Barbarian Alien by Ruby Dixon

Four of our men were killed and one female before we could bring down the
ta-li
.” He shakes his head. “It was a bad time.”
    “Sounds dangerous.”
    “It is why the women no longer hunt. It is not that they cannot, it is that we will not risk the life of the tribe by putting them in jeopardy.”
    I open my mouth to reply and he immediately pops another bite of meat into it. This feels like a shushing tactic, so I chew quickly and then continue. “But you have the human chicks now. That means that you’re no longer one big sausage party. That’ll bring the tribe up to…” I count for a moment. “Twelve humans and thirty of you guys means there’s forty two of us. Plenty of hunters.”
    “Not many will wish to risk their mates on a hunt,” he said, offering her another piece of meat. She refused it, and he ate it, instead, his expression thoughtful. “Many will no longer want to hunt at all.”
    “Why not?”
    “Hunts are very solitary by nature. We got out for long periods of time into the snows. We might be gone a full turn of the moons before returning home.”
    “Like a month?”
    He shrugs. “Most hunt alone. It is easier to cover more ground that way. We hunt smaller game in many different directions and cache the kills under the snow so we can recover it later, when the land is forbidding and all the good game has gone to hibernate to get out of the ice.”
    “So hunters…are alone a lot? It’s probably not the worst thing in the world, given that you’ve only got four girls back at home,” I muse. “Is that what you do?”
    He nods. “I am a hunter. I spend more time out in the wild than at the tribal caves.”
    “Why?”
    “Why what?”
    “Why spend more time alone than back at home?”
    His glowing blue gaze neatly pins me in place. “There is nothing for me there. At least in the wild I can provide for my people. At home, I only see what others have that I do not. Sometimes it is…difficult.” The look he shoots me is utterly possessive once more, and I know he’s talking about mates.
    I swallow hard. So he voluntarily exiles himself for long periods of time so he’s not around all the happy couples? My heart twinges with pity. No wonder Raahosh is crappy being around people. “Dammit, don’t make me feel sorry for you.”
    He grunts and savagely cuts another bit of meat off the kill, then chews it, the expression on his face bitter. “I do not want your pity, woman.”
    “Pity’s all you’re getting from me tonight,” I quip.
    He bares his teeth in a snarl. “Your words are not amusing to me.”
    “I wasn’t trying to amuse
you
,” I point out. Then I get to my feet, irritated. “Ugh. I don’t know what to do with you.”
    “I want my mate,” he grits out, still at the fire. “That is how this works. The khui has decided that you and I shall be mated. Nothing in that can be changed. You will be mine, and that is all there is.”
    “Is that so?” I turn back to him and put my hands on my hips. “I want to go hunting. How do you like them apples?” He cocks his head, and I realize he’s trying to analyze my words. “It’s a human saying,” I snap. “I want to hunt and provide for myself. And you know what? I’d like to decide for myself, too. When do I get to decide what I want, damn it?” I fling my arms wide. “Everyone around me thinks they know what I should be doing, but you know what I want? No, you don’t, because no one asks me.”
    “You want to hunt,” Raahosh says in a flat voice.
    “That’d be good, for starters.”
    “Very well. I will take you hunting in the morning.”
    I blink at him in surprise. His mood seems dark, but he’s…going to let me join him hunting? “Really? Just like that?”
    “Provided…” He pauses and gives me another heated look.
    “Oh, here we go,” I mutter, then wave at him to continue. There is always a catch, isn’t there? “Lay it on me.”
    “I will take you hunting if you lay with me tonight as