Free Daughters of Lyra: Heart of a Mercenary by Felicity Heaton Page A

Lyran military.

    “ Miali!” One of
the males grinned and came rushing towards her. The other rolled
his eyes and walked.

    “ Aksel,” Miali
gasped moments before she was wrapped in the male’s
arms.

    Kosen’s blood boiled at
seeing the man handle her so familiarly. If he wasn’t one of her
brothers then Kosen was going to kill him.

    It was a strange feeling,
as violent as others he’d had since meeting her. For some reason,
he needed to protect her, to keep her shut away from other males.
It all clicked into place in his mind. He really did like her, more
than he had thought. He liked her enough that he had attacked
Sasue, a man easily able to kill him, and he was considering
attacking both of these Lyran males at the same time.

    “ Miali,” the
other man said in an official and somewhat displeased
tone.

    Her smile fell off her
face and the man she had called Aksel put her down.

    Miali lowered her head as
though in shame. “Taelis.”

    “ Come Taelis,
show her a little affection. Be pleased that your rigorous and
ridiculous training served her well and she was able to escape.”
Aksel slapped the other man on the back.

    Kosen decided that they
had to be her brothers. No man unrelated to the one she had called
Taelis would dare slap him.

    Taelis gave Aksel a
thunderous look and then patted Miali’s cheek. “Mother was having
Snrikiks over this. She’s had father flying around half the galaxy
looking for you. I am glad that you were able to
escape.”

    Miali cringed. “I didn’t
do it alone, or use anything that you taught me.”

    Kosen stepped back and the
two males’ eyes immediately locked onto him. Perhaps moving had
been a bad idea.

    “ Miali,” Taelis
said and stepped up to her. “You appear to have a young man with
you.”

    She grinned but it looked
more like a grimace to Kosen. Kosen smiled and then backed off
another step when the two men frowned.

    “ A young
Minervan man,” Aksel said and then his eyes narrowed with a sly
smile. “Don’t tell me that he helped you... that you and
he—”

    “ Brother!”
Miali shouted and slapped him hard enough that the sound echoed
through the docking bay. When her hand fell away from Aksel’s face,
there was a bright red mark on it.

    “ What in
Iskara’s name is happening here?” Another male voice joined them
and this one held such a note of authority that Kosen’s palms
sweated.

    When the two males in
front of him parted to reveal the owner of the voice and they
saluted, Kosen made a small whimpering noise in his
throat.

    He knew about the sons of
Lyra.

    Only one had a cybernetic
arm that could easily crush a man’s throat.

    Why did that one have to
be her father?

    “ Father!” Miali
bounded over to him and threw herself into his arms. “You were
cutting it close.”

    The captain’s handsome
face shifted into a wide smile as he held her and then set her back
down on her feet.

    A cold trickle of sweat
eased down Kosen’s spine and he considered running for it but
didn’t think he would get very far with Miali’s two brothers only
feet from him.

    “ We have the
men who kidnapped you,” her father said and looked her over. “Did
they hurt you?”

    “ No... Erm,
father?”

    Kosen prayed that she
wasn’t about to point the man in his direction. If only he could
fade into the darkness and disappear. He had never had to face
something as terrible as this. The moment this man realised who he
was and what he had done to his daughter, he was going to crush him
like a bug.

    “ Miali has a
lover.” Aksel grinned.

    The heat drained from
Kosen in a flash, leaving him cold and numb.

    “ What?” he said
at exactly the same time as Miali, Taelis and her
father.

    Aksel’s face blanched too
as all eyes came to rest on him and his father stormed towards
him.

    “ A lover?” her
father said, face dark.

    “ Wait wait
wait,” Miali chanted, her cheeks bright red.

    Kosen held his hands up
when her father diverted his