Barbarian's Prize (Ice Planet Barbarians, Band 5) - Softcover

Buch 5 von 21: Ice Planet Barbarians

Dixon, Ruby

 
9780593639450: Barbarian's Prize (Ice Planet Barbarians, Band 5)
Softcover
ISBN 10: 0593639456 ISBN 13: 9780593639450
Verlag: Penguin Publishing Group, 2023

Inhaltsangabe

The next novel in the international publishing phenomenon the Ice Planet Barbarians series, now in a special print edition with a bonus original novella!

Tiffany doesn’t care about all the attention she’s getting from the alien men, but there is one particular hunter she can see herself with—if only she can find a way to move forward from the past. . . .

It’s hard being the most popular girl on the ice planet. The alien men are falling all over themselves to impress me in the hopes that I’ll take them to my furs. But they don’t know my secrets. And they don’t realize that behind my smile, I just wish they’d take their courting presents and their competitions for my affection and go away. I want to be left alone. But on a planet where women are a scarcity, that won’t be happening.

If I had to choose a mate . . . it’d be someone with a gorgeous blue body, big horns, and the most intense gaze ever. Someone who knows the truth of what happened to me and why I don’t like attention. Patient, handsome Salukh knows my secrets. He knows why I have nightmares and why I don’t trust anyone. He’s willing to let me “experiment” with him. I can use him. Take what I need from him to work through my trauma. He’s been a good friend and the best shoulder to cry on.

There’s one small problem.

When it comes to us, he doesn’t just want to be my friend. He wants to be my forever. And day by day, he’s getting harder to resist. . . .

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Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Ruby Dixon is an author of all things science fiction romance. She is a Sagittarius and a Reylo shipper, and loves farming sims (but not actual housework). She lives in the South with her husband and a couple of geriatric cats, and can’t think of anything else to put in her biography. Truly, she is boring.

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Chapter One

Tiffany

It's cramped and dark. Arms and legs are piled onto me and there's an overwhelming stink of unwashed flesh in my nose. Sleep's hard to get, but I try, because sleep's the only escape I have.

Not today, though. A light shines on the cage and goes right to my eyes. I instinctively whimper at the flash of pain that shoots through my head.

One of the orange aliens with the rough skin points at me. He says something in his garbled language and I hear Kira suck in a breath. Oh no.

Not me. It was just a whimper. A small sound of distress. Nothing more.

Bodies peel back from me as the guard enters the cage. He grabs a handful of my hair-wild and sticking out in every direction since I haven't brushed it in over a week-and hauls me forward. Pain shoots through my head again, and even though I want to be silent, a small cry breaks from my lips.

"Don't scream," someone whispers.

It's too late for warnings, though. They're just looking for someone to pick on, and they picked me. The guards haul me forward and out of the storage bay where the captives are kept. I'm dragged down a hallway and then shoved through a door. I land on my hands and knees, and when I look up, there's another guard standing there. He smiles and shows needle-sharp teeth. His smile chills me, and when he grabs a handful of my hair and yanks me to my feet, I go.

Not me. Not me. Not me. The litany repeats in my mind as he touches his collar to loosen his clothing.

"Tiffany," he says, and points at the nearby cot, indicating I should lie down.

Not me. Not me. Please, not me.

"Hey, Tiffany?"

Josie's voice jerks me from my sleep. I sit up, my heart pounding. There's a cold sweat on my skin and my hair is sticking to my face. I push it back and try to act normal. "Mm?"

"You were having a nightmare," she says softly. "Didn't sound like a good one."

Just a dream. I'm no longer on the alien ship. I'm safe here on the ice planet. There's a cave full of big warriors who won't let anyone grab me and haul me down a hallway to rape me. They'd die before they let anyone try it. The little green men and their bodyguards are dead. I'm safe.

But . . . I don't feel safe. Haven't felt safe since the night I woke up and found out I was abducted by aliens.

I rub my eyes and lie back in my furs. "Thanks, Jo."

"Sure." She yawns loudly and I hear her roll over.

I stare up at the ceiling of my cave and the nubs of stalactites that decorate it. I can't sleep now. If I do, the aliens will be back in my dreams. I need to think about something else for a while. Maybe tanning. Or my plants. Work's good. Work keeps me too tired most nights to dream, so I throw myself into whatever task I'm working on 150 percent. I've been growing a row of the not-potatoes and they seem to be doing okay. I want to try and grow some hraku, too, but I need the seeds and everyone eats those as fast as the plant is harvested. Maybe I can hide some.

"Tiff?"

Josie's not asleep. This must mean it's time to talk. Normally I barely tolerate Josie's late-night musings, but tonight I welcome them. It means I don't have to be alone with my own head anymore. "What's up?"

"You think we're ever going to resonate?" Her voice is small.

It's a question Josie's asked before, and I'm not surprised. As the last two human women to not resonate to a barbarian, we feel a little left out of things. Or at least, Josie does. Me, I'm glad. I don't want to resonate. Resonance means babies and a mate. I don't mind the babies, but the thought of a mate utterly terrifies me.

"What do you think?" I ask her, pitching my voice low. Sound carries in the caves and I don't want anyone hearing our words.

"I think it can happen." Her voice is soft and sweet. She sighs and then I see her turn over in the darkness, putting her hand to her face and cupping it as she looks over at me. "Claire didn't resonate to Ereven until the holiday. And it took Megan a while to resonate to Cashol, remember? Not everyone resonates right away, so I think there's a chance for us."

And that's the difference between Josie and me. Josie's motivated by hope. She hopes someone's going to light up her khui one day and then she'll have a happy ever after. Me, I'm motivated by fear. I live in terror that it's going to happen to me and I'll be dragged to someone's bed once again, kicking and screaming.

Resonance is my biggest fear.

It's the way the sa-khui barbarians have children. Everyone on the planet has a khui-the symbiont that rewrites our systems to ensure we can survive on the harsh planet surface. I've noticed a few changes in my body-I'm stronger and less tired, the weather doesn't affect me as much, and I can't smell a lot of things anymore. My eyes glow blue like Josie's do, a sign that the khui is healthy inside.

The problem with the khui (or cootie, as we humans like to call it) is that it likes to match people up. It decides who's a perfect "baby match" for who, and makes them resonate. Resonance means the khui in your chest starts purring and it makes you crazy horny for your newfound mate until he impregnates you. According to everyone, there's no getting around it. You can't just will resonance to go away. It happens, and boom, end of story.

"Well, we know why you haven't resonated," I tell her. "Did your IUD fall out?"

"Not yet."

Not yet. It might never fall out, because there's no doctor to remove it. But Josie, again, is a creature of hope. I shake my head. "I just don't get why you find it romantic," I tell her, adjusting my blankets. "I don't want to resonate. I want choices."

She sighs again. "I guess because . . . it means family. You know? I never had a family of my own growing up. I went through eight foster homes by the time I was eighteen. No one ever wanted me . . . except for the wrong reasons." Her voice grows a little hard.

I wince, imagining those "wrong" reasons. Josie's got a round face and not much of a chest, but there's a sweet innocence to her that I can imagine attracts the wrong kind of attention. Poor Josie. "Well, you're a woman on a planet full of men. I'm sure someone will want you now."

"Nope, they all want you," she says with amusement. "And that's all right, because when the cootie picks, it won't matter. It'll take one look at someone in the tribe and bam. Instalove. And then we can be happy together and I'll have the family I always wanted."

"And you won't care that he never noticed you before then?" I ask, amused. Josie's painting such a rosy picture.

"Won't matter," she says with a yawn. "Past is past. Future's all that matters."

Another difference between Josie and me. I can't get over my past. I can't move on past the ship and the awful captivity. I can't move past rough hands touching me and forcing me down. I know Josie's optimism is hard-won. She's hinted at her awful, awful childhood and she was also raped on the ship. Josie cried for one night and then tucked the bad memories away. She didn't lose her sunshine.

I really wish I could be more like her. I want to move on, but I can't.

"Well, I'd trade places with you in a heartbeat," I tell her. "I wouldn't mind having an IUD." It'd mean no resonance, because even a cootie can't get past birth control.

"There has to be a reason why you haven't resonated!"

"Nope." I smooth my blankets. "No reason other than my body doesn't feel like having babies. Or maybe one of these guys isn't my perfect match. Don't know, don't care."

"You really don't care for one of the guys more than any of the others?"

"Nope."

"What about Hassen? He seems nice."

"Eh." They're all nice. They go out of their way to be nice.

"Taushen?"

"He's very . . . attentive." Too much...

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Verlag
Penguin Publishing Group
Erscheinungsdatum
2023
Sprache
Englisch
ISBN 10 
0593639456
ISBN 13 
9780593639450
Einband
Taschenbuch
Anzahl der Seiten
304
Kontakt zum Hersteller
Nicht verfügbar
Verantwortliche Person
gpsr@libri.de
gpsr@libri.de

Friedensallee 273
Hamburg
22763
Deutschland

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