Barbarian's Choice (Ice Planet Barbarians, #11)

by Ruby Dixon

The tribe loves to tease Haeden and his mate about their frequent resonances, but Haeden just takes it all in stride. I think he secretly loves the fact that he and his mate have resonated three times so quickly, but Jo-see loves being a mother and Haeden is a good father. They are happy.

My own mother is twenty-seven turns older than my father. It can happen, as long as I am patient.

His body is covered by some strange, thick gray leather, but he is tall, so tall. Taller than anyone in the tribe, even Raahosh. His head is exposed, and I can see he has blue skin, like mine, but paler. He also has a sweep of arching, proud horns that gleam in the sunlight. Strange. His mane is shorn close to his scalp, but it looks to be black, like mine.

Gods damn it, I think I just shot her keffing pet. I put my blaster away, tucking it back into its holster as the strange, nearly naked woman sobs over the furry herbivore. I’m disgusted that I overreacted. Now that I have a moment to catch my breath, I realize that the thing is a four-legged plant eater, shaggy, ugly, but harmless. I just saw it charging toward us and reacted like a soldier. But I’m not a soldier any longer, and I keffed up. Bad. The woman sobs over her pet, stroking its nose as the creature wheezes its final breaths.

Hate can always be flipped back to friendship, but disappointment lasts forever.

88% match - Old Sakh. Holy kef. Old Sakh? From the Old Sakh Empire? No one’s spoken that language in a thousand years.

The Sakh Empire broke up and formed several coalitions of different planets, and my home world is one of them.

“She’s approximately twenty-five Homeworld years old. Adult. Last menstruated about three weeks ago. Blood sugars are excellent, teeth and vital signs are perfect. She’s got that parasite, but other than that, everything’s as it should be. Oh,” she adds in an exaggerated voice, “and she started ovulating when you walked into the room. Interesting, isn’t it?”

The others stare. Aehako starts to grin, and Pashov smirks. Bek just rolls his eyes.

“Pheromones,” Niri says, saving me from an awkward explanation. “It’s a primitive biological way of marking a female as belonging to a particular male. The spur secretes twice the pheromones that the rest of the body does.”

“I am your mother. I will love you and honor whatever decision will make you happy.” Her eyes shine with tears of her own. “Even if it takes you far, far away from me.”