Free Owning His Bride by Sue Lyndon Page B

hold Becca next to him all day and never tire of it.
    Soft and warm, she snuggled up against his chest and fell fast asleep. Once her breaths slowed and deepened, he touched the scars on her thighs, trying to guess how old they were. He suspected this horror had befallen her at least a year ago, long before he’d ever been assigned to Block C, long before he’d ever glimpsed Becca.
    He drew the covers over both of them, brushed her hair behind her ears, and kissed her forehead. He’d always planned to select a bride from the prison. The laws in this sector of space did not favor women in the least, and no sane woman traveled this far from Earth all by herself. Unless he traveled to an inhabited planet closer to Earth, finding a single woman to share the rest of his life with would’ve been impossible. Though he felt certain no authorities from his home planet were looking for him, he still had no desire to venture near Earth.
    His parents had been murdered on Earth. He’d been imprisoned on Earth, spent twenty-three hours of each day for seven years straight in a dark, damp cell at a rundown correctional facility in Alaska, where all those convicted of federal offenses on American soil were sent. Most of the millions of prisoners in the cold state would never see the light of day again. He’d been lucky to have an uncle willing to pay for a good lawyer, or he would probably be locked in that cell at this very moment.
    The warden at Kemmius had reminded him of the warden in Alaska, and Hunter refused to take any shit from the man after witnessing him forcing two guards out into the cold for the night, all because one of the inmates on their block went missing for a few hours. Even though the woman was eventually found hiding in the kitchen, the guards nearly froze to death in the brutally cold Kemmius night winds.
    Hunter had immediately started spying on the warden, snapping pictures, and hacking into his computer to collect little snippets of evidence against the man the Kemmius high council had put in charge of their women’s prison. The first time the warden threatened Hunter, Hunter threatened to provide the high council with evidence of the warden’s alcohol abuse. The prison was supposed to be completely dry, and even the guards and other staff who lived there weren’t permitted to possess or consume alcohol. After this threat, the warden backed down for a few months. The next time he got in Hunter’s way, Hunter issued another threat, and so on down the line, until the warden finally realized he held no sway over Hunter.
    It disturbed him that the warden had intended to claim Becca as his bride, and it troubled him that the warden would probably select another woman from the thousands of prisoners. The man was the embodiment of evil and didn’t deserve his five-year payout, let alone a wife that he would own by law. The poor woman, whoever she might be, would be lucky to survive their wedding night.
    He looked at Becca sleeping so peacefully and made his decision. When the transport docked at the Interstellar Port, he would hand over all the evidence he had against the warden to the proper authorities. He’d placed all the evidence on a computer chip, just in case he ever needed it. According to the other guards, the previous wardens had been just as bad, if not worse, than the current one. Hunter had never turned him in as a result, thinking the enemy he knew was better than one he didn’t.
    Becca murmured something indecipherable in her sleep and rolled over, taking the covers with her. Her punished bottom peeked out from the sheets, and he reached over to caress her reddened flesh. He hadn’t told her about their impending stop at the Interstellar Port, considering her last experience there. He hoped the detour didn’t cause her too much strife, and he planned to restrict her to the transport while they were docked.
    She sighed and rolled further to the side of the bed, exposing her entire backside,