Down here it didn’t matter that his cover wasn’t perfect. That he didn’t appear perfectly like a backwater, common-born Lathar. No one here cared what he was. They just cared if they could beat him or not.
“This place never changes,” he commented as Rish found them a patch of sand near one of the walls. A small group of T2s, newer ones by the absence of scars and the lack of jadedness in their eyes, scuttled away to a safe distance. And so they should. He and Rish thought nothing of throwing each other bodily across the arena.
“Nope,” Rish said cheerfully as he began to stretch. “And yet it is completely different than you remember all at the same time.”
“What do you mean?” he asked as he stretched to warm up, but he’d lost Rish’s attention.
Instead, the flashy fucker was stretching and flexing. He was obviously showing off, which meant one thing. He wanted to impress a female. Rish was an excellent fighter. Unfortunately, he was just as easily led by his cock.
Sighing, Beauty looked around. “Okay, which one is she?”
It couldn’t be the Zoxxian. Even though he could tell from the coloration that the four-legged fighter was female, her shape was all wrong for Rish’s appetites. He liked females with curves, hips, breasts… all that.
“Zad. The Krynassis over by the fourth pillar.” Rish turned and flexed, bringing all the muscles across his wide back into high relief.
Not for the first time, Beauty sighed at his antics. “Quit fucking flashing it about unless you want to end up in Vaxel’s bed,” he warned, knowing it was pointless. The training bouts were all recorded by the Pelv and occasionally he singled fighters out for "extra" attention.
Rish shrugged and turned. “Been there, done that. How do you think I got the blocks to put on so much muscle?” He grinned, flexing and kissing a mounded bicep.
Beauty shrugged but didn’t comment as he looked in the direction Rish had indicated. Some fighters accepted sponsors and traded sex for access to luxuries they couldn’t get down here. Like better food… well, actual food rather than the nutri-blocks they were given. Medical supplies. Clothing. If Rish had let Vaxel into his bed to fund getting bigger physically, which then meant he could fight better and take more punishment in the arena well… that was a worthwhile tradeoff.
He found the female Rish was talking about and his eyes widened. When the Xian had said Krynassis, he’d expected a female like Red—a half-Krynassis hybrid. One look at the carved features and diamond-scaled skin and he realized his error.
“Fuck. How’d Vaxel get a full blooded Krynassis female in here?” he hissed, not surprised that Rish had singled her out. Krynassis females were hauntingly beautiful and as deadly as fuck. Full-blooded ones were also excessively rare, a female born only once every fifty thousand or so male births. So rare that a hive queen would only have one daughter in her lifespan—who would invariably become hive queen on her death. Usually, the arrival of a female offspring was a warning that the queen was nearing the end of her lifespan, which meant they were, if not exactly a welcomed arrival, a prized one. So… what the fuck was one doing here of all places?
“Brother, a female like that would chew you up and spit you out,” he warned. The sexual appetites of the hive queens were legendary, requiring a full harem to sate them once they went into heat.
“Yeah, but it would be fucking awesome. Wouldn’t it?” Rish laughed, clapping Beauty on the shoulder. “Is she looking?”
“No. Why would she want to look at your ugly ass?”
“Why’d you think I brought you onto the sands today, Talon? You need to distract her… Talon? Talon… are you even listening to me?”
But Beauty wasn’t. Instead, all his attention was locked onto the little female with the Krynassis. Marika’s sister. Small, dark-haired and curvy. It was definitely her.
A rush of relief washed over him. At least she’d been sensible enough to form a friendship with a more powerful female. It would warn some of the smaller predators away.
“The female… what’s her name again?” he asked distractedly, barely sparing a glance for his friend.
“Zadaenae. Zad. Why? Oh, no you vaarking don’t.” Suddenly Rish was all up in Beauty’s face, blocking him before he could step forward.
“She’s mine,” he rumbled in warning. “I saw her first. You get your own.”
Beauty sighed and turned Rish around. “I’m trying to. See the female with her?”
“The soft little one?” Rish frowned. “Looks more like a T3 to me. How the vaark did she get in here?”
Beauty chuckled. “I’m familiar with her species and believe me, you do not want to piss one off. I saw her testing fight and she about took the head off a Jentar.”
“A little thing like that?”
Rish didn’t look convinced as they made their way over the sands to where the two females were lightly sparring. It looked more like a testing bout than anything else, as the two females attempted to get the measure of each other without giving too much away.
He grunted in the back of his throat, impressed at the human’s perception. Less than a planet rotation down here in the pits and she’d made two excellent calls already.
He waited, his arms folded as he watched them. Not even T1s and champions would get in the middle of a fight between two females. It just wasn’t worth the hassle and injury that was sure to follow. His gaze followed the human. The grace and control about her movements was surprisingly appealing.
“Ladies,” Rish smiled, spreading his arms wide. “May we join you?”
8
The Krynassis sighed as she dropped her guard and looked directly at him. “It’s free sand. Can’t exactly stop you. Can we?”
“Ahh, but there is a great difference between not stopping us and being offered an invitation to spar with you.”
Zad favored him with a look that would have given a keelas a headache. Then she inclined her head, stepping back in invitation. Beauty hid his smile as Rish all but leaped into the space to claim Zad as his sparring partner. Beauty was still shaking his head as he took his place opposite Marika’s sister.
She backed off and circled, eyeing him up. Her entire body was tense, and he knew one move from him would have her guard up immediately. Not that it would do her any good against him.
“Beauty,” he said, circling her in the same way she was circling him.
“Flattery will get you nowhere,” she said with a curve of her lips that was not a smile.
Now he was closer to her, he could see that she both resembled her sister and didn’t. Physically, they were similar—both petite, slender females with delicate curves and beautiful, almost feline-set features. But that’s where the similarity ended. Where Marika was soft and delicate, her sister was lean and toned, the expression in her eyes as hard as traxisidian as she watched him. It was like comparing a kitten to a big cat. One was cute, but the other was a predator.
“I wasn’t calling you beautiful.” He chuckled. “I was introducing myself. I’m Beauty.”
Her eyes narrowed, her gaze flicking over him as she feinted to the left. He deflected it easily. She moved well, faster than he’d expected.