Page 4 of Claimed By the Alien Barbarian

The Zuldruxian following me paused inside the woods—this, I only sensed.

I almost turned right and headed in a different direction, because I didn’t want to lead them to whoever was camping here.

But I’d die if I didn’t get help.

A small person—a youngling? —stood behind the fire, and the light had to be playing tricks with my eyes, because they looked human like Vanessa, the mate to a neighboring clan traedor.

They called out, and the strength and challenge in the female’s voice, threaded through with a trace of fear, echoed around me.

I sensed my follower slinking farther into the woods. Would they leave or would they watch? I had to warn her.

It was all I could do to take one step after another. If I stopped, I’d fall.

Yet I somehow knew this one person could save me.

It was only when I’d nearly reached her that I came to a halt. Despite my raging fever and the pain clawing through my belly, I could only gape at her beauty. Golden hair? I’d never seen anything like it. She’d secured it in a long weave trailing partway down her back, though a few curls teased the sides of her face.

I might be dying, but I was still a warrior in his prime, which meant I ached to touch her pale skin, to stroke my fingertips across her lean frame.

Her two breasts, unlike the four of my people, jutted out from her chest.

I locked my eyes on hers as blue as the sky at a clear, perfect dawn.

Shewashuman, and she held a weapon pointed right at me.

A wooden spear plunged from the sky, impaling the ground between us, making us both jump.

She gazed around wildly. “Where did that come from?”

It couldn’t be from the person trying to kill me. They’d retreated too far inside the woods.

That meant the spear had come from . . .

“The gods,” I exclaimed, my words jumbling together, barely making sense.

Tipping her head back, the woman studied the canopy with a sharp eye.

Warmth seared across the skin on my wrist, and I lifted my hand, flipping it over. A symbol blazed on my skin. This female was my gods’ given mate, the only one I’d ever love and crave. The only one who could complete me.

To my utter mortification, I fell forward, landing hard on my chest. Pain blasted through me, and I barely clung to consciousness.

“You must . . .” I croaked, desperate to tell her about the person trying to kill me. “Watch out.Murderer.”

“What?” Her fingers tightened on her weapon, and she peered around, her intent gaze scanning the woods for threats. “Who’s a murderer?”

Not me. Never me.

“Followed. Stabbed.” I could barely get the words past my swollen tongue. When did I last have water?

Days. It had been days.

“I’ll watch out,” she barked.

Good. Very good.

Mate . . .

The world rushed through me and . . .

---