Bound Hearts [Breed Assassins 2] (Siren Publishing: The Lynn Hagen ManLove Collection) Read online

  Breed Assassins 2

  Bound Hearts

  After discovering his true identity, Thoran learns that he has a sister who was kidnapped ten years ago. When he travels to Crossover, his only intention is to gain information on her whereabouts, but fate has other plans. Thoran remembers a man from years before, a man he has never even spoken to but can't get out of his mind. When he finds out that Eaton has been sold to the local brothel by his very own father, Thoran mounts a rescue.

  Eaton thinks his life is over. His father has sold him in order to pay back taxes on their blacksmith business. There is no hope. Or so he thought until a gorgeous Breed Assassin rescues him.

  As the Breed Assassins search for Thoran's sister, Thoran must confront his own personal demons and decide how far he wants to go in order to give Eaton the one thing he truly desires. To be owned by Thoran.

  Genre: Alternative (M/M or F/F), Futuristic, Paranormal, Science Fiction, Shape-Shifter, Vampires/Werewolves

  Length: 34,768 words

  BOUND HEARTS

  Breed Assassins 2

  Lynn Hagen

  THE LYNN HAGEN

  MANLOVE COLLECTION

  Siren Publishing, Inc.

  www.SirenPublishing.com

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  A SIREN PUBLISHING BOOK

  IMPRINT: The Lynn Hagen ManLove Collection

  BOUND HEARTS

  Copyright © 2014 by Lynn Hagen

  E-book ISBN: 978-1-63258-033-7

  First E-book Publication: July 2014

  Cover design by Emma Nicole

  All art and logo copyright © 2014 by Siren Publishing, Inc.

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED: This literary work may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, including electronic or photographic reproduction, in whole or in part, without express written permission.

  All characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is strictly coincidental.

  PUBLISHER

  Siren Publishing, Inc.

  www.SirenPublishing.com

  Letter to Readers

  Dear Readers,

  If you have purchased this copy of Bound Hearts by Lynn Hagen from BookStrand.com or its official distributors, thank you. Also, thank you for not sharing your copy of this book.

  Regarding E-book Piracy

  This book is copyrighted intellectual property. No other individual or group has resale rights, auction rights, membership rights, sharing rights, or any kind of rights to sell or to give away a copy of this book.

  The author and the publisher work very hard to bring our paying readers high-quality reading entertainment.

  This is Lynn Hagen’s livelihood. It’s fair and simple. Please respect Ms. Hagen’s right to earn a living from her work.

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  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  About the Author

  BOUND HEARTS

  Breed Assassins 2

  LYNN HAGEN

  Copyright © 2014

  Chapter One

  “I hate it here,” Thoran said into the darkness as he lay there in bed.

  “It isn’t so bad,” Dax said. “At least we have a warm place to sleep.”

  Thoran didn’t agree. He was only five years old and was being forced to train like a grown man. Something inside of him told him this wasn’t right. Although Kayden, Dax, Logan, and Nyk were the only kids he’d ever been around, Thoran felt like there was so much more out there.

  The dark room always scared Thoran. He hated when the guards turned the lights out at night. He couldn’t even see his hand in front of his face. If it wasn’t for the fact that he could hear Dax breathing from one bed over, he would think he was all alone. “Do you ever wish you had a mommy?”

  He had been told that his mommy hadn’t wanted him. Draven told him that his mommy had sold him to someone on a planet named Colossus. His heart ached for a woman he didn’t even know. All he ever wanted was a family. Thoran lay awake many nights imagining what his mommy would look like. Did she have the same brown hair as him, or the same green eyes? He bet she had the most beautiful laugh. Thoran’s chest felt tight as he turned over.

  Even though it was pitch black in the room, he didn’t want the other boys to see his tears.

  “No,” Dax finally said. “I try not to think about a mommy.”

  “Why?”

  “Because it hurts when I do.”

  Thoran knew how that felt. He didn’t understand any of this. He had been in a nursery up until a week ago. The nurses hadn’t been mean to him, but he never felt like he belonged. The nurses hadn’t hugged him. They treated him like they were just there to make sure he didn’t get hurt and was fed.

  Draven had told Thoran that he was very smart for a child his age. But Thoran didn’t want to be smart.

  He wanted a mommy.

  “We’ll get grown up and find one,” Nyk promised from two cots over. “I want one who can bake cookies.”

  “I want one who plays with me all day,” Thoran said. It might hurt to think about it, but Thoran couldn’t stop himself from wishing. “I hate training.”

  “What about you, Kayden?” Dax asked. “Don’t you want a mommy?”

  “No,” Kayden replied. His bed was the farthest away, on the opposite side of the room. Thoran didn’t understand why Kayden’s bed wasn’t with theirs.

  “Why?” Thoran asked.

  There was a soft rustle and Thoran knew Kayden was turning over. “Go to sleep, Thoran, and forget your stupid dream of having a mommy or any family.”

  Thoran fell silent, wrapping his blanket tightly around him, trying to chase away his fear of the darkness as he dreamed of a family he could call his own.

  * * * *

  Twenty-three years later…

  “Why didn’t you tell me I had a sister?” Thoran asked as he walked into the room Matista was lounging in. He’d been here a month and a half and she hadn�
�t said a word. It was one of the servants who had tipped his ear.

  Matista unfolded her legs and sat up, dabbing at the misty tears in her eyes. “It’s so difficult for me emotionally to think about her and your parents. Nyda was kidnapped ten years ago. We have searched everywhere.” His aunt held her hand to her breast and Thoran could see the tears finally falling.

  Thoran and his cousins—along with Dax—had been led to believe that they were orphans, discarded by their parents. Only recently had they learned the truth, that they’d been kidnapped from Sator as infants. Although Dax was the son of a servant woman who’d worked in the palace at the time, Thoran still considered the man family. Nothing would ever change that.

  “We spent years and a lot of resources, but we never found any trace of where you or the others were.” She walked over to the grand fireplace. “And to think all this time you and the others have been two planets away.” The anger was sharp and evident in her voice. “And when Nyda was taken, your uncle sent every man he had to search for her. But it was like she’d vanished into thin air.”

  “No trace?” Thoran asked. His head was reeling. He’d never known he had a sister. But then again, he’d been kidnapped when he was a mere five months old.

  Her blue-green eyes dropped as she shook her head. “No.”

  Thoran had no idea what his sister looked like, but there was no way he could sit on his ass while she was still out there somewhere. He had to find her and bring her home where she belonged. The problem was, Thoran didn’t know where to start looking. “I have to find her.”

  Thoran, Nyk, Logan, and Dax had agreed to start their own freighting company. They all felt like they didn’t belong here. They’d grown up in a training facility. The luxuries now at their disposal were foreign to them. Thoran would rather be up in space where he felt at home.

  But a sister.

  This changed a lot of things.

  Matista smiled as she turned, but Thoran saw something strange pass through her eyes. Before he could pin down what it was, the emotion was gone. “How can you find her after all these years? I think it best you stay here, where you’re safe.”

  “I don’t want to be safe,” Thoran argued. “I want to find Nyda. With or without your consent, I’m going after her.”

  Matista twisted her lips to the side and then nodded. “Very well. I will give you a ship to use in your search.”

  She pulled something from her robe and handed it to Thoran. It was a photograph of a beautiful young girl with bright blue eyes and long, silky black hair that wound down her back in ringlets. “How old is she now?”

  “Sixteen.” Matista curled her fingers around Thoran’s wrists. “I’m sorry that your parents were killed searching for her. They would have been proud of the man you’ve grown into.”

  Thoran remembered the day he and the other Breed Assassins arrived here. He had watched as Matista hugged her long-lost son, weeping openly at his return. Thoran had no one to welcome him home. His dream of having a mother would never be fulfilled. His parents were dead and his sister was missing.

  He still had his cousins—who, until recently, he had thought of as just close friends. But that wasn’t the same as being enveloped into a loving mother’s arms. The ache in Thoran’s chest grew as he stared at Nyda’s pert nose and delicate chin.

  “I’m going to ask Kayden to go with me,” Thoran said. He needed his team. This was what they were trained to do. They would have to be extremely careful considering there was a hearty bounty on each of their heads. But nothing short of death was going to stop him from finding his baby sister. He knew Kayden had planned on staying on Sator. The Breed Assassin was going to be a father soon. He felt guilty for even considering asking Kayden to help him, but Thoran was desperate to have a family of his own, even if it consisted of his sister.

  It was more than he’d ever had—excluding his brethren. A sister would help ease the ache he held inside of him at the loss of his mother.

  “Must he go?” Matista asked, and Thoran could hear the desperation in her voice. “His mate is with child and I just got him back.”

  “I have to go,” Kayden said as he strode into the room and nodded at Thoran.

  “Why?” Matista asked her son.

  “Because Thoran is my brother and there is nothing I wouldn’t do for him.”

  “He is your cousin,” Matista corrected as she moved closer. “Your brother is Katino.”

  Kayden and Thoran locked eyes and the bond they shared passed between them. “When you’ve been through what we’ve been through, it forges you into brothers.”

  Thoran thought Matista would argue further. She was dead set against any of them leaving. But she quieted and then nodded as if she understood. Thoran could see the defeat in her blue-green eyes. “I’ll make sure Jade is well taken care of,” she said.

  Kayden took the woman’s hands and kissed her knuckles. “I promise to return before the birth of my child.”

  “Then you better go,” Matista insisted. “You don’t have much time.”

  When Kayden cut his eyes to Thoran, he knew the man was reluctant to tell Jade that he was leaving. Jade was going to have a fit. Thoran started to tell Kayden to stay behind and be with his family, but he knew the man too damn well. Kayden wasn’t going to listen. A brother was in need and nothing was going to sway him to stay behind.

  “I’ll meet you in the bay in an hour,” Kayden said before he left the room.

  Thoran hugged his aunt. “Thank you for helping.”

  “Just stay safe. I want all of you back here. Understand?”

  Thoran nodded. “We leave as a unit and we’ll return as one.” He left, going to pack and tell the others they had a mission. Dax was still trying to hack into the Empire’s computer system to find out why the Constantine Empire was after them, but so far that man had had no luck.

  An hour later, all five men were in the bay. But so was Jade.

  “I still don’t like this,” Jade said. He stood there wearing loose, vibrant robes, but Thoran could see the swell of the man’s stomach. There were times when Thoran couldn’t help but stare. It only reminded him of the life he’d been cheated out of, and bitterness began to build inside of him. If it was the last thing he did, Thoran was going to make those responsible for his loss pay.

  Kayden kissed his mate, promising to return safe and sound. Thoran was a bit surprised when Jade walked over and hugged him. “I hope you find your sister.”

  “Don’t forget you promised to name the babe after me.”

  Jade rolled his eyes. “I was under duress. You can’t hold me to that.”

  “I saved your ass back at those cabins,” he teased.

  “No, the guards did.” Jade bit his lower lip, looked over his shoulder at Kayden, and then whispered, “The baby’s middle name will be Thoran. Happy?”

  “Yep.”

  One of the guards escorted Jade back inside as the five of them boarded the shuttle. They headed out into the silence of space. “I think we should start on Colossus,” Thoran said. Colossus was a black market planet where anything could be bought, including information. He hated the planet with a passion because of his childhood, but had never steered clear of the place.

  He couldn’t. From their first mission, the Breed Assassins had used this planet as a source of supplies and intel. He just had to swallow the bile that rose to the back of his throat any time they went near the place.

  “I have a friend—”

  “Oh, no,” Thoran cut Kayden off. “The last time you had a friend, he ratted you out to King Arador and nearly got us all arrested.”

  King Arador ruled the planet Synia. It was a planet Kayden had been told he belonged to. King Arador had outlawed homosexuality and Kayden’s friend had turned Kayden in after learning that Jade was pregnant.

  The lie Kayden was told was a hell of a lot better than the lie Thoran had been given. He’d been told that he was a bastard child that was sold on Colossus before being a
bandoned on Talus—the planet he had grown up on with his cousins.

  He had thought his entire life that his mother had been a worthless whore who hadn’t wanted him. The bitterness of that lie ate away at Thoran. He wanted revenge. His parents were dead and he’d been robbed of the chance to get to know them and the truth of what his mother was really like.

  “Everything okay?” Dax asked as he took a seat next to Thoran. “You look like you’re ready to skewer someone.”

  “Did Matista tell you what happened to your family?” Thoran asked. Thoran had learned that his family, along with Nyk and Logan’s, had lived outside the palace. Many people had died twenty-five years ago when the war between the Synians and Satorians had been waged. From what Matista had told him, an army unit had infiltrated the palace where the boys were being kept for safekeeping and seized the opportunity to kidnap the boys and sell them as slaves. But Thoran hadn’t yet learned what had become of Dax’s family, who’d lived in the palace servant quarters when Dax was a baby.

  “Honestly?” Dax asked as he glanced at the other men sitting further away. “She told me that my mother was still alive, but wasn’t ready to see me.”

  Thoran was blown away by Dax’s confession. What mother wouldn’t want to see a child that was taken from her? He didn’t ask because he could see the pain etched in the man’s face. It seemed their homecoming wasn’t what any of them had expected.

  Truth be told, Thoran hadn’t even been sure what to expect. The older he’d gotten, the less he’d dreamt of a mother or any kind of family. He’d resigned himself to being alone for the rest of his life—no family, no children. It was better that way. With no one to love, life was less complicated. The only people he cared about were the men he’d trained with.