Merry Christmas to those who celebrate the holiday!

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 Taking excerpts from 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. Continuing on from last week…

Elara Vasclavian was more dangerous to him than any gladiator or beast opponent. Emotions and feelings were stirring deep inside him, and longings he barely understood. He wanted this woman, not only physically but to be a part of his life. He wanted to sit and talk to her for hours, to walk with her, to dine with her… The ancestral memory, which he’d worked so hard to repress as part of his effort to remain sane out here in the Hinterlands of the galaxy, cut off from his pack, forced its way into the forefront of his mind and he realized with shock, Elara was his goddess-given mate. The Great Mother, who he was sure had abandoned him, chose now to present him with a potential mate? And the woman was so far above him in the strata of the Five Colonies they should never have met. Certainly he wouldn’t be able to see her again, much less have the chance to talk to her.

And no chance at all of ever claiming his mate.

“I’m sorry, am I boring you?” Elara asked, brows drawn together in a frown.

VS: Oh he’s not the least bit bored…

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?

Amazon     Apple Books      Kobo      Nook      GooglePlay

My Tiktok video about why I wrote KYDEN… here