a gap in his front teeth Rasc could have put a fingertip in, had he been so inclined, and if the Farlian had ever been known to clean those teeth. Setin waggled his bushy eyebrows. Rasc regarded him for another moment before he closed his eyes again.
“Whoever you’re referring to would have to be pretty damn special to get me to get off my bed tonight, Setin, and I’m not really in the mood to meet anyone new. Thanks for thinking of me, though.”
Setin rolled his eyes and made a rude noise, blasting his fetid breath in Rasc’s face. “No, Rasc. I mean you need to see him! He just arrived on the last transport, and you’ll never guess in a million cycles who it could be.”
“Okay, I’ll take your word for it and not try to guess then,” Rasc replied in a bored tone. “Just tell me. I’m breathless with anticipation.”
“It’s that handsome colonel from Laltana. Your colonel. The one who saved us from the guard and took us to see Prince Larz. You know, the red headed one who was always staring at your ass.”
Rasc’s eyes sprang open and he sat up quickly, feeling electrified as he gripped Setin by his shirt front. “What? My colonel? What are you babbling about?”
“You know. What was his name? Oh yes, Bonnett, that’s it.”
“He’s here?”
“That’s what I’m trying to tell you! He’s just arrived. They put him in our cell block—down at the end.”
Rasc gave Setin a little shake. “Damn it, are you sure? I wasn’t expecting him until time for the extraction! What’s he doing here so soon?”
“Fuck if I know. But it’s either him or his twin brother down there. Go see for yourself—he’s just down at the end. Better hurry though before they gang up on him and eat him alive! He’s too pretty for this place, and Tio has decided he wants to fuck him.”
“What?”
Rasc jumped to his feet and ran down the damp, dim corridor between cells, surprised to find his palms damp with sweat. He hadn’t seen Colonel Bonnett since that night outside the palace, when Bonnett pushed him in that alley and held him up against the wall to suck him and make him like it. Ridiculous to have this fluttery feeling in the pit of his stomach like some teenager with his first boyfriend.
This was the oldest section of the penal colony, with thick stone walls that kept the air cooler and a bit damp. Today the temperature outside hovered around a scorching thirty-seven degrees Celsius, or, as he always had to translate it in his head, nearly a hundred fucking degrees, but now that night had fallen, it was around thirty. If he was, God forbid, still here when summer was over, he’d have to move someplace else, because this drafty cell that felt so damn good in the hot days of summertime would get cold as a mother fucker at night, and in winter time it would be unbearable.
Even his former mate, Lal-lo, had once admitted winters could be pretty severe on this planet, and getting them to say anything negative about Gatifrey had been like pulling teeth. Like all Gatifreyans, they believed theirs was the best planet in all the galaxies. They even gave Tygerians a run for their money.
He was anxious to see what the hell Setin was going on about, though. Bonnett, here? Setin must have gotten hold of some of the crazy weed, the si’karr the inmates smoked, because there had been no word from Larz since Rasc had sent a message to him about the Tygerians being on Zargoff Island. And there was no fucking way the gorgeous colonel had simply arrived here without giving them proper warning. Or was there?
A crowd had formed at the other end of the hallway, and Rasc could hear raised voices. He shoved his way through the men to get to the open door of the cell they were standing in front of and his mouth fell open when he looked inside.
Colonel Bonnett, wearing a drab, gray prison shirt with the number patch and trousers in the same color like Setin had said, was standing against the wall of his cell. He had a huge half-Lycan prisoner looming over him. The colonel was a tall man and muscular, like all Tygerians, but the Lycan had to be mixed with some abnormally large species, like the giants of Tumerode in the Andromeda Galaxy, because he was easily the biggest man in