Sky Hunter Read online

  Sky Hunter

  By Fae Sutherland

  Book three of Skybound

  Jeret hasn’t looked back since running away from life as a crown prince and joining the Crux Ansata’s crew, but when the Ansata returns to his home system, he finds his father ill and a traitor maneuvering for control. Now that he’s a full-grown man, he can’t just walk away again.

  Letting Jeret escape was the biggest black mark on bounty hunter Dagan Nu’aim’s otherwise distinguished years as a royal guard. When he catches Jeret back in-system, Dagan seizes the chance to regain his lost honor and bring the wayward prince home.

  Jeret’s not so sure he wants to go, but the reignition of his old crush on Dagan complicates the issue. As the two unravel a tangled plot against the crown, their old friendship lights up with a fiery new desire. And when the traitor strikes and the two men must choose between duty and freedom, neither is certain which to pick.

  Take flight with the Crux Ansata in Sky Riders and Sky Runners, available now!

  53,000 words

  Dear Reader,

  Welcome to our July lineup of books! If I’m not on the beach somewhere while you’re reading this, there’s something wrong with life (unless you’re reading this in December—in which case, I hope I’m by a fireplace with a cup of hot cocoa in my hand). But no matter where you are while you’re reading this, I can tell you one thing: you’re in for a treat. (Sure, I say that every month, but it’s always true!) This month brings a fun mix of returning authors and debut authors, with fun, contemporary beach reads, some troublesome dragons, a few steps back in time, and characters in a race against time and a fight for their lives.

  Let’s kick off with the perfect beach read. Make sure you pick up Christi Barth’s Love at High Tide. Beach reading doesn’t get much better than this. It starts with a beach rescue, continues with a beach romance, and has sun, sand, sexual tension and two characters you will love.

  Maybe the beach isn’t your thing in the summer, but baseball is. Take a peek at Alison Packard’s The Winning Season. After hitting rock bottom, bad-boy catcher Matt Scanlon is traded to the team he’s loathed since boyhood, and he must confront a painful incident in his past before he can rebuild his life and his career. Once you’ve fallen in love with Matt, go back and read Alison’s debut romance, Love in the Afternoon.

  Continuing in the contemporary romance genre, we have party planner Tess, who can’t believe that hotel manager Jeremy could possibly be interested in her. She’s everyone’s BFF, not friends-with-benefits material. But he’s got more than friendship on his mind in Kate Davies’s Life of the Party, book three in the Girls Most Likely to... series.

  Maybe you like your romance with a side of suspense? If so, check out Anne Marie Becker’s Deadly Bonds, and Betrayed by Trust from Ana Barrons. Two romantic suspense books, four characters in fights for their lives.

  Or maybe you like your romance with a large helping of sexy times? If so, Lynda Aicher’s Bonds of Desire is the book for you. Lawyer Allison English never planned to return to The Den—despite her naughty fantasies about being bound by owner Seth Matthews. But when club guest Tyler Wysong is injured in a scene, Seth turns to Allie for help. Aroused by both men, Allie should turn the case down. But she can’t...

  Joining Lynda in the erotic romance category this month are two male/male titles. First up is His Roommate’s Pleasure by Lana McGregor. Adam had no idea that his jock roommate was gay—and into leashes, paddles, and domination. And Adam, an inexperienced virgin who’s only ever kissed one guy, is surprised to find himself curious about submitting... Then Samantha Ann King returns with the follow-up to her debut romance, Sharing Hailey. In Waiting for Ty, too many beers and four long years of denying their feelings for each other thrust two men together in a lip-lock and a night of no-holds-barred sex that forces them to confront their greatest love and their deepest fears.

  In Sky Hunter, the third and final installment of Fae Sutherland’s male/male space opera romance series, Skybound, the Crux Ansata’s brash and rebellious ship mechanic, Jeret, finds himself face-to-face with a dangerous past he never thought to revisit—and the only man he has never been able to forget.

  Looking for more books in the paranormal category? Start with Ruth A. Casie’s The Guardian’s Witch and Desperate Magic by Rebecca York. And for fans of historical romance, in Georgie Lee’s Hero’s Redemption, a widow and a war hero brought together by a scheme must learn to trust one another and accept the tragedy that links them in order to find love. Meanwhile, historical romance author Susanna Fraser, who can always be counted on to deliver a unique and unusual historical romance, returns with A Dream Defiant, in which a black British soldier marries a beautiful English war widow, but he can’t believe she wants him for himself, and not merely as her bodyguard and protector.

  This month Carina Press is pleased to announce three debut authors. Mystery author Patricia Hale will grip you by the throat with her suspenseful story of retribution, In the Shadow of Revenge. As children they witnessed horror and created a pact, as women they planned their revenge and waited.

  Also debuting this month is Reese Ryan, with Making the First Move. When ambitious HR exec Melanie Gordon falls for sweet, sexy philanthropist Raine Mason, she discovers that his selflessness is driven by a dark and tragic secret that threatens to keep them apart.

  And joining Carina Press with her Golden Heart–winning paranormal romance is debut author Lorenda Christensen. Fans of Katie MacAlister’s Aisling Grey and Light Dragons series will want to check this one out, and so will any fans of fun paranormal romances featuring dragons and heroines with a bit of backbone. In Never Deal with Dragons, the first in a new series, a human mediator bites off more than she can chew when she agrees to partner with an ex-boyfriend to stop a war between two dragon monarchs.

  I hope you enjoy all of this month’s new releases. There’s certainly a variety to choose from, to keep you occupied no matter what your summer (or winter) activity.

  We love to hear from readers, and you can email us your thoughts, comments and questions to [email protected]. You can also interact with Carina Press staff and authors on our blog, Twitter stream and Facebook fan page.

  Happy reading!

  ~Angela James

  Executive Editor, Carina Press

  www.carinapress.com

  www.twitter.com/carinapress

  www.facebook.com/carinapress

  Dedication

  To the Romance Divas, for being a never-ending source of inspiration, knowledge and hand-holding.

  Contents

  Prologue

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Epilogue

  About the Author

  Copyright

  Prologue

  It was impossible for a king to sneak up on anyone, let alone a bounty hunter. That his former liege tried would have amused Dagan, except His Majesty King Jahan Adar’s presence spelled trouble, and Dagan was sick to death of trouble coming to look for him. He met the king’s gaze in the mirror over the bar.

  “Th
ere are a limited number of reasons for a king to set foot in a pit like this, Your Majesty. None of them bode well for me.” Dagan didn’t turn around, instead tipping back the last of his drink. It seared its way to his belly as a ripple of revulsion joined the apprehension slithering down his spine—the former from the alcohol, the latter from the king’s unannounced visit.

  “Dagan Nu’aim, you will greet your king with the proper respect.”

  Dagan’s jaw clenched and he did turn then, glancing over his shoulder. “You’re not my king anymore.” He met the older man’s faded blue eyes and then looked away, shoving his glass across the bar. “Or don’t you remember?”

  The bartender sloshed more liquor into the glass and Dagan tossed another credit down.

  “Leave us!”

  Dagan sighed as, thanks to the small group of heavily armed, incredibly intimidating security standing behind the king, the bartender and the handful of other patrons scrambled to abandon the little hole-in-the-wall. “Great. Now who’s gonna pour my drinks?” He shrugged and reached for the bottle the bartender had left behind, then turned on his stool to face the man who’d ruined his life. “What do you want?”

  “I want my son back.”

  The words were like a fist to the gut and Dagan’s jaw clenched even tighter as a flood of memories hit him in a rush. “Yeah, well, I can’t help you with that. Find someone else.”

  He made to turn around again, but King Adar reached out and closed his hand on Dagan’s shoulder. There was no threat to it, but it stopped Dagan cold. “On the contrary, it is only you who can help me.”

  Dagan’s blood ran cold. Those words too closely resembled the ones he’d heard from this same man almost eight years prior, when King Adar had placed Dagan in charge of protecting his most prized treasure. Dagan’s jaw clenched. Two years later, he’d failed at that job and he had no intention of accepting another of similar importance only to fail a second time.

  He didn’t think his pride and honor could take the blow.

  So he feigned indifference. “Whether or not the prince returns is no longer my concern. Find someone else.”

  “There is no time. Jadikira must be found and must be restored to his rightful place as heir. There is no time to waste.”

  “It’s been five years, almost six. Why the sudden rush?” Dagan did his best to ignore the memories flashing through his mind like a vid display—Jadi as a youth, always tagging along, dark eyes full of hero worship. Dagan had loved the boy, despite his annoying tendencies. That affection was yet another remnant of the past he tried to forget. For a very long time he’d been able to think of nothing but how that pampered, spoiled imp was surviving in the In-Between. Jadi was smart and resourceful, but what did he know of the underbelly of the universe? Dagan shoved the thoughts aside—now was not the time to start rehashing mistakes of the past and their possible consequences. “What makes you even think he’s still alive?”

  There, he’d said it. The thing that had driven him from his home first and foremost, beyond even the crushing blow to his pride and his honor when the prince had disappeared. Guilt. Guilt because it’d been his duty to protect Jadi and his failure that had, in all likelihood, caused his death. Dagan couldn’t bring himself to meet the king’s eyes now—he hadn’t that day long ago either. Whatever fate had befallen Jadikira, Dagan knew he bore the responsibility. He lived with that reality every single day.

  There was a long pause, and then finally the king exhaled heavily, sitting down on a stool beside Dagan. “I do not know. I only hope. But I need to know. My time is running short, Dagan, and there are those who would be eager to sweep in and claim ownership of a crown not rightfully theirs.”

  Dagan lifted his head, eyes widening.

  Adar nodded. “I am ill. My physicians say I have less than a year at best. I’ve sent my own men, other bounty hunters, many of them over the years, to try and return my son to me, but none seem to be able to so much as give me a clue where he went when he left. How does a fifteen-year-old boy simply disappear?”

  Surely the king didn’t want an answer to that question. Dagan could think of a few ways, none of them good. “So I’m your last resort then.” That made sense, he supposed. That the king himself had come looking for him spoke to the man’s desperation. “Why should I help you? You no longer trusted me, you stripped me of my post, my title among your guard and now you expect me to leap at the chance to serve you again?”

  “No. I expect you to leap at the chance to redeem yourself and your honor. To regain your home. The people of Hadrian would welcome you with open arms once again if you returned bearing their crown prince. You would be rewarded—handsomely—of course.” King Adar paused again, then gave Dagan a slow, calculated smile. “Your sister sends her regards.”

  The words knocked the air from his lungs and Dagan was glad he was already sitting down. “You son of a—” Two guards with the king took a menacing step forward. Dagan’s fingers tightened on his glass and he tossed back the remainder. “That’s low.”

  “I cannot allow you to say no. Bring me my son, Dagan, and I vow on my own honor and my crown that you will be restored of everything and everyone you lost all those years ago.”

  Dagan hesitated—partly because he was backed into a corner and partly because, much as he hated to admit it, the idea of being able to return home to Hadrian after nearly six years scraping out an existence hunting down the scum of the universe was tempting. “You have to have something—you didn’t come all this way to send me off without so much as a direction. So what do you have?”

  King Adar turned to one of his guards, gesturing. The guard handed him a grid connect tablet and the king held it out to Dagan. “Eighteen months ago there was quite a scandal amongst the Coalition and many planetary governments when a list of names—many of them very important names—was leaked on to the grid as being involved in, or patrons of, a ring of brothel slavers. Did you hear of it?”

  Dagan glanced down at the list of names on the screen. “Yeah. You’d have to be living under a rock not to. What about it?” His brows knit as he read a few of the names. “This isn’t that list.”

  “No. That’s a list of the victims, the ‘stock’, if you will. The names in blue are those known to be dead, the names in red are those known to have been recovered and successfully reunited with their families.”

  An impending sense of dread crept over him. “You don’t mean...?”

  The king stiffened his spine. “I do not know. Jadikira’s name is not on that list, but I do know that the criminals involved in that slave ring did operate in the next system, and there is one entry—with no name—that does match his description and age. If the slavers’ records are accurate, he was taken by them on Jassock just before they were exposed, so there’s a good chance he was unharmed. I pray it is so.”

  Dagan set the tablet down and scratched the side of his head. The adrenaline of a new job was already beginning to pump, his mind whirling with possibilities. Was he actually thinking of agreeing? “So that’s it? An entry on a list, no name or other info, and that’s your starting point for me?”

  It might as well be a ghost in the machine in terms of it actually being something worth pursuing. Not to mention that Jassock, the planet where the young man from the entry was captured, was just about on the opposite side of the known fucking galaxy. It’d take weeks just to get there, on the off chance the lead was something and anyone there even recalled some nameless, faceless young man.

  “The story is that the young man in question was the one who brought the organization down. Apparently he hacked into the system, leaked the list on to the grid and disappeared into thin air before the Coalition ever arrived.” The king’s look was significant. “Sound familiar, Dagan?”

  Holy hell did it. Nearly six years earlier when another young man had slipped the grip of his keepers, h
acked into the security system to bring the whole thing down and then disappeared into thin air, never to be seen again.

  “Jadi’s not the only hacker in the In-Between. It might not be him.”

  “You’re right, of course. But it’s enough to make you curious. I can see it in your eyes. You see the similarity, as well.” The king’s expression tightened. “Your king—your world—needs you to bring my son home.”

  He glared at the man for whom, once upon a time, he would have gladly laid down his life. “Do I have a choice?”

  The king shook his head. “No. Neither do I, I hope you understand.”

  What Dagan understood was that the old saying was true—you could run but you couldn’t hide from your past. It always caught up in the end.

  Chapter One

  Six months later—Hadrian system

  “Times like these, I actually miss Cookie.”

  Torin Covell, captain of the Crux Ansata, rolled his eyes as he fastened the gun belt slung around his waist. “I already said I’d see if they had any of the damned lemon slices. Quit your whining.”

  Jeret scowled at him, arms crossed over his chest. “That ain’t why. I miss him ’cause times like these he would’ve listened to me when I say this job is sour. I’m tellin’ ya, I don’t like it.” He also didn’t like being this damn close to Hadrian, even if the moon they were currently parked on was on the very outer edges of the Hadrian system. It was still too close for comfort.

  Rain, the captain’s husband and pilot of the Ansata, gave Jeret a sympathetic look as he passed by, shrugging into his jacket. “I hear this is where Torin picked you up. Bet it’s weird bein’ back. We’ll be off her soon enough, though, and all you have to do is hang out and make sure Annie’s ready to go when we get back. Easy as pie.”

  Sometimes both of them were dumb as rocks. “Ain’t got nothin’ to do with this being where Torin found me. I been tellin’ you for days now that I don’t think we oughta do this job. Shengo and his kind ain’t the sort of folk we wanna be dealing with, that’s all.” That was the truth too. Sure, jobs had been sort of scarce lately, but that didn’t mean it was a good idea to go hitching their lives to a job from one of the most dangerous men in the In-Between. The fact that it’d involved coming this close to a planet Jeret had planned to never see again was just the shit icing on the rotten cake.