Page 3 of Bound to the Alien Gladiator
Chapter Two
Warm touched me in sporadic intervals on my arms and legs. The sensation was comforting, which was unusual seeing where I was. Confused, I pushed myself into consciousness. Warmth cocooned my body, and my vision was blurry. I shook my head to clear the fog. The last thing I remembered was being pinned to the dirt by a vicious alien who I couldn’t decide if he was about to kill me or make me come. My traitorous face flushed at the memory. Those were not the acts of a battle-hardened warrior. Despite the warmth, the familiar rock ceiling settled melancholy deep in the pit of my stomach. I was pretty sure this wasn’t heaven.
I closed my eyes and took stock of my body. Sore, stiff, and feeling better than expected, I welcomed the hunger pangs and the surety of life they brought. I didn’t want to get up. Any minute now, the guards would be by with barely tolerable food and water, and I’d have to face the reality that I was back in my cell awaiting the next battle.
“Hello, Gladiator Rena Fucking Vale,” a deep and familiar voice rumbled.
My eyes snapped open, and it was like I was in the ring again. Adrenaline spiked, and I stiffened.
“How are you feeling?”
The Champion’s face hovered above me where he knelt beside the bed. His piercing green eyes stared directly into mine, only this time he didn’t look like he wanted to kill me. The aggression tightening his features and tensing his tentacles in the ring when he wanted to rip my head from my shoulders had softened into some semblance of worry.
He held a small container in his hand and appeared solicitous and caring as he paused at the side of the bed. Even his tentacles seemed tentative as they moved slowly around his neck. The dissonance scrambled my thoughts. The soft touch that had awaken me came again. When I looked down, I saw his hand rubbing a warming cream on my wounds, ones left over from the particularly vicious dinosaur I’d fought two days prior.
“What are you doing?” I stopped myself from demanding a deeper caress for my sore and overused muscles and tried to move away, but I could barely lift myself onto my elbows. He said nothing and didn’t stop massaging the cream in either. His thick fingers were exciting nerves I’d rather leave alone until I was safe, but I pushed away the almost sensuous way he massaged the ointment into my fingers, forearms, neck, and—
My arms gave way, and I collapsed back on the bed. Why was I so weak? Anger spiked. I could not appear weak to the Champion.
“Seriously, what the fuck is going on?” I asked.
He reached my ear and gently circled it with his finger, and I leaned into the touch. I didn’t know why I needed cream there, but I wouldn’t stop him. Despite my growing fear of being trapped with this brutal monster, I found myself aroused, again.
“You’re in my cell, Rena Fucking Vale. You’re safe, for now.”
I wasn’t ready to believe him.
I sluggishly pushed back up to my elbows and took in my surroundings to confirm for myself. His cell was much cleaner and better equipped than my own. Soft rugs covered the hard uneven rock floor, their quality not half bad considering our location. I splayed my hands on the bed and realized I was lying on a real mattress covered with thick furs, not a pallet of straw with thin grubby blankets left there after the last tenant had died.
A few feet away, a metal pot sat on a warmer mounted on the floor. My stomach cramped as I tried not to look too closely at it. Even though I was in his cell, I would not assume he’d share his food with me. I wouldn’t, not if it meant I could keep my opponent weak and vulnerable.
I followed the edge of the wall to the left and saw this bastard had an actual toilet instead of a hole in the ground. He also had a fucking tub. My daily bucket of dirty water I had to separate for drinking and bathing paled in comparison to the luxuries afforded to the Champion. My breath rushed out of me, and I lay back down on the bed. How long had he been here fighting for Atroba to earn this status?
A tentacle brushed my cheek, the touch soft and searching, and I focused back on the Champion.
I brushed the caressing limb away. “Stop that.”
“You are safe, Rena Fucking Vale.”
He set the tin of cream down and sat back from me.
“Why do you keep calling me that?” I asked as I followed his motion, struggling to keep my gaze from the powerful muscles flexing in his thigh.
He shrugged and gave me a lingering once-over. “Is it not your name?”
“My name is just Rena Vale.” I chuckled. “No fucking.”
At least not without my permission. This was the first time I’ve really, truly looked at him as a person, not an enemy. He oozed brutality in the ring, but now his eyes were soft and his body relaxed. It didn’t fool me, though. I remembered how fast he could move . . . and how he’d almost killed me.
“Are you hungry, just Rena Vale?”
I wanted to decline. After all, I had nothing to trade with, but it’d been a long time since I’d had a full meal. Even though I was the victor in my bracket, I never had received a true fighter’s rations.
I could tell by the rich, meaty smell wafting towards me from the warming pot that the Champion had better benefactors than I. A traitorous grumbling from my stomach answered for me.
A few moments later, he lifted me without protest into a seated position and placed a small stone bowl in my hands. Steam flushed my face. I didn’t stop to wonder if it was poisoned and tipped the edge of the bowl up to my lips and gulped the savory broth down as quickly as I could. My hunger carved an empty hole in my stomach I worried couldn’t be filled. If I thought I could, I’d have eaten the spoon and bowl as well. I might have bitten him if he tried to take it, but I wouldn’t give him the chance.
Beside the bed, he watched me; normally, I’d find that creepy, but I was too hungry. He smiled, and I almost choked on a piece of meat. He chuckled, and I wanted to rip into him about it, but I couldn’t remember the last time I’d eaten real meat. Even before I wound up here, it’d been a luxury most couldn’t afford, me included.
