AllFreeNovel
Share Us
The big man hesitated before asking the next question. “I suppose I’d get much the same answer if I asked why you wanted to be off-planet for a cycle. ”
“Yes, sir. I’m afraid so. ”
Another long pause. “Do you even have any interest in submission?Don’t lie to me, human. ”
“Yes, sure. I’m definitely a submissive, really. I really want this,” he said, repressing the urge to touch his nose to see if it was growing likePinocchio’s.
The man gave him a long, hard, very suspicious look. “Obviously your name is not really John Smith. Would you like to give me your r
eal name?”
“I’d rather not, sir, but if you don’t like that name, you can call me anything else you like. I’ll be fine with whatever you decide. ”
“My name is Blayde, by the way. Blayde Balanescu. And you can call me Alpha. ”
Alpha? What the hell does that mean? Is that some kind of Lycan thing? Or was it a Dom thing? Whatever, if it helped him get the hell off this shithole moon.
“Oh. Uh, yes. Alpha,” Ryan replied, nodding his head up and down.
“All right. Much as I’m enjoying myself, it’s time to wrap this up. ” He stood up and looked behind Ryan. “Move on in, boys. He’s ready for pickup. ”
“What? I don’t under…” Suddenly a large man came up beside him and took hold of his wrists, clapping cuffs on him. Another big guy wrapped an arm around his throat, slamming him back in the seat as he tried to rise.
Ryan’s heart shuddered to a thudding stop, and he made a short choking sound. No! Not now, after he thought he’d actually made his escape! This couldn’t be happening…
He heard a voice washing over him as from a distance. “Ryan Henderson. You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be held against you. You are under a judgment from a high court of the Allied Forces, and are sentenced to life imprisonment with no chance for parole. Resistance is futile. Prepare yourself to be taken to Lycanus 3 to be transferred to my ship for the journey to the prison moon of Omega 9, in the Copernicus star system, to serve your sentence. ”
“A bounty hunter,oh fuck no!” Ryan said, closing his eyes and tilting his head back.
“Ah, but I am, indeed, a bounty hunter, Ryan. And you have just been apprehended. ”
Ryan opened his eyes and stared into the exotic, handsome face floating in the air before him and feeling only searing shock. Too stunned and sick at heart to say another word, he met the steady gaze of Blayde Balanescu, hoping for some sign that it was all some terrible joke, some misunderstanding. He saw nothing in those exotic red eyes but an icy coldness.
Blayde smiled a tight, cruel smile as he looked inRyan’s eyes and said. “Wrap him up and put a bow on him, boys. I’ll take him. ”
* * * * Ryan looked out the window of the transport as they prepared for landing on the planet where Blayde Balanescu lived. It was called Lycanus 3, way at the end of the galaxy, and reachable only through a traversable wormhole. Wormholes were space anomalies that were like rifts in space, connecting two separate locations. In the case of the particular wormhole they were traveling through, it connected Earth to the western edges of the galaxy. Unlike stargates, the wormholes weren’t permanent. Their connections lasted only for a short time, usually sixteen to forty-eight hours, and collapsed if too much mass passed through them. The transports then were small and fast, though it still took almost a full day of travel time. This particular trip included a transfer after they passed through the wormhole to a different interplanetary transport on a shithole of a moon called Beta 14.
There he had to sleep on the floor of the spaceport shackled hand and foot for one night because the shuttle was running late due to a meteor shower. His taciturn guards had left the shackles on when he boarded this shuttle to Lycanus 3, and Ryan was tired, grungy and uncomfortable. He was resigned to join the prison shuttle there that would soon take off from Lycanus 3 and transport him to the prison on one of the moons of a planet in the Copernicus star system. He’d heard rumors about the place, but he couldn’t dwell on them without going stiff with fear. Shit, why did saying the word prison still make him shudder in abject fear whenever he thought about it?
The Lycan bounty hunters who had located him were based on Lycanus 3, and the guards they’d hired were taking him to meet them there for final transport, along with any other prisoners they’d managed to track down.
He’d vaguely heard of Lycanus 3 before. One of two sister planets to Lycanus, it was the site of one of the largest bauxite mining operations in the galaxy. Bauxite was used in the making of aluminum, and in the manufacture of the transports like the one he was on now. Formerly one of the most plentiful metals in the earth's crust until mining operations on Earth extracted so much, it was becoming no longer ecologically sustainable. Bauxite was running out on Earth, so new sources had to be found. The mines on Lycanus 3 had become as valuable as the diamond mines on the home planet. He’d heard the guards say Blayde Balanescu had a home on Lycanus 3. Not that many other people lived on the planet, all of them Lycans, according to what the guards said, and most of them were members of one huge, tightly knit Lycan family. The way they whispered about the family made Ryan think there was some mystery there, but he was too sunk in his own misery to care much one way or the other.
Blayde Balanescu was a Lycan Voyager as well as a bounty hunter, he’d heard his guards say, ferrying cargo, including human, to various destinations in the galaxy. Ryan was one of his latest acquisitions, and he’d also heard the guards say that Ryan himself had quite a price on his head. He had little doubt of that. He’d known the judge was desperate to find him.
From what Blayde had said when he’d read him his rights, he had already been convicted in absentia, no big surprise there either. The judge was powerful enough to get most anything he wanted done. Ryan now faced life imprisoned on some hellhole at the ends of the galaxy. He’d a whole lot rather be dead, and he’d decided during the last long night shackled on the floor of the spaceport that he might just take care of that as soon as an opportunity presented itself. A welltimed escape attempt should do the trick. Blayde Balanescu looked more than capable of doing the job. All Ryan had to do was fight him and give him a reason to put him out of his misery.
Through the window, he could see nothing but the desolate hills of the planet, Lycanus 3 . The landing zone was almost devoid of plant life. Ryan had seen the rich forest areas in the hills, though, as they flew low over the planet, and he wondered why the Lycans built their city in this desert. The soil was red, like the red clay back in his home state of Earth’s Georgia and much the same color. Ryan got a sudden pang as he thought about how very far away from home he was, and how he would never again see the red hills of Georgia, back on Earth.
The transport hovered briefly right over a tiny spaceport landing dock, as the pilot prepared to land. It looked like it had been raining recently and the ground looked wet and muddy. Ryan could see two huge men standing on the dock, and he recognized one of them right away as Blayde, the man who had posed as his buyer for the sting that landed him in this situation.
Ryan gazed through the window at the incredibly tall, muscular figures waiting for him on the dock and got butterflies in his stomach all over again. Gods, this son-of-a-bitch Blayde was handsome and even bigger than Ryan had thought. Dark golden hair, those strangely compelling red eyes, he had the whole package right down to that impressive bulge in his tight pants. There was an equally large and gorgeous man standing next to him, the two of them waiting impatiently for the transport to arrive. He was as tall as Blayde, but leaner. His hair was blond too, and they had a distinct family resemblance. Both too fucking gorgeous for my own good. Damn them. From this slight distance as the craft hovered just above them, Ryan could see their dark red eyes, strange and compelling.
The shuttle settled in for its landing and was tethered to the dock. One of the guards came over and helped him up so he could shuffle down the aisle of the transport, while the other grabbed his bag out of the overhead compartment. He only had one small duffle. Most of his clothes had been left behind at his old apartment on Earth when he decided he couldn’t go back there again. Besides he probably wouldn’t need much. He’d be mostly in prison uniforms from here on out.
The guard threw his bag out and waved the two men on the dock. “He’s all yours, Mr. Balanescu. ”
“Thanks, guys. See you next trip,” Blayde said, nodding back at them.
