Here’s the link to the Weekend Writing Warriors central page, so you can visit all the participants sharing excerpts today…a fun way to sample new books and find new authors! (Also welcome to the Sunday Snippet visitors!)

May be edited a bit from published version.

I’m switching to my new release KYDEN: BADARI GLADIATORS SERIES BOOK ONE.

The excerpt, from the beginning of the book, when Kyden has gone to investigate an outcry in the gladiators’ assembly room:

“What’s going on?” he asked, hooking his thumb at the rowdy group of men at the other end of the room.

“I guess a couple of Big Lorena’s newest girls changed their minds about their chosen profession once they got up-and-personal with an actual gladiator,” Benet said as his woman toyed with the fastenings of his shirt and gave Kyden a reproachful glare for disturbing them. “Now the women are trying to escape by claiming it’s all a mistake and they’re not supposed to be here. If Big L sends a woman, we both know she’s where she’s supposed to be. And they stay till dawn. So Jadaxus ain’t having any of this maidenly reluctance.”

Being seven feet tall, Kyden had no problem seeing over the heads of the men between himself and the two women at the center of the controversy. The older, taller woman was in her late twenties, maybe early thirties as this world counted time and dressed plainly but in clothes which proclaimed expensive good taste by their subdued cut and elegant tailoring. Hardly the garb of the usual whore sent to the gladiators. She was flushed, hair disheveled, displaying a rapidly bruising cheek, striking at gladiators who ventured too close to her or the much younger woman cowering behind her.

The younger one was dressed like the courtesans Big Lorena sent to service the gladiators, but her clothing seemed too fine, like a costume rather than the robes of an actual whore. She was younger than the other by at least a decade, weeping and plainly terrified.

It was clear to Kyden neither woman belonged here but it was far too late for them to leave. As Benet said, once the women had been delivered to the Gladiatorial Hall, none were allowed to depart until dawn. Erment the gladiators’ owner wanted his money’s worth and he wanted his men fully satisfied when they sallied forth to fight. Big L didn’t want any of her chattel to escape.

VS: So what will Kyden do next?

KYDEN: BADARI GLADIATORS SERIES BOOK ONE by Veronica Scott

Kyden is the top ranked gladiator in the Five Systems but he’s hardly there by choice. Unscrupulous guards faked his death in the lab where he was created and sold him into slavery in the galaxy’s hinterlands. He has no idea where his home is or how many years have passed since he was condemned to a life of endless combat. Kill or be killed is the rule and a Badari never gives up. He’ll fight to stay alive until the Badari goddess sees fit to decree his death.

Elara Vasclavian is the daughter of a senator, as far removed from the life of a gladiator as a noblewoman can be until through the machinations of a political enemy, she ends up in terrible jeopardy. Abducted and given to a group of drunken gladiators for their amusement the night before the games, Elara vows to put up a fight but there’s no real hope of saving herself. Until Kyden steps in, responding to the goddess’s commandment to protect those who are smaller and weaker. And discovers she’s his fated mate.

Rescued, Elara returns to her life of privilege but she can’t forget the man who saved her life. The gulf between their places in the Five Systems is unbridgeable, no matter how much Kyden longs for even a glimpse of her in the arena audience. No matter how much she feels the pull to be by his side. As matters stand, they cannot be together…Or can they?

KYDEN is the first book in a new series, spun off from my ongoing Badari Warriors series. Kyden is a Generation Five Badari whereas the main characters in the long running series are from a later time and are Generation Eight. This new series stands alone and you don’t have to have read any of the other books to enjoy this one. I couldn’t resist the temptation to tell a few other Badari stories, set in the galaxy’s Hinterlands, and who can resist gladiators?

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