Barbarian's Bride (Ice Planet Barbarians)

The moment my female has her khui, she is mine to claim.

I fall back, letting the others rush the creature, and pretend to circle wide. In truth, I just want to be nearer to No-rah. I am grateful when Vektal flips atop the sa-kohtsk and dispatches it with a well-timed stab to the eye, slicing into the brain. The thing crumples and one of the hunters lets up a cheer.

I rub my chest as Zolaya comes over to me, frowning. "Are you well, brother?"

"I have never been better," I admit. The females are moving, and I want to watch them as they approach the sa-kohtsk. Even now, the others are gathering around it to crack open the ribs and give the females the gift of life. They must hurry, because the khuis will fade and die if we take too long, but the females are in sorry shape. Some of them can barely move, and I jog over to help, only to have Aehako stop me with a shake of his head.

"Give them a moment to breathe, my friend," he says in a low voice. "Your khui will wait a bit longer."

So he knows I have resonated, then. Or he's guessed.

I clench my jaw and glance over at the females. "I did not know it would feel like this," I admit to him, pacing. "I am going mad with it."

"How does it feel?" he asks. There is such curiosity in him. He studies me with fascination, leaning over to examine me as if he is looking for changes. "Like you drank too much sah-sah? Is your cock hard all the time?"

I shove his shoulder when he leans in close, as if he is trying to listen to my chest. "Do not ask me about my cock and then try to press against me, idiot."

Aehako just laughs, delighted at my response. "I merely wish to know how it feels. Mine is silent." He taps his chest. "Come and listen. My chest is as empty as Cashol's head."

I tug the additional layers of furs off and toss them to the snowy ground. It is far too warm to wander about covered up like a metlak, and it does no good anyhow. If Aehako has discovered my secret, he will have told half the hunting party at this point. There are very few secrets amongst our people. "I know what a silent khui is like. Mine has been just as silent as yours through all these many seasons." I rub my chest, because my khui still sings wildly, reminding me that my mate is near. "It is very…distracting, though."

"Which is why you almost let a sa-kohtsk step on you," Aehako agrees. "Your mind is not in your head at the moment. It is in your loincloth."

He is not wrong. I resist the urge to rub my cock—not because I cannot control myself but because I am very…aware of it right now. I am very aware of the blood pumping through my veins, of the breeze that makes my loincloth flutter over my groin. I am very aware of how the thrumming song of my khui shivers all the way through my body, especially between my thighs. "I just…I want to touch her. I want to know my mate. I want to hear her speak."

Aehako gives me a pitying look. "Did you not talk to her earlier? She was the one you were gaping at, yes?"

I sigh, thinking of No-rah with her abundant teats and her soft-looking mane. "She was beautiful, was she not?"

"Eh," Aehako says.

Angry, I give him a hard shove.

He tumbles back to the ground and laughs, clutching his sides. "That got you! She must be your mate indeed." He chuckles, utterly amused. "It is not like you to be so sensitive, Dagesh! What has happened to the steady and true hunter?"

I scowl. It is as he said—my mind is in my loincloth. "Why are you being so annoying?"

Aehako sits up and rubs a hand over his shorn scalp. He is the only one of us that cuts his mane down to the scalp, preferring not to wear one at all. "Partly because I am curious…and partly because I wished to distract you while your mate received her khui so you did not panic."

She what?

I whip around so fast that my braid smacks my chest. Sure enough, the females are laid out in the snow, Vektal and Zolaya moving over them. They look like they are sleeping, lined up in rows and not moving at all. Vektal steps away from the bloody chest cavity of the sa-kohtsk and Pashov squats near one of the females. I want to snarl at all of them for standing over my No-rah, for giving her a khui without telling me. I should have been there. I should have—