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.

The step down to the dock was pretty high, and the chain on the shackles cuffed to his ankles was too short for all but the slightest movement. The guard only stared at him impassively when Ryan glanced back over his shoulder, mutely asking for help in getting down. Ryan sighed and shrugged, then jumped awkwardly down off the bottom step. He stumbled a bit. Righting himself, he turned to shuffle toward Balanescu and found himself nose to chest with the man.

Balanescu put his hands on his arms to steady him and looked down at him. Suddenly he reeled backward and did a double take. Theman’s beautiful eyes actually goggled, and he sniffed at Ryan, before literally recoiling in horror. Fucking sniffed at him like he had body odor. Entirely possible considering the lack of sanitary facilities on Beta 14, but Ryandidn’t think he was that bad.

Balanescuapparently didn’t agree, because he opened his mouth and roared at him.“What the fuck?”

He was so loud and sounded so furious, Ryan stumbled back from him in shock and sat down right on his ass in the middle of a mud puddle, the cold water oozing through his pants and making him gasp. He looked up into the angry face of the exotic bounty hunter, who then backed away from him holding out his hands as if to ward him off. Ryan was so shocked he couldn’t move, just sat there staring up at him.

The guards and the other big man looked alarmed and confused. The man with Blayde put a hand on Blayde’s shoulder only to have him shrug him off almost angrily. The man then stepped around him to extend a hand to hoist Ryan back up to his feet, but Blayde literally growled and jumped between them.

“Don’t touch him, damn it!”

“Blayde!” the man cried out.“What the hell? I was just trying to help him to his feet.”

As Ryan watched in amazement, Blayde flushed a dark, painful red and shrugged, mumbling, “Sorry, Kyle.Just don’t touch him. Please.”

Blayde whirled around and glared down at Ryan, extending a hand to grasp the chain between his wrists and haul him back up to his feet.

“Thanks.” Ryan allowed him to help him stand back up. He glanced up at Blayde Balanescu and felt the hot blood rushing to stain his cheeks.“Is-is everything okay?”

“Shut up, damn it.If I want to hear anything from you, I’ll tell you. In the meantime, shut the fuck up.”

It was Ryan’s turn to flush and drop his gaze. Asshole. Fucking bastard. I only asked a simple question.

Once again the man he’d called Kyle stepped forward andtouched Blayde’s arm. “Calm down, Blayde. No need to scare himto death.” He transferred his gaze to Ryan.“Sorry, human. Are you all right?”

Ryan nodded. “I’m all right.”

“Good.” Kyle bent over and picked up his bag from where the guards had thrown it, while Blayde grabbed his cuffed hands by the chain again and hauled him along after him, turning his back on Ryan. Ryan could hear the man Blayde called Kyle talking with the guards, but he was too busy shuffling and hopping along behind Blayde, trying not to stumble and land face first on the dock to pay anything else much mind.

“C’mon,damn it,” Blayde growled over his shoulder.“Move your ass. I need to get you somewhere so I can get you out of thosepants.”

Chapter Two

Blayde drove through the desert, occasionally glancing over at Kyle, who watched him warily. He knew Kyle must be wondering what the hell was going on with him, but hecouldn’t say anything until they were alone.

He’d pulled the damn human over to the big jeep by the cuffs, not wanting to put his hands on him again. He was afraid that if he touched him one more time, he wouldn’t be able to control himself. When they came to the tall vehicle, sitting by the docks on high treads that made it possible to move through the deep sand terrain, he left him to clamber aboard by himself. The chain between his ankles was too short for him to manage, however, and he finally had to pick him up, practically throwing him in the back seat. He hadn’t meant to be so rough, but he had to get him out of his arms and quickly before he embarrassed both of them by ravishing the human right in front of Kyle. Ravishing the human? Where the hell had that old-fashioned expression come from? Yet it was strangely appropriate for what he wanted to do to the little human.