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, after Kyden went to investigate an outcry in the gladiators’ assembly room and found two women who say their presence is a mistake. He takes the girls to his cell. As the top gladiator in the Five Systems, he has more of a room than most and a private bathroom. (In a part I skipped over, Kyden had appeased the other gladiators by agreeing to pay for the drinks all night.) Continuing on from last week where Elara asked if he could just let them go.

Sorry to dash her hopes, he shook his head. “I can’t. The quarters are locked while the whores are here, mostly to keep them from escaping. Typically each one owes Big Lorena a debt or else she owns them outright and she’s short on trust. The gates open at dawn. I’ll keep you safe till then.”

“I—I’m grateful. My father will reimburse you for whatever the expenses are. For the feelgoods, that horrible man is buying on your account right now.”

“No need. I can cover it. I do want to hear the story, however. I guess the explanation is my price for saving the two of you.” He grinned.

Lady Elara shook her head and patted her sister’s shoulder. “This foolish one thought it would be a fun lark to sneak into the gladiator hall and see the men up close who she’s admired from afar. There were some she had crushes on. She was to come with a group of her so-called friends who swore they’d done this before. Apparently she was told it was like a huge party.”

Appalled at the naiveté on display, Kyden shook his head. “As you’ve seen, gladiators can be as dangerous in close quarters as they are in the arena. All the nobility of the fighter crap is just that—bullshit.”

Tilting her head, Elara studied him. “And you’re the exception then?”

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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