“Just what, baby?”

“Just promise me you’re really going to keep me with you.You wouldn’t fool me over something like this, would you, Blayde?Decide I’m too much trouble, or can’t ever learn pack stuff or something and just take me to the prison planet?”

Blayde slammed the jeep back in park and turned to Ryan.“Don’t you know how crazy I am about you?You’re my mate, Ryan.Forever.” He reached for him and held him close, rubbing his back when he felt the trembling.“This has been hard on you, baby, I know that, but don’t ever worry about me.I’ll always want you. Understand?”

Ryan nodded, not trusting himself to look up. Blayde tipped up his chin with a knuckle.“Do you trust me, mate?”

Ryan nodded, and gazed up into his face.“I trust you, Blayde.”

“Well, all right. And for the record, you’re not too much trouble, just the right amount of trouble.” Blayde kissed his lips gently and then put the car back in gear and started back toward the ship. Within minutes they were pulling up to the dock, where Kyle had brought the ship around. It was a sleek, dark starship, built to hold a crew of twenty, with a large cargo hold. Blayde explained that although they carried many different types of cargo in their trips around the interstellar system, the cargo hold was fitted with cells for this trip, both open cells and one solitary, enclosed cell for holding prisoners considered to be dangerous. This was where he planned to house Ryan for the trip.

Walking up the gangplank, they were met by Kyle, who nodded and winked at Ryan before clapping Blayde on the back.“I was beginning to get worried about you two.”

Blayde only grunted and kept walking, pulling Ryan along behind him.“Come with us, Kyle, and back me up.We’re about to put on a little show for the prisoners.” He leaned over to put his mouth next to Ryan’s ear. “Ready,baby?”

Ryan nodded.“You know how you told me not to pay any attention to anything you say to me in there? Well, the same goes for you, too.”

Blayde just grinned at him.“Bring it, baby.I wouldn’t mind tangling with you.” Kyle came up beside them with shackles.“Better put these on him, we want to make it look as realistic as possible.”

Ryan stood stoically while Blayde fastened the shackles around his ankles, passing the chain up through his handcuffs. He looked up at Ryan and squeezed his hand.“Okay?”

Ryan nodded.“Let’s go. It’s show time,” he said, and they turned to go to the cells.

* * * * Walking into the cell area, which was deep in the bowels of the ship, Ryan felt his nerves jangling.He was glad of Blayde’s steady, large presence. Ryan shuffled down the corridor, his shackles clanking on the floor. He was flanked by both Kyle and Blayde. He felt nervous energy tingling down his spine as they entered the holding cells area. The minute they stepped in, Ryan could hear the catcalls. He smiled, feeling a rush of bravado. This was acting, just like in his movies, and he decided to put on a little show, twisting his ass as he walked slowly along, staring into the cells. There were four other prisoners besides him, two to each cell.

In the first cell, a huge man of about forty, with scars angling across half his face from his nose to his temple, stood by the bars and smiled voraciously, licking his lips.“Hey cop, put him in here with me.I’ll be happy to share my bunk with the little darlin’.”

The other, younger man in the cell with Scarface snorted with laughter, no doubt enjoying the break in the monotony. Over in the other cell, two men, jolly-rogers by the looks of them, stood up and came closer to the bars. Jolly-rogers were pirates, called after the flag they painted on the sides of their ships. They made their living preying on the ships up and down the space corridors. They usually piloted small, fast ships that could latch onto a larger starship and once docked they would enter, rob and terrorize the crew before taking off and losing themselves in the vastness of space. Tough customers, and ruthless in a fight, they were not the sort Ryan wanted anything to do with.

One of them, a big, hulking man with a red beard nodded at Ryan and jerked his head over to the man with the scar.“It’s that kid from the porn movies. Randy Ryan. We got ourselves a genuine celebrity.”

“Yeah?” Scarface said. “Well, maybe he can put on a little show for us later on.” “Well now,” said the jolly -roger, “I’ll just bet he could. I’ll bet he could suck a watermelon up a hose pipe, couldn’t you, sweet thing?”

Ryan turned to smile at the man, refusing to be intimidated.“Whatever you want, baby. I got nothing but time from here on out. You got a watermelon you want me to try?”

A big hand pushed Ryan hard in the middle of his back, and he would have stumbled if not for Kyle’s strong hand grabbing his arm and hauling him back upright. “Shut the fuck up, prisoner.” Blayde’s voice sounded harsh and commanding. Surprised, Ryan looked over his shoulder to see him scowling down at him.“Cut the shit.I don’t want any trouble out of any of you.It’s a long way to Omega 9, and I aim for it to be a peaceful trip.”

Scarface laughed.“Oh, it will be nice and peaceful, officer. Just let me get my hands on his little ass and you won’t hear a peep out of me for the rest of the trip. Him, on the other hand…”

Blayde slammed the flat of his hand against the bars by Scarface’s head and the man jerked back quickly.“Shut the hell up, asshole! If anybody gets his hands on this humanit’ll be me.”

Blayde pulled Ryan around and put both hands on his ass, kneading the plump cheeks between his hands.Ryan reacted by pushing back strongly on Blayde’s chest with both shackled hands, shouting up in his face.“In your dreams, asshole! I don’t associate with filthy bounty hunters! Nogood bastard!” He wrenched himself from Blayde’s grip and backed away a few steps.“Leave me the hell alone!”

Blayde followed him, pushing him up against the wall.“You little son of a bitch!You’ll take whatever I decide to dish out and like it.The warden doesn’t care what pleasure I take with prisoners I deliver to him, and I always take my share.I’ve seen you in those movies too, and I aim to sample a little of this.”

Ryan stomped down on his insole and Blayde hopped back, cursing. He drew back his fist. “Why,you…” Ryan flinched and cowered against the wall, but Kyle caught hold of Blayde’s fist before it fell.

“Enough, Blayde. You can deal with him later. We have some things to take care of before we take off. Put him in solitary and let him contemplate his sins for a while.”

“Come on, prisoner!” Blayde grabbed Ryan and pushed him toward a closed door farther down the corridor.“I’ll be back for you later.” He opened the door and roughly pushed Ryan inside, yelling in at him.“Stay in solitary and see how you like it!You’re lucky I don’t chain you to the wall!” He leaned in so his face was hidden from the other prisoners, winked at Ryan and then slammed the door behind him, leaving Ryan alone in the claustrophobically small room. Ryan, whose stomach had begun to cramp just a little at the roughness in Blayde’s voice, despite the fact he knew Blayde was only acting, felt inordinately pleased at the little wink. The idea occurred to him again that he was falling very much in love with the beautiful Lycan, and a shiver made its way up his spine.

The corridor was quiet for a few minutes and then he could hear the men outside yelling obscenities. The sound was muffled in this room, but he could still hear them calling to him. A thick mattress had been put on the floor along with some pillows and blankets. Ryan smiled a little. His mate had thought of his comfort in the solitary cell. Crossing over to it, he lay down and pulled the blankets up around his chin. Space travel always made him cold and sleepy. With a sigh, missing Blayde already, he turned over on his side and tried to get some rest. He had a long time in this cell to “contemplate his sins,” as Kyle had put it. He just wanted the time to pass by quickly,he really didn’t know how he was going to be able to stand being away from Blayde over the next few days. Damn it!He hadn’t meant to fall in love with him.

Chapter Five

Blayde was busy over the next few hours with the launch and operation of the ship. Until they achieved orbit around Lycanus and gained clearance into interplanetary space, he had to pilot the ship manually.Once clearance from the Intergalactic Command was received, he’d take the ship into interstellar space and be on the way to the nearest traversable wormhole for a trajectory back out of his solar system and into the Copernicus solar system, where they were headed. Kyle and Nikolai helped him, their actions practiced and almost automatic after a long time working together. Lucas was resting in his room, but would be out as soon as they achieved the trajectory, when they’d be able to put most of the operations on automatic pilot for the eight hours or so it would take to traverse the wormhole.

As Blayde worked, his mind kept wandering back to Ryan. He hoped he was comfortable down below decksand that he wasn’t frightened. His inner wolf was uneasy at the thought of his mate being scared or upset. In the morning when they achieved trajectory, he would go below decks to check on him and bring him something to eat. Kyle or Nikolai could accompany him and pretend to take his turn with Ryan as well, so it would look as if all the bounty hunters were pleasuring themselves with the good-looking prisoner. He had an almost physical craving to see Ryan, to be near him. He had no idea how he’d come to need him so much in such a short time, but he did, and there wasn’t a thing he could do about it.He’d always heard the mate bond for their particular pack was strong, because of the family curse, but this was ridiculous.

He needed to feed Ryan his blood too, and Ryan might not like it too much. The venom lasted for a while, and then it became necessary to feed the mate Lycan blood from the vein. It had been known to happen with new matings, that their mates rebelled against drinking the blood of their wolf, and Ryan was such a stubborn little thing. Perhaps if he resisted too much, the other prisoners would hear it and think he was forcing sex on him. Blayde smiled. As ifhe wasn’t planning on having sex with Ryan as soon as he saw him again.