VS: Amazon says RENNYR is my least popular scifi romance at the moment so I decided to share a snippet from his book today. He’s rescued the Female Main Character Jaine from the alien arena and they’re sharing his cell. Right now she’s asleep in the bed while Rennyr watches over her.

Jaine stood in the center of the arena. The lights were dim and there was no audience. The sand had been raked and cleaned and stretched away from her on all sides. The atmosphere was eerie and unsettling, even knowing she must be in a dream. She made a 360 degree turn but there was no one else present and no open doors. The walls stretched high above her, impossible to climb and far above the starry night sky beckoned, which of course further proved the unreality of this experience because the arena had a dome.

At least my arms don’t hurt.

Puzzling over why she was having this dream, she took a step toward the place she remembered the door to the medics’ room as being, for lack of anything better to do. Only to stop with a gasp because now there was a woman standing here, watching her. Clad in diaphanous white robes, seeming youthful, the lady’s face was in shadows.

“You were to have died here today,” she said. The words were shocking, although her musical voice softened the impact a bit. “Your story was done.”

Who is she supposed to be? The unknown woman was taller than Jaine and her bluntness was daunting and not being able to see her face heightened Jaine’s unease. “The whole experience was terrifying,” Jaine said since the other appeared to be waiting for a reply. “I know I wouldn’t have made it without Rennyr. But I don’t understand why—”

Head tilted, the woman’s features tantalizingly not in focus, she asked, “He frightens you?”

Jaine took a moment to consider her answer. “I think he’s sexy as hell,” she said frankly, discretion loosened by the medications. “And I appreciate his help but I’m concerned what he may be expecting in return. And I don’t begin to comprehend why a man—a being—who doesn’t know me at all would risk his own life in this horrible place just to save me. There—there must be other women—”

Her companion shook her head. “Not for him. It will be you or no one. You can trust him. Whether you ultimately decide to extend any other emotions to him will be entirely up to you. He knows my commandments and will honor them.”

The woman was right next to Jaine now, although she had no memory of having seen her move. Dreams are so weird. A beautiful perfume, like a field of flowers in the warm sunshine, filled her nostrils and she inhaled sharply, enjoying the scent after the stench of the arena during the battle and the institutional odor of the cells. She sought the source of the aroma and was startled to see swathes of purple flowers growing on the sterile arena sands.

“Your life has been set into a new course and there will be no returning to the old path, do you understand? His life has been redirected as well. The two of you can help each other, if you choose. Forge a new beginning, with Rennyr but remember he isn’t human, he has a heart and he can be hurt. And I did not alter your fate to see my Badari suffer. I did it on behalf of you both but he’s the one who looks to me.”

Jaine opened her mouth to protest or to ask more questions, she wasn’t sure which, but the woman was gone. Mist crept in, blotting out the view of the arena and she fell to the sands, eyes closing despite her best effort to remain awake in the dream.

VS: Meeting the Great Mother goddess of the Badari is always an eerie occasion…

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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