Page 9 of Meteor Storm

In no time, the starting horns echoed through the arena and everyone took off at full speed in a dozen different directions. I stood for a moment, watching where everyone was going, and noticed the human sprinting toward the trees. Smart. She never would have outrun any of the males on open grounds. My eyes trailed her until she fell from my sight and three males pursued her into the foliage.

Taking a deep breath, I squeezed my weapons, flipping the blades back so they were braced against my forearms, and rushed after them.

It didn’t take long for me to catch up. The two shikari males quarreled just beyond the first tree line until they parted ways. I veered to the right, putting some trees between us as I ran parallel to the other shikari and a lumbering nozun.

Disgusting creatures. Savages. The nozun would rip the human apart if he got to her first.

Cut off by a gek’tal male, I was forced to duck out of the way of his heavy axe. I recovered quickly, lifting my gaze to see Gorrak standing with his weapon pointed at me.

“Stay away from Igra,” he snarled.

I nodded, rolling my shoulder back as I turned to keep tabs on the human.

Gorrak and Igra had been dancing with each other since Igra arrived. They were both gek. Both great fighters. Gek’tal trained their young by putting them in similar arenas. The games were a playground for them, and no one got in their way if they were smart.

I reasoned that Igra had run into the woods as well and he’d mistaken my pursuit for something it wasn’t. I wasn’t interested in his mate, but his interference had delayed me.

Thraxxen was the only other gek male in the arena and he was just as fierce, but his anger often outshined his desire to breed. He only liked a good fight and the two of us, though we’d never spoken, seemed good at staying out of each other’s way. The nozun were his opponents of choice and I assumed, by the manner of his confrontations, that there was a deeper hate there.

I heard the human scream from somewhere in the trees. The sound was high pitched and fierce, calling me to her like she was yelling out my name. I headed toward it, making it into a clearing to find the nozun on top of her, his hands reaching. I did not slow my momentum as I approached. I plowed into him, driving my shoulder into his broad chest and throwing him to the ground. He fought, but his efforts were sloppy. They relied on their brute strength more than anything and their skills were often lacking. With a few swipes of my blade, I opened his leathery skin and painted the sand with his dark, steaming blood.

Turning, I saw the human woman on the ground, staring up at me with wide, strange eyes. She swallowed her shock and climbed to her feet with a different weapon in her hand. One she must have taken from someone else. She stood like she’d been trained. Perhaps not much, but enough for her not to fumble when she ran at me with the blade. I blocked with a good amount of force when she swung and she stumbled, the weapon falling from her hand. She was clearly weakened from the chase and perhaps from whatever ordeal she’d endured before being thrown into the dome.

When the woman fell against me, I didn’t know what to think. Her scent permeated the air, penetrating even the foul smell of the nozun’s insides that were scattered on the ground.

And she smelled… lovely. Behind the sweat and filth of the prisons below the arena, she was sweet and feminine.

And it distracted me enough for her to grab my weapon out of my hand. My grip loosened for her to take it, and she jumped back. I tilted my head at her admirable will to fight, eager to see what she did with it. Immediately, she went on the offensive and jabbed it in my direction, but it was heavy. I could tell by the way she staggered that she wasn’t able to wield it very efficiently. I twisted to avoid it and watched her dive past me and quickly catch her balance.

But not for long.

As usual, the games were not meant for the women to prevail. The crowds wanted death and violence. Blood and sex. Screaming and chaos. As soon as she tried to attack me, her collar went off and her whole body seized at the pain, bringing her to her knees.

The games had a way of putting players together the way it was intended. She was a rare find and so was I. The spectators clearly wanted her to be mine and with a little shock to her system, she was laid out like a sacrifice at my feet.

I stepped forward, angered at the interference.

When the shock subsided, she was weakened. She rolled to her side, wheezing and spent. I stared down at her, disgusted with the idea of taking her in that condition in front of so many prying alien eyes. I despised the idea of taking her at all. It wasn’t right. None of it was right. I’d never taken a female in the arena. I’d always opted to fight the other males until the finishing horn went off and the crowds were satisfied.

I stared up at one of the drones covering the spectacle and raised my chin, realizing quickly the kind of situation I’d gotten myself into. I needed a way out. A delay.

“I’m using my reserves on this female,” I announced. “I’ll not take her in front of an audience. She is my prize.”

The crowd was let down by my decision judging by the drop in volume. Males were rutting females all over the arena and yet too many eyes were on the human. The sick mobs wanted to see her torn to bits. They’d never seen one before. She was exotic meat, there to be spent and used and bring in credits.

Like me.

5: Thilar

By the time the crowd had been appeased and the females exhausted, we were herded out of the arena and into a chamber just outside. If we didn’t drop our weapons by the time we reached that chamber, magnetic walls would pull them out of our grasp and we’d be denied food for two days to punish our defiance.

I knew the drill. I dropped everything I had and stood over the unconscious woman, watching as the other participants walked toward their respective gates to exit the dome. Most of them were injured. Some of them delighted in their victory. Others were dead.

As Gorrak walked past me, he eyed the body of the nozun and the woman on the ground at my feet. The slightest smirk curled the corner of his mouth. I knew what he was thinking. He suspected that the woman was mine now. That I’d seek her out in every game like he sought Igra, protecting her only to ruin her time and time again.

But we were not the same…

Once he gained some distance from me, I crouched next to the human, sliding my arms under her legs and shoulders. When I lifted her, she was just as weightless as she looked. For all I knew, she had hollow bones. Her body was lax as if she was already dead as I walked toward the passage out of the arena. Reddened flesh made a ring around her neck under the shock collar. One jolt had knocked her out and I wondered if they even knew how much a human could take before they put the thing around her neck in the first place.