by Abella Ward
But that wasn't all. Her skin was a peculiar shade similar to the sand beneath his feet, her hair thick about her shoulders. He'd only seen a species that looked like that on the network broadcasts he was permitted to watch when recovering from a bad injury.
Human. She was human.
He started forward, intent on claiming her as his at once, but the Ernesian he had been fighting earlier was quicker. The hairy ape bounded forward and grabbed the woman, flinging her over his shoulder. She screamed, flailing about.
An irrational surge of anger flared in Gylden. The T'shav drew his weapon, narrowing his black eyes.
"The woman is mine, Ernesian," he said. "If you value your life, you will choose another."
The other gladiators formed a circle around the two, and the drones buzzed overhead. Some focused in on Gylden's face, others on the Ernesian, and even others on the woman. Taskus Draw rubbed his hands, a gleeful look in his eye.
"Let me go," the woman shouted, squirming against the Ernesian. She beat on his back with her fists. "Let me go!"
The Ernesian spat and dropped her to the ground. He charged Gylden. The T'shav merely waited for the ape to get too close to change direction before putting his sword between them. The Ernesian impaled himself on the blade. He didn't seem to notice, hands reaching out to grasp at Gylden. The T'shav sidestepped the creature and withdrew his sword. With an easy stroke, he separated the Ernesian's head from its shoulders.
The women screamed. Taskus Draw clapped his hands. The other gladiators broke their circle and went to claim their own mates. They were smart enough not to fight him over this one. Gylden wiped his sword off on the Ernesian's body and marched to the human, who lay on the ground with a horrified expression.
She didn't fight against him when he grabbed her wrist and dragged her towards the barracks. Her eyes were wide and fearful. A few of the drones followed him, but the rest stayed behind, split evenly among the rest of the gladiators. Another fight had broken out, but Gylden ignored it.
There had been a time when all the gladiators were kept in the same open barracks, but after a surge of gladiators sneaking about at night, cutting the throats of their competitors, the network had spent the money to give them each their own, private rooms.
Gylden's was full of the luxuries he had been afforded for winning many of his past tournaments. He had an Air Cushion mattress, which adjusted itself to always support him perfectly as he slept, his own medicinal cabinet, a carpet, and an old holoscreen tuned into the Rayne Five Network so he would never be bored. All in all, a comfortable room.
The T'shav turned to his new human mate, eyeing her again. She backed away from him, her pulse beating in her throat. When his eyes met hers, the pupils seemed to expand, but Gylden wasn't about to mistake it for desire. She was terrified of him, as she should be. One did not survive as long as he had in the arenas without gaining a reputation.
But if they were going to be mates, he didn't want her to fear him so much. He cleared his throat. "What's your name?"
Chapter Two – Bianca
Holy cow, I should not be feeling so turned on right now.
Bianca swallowed hard, her hands shaking as she stared at the massive – but not too massive – T'shav that stood before her. His two black eyes were like candles igniting flames deep inside of her, the hard contours of his body begging for her hands to run over them, to feel every inch of his impressive figure.
She had watched the gladiator games after she had been stolen from the little farming community she had been living at, but up close, she saw that the multitude of black tattoos on his skin weren't just for decoration. They all covered up scars.
"What's your name?" he asked again.
Does that matter? The question was on the tip of her tongue. At that moment, she would have been more than happy to let him throw her onto the bed and ravish her. Not that those types of thoughts were new to her, but she had thought that she had gotten over the self-destructive behavior – going for the bad boys who would use her up and leave her high and dry.
When she had been pulled from a stasis pod and learned that she had been abducted from Earth, was billions of years in the future, Earth was a dead planet, and humans were a rare species, she had promised herself that she wasn't going to mess things up this time. She was going to apply herself to her studies. She was going to build a good life for herself. No more drugs, no more boyfriends that didn't respect her, no more letting anybody tell her she wasn't good enough.
The T'shav stepped a little closer, making her mouth go dry. "My name is Gylden."
She found her voice. "I know. When I was sold to the network, they made me watch the gladiator games." The bloody images she had seen on them were seared into her mind. At first, she hadn’t believed they were real. She had outright refused to believe it. But they were real, and now she was going to go into that arena herself.
All amorous feelings towards the T'shav before her vanished. She swayed on the spot as her stomach roiled. Gylden caught her and led her to the bed. It was only when he sat her down on it and let his hands linger on her shoulders that she remembered where she was and what this whole situation meant.
If he started undressing her, would she resist? No… In this situation, she would willingly cling to whatever familiarity she could find, and whether he was an alien species – or a subspecies of human, depending on how you looked at it – or not, sex was familiar. Even if he was utterly talentless, it would still be a great distraction, wouldn't it?
A drone whizzed around his head, reminding her that they were being watched right now, and she shied away from him. Scratch that. She might have sunk pretty low at times, but she wasn't going to participate in some sort of live-action porn. Especially if she wasn't getting paid for it!
"Are you ready to tell me your name now?" Gylden asked. He seemed unaware of the drone.
"Bianca," she said, eyeing the drone. A lot of the technology that she had seen was still electronically-based. With the right electromagnetic field, she could wipe out all of these drones. But where could she get the components she needed? "Bianca Forrester."
Gylden sat beside her. "And you're human."
"Yes."
The T'shav hesitated a moment before putting his hand on her knee. "They say that the human womb accepts seed from all the species since we are all descended from humans."
"Which also means that you could be my direct descendant, and we don't want to get all creepy here," Bianca blurted, leaning away from him. "Besides which, I have a very deadly human sexually transmitted disease that would kill you."
Gylden's mouth twitched – possibly in amusement? "I laud your efforts, but you would have been thoroughly screened before being selected to be a gladiator's mate. And I don't believe that you’ve ever had a child. You don't have the look of a mother about you."
Bianca opened her mouth to challenge him but shrugged. It was true enough, and she had never really been good at keeping lies straight. "So you can't be my direct descendant. That doesn't mean that you should…"
"Seduce you?" his voice became velvety. "I assure you, Bianca Forrester, when I have you, it will be because you are begging for my touch."
Well, he was pretty confident about that. Bianca had a feeling it was the truth, too. Mostly because she wanted to start that begging right away. She jumped to her feet and moved away.
Gylden's expression softened. "I know what is right and what is wrong, and it's wrong for anybody to force themselves on another being... Even if you are my slave and ought to do whatever I tell you to."
Bianca's gaze flickered to his mouth, and for a moment, she forgot why she shouldn't give into the flare of heat that rose in her. The familiar need rose in her belly, urging her to throw him onto the bed and ride him like a horse. But one of the drones cast its blue light onto her face and she turned away.
There was a holoscreen. Ancient-looking, but it would have the circuit board she needed for an EMP generator. If she could
get some tools under the pretense of wanting to fix it, then she could strip some wires and build what she needed. It would be crude, but she had a magic touch when it came to technology. Not that her parents ever would have acknowledged that.
"You're fighting your desire for me," Gylden whispered. "I can see it in your eyes. But that desire… is it for me or a desire to find some familiar thing to cling to?"
Her head snapped up so fast that she cricked her neck. Her eyes widened. "How do you…"
With a movement so swift that she nearly missed it, Gylden plucked the drone out of the air. He clenched it in his fist and leaned in close, his gaze intent on her eyes. Whatever seductive nuances that had been there moments ago were gone.
"Listen to me," he hissed. "Your life isn't yours now. I promise I will do all that I can to protect you in the arena, but you have to understand that with this life, I'm in a constant state of near-musth and that will affect you. And if the public wants to see us together, it will happen even if neither of us wants it. You are public property, not mine. The only way you will survive this is if you make the public love you. More drones are going to be in here in just a few seconds, so you need to kiss me."
Bianca shied away from him. "What?"
"Kiss me!"
There was no more time to hesitate. She threw her arms around his neck and kissed him hard. His arms encircled her, pulling her flush against his body. Holy cow! Bianca ground herself against him, not caring about the situation – she had never been kissed like this before! Her eyes slid shut and she was back on Earth, crushed against her high school locker by the quarterback, forgetting all about her troubles.
When Gylden pushed her away, it felt like a loss. Her cheeks were flushed, eyes bright. A fresh drone buzzed around them.
"The effects of my musth will diminish after the next games," Gylden said, his eyes as bright as hers. "Only at that time I will know if you desire me for real."
Was this all an act for the camera, or did he actually care? Bianca nodded blankly. Her mind scrambled to put his words into context. Musth. It was when the T'shav males had some sort of hormonal imbalance that made them overly violent but also drew women to them sexually. Well, that would be why she was so turned on. Sex was the best way to control males in musth, although apparently killing things was also a good way to calm them down.
For some reason, thinking it could be pheromones messing with her and not her own desire for Gylden disappointed her. It had been a long time since she had anybody she felt safe enough around to share her body with. Her past experiences had left her too jaded.
"Since we are going to be spending so much time together, we ought to learn more about one another," Gylden said. "I was sold to the network as a child after my parents died. I've been trained as a gladiator all my life, and they have been very good to me. What about you? How did you get here?"
"I…" Bianca wrapped her arms around herself. "I suppose I got here the same as all humans. I was abducted from Earth when I was twenty-five years old, spent a few billion years in a stasis pod traveling around a ship at light speed, and then I was woken up."
"Yes, but here specifically." Gylden stood and walked to the other end of the room. "To the network's station. Here – to the arena."
Bianca glanced at the drone again. "When I woke up, I was offered a place at the Zon Sanctuary. But I decided that I didn't want to be among other humans, reminiscing about Earth, missing it. I screwed up in my past life and I wanted a fresh start. So I went to a farming community that could teach me mechanics. I've always loved technology and tinkering with things. We were raided. I was taken and sold to the network."
"So you have no fighting experience."
"No."
Gylden grunted. "I'll teach you, then. It will be difficult to keep you alive. And only both of us surviving will allow either of us our freedom. Come. We'll go to the training arena."
Bianca glanced at the drone again as she followed Gylden out of the room. She was meant to make the public love her in order to survive this – and for Gylden to win his freedom. Her heart sank. That must be why he was being so kind to her. He wanted his freedom, and she was his means to get it. Not that she could blame him for wanting to be free.
I won't fall for him, she vowed. I'll do what I have to in order to get out of this mess, but I will not fall for him.
Chapter Three – Gylden
Gylden held his arms horizontally to the ground, forcing his breathing to stay calm and even. The drones that buzzed around him, catching his image from every angle, were glowing pale blue. He wasn't the main focus of today's broadcast. That was probably reserved for the women. But anybody who wanted updates on his situation could watch his personal streaming channel that was filmed and broadcast constantly.
Around him, the trainers, men who had long since gained their freedom, buckled his armor onto him. Each piece represented viewer's votes and donations towards him. He wasn't the most fortified of the gladiators, but he had enough to give him a leg up against most opponents.
Usually, he spent this time in meditation, erasing his fears and preparing to face the bloody battle that was about to ensue. Today, however, he couldn't stop himself from thinking about Bianca. Even though they had just been paired together the previous day, he couldn’t help but feel regretful that she was going to die today.
And die she would. He had tried to teach her the basics of self-defense. It was atrocious. She didn't even know how to hold a blade. In the arena, there was only enough space and time to protect himself; he couldn't save her as well. Chances were all the women put in the arena today were going to die. It was a shame. He would have liked to have gotten to know her better.
Perhaps I should have seduced her yesterday, he thought. Forgot about trying to train her when I knew there was no time to teach her enough to protect herself and just taken her to bed.
It wouldn't have been hard. What he had taken as terror clearly showed itself as desire in the thickness of her voice as she talked to him, the way her eyes kept roaming his body, the way she always ended up leaning towards him before pulling away. She wanted him. Perhaps she would have been a little nervous with the drones at first, but she would have given into her own desires soon enough, had he insisted.
But were they her desires, or was it all born of his constant state of musth? He didn't like the idea of a woman sleeping with him unless she really wanted to and wasn't being manipulated by outside forces.
And it wasn't just his musth that would have been manipulating her but also the network itself. She hadn't been branded a slave, but from her story, it was clear that she was one. His slave, the network's slave… It didn't matter. If Taskus Draw decided that the two of them sleeping together would increase viewership, he'd find a way to make it happen. The thought made Gylden want to punch the network host in the mouth.
A breastplate was fastened over his chest, signifying that he was ready. He nodded at the trainers in thanks and took up his sword. The gladiators' names were being announced, and he would be called out into the arena soon enough. He pressed the flat side of his sword to his forehead, taking the precious few moments left to try for some calming breaths.
Gylden's name was called. He strode from his preparation room. The blinding light from the artificial sun made him wince, but his eyes adjusted quickly enough. The tall walls circling the arena reflected his face on every one of their surfaces. On the other side of those holographic windows would be the people who paid extra to come witness the games in person. Their views would not be hampered by the screens in their own windows, which allowed a closer view on the nitty-gritty of what was about to happen in the arena.
Gylden usually took a moment to pose for the audience, but today, as soon as his eyes adjusted, he froze.
All throughout the arena were multicolored posts driven into the ground. A woman was suspended by her wrists on each of these posts. They were held by rope, many of them in tears. And all were wearing scraps of brightly
-colored fabric, often nearly see through. They were also decked out with glittering jewelry. Above the arena hovered cages full of vicious beasts. Tree scorpions. Main Herolps. Jungle cats. It seemed that Taskus Draw had taken inspiration from the old stories of sacrificial virgins for today's fight.
Gylden stepped forward as another gladiator's name was called, but a shield of blue, crackling energy burst up from the ground. A shock went through his body, making him stumble back. So they weren't allowed in yet. His gaze scanned the arena, trying to find a glimpse of Bianca. He didn't see her, but she had to be out there.
Soon, all the gladiators were in the arena, standing in a circle around the energy field separating them from the women. They glanced at one another. A few must have seen their mates, because they pounded on the barrier, only to be thrown back as Gylden had been.
The T'shav's own nerves were quickly worn to a fraying point. What was this? Were they supposed to just watch as the women were slaughtered?
His grip on his sword tightened as Taskus Draw's elevator descended, hovering just below the creatures' cages. The faint shimmer in the air around him indicated he was shielded against the creatures. Probably in case some spat poison or got free.
"Welcome, gladiators!" Taskus Draw cried, grinning. "The annual Freedom Games have begun!"
We can tell. Get on with it!
"For this task, your new mates have been put in the arena. Each of these creatures you see above me has been fitted with a collar that will draw them to the pillar your mate is attached to. It will be up to you to find your mate before the creature assigned to her does! Once you find her, you will be permitted to rush her from the arena as soon as she is free. Be aware, though, because if another gladiator's mate is killed, he is allowed to steal yours! So keep sharp and don't turn your back!"
