Daughters of Lyra: Heart of a Mercenary Read Free Page B

They
needed her to behave herself. Normally, they had weeks to break a
captive’s spirits. This time they had barely days.

    “ Not all.
Some,” he said and her focus fell to the floor.

    A string of perfect
Minervan swearwords issued from her lips. His left eyebrow rose.
She knew his language. He reminded himself that she had been an
ambassador. It shouldn’t be so surprising that she would be
educated and would know some of the primary languages of the
galaxy.

    Kosen frowned when her
hair suddenly flattened.

    She hadn’t moved but it
had. Was there something about her that their contact hadn’t
mentioned? Kosen went over to her and brushed his fingers through
the long silver locks of her hair, studying them and ignoring how
she flinched away. There was definitely something different about
her. He had never seen a Lyran with silver hair before. The contact
had only told them that she was beautiful and Lyran. When they had
seen a picture, her silver hair hadn’t been evident. They had only
seen her beauty and had immediately agreed a cut of her sale price
with their contact, knowing that this time they would make a
fortune.

    A Lyran with silver hair
though.

    Something about that
didn’t seem right.

    Kosen looked closer. She
hadn’t altered its colour. She was naturally silver haired. It
would definitely add to her price. He combed his fingers through it
and when he touched her cheek, her hair moved again, the tips of it
shifting as though a breeze had caught them.

    When he went to touch her
hair, she spat in his face and lunged forwards, attempting to bite
him. He leapt backwards to avoid her teeth and glared at her as he
wiped the spit from his face. She was a passionate one. Nostra
would probably have to gag her at the auction. With a mouth like
hers, she was likely to lower her price by swearing or attempting
to bite anyone who tried to inspect her.

    “ Don’t touch
me,” she growled and glared back at him. “Murderer.
Minervan.”

    The way that she had said
those two words together made them sound as though they were the
same to her.

    They were definitely going
to need to think things through before they reached the auction.
She might be worth a fortune, but she could easily lower her price.
Kosen sat back down on the crate and studied her closely. She
glared at him, her eyes never leaving his face even as his roamed
her body. Nostra was right to take a risk on her, but the fight had
damaged their ship and now they all had blood on their hands.
Before now, he hadn’t needed to kill anyone. It had brought back
memories of that night and the nightmare returned each time that he
tried to sleep. He relived every moment in vivid detail, a strange
combination of that night, killing the other passengers on her
vessel and of her.

    “ If you eat, I
can leave.” He offered the pack to her again and she looked as
though she was considering it.

    “ If you leave,
will another come?”

    She was wary too.
Intelligent. She was clearly thinking ahead and concerned that
another with a more sinister objective than his one of feeding her
might come along should he leave.

    “ No one damages
the merchandise,” he said, flat and emotionless. “It’s something
we’ve all agreed to and the punishment is severe enough to make us
all think twice.”

    “ Severe?” she
said with a little frown.

    He made a chopping motion
with his fingers.

    Her eyes
widened.

    The threat of having their
sexual organs cut off should they lower a slave’s value by any
means seemed enough to stop most from trying to get physical with
one. Most. Not all.

    “ Now eat,” he
said and held the pack out to her.

    She looked at her hands
and smiled politely. “I am afraid I cannot.”

    He ripped the pack open
with his teeth, stepped up close to her, and pressed the opening
against her lips.

    “ Eat.”

    She opened her mouth. A
strange jolt rocked Kosen when her tongue peeked out to touch the
protein pack. It disappeared back into