by Ruby Dixon
Barbarian’s Lady
Ice Planet Barbarians
Ruby Dixon
Ruby Dixon
Contents
Barbarian’s Lady
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Epilogue
Author’s Note
Ice Planet Barbarians - The Tribe
IPB Reading List
FIRE IN HIS BLOOD
WANT MORE?
Copyright © 2017 by Ruby Dixon
Photo by: Sara Eirew Photographer
Cover Design by: Kati Wilde
All rights reserved.
This book is a work of fiction. I know, I know. Imagine that a book about big blue aliens is fiction, but it is. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the writer's imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locales or organizations is entirely coincidental and would be pretty darn nifty.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any manner whatsoever without written permission from the author except in the case of brief quotation embodied in critical articles and reviews.
Created with Vellum
Barbarian’s Lady
You'd think a tall woman would fit in on a planet of seven-foot-tall aliens, but even on the ice planet, I'm still a weirdo and an oddity. I'm everything all the other cute, dainty human women aren't.
One guy in particular - the alien Harrec - is determined to embarrass me by pretending he's interested. He's a jokester that flirts like mad and hits on me constantly just to make me feel foolish. He gets under my skin. He makes me so frustrated I want to scream.
When a side-trip to a glacier turns into a nightmare and the two of us are forced to survive alone, I see another side to the enticing blue alien. Even with no one else around, his compliments keep coming and I start wondering if the attraction between us...is real.
1
KATE
“Look at how tiny you are, Shail! I’m not sure we’re going to have anything to fit you. Maybe one of Jo-see’s old tunics,” Sevvah exclaims as she tries to belt a leather dress around Gail’s hips. “You humans are so delicate.”
My shoulders stiffen, and I look up from the tunic top I’m sewing, waiting for the inevitable comparison. We’ve been here a few weeks now and if there’s one thing I’ve learned?
It’s that for some girls, it’s same shit, different planet.
“You are nothing like Kate,” Sevvah continues, clucking over Gail’s petite figure. “She is big and strong like a sa-khui female.”
Yep, there it is.
Kate, built like an ox. Kate, beanpole extraordinaire. Kate, with the good birthing hips, who could double as a linebacker for Green Bay. Strapping Kate, who doesn’t have blonde hair. That’s just a cloud that got lost.
I’ve heard it all before.
Gee, Kate, you must have some Nordic ancestry in your blood. Or giants. I stab my bone needle into the leather viciously. I’ve never been a small girl. Even as a kid, I was taller than the tallest boy in my class, and so there was hope for a while that I’d grow into some tall, willowy supermodel-type thing. No such luck. I’m both broad and strong. At six foot one and a hundred eighty pounds, I’ve been mistaken for a professional athlete. Or a guy. Or the chick that plays the knight lady on Game of Thrones.
I’m not dainty. I’m not even close. And I’m terribly, terribly thin-skinned about it. It doesn’t help that it appears that I’ve been kidnapped with a bunch of women who seem to average with a height of “tiny.” Oh, sure, there are a few who are taller, like Liz, or broader, like Maddie and Stacy and Nora. But both? No, I’m that lucky loner. Most of the women who are stranded here on Not-Hoth are built more like Gail and Elly—dainty and ladylike. I’m the only Amazon of the group.
Barf.
I can’t blame the others. It’s not like they woke up and decided to be five foot nothing with tiny size zero waists. It’s not even like any of us asked to be kidnapped by slaving aliens who apparently have a thing for dainty humans instead of big healthy ones.
Worst thing is, I know Sevvah doesn’t mean a thing by it, so I can’t say how much it bothers me or let the others know. And considering Sevvah and Kemli—the older ladies of the sa-khui tribe—are about my height and size, I can’t even tell anyone that their comments bother me. I might be insulting them by pointing out that to me, that size is freakish.
So I say nothing. I just stab at my sewing. A lot.
“You okay?” Summer asks, leaning in and staring at me with wide eyes. “You look pissed.”
Like I can say anything to Summer. She’s a delicate five foot two if she’s an inch, and probably weighs a hundred pounds soaking wet. And she’s beautiful with her almond eyes and gorgeous cheekbones. She would have no idea what it’s like to be the “corn-fed” one out of the group, or that it should even matter on a planet where there’s no such thing as spring. Or corn. Or basketball.
I shrug. “Just feeling ungrateful,” I whisper. “And I know I shouldn’t.” I don’t want to say too much because Summer’s a sweet person but she’s also a nervous babbler. She’ll blurt anything and everything when she’s anxious, and there’s a lot of anxious going on there.
“Because the clothing is hand-me-downs?” Summer asks, knotting a bit of sinew. She holds up the tunic she’s working on taking in—of course—and shrugs. “I don’t mind it. I do feel a bit like a charity case right now, but I suppose that’ll go away in time, right? I do wish we had some of Maylak’s clothes instead of Sevvah’s, because her stuff’s really pretty. Some of the other tunics are just kind of…blah.” She shrugs. “Seems silly to think about fashion while on an ice planet, but I can’t help it. I like pretty things.”
“Yeah, but at least you got Sevvah’s clothing.” There’s a pout in my voice that I hate hearing, even for myself. I’m working on a pair of leggings from one of the men because a lot of the women’s older clothing has been sized down for the little girls running around in the village and there wasn’t anything that would fit me. I’m too broad in the bust for anything Sevvah or Kemli have, so I get guy clothes.
Yippee.
“Besides,” I tell Summer. “Don’t feel like a charity case. We’re gonna have to make babies with someone here soon enough. You’re trading your vajayjay for leather wear.”
She makes a horrified face. “Don’t say that so loud! These people are being nice to us.” She pauses for a moment and sets her tunic down in her lap. “So…which guy do you think I’m going to have to make babies with? Anyone in particular?” She gives an excited little wiggle.
“It doesn’t work as an insult if you’re boy-crazy, you goof,” I tease. I’m cranky, but at least I have friends. Summer’s helping my mood, even if I do glance over and see pretty, pink Brooke being fitted into an adorable tunic with fringe. I want some damn fringe. Instead, I’m letting out the ass in these leggings and hope I don’t look too manly. Sigh. “Is there anyone you’ve got your eye on? Anyone you like?”
“Me?” She takes my leggings out of my hand and plucks away my needle. “You’re doing that wrong. Let me.” In a matter of moments, she undoes my stitches and fixes
them for me and then just keeps on sewing. I let her keep working, since she seems to be enjoying this impromptu little party more than me. Josie and Lila have been showing her how to sew while I’ve learned hunting, and she seems to be picking it up pretty well. I’m impressed. She sticks the needle in expertly and then tugs it through again, then casts me a sly look. “And as for resonance, I don’t know. I mean, I haven’t really talked to any of the guys. Have you?”
“I’ve talked to them, I guess.” I shrug. I feel weird around the guys that are single, because I feel like a piece of meat. A big one. I can’t help but tease Summer a little more, though. “And I find it hard to believe that you haven’t talked to any of them, Sum.”
She blushes and makes a silly face. “Har de har, Kate. I can’t help it if I get verbal diarrhea. I just get nervous.” She focuses on her sewing, not looking me in the eye. “They’re all really handsome, and big. It makes me all jittery. The moment someone even says hello, I’m spouting my life story to him.”
I chuckle, relaxing on the cushions as she works. “You are pretty bad about that, it’s true. Why?”
Summer shrugs. “Maybe it’s the Asian overachiever in me. I know I’m way too much of a try-hard. I’m just not used to being useless. I don’t know any useful skills like sewing or growing plants or anything. I know chemistry and philosophy and politics. That’s useless here, and the more I think about it, the more nervous I get, so I start talking. And the more I talk, the more I realize I should stop talking, and it just all sprays out like one big word vomit.” She grimaces. “I think they all think I’m an idiot.”
“No one thinks that,” I reassure her. “They just think you’re…” I struggle to find the right word. “Bubbly.”
“Yeah, well, I wish I was a bit less regurgitate-y.” She finishes the panel in my pants and holds it up. “How’s that look?”
“Better than mine.” It doesn’t look great, but I figure whatever tunic I have to wear with it will be long enough to cover the diaper-ish effect the new panel is giving the pants.
“That’s because you’re spending all your time with Liz,” she tells me. “You should hang out with me and Brooke more.” She wiggles her eyebrows at me. “And we can compare notes on the men.”
I roll my eyes at that. “Slow it down there, Crazy-pants. They’re gonna be wandering into your vagina soon enough.”
Summer gives me a horrified giggle and bats at my arm. “Come on. These are all good-looking guys if you ignore the blue and the horns and stuff.” She waves a hand at her face, indicating horns or skin or something equally alien. “And those probably just take some getting used to. But these dudes are hot and built. Don’t tell me you haven’t seen anything that’s caught your eye.”
That’s just it. I’m so awkward and uncomfortable around guys because of my size that I haven’t paid that much attention…with one glaring exception. “Oh crap. Here comes Harrec. Don’t make eye contact.” I grab the pants from her and pretend to bend over the seams, doing my best to appear busy.
The jerk’s making a beeline over here even though the longhouse is full of people this morning and both Gail and Brooke are standing off to one side, talking to Sevvah and Kemli. Brooke’s super cute and she has big boobs—he needs to go hit on her.
Instead, he makes his way straight to where Summer and I are sitting, a big shit-eating grin on his face. “How do we do this day, lovely females?” He nods at the pants I’m holding. “I see you could not wait to get into my leggings, Kate.”
Argh. “These aren’t yours, are they?”
He grins and drops to a squat near us, his loincloth hanging low between his legs. Not that I’m looking. His tail flicks close to the fire, and he looks far too cocky. Cute, but far too cocky. “They are. I donated them once I heard we had a tall female in need of long leggings.”
Ugh. So he donated them specifically because I’m a stork? What a prince. “Well, that explains the stains,” I say sweetly.
At my side, Summer chokes.
“Stains?” he asks, clearly not getting my joke.
“Never mind.” I get to my feet, vowing to never wear these pants in his presence. They’re ruined for me now, just because they belong to him. “I have to go meet Liz to go hunting.”
“Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do,” Summer calls up to me. “Of course, that’s pretty much everything. Except math. I still like math, but there’s not really a place to do math here. So I guess I’ll just sit and keep sewing. Women’s work and all, you know. Not that this planet doesn’t have gender equality. I mean, I guess it does and it doesn’t, because the women tend to stay around the village, but I imagine we can go hunting if we want. Like you are. Not that I’m saying you’re picking up guy jobs. I wouldn’t say that.” She gives me a helpless look. “I’m babbling again, aren’t I?”
“It’s okay,” I tell her with a wink. Poor Summer. “I’ll catch up with you later.” I give Harrec a tight smile and then turn to leave.
“Do you need help with your weapons?” Harrec asks, jogging to my side as I head out of the longhouse.
I force myself to remain quiet. The man doesn’t know how to buzz off.
I have a lot of mixed feelings about life here on the ice planet. On one hand, I’m incredibly glad we were rescued. From the moment I woke up in a cage on a dirty alien spaceship, I knew that things were going to go from bad to worse. I don’t remember anything about being captured, and for a few hours, I was convinced that I was just having a really bad dream. But then that really bad dream involved being poked and prodded by alien “buyers” and being transferred from one ship to another—all while naked—and eventually it sunk in that I’d been nabbed to be a slave. I think I still ended up luckier than most. I was held for a week before the blue guys came to buy all the humans. I know Elly and Gail were held for a lot longer, and judging by Elly’s filthy, extremely thin appearance, it affected her on the inside. Gail has hinted that things were bad, but she also doesn’t like to talk about them “now that it’s in the past.”
Which gives me nightmares, of course, because I imagine just how bad things could have been. Being poked and prodded and dragged around naked is bad enough, and I’m glad it wasn’t more than that.
I remember being caged with another girl, Chloe, who was everything I’m not—small, dark haired, beautiful. She was terrified of everything happening to us and cried in our cell every night. The third day of captivity, someone came in, led by the weird little green guy I’d come to learn was the slavemaster. The new aliens—reddish and snake-like—inspected both of us, and it seemed they liked Chloe’s small size better than mine. They took her away, and I still hear her desperate screams in my head.
I don’t know what happened to her, but I hope it was better than what my imagination keeps serving up.
After that week of hell, the remainder of the human captives were taken here, to this frosty planet, and left behind. We were told that we’d never go home again, we’d have to get a parasite to make living here a reality, and oh, by the way, we’d have to take the guys here as mates because the parasite is a matchmaker.
It’s a lot to take in.
There’s still some gratitude in me, of course. These people are nice, and there’s lots of warm clothing and food to go around, which is more than I can say for the slave ship. There are other humans here, and they’re all happy and content despite the fact that they’re stranded on an ice planet. I’m trying to follow their lead, but it’s difficult. It’s hard to be totally happy and okay with the fact that I’ll never see home again, never see spring again, never get to pick my own date.
Not that there was a lot of that going on, of course. When you’re a girl the size of a linebacker, they aren’t exactly lining up to date you. But the fact that my parasite is going to choose a man for me? I can’t get past that. Not quite yet. Everyone seems to be quite happy with their mates here, and that’s great for them. I can’t help but worry that I’ll be the first one who hates t
he person they’re stuck with…or even worse, he hates that he’s stuck with me. That will just be beyond humiliating.
In the week or so that we’ve been here, I’ve been doing my best to find a mentor to teach me a viable skill so I won’t feel like a big loser that everyone has to take care of. I want to take care of myself. That’s the only person you can depend on. So as much as I like hanging out by the fire with Summer and Brooke and Gail, I’ve been spending a lot of time with Liz to learn hunting. She’s out every day with her mate hunting, even though she has two young children. I’ve seen her take both her girls hunting with them on good weather days, and on bad weather days, they stay with one of the other women in the village and go to “school” with the other children. She takes her job as huntress very seriously. I’m told the other women go hunting, too, but not nearly as much as Liz.
Which makes her the perfect teacher. We get along pretty well, too. Liz is almost as competitive as I am. Almost. And she’s tall and blonde like me, though I still tower over her. I’m not a big fan of her short-tempered mate, but Liz gives him hell, and he seems to like it, so it works for them. She’s lucky like that.
Me, I don’t seem to be quite so lucky, because Harrec’s still following me. I cut through the village, heading for the hut I’m sharing with Summer and Brooke.
I fricking hate Harrec.
I’ll never forget the moment I met him. We were all being introduced to the tribe, people crowding around us and making us feel welcome. I felt weirdly comfortable in a village full of tall people, even if they’re blue.
He’d pushed through the crowd of people, a big smile on his face, and I’d immediately thought he was cute. I liked the warmth in his eyes and his long face that seems made to smile. He’s got a big, rangy body that looks big even for the barbarian tribe. If this was the type of guy we were supposed to be hooking up with, sign me up.