Gladiator Bear's Battle (Shift In Time 1) (10 page)

“You cannot do this!” Julius Augustinus hissed, his face a mask of righteous indignation. “You are a
slave
! You must submit to me!” he yelled, his eyes ablaze with anger.

Erden enjoyed the way his expression fell and slouched as Erden’s claws ripped into his stomach, spilling his intestines.

“May the Gods strike you down,” the
lanista
whispered, staring down at himself as he slouched to his knees and then stayed there, by the wall, bleeding out onto his polished stone floors.

It was like a weight had lifted from Erden’s back. He turned around and stalked back toward the main hall, where the screams had lessened into occasional moans and whimpers. The gladiators had rounded the women into one corner and kept them there, not touching nor harming them. Kiya stood separately at the entrance into the room which Aurelius Clavius had taken her to, shuddering. Her face was pale. Erden’s fury lifted from him completely and he let the man take the place of the bear, with each step that he took toward his beloved changing him from the beast to the man that Kiya knew best.

When he reached her, the shift was complete and only the soul of the bear remained deep within him. He pulled her against his chest and she collapsed into his arms, sobbing.

“You’re safe now,” he told her, pressing his lips against her scented hair.

He breathed her in and thanked the Gods for being able to do so. It had seemed so clear that she would be taken from him forever and all that they would share were stolen moments, unknown to anyone but themselves. She shook with tears and Erden quieted her, rocking her gently. The gladiators stood back, giving Erden and Kiya a moment, as some of them walked through the bloodied bodies of the nobles and guards. There were at least five dead Senators in the room, not to mention the local gentry. One thing was certain – the gladiators would have plenty of men wishing them death as soon as word got out.

“Erden, what now?” Davida asked, being the first to dare interrupt his moment with his mate.

Erden wished he could stay in that bubble with her for a moment longer, but that could not happen. If he did not act now, he might be leading all of them to death once more.

“I did not mean you to join me. I did not wish that you take this burden upon yourselves,” Erden spoke, his deep voice rumbling over the room like thunder.

“Burden? Freedom is no burden,” one of the men called, joined by agreeing voices.

Erden smiled slightly at that. So be it. If they wished to choose a path harder than that which was allowed to them before, so be it. He could not deny any man their well-earned fate.

“First, gather the valuables and the weapons. Move through the house, killing any guards you find, and any who may have escaped this slaughter. Leave the women be; simply make sure they cannot go and take word to the town. Even Aelia Fausta. She must live.”

Erden paused for a moment, casting his gaze across the men—
his
men now—before continuing. “Free the other gladiators. Give them a choice. Come with us, or stay locked in the dormitories. Then, gather food. We will take horses and ride north.”

“To where?” Davida asked.

Erden looked at Kiya, who was wiping her tears away and holding onto him.

“To freedom,” he said with a smile.

EPILOGUE

Kiya

Kiya still couldn’t get used to the cold. She watched with abject horror as some of the women around her wore nothing but their day gowns and leather boots while carrying out the daily chores. She herself was dressed in as many furs as she could fit on her body and Erden assured her things would only get worse. She couldn’t imagine how that could be possible.

Kiya giggled to herself, shaking her head. Cold was a small price to pay for what they had accomplished. It had taken months to reach these lands and they had made many sacrifices. Men had died fighting the squads the Empire sent to stop them. News traveled fast that a group of rogue gladiators had slain their masters and escaped, taking with them gold and bounty meant only for Romans, not for common slaves.

Suffice to say, the Empire had been completely outraged. This could not happen! Beasts and slaves were little more than livestock, yet they chose to act against the hands that fed them? Many bands of men had been sent to take care of the gladiators, but one after the other, they seemed to underestimate the hunger a man had for forging his own fate.

Though they had taken losses, most of them had made it to the northlands. Some had departed from there, on the search for their kin homes, or simply for something different, but just as many had stayed. Erden’s people greeted them all with open arms.

So far, luckily, Kiya only
really
missed the sun. Though it shined here as well, it was never quite as bright as it had been in her family home, or even in Macavia. Here, it seemed to simply observe the passing of time, without controlling it like it did in the south. Yes, the day began and ended with the sun, but only because there was so little of it. Shaking her head, Kiya grabbed the basket of laundry that she had been scrubbing by the river, and walked back toward their modest little home.

It was not much, but it was all theirs. Erden was good with his hands and with the help of the other gladiators, homes had sprung up around the village like mushrooms after rain. They even had a few animals now, and Kiya had found herself to be particular toward sheep. They were sleepy creatures that seemed to miss the sun just as much as she did.

She could already see the door to her home when someone snatched the basket from her hands. She yelped, spinning around to face her attacker, but finding the face of the man she loved there instead.

“Erden!” she squealed, throwing her hands around his neck and hugging him before kissing him squarely on the lips. “I thought you would be gone for days more!”

“I simply couldn’t keep away from my woman for so very long,” he said with a chuckle, balancing both a heavy sack and the basket in one hand, while his other hand was snaked around her waist.

“You better not,” she laughed, pecking him on the cheek as well for good measure.

Reluctantly, Erden let go of her and opened the door for her, letting her enter the house before he did. A fire was crackling in the hearth—as it always did as long as Kiya had her way—and there was stew boiling in a pot above it, filling the rooms with a sweet and savory smell. Erden let the basket and sack fall to the ground, and as soon as he had closed the door, he rushed to the pot.

“You will burn yourself!” Kiya protested as Erden scooped up some of the stew and brought it to his lips.

“A bear does not burn his mouth!” Erden huffed, just before Kiya heard him wince with pain and put the ladle down. “I stand corrected.”

She didn’t say a word though, but simply smiled and shook her head. Without noticing what she was doing, her hand went to her belly and rubbed it quietly. Erden was back. He went off to so many raids that sometimes, she felt he was never home at all, but he promised to stay home after this turn. And by the heaviness of the sack he carried, it seemed that this trip had truly been one worth his time.

She loved looking at him. He was so tall and powerful and now that he was free, he looked at peace with the world. He looked happy. And she knew that much of the happiness had to do with her. That made her grin. She looked down at her belly, still almost flat, but she knew the secret it hid. Kiya hadn’t moved a step since walking into the house, simply taking in the sight of her man back in their shared space.

Erden stopped fussing around and came back to her. He put his arms around her and lifted her up, kissing her with all the passion that she knew burned hotter between them than any flame ever could. She tied her fingers behind his neck as he put her down, his lips still on her. When he squeezed her a little, she giggled and pulled her lips away from him just an inch.

“Careful,” she said.

“Why? Are you hurt?!” Erden asked, rearing up with worry in his eyes.

Kiya couldn’t help but smile at that, shaking her head. “No. I simply want to be careful with our firstborn. He will be a boy,” she said confidently, putting a hand on her stomach.

She knew he would be. It was that simple. Her mother had always told her that she could tell far before she should be able to, and she had been right. As soon as Kiya had realized that she was pregnant, the facts unfurled before her like the starry night sky, easy to read if she knew what to look for.

“I… are you sure?” Erden asked, his hard warrior façade cracking into the soft visage of a father-to-be.

“I am sure,” Kiya confirmed, beaming.

“It seems I should go to raids more often, if my return is always blessed with such news,” he laughed, scooping Kiya up in his arms.

She yelped, clinging to him as he carried her toward their bedroom.

“What are you doing?” she laughed.

“Why, simply making sure that you are truly with child. It cannot hurt to seal it, yes?” he said with a wink, barging into the bedroom.

Don’t miss the excerpt of Anya’s next book,
Big Bear Problems
on the next page, written together with Rory Dale.

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BIG BEAR PROBLEMS EXCERPT

Jennifer beamed a broad smile „Thank you! Really, for everything! You’re such a great guy!”

And all of a sudden, she gave Ethan a big hug. Feeling her soft body against his both startled and aroused him. He sure as hell wasn’t ready for a reception that welcoming, though didn’t mind it the least bit. Neither did his cock, which was growing harder every second of being pressed against the curvy beauty. He left the embrace much faster than he would have otherwise wanted to in order to keep from completely blowing his suave, laid-back cover. At least what passed for suave and laid-back when you were a 250 pound bear of a man with a 5 o’clock shadow and wearing plaid.

Their bodies pulled apart slightly and he looked into her eyes. She was looking right back at him, her green eyes wide open.

Don’t rush it,
Ethan thought to himself,
if she really is the one, there’ll be plenty of time for that later.
He let go of Jennifer, catching a hint of a puzzled look on her face. Had she wanted him to kiss her? Dammit, that was going to haunt him now.

Ethan grabbed his hat from the kitchen table and headed towards the door. He stopped with his hand on the handle and gave Jennifer one more long look, standing in the middle of the kitchen and looking a little flustered and flushed. He memorized that look of frustration. Ethan was going to make damn sure that he’d sweep all of that wanting out of her real soon, if she’d let him.

“Sleep tight, Jennifer,” he said, slipping out into the cold night air.

I need a cold shower,
he thought glumly, clambering into his truck and revving it up.

With more longing than he cared to admit, he drove off into the darkness of the night, already knowing that he’d be soon returning to patrol her home. He didn’t trust the Grimpaws as far as he could throw them and it was just like Ryan to prey on a city girl without the heed to keep a shotgun by the door. Ethan wasn’t going to let anything happen to his mate. Not as long as he was still breathing, anyway.

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