Free Sons of Lyra: Slave Princess by Felicity Heaton Page A

He’d saved her from a beating
after all. She could have at least shown a little thanks. A smile
would have done.

    He finished checking off
the inventory while the man continued to talk about supplies. A
high pitched whine in his ear and a fizzing noise made him flinch.
He tugged the translator out and glared at it. A thin column of
smoke was coming out of the small sky blue device. He removed the
secondary device from his throat. Without the translator working to
detect the language being spoken to him, the voice alteration
system wouldn’t work—it wouldn’t be able to change what he was
saying into the appropriate language.

    The man continued to talk.
He could only pick up the occasional word. A cursory glance around
him revealed that none of his crewmen had their translators on them
and he knew none of them could speak Sekarian. He frowned as he
listened hard, trying to catch the few words he’d learned during
his tutelage on Lyra Prime. He wished his parents had let him have
the memory injection he’d wanted for his twenty-first birthday. The
knowledge of all those languages would have made his life a lot
easier.

    He tossed the broken
translator and voice alteration device over his shoulder. There was
a scuffle but he didn’t look around. Lyran technology even in its
broken state was worth a lot to the people who lived in places like
this.

    The man grinned at him,
revealing a double set of broken and black teeth. Sekarian males
really were a vulgar species—thin blue skin, rolls of fat, matted
black hair and the worst hygiene he’d ever come across. He’d hate
to see their women. He swallowed and smiled, taking the inventory
pad back but never taking his hand off his pistol. The man gestured
towards something and he looked across the cluttered low-lit room
full of ship parts to see the woman he’d helped stand. The man said
something with an ever-widening smile. He didn’t understand a word
of it. He smiled and nodded, wanting to get away and presuming the
man was saying something about the fact he’d been kind enough to
spare her a beating.

    He handed the man two gold
Lynans and then walked away, signalling for his men to join him.
The man grabbed his arm. He turned on the spot with his pistol
raised, a frown marrying his dark eyebrows. The man shook his head
and said something. He cursed the broken translator. Did he want
more money? He went to put his hand into the pouch at his waist to
get more but then stopped when the man left him. He holstered his
pistol and watched in fascination as the Sekarian grabbed the
woman’s arm and dragged her over. She struggled, whimpering and
trying to prise the man’s fingers off her.

    When the man stopped in
front of him with the woman, he didn’t know what to do or say. It
definitely wasn’t more money he wanted. He looked around him again,
desperate to find one of his crew that could understand what was
happening and wanting nothing more than to get back on the ship as
quickly as possible. All of his crew had gone off with the
supplies, leaving him alone to deal with the shop owner.

    “ I don’t
understand,” he said.

    The man grinned and lifted
the woman’s arms, prodding her curved sides and toned stomach. He
frowned when the man squeezed the woman’s breasts and the woman
hung her head forward and tried to turn away, as though ashamed.
The man muttered something and grabbed her jaw, forcing her head
up. She looked at him with emerald eyes rimmed with long dark
lashes. They would have been beautiful had there not been so much
fear and disgust in them. The man squeezed his fingers into her
cheeks, making her open her mouth. He gestured lewdly towards his
crotch and the woman snapped out of his grip. The man grabbed her
by her hair and dragged her back to him.

    He’d had about enough of
this. It was sickening to see this man parading the woman as though
she was nothing but flesh for pleasure or profit. His hand went to
his pistol.

    “ I wouldn’t