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!)

Sharing from my second scifi romance gladiator novel RENNYR.

The excerpt: Rennyr’s in solitary confinement in “the pit” for refusing to fight again after the death match (where he did manage to save a number of lives, at least temporarily). May be edited from published edition. Follows on directly from where I stopped last week. His new friend Gibbz is speaking, the Westklin he refers to is the franchise owner.

“You don’t know anything about life here, so I advise you to shut up and listen. You won’t get out of this alive if you don’t heed my words. Westklin won’t give up his ambitions and he’ll do everything in his power to break you. And don’t tell me he won’t succeed—I’m sure a guy as big as you will say it can’t be done, you’re tough. Well, he’s downright terrifying and he’ll do anything to prosper once he sets his mind on a goal. Lotta rumors and legends about Westklin and they’re all true and then some. But you don’t gotta do it the hard way. Do it the easy way, fight the battles he puts you in, take the training, show off those muscles and claws and whatnot and that pretty face and take every opportunity to impress a scout or a buyer from offworld. Westklin’s gonna want a big price for you or maybe even a percentage of your future wins so you gotta demonstrate your worth. Get people talking about you.”

“Killing people isn’t an easy thing,” Rennyr said, his gut roiling as scenes from the time in the arena passed through his mind’s eye. “The deaths weigh on my conscience. The ones who died at my hands in the arena the other day were as innocent as I am.” He found an odd peace in expressing his regret out loud to this unseen companion.

There was a sharp bark of amusement from above, hastily smothered. “Well some of them wasn’t so innocent.”

VS: Next week Gibbz will continue giving his advice and educating Rennyr about the world he’s been sold into.

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.

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