Barbarian's Bride (Ice Planet Barbarians)

A helpless giggle escapes me, because the thought of being “better” than someone else at pregnancy is just the most ridiculous thing ever. Of course, giggling makes my back hurt and then I have to pee. It's always something when you're pregnant.

Dagesh is patient, though, helping me move around and get comfortable as the girls clean the dishes and change into their pajamas, still on their best behavior. If I wasn't so mortified at telling them “our” story, I'd use this sort of thing as bait more often, because they've really been great today. Normal days are filled with bickering and fighting over sharing, and the occasional hair pulling. Today they've been angels.

"Do not worry," my mate reassures me, brushing a kiss over my knuckles as I lie down in the furs and try to get comfortable. "You relax. I will give them a very soft story of how I saw their mother and my khui sang to her." He rubs his lips over my knuckles, a promise in his eyes. Oh yeah, the moment the kids are asleep, I am absolutely touching my mate in all kinds of filthy ways. I don't care how pregnant I am.

With that, he smiles at me and then turns to the girls. "It is late, and fierce little huntresses need their sleep. Come. Your father will tell you the story your mother promised, yes? And then you will sleep."

I've never seen the girls scramble into bed so quickly. Amused, I lie on my side, my head cradled against my arm, and watch as Dagesh tucks them with great care into their sleeping nook. He kisses their two bright heads, sits down next to them, and thinks, his tail occasionally flicking against the floor.

"When I was a young hunter, I thought I would always be alone," he begins, his voice a soothing rumble as it drifts through the hut. "My family all died long ago. My mother died not long after I was born, when the brutal season did not provide enough game for us, and she was weak with feeding me. My father died during the time of the khui sickness. I was young—about Sessah's age when he died—and for many turns of the seasons, I had no one. I lived with the unmated hunters and spent my days in the snows, hunting and tracking and surviving. I did not dare to hope for more."

His tail flicks lightly against the floor.

"And then one day, my chief Vektal returned to our cave with a scrawny female clinging to his back and said that his female had companions in need of rescue…"

I settle in to listen to his story, but my mind can't help but fill in the blanks, the parts that he leaves out, all the filthy, wonderful, sordid bits…

2

Eight Years Ago

DAGESH

I stand near the entrance to the human's strange cave and try not to be obvious as my khui hums in my chest. The song is distracting, especially since it seems to be affecting my cock. It strains against my leathers, oblivious to the tears of the females who wake up from their strange sleep to find themselves in a new world. If Vektal's new mate Shorshie is to be believed, the land they come from is nothing like this one, and it must be shocking.

Even more shocking, they will resonate the moment they receive khuis. At least one of them will. I resist the urge to rub my chest, because Vektal is peering at all of us suspiciously. I think he suspects we will carry off the females and make him look bad in front of his new mate.

I cannot carry off my female. I do not even know which one it is. They all cluster together, their scents intermingling, and it is impossible to tell which one my khui has decided is my mate. I must wait and see. I scan the strange surroundings of the strange cave that the female Shorshie says was part of a cave that fell from the sky. It looks like no cave I know of, the walls a flat, dark gray I have never seen in nature. The interior of the cave smells odd, too, as odd as the flat walls and square shape. Shorshie told Vektal that other peoples—strange-looking peoples—made this cave with their hands, but I do not believe this is true.

A cave is found. It is not made like a spear or a basket.

Despite all this strangeness, I resonated the moment the scent of the females brushed my nose. I clutch my spear and try not to stare in their direction even as I guard the entrance to the cave. The cave is set below the snow, buried deep, and the entrance is on the top instead of on the side. I am guarding to ensure that no metlaks drop inside and scare the females who are huddled on the other side of the square cave near a fire.