Page 10 of Claimed By the Alien Barbarian

Before I could protest thatIshould scout the area since it was my role as her mate to protect her, she slipped into the woods behind me, her footsteps light.

I huffed and peered around, seeing the wood gods’ sign lying near the firepit. Closing my eyes, I hummed a series of notes, keeping the sounds low. The forest gods would feel the vibration in my body even if they couldn’t hear the sound. The spear jerked its way toward me and once I could reach it, I stopped humming. Hefting it, I laid it across my thighs. It wasn’t much of a weapon, but the tip had been finely honed, and it would do until I could craft others.

Kerry wasn’t gone long. She slunk out of the woods on the opposite side of the meadow and skirted the edge until she stood a short distance away from me.

What if she never saw me as her mate? The fear she’d never care gnawed at me, raw and unending. She was pretty, resourceful, and confident, and I adored her already for those reasons alone. But as I looked at her, I could barely breathe. My heart pounded with a mix of hope and dread. She was wonderful. Why would a glorious female like her wish to be with me?

“You don’t plan to stab me with that thing, do you?” she asked, waving toward the spear.

“It’s a sacred object. If someone needs to be stabbed with it, it’ll be the person who wounded me, never you. I’ll call for more weapons soon, but for now, I’m no longer unarmed.”

“I get it. I’m grateful I have my switchblade and knife.” The latter, she wore in a sheath strapped around her waist. “I wish I had the gun I left in my other pack, but it’s too late to complain about that now.”

A gun must be another kind of weapon. “You have your bow.”

“I made that after I arrived here.”

“You’re clever.”

“Need’s a wonderful motivator, my mom would say in a grumbling tone. She pushed and pushed, trying to teach me all the skills I might need to survive on my own, and I’m grateful to her for that, at least. She died five years ago.” Her chest rose and fell with her sigh. “I wish she’d been honest with me about her job, but I’m sure she wasn’t allowed to tell me much. If only I could hug her one more time, not wave as she walked out the door on her last supposed vacation.”

“I’m sorry she died.”

“She was murdered; I’m sure about that, though there were no details about her death in the note the government sent.”

I didn’t understand many of her words, probably because they didn’t translate into my language.

Not long after the gods brought females to their central island to hold them there until they were ready to release them to mates, they promised to give each the ability to understand our language. I was grateful for that. I couldn’t imagine trying to communicate with Kerry with hand gestures and grunts.

“As for my bow and arrows,” she said, “I made do with the supplies I had.” She dropped down onto her haunches, still keeping an arrow set to fly, and nudged her chin my way. “Shoot.”

I frowned. “I have no interest in shooting you.”

“The word means tell me your story.”

“Then why not just state that?”

Her eyes spiraled, a gesture I’d seen Vanessa make at Aizor when she was feeling a mixture of frustration and affection. Did Kerry hold affection for me? I prayed it was so. The gods would never make a mistake and gift me a female who wouldn’t soon love me.

Would they?

Uncertainty was a raging storm inside me. Even with her remaining some distance away, I felt her presence. The roar of my heart threatened to drown out everything else. My mind spiraled through an endless cycle of yearning.

But she wanted to hear how she came to be here, and I owed this to her.

“Long ago, our gods lived seamlessly with us,” I said.

“By us, I assume you mean the Zuldruxians.”

“Yes.”

“Are your people the only species on this planet?”

“The lizard people, Veerenads, live many days’ travel from here in a city they built. They’re descendants of a pack who survived after their ship crashed on our planet before my grandfather was born. They remain in their city and interact with us.”

“They don’t cause problems?”

“Sometimes. Never fear, I will rip apart any Veerenad who comes near you.”

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