From my third scifi romance gladiator novel TALINN

Running back into the cabin, she threw on the previous day’s clothes and a pair of shoes, grabbing whatever was close to the bed with shaking hands. Who knew how much time there was before whatever disaster ended the Stellar Aurora’s voyage permanently? She tried to think what else she ought to grab but her mind was blank and she fled, leaving the cabin door open behind her.

The first lifeboat airlock was blinking red so the craft had already gone.  Increasingly terrified, she headed for the next one, which had also been launched. Trying to remember the safety manual despite her terror, the knowledge there were individual lifepods on the next level came to her. She doubted anyone else would have gone there, as most people were too scared to launch themselves into space in such a tiny craft but clearly she must have slept through the early stages of the unknown catastrophe and her options were limited.

The air was getting harder to breathe. Bailey ran to the passageway for crew only, leading to the lower decks, figuring the antigrav lift was a bad bet at this point. The ship shuddered around her again and she heard metallic bangs and creaks which added to her terror. As she emerged onto the next level, she fell but managed to crawl to a bolted-down rack and pull herself to her feet. Three of the personal lifepods were still attached to the ship and she wasted no time climbing into the closest one. The hatch was stubborn and she was screaming at it and cursing by the time it finally closed, sealing her in. She didn’t have time or enough calm left to even try to program the pod but simply flipped the switch for its rudimentary AI to take over and hit the big red launch button.

As she shot away from the cruise liner, she peered into the small vidscreen and saw the ship had sustained major damage of some kind.

VS Note: And so Bailey’s on her way to adventure…

The blurb for TALINN: Talinn was a genetically engineered senior soldier in his Badari Warrior pack until unscrupulous laboratory guards faked his death and sold him into slavery in the galaxy’s hinterlands. Purchased by a nomadic warlord and forced to fight in games for the amusement of the crowds, Talinn has endured through sheer strength of will. He sees no possibility of escape but a Badari never gives up until the goddess calls him to the afterlife.

Bailey Kingsmere was a talented and ambitious entertainer on an interstellar cruise liner when her ship was destroyed in an accident. She escaped in a defective cryonic lifepod, which eventually drifted out of the Sectors entirely and crashed on a primitive planet. Superstitious locals decide to place her in the arena as a prize for a lucky gladiator.

Talinn needs only one look to know Bailey is his fated mate. He’ll do whatever it takes to rescue her from the other fighters and claim her as his prize but how can he ensure her safety thereafter? Since he’s not human and has alien reptilian predator DNA which gives him extra capabilities, will Bailey accept him as a mate? And can they ever escape their desperate situation and find a way to freedom?

TALINN is the third book in the Badari Gladiators Series and can be read as a standalone. A steamy romance with fated mates this story was initially published in the Claimed Among the Stars Anthology (no longer available), but has been expanded here with an additional 15,000 words.

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