by Celeste Raye
The woman from Above snarled out, “Your family’s inability to handle their credit is none of my concern; as far as I can see, it is only your fault that your daughter had to be taken to the pawnbroker!”
Okay, that was it. Margie stepped forward, intent on kicking that woman’s ass so far up above her shoulders that she would be able to kiss her own back cheeks. Jeval’s hand whipped out and caught her by one upper arm. She glowered at him, but all that she could read on his face was a faint amusement.
Of course, he was enjoying this! The bastard was about as cruel as they came!
Jeval spoke, “This is what we are going to do. You do not seem to be happy, Madame,” he jerked a finger toward the woman from Above. “I, for one, can stand no more of your rancor. Your mouth is like the mouth of a serpent. It only takes one bite to infect a person’s soul. You seem capable of infecting many. For that reason alone, I deem you unworthy to live upon this planet. You shall be immediately taken to your quarters and barred within.”
Marik said, “I feel that is too harsh punishment.”
Talon, who had been standing silently on the sidelines watching the whole thing unfold, said, “I do not. I think he is right, in fact. We cannot allow this poison between those who feel they are due more and those who deserve the exact same thing as everyone else to continue. What we will have is open civil war. I refuse to have that here. I have fought for you. I have bled for your kind. I have given lives from both my crew and blood from my own body to help rescue you and to save that planet of yours. I will have peace, even if it means sending a woman to her quarters until she can be removed from this world.”
Renall sighed and stared at his feet. It was very clear that he did not want to be the deciding vote in the situation. So far it was two against one. If he spoke against barring the woman and then removing her from the planet, they would have to have a Council. If they had a Council then the entire citizenry would be able to speak.
Margie held her breath. If the citizenry had their way about it, everyone who was from Above would be set immediately packing. She knew that. She also knew that many of those who had lived Above were actually trying to help. Some of them were rebels who had worked to topple the old hierarchy. It would be unfair to send them all back.
Renall must’ve considered those things because he spoke as his head lifted and his gaze met the gaze of his brothers. “I agree. She will be barred, and she will be sent back. However, we shall feed her more than just the nutro-loaf and water. Even I am not cruel enough, and Jeval, I cannot believe even you are that cruel, to give her nothing but that. If there was hunger upon the planet, and we had no other choice, I would agree, but for now, I can’t agree with the last part of your decree. Those are my conditions.”
The woman began to cry. Her hands jerked up into the air and tangled into her hair. She yanked at it, obviously agitated. “You cannot send me back to Old Earth! It is a hellhole! I will die there!”
Jeval said, “You should’ve thought about that. You have forced us to make you an example. It is not what we wish to do, but we have no choice. Let it be known here and now that any and all who find themselves unhappy with the system that we have here, the system of democracy, that you too may return to Old Earth and immediately.”
Someone cried out, “And what of her daughter? Should she be sent back as well?”
Jeval said, “Will any of you speak for her?” Torn between an agony of conscience at what her actions had helped to create and rightful indignation, Margie swallowed back a hard lump and stepped forward. “Her daughter is a decent worker. She’s trying anyway. If she complains, I have never heard.”
The woman began to weep and wail, still tearing at her hair as several people grabbed her and hustled her toward her hut.
Jeval said, “Then you’ve spoken for her.”
Margie had not meant to speak for the girl, but she had, and there was no taking that back. She knew that. Her head nodded up and down. “I do.”
Jeval said, “Then she is your responsibility. If she creates havoc here, then not only will she be returning to Old Earth, but so will you.”
Margie glared at him. “That is hardly fair.”
He said, “I no longer care about what is fair when it comes to the situation. I care only about averting a war that you humans seem intent upon bringing to this planet.”
He turned and walked away. His brothers all followed him. Margie stood there looking around at herself. The crowd began to dissipate, everyone heading back to the tasks that they had been given. It took a lot of work to keep so many people fed, clothed, and housed. Everyone had to help. If even one person refused to aid in their survival, they could all very well die.
She sighed as she turned to head back to the greenery house. Just what she needed, to be trapped with the responsibility of some Above woman!
And Jeval…
Oh, how she longed to slap his smug face! The two of them had an uneasy relationship, and always had.
Chapter Two
Renall said, “I still think it too harsh. I agree we had to do something, but I am not sure that that was the right thing to do.’
The four brothers had gathered at the small building they used to meet about things that involved the planet that they had worked for centuries to buy and were now trying to build.
Jeval sighed. “I agree it is harsh but these humans, my God, it is as if they are determined to ruin the world and themselves right along with it!”
He winced as soon as he said the words. Every one of the men facing him, his siblings, had taken human mates. Marik had mated with Jenny, who was a natural healer as Marik was and who had somehow managed to help Marik and Talon and Jessica—who was the fiercest warrior that many had ever seen—stave off the Gorlites again and again. Renall’s mate, Clara, was a gambling woman who had brought plenty of credits to their pockets and who used her skills to continue to bring in credits. She took frequent trips off-planet along with her family and Renall to sweep large pots that brought not just credits to the planet, but much-needed supplies.
His mood went sour as he stared at the expressions on his sibling’s faces. “I spoke hastily. But all of you know I am right. Maybe your mates are not that way, but the others, sometimes I wonder why we even bother.”
Talon said, “Oh no. I get it. They can be a cantankerous lot, to say the least.”
Marik sighed. “I wish there was some way to heal the rift between them. It seems as if many of them have found a way to move past the class lines they once knew, but so many have not, and like most of you, I worry that they never shall either.”
“If they don’t, we will have a war here,” Talon put in. “I hate to say it, but perhaps I made a mistake in bringing the refugees here. We brought so few, a mere three thousand, and left so many behind. People that I see every night in my dreams. I know they suffer there but given the mood of so many that we brought, I wonder… I do… if it was the right decision to bring them.”
“It was,” Marik said. “I was there, and I saw what was happening there. We could not have left them. I only wish we had brought more.”
Of course, he did. Marik always felt sorry for the broken and lost. Jeval sighed. “We have bigger problems than just that, and that’s why we’re all here, so let’s discuss that instead.”
Renall said, “As you know, Clara doesn’t just go out because she is an accomplished carder. She goes to listen for us and the news she has brought back this time is grim.”
Jeval’s nerves balled and tightened under his skin. His lips went flat. That was hardly a shock. The universe had never been a particularly good place since The Federation had been formed, and as of late things had been really unstable.
Jeval asked, “What is the news?’
Renall said, “The Federation has declared that all planets are under Fed rule. Even the ones who are not under their rule. They are using the wars raging through Old Earth and other systems as just cause.”
Talon
swore violently. Marik shook his head. His hands scratched his head. “All right, what does that mean for us? We are so far away from it, from every other planet and system that it seems like they would hardly even notice us.”
Renall said, “We need to cloak the planets in our system. The Feds know there are private planets out here but one of the reasons we chose this system is that it is not on the maps that they have.”
Jeval sighed again. “Cloaking will do no good if they decide to sail an armada through here. They’d just run right over us.”
Marik said, “That’s a good point.”
Talon said, “I agree with both. We should cloak until we see ships.”
“What if we don’t see them? The Federation has some of the most sophisticated cloaking devices in the universe. If they don’t want to be seen, they won’t be.” Jeval’s fingers pressed into the skin above the bridge of his nose in an effort to force back a massive headache.
His eyes closed. Margie’s face swam up in his mind’s eye, and he groaned inwardly in real frustration. That woman, she was the most maddening, irritating…beautiful…woman he had ever seen.
Dammit! The last thing he needed to be doing was thinking about her, but he was. He had seriously considered snatching her up and turning her over his knee, and giving her one good spanking.
Naturally, his dick stiffened at the thought, just as it had out there while that uproar was happening and that thought had hit him.
He could almost feel her firm and springy ass cheeks below his hand, feel the yield of her flesh, and see the jiggle of it too. He wanted to run his hands across that flesh, hold it as he drove his staff deep into her body…
“Jeval?”
Marik’s query snatched him out of that sexy little daydream. He found himself grateful for the table that he sat at and which hid his lower body.
Jeval cleared his throat. “Sorry, I was thinking of something else and didn’t hear you.”
Renall said, “We need a plan. “
No shit. He needed a plan that would keep him as far from that infuriatingly sexy Margie to start with. He said, “We need to send scouts out again, but Clara’s time to have your child is coming soon. She can’t keep risking the travel she’s been undertaking.”
Renall said, “I was just about to say that. There is no way I will allow her to go again. Her family is equally skilled at carding and spying, and they can bring back news, but we all know humans are looked on with a lot of suspicion, even the ones out here in the universe, and with good reason, so we need someone less…less likely to gather suspicion.”
Talon said, “It can’t be me. I’m wanted by The Federation, and so is Jessica. Even though they gave us what they call amnesty risking this is too much to ask from us. If we get caught gathering intel, we will be killed. I won’t have her risk it, and what is more, I won’t have any of you talk to her about it. You all know if there is a fight, she is the first one out the door and with a weapon in her hand.”
There was a round of laughter. Marik chortled out, “I do not envy you that one. She is a warrior, and I know she could probably kill me with a pan I told her to cook me a meal in.”
“She’d kill you with a fork,” Talon replied, his eyes dancing.
Jeval knew that it was Jessica’s warrior spirit and skills that attracted Talon. He loved her to distraction, and they’d grow old together, if they didn’t end up dead from some battle first.
Besides, Talon was right. After all that he had done and been through, he deserved some peace now, and so did Jessica. Talon was as much as a warrior as his mate, but even the greatest warriors had their limits, and those two had seen far too much war lately.
Marik was also out. He was too needed there on the planet, he and Jenny both. They were always healing something, and they had begun a project to test medications made from natural things, and that too was a needed thing because eventually, they would have to start sending the citizens away from the small city they had begun to build and outward, to settle other parts of the planets.
Jeval said, “It seems I am the only and best option then.”
Renall nodded, but his eyes held a wary expression. Jeval knew why. He was the bloodiest of them all, and he rarely cared about things like peace or safety. He had been known to kill for the sheer pleasure of it, or at least they thought it was for the pleasure. They just did not understand why he did what he did, and he knew he could have explained it, but he didn’t choose to.
Sometimes it was better to see someone as a rogue killer rather than as what they really were.
That damned and cursed gift of his. How had he been given it and why could he not get rid of it?
Renall said, “I have a plan, but you won’t like it.”
Jeval listened as Renall outlined that plan and found that Renall was right.
He didn’t like it at all.
Chapter Three
“Hell no!”
Margie’s indignant yelp hung in the air. Jeval glared at her and her hands went to her hips, her foot tapped at the floor, and she glared at him, her temper rising with each passing second. Her teeth sank into her lips and her throat worked as she managed to get a few words out, “Why me?”
Jeval slapped a hand down on the back of his neck. His tone was surly. “I don’t like this either.”
“Oh, I bet you don’t! You aren’t the one who gets to pretend to be a sex slave!” Her temper flared again, and a glint of wickedness lit her eyes. “Though you could be. I mean, why not? I could dress you up in a cute little collar and some shiny pants and haul you—”
“Woman, stop!” His roar held outrage, and for some reason that struck her as funny, but it didn’t help her anger to abate.
“Oh no I won’t! For all I know you will sell me off to some…some critter!”
“Critter?” His eyebrow lifted, and so did his upper lip. “Did you just say critter?”
Her chin came up. “I did. I worked in your hall on Orbital, remember? There were plenty of critters there.”
“Not going to argue that one with you.”
“Good!”
They stood there scowling at each other. Margie’s eyes surveyed his lean and tall body and that unbidden desire hit her all over again.
He said, “Listen, if I didn’t have to do this and with you, I would absolutely refuse. The truth is we need information, and we need it fast. The Federation is planning something major, and we need to know what it is. They’ve declared martial one rule over every planet in the universe. Even this one.”
Her mouth fell open and hung ajar. “You can’t be serious! They have no rights here! This is a private planet. It’s a private system. The resources are so few because the planets are so small that they’d be a mere drop in The Federation’s bucket. Why on earth would they bother with us?”
Jeval said, “That’s what we need to find out. They’ve broken every promise to every system, and yet they still have loyal supporters and followers. At some point, someone is going to have to come up with some information that breaks The Federation’s back in its stranglehold on this universe. I don’t know that we will gather anything of any real importance, but we have to try.”
Margie looked down at her feet. “Okay. I can see your point. But why in the hell do I have to pretend to be your sex slave?”
His voice was soft; it probed at all of her senses. “Would you prefer to actually be my sex slave?”
“Keep it up,” she muttered, “and I will slap you right across the face.”
It actually wasn’t a bad idea. He always seemed to bring out the worst in her. She always found herself torn between the desire to punch him and the equally ardent desire to throw her arms around him and press her body close to his. He was the most bothersome creature she had ever met, and he had a way of getting under her skin and rubbing against every emotion she had ever possessed. Not to mention he also had a way of making her body go hot, flushed with desire every single time he shot a glance in her direc
tion.
Pretending to be his sex slave?
That was a recipe for disaster.
She shook her head. “I don’t think that’s a good idea. Why can’t I pretend to be your assistant or your wife or something of equal footing?”
His hands came up in a gesture of helplessness. “The places we have to go don’t respect those things. Most of them don’t even respect women. That role is the only one you can take on because I need you to talk to the women. They won’t open up to a woman who’s not undergoing the same situation that they are. They will confide in you if they think you too are a slave and unable to speak to me.
“Also, when it comes to sex, all creatures have a tendency to talk more than they should. So those sex slaves that you will be meeting will know things, things they should not know. Things that they will never say in front of me or in front of a woman who is a mate or spouse or an assistant.”
He had a point. Dammit! The whole idea made her uncomfortable. She had come close to actually becoming a sex slave at one point. And she hadn’t met that fate because of him and his brothers. They had rescued her from that slaver ship and that horrible fate. She owed them a large debt, whether she wanted to or not, and she had to repay it.
She had worked as a gurley on Orbital, in a dance and gamble hall that he and his siblings had owned there. She had earned quite a few credits and had paid a huge chunk of her safe passage from those credits. For a while, she had thought she would be okay.
Life on Orbital had been good, but very expensive. The pleasure planet charged for everything—even air! Her earnings had let her pay her debt to the brothers and live well, drinking real water and being clean, and she had not really minded the dancing—even if there were times it left her feeling like she was just an animal in a cage.
