Barbarian's Taming: A SciFi Alien Romance (Ice Planet Barbarians Book 9)
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She whimpers, sliding to her knees. “Should we? The metlaks—”
“Cannot get here. They are far behind.” Far enough, at least. I lock an arm behind her legs and one behind her back, maneuvering her onto the ground. The moment her yellow mane spreads out in the snow, I pull at her leggings, dragging them down her hips. I am desperate for her. The resonance hums through me, its song more powerful than anything I have ever imagined. How do others fight this? I cannot take another step without pleasuring my Mah-dee. I will die if I do not have her now.
I ache to bury myself inside her, and war between tasting her sweet folds or pushing myself deep into her and feeling the tight grip of her cunt around me. Has it been hours since we last mated? It feels far too long. It feels like forever.
Mah-dee’s soft moan of need decides for me. I must pleasure my mate. Now.
I push her legs into the air, using the leather of her leggings as a handhold. Her thighs spread before me, damp and flushed a delicate, soft pink. Between them, her cunt gleams wet for me. For me. I growl with pleasure and bury my face there. She squeals with surprise, and I feel the tremor moving through her body when my tongue drags over her folds. The taste of her has never been more delicious. Ravenous, I brace my arm on her thighs and redouble my efforts, pleasuring her with my mouth and my tongue. She cries out and wiggles against me, muttering things like fuck and yes and you nasty thing and just like that. All the while, her juices run down her thighs and over my tongue, and the resonance in her chest sings as loudly as mine.
“Even your cunt tastes sweeter,” I rasp between hard, insistent laps of my tongue. “How is this possible?”
“Don’t know,” she chokes out. Her hands wrap around one of my horns, and she pushes my face further into her cunt. “Don’t care. Just…keep…going.”
An easy task—I am ravenous for her. I push my tongue into her core, stroking it in and out as if it were my cock. She cries out, and her thighs quiver against my arm.
“My clit,” she demands.
I push my tongue into her again, and move my hand between her thighs. I rest my thumb on her third nipple and rub it as I drive deep.
She screams, clutching at my horns, and I feel her cunt quiver tight, trying to lock around me. The need to be inside her grows unbearable, and I snarl as I push my leathers down, releasing my aching cock. When I sit up, she cries out in protest, but then I am sinking into her, and her protest chokes into another moan of my name. Being inside her, resonating? My eyes close. There is no sweeter pleasure. I grip her hip with one hand and thrust deep.
This is my home. Mah-dee is my home. Here, inside her cunt, it is where I belong. I pump into her again and feel the walls of her tighten around me, holding me like a fist. I want to thrust into her forever, to feel the slick channel of her along my cock, but resonance is overwhelming me. I feel my sac tighten, and then I am exploding into her with wild thrusts, pumping her full of my seed as it pours forth with brutal intensity. She whimpers my name, her cunt clenching tight, as I thrust into her over and over and over again.
Even when I am spent, my seed slicking out of her and down her thighs as I pull my cock free, I am still hard. Still resonating with need. I rub at my humming chest, both pleased and a little alarmed at the fact that I could take her again even now. And again.
And possibly again, over and over for the next few hours. Or days. No wonder Rokan did not emerge from his cave with Li-lah for days. The resonance need is overwhelming.
“Okay.” Mah-dee slides her legs together slowly, her movements languid. “I can’t believe we just did that.”
“Resonance? It is my heart’s greatest desire.”
“No, you big goof.” She props up on her elbows. “I can’t believe you just threw me down in the snow and nailed me. And it was awesome.” She glances up at the steep cliffs overhead. “You don’t think the metlak are still watching us, do you? That might put a damper on the memories.”
I shake my head. “They give up on their prey easily.” I move over to her side and pull her against me, tucking her body against my chest. “Unlike me.”
She snorts, sliding a hand under my vest and stroking my back. My khui immediately begins to hum loudly, and I feel my need for her rising again. “All of this was just…unexpected,” Mah-dee tells me. “I never thought…”
“All of the other humans have resonated.” I hold her tighter to me, imagining if she had resonated to someone else. The thought makes me want to tear out the throat of anyone who so much as looks at her. Mine.
“Yeah, but I’m not exactly…the mom type.” She shivers against me, and her hands go still. “Do you think we just made a baby?”
“Not yet.” Not if my need is any indication. I still hunger for her just as much. I am not sated in the slightest.
“But that’s how this works, right? We resonate until there’s a kid?” She sounds worried. “I don’t know about the timing here…”
“Because I am exiled?” It hurts me to think that she might be disappointed.
Mah-dee punches my side. “No, you dummy. Because we’re all exiled. Everyone’s homeless. It’s not just you. It’s all of us. You can’t be exiled from the cave—there is no more cave.” She presses her cheek against my chest, and her leg twines around mine, a movement that makes my cock ache with the need to bury myself inside her again. “I just…don’t want to be a burden in a time when everyone’s going to pull their weight. I don’t know if you have noticed, but I have a bit more weight than most.”
Her words make no sense. “Your weight is nothing to be ashamed of.”
“Isn’t it?”
I look down at her face. Is she mad? “You are sturdy. You are strong. You are healthy. Why should I care?”
“Um, because it takes more to feed me? Because I require more leather than Josie for a new tunic?”
She is mad. “Jo-see eats more than two humans. Does that mean we should get rid of her?”
“Well, no—”
“And Farli will soon be taller than all of the human females. Should we get rid of her?”
“Now you’re just splitting hairs—”
“I love your sturdy human body,” I tell her, leaning down to kiss her pink mouth. “I love your soft thighs that wobble when I sink into you. I love your big teats that bounce when my cock is inside you. These things change nothing. If you were Jo-see’s size, I would care for you in the same way I do now.”
“That’s good, because I’m pretty sure I’ll never be Josie’s size.” She is smiling as she looks up at me. “I’m pretty sure one of my boobs is bigger than her head.”
“It just means you will be able to feed our kit much milk.”
“I’m pretty sure boob size doesn’t have anything to do with milk production, but okay.” Her arms go around my neck, and she looks up at me with big, worried eyes. “I’m still not sure how I feel about being a parent. Half the time I’m not even sure I can take care of myself.”
“I will be with you,” I tell her. “We will do it together.”
“We’d freaking better!”
I roll her onto her back again, parting her thighs. Her khui begins to sing louder. The question in her gaze is silenced as I rub the head of my cock along her drenched cunt and then push into her.
“Again?” she asks weakly, and I can feel her body quiver deep.
“Again,” I agree. “Over and over again, for the rest of our days.”
Then she says something about Jay-sus and a wheel before her legs go around my hips once more.
15
MADDIE
I’m kind of an impulsive girl at heart, but after four rounds in the snow, I pat my new ‘mate’ on the back and tell him we need to get moving. My leathers are wet from the snow, I’m cold, and I’m getting hungry. I’m still horny—thanks, cootie—but I’d also like a fire before nightfall.
Hassen helps me fix my clothing and takes an extra fur out of his pack, bundling it tight around me. He steals a few kisses as
Great, now I sound like one of the aliens.
I press a hand over the purring in my breast. It’s so strange. I thought it might feel weird, but it’s kind of comforting, actually. And the sex? Okay, the sex is off the charts. Maybe the timing on the whole resonance thing could have been better, but I don’t think I’d ever be one of those who sit down and say “Yes, I’m ready to be a mom.”
Then again, resonating to each other when we’re in danger and homeless? Still could be improved.
“You are quiet,” Hassen says, bending down to fix my boots. “Do you have regrets?”
He keeps asking me things like that, and it makes my heart ache every time. Does he think he’s such a terrible person to be mated to? That I’m going to wish I wasn’t mated to him? “Not a one. I’d choose you over anyone else in the tribe any day.”
Hassen rises to his feet, a hint of worry on his face. “And your sister?”
“She’ll deal. I don’t think she hates you, big guy. I just think she didn’t want to be your girlfriend.” I smile up at him. “Which is good, because this would be kind of gross otherwise.”
“The thought of mating with your sister makes me ill.”
“Good.”
“To think I came so close to making a mistake…” He pulls me against him in a swift hug. “I am glad it is you, Mah-dee.”
“I’m glad it’s me, too.” I squeeze him back and then peer down the winding path in the crevasse. “You think we’ll find a way out down this way? Or are we going to have to go back?”
“There is one way to check.” He pauses and looks at me. “Do I need to carry you?”
“What? Why?”
“Because you are weak from mating? I have felt your legs trembling each time I pushed into you.”
“Oh my god. No dirty talk while I’m trying to be serious, please.” I press my knees tight together because just hearing that is turning me on. “And I can walk. I’ll let you know if that changes.”
He takes my hand in his and holds me tight. He does take my pack from my back, and I let him, because I am a little tired, if I’m admitting it to myself. Being boned within an inch of your life by a seven-foot-tall blue dude taxes the stamina, all right. But I’m not complaining.
The gorge we’re in widens the farther in we go. The area we dropped in was maybe twenty feet across. Here, it could be a hundred. “And all of this has never been here before?” I ask him.
Hassen shakes his head. “The earth-shake has opened the land.”
“Or maybe this was under the ice all this time and the ice was just too thick?” There’s very little snow dusting the path down here, and it feels weird to imagine all of this just magically appearing.
“Perhaps.” He steps ahead of me, just a little, and grips his spear in his other hand. “We will be cautious in case there is more ice.”
Oh, I don’t like to think about that. If we fall through a second layer of ice even deeper, I don’t know how we’re ever going to get out. I gaze up at the steep canyon walls. I’m not exactly sure how we’re going to get out of here as it is if the metlaks are still back there, but one thing at a time. Hassen won’t let anything happen to me…or our baby.
I touch my stomach. A baby. Holy crapping balls. I’m terrified and excited at the same time. Even more immediate and wonderful, though, is that I have Hassen. We’re mated—both at a physical and spiritual level. Our bodies know we’re meant to be together. I’m not alone anymore, and neither is he. I’m in awe.
I might also be a little high on endorphins, but whatever.
“So do you want a boy or a girl?” I ask him as we walk. I have to admit I’m not paying attention to our surroundings—snow and rock, rock and snow—as much as I am watching his profile like some sort of dreamy teen girl. He’s really the handsomest guy on the planet. My cootie is smart.
“I would be happy with either. All I want is for our kit to be healthy…and to look like you,” he adds after a moment. “But if I choose, I would choose a girl.”
“Oh? Don’t most guys want a son that takes after them?”
His thumb strokes my knuckles as we walk, distracting me. I can hear the purring in his chest almost as loud as mine, and I’m wondering if this means we’re about to have round number five in the snow. I doubt we’ve even walked a mile yet…but I’m kinda okay with that. “I would like a girl,” he tells me, pulling me from my dirty thoughts. “Because our tribe has had so few for so long. I would like others to experience the joy I am feeling at this moment.” He glances over at me. “And I would like for her to have your yellow mane.”
“I’m both flattered and a little appalled that you want our baby to look like me and yet you’re ready to give her away to some guy before she’s even a cell in my womb.”
“Not just anyone,” he tells me, footsteps crunching in the snow as we walk. “He would have to prove himself worthy of her. And if he is half as lazy as Taushen, I will knock him upside the head with my spear.”
I giggle. That’s more like it. “Is Taushen lazy, then?”
He scowls. “He is young and would rather spend time talking to Farli than check his nets.”
So basically he’s like every other teenage boy. I smile to myself. “Let’s get back to our baby. What kind of names do you like?”
“Whatever you want to call her. Since the human females have arrived, my people have been combining names.” He pauses in his steps, a frown on his face.
I pause, too, content to be at his side while we take a small break. I’m thinking about names, mentally twining them. “Like Madsen? Or Hassie? I gotta admit that I’m not a big fan of Hassie, and my real name is Madeline, not Maddie, so I guess that changes things—”
“A ship.”
It takes me a moment to realize he’s not suggesting we name our daughter Ass-hip but is saying a ship. “What do you mean, a ship?”
He points ahead, an incredulous look on his face. “There is a ship down here.”
The hairs on my neck prickle. I still don’t know what he’s talking about, so I look to where he’s pointing. I see nothing but rocks up ahead, and there’s no sign of alien spacecraft. All I see is more stone, a fine layer of ice covering the portion of the cliff that he is pointing at.
Then, I see it.
Not a ship, of course. I think his barbarian mind hears the word ‘ship’ and assumes ‘cave’ or ‘place where people live’ because it’s not a ship. It’s stone, but it’s neatly stacked, square stone that curves along the cliff wall and more trailing along the curve in the path ahead. It reminds me of one of those Indiana Jones movies where the hero looks up and sees the entrance to a forgotten city in the jungle.
Except this isn’t a jungle. It’s an alien planet. And I didn’t think anyone lived here but us.
16
MADDIE
It’s so weird to round the corner in what is an uninhabited crevasse on a deserted, icy planet populated with nothing but other crash-landed aliens…and realize that there was someone else here before you.
Long, long before you.
I reach out and touch one of the even, neatly stacked stones that make up the crumbled wall. At my feet are more even stones, covered by a thin layer of ice and debris. Cobblestones. These stones stretch ahead, and as I let my gaze move, I see more stones, more cobbled road…and then ahead, I see buildings.
Tucked against the walls of the crevasse are a bunch of squat, stone buildings. They’re square and even, lining a street, and if I ever had any doubt that this stuff was man-(or alien-)made, those have been firmly put aside. Someone lived here. Someone lived here a long time ago…or is living here now.
“This isn’t a ship,” I tell Hassen. “It’s a city.”
He frowns, trying to digest this word. “It is a place that people live? Like a tribal cave, but in the open?”
“Right.”
A tribal cave in the open is right on the money. It’s not a city like I know of, with skyscrapers and suburbs. This is a Paleolithic city of some kind, tucked along the walls of the rocky canyon. The cobbled road underneath my feet stretches out and leads to neat rows of small, squatty-looking brick buildings with no roofs. They’re square and set in neat rows along the streets, almost as if someone took a grid and placed them all exactly where they needed to be. The size of each one is uniform, about as big as a bedroom back at home, and farther down the street, the buildings get bigger, one the size of a house. Still no roof, though.
It’s all very strange. It’s like all the roofs disappeared and so…everyone left? But that makes no sense.
“I don’t know that anyone is here.” I don’t see anyone moving around, and the feeling I get is one of…stillness. Quiet. Emptiness. In a place this big, surely it would have some noise. I stop in my tracks and start counting buildings.
I stop when I get to forty, because, okay, that’s a lot of buildings. There’s more than that, but it tells me plenty—this was a settlement of some kind. Is a settlement. “Could it be…metlaks?”
At my side, Hassen makes a sound of disgust. “They do not create things. They do not live in ships.”
“Cities.”
“Cities,” he amends.
“And your people didn’t build this?”
“If they did, would they not live here?”
Yeah, I guess they would. It doesn’t seem natural to leave behind a perfectly good city. “So where did they go? Unless they’re here and we can’t see them.” I think of the metlaks that were stalking us earlier, and draw a little closer to Hassen, spooked.
“There are no tracks,” he tells me, gesturing at the path before us, then turning and waving a hand at the trail we’ve left behind us. “If there were people, we would see traces of them.”
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