Chapter Three
Sunny
The arena housed more dragon-sized seats than I would’ve guessed from looking at it from the outside. Underneath the arena the crowd of draconic spectators above us were a mere murmur and hum of noise. Selt popped his neck to one side and then the other. We hadn’t received our matches yet and those who were the powers that be hadn’t felt inclined to introduce us to any of the regular competetors. I kept an eye out for anyone who looked like the elderly woman I met on the shuttle. My sire would’ve brushed it off as an enclosed society thing, but my carrier didn’t believe in coincidences. Two folks had mentioned the same dragon to me. There was something going on there. Maybe he was a seer after all. Maybe he knew something about this nameless door lady. Maybe he was just the omega who’d hand my ass to me.
My phone was tucked safely inside my locker. Teddy had sent a few texts, but I hadn’t read them. Couldn’t bother to read them right now. Teddy would always be Teddy – my best friend but I needed a bit of space for now. I didn’t want to talk about last night – ever. It shouldn’t have happened. We were lonely and homesick and ---
“Horny,” my dragon filled in the word that I didn’t want to think. “And it did happen. Of course, it happened. It was always gonna happen. Now we know and he knows it’s nothing --- well, we don’t feel like that.”
I wasn’t sure Teddy would know that at all. I wasn’t inside his head.
“Hey, Moony!” Someone called from the edge of the room. “Over here! You need to go a floor up! The rest of you quiet down! We’ll put the match list up soon.”
Selt’s dagger eyes followed me as I left behind the dragon who called me over. He was a head shorter than me, wore a lanyard whistle around his neck, and carried a clipboard.
“You’re match three – left side,” he read from the clipboard without looking up. “Match three, left side, with Laken.”
“Laken?” I double-checked that my ears weren’t liars.
“Laken,” he nodded. “Just go through that door at the end of the hall. The guys in there will tell you when to go. If you’re really as dumb as some of the fighters just listen for the guy on the speaker system to call your name, okay?”
He left before I could slug him for clumping me in with dumb jocks. I mean, I was a jock, but a dumb jock wouldn’t have gotten a spot on Castor’s crew.
“Are we still a jock, though?” my dragon asked. “Aren’t we too old for that now? We don’t play team sports anymore. We work out. Are we a gym lizard now?”
I didn’t answer him as I walked to the left of the building. Left and right made sense. Competitors wouldn’t enter from the same side. That wouldn’t make for an interesting setup to entertain a crowd of dragons. The murmur of words and feet grew louder the closer I got to the ‘waiting room.’ The door was propped open and led to a locker-ish room.
“You’re Laken’s guy!” a short dragon said, pushing himself to his feet and headed over.
“Huh?” I said before my brain wrapped around his words.
“You’re fighting Laken,” the dragon tried again, reaching out a hand with knuckles already wrapped to shake mine. “I’m Frey. Glad I got to see you before Laken did. Never know what part of his opponent he’ll rearrange. Though, you might stand a chance. I’ve heard some of you Moonys are hard to read over the flight link. That can be a good thing here.”
“Sunny,” I shook his hand, deciding not to answer anything else he said.
I should be making friends or at least networking on the Starscale worlds but wasn’t sure my opponent’s friends were the ones to do that with.
“Eh, we’re all buddy-buddy here. Except for Selt and them. They have to fight each other though. They like to play grab ass like it’s the purple district instead of the arena. If you ever have to fight one of them – elbow them in the nuts and try to knock them up inside them. They’re too proud to wear cups. Use that to your advantage. Now, I don’t need to know if you are or not. Probably are. You don’t look dumb, but Laken won’t hit below the belt and he’s not a Sir Grab Ass either. He fights fair.”
“Good to know,” I said, unsure if the dark-haired Frey was always the welcome wagon or if he chose me to start the job with.
“Stop fan-boying over Laken and get ready for your fight!” A dragon who probably would’ve towered over me if he stood up said from the corner of the room. “Why in the hell they put you on first, I’ll never know.”
“They want the omega fight,” Frey laughed. “Besides, been weeks since they let me in. Something about waiting for the healer to clear me.”
“I wouldn’t want to fight you,” the big guy said. “Fresh out of laying. Nah. I’m not fighting the nesting carrier.”
I waited to see how offended Frey was before I said anything. He smirked and laughed.
“Is your mate here tonight?” one of the other fighters asked.
“Nah. He’s watching the stream. Someone has to stay home with the eggs. I won’t be staying for drinks after tonight. So, one of you make sure that Laken doesn’t kill Selt or one of them.”
“That’s who you should’ve been matched with,” someone teased Frey.
“We’ve gone this long without a murder. Let’s keep it that way,” Frey shrugged and headed toward the biggest door in the room. He fluffed up his hair and snarled his lip up. His scent turned from amused to fierce.
“At least we’re not fighting the nester,” my dragon said.
I couldn’t see Frey’s fight from inside and there wasn’t a monitor set up to watch the stream. Since none of the other fighters seemed interested in introducing themselves, I did a few stretches while the crowd cheered, groaned, and cheered again.
The doors swung open, and I glanced over to see Frey limping, grinning. Half his left pants leg was burnt away, and he looked a bit cut up. His shirt was torn.
“The fact he wore a shirt was a show,” my dragon chimed into my thoughts. “They don’t wear them here. He wore it for it to be ripped or ripped off.”
He was right. Well, probably. Some dragons did wear shirts, but they were the exceptions and not the rule.
“So?” The giant guy asked.
“I won, of course. Almost didn’t, though. Fucker’s gotten quicker. He’s been training while I’ve been sitting around waiting to lay eggs,” he said, scratching his belly.
Another name was called and the giant smirked as he kicked off his shoes and headed through the big door.
“Guess he was the second round,” I said to no one in particular.
The others were too busy listening to Frey retell his fight to pay much attention to me. Before a rugby match, the coach would have us all envision whatever our positions were. We’d see the ball move and our opponents swept aside. There probably was a gladiator version of that. Did I imagine punching my opponent? Dodging him. The tests didn’t give me much to go on. There was some archery. Some hitting a computerized contraption with an insanely sized hammer. We jumped off a balcony into a pool and spun around until we got dizzy. Then we played dodge ball or a game sorta like it except the balls were on fire. I was the last dragon standing, but barely, and mostly because Selt tried to hide behind me. I twisted the sucker around to use as a shield. The dragons watching nodded approvingly. I was just glad my carrier wasn’t around to flash me a disappointed look. He tried it first. I was just better at it.
“Soon, Sunny Moonscale,” Frey nodded toward the door. “They’re almost finished. I think they’re wiping the ground with him this time. He loses as much as he wins but that’s the career for some dragons. You nervous?”
“Probably not as much as I should be,” I shrugged, pushing myself upright.
“Eh, Laken’s a good fighter. He’s an asshole, if you are, but he’s a decent enough dragon,” Frey said. “And he---”
“He what?” I asked, but Frey didn’t answer because the door swung open letting in the bright even sunlight as the giant, whose name I still didn’t know, stumbled in. His lip was busted, and he had a black eye, the lid almost swollen shut. His hands dripped with blood and scales hung loose from his knuckles.
“Stayed up. Won,” he grunted as Frey nodded to me to stand by the door and helped him sit down on one of the long metallic benches near the lockers. “Good luck, Sunny. Though, I think luck is on your side today.”
“SUNNY MOONSCALE!” The voice shouted over the intercom, and I stepped through the door into the arena. “Welcome to our arena the diplomat from the Moonscale Flight! Now, Laken, don’t off this one, okay? Seriously! Some of us are still waiting to meet our mates and we need the Moonys to connect us to the elves! That reminds me! I know, I know, you want to see Sunny and his opponent rip each other to shreds but first – if you know any lore about this nameless lady – reach out to someone because your mate might just be on the other side of one of those elven doorways!”
The crowd cheered again as the announcer moved on to free Laken from his side of the arena. My ears rang with the screams and shouts of his name. Across the arena, he didn’t even glance at me. He waved to the crowd before raising both arms above his head and grinning. He was gorgeous. Though, you’d be hard pressed to find an ugly dragon on any of the Starscale worlds. His dark hair hung free around his face and cast a shadow over his broad shoulders. From the looks of it he spent more time at the gym than I ever dreamt of. The star-shaped scale on his chest was a deep sky blue color and I wondered if his parents named him for it and if it matched the rest of his scales. That didn’t always happen but occasionally a few people were as lucky as me.
A bright blue circle lit up in the center of the arena. That’s where we’d fight. Getting a foot or an ass knocked out of it was a loss. Not getting back up before the twelve second buzzer if you fall within it was a loss and of course getting knocked out was an instant loss. The dragons in the testing center assured us all that didn’t happen nearly as often as it used to.
The bright blue circle blinked for us to make our way there. The crowd cheered as my bare toes dug into the dirt with each step as if grounding myself enough would make me impossible to push around.
“Breathe,” my dragon hissed into my thoughts.
I took a deep breath as Laken and I bowed to each other from just outside the circle on opposite ends.
Shit!
I glanced up from the bow and our eyes met. His glowed with mischief as my dragon rose to his haunches inside his inner sanctum. Laken flashed me a knowing grin!
Shit!
Yep!
If this fucker wasn’t a seer I’d eat my own bloody tail.
I took another deep breath. My dragon snorted and exhaled sending a puff of smoke into the circle. The crowd cheered as if I did it on purpose as both of us rose to our full height and stepped inside the circle.
“You’re a shit!” I tried to think hard at Laken but if he heard me over the flight link, he didn’t pay me any mind.
He licked his lips, and his eyes grazed over me. This wasn’t going to be a fair fight. He had more practice at blocking out the thoughts of others than I did. My dick was half hard and I was instantly grateful that the crowd was probably -hopefully- too far away to see that detail. Laken glanced down and a chuckle poured over his plump kissable lips. He had a five o’clock shadow that I wanted to trace with my fingertips.
“MINE!” My dragon roared but thankfully kept it inside our heads.
“You don’t have to worry,” Laken growled low. “We’re all on the same flight link. As soon as we scented each other, they knew what was going on. This was shitty of me. You can say no, or I’ll dive if you want. No one would blame me. They’d blame it on my hormones.”
I took a step closer to the dragon I was about to fight and then spend the rest of my life with.
The rest of my fucking life.
It would be simple to leave.
I could snatch him up and run out of the arena. The draconic spectators would probably get a laugh out of it but he wanted this. He knew what I was to him. That smile told me more than anything he could’ve said and he wanted this. The crowd roared as I took another step toward him. I didn’t want them to shut up. I wanted them to keep cheering and roaring and raising hell because they couldn’t take their eyes off us.
“This is what you wanted,” I said as if I expected him to read my thoughts. “Is it still?”
Laken swallowed hard and gave the slightest nod.
This would be one of the more interesting ‘true-meets’ I’d ever heard of. Might not beat Castor meeting Axlin while he was stripping but it was pretty bloody close to it.
“Let’s do this then,” I growled, and Laken’s deep blue eyes lit up with more mischief than I ever knew one dragon could hold.
Everything the rest of them told me about the arena went out of my head as Laken’s scent wrapped around me again. He crouched, bending his knees and I copied his stance as if I were his pupil and not his opponent. If the crowd minded, they didn’t voice it, and dragons were usually vocal fuckers when they didn’t like something.
While I was still thinking things through, Laken sprung forward and I dodged back. His fingers brushed against my chin as if he meant to miss. His eyes glazed over for a fraction of a second and then he shot me a puzzled look. I let it go. It was strange to touch the person I’d spend the rest of my life with. Had to be the same for my mate. That was probably it.
He lunged and I swerved but he still landed on top of me. I bucked up, digging my heels into the ground. His hands found my shoulders trying to pin me, but I rolled before his hold stuck too much. A few rolls later I was face down with my nose hovering over the bright, glowing line of the circle. He was on my back holding on for dear life and hard as hell. Sliding my hands across the grainy dirt of the arena, I pressed my palms down next to my shoulders and made a show of flexing for the crowd who roared for us as I pushed myself upright with him still on my back. His tongue found my claiming gland and for a second I thought about surrendering. Then I pulled him over my shoulder, grabbing and snatching at his skin. Both of our nails, gouging and scratching as we tried to make purchase on each other’s flesh. Eventually, I flipped him but caught him before he hit the ground. It was a bad move. Him hitting the ground would’ve almost made my victory certain but I didn’t want to hear the thud of his body smacking against it. Instead, I righted him on his feet, and we returned to our respective sides of the circle as if we silently agreed to start over.
The crowd cheered and I lunged first this time. Laken was too quick, and side stepped me entirely. I almost bum-rushed myself right out of the circle but spun at the last second, collided with him as he tried to shove me. I propelled myself forward, landing clumsily on him.
“Gotta teach you that chivalry died in this arena a long ass time ago, mate,” he chuckled, out of breath. “I’d have dropped you in a heartbeat.”
“I don’t believe you,” I shook my head, straddled over his hip as he lay on his side.
I braced for him to buck up but instead, he wiggled down passing his full bulk between my legs and landing me flat on my palms, nose to the gritty arena ground. He slapped me on the ass and my dragon roared. Rings of smoke shot out of my nose as I twisted around, rising up at the same time. Laken’s firm body slammed against mine and we both landed outside the circle. The crowd exploded as he laughed above me. Entwining my fingers in his hair, I kissed him hard, and the crowd went wild. Something close by burnt and the smoke wafted through the arena. Water sprayed someone too. So much happened but I couldn’t stop kissing the stranger who had somehow won the match but also threw it. When the medics finally made their ways out to us to break up the kissing, I glanced up and down Laken’s body. His knee was scuffed, showing lighter blue scales and there was a scratch across his collarbone that probably ran over part of his back too, but he didn’t look nearly as bad as the other men after their fights. I didn’t feel hurt. Sore tomorrow probably from being tossed around so much.
“I’m alright. I can handle getting my ass kicked or I’d have to find a new fucking job, mate,” Laken chuckled as the medics mimed shooing us out of the arena.
I pulled him in for another kiss and the crowd cheered. Maybe I did love being the center of attention just like my parents. Maybe I ate it up and saved it for later when the world felt dimmer. The medics smelled more annoyed than ever when we pulled apart. I kept my arm around Laken’s waist as we both walked back in on his side of the arena.
The door had barely shut behind us before Selt’s tall blond form appeared. I rolled my eyes and made to walk past him. He stepped into our path and for a second I considered punching him.
“Come to congratulate us?” I huffed instead.
Sometimes you had to slaughter egos with kindness. At least that’s what my carrier always said while I was growing up.
“This was a fucking set up, huh?” Selt asked.
“That we tied?” I arched a brow, confused at why he cared.
“No, you two knew you were mates. You just wanted the fucking attention. He’s always been a fucking attention whore,” Selt said, nodding at Laken.
“Kinda comes with the territory of the job, huh?” I asked before Laken could say anything.
My blood was still pumping from our little wrestling match. My scales tingled waiting right below my flesh to erupt and join in. Had I known Laken hated him ahead of time? Were we somehow already connected over the flight link before we ever met? Those were questions for later.
“You know what I mean. He’s a fucking cock tease and—”
I never heard what else Selt thought my mate was. A big hand wrapped around his throat and pressed him up against the wall. I blinked as Teddy’s features came into view. Selt snarled but didn’t take his eyes off Teddy, sizing him up. A look passed between them and I expected Selt to take a swing. Only the dragon didn’t move.
“What the fuck, Teddy?” the words tumbled off my tongue before I could stop them.
“You listen here, you slimy wannabe warrior,” Teddy growled, squeezing tight so that his hostage could talk back. “Laken wants to keep his job. Sunny wants to keep Laken happy and not embarrass his parents. Well, my carrier is dead, and my father would pat me on the back if I ripped you limb from limb right now. So, you’re gonna show a little respect to the newest Moonscale dragon and to the newly met mates and not run your mouth because your dick is unhappy. If you wanna fight, we can fight, but it’s as I said, I have no one to let down and I didn’t grow up fighting with rules. If I have to fight, it’s not going to be by some law of the arena. ”
He set Selt down on his feet and nodded for him to go. The medics moved in to help him, but he pushed them away and stumbled out of the back door.
“Your boyfriend means business,” Laken laughed.
“He’s not my boyfriend,” Teddy and I said at the same time.
Though, that was hot. I wasn’t sure where that came from. Teddy was empathetic and understanding. Teddy was the guy who got along with everyone.
“He’s also the guy you don’t fuck with apparently,” Laken said, picking up my stray thoughts over the flight link.
“Why’d you call me his boyfriend?” Teddy asked.
“Oh, shit!” Laken laughed. “Umm…”
“What are you doing here?” I asked and hated how uncasual the words sounded as they tumbled off my lips.
“I came to find him!” Teddy said.
“Him?” I asked.
“Me?” Laken asked at the same time.
“Liam had a vision.”
“Who’s Liam?” Laken asked.
“Is there some place private we can take this?” Teddy asked, glancing around. “Don’t want to get folks’ hopes up if we’re all swimming up the wrong creek again.”
“I have an office here,” Laken said.
“I didn’t know gladiators had those,” Teddy said, motioning for him to lead the way.
“I’ve been here the longest and do a lot of community work and organizing too. When you have a platform, you should use it for something good and useful. Mostly, it’s to remind folks to stay healthy. Keep people moving around and exercising. It’s too easy to get comfy and sleep for a hundred years and get out of shape.”
I held tight to Laken’s hand as he led the way out the back door and across the way to a very boring-looking grey, administrative building. I wanted to ask Teddy what he was really doing here and what the hell had gotten into him. I had Selt handled. No one needed to threaten anyone’s life or limbs.
“Eh, mate, he’s fine. Selt’s fine too. Dragons run hot blooded. That was a light warning around this place. Your boyfriend read the room and did the right thing,” Laken said.
“Stop calling him that!” I growled.
“It’s not a very funny joke,” Teddy agreed. “We’ve been friends ---”
“Forever,” I finished afraid what Teddy might say.