Still in that time frame where it’s all testing, with the answers I need yet to come. I’ll keep posting a  weekly snippet because the effort to do so isn’t too taxing, but I just can’t make it around to everyone else’s blog to comment. 

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.

If you want the full story of what they go through and how they battle to survive and protect each other, and their romance, with all the nuances and details, the book is available wide. 

The excerpt, switching to Jaine’s POV as she waits to enter the arena:

I’m not going to cower and run. I’m not going to make it easy for whoever comes after me. They’re going to have to acknowledge I want to live. Maybe a miracle will occur. Maybe the people here will change their minds.

Maybe the fighter in the cell will keep his word and come help me.

One of the guards was issuing hurried instructions. Realizing she’d missed the first part of his lecture, she took a deep breath and concentrated, wiping away all other thoughts. She elbowed the man beside her. “What did he say?” she whispered.

“Weapons in a pile in the center of the arena,” he answered with irritation, moving away from her a few steps. “Try to grab one. Better pay attention.”

The guard was still talking. “By a stroke of luck, our boss won the toss and you sorry lot have the privilege of entering the arena first today. Gives you a better chance at the weapons anyway. Make a good showing, impress the odds makers and the audience and the master might let you live. Two minutes till you hit the sand, people.”

“Who are we fighting?” yelled someone on the other side of the room.

“Anyone in blue,” the guard answered with a crooked smile, as if the answer was obvious. “Don’t worry, they’ll find you.”

VS: Meanwhile, Rennyr has broken out of his cell and is rushing toward the arena. But can he arrive in time to save her?

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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