Page 95 of Aria's Ascension

From what Kix told her, Ahura was one of the brightest in the group and was picking up on the technology at light speed. Which was great. Really.

What Aria found less pleasing were the besotted gazes she kept giving Kix when she thought he wasn’t looking. Aria may or may not have, briefly, contemplated shoving her ass in a stasis tube.

Herotherside, which was becoming more and more entwined with her, offered the more permanent solution of killing her outright, taking serious offence that another female was eyeing her mate.

Obviously, Aria wasn’t going to do that, but Ahura must have caught the murderous twinkle in her eyes, because after that, she kept her besotted looks to her damn self.

Tirox was holding classes to help those from less technologically developed worlds acclimate to this one. They ended up doubling as group therapy, but her barbarian was a natural at helping people, especially those he understood.

He became someone anyone could go to for help, advice, or to just talk out their troubles. It surprised her. She would’ve thought people would naturally be drawn to Kix for that, seeing as he was an empath, but her firefly was much more comfortable with electronics, mechanics, and working on his inventions than he was with people.

He said since his abilities were continuing to grow that he was struggling to filter out the emotions and stray thoughts bombarding him, so inviting them to pour their troubles on him would be draining and painful.

The Gaelli had done what they could for the aquatic people and animals, using the reformer to create both saltwater and freshwater oceans for them that now took up almost half of the arena. That only gave each group a body of water roughly twelve square miles in which to live, so it was far from perfect, but it would have to do until she could take over the arena that specialized in underwater tournaments.

To address the issue of the animals left in the hold, Aria decided to make an enclosure for them. She’d been ready to put them all together, but the little pixie-faced female with purple eyes, Meribah, gasped in shock and said that would be a terrible idea for a lot of reasons that she passionately listed for a solid ten minutes.

In answer, Aria gave her a dozen construction robots and put her in charge of the animals and how they were grouped.

Meribah almost fainted, the poor, delicate, high strung thing that she was.

Aria caught her before she hit the ground, set her back on her feet, told her to ask around for volunteers to help her, then gave her a wink and left her to it.

There’d been half a dozen volunteers before Aria made it two steps. All male. Last she’d seen, Meribah looked happy and a hell of a lot calmer. She was also being stalked by four men, at last count, who were all very obviously determined to woo her.

While all that had been going on, Aria was on edge waiting for someone to show up about the crash or to question where Zhrovni had been for the last few weeks—cops, the Federation, city workers, an Overlord from a different arena planning to come steal Zhrovni’s slaves. Hell, she had sentries keeping watch for just such an occasion. But, no one showed up. Instead of easing her worries, that doubled them.

Someone on the planet was going to find out there were a bunch of slaves running free and take exception to it.

It was inevitable, because somehow, some way, word about them was getting out to other slaves, so it was only a matter of time before their masters heard the same whispers.

The first time a runaway slave entered the complex, he was almost killed, the guards thinking he was an enemy. When word was brought to her about what was happening, she’d immediately taken him to be healed then questioned him at length. She still didn’t know who the leak was, and more slaves showed up by ones and twos, seeking sanctuary.

She welcomed them, of course, but only once Kix and Lilac cleared them. So far, everyone who showed up passed vetting, but she took steps anyway, just in case.

With her mates’ help, she selected a dozen people in secret to be her eyes and ears within the population at the complex.

Their job was to befriend everyone, listen to what was said, and keep a sharp eye out for anyone scheming against them from the inside, bad apples who repeatedly caused problems, and anyone who might be a closet serial killer or rapist.

She put Rellik in charge of them, trusting him to be her early warning system. Her handsome devil could spot a conspiracy and manipulative behavior a mile away.

Secondary to being lookouts, they were to collect information: good, bad, and indifferent. Aria needed to have a firm understanding of the ever-shifting tone within the complex in order to keep so many different species living in relative harmony.

While she was hunting for spies, she’d also asked Kix to point out anyone who might be skilled at covert work and willing to venture outside the arena.

That led her to four individuals: a human woman named Sparrow who’d worked for the CIA back on Earth and insisted she be called Spar; Arek, a male who never failed to set her on edge, despite his outwardly serene, quiet demeanor; Lor, a handsome male who was quick to smile and unbelievably talented with a blade; And Hasson who was shockingly good at appearing and disappearing at will, a skill even more astonishing seeing as he had metallic bronze skin and huge, black, feathered wings.

Aria put them through an intensive test of skills to ensure she wasn’t sending people out there who couldn’t take care of themselves. They all passed, and Arek came very, very close to beating her during a spar.

When she finally pinned him with a blade to his neck, he’d gotten a glint in his eyes that made her seriously contemplate slitting his throat while she had the chance. It was a look she’d seen once in the eyes of a serial killer after she’d arrested him. It was base, animalistic, yet layered and complex.

There was respect there, admiration, but also the almost irresistible need to eliminate the person who’d just shown themselves to be a better predator.

Instead of killing him, she’d leaned down so only he would hear her, keeping her eyes locked on his and whispered, “You should resist that urge, if you want to keep breathing. Find someone deserving to take it out on, if you can’t bury it, but keep it out of my house.”

He’d hesitated long enough that she’d pressed the blade down harder, resigned to killing him, before he finally gave her a single, small dip of his chin and answered through sharp teeth, “Your will, Queen.”

He seemed fine after that, but Aria kept an eye on him to make sure he didn’t…playwhile in the complex.

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