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.

This is the last excerpt from KYDEN: BADARI GLADIATORS SERIES BOOK ONE because book two RENNYR has been published and I’ll switch to excerpts from it.

The excerpt jumping ahead in the book to the next time Kyden appears in the arena. Elara is in the audience. They’ve had no contact since the episode where she gave him the scarf… 

Ten men were taking up positions to surround him. Two of them were cyborgs, or so his keen Badari instincts told him. A gladiator was supposed to be warned when he was going to battle anyone unusual. Another was a short, musclebound alien with four arms, all holding different weapons.

Ten to one wasn’t great odds.

The other men from his House reacted in different ways. Some were clearly as puzzled as he’d been, when their scheduled opponents joined the circle around Kyden instead of lining up to fight one on one. These men tried to come to Kyden’s aid but were shooed away by the referees.

Others like Jadaxus merely shrugged and headed for the tunnel without a backward glance. He stood to benefit hugely if Kyden died, with one fewer man between him and the top rank he craved.

All right then.

Calm descended on Kyden as he made a quick circle, taking in each of the men who planned to join in killing him today. On another afternoon he might have decided to welcome death and go into the arms of the goddess with gratitude, ending his time here. Not today. Not with his mate in the audience. He would not die in front of Elara.

VS: Thanks for all the comments on KYDEN. If you want to read the rest of his adventure, here are the buy links:

Amazon     Apple Books      Kobo      Nook      GooglePlay

The new book, second in the series:

RENNYR (BADARI GLADIATORS SERIES BOOK 2) by Veronica Scott

Rennyr was a genetically engineered senior soldier in his Badari Warrior pack until one day he woke up on a strange planet naked, disoriented and about to be sold into the gladiator arena for the rest of his life. Unscrupulous guards faked his death in the lab where he was created and sold him into slavery in the galaxy’s hinterlands. Kill or be killed is the rule in his new life and a Badari never gives up. He’ll fight to stay alive until the Badari goddess sees fit to decree his death and release him from the wretched existence.

Jaine Mitchel of the Sectors was on her way to an exciting research internship until pirates seized the spaceship on which she was a passenger and took her to feature in a gladiator ‘death match’ in the galactic hinterlands. She has no hope of surviving in the arena until a man she only glimpsed in passing breaks out of his cell and saves her life, declaring her to be his fated mate. Given to Rennyr as his reward for winning the death match, Jaine must share a cell and a bed with the handsome, not human, gladiator and together they have to find a way to survive in this merciless world of violence and death. Their mutual attraction is off the charts. Falling in love is the easy part, finding a way to escape or even to remain together is the challenge. At any time their mutual owner could decide thumbs up or thumbs down on one or both of them, or sell them separately.

Their only hope is a mysterious gladiator master from offworld who may be coming to buy Rennyr. Will he take Jaine as well? Could Rennyr win freedom for them both if he does well enough in the arena? Badari Warriors claim their mates for life and Rennyr has no intention of losing Jaine…RENNYR is an 80K word novel and can be read as a standalone. KYDEN is the first book in the series.

Amazon     Apple Books     Kobo     Nook     Google Play