might just change your mind after Baralt gets ahold of you.” He shook his head in mock sympathy. “He gutted a male with a single swipe of his claws in his last fight.”

“Baralt?” The question emerged before she could call it back.

“The male responsible for your current undamaged condition. The one who plans to win you today.” He shook his head again, and this time, his sympathy didn’t seem quite as false. “He’s a scary motherfucker. And the concubines say he’s got a dick the size of my arm.”

He held up his thick, heavily muscled forearm, covered with red-and-gold scales, and she barely suppressed a wince. Remembering the size of the big white-furred alien, she found it all too easy to believe. Had his apparent kindness simply been an act?

“He might not win,” she said defiantly.

“You better hope he does. Goolig won the first day, and he killed his prize female. At least Hvach’s prize will live—even if she wishes she hadn’t survived. Only fit for the bait slaves now.”

As he talked, he led her down the corridor to the usual accompaniment of excited voices. She snuck a quick look under her eyelashes at the occupants of the cells and shuddered as she wondered if any of them were Hvach or Goolig. On the whole, she would rather be dead than some useless vessel passed from slave to slave. The thought only renewed her resolution to fight whoever won. Enraging them to the point where they killed her seemed like her most viable option.

She was still turning over that depressing possibility when the guard delivered her into the hands of a massive caterpillar-like alien. His skin gleamed with scented oil, and he rubbed four pairs of tiny hands together happily at the sight of her.

“Most promising. A very pleasant change from some of those dreary Tarrigs.”

The guard passed the chain to him.

“Watch out for her,” he warned.

The other male tittered. “I didn’t become Master of the Harem by letting a female get the better of me.”

Izzie stood as docilely as possible until the guard was out of sight, turning over possibilities in her head. Could she find her way back to the spaceport? She had done her best to keep track of the corridors through which she had been marched. The noise that always greeted her appearance might be a problem, but it was a fight day, and the halls were already alive with noise.

“Come along now, girl. I am Master Napunsa, and you will do as I say.” He turned on his dozen little back legs as he spoke.

Wrapping the chain unobtrusively around her wrists, she grabbed it with both hands and yanked as hard as possible. Unfortunately, Master Napunsa’s tiny hands were stronger than they looked. Neither he nor the chain budged in the slightest.

“Tut-tut,” he said disapprovingly. “If you were not to be displayed today, I would punish you for that.”

He leaned closer, his perfume overwhelming her. “But you will be back in my power soon enough. Do not test me again.”

Despite the threat, she had made two more attempts to escape while she was being bathed, oiled, and groomed. She hated every moment of it and did her best to fight, but the harem staff simply used her cuffs to hold her in place whenever she attempted to resist.

After a muttered consultation, they even removed every scrap of hair on her body except for her head, leaving her feeling even more naked than before.

“Should we pierce her?” Tugtai, the female overseeing the process, asked nervously.

“Hell no, you shouldn’t,” Izzie said immediately, but Tugtai ignored her, focusing on Master Napunsa’s face.

“No, I think not,” he said finally, and Izzie breathed out a silent sigh of relief. “If she lives through the week with the winner, I will ask Relkhei for his preference. He has expressed an interest in this one.”

He chuckled and turned away, and once again she had to bite back the rising sense of terror. A week? With one of the vicious aliens from the cells? The thought of Baralt flashed through her mind. Despite the intimidating picture the guard had painted, Baralt seemed to be the least of the evils surrounding her.

She choked back a hysterical laugh at the idea that she was actually hoping to be won by a yeti, but she found herself thinking about him more and more frequently as the final preparations were completed.

She had even looked for him as she’d been led out into the arena, but the sands were vacant.

The hot, dry air swirled around her skin in a heated wave. Looking up, she saw three small white suns and had a sudden dizzying sense of unreality. As if all the other things that had happened to her had not been enough, that glimpse of an undisputedly alien sky felt like the final blow. She was never going back to Earth. She was never going back to the small apartment that she had tried so desperately to make into a home. Despair threatened to overwhelm her, but as she had done many times before, she straightened her shoulders and lifted her chin. Even if she never made it back to Earth, she would never accept being a slave.

The guards accompanying her led her all the way around the arena so that the crowd could get a good look. Despite her burning feet and the sweat trickling down her body, drying as soon as the arid air touched it, she kept her head high and refused to look at them.

As they neared the tunnels, the guards led her up onto a high platform and separated her cuffs, lifting her arms high and wide to fasten them to two upright posts. Her feet were likewise fastened to the posts so her body formed an X.

“Honored guests. Welcome to the last day of the death games!”

The smooth voice of the announcer was greeted by a roar of approval from the crowd.

“For our first match, Hvach and Goolig will compete for the

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