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, when Gibbz had described another fighter just like Rennyr. Westklin is the gladiator franchise owner who put Rennyr into the pit.:

Chest tight with anxious excitement, Rennyr asked, “What happened to him? Does he continue to fight?”

“Nah, he won his freedom, married a Senator’s daughter no less and now he owns the damn gladiator House. Like a freaking fairy tale.”

“How can I get in touch with him? Can you send a message for me?” If this Death Dealer was a Badari, he’d wouldn’t leave a pack brother as a slave in the hands of a man like Westklin.

Gibbz guffawed. “You got any idea what it costs to send a message from the Hinterlands to a place like the Five Systems? More than my paycheck can cover. And you got no credits that’s for sure. Weren’t you listening? Best thing you can do—only thing you can do—is go along with Westklin’s plan. Make a reputation and this guy we’re talking about will hear about you eventually. It’s the way the entire system works.”

For a few men and women maybe.

Probably all the prisoners in this hideous place had dreams or hopes of being one of the lucky ones who survived to be recruited and transferred to a more humane situation, even if they remained a slave. “You’ve given me a lot to think about. Do you have a name?”

“Gibbz’ll do. My arena name was Two Blades because I was damn good with the double sword but I go by Gibbz nowadays. I gotta go but I’ll keep an eye on you. Hell, I might even bet on you, if you decide to play the damn game like I’m advising. Lords of Space be with you.”

VS: Next week we’ll pivot and meet Jaine, the heroine of the novel.

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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