Buck stood behind the audience at the Intergalactic Gladiator tournament’s opening round.

The audience sat on bleachers in the gym where the gladiators had been working out for the last two days. The crowd looked pretty excited, at least as much as Buck could tell from behind.

He wished he could locate Beatrix among the faces, but the lights were already dimming, soon it would be his turn to go up and joust.

She’d been asleep on the sofa when he came in from the party.

He felt bad that she had waited up for him, but he hoped it meant that she had felt jealous, and was ready to be honest about her feelings for him.

Rather than waking her, he’d left a note inviting her to come to the tournament.

If luck was with him, he would win, and between the jealousy last night and then seeing him victorious in her honor today, the interest she had felt would be rekindled.

If not, he didn’t know what he would do.

As he watched her sleep last night, her soft cheek pressed to her hand against the sofa cushion, his heart had been full. The pull he felt had nothing to do with the glow of her skin or the luster of her dark hair in the lamp light.

It was Beatrix he loved. She was small and fierce and strangely shy at times. Her personality refracted like starlight playing on the south bay of Aerie. He was fascinated by her changeability.

But there was a core of loyalty in her. She had waited up for him. In spite of the jealousy, in spite of the fact that he knew her feelings might have been hurt, just as his had been when she left with Dirk Malcolm.

Some part of her knew what he had been trying to tell her. They were meant for each other. She was his mate. It was no longer a choice.

“Thank you for coming out everyone,” Adam was saying into the microphone as the lights on the audience went completely out. “I would make a big speech or something, but we all know what you came here for!”

“Joust-ing, joust-ing,” the audience roared.

“You asked for it,” Adam said. “First up is Alexander the Great Guitarist. His axe shredded in Vegas and he’s here to rock and roll in Baltimore.”

From the other side of the gym Alex waved to Buck and then jogged up to the stage. He was wearing rock star clothing with his hair teased up. His guitar-shaped weapon shimmered in the stage lights.

“Facing off with Alexander the Great is our newest gladiator,” Adam continued. “He’s new to the joust but he’s not new to the world of finance. Meet The-Buck-Stops-Here!”

Buck jogged up with his sword as best he could in the suit they had given him to wear. The enormous golden plastic dollar sign necklace around his neck kept bouncing up to hit him in the chin. He felt very fortunate that it wasn’t real gold.

On the stage there were two pillars, each about two feet off the ground. On each pillar was a small round platform.

Alex had already climbed onto his platform. He stood there, gazing down ominously at Buck with a terrible sneer.

This was odd, because Buck had just been at his party last night, where Alex had wrapped an arm around Buck and declared that they were brothers. This guy, Alex had exclaimed, shaking his head. Buck had assumed that was a good thing.

Buck climbed onto his own platform.

“Oh, ladies and gentlemen, you can see the animosity between these two fierce warriors already,” Adam crooned into the microphone. “This promises to be a serious fight, and serious entertainment.”

It suddenly occurred to Buck that Alex might be pretending to be angry in order to stir up the crowd’s emotions.

He fixed Alex with a mighty glare.

Alex lunged toward him slightly. But he also winked at Buck with his upstage eye, which was out of sight of the audience, as if to say it was all in good fun.

“Bow to each other,” Adam said.

Buck and Alex bowed.

“And to the audience,” Adam said.

Now was his chance.

Buck scanned the audience for Beatrix.

He almost missed her because she wasn’t sitting in a seat at all. She stood in the aisle near the back bleachers, watching him with a blank expression on her beautiful face.

Alex cleared his throat.

Buck bowed quickly to the audience, then turned back to his rival.

“Okay, gentlemen, time to gooooooooooo,” Adam roared.

Alex instantly thrust at Buck with his sword.

Buck was so surprised he didn’t think to block. He managed to lean out of the way at the last second.

The crowd cheered.

He thrust his sword immediately at Alex, who blocked so hard Buck nearly fell.

He managed to stick to his platform, but it was Alex who attacked next with a mighty jab.

Buck gathered all his strength and blocked as hard as he could, hoping he could loosen the weapon in his rival’s hand.

He realized the moment he had gone too far, but it was too late.

While Buck was extended outward for his block, Alex stepped forward sideways and tucked his blade under Buck’s, pulling him slightly forward.

The platform beneath him began to tilt as his weight came forward to compensate for the pull.

And he slid off onto the stage.

His part in the tournament was over before it had really begun.

The crowd cheered for Alexander the Great as Buck looked for Beatrix.

But all he caught of her was her retreating silhouette exiting through the back door of the darkened gym into the bright hallway.

Buck felt his heart drop into the molten center of the earth.

He had not won her favor after all.