Page 22 of Meteor Storm

But I fought. It was all I could do.

His body caged me and in a fit of desperation, I writhed and flailed, trying to shove him off me. His eyes weren’t the ones I saw before. They were black. Empty. Crazed, even. He was a beast. An animal driven by something deeply primal. He was possessed.

I tried to break away again and again, but each time he cut me off with infuriating ease. No matter which direction I chose to move, he was already there, anticipating everything I did. The effort felt useless, and the swell of frustration and fear tore a scream from my throat.

At last, he pushed away from me and even let me take a few desperate, limping strides before he lunged. In one brutal motion, he hauled me off my feet and slung me over his shoulder. I kicked and thrashed until his thick arm clamped my legs against his chest.

He had barely taken a few steps when something burst from the trees, weapon drawn.

“Look out!”

He spun, flinging me from his shoulder. The moss softened my landing, but pain still radiated through me and my wound was truly beginning to bleed.

Thilar caught his attacker's wild swing and the clash of metal on metal rang through the clearing. He drove his opponent back and slashed at the nozun with his blade, missing by a hair.

The nozun landed on all fours, dirt and moss exploding into the air around him.

As the two launched into battle, I rolled away and dragged myself across the forest floor toward a tangle of massive roots, hoping to lose myself somewhere the larger pursuers couldn't reach. Once I was close enough, I scrambled onto all fours, desperate to disappear.

Then a massive gray shape dropped from the trees and landed directly in front of me.

Nothing was going to go my way. Nothing.

My gaze traveled upward until I found his face. His teeth gleamed in a predatory grin as he stared down at me, saliva glistening between them, as though I were less a person and more a meal.

He reached down, long fingers tangling in my hair, and yanked me to my feet. Before I could cry out, something whistled past my ear and lodged itself just below the nozun's neck.

He cried out, a low, guttural sound, and dropped me.

I twisted to look over my shoulder and found Thilar standing several paces away, one arm still outstretched from the throw.

I scrambled out of the way as he hurled his opponent to the ground. With a brutal wrench, he yanked the nozun's head backward until its spine cracked audibly.

The creature had barely gone still before his focus snapped to the second nozun, which was already reaching for me.

I pressed myself against a tree before Thilar crashed into it with a deafening roar, driving it hard against the trunk.

Ribs cracked.

A sharp wheeze filled the air.

The crowd was going ballistic.

I began rolling and crawling just to dodge the two heavy bodies wrestling around me. On the dome’s ceiling, live video of the fight filled the space like we were the main event. One of the stupid, buzzing drones zipped toward me. I picked up a stone and flung it at the little machine, knocking it out of the air with a snarl. It sparked, swirling a few times until it hit a tree and shattered.

The crowd only responded with excitement.

On the other side of the clearing, Thilar had the nozun in a chokehold, his arm wrapped around the creature’s thick neck as it struggled. Thilar was on his back, his legs wrapped around the nozun’s torso until its frantic movements finally subsided. I watched in horror until he was throwing the limp beast onto the ground with the other. The way he staggered to his feet, lightly shaking his head as if disoriented, made me wonder if he’d been hit, but then he collapsed to the ground again, each breath a frustrated rasp.

That was my chance. That was my chance to run, but instead, I sat frozen, watching. Two bodies lay motionless and broken on either side of the clearing and Thilar was painted with their black blood. I didn’t understand any alien words, but I understood enough about how things were supposed to work. I was his prize. Only… he wasn’t taking me.

I should have counted my blessings and fled, but I didn’t. I stayed, watching him press the heels of his palms to his head and bend over himself, growling into the ground in controlled agony.

Finally, he looked up at me, hints of remorse pulling his brows together. He spoke one word to me as if pleading.

I wanted nothing more than to understand him, but I had no idea what he was saying. All I could tell was that the spiked fuckers that controlled the game wanted him to do something and he wasn’t doing it. If it was anything like the last time we were stuck together in front of an audience, if he didn’t obey, things weren’t going to go well.

Survival. I was in survival mode, and survival mode had no rules. No limits. I just had to endure.