Barbarian’s Taming by Ruby Dixon
Epilogue
MADDIE
“I can’t believeyou’re leaving me here!” I’m torn between wanting to punch Hassen in the face and cry into his leathers. “You cannot be serious!”
“You were the one that boasted to the chief that we resonated,” he tells me, smoothing my windblown hair off of my face. “Now you will stay here with the other pregnant females.”
“Hoisted on my own braggy petard,” I sigh. “Damn it.” I bury my face against his chest. “You’re going to travel fast, right?”
“We will run the entire way,” he promises. “We can make it there in half the time.”
“Good.” I rub my cheek against his skin, breathing in his scent and listening to the ever-present purr of his cootie talking to mine. I will not cry. I will not. It’s only a week or two. I’ll get in some lonely sister bonding time, since Rokan is going with Vektal and Hassen. I should have kept my damn mouth shut, but I was just so pleased with the fact that Hassen was no longer exiled, and I’m proud to be his mate. I wanted to tell the world.
So I did. And now I get benched.
I suppose it’s for the best. I slept like a log last night in our tent, too tired to even have sex with my big sexy alien mate. All the travel has caught up to me, and I suppose I need to take care of myself if I’ve got an official baby on board. But it doesn’t change the fact that I’m going to miss him fiercely. I cling to him a little harder. “Make sure you show them the toilets, all right? That’s a big selling point to Georgie and the others.”
He chuckles and strokes my hair. “I will show them. I promise.”
“And you’ll stay safe?” I lean back and look up at him. He’s so handsome in the early morning sunlight, with his dark hair whipping around his face. I love his big craggy horns and his stern cheekbones and the way his fangs peek out, just a little, when he smiles down at me, like right now. “Keep an eye out for metlaks and all that?”
“I shall be the safest of hunters,” he tells me. “Because I have the fiercest of mates to return to.”
That’s so cute. He thinks I’m fierce. More like pushy, but I’ll take it. I curl my hands in his vest and decide to give him a little something to incentivize him. “And when you come home, I’ll suck your dick so hard you won’t be able to walk straight for weeks.”
Hassen’s eyes go wide. He glances around the busy early morning campsite, then picks me up and begins to walk away from the others.
I squeal, clinging to his neck. “Where are we going?”
“Back to our tent. We have a few minutes before the others leave.” His eyes gleam with possessive lust. “And I need to make sure that my mate misses me as much as I will miss her while I am gone.”
“This sounds like a bangin’ idea,” I tell him, breathless. My cootie is singing so loud it’s sending vibrations all through my chest. “And then you’ll go and race to the city and show everyone how awesome it is and how you saved the day.”
“Yes,” he says, ducking into our small tent. He immediately drops to his knees and lowers me onto my back, his hand going for my pants. It’s amazing how quickly he can get them around my knees.
“And then you’ll come back home to me and we’ll start our happily ever after, right?”
“My happy does not wait for later,” he tells me. “My happy is now. Here. With you. I need nothing else.”
And as he lowers his head between my thighs, I have to agree. I don’t need anything but my mate.
