Enslaved by a Rebel [Sold! 2] (Siren Publishing Everlasting Classic ManLove) (15 page)

“They have a name, but it is not an earned, powerful name,” Ranic explained.

“It’s complicated.” Jarrett nodded. “Like everything else on this planet.”

“Finally!” the auctioneer cried.

From their train car, they exited and walked perpendicular over to the auctioneer’s building.

Jarrett’s jaw dropped when he looked up. The last time they had been here, it had been growing dark, so he probably wasn’t able to see everything as well as he could now. “Even our tallest building isn’t like this.”

“Domed land is at a premium, so they build close together and very tall.” Ranic took his hand and tried not to feel self-conscious.

“You came without your cloth.”

“I must become used to being seen.” Ranic patted the pocket of his suit. “But I did bring it in case I become overwhelmed.”

“You’re doing great.” Jarrett squeezed his hand.

When their troupe entered the lobby, all gazes turned toward them, but Ranic noticed their eyes were on Nobel Chaos. He was simply the biggest creature by far in the entire room. A few darted glances were cast at him and Jarrett, but it was indeed the officer who simply commanded attention.

The auctioneer moved over to the lift, and the four of them entered. It was a close fit, and Ranic was keenly aware of how the officer drew in long, deep breaths. At first he thought this was done in an effort to calm himself, but then he realized he was enjoying the smell of Ranic and Jarrett. It was very curious how he allowed himself to be so attracted, and even aggravated his need, but made no more moves upon them. Perhaps he was saving everything up for when he and the pilot returned alone to their battleship. The image of those two together was savagely seductive.

Once they reached the floor, the auctioneer practically ran down to his office.

“Damn, does he have to pee?” Jarrett asked.

Ranic couldn’t understand why he was in such a hurry when it was supposedly bad news. Rather than ask, he simply followed behind. He felt safe with their protector that no harm would come to them while they were on Krase.

The office was a bit messy, but once the door was closed, the auctioneer let out a breath that sounded like he’d been holding it for days. “This is a highly private matter.” He pointed to chairs, but neither he, Jarrett, or Nobel wanted to sit. “I had to be somewhere that I knew was not compromised in any way.”

“Then tell us what the problem is.” Whatever patience Jarrett had it was long gone now.

“You should not have been taken as a slave.”

Ranic’s hold on Jarrett tightened.

“The man who took you is being hunted, but we have been unsuccessful in retrieving him.” The auctioneer said something, an expletive, that didn’t translate. “Believe me, when I do catch up to him, he will regret swindling me.”

“I don’t understand what that has to do with us.” Ranic wished the man would just tell them what they needed to know.

“You cannot go back to Earth.”

“What? Why?” Jarrett looked stricken.

“Because you should have died there.”

It was what he and Jarrett had already suspected.

“When this slave trader took you, it created a potential time disturbance.”

“So you’re not going to kill me?”

The auctioneer glared at Jarrett with all three eyes. “We are not barbarians.”

“You sell slaves.” Jarrett glared right back.

“Legal slaves. I sell legal slaves. Or I did until this charlatan ruined my stellar reputation.”

“That explains why he didn’t want to tell us until he got us here.” Ranic now understood the need for secrecy. It wasn’t just the auctioneer’s reputation, but obviously, the Krase government didn’t want anyone else getting the bright idea on how to get more human slaves without having to conquer the entire planet.

“Of course not. I do not need this spread throughout the galaxy.” The auctioneer looked at Nobel.

“I could be persuaded to keep my mouth shut.” Nobel cast a sideways glace at Jarrett. “Sell me one like him and I would not confess your secret even under pain of death.”

“Oh, no. No, no, no. All the Earthling stock is being returned to me and set free. You are a full citizen with all due rights and responsibilities.”

“Then you must return Ranic’s money.” Jarrett pushed forward a bit, as if he would physically fight the man for the outcome.

“Yes. Of course.” The auctioneer seemed disappointed that he’d mentioned that. Perhaps he was hoping to get away with releasing Jarrett and keeping Ranic’s funds. “You are prepared to free him?”

“Yes.” Ranic was happy to do so. They didn’t need to tell the man they were planning on doing that anyway.

“So why did you keep calling me a dead man walking?” Jarrett asked Nobel.

“Because you are a slave. You have no rights, so essentially you are a dead man.” Nobel frowned at him. “What did you think I meant?”

Jarrett laughed. “I thought you knew about me being taken from certain death and that you—the auction house—was now going to kill me.”

“If you attempt to go anywhere near Earth, we will. It is the one tenant of your release that cannot be broken.” The auctioneer looked at Jarrett. “Do you think you can accept that?”

Could Jarrett accept the fact that he could never return to Earth? He would never see his family or friends again. Not like he was particularly close to his family, but it seemed cruel to simply go off without knowing how they were. He thought of all the things he told Ranic last night about what he would miss and all of them were things from Earth. But, to be fair, he’d never really lived anywhere else, so how could he say there wasn’t something in the universe that was better? But what decided him was that he could be with Ranic. If that could happen, the rest of it really didn’t matter.

“Do they know what happened to me? I mean, not the alien abduction, but do my family and friends think I died in the Caribbean?” If that could be eased from his mind, he thought he could embrace a whole new life.

“I imagine so.” The auctioneer straightened his robe. “Does it really matter?”

“I’d hate to think of them wondering for the rest of their lives.”

“I’m sure this fine businessman can find out.” Nobel considered the auctioneer. “If he is careful, he should be able to access news accounts.”

“Yes. Of course.” The auctioneer’s voice sounded strained, and he looked like he’d love to punch the Krase warrior in the face for volunteering him, but for the whole being beaten to death with his own arm thing if he dared to do something so foolish. “It will cost a bit.”

“And you shall pay for that and then sue the abductor for repayment.”

Jarrett was pleased they’d taken Nobel Chaos along as their protector. The man certainly knew how to negotiate. Although, to be fair, he didn’t negotiate so much as he simply said what should be done and people did it rather than argue with him.

“Yes. That is what I shall do.” The auctioneer looked ready to shoo them all from his office.

“But why all the secrecy? Why drag us back here like this?” Jarrett had gone from thinking he would be killed to even out the universe to instead finding himself a free man with full rights. It was a little head spinning.

“Because this is a huge violation of laws. Not just laws that govern the slave trade but laws of time, of history. It’s terribly dangerous to pull someone out of their set time line. Anything can happen.” The auctioneer actually looked kind of green, which was really odd considering his normal color was blue. “If you had succeeded in returning to Earth, you would have created a time distortion that might have rippled out and affected us all. Especially if they would have caught you with a spaceship.”

“Earth is not aware of their alien neighbors?” Nobel asked.

“No. Not most of us, at any rate.” Jarrett wondered though at some of the tales he’d heard. Maybe there was a grain of truth to them.

“You seem strangely accepting.”

“I fell in love with the first alien I met, so I’m probably not the best one to ask about how humans feel about aliens.” Jarrett smiled at Ranic, who grinned right back at him.

Nobel again gave them a hungry look. It wasn’t filled with desire, not sexual desire, but there was something like envy there. Jarrett swore the warrior was thinking of ways to get his own human. If he couldn’t buy one, he might just go to Earth and steal one. Still, Jarrett had no proof other than his gut, so he didn’t say anything.

“I have never been so relieved to be so wrong.” Ranic gripped his hand a little tighter. “Now the only problem we have is where to go from here.”

“Well,” the auctioneer said as he stood, ushering them toward the doorway. “As long as it’s not Earth, you’re free to go wherever.”

“His citizenship papers. You have filed them?”

“Oh. Right.” Again the auctioneer gave Nobel a dirty look. “I will have them drawn up and sent to you.”

“No, they will be staying here at your expense until everything is set to rights.”

“Yes. Of course.” The green was gone from his face, and now there was a hint of red. “If I give you a human, will you go away?”

Nobel’s brows lifted.

“I’m kidding, of course.”

But Jarrett didn’t think he really was. “You’re not going to abandon us now, are you?”

“No. Because I do not believe him. He doesn’t have a human to give to me.”

Nobel wrangled a room for Jarrett and Ranic then went up with them to inspect it.

“Wow. Nice. What’s up with the color?” It was shifting around to the point it was going to make him ill.

“It reflects the color of the dominant person’s mood.”

“A mood room? Holy shit! On Earth all we have are mood rings. Oh, and I think there’s some kind of mood lipstick, but I never wore any.”

“Mood rings?”

“Oh, it was a ring with a stone that supposedly displayed the wearer’s mood, but really, it was just liquid crystals that changed colors depending on the temperature.” Jarrett pulled Ranic close and kissed him.

The room suddenly turned black.

Jarrett and Ranic looked at Nobel, whose eyes were mostly black.

“I should be going.”

Disengaging from his mate, Jarrett walked over to the officer and offered out his hand. “Thank you for everything you’ve done.”

Peering at his outstretched hand, Nobel finally offered his own, they shook, and then he let go.

“Are you going to go and find a human?” Jarrett really should have kept his mouth shut, but he couldn’t help his curiosity getting the better of him.

“I would not break the law.” Nobel stood a little straighter, but there was something in his eyes that said he might be so persuaded if the circumstances were right.

“Of course not. Again, thank you.”

“And you must call on us if ever you are in need where we can help.”

A thoroughly wicked grin twisted the smile off Nobel’s face.

“Not that kind of help.”

Nobel laughed and left them.

“Do you think he will try to get his own human?” Ranic took his jacket off and tossed it on the surface of what looked like a puffy cube.

“I do.” Jarrett hoped the man didn’t hurt one if he found one. “Now this is a much nicer color.”

The room was turning a soothing purple and blue that matched their wedding suits. In several swift movements, they were bare and lying on the bed.

“A mirror on the ceiling.” Jarrett shook his head and laughed.

“Why is that funny?” Ranic looked up at their reflections, and when he looked at Jarrett, his cock began to harden.

“Just—I really thought aliens would be vastly superior and all that when they’re an awful lot like humans.”

“How so?”

Jarrett rolled over and kissed Ranic as he slipped his hand down his chest. “Like us, they can be swayed by their emotions.”

“This is a bad thing?”

“No. It’s a very good thing. And they can also become overwhelmed by passion.” Jarrett wrapped his fist around Ranic’s prick and stroked up and down, thrilling at his low moan of surrender. “They can learn from their mistakes.”

“Yes?”

“And they can change their opinion about something if they keep an open mind.”

“Is that so?” Ranic arched up and his eyes closed as he released a sigh of blissful contentment.

“That is very so.” Jarrett slipped between his mate’s powerful legs. “They can also fall very deeply in love.”

“Oh, yes. And that is a very good thing.”

“Absolutely.”

After rising and grabbing the lube from his pocket, Jarrett gently eased his way inside Ranic. Once he was as deep as he could go, he held steady above him, looking down into his face. “I really do love you.”

“I really do love you.”

They made love in a gentle, relaxed way. Soon, Jarrett would be a full citizen, Ranic’s money would be returned, the ship that was not actually stolen would be returned on time, and all they had to do now was decide where they would live.