Free 3013: Renegade by Susan Hayes

Ghost is the one who got a taste of life out here before he and his mom were claimed.”
    “Colin was born out here?” She gestured out the nearest window. That was one of the many things that she found strange about her new home, so many windows. The places she had grown up in were cramped, ramshackle affairs that were designed primarily to keep out the weather and any dangers that might be lurking. This place was huge by her standards, well maintained and clean. The contents were pretty nondescript and functional, from the utilitarian furnishings to the plain, off-white walls, but to her, it was a palace.
    “Different quadrant, but yeah, he was born in the badlands.” Nikolai led her over to the coffee maker, showing her how to program it as he kept up their conversation. “You said last night that you had family out there. Were you born around here?”
    “I don’t know where I was born. My foster father found me in the wreckage of a shuttle crash. I was only a few weeks old as best he could tell. My mother died not long after he found the wreckage, and she was the last one alive. She managed to tell him my first name, and asked him to save me. He did. They salvaged the wreck, buried the dead and when they moved on, Sam took me with him. He’s the only family I’ve ever known.” Alayna had never told that story to anyone before, and Nikolai’s reaction surprised her. He didn’t say he was sorry. He got downright pissed off.
    “The bastard took you? Didn’t he try to find your family? If you were on a shuttle transpo, you parents were almost certainly Alliance citizens. Your DNA would have been registered immediately after birth. You’re telling me he just walked away with you that day?” Nikolai couldn’t believe what he was hearing. In a world where every child was precious, what kind of man would simply walk away with another family’s baby and let them think she died?
    “Have you been out there yet, Nik? I mean way out, fifty, sixty miles into the bad areas where the land is still oozing radiation from wounds that will take centuries to heal. There are people living out there, in the middle of Hell, because they’d rather take their chances in the badlands than join your precious Alliance. My foster father is one of them. If he left me there, I’d of been dead within hours. He saved my life, but he did it while scavenging Alliance property. What do you think would have happened if he’d tried to report finding me? He’d of ended up in jail, or worse.”
    There had to be something wrong with him. Here they were, having a serious conversation, and all Nikolai could think about was how fucking sexy she was when she got riled. He might spend the rest of their lives taking shots at her just so he could see her eyes flash and her cheeks flush as she told him off. He loved the fact she wasn’t afraid of him. Hell, she called him Nik. No one called him that. He hated that nickname. Well, he hated it when anyone else used it. When it rolled off her tongue? It sounded perfect. What were they talking about again? Right. Her fucked up foster father and the rebels. He needed to stay focused or he was going to end up doing something she wouldn’t appreciate, like haul her into his arms until she started making those, soft, sexy little moans he liked so much.
    He took a deep breath and forced himself to stay on target. “So, you never wondered where you came from? Who your parents were?”
    “Of course I wondered. But I was only fourteen when the Alliance appeared in the village I was staying in and started processing everyone.” He watched her fingers touch the scrollwork tattoo that marked her as fertile, and caught the flicker of pain and sadness in her deep green eyes. “After that, I didn’t have a home anymore, and there was no way I could risk making those kinds of inquires or talking to Alliance personnel. If I did, they would have caught me again.”
    “Fourteen? You’ve been on the run since you