Barbarian's Lady: A SciFi Alien Romance (Ice Planet Barbarians Book 14)

by Ruby Dixon

  The thing limps toward the cliff wall, putting its back to it, and then hisses a warning at me again. I follow, my now-bloody knife clutched tight in my hand. My arm burns where I was bitten, and my fingers are freezing without my gloves—who knows where those are now—but I’m not letting this thing get away.

  “Kate,” Harrec says, voice low.

  I turn toward him, confused. The way he says my name isn’t urgent, like that of someone in trouble. When I see him, he’s still tussling with the cat, though it’s on the ground and he’s standing over it, knife raised.

  There’s another ferocious snarl to my side, and then I’m knocked to the ground as the cat I’ve taken my eyes off of attacks me a second time. I scream as it latches on to me again, raising my arm to protect my face. The thing grabs ahold of me again, and the teeth sink into my forearm. It shakes its head back and forth, attacking.

  “Kate,” Harrec snarls again, and then his shadow falls over us. He lifts his knife and stabs.

  The cat on top of me jerks and goes still, and he flings it aside.

  “Oh my god.” I’m shaking. It all went so fast, I hardly know what to think. I turn and look, and the other cat is lying in the blood-spattered snow, dead. There’s something hot and sticky drying on my face, and I think it’s blood, too. “Oh my god,” I say again. “We did it.”

  “Kate,” Harrec says in a curiously sing-song way as he helps me up. “Kate. Kate. Kate.”

  I frown at him, confused. “I’m here.”

  “Kate,” he chants again, and then focuses on my face as if seeing me for the first time. “I did well, did I not?”

  I blink, and then I realize his arms are all scratched up, his chest, too. He’s covered in blood and not all of it belongs to the cat. “Oh my god. Are you hurt?”

  He looks down at his chest and arms. “I did well,” he repeats again, distant. “Kate. Kate. Kate. Kate sucking on my finger.” He collapses to his knees and puts his head between them, breathing deep. “Kate. Kate.”

  Oh. He’s chanting my name because he’s trying desperately hard not to pass out. I kneel next to him, putting my arm around his waist. “You did amazing, baby.”

  “Kate sucking on my finger,” he mutters again.

  “Kate sucking on your cock,” I agree. “Kate licking your spur. Kate licking your tail.” I’ll throw all the filthy things I can think of at him if it’ll help. “Kate’s tongue on your—”

  He groans and then sits back in the snow. “I think…I think I am good.” He glances over at me. “My cock is now hard, but I am good.”

  I laugh with relief and then collapse next to him.

  We lie in the snow on our backs, staring up at the sky. We’re both silent, me because I’m shocked we managed to live through that, and Harrec, well, I guess he’s still trying not to barf, maybe. My arms sting with the bites I’ve received, and I think of the cat and its fangs, inches from my face, and I shudder. That was too close. Too close, and I totally panicked. I need to learn to fight better. I need—

  Mew.

  The tiny sound echoes again.

  I sit up, scrambling for my knife. “What the fuck? There can’t be more of them, can there?”

  Harrec groans and gets to his feet, a lot slower than me. “They were a mated pair. No others would be with them…unless…”

  We both look at the entrance of the cave.

  “Oh,” I say softly. “Now I kind of feel bad. I mean, they were starving, and as much as I don’t want to be cat food, I also don’t want the babies to die.”

  “It is nature,” Harrec says. “These things happen.”

  “Didn’t you say that Farli has a pet dvisti?”

  “Dvisti do not eat sa-khui,” Harrec tells me. “Snow-cats will.”

  “Humans have cats as pets all the time, though.”

  “Not these cats.”

  “No, not these.” I stare into the cave mouth, torn. Every soft-hearted bone in my body can’t leave a baby animal behind. I just can’t. “Harrec…”

  He sighs and then cups my face in his hands and kisses me hard. “When I come out,” he tells me after I’m dizzy from the intense kiss, “we will bandage our wounds and build a fire.”

  I nod. “Of course.”

  “You wait here.” The look he gives me is stern.

  “Right here,” I promise.

  He picks up his knife from the snow and touches a deep scratch on his stomach. “Kate,” I hear him mutter as he heads toward the cave. “Kate with her mouth on my finger. Kate with her mouth on my cock…”

  I bite my knuckle as he disappears into the dark mouth of the cave. It won’t collapse now. It won’t. That would just be the worst luck, and if the snow-cats were living there, it’s surely safe enough for him to walk into for a whole minute. But I’m so tense I can’t relax. All I can do is stare into the dark and wait—

  And then he’s back, a breath or two later, a small tuft of white in his hand.

  He approaches me and holds it out, and I take the thing that’s no bigger than Harrec’s fist, its little ribs showing in its downy fur. It’s two tufted ears and big, khui-blue eyes and a pink mouth. The kitten looks up at me and mews.

  I don’t know what the rules on this ice planet are when it comes to pets, but I do know that from this moment on?

  This is my cat. “Hey, fluffy,” I whisper, and hold it close to my chest.

  12

  HARREC

  “It is biting me again,” I warn Kate, as the little snow-cat in my hands chews on my finger. “Is it supposed to do that?”

  She chuckles and dabs at my chest. “It’s a kitten. It’s playing with you. And those teeth are so small that they won’t do any damage. Now hold still.”

  I hiss out a breath as she washes the deep scratches, my gaze focused on the tiny snow-cat in my hands. I am not looking at my wounds, because I do not want to see. Just because I did not pass out earlier does not mean it will not kick in with a second look. It is best to ignore it and think about more pleasant things. I mentally chant to myself the words that helped earlier. Kate. Kate with her hands on my cock. Kate’s smile. Kate sucking on my finger.

  The kit chews on my finger again, its little claws pricking at my skin. “Ow!”

  Kate just makes a soothing sound in her throat. “Maybe you should feed the little guy.”

  “Snow-cat? Truly? You would feed him his own parents?” The spitted, skinned snow-cat—the healthy one, at least—is our dinner this evening and currently roasting over the fire.

  “What? No!” She looks scandalized at the thought. “Give him some of your dry rations.”

  “Can kits eat that?”

  “Soften it with water, maybe. We’ll think of something.” A stubborn look crosses her face. “We are not feeding Mr. Fluffypuff his own mommy and daddy.”

  I grunt and pull a bit of travel rations—seeds mixed with fat and dried meat—out of my pouch and offer a chunk to the kit. It sniffs it and then begins to lick it, the little pink tongue moving over it rapidly. At least it is no longer chewing on my finger.

  “There,” Kate says as she finishes with my chest. “The wounds aren’t deep and they’re clean. Give it a few hours and you’ll be right as rain.” She hands me a fresh tunic—the spare we have packed away. “Put this on so you don’t have to look at things.”

  My mate is wise. I do as she commands, and she takes the kit out of my hands and murmurs sweet, soothing things to him, pressing kisses to his head. “Let’s set up Mr. Fluffypuff with a bowl of food, shall we?”

  I watch with amusement as she fusses over the kit, warming a bowl of water and then placing the travel rations into it. The kitten picks at the food and eventually curls up in her spread furs to sleep on the opposite side of the fire. Kate moves back to my side, and we eat our dinner, though I cannot help but frown at the bites on her arms where the snow-cat managed to pierce her leathers. “Do those hurt?”

  She shakes her head. “No. The only thing I worry about is an infe
ction, like rabies. Do you guys have that here?”

  I shrug, because I have never heard of this.

  “Well, only one way to find out, I suppose.” She sighs. “If I start foaming at the mouth, might wanna take me back to the healer.”

  “I shall keep that in mind.” I pull her against me and hug her close. “I do not like that you got injured.”

  “I don’t like it either,” she teases. “But I’m really, really proud of you for not going unconscious.” She beams up at me. “You did amazingly well.”

  Even though it is a little foolish, I am pleased she is proud of such a small thing. “I concentrated on you.” Not only out of fear for what the snow-cats would do to her if I fell, but of what she could do with her mouth. The distraction worked very well. Of course, now my cock gets hard just thinking of such things, but it is a small problem overall. “You were very brave.”

  She makes a small, displeased noise. “I didn’t feel brave. I panicked and lost my knife right at the beginning. I need to learn how to fight better.”

  “Well, the first rule to remember is to keep your grip tight.”

  “Oh?” Kate looks up at me with a speculative glance and then slides her hand over the bulge in my loincloth. “Keep my grip tight, you say?”

  I groan low in my throat. “That was not what I meant—”

  “Should I stop, then?”

  I growl low in my throat. “No.”

  Kate giggles and rubs my aching cock through my leathers. “I thought it might be fun to give you some…incentive for the next time you get wounded. Something new to think about.” And she licks her lips and continues to drag her hand up and down my hard length.

  “You do not have to,” I tell her. She must have heard what I was saying to myself over and over again to stay focused as I fought the snow-cats. “My imagination works just fine.”

  “I want to,” she says in a soft voice, and puts a hand to my chest. “So lean back.”

  I do as she asks—how can I not? How can I refuse this female anything? “I will lick your cunt after you are done,” I promise her.

  “This isn’t tit for tat,” Kate tells me, tugging at the ties to my loincloth as I lie back. “This is me wanting to give you pleasure. Remember what you said the other day about how you get pleasure just putting your mouth on me? Well, that goes the same for me, and I want to do this. I’ve been looking forward to it for a while now. You just always distract me with other things.” Her cheeks are pink. “Tonight, I want to be the one doing the distracting.”

  “Then I welcome this,” I tell her, my body aching with want. My cock feels harder than it has ever been.

  She grins. “Thought you might.” She pulls apart the final knot on my loincloth and then whips it aside, tossing it into the snow. Her gaze focuses on my stiff cock. “Mmm, look at that.”

  I watch in fascination as she boldly bends over me, her thick, white braid hanging over her shoulder. The tail of it tickles my thigh as she leans in closer, and then her cold fingers curl around my cock. I give a hiss of breath, but a moment later, her fingers warm, and she presses her lips to the head.

  And then I do not care if her fingers are ice. I do not care what she does, so long as she puts her lips to my flesh again.

  Kate licks the head of my cock, capturing a bead of pre-cum from my skin, and then closes her eyes, tasting me. “Interesting.”

  That does not sound…good. Her taste on my lips is indescribably delicious. “You do not like?”

  “Oh, I like. It’s just not what I expected.” And she leans in and gives me another long lick.

  I shudder, groaning. The image of her leaning over me and her pink tongue against my blue cock will be burned into my mind forever. I have something new to think about when I need to concentrate, it seems.

  “Tell me what you like,” Kate says softly, dragging her fingers up and down my length with small motions, exploring the ridges and veins along my shaft.

  “I like all of it. Anything. Do what you like with me,” I rasp. “I am yours.”

  Her satisfied smile is delightful to see. “Tell me if I do something you don’t like, then. Fair enough?” At my nod, she curls her fingers tighter around my shaft and strokes up and down.

  I want to tell her to tighten her grip, to let me fuck her curled hand, but I want her to enjoy herself exploring me, so I keep silent. It takes everything I have not to thrust into her fist, or to grab her by her braid and pull her mouth back down on my cock. My lungs heave with effort, and I break out in a sweat at the thought.

  “I love how big you are,” she murmurs, her voice soft and warm as her mouth skates lower. “I can’t wrap my fingers completely around you, and I love that. You’re so thick that I imagine it must feel really good inside.”

  “I will show you,” I promise her. “Soon enough.” And then my mind is full of images of pushing Kate’s pale thighs apart and sinking my thick cock into her. I groan, and another drop of pre-cum beads on my cock head.

  She laps it up, and then her tongue swirls over the head of my cock, dragging back and forth. Her fingers lightly dance up and down my length, as if she is trying to decide the best way to touch me. After a moment, she presses a kiss to my shaft and then gives me a curious look. “Is your spur sensitive?”

  I give her a jerky nod.

  “So you’d like it if I stroked it?”

  There is no breath left in my chest. I groan, my hands clenching to fists at my side. My tail thumps in the snow. “If it…pleases you.”

  “Baby, this is all about pleasing you tonight,” Kate murmurs against my skin, her mouth hot and wet. She lightly strokes a finger up and down the length of my spur. My cock jerks, twitching in response to that small touch. “Because I like the thought of sucking you until you come.”

  Her words are making it difficult for me to concentrate, as is the teasing finger moving along my spur. “Then you are doing a good job.”

  She grins and leans in until her face is almost pressed to my stomach, and then she licks my spur from base to tip. The sight of that…there are no words. I groan, my cock jerking again.

  “Tell me what you want,” she begs me. “I want to see you come.”

  If I touch her, I will not be gentle. I want this too much. “Put your mouth on my cock again,” I demand.

  She does so eagerly, closing her fingers around the base of my length to steady it. The head of my cock disappears between her lips, and then I feel her tongue dragging up and down over my skin as she takes me into her mouth.

  The only thing better than the way it feels is watching her do so, and I cannot help the groan that escapes me. “Sweet, pretty Kate. Your mouth is…incredible.”

  My female makes a sound of pleasure in her throat, and I feel it all down my length.

  “Take me deeper,” I tell her. “Suck on me.”

  She shivers and begins to pull on my cock with her mouth, and her head bobs up and down as she works my length. I put a hand in her soft hair, unable to help myself, guiding her. She makes another little moan in her throat, and her hand goes between her thighs, as if she wants to touch her cunt as she suckles me.

  It is too much. I feel my sac tighten, feel the need building in my cock. “Kate, pull away—”

  But she does not, my greedy female. She only grips me tighter, working the base of my shaft as she continues to pump me into her mouth.

  A hoarse cry escapes me, and I thrust into her mouth, unable to help myself. I put a protective hand over my spur so I do not stab her with it, and push forward with my hips when her mouth lowers again. She makes a little noise of encouragement, not lifting her head, and with two more pumps, I am at the edge. “Kate,” I pant. “Kate. Kate.”

  Then I explode, filling her mouth with my hot seed. She jerks back, the liquid too much for her to swallow, and rests on her haunches as I struggle to breathe, lost in the depths of my pleasure.

  “Did I kill you?” she teases, and swipes at her chin.

  “I
f you did, I have died as the happiest of hunters.” I lie back on the snow, eyes closed, a smile on my face.

  She giggles and snuggles up beside me. “I’m sorry if I seem like I keep attacking you every chance we get. You make me feel really turned on.”

  “I am not sad about this,” I tell her, putting my arms around her and holding her close. “I much prefer a Kate that is hungry for my touch than one that wishes for me to go away.” I stroke her cheek. “Though I hope these will always remain pink for me.”

  “If you keep saying stuff like that, they will.”

  KATE

  The Next Day

  I’m not sure what I was expecting to see as we arrived at the spaceship. In my head, it would be a big, dark, metal starship resting on the ground, like something out of Star Trek that had come to a landing. Instead, I’m surprised when we enter a valley about midday the next morning and Harrec points at a big hill of snow. “There it is. The Elders’ Cave.”

  I hold Mr. Fluffypuff, who’s squirming and restless after hours of travel, and adjust him in my arms. “That’s your spaceship?” Huh. The sides are gently rounded, and it’s large and long, but it doesn’t match what I thought it would be.

  “See the entrance?” He points off to one side. “You can smell the smoke of a campfire as well.”

  I sniff the air, and he’s right. There’s a distinctive smell to a dvisti-dung fire, and it’s definitely in the breeze. “So where is everyone?”

  “Inside, most likely.” He takes the kitten from my arms and sets it down in the snow. “We will rest here for a moment, and then be on our way.”

  We’ve taken a few breaks here and there to let the kitten run, since it’s a pain having to travel with a small, squirming animal that just wants to play. It doesn’t seem to realize that its mama and daddy are gone, and hangs around me and Harrec even when set down in the snow. I suspect he can smell the food we have on us, because he’s eating our trail rations like they’re Fancy Feast. He’s darn cute, though, especially at this age. I worry about the size of the claws on his paws and the teeth that his parents had, but I can’t abandon him. I’ll figure something out. In the meantime, he gets the most ridiculous name possible so he seems less alarming to everyone else who might be worried that I’m bringing a predator home with me.