Raider's Treasure: Alpha Barbarians, #1

By Leann Ryans

Lyric's quiet life is shattered when a raid on her village leaves her father and the alpha he'd promised her to dead. The warrior who catches her wants her for himself, but he's destroyed everything she's ever known.

Forced into an adventure she never expected, Lyric is thrown into a whirlwind of instinct and uncertainty. This could be her chance to find a mate who treasures her, or she could be used as nothing more than a status symbol for revenge.

Can she forgive Raider for what he's done and learn to trust him so the others get the choice she was denied?

 

***This is book 1 of the Alpha Barbarians series. It is a slow-burn Omegaverse Romance set in a primitive world.***

• Language: English
• Publisher: Leann Ryans
• Release date: Jan 15, 2024
• ISBN: 9798224489237

Leann Ryans

I'm a wife and mother of four who's been an avid reader since I could pick up a book. It wasn't unusual for me to read a book a day, ignoring the real world as I was sucked into the pages of a great story. I grew up on sci-fi and fantasy books before discovering the world of romance. PNR has always been my go-to, and omegaverse is my addiction of choice. I love writing books featuring heroes who are a bit rough around the edges but aren't overly cruel. My heroines aren't always the take charge type, but neither are all women. They are comfortable in their femininity. If you're looking for a story that has dark themes without leaving you wanting to punch the hero in the face, mine might just be for you.

Book preview

Raider's Treasure

Alpha Barbarians Book 1

Leann Ryans

Copyright © 2019 Leann Ryans

All rights reserved

The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.

No part of this book may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express written permission of the publisher.

Cover design by: Haelah Rice Covers

Previously released as Raider's Bounty

This one is for Staz, Nancy, and Sarah, with special thanks to Nancy and Mitzi for naming the characters, and Emily for helping with the title.

Contents

Title Page

Copyright

Dedication

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Twenty

Chapter Twenty-One

Chapter Twenty-Two

Chapter Twenty-Three

Chapter Twenty-Four

Chapter Twenty-Five

Chapter Twenty-Six

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Chapter Thirty

Epilogue

Thanks

Bear’s Honor

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https://leannryans.com

Chapter One

Lyric

It was colder than she’d expected as Lyric ran across the open field, the frozen grass crunching under her feet. The trees had blocked some of the wind before, but she was exposed in the field and thinking twice about the wisdom of her decision to run.

Maybe if she had submitted they would have spared her, and she wouldn’t have found herself gasping freezing air into straining lungs.

Lyric had never expected to leave the village she had called home. Her father was the Chief, and the alpha he had promised her to as a mate was someone highly placed and well respected. Though he wasn’t someone she would have chosen for herself since he was much older, she was content with him knowing that her father could have picked someone far worse. She had to believe he was doing what was best for her. Lyric had looked forward to their mating in the spring, once her first estrous came, since being a mother was all she had ever wanted to be.

The raiders had changed all of that. The pleasant, unexciting life she had envisioned disappeared with the smoke in the air. Watching her father’s throat slit in front her, and then finding her intended already dead when she tried to turn to him for help, Lyric had no other choice but to run and hope none of the raiders tracked her.

That was why she had left the cover of the trees to cross the field. There was a river she hoped to use to break her trail, but with how cold she already was, she wasn’t sure she could force herself to step into the water. Dying of hypothermia was not the way she wanted to go.

Pushing on as fast as she could run, her tired legs pumped until Lyric came to a sudden halt at the water’s edge. The crust of ice along the bank made her hesitate to run into it as she had planned to break her trail.

Forced to think fast, she followed along the edge of the bank and prayed that no one was tracking her, but it didn’t take long for her to lose that last bit of hope as she heard rough male voices calling to each other in the distance. They weren’t in view yet, but they were close enough that she didn’t need to strain to catch their words, though she couldn’t understand them.

Gathering the last of her courage, Lyric waded into the water, gasping as the chill stole her breath. Already shivering, she forced herself to slog in deeper so the water would carry her scent away. Knee deep in frigid water, she wasn’t able to move as fast as she had on dry land, with the rocky bottom and the numbness seeping into her legs and feet.

Tears running silently down her chapped cheeks, she kept moving upriver until a rock turned beneath her waterlogged boot and pitched Lyric into the deeper water running through the center. Attempting to force air into lungs trapped behind muscles seizing from the cold, she couldn’t get her feet beneath her again, and was swiftly pulled back towards her village. The river passed just outside the edge of the village, and her only hope was that no one was watching the water when she passed by.

Giving in to the pull of the current, Lyric began moving with it instead of fighting it. Propelling herself as fast as she could in the frigid water, she tried to make as little noise as possible as she moved past the edge of her home.

She thought she was doing well until something bumped into her shoulder. Looking into the blank eyes of a boy she had known since childhood, Lyric couldn’t stop the scream that escaped her throat as she struggled to distance herself from his body.

Shoving against it to propel it away from her, she realized he wasn’t the only one floating limp and unseeing in the river. She thrashed to get away from the corpses lining the water along the village, but pain bloomed in her left shoulder, causing her to swallow a mouthful of river water.

Sputtering, she felt herself being pulled towards the riverbank as she choked on another scream. When she looked behind her, there was a large figure holding the line attached to the arrow sticking out the front of her shoulder. Lyric tried to fight against the pull, but between the cold and the injury preventing the use of her left arm, her body was giving up. There was no strength left to fight as he reeled her in like a fish caught on a line.

One massive hand wrapped around her upper arm, lifting her from the water as she screamed again from the pain of her weight pulling on the injury. When he reached out his other hand, she saw the glint of light along the edge of the long knife he held, and she accepted her fate. She hadn’t expected to live through the night anyway.

Going limp in his hand so he could get it done faster and not cause her more pain, Lyric barely had the energy to be surprised when he paused, pulling her closer to sniff her hair. Unable to do anything more than shiver, she didn’t resist as he held her against his body and nuzzled her throat, licking over the pulse in her neck.

At the point where she was oblivious to anything but the warmth of his body, she snuggled closer to him as he lifted her limp body into his arms and strode back towards the village, his musky scent wrapping around her and telling her muddled brain that she was safe.

Chapter Two

Lyric

The first thing she noticed when she came to was warmth. It wrapped gentle fingers around her body and whispered that everything was okay.

That it was all a bad dream.

But as her other senses kicked in, she realized nothing smelled right, and she could hear male voices nearby. If she had been at home in her bed, the blankets would have smelled like her instead of the seductive, earthy scent of an alpha, and she wouldn’t have been able to hear voices from her second-floor room at the back of her father’s house.

Sitting up with a pained cry, the blankets fell to Lyric’s lap, revealing that she was bare beneath them except for a bandage around her shoulder and upper chest. With a gasp, she yanked the blanket back up to cover her breasts, eyes darting around to be sure she was alone.

She had never slept bare, and had no memory explaining why her clothes were missing. That worried her more than finding herself in a strange room.

Her movements had caused her injured shoulder to throb, and when Lyric reached over, her fingers encountered a thick pad on both the front and the back where the arrow had pierced. Remembering the alpha that had pulled her from the river, she scrambled out of the bed and frantically searched for clothing.

Finding the tattered, soggy remains of what she’d been wearing tossed in a corner, a keening cry escaped her throat. The alpha had obviously been one of the raiders, and Lyric had no idea what he planned to do with her, but waking naked in a bed that smelled of him didn’t bode well.

It was every omega’s worst fear.

Eyes searching, she spotted a chest in a corner of the room and darted to it, clasping the blanket around her body with her right arm. Dropping to her knees before it, Lyric couldn’t stop the tears of frustration when she found it locked. She let out a growl of frustration as she yanked on the lid, hoping her small amount of strength would be enough to force the chest to open.

Noise at the door had her scrambling back into the farthest corner, abandoning the chest and clutching the blanket tighter around her as if it was some form of protection. Holding her breath and hoping that she wouldn’t be noticed, Lyric waited as the door swung open and a man stepped into the room. She couldn’t tell if he was the same one that had caught her since she had been so groggy from the cold and the pain, but she doubted he would have given her up once he scented that she was an omega.

His shoulders were so broad he could barely fit through the doorway, and if he were any taller, he would have had to duck to not hit his head. Dark hair braided to the scalp framed a rugged face that under other circumstances she would have found handsome, but as he turned his scowling expression to search the room when he didn’t find her in bed, it simply inspired fear.

Even holding completely still, it only took him seconds to find her, her heart thundering so loud in her ears that she couldn’t hear his steps as he moved closer. The way he stared at her reminded her of a cougar she had watched hunting a deer, but she wasn’t lucky enough to be oblivious to the predator stalking closer. She was well aware of being the prey that he looked like he would enjoy devouring.

Whimpers spilled, unbidden, from her throat as he approached, never breaking eye contact with her. The closer he came, the more details she could make out about him.

The eyes pinning her in place were a rich chocolate brown that seemed to glow in the low light, and black stubble graced his square jaw except for a thin scar running from the center of his right cheek, over his jaw to end below his ear. The intensity of his gaze became too much for her, and she ducked her chin to the side, showing submission as she pressed harder against the wall until her wound caused her to let out a hiss of pain.

She cringed as he took the last few steps between them, but she didn’t dare look up when his booted feet stopped before her. A few tense heartbeats passed before he crouched down, and Lyric flinched away from the hand that reached for her.

The alpha let out a low growl, causing a shudder to pass through her body, uncomfortable warmth blooming in her belly.

Please, don’t, she whispered, choking on the tears threatening to break free.

A string of words she didn’t understand left his firm lips, and she raised her watery eyes to meet his.

Giving her head a small shake, she said, I… I don’t understand.

He let out a huff, eyes narrowed, and she tried to sink further into herself to escape his attention.

You’re injured. I need to check the wound, he responded gruffly.

His accent was strange, but she understood the words that time. His voice reminded her of thunder rumbling