Page 1 of Stron & Lyra
LYRA
“Well, have you answered him yet?”
At my sister’s grating voice, I roll my eyes. Why she’s so interested in me marrying our neighbour, I have no idea. But she’s annoying me with her questioning. Yes, he has wealth. Yes, he can help our family financially. That doesn’t mean I want to be the sacrificial lamb. If she believes he’s so great, why doesn’t SHE marry him?
Having placed the last plant in the ground, I wipe my forehead and glance up at her. She’s the oldest of us, but with thewayshe acts, you’d think she was the youngest.
“Why don’t you marry him, Trilani? I don’t want to get married. If one day I do decide to get married, then I’d like it to be to my mate. Not someone who you think can elevate our status. You’re the oldest; if you think he’s so wonderful, you do it.”
“Ugh, you and wanting a mate. It’s never going to happen. You know it. And I know it. Not while we’re stuck on this godforsaken planet,” she growls, stamping her foot. “I’d marry him, but he wants you. No idea why. You’re always covered in dirt and don’t care what you look like.”
I so badly want to roll my eyes again, but I’ve developed a headache from doing just that. Spend any time with my sister and you’ll usually end up with either a headache or eye ache from all the eye-rolling you did.
Ignoring her, I go back to planting the tender shoots that will feed us this winter. Trilani, realising she’ll not get any more from me, stomps off. Breathing a sigh of relief, I relax into the peaceful job of getting the plants bedded in. It isn’t my favourite job, but like anything on the farm my family owns, it needs to be done. Just like milking the beasts, cooking, and preserving. Some think us old-fashioned for not using the synthesiser for food, but personally, I believe we’re healthier for eating natural food.
I’m broken from my thoughts by my mother calling for me. “Lyra.”
As I get to my feet, I shade my eyes with my hand to see her better. She’s waving and motioning for me to come towards her. Waving back that I heard her, I bend to gather my tools, shoving them into the sack I use to carry them around. I know better than to leave them out in the elements. Once I’ve got them all, I heave the sack over my shoulder and trudge back to the house.
“Lyra, can you go to the market for me?” my mother is talking before I even get to her.
I place my sack at my feet and ask, “Why can’t Tri go? She’s not doing anything. I’ve still got three rows to plant.”
Mother rolls her eyes, and I stifle a laugh because it seems she’s had her fill of Tri already today.
“You know I can’t send her. She’ll spend our coin on the wrong things, and then we’ll be back to square one. I can’t go because I’ve got the miller coming to pick up the grain today, and your father and brothers are on the far side of the farm.”
I’m aware of all this, but I hate going to town. However, my mother is right. Tri will spend our coin on goods that we don’t need.
“Fine,” I grumble, going to the outdoor sink to wash up, knowing better than to walk mud into my mother’s house. I make quick work of washing up. When I’m done, I walk back to my mother and take the list from her, reading through it to see what we need. It’s mostly staples, but I’ll be able to carry them. I won’t need to take a beast.
“I’ll see you in a couple of hours,” I tell her. Kissing her cheek, I turn to leave.
“Thank you, Lyra. Be careful in town,” she warns just like she does every time one of us has to venture to it.
“I will,” I assure her as I walk away, not knowing it would be the last time I saw her or any of my family. If I’d known, I’d have taken the time to hug her one last time. Instead, I was preoccupied with the chores I still had to do and how to avoid our neighbour’s marriage proposal.
I should have paid more attention because if I had, I might have seen the slaver following me. My family was one of the few left on our planet that held the camouflage gene. Our kind had been hunted for a long time. When they captured us, they held us in laboratories and experimented on us to understand our skin’s abilities. There were very few of us left. We took great pains in hiding ourselves, and I’m not sure what I did to give myself away. Or maybe I didn’t, and someone knew about us and pointed our family out.
All I remembered was that I’d been walking past the first few vendors when I’d felt a prick and then nothing. I’d woken up in the cell aboard the slave ship. I knew they wouldn’t take me to any slave auction. No, I knew my fate, and it wasn’t pretty. Or I assumed I did until a plucky human joined us and freed us from our cells.
Somehow, five females of different species became sisters. We each had our strengths, and we used them to ensure we would survive.
Suki and I weren’t so different; we had a lot in common.
Both of us loved to cook and care for people. When Kragor took us in, that’s what we did. The five of us changed the way his tavern ran. Vena and Val belonged to his security detail, and Luna managed the business side of the tavern.
We were happy and safe for the first time in weeks.
And then the profit the tavern was making brought us to the attention of the President of the Cosmic Crows MC. Kragor was a member, but he still had to give a reason why his business was suddenly generating so much coin.
I don’t think any of us realised how that one night would change all our lives the way it did.
I certainly never expected Astronus (Stron), VP of the Cosmic Crows, to sweep me off my feet the way he did.
And I mean that literally. He swept me off my feet.
STRON
