Enslaved by a Rebel [Sold! 2] (Siren Publishing Everlasting Classic ManLove) (10 page)

After a lifetime of fear and self-loathing, hating himself so much for being so different, Ranic had finally found his place in the vast universe. He was exactly where he should be with exactly who he should be with. No one could ever convince him otherwise. After what he’d shared with Jarrett on Aeirall, he couldn’t return to Finoc. He’d be miserable there, especially if he tried to mold himself to a life that didn’t suit him.

“I am with the man I’m supposed to be with.” Ranic reached over and grasped Jarrett’s hand.

Jarrett stirred and blinked at Ranic. Rather than anger at being woken, he smiled. “Are we there yet?”

“No. Quite far from it.” Ranic checked his star charts again. Earth was very far from the civilized portion of the universe, which was why so little was known about it.

“Is the ship okay?”

“Everything is fine. I just was lonely.”

“Aw.” Jarrett squeezed his hand and then looked out. “I thought it was going to be so exciting to fly in a spaceship. It always is in the movies. But the reality is it’s like a very long car ride and there are no pit stops to pee on the tires or get junk food.”

“Do you want to stop?” Ranic did not ask if he wanted to pee on the tires because he wasn’t too sure what that meant.

“Not unless we need to.”

“I mean stop altogether.”

“We have no choice but to keep going, really.” Jarrett sighed. “I think our plan is a good one.”

“I guess.” Ranic thought it sounded rather uncertain, but Jarrett was so sure it would work.

“You don’t sound enthusiastic.”

“I want to be with you no matter what.”

“But?”

“But…” Ranic trailed off and shrugged. “I don’t see how we won’t be seen by your fellow Earthlings when we land. I don’t see how we can hide this ship. I don’t see how—”

“Strange things happen out in the woods all the time. You said yourself that if you land with the engine going but not emitting thrust it will mess with any radar.”

“And your world doesn’t have anything more sophisticated than that?”

“Not pointed all over the sky.” Jarrett didn’t sound too sure, and that was what bothered Ranic. If his people panicked, they could blow them both up and that would be the end.

“Besides, it’s not like they have antispacecraft missiles pointed all over the atmosphere. If we go in like you said, we can land out in the desert.”

“I thought you said the woods?”

“Either way. We’ll decide when we’re closer, I guess.” Jarrett shrugged like it wasn’t a big deal when it certainly was. “We can hide the spaceship there in case we ever need it again.”

“But the elements would ravage it.” Ranic looked around at what Jarrett rightly called a rust bucket. It was barely held together now. A few years in a harsh environment would destroy what little of it was left.

“Then I guess we better hope we don’t need it.” Jarrett lifted Ranic’s hand to kiss, but Ranic pulled away before he could. “Please tell me what’s wrong.”

“I don’t think this is a good idea.” Ranic grimaced. Together they’d looked everywhere for a tracking device but hadn’t been able to find one. Every moment that they got farther from where he said he was going, Ranic figured the antitheft device was sending a progressively more distressing call.

“You might have said so before we started off.” Jarrett straightened in the copilot seat.

“I tried, but you were so certain that this would work.”

“I
am
sure. This
will
work.” Jarrett crossed his arms and glared out at the blackness of space, but he didn’t look totally convinced.

“Please don’t be angry with me.”

“I’m not. I’m—I’m angry with me.” All the fight just washed right out of Jarrett. He slumped in the chair, and his taut arms fell to his sides. “I don’t have any clue what I’m doing. It’s like selling your suit. I didn’t know what to do. I just did my best. Fuck. We probably got ripped off.”

“It was a fair amount.” At Jarrett’s dubious frown, Ranic soothed, “Really. What he gave us was about what I paid for it, so that’s good.” Actually, it had been much less once he converted the money, but he didn’t want Jarrett to know.

“It’s not just that.” Jarrett sighed, and he reached over for Ranic’s hand, which he gave so they could clasp them tightly together. “It’s that neither one of us is much good as a criminal.”

“I was thinking that before I woke you up.” Ranic weaved their fingers together and apart a few times. He found the motion soothing. “I’ve been afraid since we left Aeirall. Well, no, I was afraid there, too. Even while we were plotting out what we were going to do, I was afraid. I’m just—it took me years to decide to buy a slave to indulge myself so now, with this, it all seems to have happened rather fast.”

“I’m so sorry.” Jarrett left his chair and settled on the armrest of the pilot seat. He wrapped his arm around Ranic and then leaned into him. “I don’t think either one of us really thought this through.”

“Well, we’re on course now. I guess there’s not a lot we can do but keep going.”

“What’s between us and Earth? Are there any good worlds?” Jarrett looked at the star chart, but it was obvious from the perplexed look on his face that the information displayed there was meaningless to him.

“There are a few places, but most are fairly xenophobic.”

“They don’t like outsiders?”

“Not particularly.” Ranic checked the chart again, but there just wasn’t anywhere that would work for an Earthling and a Finoc. The few places that had tolerable atmospheres had limited technologies. Those that were more civilized were sharply intolerant of outsiders. What made matters worse was that they were both males. A lot of worlds would kill them just for that, never mind the fact they weren’t of the same species. At least on Earth, Jarrett had a plan for masking what Ranic really was. If they could land, they could make his plan work. The main problem was landing without dying or being promptly taken into custody.

“I’m sorry.” Jarrett sighed. “I keep saying that.”

“It’s okay. I’m sorry, too.”

“But we’ll make it work on Earth. I know we will.” Jarrett smiled, but it looked forced.

Ranic realized they were locked on course and there wasn’t anything for them to do for a while, so he took his mate’s hand and rose.

“Okay, where are you taking me?”

“You’ll see.” Ranic figured since Jarrett hadn’t been in space except for when he’d kidnapped him and this trip, he didn’t know some of the more interesting things they could do in zero gravity.

Jarrett was a natural once he overcame the queasy feeling that seemed to strike most beings with stomachs. They were in the middle of a delicate docking maneuver between their mouths and cocks when an alarm blared.

“What the hell is that?” Jarrett broke away, inverted himself, then struggled to get dressed.

Ranic returned gravity to the ship, dressed, and then made his way to the bridge. He thought it might be something to do with their low fuel, but what he saw outside made his knees almost turn to water.

“Holy shit! What the hell is that thing?”

“It’s a Krase warship.” Ranic would know those distinctive black–and-maroon marks anywhere. He didn’t speak Krase, and his implant couldn’t interpret the symbols, but it didn’t matter when he recognized them as being Krase in origin after his brief foray onto their planet.

“They sent out a fucking battleship for the two of us?” Jarrett dropped into the copilot chair and considered the console with frantic desperation. “Who am I kidding? Even if I knew what all this stuff does, we’re not going to get away from them, are we?”

“No.” Ranic turned off his engines and prepared the ship to be boarded before they even asked him to do so. In the face of such overwhelming force, he wasn’t going to try to fool himself that he could do anything but immediately surrender.

The massive cruiser was easily thirty or maybe even fifty times the size of their battered little ship. As he settled into the pilot chair, he realized the obvious. No one sent out Krase warriors unless the situation was deadly serious. Realizing that he might have only moments left with Jarrett, Ranic wanted to tell him everything in one great big blast. He turned. Their gazes met and held. Ranic opened his mouth to tell Jarrett that he was so grateful for the time they had together. It had been so dreadfully short, but it had been wonderful nonetheless. He wanted to tell Jarrett that he would never forget him and probably never love again. But none of that came out of his mouth.

“I’m so sorry.” Jarrett reached for him.

“It’s not your fault.” Ranic took his hand.

“I just wish we would have had more time.”

“I love you.” Ranic peered into Jarrett’s eyes and swore what he said seemed too minor at such a moment. Such a confession should be more enormous, and it shouldn’t come when death was right on the outside of their tiny little world. “I know that seems so small in the vastness of the universe, but I—”

“I swear that I love you, too.” Jarrett’s lips were upon his, tight, firm, so hungry and willing. “Maybe someday in another place, another lifetime from now, we’ll be together.”

Ranic nodded even though he didn’t believe in reincarnation. But if Jarrett did, then he wanted him to have whatever comfort that might give him.

“What in the hell are they doing?”

Ranic looked out and realized the loading bay of the Krase ship was opening like a huge mouth. For a moment, the sight held him transfixed. He was like one of the asteroid chunks being swept toward the crushing belts so they could strip him of vital minerals. Before he allowed himself to go too far with his imaginings, he pulled himself back and realized what they were doing.

“We’re so small I guess they’re just pulling the whole ship inside rather than boarding us.”

“I’ve never felt so insignificant in my life.” Jarrett’s hand on his squeezed so hard it almost hurt. “What should we do?”

“What can we do?”

“Lock the door and refuse to come out?” Jarrett laughed, but it was a little high and hysterical sounding.

“I don’t think that would work.”

Eventually the Krase ship swallowed them up. When they looked out, all they saw was the inside of a massive cargo bay. The area was remarkably bare, which made Ranic fairly certain that they had been sent to retrieve them at all costs. Keeping their ship empty would make it faster and give it a longer range with their fuel supply. Not that it mattered so much. They hadn’t really given them a challenge in any way.

“Maybe they won’t even come in.” Ranic thought that would make the trip back to Krase tolerable. He hadn’t had enough time to become used to people looking at him. The thought of being peered at by a bunch of terrifying Krase warriors without the protection of his suit made him shake.

“It’s going to be okay.” Jarrett was determined to keep positive, and Ranic couldn’t help but admire him.

Just when he thought maybe they would be safe inside their crummy ship, the Krase sent a message over the com. They were going to be boarded and taken into custody.

“Wow. They don’t mince words, do they?”

“The Krase are rather direct.” He thought back to the two who had fought so desperately to win human slaves from the same batch that Ranic had gotten Jarrett from. Perhaps that explained why the Krase were involved. Not only had the crimes happened on their world, but several of their own people had been involved in buying illegal slaves.

“God, you’re shaking so hard.”

“I don’t want them to see me.”

“Maybe we can find something to cover you up with.” Jarrett was up and moving swiftly through the ship, trying to find a way to protect Ranic from the prying eyes of the Krase, but there wasn’t anything that would work. Even the suits that were there so he could affect repairs on the ship in the depth of space were too small to cover him. The only clothing they had was the loincloths and their wedding suits. He’d never heard the phrase
traveling light
until Jarrett said it, but they were indeed traveling very light. The bulk of their belongings was the money they had acquired from selling Ranic’s suit and the two passages sent by the auction house.

They were waiting in the main part of the ship when the outer hatch opened. Into the tiny little ship that Jarrett had worked so hard to clean up strode two enormous Krase warriors.

Jarrett stepped in front of Ranic. “He doesn’t have his suit, and he is Finoc. I request a covering for him.” The words were out of his mouth before he could stop them. In a way, that was good because he wanted to protect his mate, but in a way that was very bad because he was standing up to two massive monsters who looked hungry. Just as Ranic said, they were eight feet tall, four feet wide, and had skin the color of dried blood. Their eyes were red, their teeth were sharp, and something was squirming in the front of their pants.

One of them moved a slight bit in front of the other. He seemed to have more markings on his uniform, so Jarrett thought he might be the superior officer. His bloodred eyes darted around in his skull very quickly, as if he were assessing the room. What he saw lifted one edge of his mouth.