by Lily Thomas
Books By Lily Thomas
Giant Wars Series
Loving His Fire
Grounded By Love
Melted By Love
Galactic Courtship Series
Xacier’s Prize
Claiming His Champion
Captivating the Doctor
Escaping the Hunt
Abducting the Ambassador
Wicked Prisoner
Seducing the Enemy
Cuff Me Now
Challenging the Arena
Challenging
the
Arena
Lily Thomas
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2018 by Lily Thomas
All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce the book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever. For information email [email protected].
www.lilythomasromance.com
ISBN:
ISBN: (ebook)
Chapter 1
Evelyn twisted her hands in her lap as her boss read her most recent story in front of her. Glancing around the room she did her best to distract herself with the pictures adorning the walls, but her nerves were shot. She’d been having a lot of trouble thinking of a good story that would grab her readers, and by Janet’s facial expression she knew she’d written another dud.
Janet shook her head her shoulder length brunette hair swirling around her as she continued to read the article Evelyn had just finished writing and her mouth fell down in a frown.
“Eve.” Janet groaned as she continued to read. She could read it all in her boss’s eyes, the news would not be good.
“That bad?”
Janet placed the pad on her desk and shook her head again as she pinched the bridge of her nose with two fingers. “You call this a story? Where’s the flair?” Janet waved a hand in the air. “Where’s the hook? Our readers won’t want to read this and that means I don’t want to go through all the trouble of publishing it.”
Evelyn shrugged not sure what to say, because she thought it’d been good. That’s why she’d written it and submitted it, otherwise she wouldn’t have given it to Janet to read over.
Janet grabbed the pad, rose from her seat, and placed a hip on the edge of her desk. She was about to get yelled at by her boss, Evelyn braced herself her hands gripping the chair arms until they turned white with the force.
“No one wants to read about the mating life of some random alien animal on a planet that has nothing to do with them. This isn’t a wildlife agency, this is a news agency. Unless the animals have destroyed an entire human colony, it’s just not interesting. We need stories that get people worried, excited, they need to jump up out of their seats!” Janet’s hazel eyes skewered her to her seat. “You could be covering the issues about the Sri’thaens.”
That would require going to the front lines if she wanted something new and juicy, that hadn’t already been reported on and she had no intention of going to the front lines.
“Isn’t that a bit dangerous?” She hedged.
“If you want success, you need to be ready to follow the news and sometimes that might lead you into a hot zone. If you want a winning story, that’s where you need to go.”
She nodded slowly, not sure that was exactly where she wanted to go.
“You need to set their blood on fire, get them fired up about whatever you’re talking about, and no one gets excited about animals mating except weirdos.”
“I understand what you’re saying. I’ll go back to the drawing board.” Evelyn said, knowing those were the right words, but not knowing what she’d come up with.
Janet leaned in, invading her personal space, almost nose to nose with her. “We might have to let you go if you can’t increase the number of hits on your articles. You have to do better than this.” Her boss plopped the pad in her lap.
Her fingers immediately wrapped around the edges of the pad, the cold metal shocking her skin. “You don’t have to let me go. I can do better, let me prove it to you.”
“I don’t want to let you go,” her boss leaned away from her, “but if you can’t write an article that people want to read, then I’ll have no choice in the matter. It’s all about the numbers and your articles have drawn no views recently.”
“I’ll have another story to you as soon as possible.” Evelyn rose from her seat and kept her back straight. She wasn’t going to crumple like a delicate flower just because she was getting her story thrown back in her face, something she’d spent time planning and writing. This was her dream job, so she would just have to figure out some other story that would wow Janet and their readers.
“Don’t come back to me with a story unless it’s the winner I’m looking for.” Janet sat back down at her desk and began shuffling through the pads on her desk.
Evelyn walked out of her boss’s office. Great. She was going to lose her job and she really couldn’t afford that right now. She had an apartment to pay for and she needed food if she didn’t want to wind up starving.
Slowly she slinked her way through the office until she reached her cubicle. Sitting down on her chair she let her head fall onto her desk with a loud plop. She had no idea what to write about. Recently, there hadn’t been anything interesting for her to write about. She’d been going through a dry spell and she really didn’t want to go to the front lines of the Sri’thaen conflict to get a juicy story.
She could just imagine how traumatizing that would be. There would be nothing but shootouts and hoping her ship wasn’t blasted into a million pieces of metal.
“How’d the meeting go? Did she like the story?”
“She hated it.” Evelyn grumbled against the metal top of her desk.
“Damn.”
With a sigh, she sat up at her desk and looked up at her colleague who was leaning over the short grey wall that separated their desks. “I’m dry. I’m completely out of ideas. I’m done for.”
“You’ve got this. I’ve known you forever.”
“You’ve known me for a year, since I started working here.” She laughed, tossing her brown hair over her shoulder.
“Well,” Connor shrugged, “you’ll have to come up with something.” His brown eyes held hope and belief in her.
“I know! I know.” Evelyn racked her brain for what she could write about. “Maybe I can think of something tonight as I drink a bottle of wine by myself, or two.”
“You don’t need to think about anything!” Connor said rolling his eyes as he strode around the partition and sat on the edge of her desk. “You know the story that will thrill our readers and please Janet beyond measure.”
“I do?” She raised an eyebrow and frowned.
“Yes! You do.”
Evelyn stared at him blankly. “Are you going to tell me or make me guess, because I’m coming up blank on what interesting story I know.”
Connor leaned in like he was telling her a secret. “Your sister.”
Evelyne paled. “No.” She whispered. “I can’t go there. Not now. It’s too soon.”
Connor leaned away and shrugged. “It’s your choice and your story, but you might want to consider it. It would be the heartbreaking story our readers would love to read. It might draw up some feelings you don’t want to face right now, but it could be a good good-bye piece as well. Something to remember her by, a good eulogy.”
“It would be like ripping out my heart.” She felt her chest clench at the thought of even trying to right about her sister. “I’ve done my best to move on and leave that in my past where i
t should remain.”
“Like I said, it’s your choice, but it would make a great story, and it might save your job. Janet’s been breathing down your neck about getting a good story from you for weeks and this might finally get her to breath down someone else’s neck.”
It was true. The story would be compelling, heartbreaking, and maybe even bring light to a problem that a lot of people didn’t even know existed. Space was large and it didn’t surprise her most people didn’t know about the Frirens and their cruel arena that they ran to entertain masses of people.
“It could bring light to the arena.” She murmured.
Connor nodded. “I never knew about the arena until you told me your story.” He held up his hands. “But I also don’t want to pressure you into something. I’m here for you, you know that, right?”
“Yeah, I know.” She sighed as she leaned back in her chair. “It’s a good idea for a story, and it would please Janet. It’s everything she’s been wanting from me, but it’s going to require a lot of research and we might even have to go to one of those arenas.” She shivered. “I’m not sure I want to go to one of those.” She wasn’t sure she could go to one of those.
“Can you do that? It won’t be too much? I don’t want to push you into anything and break you mentally because I can already see you’re panicking a bit. I just wanted to throw an idea out there.”
She sucked in a couple deep breathes. “It will be hard to see what they do to their contestants and know she may have gone through the same horrible challenges, but I would love to get it into the public eye.”
“Then let’s do it!” Connor smiled down at her, clearly enthused that he had given her the confidence to pursue this kind of story.
“Us?”
“Unless you don’t want me to join you, but I thought you might need some motivational help when you go.”
She smiled at him. He was a good guy, and she was glad they’d become fast friends. “I don’t know what I’d do without you.”
He shrugged. “You can pay me back with some good alcohol when we get back. And I like the good stuff.” He winked.
“It’s going to be dangerous.” Evelyn warned him. “The Frirens won’t want us to write an article that sheds bad light on the arena.”
“You mean it will be an exciting adventure full of danger.” Connor corrected. “I’ve been working in this office for years. I could go for a little excitement. Every day it’s clock in, sit down, write, eat lunch and then sit down and write before clocking out.”
She couldn’t believe she was going to say this but, “Then let’s get some tickets and get ourselves over there.” Before she lost her nerve.
She’d been hesitant, but maybe she could finally do something about her sister’s death in the Friren arena by exposing what they did to innocent people. Most of them had been taken out of their day to day lives and thrown into a battle for their lives. It was horrible and she couldn’t wait to put an end to it in honor of her sister’s memory. It was the best and only way she knew how to honor her sister.
Chapter 2
“I can’t believe we are here.” Evelyn glanced around at the throngs of aliens around them. Everyone was so excited, she could see the light in their eyes as they picked out their seats. She wanted to scream at them.
“Do these people even know what they’re about to witness?” Evelyn grumped as she cast the stink eye at some of them.
“It’s probably the reason they came. Have you ever read about the Roman colosseums in Earth’s history?”
“No.”
“Back on Earth, long ago, we had the same type of thing going on that we have right now. It was a large arena where warriors and sometimes animals would be pitted against each other for the entertainment of people in the stands.” He shrugged. “It was also used to keep the common people happy instead of rioting.”
“That sounds horrible. I can’t believe we did that.”
“Give the people what they want.” Connor allowed her to walk in front of him as they tried to find their seats in the crowded rows.
“Here we are!” She announced over all the noise.
“We should get a good view from here.” Connor glanced over at her. “Do you have your pad ready for taking notes?”
“Yes.”
“And I’ve got the hidden camera running.” He squeezed her shoulder. “Don’t worry Evelyn, we’ll get this out there and expose the arena for what it is. Your sister would be proud, I’m sure.”
Her heart thundered in her chest. There was still the possibility they’d get caught and she could feel her nerves building inside her. It wasn’t just the thought of getting caught that unnerved her. She was nervous to watch the arena, because it would show her exactly what her sister would have gone through.
“I’m not sure I can do this.” She felt the panic beginning to race through her.
“Calm down. Breath in and out and remember this could save other innocent lives.” Connor gripped both of her shoulders with his hands and shook her a bit to get her mind off her troubling thoughts. “Think before you freak out and give us away. It will be uncomfortable, but this could do some real good in the universe! Forget about Janet, and just think about the good that might come of this.”
He was right, she needed to calm down. She gazed into his hazel eyes and used the peace she found there to calm herself.
“Right.” She kept her pad at her side, making sure it wasn’t obvious she was taking notes.
“Get ready, it’s about to start.”
She glared at Connor. “You sound a bit too excited about what you’re going to witness.”
“I know we’re here for the story and ending the arena, but it’s hard not to get into it when the crowd is so electrified.”
She glanced around them at the boisterous crowd, and the gruesome show hadn’t even started yet. Her eyes narrowed as she glowered at all the people having fun around her, stuffing themselves full of food, and preparing to watch something that should repulse them. Blood was about to be shed and they acted as though they were just watching a sport.
Then again, it was possible none of these people knew that some of the contestants were innocent people who’d been stolen from their lives and brought here against their will. Maybe she should pity the crowd as well.
“Are you ready?” An announcer asked the crowd.
The crowd roared in excitement, throwing their hands into the air and cheering wildly.
Connor elbowed her. “You may not like it, but at least act like you’re here for the show.”
“Yippy!” She called out while she raised a hand.
“Maybe it was better when you said nothing.” He changed his mind.
Evelyn rolled her eyes. It was hard to pretend to like something that made her want to throw-up.
“Today we will be giving you a show sure to thrill you!” The announcer said clearly through speakers placed throughout the arena.
The crowd roared again, and her stomach heaved. She was about to see what her sister might have seen on her last day alive. She wanted to barf.
“We have a Vrak’rir who is close to being our latest champion of the arena! He might someday win his freedom if he’s lucky!”
The crowd cheered and several women called out desperately as the Vrak’rir strode into the arena like he was the hottest stuff the universe had ever seen.
“I’d take him to my bed!” One woman called out.
“I’d take him right here, right now.” Another woman close by called out as she clutched her breasts wildly.
“Now we know why women show up to such a bloody sport.” Connor leaned over to whisper in her ear. “Could be good for the article.”
“I have no idea what they see in him.” She shook her head but took down some notes on the crowds’ reactions to this upcoming champion of the arena.
“Not into Vrak’rir?”
“Not into a man who can kill so easily.”
Connor shrugged. “
It’s killed or be killed down there.”
“Then why does he look so happy?” Evelyn pointed at the Vrak’rir who was prancing around the dirt arena, twirling his sword in the air like an idiot, but the crowd was into it.
“I think a part of this arena is earning the crowd’s favor as well as beating your opponents to a pulp. Just because he’s a Vrak’rir doesn’t mean he joined up willingly. He could be one of the innocents you were talking about earlier.”
“It would appear winning the crowd’s favor is a big deal, but the jury is still out on this guy being an innocent.”
The Vrak’rir strutted his way around the arena before picking a spot to stand. Then another gate opened and out poured several different species of alien. She couldn’t even name some of them, but she saw Kell, Vrak’rir, a few Daen’su, and even one Friren.
Her throat closed up. She wished this would just be over now.
“Let it begin!” A horn blew and the fighters charged at each other.
She watched on in horror as one alien was thrown to the ground and a spear was thrust into his abdomen spearing him to the ground as he writhed in pain.
“Isn’t someone going to finish him off?!” She cried out as he was just left there to die slowly. Once he’d been speared, the attacker had trotted off to go find another victim.
“They know he is as good as dead.”
“But he’s just bleeding to death.” Maybe that had happened to her sister. She’d never gone into the morgue to see her sister’s body, because she didn’t want to know what her sister had gone through, and now she was left to wonder about how exactly she’d died.
“I think I need to leave.” Evelyn tried to push past him.
He grabbed her arm. “You can’t write a compelling piece if you don’t stay and see what happens in the arena. Take the emotions you’re feeling and write about them. They could make your piece even better if you wield them correctly.”
“I’ll watch the video you’re taping back at the room.” She attempted to shake him off but he wouldn’t let her go.
