Wrage (Galaxy Gladiators #11) - Alana Khan Page 0,49

stealing the joy from the drackholes who want you to feel bad about yourself.

“You displayed those pretty breasts to the whole crowd?” I ask, so loudly the words reverberate down the hallway. I wink at her, trying to tell her I know what I’m doing, and this is for the best.

“Don’t you think I deserve a peek?”

I sweep her into my arms, even though they’re covered in blood and still shaking from the adrenaline coursing through my system.

I pretend to glance under the neckline of what she calls her t-shirt, exposing nothing of her flesh to the prurient guards.

“You can reward my win with those when we’re in our bunk,” I shout as I’m pushed, one of the guard’s feet on my ass, into our cell.

“The cell blocks quiet, see?” I whisper to her. “Embrace the taunting, let them see it’s nothing to you and it will stop.”

She looks around as she listens. The drackholes have moved on to another topic when their bullying didn’t get a rise out of either of us.

Tipping her head as she thinks about what I said, she says, “Wrage! Really?” her voice is loud. “Don’t you need a moment to recover after your fight?” she slaps my shoulder, then giggles.

“Well done, my love,” I whisper. My face grows serious as I tip my forehead to hers. “You saved my life, Love. It cost you, I know. I love you for it.”

There’s a triangular sink in the corner of the cell. Although it’s small and almost rusted through I manage to get my head under the spigot, working around my horns, and run water through my hair, then wipe the sweat and blood off my body. We have no bedclothes, certainly no towels. I stand and drip, letting the relentless heat warm me until I’m dry.

“Let me lay with you, Love. Let me tell you how much you mean to me.”

Elyse

Dear God, watching that match was more painful than anything I’ve ever done—and that’s saying a lot after what I’ve endured the last four years.

I was certain he was going to die. Ormek was so huge, a living breathing Minotaur. I didn’t think Wrage had a chance. When my mate wasn’t even given a weapon, I couldn’t bear to watch. That lasted all of half a minute, then I opened my eyes and tried to figure out a way I could help.

“I’ll give you this in exchange for a feel of your cunt,” a spotted male said as he held up what amounted to little more than a butter knife.

That’s when the idea was born. I wasn’t even smart enough to think of it myself. I looked around and knew the weapon Wrage needed. The long spiky one that would reach farther than his opponent’s.

I elbowed my way through the crowd to the owner of the stick.

“What can I give you for that?” I asked boldly.

It didn’t take him more than two seconds to reply. “Dip my cock in your cunt.”

I shook my head. “Too steep a price.”

I looked around and saw a fellow with a scythe, or was it a sickle? I began pushing my way toward him when the male with the bat said, “Slip my finger in your cunt.”

“No way,” I said and shouldered away from him.

He followed me, stuck his nose in my hair and snorted in my scent as if I was fresh as sunshine.

“Titties,” he said, showing two teeth black as night at the front of his mouth.

“I’ll show you my tits for that,” I said without having to think about it.

“Feels,” he countered.

“Feel one,” I spat back.

He actually moaned, then shuddered when he grabbed my exposed breast and squeezed. It hurt like the devil.

“He needs this,” I said as I slipped the weapon from his grip and pushed through the crowd, calling Wrage’s name.

I don’t regret it. Wrage is right, I saved his life.

We’re lying, his front to my back—spooning. When we did this in the malta it felt like heaven—I felt so protected. It doesn’t feel that way now.

Facing away from him, I allow myself to cry. What happened today is going to keep happening until one day for whatever reason he doesn’t win. No team I ever followed back on Earth had a perfect record. It can’t be done.

And then I’ll have to watch him die, smell his blood on the air, listen to the fickle crowd cheer his opponent, and then be brought to Sooma Ryone within the hour. I wonder how long it will