Page 14 of Barbarian Daddies

“There’s a hangar a couple of miles northwest of Emerald City,” he says. “I’ll know in a few days if they’re hiding a starship there. If they are, it’ll be our first strike.”

“I’m already organizing a mining operation to gather all the explosive materials we’ll need for that mission,” Jewel says with sharp confidence.

Were she not human, I would’ve easily considered her a genuine Sunnaite. Her mannerisms match ours in so many ways, it’s uncanny. I’m constantly fascinated by the ethnic and cultural diversity of Earth. Our society has always been more unified, despite our conflicts. We’ve been fighting over a variety of interests, but never broke down into smaller countries and kingdoms like the humans did. They have different languages and traditions, strictly defined borders and varying religions. The more I listen to Cynthia as she tells me about her world, the more curious I become.

They can be just as ruthless in matters of warfare, though, so seeing Jewel adapt so swiftly to our realm isn’t exactly a shock. To be honest, I think I’m proud of her. She may still have dreams of resuming her life on Earth someday, somehow, but Jewel has adapted incredibly well here.

“Good. I’ll send word to the boys and have them travel directly over to Kreek territory once they’re done with their Cloud Mountain operation, if that’s alright with you, Yossul, Fadai.”

They both nod enthusiastically.

“Of course. We’ll welcome them with arms wide open,” Fadai chuckles.

Kai will be furious. I know that already. I feel bad for going behind his back like this, but it must be done. There are no regrets in my heart, only the fear of all our progress going down the drain if we don’t take every necessary and every possible precaution.

Someday, we will look back on these days and laugh about it. Someday, our children will be free to run across the red fields and play by the Sun River without fear of violent retaliation from the Sky Tribe. Someday, our women will replenish their numbers, and their wombs will carry the world into a new era. Until then, we’ll make do with what we’ve got and fight for survival without destroying our souls in the process.

By evening fall, I’m back in Hadana territory.

Kai is busy helping the younglings carry the ripened fruits from the orchard to the warehouse on the north side of town, so I stop by Cynthia’s place to see her. I miss her. It’s only been half a day since I last kissed her, and my body is already craving her.

A knock on the door is all it takes to see my woman, beautifully clad in a long, white cotton dress, her skin glowing splendidly in the starlight shining from above.

“What are you doing here?” she asks me, somewhat surprised.

“I’m hungry. Aren’t you?” I love teasing her.

She frowns slightly, then glances up and down the road. “Where’s your brother?”

“Would you like me to fetch him for you, or would you like to spend this evening with me?”

“Doing what, exactly?”

Laughter bursts from the depths of my chest. “You are incorrigible.”

She stills, likely realizing that she has had her defenses all the way up at a point in our relationship where they are no longer necessary. Slowly, she softens and even musters a warm smile. It’s enough to send the blood rushing hot through my veins as I step aside and offer my arm.

“Come with me. I’ll show you something nice,” I say.

“I’d like that very much,” she replies.

An hour later, we’re two miles deep into the red desert, our bare feet warmed by the sand and our hearts beating faster as we approach a secluded oasis—one of the few in the region. Lush orange and purple foliage explodes around a wide pond of steaming water. Blackwood trees line the entire naturally formed complex, like silent guardians, while fruits hang heavily from the branches of wild trees, the seeds once carried over by southern winds.

“This place is a small miracle,” I tell Cynthia as we reach the pond. “No one knows when it developed into such a slice of paradise, nor how it came to be in the first place, and few of the Fire Tribe even know about it.”

“It’s beautiful,” she whispers, her gaze traveling around us, her wild green eyes recording every single detail. I can’t get enough of this look of fascination that fills her expression with such warm light it makes my cock thicken. “It’s amazing how nature always finds a way, huh?” She looks at me, and for a moment I feel my heart skipping several beats. “How did you learn about it?”

“Kai and I found it when we were children,” I say. “A total fluke. We were chasing after a herd of wild horses, and we followed them here. It used to be their watering hole, much smaller at the time.”

“What happened to the horses?”

“The violence drove them away. They moved farther south and closer to the river. The constant buzzing and rumbling of Sky Tribe ships disrupted their usual movements until they grew tired, I guess.”

She lowers her gaze, and I can’t bear to see her sad. Not when she’s with me, not when we’re so far removed from the mad world, so I take her hand and guide her over to one of the black fig trees. I reach up and pluck a handful from the higher branches, offering them to her.

“Oh, I love these,” Cynthia says, her lips curled with delight as she starts peeling and eating them one by one. The last piece is particularly juicy, and all I can do is stare as a stream of fig nectar trickles down her chin. “What are you—”

She freezes as I lean in and capture the runaway drops just as they reach her collarbone, licking them clean off her silky skin. I listen to her breath faltering and know she is as ripe for me as the figs were for her heavenly mouth.

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