Barbarian's Touch (Ice Planet Barbarians, Band 7) - Softcover

Buch 7 von 21: Ice Planet Barbarians

Dixon, Ruby

 
9780593639474: Barbarian's Touch (Ice Planet Barbarians, Band 7)
Softcover
ISBN 10: 0593639472 ISBN 13: 9780593639474
Verlag: Penguin Publishing Group, 2024

Inhaltsangabe

The next novel in the Ice Planet Barbarians series, an international publishing phenomenon—now in a special print edition with a bonus new epilogue!

Lila has never been more frightened in her life, but when Rokan appears, everything changes.

When I wake up on the ice planet, I’m scared of everything: This place is cold, silent, and the locals look more like blue devils than aliens. To make matters worse, one of the strangers decides I’m going to be his girlfriend and kidnaps me away from my sister. I’m completely and utterly alone. What’s a girl to do?

Well, this girl escapes.

Of course, that means I go from the frying pan into the fire, and my situation gets even more dangerous. Just when I have no hope left, a new hero shows up. Sure, he’s blue, horned, and has a tail. He’s also fierce, protective, makes me purr...and thinks I'm perfect.

But is what we have real or just a mating instinct?

Die Inhaltsangabe kann sich auf eine andere Ausgabe dieses Titels beziehen.

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.

Von der hinteren Coverseite

The next novel in the Ice Planet Barbarians series, an international publishing phenomenon―now in a special print edition with a bonus new epilogue!

Lila has never been more frightened in her life, but when Rokan appears, everything changes.

When I wake up on the ice planet, I’m scared of everything: This place is cold, silent, and the locals look more like blue devils than aliens. To make matters worse, one of the strangers decides I’m going to be his girlfriend and kidnaps me away from my sister. I’m completely and utterly alone. What’s a girl to do?

Well, this girl escapes.

Of course, that means I go from the frying pan into the fire, and my situation gets even more dangerous. Just when I have no hope left, a new hero shows up. Sure, he’s blue, horned, and has a tail. He’s also fierce, protective, makes me purr...and thinks I'm perfect.

Auszug. © Genehmigter Nachdruck. Alle Rechte vorbehalten.

Chapter One

Rokan

I am the only one not in a foul mood as we approach the strange cave that carried new humans to our world. Raahosh and Haeden walk in front, both surly and unpleasant because of the long journey. They wish to be home with their mates, curled up beside the fire and sharing furs. My brother Aehako walks behind them, his arm around his mate, Kira. They miss their kit and do not want to be here, either, but Kira feels obligated.

Near me, Hassen, Taushen, and Bek bicker over the human females we are traveling to retrieve. Bek and Hassen are both convinced that the females will take one look at them and resonate, like Vektal did to Shorshie. Their snappish retorts have made Taushen unhappy; if they will both get a mate, will there be one left for him? He does not like the odds.

Me? I walk silently, listening to their conversations with amusement. The day is cold but pleasant, and we are healthy, so I have no complaint. My brother is here if I am lonely and need company-but I do not. My younger brother Sessah is home with my father and mother. I have no mate waiting for me. I am content.

But my mood is light because my body is humming with anticipation.

Something big is coming. I do not think it is resonance, but my strange "knowing" feeling is prickling over my skin. I feel it when a large storm is rolling in, or when someone in the tribe is in danger. My brother's mate, Kira, calls it een-too-itchen. Humans have many words, and I do not grasp most of them. To me, it is just knowing. Like I can look at Bek and know that he will not find a mate here. Not here, not now. The time is not right. I know that in my heart as much as I know something life-changing is down in that strange human cave.

What, I do not know. But I am eager to see it.

I do not share this, though. Bek is still struggling to find his pride after Claire left his furs for Ereven. It has been a long journey here, and will be a long journey home. It will be that much longer if he is filled with anger the entire time. I study the others as they bicker to see if I get a similar feeling from them, but there is nothing. I shrug. It does not always work.

"What about you, Rokan?" Taushen asks, rousing me from my reverie. "What color mate would you want? Red like Har-loh or brown like Tee-fah-nee? Or yellow like Leezh?"

I shrug. "If there is a mate for me, I do not care what color she is." Humans have many strange features, but when I see Aehako looking at Kira's flat, smooth face with adoration, I know it does not matter. She can have three noses, and if I resonate to her, I will cherish all three of them.

Hassen makes a hissing sound of irritation. "Why do you bother to ask him, Taushen? He refuses to play this game. He does not care if he mates. That means the females are for us that care."

"That is not how it works and you know that," I add, amused at Hassen's possessiveness. "Just ask Haeden."

Haeden simply snorts, but his response has no real ire behind it. He misses his mate too much.

I increase the pace of my steps, pulling away from the others. If they wish to argue and ruin the day, they will do so without me. I pull out my bow and nock an arrow, scanning the skies. Raahosh and Leezh have been giving me lessons and now I am as good with this weapon as with my spear, if not better. It will give me more leverage against a sky-claw if one should appear. There are many in the area, which is concerning, especially to Aehako. We are big enough to be ignored, but my brother's mate is just small enough to be carried off. He keeps a rope tied at his waist, linking them together in case of attack, and Kira walks in the center of our party. So far the sky-claws have avoided our band, but it never hurts to be vigilant.

I have good reason to be cautious. Half-eaten dvisti litter the landscape, blood spattering the white hills. The sky-claws found a herd here recently and shredded their kills. They are messy eaters, and I frown as we pass another carcass with the belly torn out and not much else eaten. The creature's body is frozen, the blood forming icicles on the rib cage, but all I can think is how much meat has been wasted. My tribe would make use of all of the animal, right down to the bones and hooves. On the next crest is a metlak carcass, freshly dead. The stench of its filthy fur makes Taushen complain.

A peaceful journey, this is not. But it is a necessary one.

At least two humans have been found in the remains of one of the strange caves that Kira and her people swear fly through the stars. They sleep, unaware that they are on our world, and Kira is determined to rescue them. As the tribe still has several unmated males-myself included in those numbers-the thought of more mate-able females is an exciting one. Sometimes I cannot grasp how much our tribe has changed in a handful of seasons. Before, there were four females and three kits. Now there are sixteen females and the caves swarm with newly born kits.

I have not resonated, but this is not surprising to me. I know each human female, and though they were attractive enough in their human way, they did not set off my knowing feeling. Now they are all mated, so it does not matter. Maybe I shall never mate.

"There," says Raahosh, pausing ahead. He gestures in the distance. "The ship is below, in the valley. I see the red flame, just like you said, Haeden."

Haeden nods, staring off in the same direction. I move to their sides and gaze down, getting my first look at the flying cave. I remember the one that Shorshie and the other humans arrived in, with its strange square shape and odd black-stone walls. This one is of a similar shape, though the cave mouth looks more like a backpack that has been torn open to spill its contents.

Near the entrance, a strange red "flame" blinks and then goes black. A scarce breath later, it blinks into brilliant light again. Strange. Around it, the snow has melted and a semicircle of sky-claw carcasses surround it.

"Is that fire?" I ask, watching it blink out and return again. "How does it remain burning after so long?"

"It is a light like the ones in the ancestors' cave," Haeden explains. "It-"

A sky-claw screams overhead, the shadow of wings falling over us. I aim my bow even as Aehako shouts and dives to cover his mate. I squint, aim my arrow, and then instinctively move it ahead of the target and let it fly. A moment later, it connects in the exact spot my knowing tells me it will be, and it sinks deep into the creature's gut. Blood splatters onto the snow like rain, but the creature doesn't circle back to us. Rather, it flaps harder, continuing into the valley, heading right for the flame, which blinks back into existence once more.

As I ready another arrow, Raahosh makes a sound of disbelief. My gaze rips back to the cave, and as I watch, the sky-claw dives. Its maw opens, and a moment later, there's a terrible cracking noise that rips through the valley as it slams into the light and then crumples, wings spread, to the ground, piling on top of the others.

"It just broke its neck," Haeden says in a low voice, and rubs his own throat, staring down into the valley.

I lower my arrow slowly. "Is that what is killing the sky-claws? They do not like the flame?"

Raahosh snorts. "We need one of those fires in front of our cave."

Haeden gives him a surly look. "What, and draw every sky-claw on this side of the mountains to us?"

The two exchange irritated glances and then Raahosh stomps farther along the trail, heading for the valley. I follow close behind. This place is strange. I have hunted here before, but never has it felt as eerie and unwelcoming as now. Even the mountains seem uneasy with the new landscape.

"Let us get the females and leave this place," Haeden says, gripping...

„Über diesen Titel“ kann sich auf eine andere Ausgabe dieses Titels beziehen.

Verlag
Penguin Publishing Group
Erscheinungsdatum
2024
Sprache
Englisch
ISBN 10 
0593639472
ISBN 13 
9780593639474
Einband
Taschenbuch
Anzahl der Seiten
352
Kontakt zum Hersteller
Nicht verfügbar
Verantwortliche Person
gpsr@libri.de
gpsr@libri.de

Europaallee 1
Bad Hersfeld
36244
Deutschland

Weitere beliebte Ausgaben desselben Titels

9781534687936: Barbarian's Touch: A SciFi Alien Romance (Ice Planet Barbarians, Band 8)

Vorgestellte Ausgabe

ISBN 10:  1534687939 ISBN 13:  9781534687936
Verlag: CreateSpace Independent Publishi..., 2016
Softcover