Barbarian's Mate (Ice Planet Barbarians, #6)

by Ruby Dixon

“Really? You couldn’t wait like, ten minutes for us to keep on going? You had to come back and set me off?” “Me? You are blaming me for this?” The look on his face is both irritated and incredulous. “Josie?” Kira asks. “Don’t…wait. You guys resonated?”

“You think I cannot smell the juices in your cunt, Jo-see? You think I do not hear your little moans as you sleep? Your body wants mine.” He leans in closer, and his face is so close to mine I’d swear he’s going to kiss me. “Your body has accepted that I am your mate. Give in.”

I want a mate that loves me, not someone that can barely tolerate me. I can’t bring a baby into this world in any other way, no matter how badly I want to be a mother.

I squeeze her breast, and she leans against my chest, her hand going to my face to caress it. And I erupt in my pants.

Just once, I wish she would look back. I wish she would see me, waiting on the horizon for her. Waiting to take care of her. To comfort her. To be her man and her mate and whatever else she needs.

“I hope you brought plenty of that lee-lee root, because my hands are killing me.” “Killing you?” I rush to her side, dropping my burdens. “You are dying? Let me see them!” “Wait, wait! It’s a figure of speech,”

I’ll say one thing for Haeden - he’s not lazy. Nor does he expect me to do anything. If it were up to him, I’d sit around and let him pamper me all day while he works.

“I just…I want a lot of kids,” I said. “When I settle down, I want a big family. I never had one, you know? So I always dreamed about having tons of babies and just filling my house with them. Like five or six or even eight kids. I’d be down with that. You?” “That is a lot of mouths to feed.” I feel weirdly crushed at his response. “I…guess it is.” He scrapes at his knife, not looking me in the eye. “Then it is lucky for you that I am an excellent hunter.”

i want him so bad

She nods and glances over at the blankets, then shivers. “Will you join me? You’re my fur-nus.” “Fur-nus?” “You provide warmth,” she teases, all smiles. I nod. I will gladly fur-nus for her.

“I had a mate,” I snarl at it, stabbing my knife into its side again. “And I loved her! You took her from me!”

“You are mine. That is all you need to know. If you are taken, I will come after you. If you are sick, I will never leave your side. If you leave, I will follow. You will never be without me, because I will come after you. Know this.” I brush my fingers over her breast, where her khui thrums. “Feel this and know it to be true.”

“And when you are well,” I tell her in the same firm voice, cutting off her protest before it starts. “I will lie down with you in the furs and take you as mine. We will mate until you carry my kit. Then, resonance will be sated. But do not seek to tell me that you are not mine yet. Because you have always been mine.” Her wounded eyes blink, and then she nods slowly. “Yours,” she whispers. “Always,” I growl back.

He’s right - I was looking for words when all along, he’s been a man of actions. Words are easy to say, but actions are everything.

“But make no mistake - if you leave this world, I will not be long behind, because I cannot live without you.”

“I am going to carry you,” I tell her. She’s shrugging one of her furs around her, preparing to travel. One end trails on the ground because the fur was made to fit my larger body, and so I move forward and tuck it around her. “Like a kit. I made a wrap.”

By the time we crest over the next valley, Jo-see shifts against me and I hear her khui begin to sing again. “My mate?” I ask. “Do you need your male again?”

I curl my fingers in the front of his vest and press a kiss to his mouth. “You hurry home fast or I’m tossing you aside.” He snorts. “Bring someone else to your furs and I will ram my spear up his nethers.”

“I will always be good to you,” he says solemnly, all traces of playfulness gone from his hard face. “You are my life, my heart, my everything.”