Wrage (Galaxy Gladiators #11) - Alana Khan Page 0,19

right here, is good. He’s calm and happy, and so am I. To top it off with a cherry, he snags his hand around my waist, pulls me closer so our hips bump, then saunters with me across the sand. For one split second, I wish things could stay like this.

“We need to talk,” he says when we get back to the Hump Hostel.

My mom used to call those the four worst words in the English language. My body shifts from happy and relaxed to high alert.

“Am I in trouble?” I ask.

“No.” He shakes his head. He must be telling the truth, because the look in his eyes says I might be in for something, but it isn’t trouble.

“Whether we like it or not, we’re together now. We have to decide what our next move is. The way I figure it, we have two choices for the short term, and more choices for the long term.” He waits for my response.

“Okay.”

“Choice one is to stay on the Fool’s Errand or Devil’s Playground. Those are the two ships in our little runaway-slave fleet. They are good people—the best. They took me in, they took all fifteen of us rowdy gladiators in, that’s a lot of mouths to feed, without asking much in return. I think you should meet the Earth women. It will reassure you.

“The other choice is to return to Wryth’N, perhaps stay with my family. I think you should meet the women on the mainland tonight, and travel with me on a quick trip to my planet tomorrow. We have to return to Paragon either way to . . . give Analac his swab kit. This way you can make an informed decision.

“There are a thousand other places in the galaxy we can go, but I suggest we stick with these two choices for now until we figure things out. What do you think?”

What do I think? I haven’t had to think for four years. I guess that’s the one beauty of slavery—it requires no brainpower. Well, except for figuring out how to avoid your master’s wrath. That requires effort.

“Let’s check out Wryth’N,” I say. “I can meet everyone when we return.”

“Okay. They’ll love you. Who wouldn’t?”

Zing! He said those last two words as if they were the gospel. As if he couldn’t imagine anyone not liking me as much as . . . he likes me. Lord help me, but that was so genuine, spontaneous, and tender it’s giving me goosebumps.

“How do we get to Wryth’N? When can we leave?”

He gets on his wrist-comm and says, “I’ll book a swift-shuttle departing today, then inform Zar and Justus we’ll be back before it’s time to return to the ship.”

Chapter Five

Elyse

Three hours later, we’re boarding the shuttle to Wryth’N.

“I tried to book us a cabin, but there wasn’t much availability on such short notice,” he tells me.

“Mrzz used to make me travel in a cage at his feet. I doubt you’ve secured us anything worse than that,” I quip.

I get to meet Wrage’s grumpy face, well, I’ll call it his even-grumpier face. His brow is lowered so far his eyes are squinched and the corners of his mouth dip down. He’s silent, and those green-gold eyes are flaming orbs of the sun. They’re angry, and the tight set of his jaw screams ‘murder’.

“You’ll have to tell me what he looks like. If I ever meet him, I’d gladly kill him for that,” he says.

Why does his outrageous statement fill me with happiness? I’ve never had a boyfriend who wanted to protect me before. I like it.

All of a sudden, my face goes on lockdown. Is that what Wrage is? A boyfriend? Am I falling for my mate? This will never do. This needs to stay platonic, I remind myself. We can’t afford to let our feelings jeopardize this long-term partnership we’re forging.

When he shows his tickets as we board, the brown amphibious male pulls us to the side. “I’m so sorry to have to inform you, Sir,” his tone is so obsequious I know what’s coming next isn’t going to be good. “The computer malfunctioned. There’s only one malta available, not two as you were promised. We have another shuttle leaving tomorrow at this time and we can provide you an upgrade if you choose to wait.”

What’s a malta?

“Can you show me the room? Perhaps we can make it work.”

We follow his rigid spiky back down the corridor, past what look like the luxury rooms, past the smaller cabins, and