his. For a moment, she felt a little unsure about the fact that she was still a slave, that he had won her as a prize in a fight. Their relationship was not based on mutual trust and respect.
She shook off the thoughts. This wasn’t what mattered right now. What mattered was that Gage had won, he had chosen Amelia as his prize, and he would take her away from the gladiator dome.
She didn’t have much more time to think about everything – as soon as everyone started celebrating Gage’s win, the guards ushered the females to the transport pod at the back of the stage.
What was going to happen next? How was it going to work? Some of the other females had been around for more than one tournament, but Amelia had come to the game quite late – she had only joined in halfway through the tournament.
She didn’t have too much time to think about it – two guards grabbed her by the wrists and pulled her down a separate passageway that led away from the transport pod and underneath the stands where the crowds were still celebrating, clapping, cheering and waving.
Was this it? Was this how it would all end? Suddenly, she realized that she might not get to go back to the prize quarters. She was never going to see the females she had spent so much time with again.
She had created friendships with some of them, formed bonds that had brought them closer together. After all, they had all had at least one thing in common – captivity.
Especially Tanya, the other human. She hadn’t seen much of her since that initial meeting, but she had wanted to say goodbye to her. She had wanted to tell her to hold on, that there would be a way for her to get out somehow too.
Now that Gage had won though, it looked like the Saithin were eager to hand her off to him. And why not? It was a basic transaction – he had won her because of how he had performed, and now she was to be transferred to him.
They arrived at the door, and before the door was opened, she was spun around.
“Hey!” she cried out when they were rough with her.
“We are deactivating all of the protocols in your bio-enhancer except the language synchronizer,” one of the guards said and the other pressed something cold against her neck, something that looks like a computer of sorts.
When he removed it from her skin, she rubbed her neck with her hand where the cold had been, trying to get rid of the eerie feeling that came with it, the shiver that ran down her spine.
She suddenly remembered the day when the bio-enhancer had been implanted in her neck, and she shivered again. She hated being a slave, even though she had accepted it, even though she hadn’t fought back. At least for now.
Now that things were changing, now that she was being removed from the gladiator dome, it was as if everything was crashing down on her again. Her freedom had been stripped away, she was being passed from one person to another like an object. This was what slavery was, what it meant not to have freedom, unable to decide what happened to her.
Even though she had wanted to be chosen by Gage, even though she felt something for him and she didn’t hate the idea of being owned by him anymore, it was still wrong. She still didn’t condone slavery, didn’t like being a captive, didn’t like any of what was happening. She would have liked to go with Gage because she had chosen to, not because he owned her and it was what he wanted.
The doors slid open and Amelia realized that she was about to enter the arena. They shoved her forward, suddenly not caring what happened to her, and Amelia nearly fell, stumbling onto the sandy floor. From where she had stood on the stage it had seemed to be concrete, but she realized now that it was softer.
Gage stood on a sort of podium in the middle of the arena, a presenter talking excitedly into the microphone. She had missed all of this while she had been led through the tunnels to the arena, and she wondered what else she had missed.
Where was the other fighter? The body of the loser. He had fallen to the ground, blood gushing from several wounds. She hoped that he was all right, but she imagined that he might not be. The wounds had seemed serious.
Amelia’s attention was drawn to Gage when he turned to her, a big grin on his face. He was arrogant again, full of himself, enjoying the attention. For a moment, Amelia’s stomach turned. What if this was the man she was going with? The one who was full of himself, arrogant, and entitled. What if that was who he really was and the side of him that she knew when they were alone was the mask?
She couldn’t think that way. If she did, she was going to drive herself crazy. She had to assume that he was a good man. Otherwise, her life with him would be awful.
And who knew how long that would be? Who knew what would happen once he took possession of her?
Small drones that looked like little Saithin flew around her as she walked toward Gage and was handed off to him. She realized that they were cameras – she was being filmed. The whole thing was being broadcasted across the universe.
She looked at Gage again. She knew that he was more than a self-important asshole, that this was just an act for the people. She knew that he was more than just a warrior, a gladiator who was capable of hurting. Of killing, even.
He was capable of that, wasn’t he? He hadn’t flinched once when he had pointed the pistol at his opponent. He hadn’t seemed very remorseful when he had shot him, hurt him. Possibly killed him.
A part of him, no matter how small, was still a monster.
Fear threatened to choke her, but she couldn’t let it. Gage took a s
tep closer, put an arm around her in a possessive manner, and brushed his hand against her ass.
He lifted his other arm, triumphant.
She was just a possession. She wasn’t a person, not right now. But to Gage, she was. She had to believe she was after how he had treated her last night, or she might lose control of her emotions and break down in front of everyone.
The crowd was cheering. Gage was working them up, and she just had to smile and wave, play along, do what needed to be done until they could get out of there.
As the crowd cheered and Gage reacted to it, smiling and waving and looking triumphant, she felt like nothing more than a prize.
Hopefully, he was just putting on a show for the crowd. After all, it was all just a game, wasn’t it? Everything was about the image, the entertainment. That was the point of the whole tournament, after all.
Then, just like that, it was all over. Gage escorted her out of the arena, and they were suddenly alone in a room that was lined with benches and lockers.
“Congratulations,” Amelia said meekly when Gage turned to her.
“How are you?” Gage asked.
Just like that, Amelia melted. He may have acted like a triumphant ass in the arena, but now his focus was on her. He truly cared about how she was doing.
“Overwhelmed,” Amelia admitted.
Gage nodded. “We’ll get out of here soon. Then you can relax… breathe. It will all be over.”
Amelia nodded. She was surprised at how attentive Gage was being about how she felt.
“Is there anything I can get you?” Gage asked.
“What do you mean?”
“Is there anything you need me to fetch you from your quarters?”
“Will I be able to go back there?”