Barbarian’s Taming by Ruby Dixon

15

MADDIE

I’mkind 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 he does, and I can’t get mad. I’m a little worried about the future, sure, but mad? No. It’s strange, but everything feels…right. Like this was meant to happen. Maybe the reason I’ve been drawn to Hassen all along is because we’ve always been meant to be together.

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.