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

“You are going to regret that sale, I assure you.”

The alien on the other side of Ranic’s bidding screen laughed and shook his head, tumbling his thick black hair around his shoulders. Ranic Vaidya said nothing. He didn’t care what a Krase warrior thought of him, his kind, or his purchase. So far, the Krase warrior had only bid on the tiniest offerings of the auction house. Ranic thought that was strange, considering how big he was, but to each his own. The very things that caused most of the bidders to shy away from Jarrett were the very qualities that attracted Ranic. He did not want a tiny slave who would fear him and tremble in his wake.

Ranic wanted a man.

Moreover, he wanted a man who would give him a fight. It had taken Ranic a long time to admit to himself what he was, but now that he had, he was going to indulge himself to the fullest, and none of his kind would know.

Jarrett Michaels was perfect.

His hair was black as the depth of space, his eyes were brown like the beach on Finoc, and his mouth was full and somewhat sad. His body was tall and lean but not scrawny. What muscles he had were strong, but not too strong. He wouldn’t be a match for Ranic in a bare-handed fight. He was older than all the other offerings on the stage, and Ranic thought that maturity would make him more interesting. A young slave would be too easy to mold. Ranic thrived on challenges. And his new slave would give him that in great quantities. Ranic also had to admit to a curious force drawing his attention to Jarrett. He was bronzed from exposure to a star and looked like he spent most of his time outdoors. By holding him close, Ranic might know what it was like to be able to do that.

But most of all, Jarrett had not liked to have the probe inserted into his ass. That alone made him undesirable to those bidding for sexual slaves they could penetrate. There were some species who thrived on using force, but most wanted to have a slave who at least found a certain pleasure in the sensation so he could be conditioned to accept his fate. Jarrett had climaxed, but he had done so without his prick being fully hard. Nothing clarified his disinterest in being penetrated more than that.

Finished with bidding, Ranic deactivated his screen and rose. His metallic suit made gentle whispers as the hydraulics kicked in, helping to move him with effortless ease in the heavy gravity of Krase. Some of the aliens in the room bristled, clearly uncomfortable with a fully outfitted Finoc trooper, but Ranic’s suit had been deactivated. Since bidding could become fierce, as it was over the first slave offered, none of the bidders were allowed to have weapons, or anything that could be used as such, within the bidding rooms.

Should hand-to-hand combat erupt, there was a dampening device that would incapacitate everyone in the room. Or so he’d been told by the auctioneer. None of it mattered to Ranic because he wasn’t interested in fighting over any of the offerings. Before the event even started, he knew he would have to settle for the one no one else wanted because he didn’t have enough money for one of the finer slaves. Not that he was disappointed with what he’d gotten for his limited funds. Ranic had never bid on a slave before because his kind did not need them, but Ranic had a very specific use in mind. He had to know. He had to feel what it was like to indulge his lusts. He’d thought of choosing one of his own kind, but it was simply too risky. Even propositioning another Finoc trooper could lead to imprisonment and death. So Ranic had worked every extra shift that he could. He lived in the smallest cell he could stand on the ship. Every spare bit of earnings he had he hid away for the dangling possibility of making his dream come true.

Today was the start of his long vacation and total indulgence.

From the bidding room he returned to the lowest floor of the building to finalize his payment and collect his slave. By the time he arrived, Jarrett was there. He was even more magnificent in person than he had been on the stage. Here, the much-less-harsh lighting emphasized the proud line of his nose and the high curve of his cheeks. His lips had a bit of a pout that was compellingly seductive, but most of all, Ranic was able to see that he was the perfect height and weight for what they would do together. The only trick now was getting this alien to go along with his desires.

It was the only part of his plan over which he had no control. That was irksome, but he thought he could manipulate this interesting creature into performing his fantasy. If he did, Ranic would reward him with his freedom. If he did not…well. Dead men told no tales, and Ranic’s terrible secret would be safe. He would be out a tremendous amount of money, and it was unlikely at his age he’d ever be able to amass sufficient funds to try something like this again, but still, he had to try. There was nothing to be gained by simply sitting idle and hoping what he wanted fell in his lap. To get what he dreamed of, he had to do the work that would put all the pieces in place. Now that he had, he was a little afraid. He had looked at everything in a multitude of ways to try to minimize any problems before they started, but he wasn’t omniscient. He couldn’t anticipate everything.

Into his hand the end of Jarrett’s lead was slipped. The feeling of power was oddly compelling. He now owned this man and could do anything with him. By Krase law, which was the planet they were on, he could beat him to death if he wanted. Not that he did. The last thing he wanted to do was anything that would damage his most valuable cargo ever.

As Ranic turned toward the exit, he realized his first mistake in anticipation. His slave was bare, and he had nothing to cover him with to protect him from the elements. It had seemed such a simple thing to forget, but he imagined his servant coming with at least a basic covering.

Since he couldn’t take him to the port bare and he couldn’t afford to buy him anything, Ranic had to improvise. From the leg plate of his suit he withdrew a solar tarp and handed it to Jarrett, who took the offering without a word. When it was unfolded, it was quite large, but Jarrett only unfolded it halfway and wrapped it around his shoulders. Now the only problem was with his feet.

Using the magnifier on his helmet’s eyepiece, he zoomed in on one of Jarrett’s feet. They were far too thin to stand up to any major distance. He would need shoes. A careful consideration of the inventory on his suit told him he had nothing that would suffice. Ranic berated himself for not thinking of this potential issue, but that was not going to help matters in the slightest.

All the aliens in the lowest level of the building seemed to be staring at him and his new slave. Perhaps some thought he was mechanical, like a robot, and they wondered why such a thing needed a human. Or maybe they thought he would become enraged and level the building. Now that his blaster was functional again, he could do some pretty serious damage if he wanted to annihilate himself in the process. To outsiders, a Finoc in trooper gear looked like an enormous silver monster straight out of a nightmare. None had ever seen what they looked like underneath their suits. And none ever would. It was the Finoc way to reveal themselves only around their own kind, so technically Ranic would be violating two sacred laws. However, breaking laws only mattered if he got caught.

To his surprise, his little mental side trip gave him the answer he sought. Since he had no shoes to give his slave, then Ranic had no choice but to pick him up and carry him.

Jarrett was taken from the stage, through the curtain at the back, and unceremoniously dumped out into a long hallway. Invisible hands picked him up, attached a leash to his collar, and then yanked him toward the far end. He couldn’t help but get the impression they weren’t happy with him or his performance on stage. Eventually, the hall opened out into a massive foyer. For the first time since this crazy ordeal started, Jarrett was fully aware that he was naked and totally uncomfortable being so exposed.

There were all kinds of bizarre creatures milling around. Jarrett wasn’t sure what was going on. He didn’t think he’d been sold to a devil, but maybe to some kind of similar creature. Aliens? They certainly weren’t human. Even at the most extravagant sci-fi convention he’d never seen costumes this elaborate. They were simply too good to be fakes. Some of them even had three eyes that blinked in sync.

And then his gaze landed on the most startling alien of all. Crafted of gleaming metal and standing at least ten feet tall was the knight in shining armor of his dreams. But he wasn’t a man. Possibly he was a machine. But he was definitely beautiful. Into his hand went the other end of Jarrett’s leash, so now he knew that whatever this stunning creature was, he was his new owner.

His eyes, or what passed for his eyes, were two blue lasers behind a shield of black. His shoulders spanned four—possibly five—feet. All over his suit were small plastic shields for what appeared to be lights. As he stood there staring, he lost focus on anything but his metallic man. Baffled, he watched as part of his leg opened up and a golden sheet was removed. When he handed it to him, Jarrett realized he was trying to help him cover up. Relieved, he unfolded the blanket and realized it was very thin material that had to be enormous when it was fully unfurled. Keeping most of it folded, he placed it over his shoulders and then stood very quietly staring up at his owner.

There was a long hesitation, and Jarrett didn’t know if he should say something or not, but then it didn’t matter because his beautiful beast was picking him up and cradling him in his powerful arms. After all this time, to find out his crazy dream of finding a knight in shining armor had come true was nothing short of amazing.

Turning into his embrace to avoid the cold, Jarrett was shocked at how unforgiving the feel of his savior’s metal was. He wasn’t sure what he expected, but this wasn’t romantic at all. Frankly, it was like being cradled by a refrigerator.

“Where are you taking me?”

There was no answer, and Jarrett wondered if they would be able to communicate. Maybe he’d have to learn that computer language that was all zeros and ones. Since he had nothing else to do, he looked around, staggered by the height of the buildings they were moving past. Some were so tall that he couldn’t see the tops. The street they traveled on was really an extremely wide sidewalk to handle an insane amount of foot traffic. Dozens of strange and curious aliens moved past them. In the center of the street there was a train-like conveyance, but Jarrett had a feeling it was for people to get out of the city in a hurry. Apparently, his new owner didn’t want or need the luxury of such transport.

His metal man walked for a long time. Eventually, the tall buildings fell away, and then they were underground in a long hallway not unlike the one the invisible hands had drawn him through. After some wrangling through what appeared to be a security checkpoint, they were eventually inside what could only be a spaceship. But it wasn’t the spaceship of television shows with rows of gleaming lights and a stout, interracial crew. This was a rust bucket. The floors were filthy with carpet so rundown the center strip was completely gone, showing the metal floor below. Each step his gleaming knight took reverberated through the hull. The walls were bare metal that was nothing short of disgusting. There were smudges, gouges, globs of all kinds of curious items, none of which looked like anything Jarrett recognized.

He’d been stolen away from a Caribbean cruise for this? Either he had the most screwed-up dreams in the universe, or he’d been bought by a low-budget starman with barely two dimes to rub together. Eventually, his metal man got him where he wanted him, and he lowered Jarrett to his feet. Whatever he was standing on stuck to the bottoms of his feet, and he cringed as he wrapped the golden blanket tightly around him. From what he could see, it was the only clean thing in the entire ship next to his gleaming knight.

“Why in the hell did you bring me to his shit heap?” Jarrett saw no reason not to let his new owner know he was displeased. Sucking up was for losers who didn’t know how to fight, which Jarrett did. If this was going to be his new home, his master was going to be thoroughly displeased that Jarrett wasn’t going to clean it up.

Rather than answer, he turned away, walked out the door, then closed it behind him.

Panicked, Jarrett moved as swiftly to the door as he could without stepping on anything. When he reached it he pounded with his fist. “Where the hell are you taking me?”

He had a terrible gut feeling that the metal man had only been the messenger. He was hired to buy Jarrett to bring him to another.
Oh, God
. If whatever bought him couldn’t even afford decent transport, that didn’t bode well for Jarrett having a life of luxury. In his fantasies of his knight, he was always whisked away to a formidable castle high on a cloud-shrouded mountain where any and all of his creature comforts were indulged. No one in their right mind fantasied about being abducted by a guy who lived in a garbage can. Not unless they had a totally unhealthy fascination for Oscar the Grouch on
Sesame Street
.

Realizing that he wasn’t going to be let out for a while, Jarrett turned and assessed the room. No windows and only the one door made the area seem very small. His fear of enclosed spaces tried to take control of his sanity, but he pushed it away. If he could scuba dive, he could survive in here, too.

His gaze roamed over what appeared to be random garbage. There were all kinds of empty, crushed containers, but he wasn’t certain what they’d once held. Food? He took a deep breath and smelled musty air, almost like it had been recycled a million times.

“Oh, God.” His heart hitched, and he took a step back. Behind him, the door felt solid and held him up as raw terror shook his entire body. What if that thing didn’t breathe? They were going to go out into the vacuum of space where a machine would be perfectly fine but Jarrett wouldn’t. He was looking at what would essentially become his coffin. Dying below pristine waters would have been so much better than snuffing it here in a room filled with junk.