Free Arena Shifters (A Paranormal Romance Novel) by Casey Evans Page A

was immensely
popular among the gladiators as well as the other slaves. Then Petronia had
saved the Lanista’s youngest son and that made everyone who didn’t already
dislike her, not on her side now. And those who didn’t like her before the
incident, well they plain hated her.
    Albinia promised to make sure
Petronia was among those who escaped.
    So Petronia lay on her pallet
tossing and turning while sounds of fucking, farting, and arguing filled the
night air. Clearly she was not the only one who couldn’t sleep.
    The next morning Doctore let
Petronia out to get her water for a morning bath before the men were let out.
Otherwise she would have quite a company of admirers while she bathed. She was
to present herself to the Domina for some task or something so she had to make
herself presentable. After washing and donning a fresh tunic she began left the
Ludis to wait for the Domina’s body slave to get her and take her to the
Domita. She was waiting in the courtyard drinking in the sun and enjoying the
feel of it on her skin when she sensed something was amiss.
    Instinctively she reached for
her thigh dagger, the realized she’d left it with the Doctore. She would not be
allowed to wear any weapons in the main Villa. As she stood, a shape to her
left appeared to melt out of the shadows, a dagger in hand. She was in the
center of the courtyard, a good 10 meters from any wall that she could put her
back to when fighting. To her right, and straight in front of her appeared two
more men. One had a dagger, and the other some sort of iron mallet like what
was probably used by a smithy. They seemed in no hurry to do this which told
her this was well planned and sanctioned by someone powerful; like the Domina
maybe? But no, she had returned her son to her. No it was someone else who know
of her early morning appointment. Probably a house guard or a body slave of the
Dominus or the Domina. The three men approached as trained men would. Here she
was a 110 pound female gladiatrix, unarmed, against 3 fighting men, possibly
gladiators or just soldiers who were double her weight and were at least a foot
taller than her. This was not going to go well.
    Every combat strategy she
knew slipped into her mind and right back out after being dismissed as
inadequate or not fitted to the situation at hand. The only thing that made
sense was to attack first. Size matters little. Aggression is what really won
the fight. Like that old saying, it’s not the size of the bear in the fight,
but the size of the fight in the bear. She was that little bear with a grizzly
bear of a fight in her body. She would kill at least one before going down
herself.
    Almost the very instant she
was to leap into battle a high pitched voice called her name.
    “Petronia!”
    It was the youngest son of
Dominus.
    “Petronia, what are these men
doing?”
    The second he had called her
name the fighters began to slink back into the shadows. He had seen them, but
maybe not their weapons.
    “Nothing Young Master.”
    He approached her looking at
her quizzically. He looked around again for the other men but they were gone.
    “Those men…they were going to
do something?”
    “I don’t know, Young Master.”
    “The men here…the other
sla-…gladiators, they don’t much like you do they?”
    “No Young Master.”
    “It’s Lucius. You don’t have
to call me that…Young Master.”
    “Yes I do.”
    “But you saved me. You could
have let the…the other men take me and you could have gone free. You’re my fr-”
    “There you are!”
    “Father?”
    “What are you doing? Is that
slave bothering you?”
    “No father, she was…she was
just lost. I was showing her where to go.”
    “Lost?”
    “Yes father.”
    Dominus addressed Petronia.
“We have other pressing matters slave. Domina will not be requiring your
services this morning. You may return to the Ludis to resume your training.”
    “Yes Master.”
    “I assume you can find your
way back by