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The man laughed. “Not a problem. We are out of range in three, two, one, now.
We’re free.”
Ral laughed. He held Ariel in his arms as he stood up. He grinned at her. “We are free, my Ariel.”
Shock hit Ariel. She stared at Ral. He winked at her. “Open full ship communications.” He gently sat Ariel in the seat he’d vacated.
Emotionally Ariel was reeling from the shock. They’d escaped the Anzons. She hadn’t known they were even trying to escape. Ral hadn’t told her. That was what that meeting had been about last night. The Zorn hadn’t been excited about new prisoners.
They had been excited about a large ship being prepared so they could use it to escape.
Hurt washed over Ariel. Why hadn’t Ral told her? Hadn’t he trusted her?
“This is Argis Ral,” Ral snarled. “We are free. In three weeks we will be returning to our home. We will see Zorn again.”
The men threw back their heads in the room and howled loudly. Ariel started. Ral smiled widely at her. He ran his hand over his throat. The man to the left nodded.
“Communications are off, Argis Ral.”
Ral glanced at one of his men. “Any pursuit?”
“No, Argis Ral. We damaged them too well.”
Ral nodded. “Keep a sharp eye on it. I don’t want any surprises.”
“Yes, Argis Ral.”
Ral turned to stare at the large window facing space. He crossed his muscled arms over his chest. Satisfaction was the clear emotion displayed on his face.
Ariel swallowed. “Ral?”
He grinned at her as his arms dropped to his sides. “Yes?”
“Are you taking me home?”
He nodded. He moved toward her and crouched down in front of her. His hands gripped her face gently. “We are bound. You will be very welcome on my planet.” 50
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“I meant Earth,” she whispered.
Ral’s smile died. “We are bound, Ariel. I don’t know where your world is or where to even look. I am sorry. My home is now your home.” She nodded feeling a little numb. What else could she do? Ral smiled at her and released her as he stood up. He headed for one of the stations and spoke softly to his men.
Ariel sat in the chair he’d placed her in and just watched Ral. He was taking her to his planet. She wasn’t going to ever get back to Earth. Pain and anger filled her as she realized that his men had access to the Anzons Charts to find his world but he wasn’t even going to look for her planet. She shut her eyes and fought tears that burned behind her eyelids.
She finally opened her eyes and stared out into space when she had her emotions under control. She turned her head sometimes to watch Ral. He looked excited as he moved around the room from station to station. He finally walked toward her and held out his hand. Hours had passed.
“We are not being pursued. They don’t have anything faster than our ship and we have been watching for them. We made a perfect escape. I have memorized the floor plan of the ship. We are going to the leader’s sleeping quarters.”
“All right.” She let him pull her up to her feet.
Ral retrieved his blanket-wrapped clothing by the door. They left the command center and walked down a hallway. Ral stopped by a door and opened it. It wasn’t locked. Ral stepped in first and dropped his clothes. The lights automatically came on.
Ariel eyed the large room.
“Nice.” The room was huge and looked fitted with every comfort the Anzons had to offer.
“They put us in rock rooms with thick mats.” Ral looked pissed off. “Yet they lived in luxury.”
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Ariel looked at the room again. It had a living room area with comfortable chairs and then there was a bedroom area with a large bed. One wall was a window of space.
It was beautiful. When they lay down in the bed they would face the view of space, staring out at it, she knew it would be an experience. Ral reached for her, pulling her into his arms.
“You will love Zorn.”
She locked eyes with Ral. “You could find Earth if you wanted to.”
“I can’t let you return to Earth.”
“I don’t understand.”
He held her tighter. “I could find your planet, but I can’t let go of you now, Ariel. I am in love with you. You are everything to me. We are bound.”
“What does that mean? Bound?”
“It means I have taken you as mine until death. It means we are together until death. I have committed my life to yours.”
“You mean we’re married?”
“Married?”
“That means committed to each other until death.”
“Yes. Then that is what it means. You are bound to me, Ariel. I will never give you up.”
“What is Argis?”
“My actual title.”
“And Ral?”
“My name.”
“Should I call you Argis Ral now like everyone else is?” He grinned. “You are bound to me. You need not call me a title. Ever. When we were captured and taken I ordered my people to drop the title to protect my identity. I was just one Zorn of many.”
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“If the Anzons captured you once will they come back to your planet to get you again?”
“No. We were not taken from our home planet. We were taken from another we were visiting. It was our hunting planet. The Anzons made many mistakes with us.
They thought we were not smart enough to deal with technology and they thought we were not worthy to even watch closely. We allowed them to think it. It worked well with us to have good access to escape.”“What is a hunt planet?”
“My kind vacation on our hunt planet. It is primitive planet without civilization.
The ship that takes us there leaves us for a week. The Anzons thought we were a very basic species with no technology because we don’t allow it on our hunting grounds.
That would ruin the vacation if technology were allowed to poison the planet and the beasts we hunt for sport. The Anzons are seriously learning how they underestimated us now.” He chuckled.
“So they can’t come after us on Zorn?”
Amusement lit Ral’s incredible blue eyes. “No. We have ships far better than this and a defense system that would never allow them to even get close to our planet. They only got us because we were on our hunt planet. When I return home I will have measures taken to defend that planet from now on so this never happens again.” 53
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Chapter Six
Ariel was nervous. She sat between Ral’s thighs staring at the planet they were approaching. Zorn wasn’t a blue and white planet. Zorn was shades of red and had three large moons closely surrounding it.
Ral nodded at one of his men. “Open communications.”
“Yes, Argis Ral.”
“This is Argis Ral,” he growled. “We have returned home. Alert Hyvin Berrr.” A male growled in response. “Argis Ral? Confirm your identity.” Ral issued some growling. The translator didn’t give Ariel a translation. It was just harsh sounds.
“Welcome home, Argis Ral.” The man sounded happy. “Your father will be very pleased. We have searched for you and our people without success.”
“We have escaped our captors.” Ral hugged Ariel. “We will need transports.”
“Immediately, Argis Ral,” the man said.
They put the ship in orbit over the planet and Ariel couldn’t stop staring at Zorn. It looked so different from Earth—not that she’d ever really seen Earth from space, only movies and pictures of it from space. Zorn was definitely different. The planet looked bigger too than any pictures of Earth. She swallowed.
“Are you all right, Ariel?” Ral softly growled in her ear.
“Yes. I’m just nervous. What is it like?”
He chuckled as he held her tight. “You will like it. It is beautiful.” That’s all he ever told her about his planet. For the last three weeks while they’d traveled to Zorn Ral had been busy. He’d left her mostly alone in the leader’s quarters, but he’d come to her at night to sleep and make love. He’d avoided all her questions 54
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and it was starting to concern her. To just say a planet was beautiful left a whole lot open.
Ral lifted both of them to their feet. He led her to the bowels of the ship with her hand in his. She saw most of his people gathered there. They looked unusually happy and excited, standing in groups. Ral smiled as he nodded at them as he pulled her closer.
“We are home. It has been too long since they have seen their families and friends.” Ariel missed her home and family too but she smiled at him. Ral was her world now. To go home meant she’d have to leave him. After the almost month they’d spent together she couldn’t imagine life without him.
“They have sent transport ships to fly us to the planet. This ship is too large for our planet docking stations.”
She eyed the ship around them. “What will happen to it?” He smiled. “We’ll keep it. They took us. We took their ship.” A loud sound startled Ariel. Ral chuckled. “A transport is docking.” He motioned his head toward the far corner. “We will go first. My father and brothers will be very anxious to see me.”
She gripped his hand tighter, staring up at his face. “How will they feel about me?”
“We are bound. They will have to accept it.”
“Can’t your father unbind us? You said he was leader of this world.” Ral frowned. “He won’t.”