Ice Planet Barbarians: The Complete Series: A SciFi Alien Serial Romance (17 page)

The pink deepens, and she ducks her head. “
Ohjeez
,” she says in her language. Then in mine, “Let us keep such talk between us.”

I am amused. Is my mate shy? Is this what the pink of her cheeks means? A sa-khui woman gets a flush at the base of her horns when she is embarrassed, but Georgie has no horns. “It is but talk between mates, my resonance.”

She tilts her head. “Resonance? What is that?”

I take her small hand, her good one, and press it over my chest. My khui responds, thrumming a content beat inside my chest. “It is this. Only you call to it. Only you make my khui hum in my breast with happiness. It is a sign that one’s mate has been found.”

Her lips part, and she looks up at me, startled. “I thought you were
purring
.”

“Prr-ing?” I am not familiar with this word.

“Like a cat.”

“Cat? A snow cat?” I think of the ugly creatures with whiskers and tufts of fur all over. I don’t recall them ever purring. They are tasty eating, though.

Georgie giggles. “You know what? Never mind. We should get going.”

She gets to her feet and straightens her clothing. We have eaten, and all is ready to go, except I find myself strangely reluctant to continue on. If I do, I am acknowledging that I might not get to keep my Georgie.

The thought staggers me with misery. I press my face to her stomach and hold her against me, seeking a measure of peace. To think that I might lose my sweet resonance so soon after finding her. I cannot bear it.

“Oh, Vektal,” she says softly. Her hands stroke over my horns, a tender caress. “I wish it was just me that I had to think for. Then this would be easier.”

“It is easy,” I tell her, pressing my face to her leather-covered body. Even through her coverings, I can smell her wonderful scent. I long to taste her again. “Accept the khui. Accept me.”

She’s silent, but her hands continue to touch me and smooth over my skin and horns stroke over my horns in what feels like a loving embrace. She must care something for me. She
must
. But she only says, “Something has to be my choice,” she says softly. “So many things have been taken from me. I need to claim something for myself. For now. Grant me that.”

I look up at her, at her sad face. “You know I can refuse you nothing.”

Her smile is sweet. Sad. “I know.”

GEORGIE

I ponder my choices all day as Vektal plods relentlessly through snow drift after snow drift, carrying me on his back.

Even though I am doing my best to deny it, it’s entirely possible that we’re never going to be able to get home. If Vektal’s ancestors were stranded here, then we probably can’t get home, no matter how hard we try. Our other option is to wait for the little green men to come back and try to hijack their ship and force them to take us home.

Or we can leave the ice planet when they return, taking our chances as cattle.

Or we can get the parasite—excuse me, symbiont—and make the best of things here with Vektal and his people.

I feel like if I were making an individual choice, it would probably be an easy one. Though the thought of leaving Earth and friends and family behind hurts me, a life with Vektal could be sweet and full of pleasure. I already am starting to look forward to the sight of his smiles, the feel of his skin against my own. I love the rumble of his laugh.

I love knowing what he’s saying now.

If it were just me? I’d definitely be Team Vektal.

But I feel like the humans have to make a decision together. I don’t want to influence the others. I lucked out and got Vektal, but if we stay here, we might be condemning ourselves to a life of hardship and snow, and who’s to say that the others in Vektal’s tribe—the sa-khui, as he calls them—will treat everyone as wonderfully as he has me?

And who’s to say that the little green men wouldn’t sell us to someone on a nice Tahiti-like planet full of sexy men who want nothing more than company while drinking Mai Tai cocktails? No one can say for sure. The odds are likely against that . . . but it’s another reason not to influence the others. Whatever we decide, we’ll decide as a group. We’ll be making decisions not just for the six of us remaining but the six still tucked away in the wall, slumbering.

Before anyone decides anything, we need to talk it out.

If they want to stay, we’ll figure stuff out together. If they want to fight the aliens for control of the returning ship, we’ll need weapons and a plan.

My bad wrist aches and throbs, reminding me that we’re all battered and wounded from the crash. Taking over anything seems like a horrible idea. Maybe that’s just me being negative. I shake the thought away. I’m with my girls. If Liz, Megan, Tiffany, Kira, and Josie want to fight for our freedom, the least I can do is join the cause. Staying back and rolling in the furs with my big sexy alien seems disloyal after everything we’ve been through together.

“There,” Vektal says, rousing me out of my dark thoughts. “Home is just ahead.”

My arms tighten around his neck, and I peer through the drifting snowfall. There’s nothing ahead but another rocky cliff, this one barely peeking out of a deep thicket of the eyelash-like pink trees. “In there?”

“The entrance is hidden and guarded to prevent metlaks and other predators from entering. Do not worry. We will be safe and warm there.” He pats my arm. “No one would dare harm you.”

Am I tense? I must be tense for him to throw out a comment like that. It’s just that for so long, it’s only been Vektal to have to worry about. Now I’m about to be dropped in to meet thirty-odd others. My arms tighten around his neck. What if they all hate me? What if they all think I’m gross looking? What if—

“Ho,” a deep, sonorous voice calls out.

Vektal raises a hand high into the air in response. I cling to his back, worry thudding through my body as another big body appears in the distance.

“That is Raahosh,” Vektal tells me in a low voice. “He must be back from his hunting treks.”

The other male jogs through the snow toward us, churning a path through the drifts. The pink, flimsy trees wave overhead, and the entire scene looks ludicrous. I try not to stare at Raahosh as he approaches, but, well . . . I’m staring. Where Vektal’s horns are big and thick but sleek, Raahosh’s horn-crown is a busted mess. He has one that juts out and then arches back, jutting high above his head. The second is broken off, a mere jagged stump. As he gets closer I see scars covering one side of Raahosh’s broad face. His skin, er, pelt, er, whatever is a deeper gray than Vektal’s…like dark smoke. And if I thought Vektal was fearsome looking, Raahosh takes things to a new level.

He grins and raises a hand as he jogs out to meet us, and then his steps slow as he sees me. “I thought you were burdened with the hunt, brother. I was about to come and relieve you.”

“I have much to tell,” Vektal says, and I can hear the pride in his voice as he gently lowers me to the ground. His chest starts to vibrate with a loud, incessant purr.

Raahosh’s eyes go wide, and he looks at Vektal then at me. “Her?” He gazes at me up and down. “What . . . what is she?”

“She is Georgie, a human and my mate.” Vektal’s arm goes around my shoulders, and he tugs me against him. I can feel the purr moving through his body, so strong that he’s practically vibrating. Resonating, as he calls it.

Raahosh stares at me for so long that I feel uncomfortable. He considers my face, my hair—no doubt looking for horns—and then the rest of my smaller, shivering form. I’m wearing someone else’s jumper, and I haven’t had a comb in weeks, and I probably look like hell. This is the first time I’ve felt it, though. Vektal always makes me feel . . . pretty. Like I’m the sexiest thing to ever grace his presence and he can barely keep his hands off me. I’ve been taking for granted how wonderful it feels to be special to someone.

My hand goes to Vektal’s waist, and I slide it down his back until I encounter the bump of his tail base. I circle it and caress it absently.

At my side, Vektal stiffens and the thrumming takes on an even more urgent beat. He reaches back and gently removes my hand, then nuzzles my ear. “Wait until we are in private, my sweet resonance. I know you are not comfortable with public displays.”

Oops. Did I just give him the sa-khui equivalent of a public handy? A hot flush covers my cheeks, and I nod. I don’t look at Raahosh, though, because then I will be completely and utterly embarrassed.

“Hu-man?” Raahosh says after a moment, the word swallowed and thick in his throat. “Her eyes—”

“She has no khui,” Vektal says. His hand goes to my hair, and he combs through it with his big, thick fingers. I feel pretty once more. He still can’t stand to take his hands off me, and, okay, I kinda adore that. “We will fix that problem soon.”

I nudge Vektal with my elbow. “We’ll talk about it.”

“We will talk about it,” he amends.

I sneak a glance at Raahosh, and he’s still staring at me. But it’s not a look of disinterest or revulsion. Rather, I see a yearning as he looks at me. Not in a sexual way. Instead, it’s as if his best buddy just showed up with the Christmas present he’d been wishing on for years.

“You are lucky,” he says finally, his voice thick, “to have found your resonance.”

“The luckiest,” Vektal agrees, and his fingers stroke my neck. “But my mate needs the healer.”

I want to protest about the mate thing since I haven’t said yes yet, but my wrist gives a pathetic throb, and I realize how much it still hurts. “Healer sounds good,” I say faintly. “Food, too?”

“Food, yes,” Vektal says and nuzzles my brow. “And warm clothing. And you shall sleep in my furs tonight.”

I blush because I feel like that is an obvious way of saying “we’re totally doing it” to his buddy, but Raahosh doesn’t blink an eye. “Come,” the new alien says and gestures for us to follow. “There will be many questions.”

“I am ready for them,” Vektal says.

“I’m not sure I am,” I chime in. The thought of being quizzed by dozens of staring aliens makes me feel exhausted, and we haven’t even entered the cave yet. “We’re still going after the others in the morning, right?”

“Others,” Raahosh says, and there is more than casual interest in his gaze.

“Georgie has arrived with five other humans,” Vektal says. “They are in need of rescue.”

“Five other humans?” Raahosh asks, his glowing blue eyes going wide. “Do you speak truly?”

“All female,” Vektal says in a low, almost reverent voice.

As I watch, Raahosh staggers. “Truly?”

“Truly.”

I’m starting to get worried, and I haven’t even told them about the six other women in the hibernation pods. “Is this a problem?” I ask. “Vektal, you said your people would help mine.”

“It is not a problem,” my alien says in a grave tone. He caresses my cheek. “It is a blessing. There are only four adult females in our tribe, and all of them are mated.”

“Do they resonate?” Raahosh asks in a harsh voice.

“They have no khui,” Vektal says. “But I resonated for Georgie. Others might resonate to a human female.”

I stop in my tracks. “Wait, what? This isn’t open season on human ladies! I thought we were getting rescued, not playing matchmaker.”

Raahosh simply stares at me like I’m insane. My words probably don’t make sense in their language. I don’t care. I’m trying to get help for my friends, not hook them up with alien boyfriends. I think back to Vektal’s “greeting” of me in which he just grabbed me and initiated sex. Sure, I orgasmed a few times, but that didn’t give him the right to make the decision to
mate
me, nor did it give him the right to decide the others got mates without their say so.

“No one is being mated without their agreement,” I say, crossing my arms. Then I wince because I keep forgetting my one wrist is total shit.

“It is agreed, my Georgie,” Vektal says. He caresses my cheek again. “I am the chief. They will listen to me. Any male who wishes to mate a human woman must have her agreement.”

I relax a bit at that.

“Agreement?” Raahosh sputters. “But resonance—”

“Doesn’t happen for humans,” I say sweetly.

“It is something to be argued about later, when my mate is not cold and hungry,” Vektal says, breaking in before Raahosh protests at me again. He puts a protective arm over my shoulders. “We have traveled far, and we will be traveling far again in the morning.”

“Of course,” Raahosh says stiffly. He turns and heads back to the trees, and Vektal and I follow him in.

The trees thicken, and as we approach the cliff, I see the entrance to an extremely large cave. The mouth of it is enormous and wide, bigger than any human or sa-khui—even if I stood on Vektal’s shoulders and tried to touch the ceiling. It narrows down further in, and this is where Raahosh and Vektal lead me. I cringe at the thought of spending endless hours in a deep cavern. It doesn’t strike me as safe.

But as we make our way through the winding tunnel, the air gets warmer. Noticeably so. It feels like we’re going down, so shouldn’t it be getting colder? I’m puzzled by this until the cave opens up into a larger chamber and the faint smell of rotten eggs touches my nose.

And then I’m just stunned.

The hill the sa-khui live in is hollow. The cave opens up into an enormous cavern that reminds me of a gigantic hollow donut. It’s circular, and the center is composed entirely of a large, incredibly blue pool. Another heated spring, I realize with wonder. That is why it smells so strongly of eggs.

I pinch my nose and look around in surprise. There are people bathing in the pool, a tiny child with nubs for horns splashing in the water as a man holds it and a female laughs nearby. The cavern walls round upward, and the roof has a hole in it, almost like a sunroof. From here, I can see snow drifting in, but it melts in the presence of the warmer air and drips down harmlessly.

The edges of the cavern “donut” are riddled with caves, most with ledges and walkways built from additional rock or woven reeds of some kind. A reed-like bridge spans one side of the donut’s ceiling over to the other. There are aliens everywhere, too. Some sit in the entrances of their cave-homes. Another pair weaves baskets in the distance. Off to one side, an alien with enormous, arching horns and pale skin scrapes a hide stretched over a frame.