The Alpha Gladiator (3 page)

Chapter
Three

Ravage
didn’t see Aleirah or some of his men when they landed.
 
Guards took them away.
 
He was escorted from t
he bowels of the ship, led forward in chains, tied to other prisoners
like cattle being led to a slaughter.
 
Guards prodded them forward with electro-sticks, keeping him and the
others in line as they were loaded onto a transporter and whisked away from th
e docking station.

They
were all silent as they stared out the window, seeing the city they were being
transported through.
 
It seemed to gleam
in the sunlight, with skyscrapers made of metal and glass.
 
People stared at them in the transporter,
pointing
like they were freaks of nature to be gawked
at.
 
A few moments later, the transporter
slowed down and landed on a designated pod.
 
Ravage squinted at the bright sunlight emerging as the doors opened
,
and the first thing he saw
w
as
more guards with
blasters.

A
shrill whistle blasted through the transporter and it seemed to work as a
signal to the guards, who stepped forward and prodded them out of the cargo
hold.
 
Tied up with heavy chains, Ravage
had to shuffle along instead of walking properly as t
hey
were led from the open
,
sunny landing site into a dark and cool interior where metal bars separated
them from other men being held prisoners.
 
These men hollered at them and flung mud their way.
 
Ravage ducked a few times because his
nostrils picked up
the scent that some of the stuff
being thrown at them wasn’t just dirt and water.

From
all the opulence he saw from the transporter, Ravage now found himself in a
building that was little more than a shit hole.
 
Hay lined the floor.
 
Buckets of
excrement made his stomach clench in disgust.
 
The people that stared at him from behind the
bars
had a mixture of pity and hatred on their sallow faces.
 
The guards led him past all that into a wide
courtyard, where the sun beat down upon him once more.
 

Ravage
looked back the way he’d come and saw that the guards had
quickly
moved away from the
horrid
pit.
 
They obviously didn’t like the
stench either.
 
So it was now a clear
path out of the mad house he seemed to have been caught in.
 
The guards came forward to take off the ankle
chains and he waited patiently, keeping his face blank.
 
As soon a
s the
metal lifted from his feet, he turned and ran back the way he came, not caring
that his wrists were still shackled together.
 
Yet he hadn’t taken more than a few
steps
when a blaster bolt hit him directly in his back, causing
him to fall forward.
 
He
landed heavily on his arms and chest, knocking the breath
from his body.
 
Pain radiated through
him, up into his skull and down to his feet.

The
guards grabbed his arms and dragged him back.

* * * *

“I’m
truly honored to have a Lycanis in my presence.”

Ravage eyed the pompous man up and
down.
 
He had been on Kappuah for four
days.
 
 
After his escape attempt, the soldiers had
bound his arms and led him to a dungeon that was better left for ancient
stories, worse than the cells he had walked by. In the following days, he
’d been beaten
daily, with fists and electro-sticks.
 
These people called themselves civilized, but their thin veneer of
civility was about as worthless as the shit beneath his boot.

“Mythology
says you turn into wolves, but regardless you’re hailed as the fiercest
warriors in the galaxy.”
 
The man smiled.
 
He picked up a golden goblet that rested on
the desk in front of him and lifted it into the air.
 
“You’ll be the toast of the arena.”

Ravage refused to talk to him.
 
He’d been chained up once more and brought to
this chamber where the fat little man resided like he was a fucking king. He
couldn
’t
cross his arms since he had shackles on, so he turned his head.
 
The man drained his drink and returned the
cup with a sharp click.

“I
can tell you’re not much of a talker,” the man said.
 
“My name is Felix Crispus, and I am the
lanista of this ludus
.
 
What is your name?”

The man was mental if he thought
Ravage would cave so easily. Instead, he focused his attention out the window,
where he could see the ocean.
 
The
crashing of waves against the shore soothed him somewhat, as much as possible
all things considering.
 
The guards had
reduced his food rations, as well as his water, in an effort to break him, but
he was Alpha.
 
He could go weeks surviving
on very little.
 
No, if he were being
honest with himself, it
was knowing
Aleirah was also a
prisoner that was slowly leeching his soul and strength.
 
Each day he was denied the sight of her,
knowing she was somewhere on this fucking satellite moon, was a knife in his
gut.
 
All he needed was some way out of
the electro-rope that kept him bound
. Once free, he vowed to paint the walls
of this ludus with the blood of the men who dared enslave them all.

Felix Crispus
sighed.
 
“I had hoped we could become
friends, but your silence is proving detrimental to that notion.
 
I know you are the Alpha of your tribe.
 
Stories of Lycanis warriors are legendary,
and I am thrilled to have such a specimen as you on display.
 
Surely you love the sport of combat as much
as the next person?”

There were so many things Ravage
wanted to say, but he wouldn
’t give the man the satisfaction.
 
His people had been celebrating the mating
season, a ritual that took them out of their fortified cities into the
wilderness in honor of the ancestors who found their mates under the full
moon.
 
The celebrations were full of
dance, wine, and sex.
 
All of which led
to their guards being lowered to allow the Sennex raiding parties to capture
them.
 

“Come,”
Felix Crispus said cajolingly.
 
“Surely
you are open for negotiations.
 
You must
fight in the Kappuah arena, and win, to reach the honor of Sennex Prime.
 
To get there is a monumental achievement and
one I’ve had the pleasure of sending eight gladiators to.
 
No small feat, mind you.”

“I’ve
noticed there’s nothing small about you.” Ravage taunted the man, unable to
keep his tongue silent any longer.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw
anger
infuse Felix.
 
The man’s face went from
pasty white to fire red in a flash, and the lanista flicked a nod toward the
Sennex soldiers at post near the door.
 
Ravage braced himself for the attack, and as soon as the guard came
close, he struck with his foot, hitting the man in the stomach and doubling him
over with a grunt of pain.
 
The
electro-rope suddenly seized every muscle in his body, and he fell to his knees
as spasms crisscrossed through this body, incapacitating him.
 
He looked through his lashes and saw Felix
holding the remote control to his bindings.
 
Gone was the affable man.
 
Instead, the lanista reveled in the power he wielded, knowing he brought
the mighty Lycanis Alpha down to his knees.

“I
see you’re going to be difficult to control,” Felix said.
 
He stared coldly down at Ravage for a moment
longer and then turned off the remote.
 
“It is said no one can defeat a full grown Lycanis warrior.
 
You
will
fight.”

Ravage slumped to the floor,
sweating profusely as his muscles relaxed.
 
He panted from the exertion and closed his eyes to gather his
senses.
 

“My
people are honorable,” he said.
 
“We do
not kill other people for sport.”

“You
will,” Felix assured.
 
“Everyone does
eventually because if you don’t, it’ll be your broken body bleeding upon the
ground.
 
Your species is a mystery, but I
know stock when I see it.
 
Out of the
dozen Lycanis men we captured, ten are merely whelps.”

Ravage
’s eyes opened and he turned his
head to glance up at the power-hungry man.
 
“You’ve seen my men?”

Felix
nodded.
 
“I have every person that came
from your home world under this roof.
 
I
would hate to punish
them
for your insubordination.”

“Do
you have my woman?”

Felix
raised his eyebrows in surprise.
 
“The
female is yours?”

“She
is.”
 
Ravage had no compunction about
lying to this ugly little man. Besides, claiming Aleirah was just a
formality.
 
“You would call her a
wife.
 
Is she here?”

“She
is.”
 

Ravage closed his eyes briefly as
relief washed through him.
 
When he
opened his eyes to look at the lanista, Ravage kept the emotions from showing
on his face.
“Surely
you have bylaws that protect married women.”

“Bylaws.
 
That’s funny.
 
Honor and good
manners implies that a married woman shall reside with her husband, even if
it’s in the holding cells,” Felix replied.
 
“However, your wife has been proving to be a little hellcat.
 
I had half a mind to give her to the guards
as a plaything.”

Ravage snarled as he rushed toward
the man, intending to wipe the smug look from his pudgy face.
 
Felix hit the button on the remote control
and once again, electricity shot through Ravage’s body, halting his
attack.
 
The voltage was higher this
time, but the words that the man had said burned through him, words that Ravage
couldn
’t
ignore.
 
He fought through the
excruciating pain that threatened to bring him back to his knees, intent on
reaching the man who intended harm to his mate.
 
He stretched out his hand, the fingers mere inches from Felix’s throat
when something hard hit his head.
 
The
soldier he kicked earlier had brought his weapon down on his skull.
 
Ravage had just a brief moment where his body
contorted with agony before sliding into the darkness that yanked him down.

* * * *

Aleirah sat in some type of woman
’s dormitory,
one large room crammed with females of different species.
 
She was thankful there were no others of her
tribe, which meant they’d all gotten away.
 
She had provided a diversion to ensure the women and cubs could escape
into the thick underbrush of the forest, to hide from the Sennex raiders.
 
When she saw Ravage overwhelmed with six
soldiers, one who happened to bash him in the head, she had rushed to help her
Alpha, only to be captured herself.
 

Ravage
would be mad at her once he learned she hadn’t followed the other women to
safety, but she was not the type of female to do nothing.
 
She had loved him her whole life, from the
first moment she’d seen him.
 
Even as a
child she knew there was something special about the black haired, blue eyed
boy who commanded all around him, even at the tender age of ten.
 
Just as she knew she was meant to be
his.
 
But an accident right before she
was to go into the mating ceremony changed the path of her life.
 
She was no longer fit to be the mate of the
Alpha, so she switched her dedication to helping their people, giving up her
dream on one day being his. Even though she couldn’t share her life with him,
she still loved him.
 
Breaking bones and
tearing flesh didn’t scare her, but being parted forever from Ravage did.
 

So
far, Kappuah was large, noisy, and full of smog.
 
How the inhabitants of the moon managed to
live with such pollution clogging their lungs she didn’t know.
 
Once they’d landed, the women had been
transported away from the men, toward this long narrow building that stank of
unwashed bodies and bodily secretions.
 
Unsanitary conditions caused her stomach to heave, but she swallowed
down the nausea.
 
The first few days she
did nothing but adapt to the new environment, but now it was time to escape and
find Ravage.