Vellum Voyages

4.5 helms

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This is my favourite one so far!!! My heart just broke for Rukh and then re-mended itself for his happy ending :) I was just a weepy, sniffing mess but a deliriously happy one!

Harlow kicked ass in the last novel with her mechanic skills and we lost her halfway through the book after she got attacked, so her fate was unknown till now. Rukh is a lone warrior with no tribe, no family and no exposure to the other aliens. In fact, he refers to them as the "bad ones" and stays well away from them.

Rukh is just unbearably innocent in the ways of normal life. He doesn't understand a lot of things like social skills and sexuality and he is lonely beyond measure since his father's death but the only person he has ever spoken to is his father and he has been groomed from a young age to stay away from the "bad ones". He resigns himself to a life of solitude till he comes across Harlow and the confusing khui thrumming she invokes in him.

This is how they initially meet

 I don’t know what this means. All I know is that I’ve smelled the strange creatures surrounded by the bad ones, the ones my father told me to avoid. There are two strange things traveling with the bad ones – they are so furry it is impossible to tell what their bodies look like, but one has a shock of orange-red mane that fascinates me. I’ve followed them since last night, and now the reddish-maned one is alone.

 

And I…panic. When it starts to turn, I club it over the head.

 

It collapses to the ground in a heap of multicolored fur. A bone knife, similar to my father’s, falls from its hand.

 

I rub my thrumming chest, confused.

 

I just love this scene! And I LOLd so hard when he clubbed Harlow over the head. It was heartbreakingly funny all at once because it is such a natural reaction to Rukh and Ruby Dixon captures his lack of etiquette so effortlessly by this scene.

Harlow cannot be forgotten as she does handle his innocence really delicately and is very patient with him. She loves him without reservation and judgement and she really does make Rukh so happy, its beautiful . I loved Rukh's sexual awakening under Harlow's tutelage and Ruby Dixon captures their moments beautifully as they are not just erotic, but passionate and loving and you can feel the love between them leap through the pages.

 In that moment, I want to give Rukh everything I possibly can. I want to give him a mate, a family, teach him about sex, and share everything every day together. I want him to know he’s not alone.

I want him to know someone else loves him. Someone else is there for him.

There are so many beautiful moments and many more beautiful quotes but I won't ruin it for the rest of you! Rukh is very dear to me and Raahosh is a very close second. Just be prepared to ugly cry with a lot of painful heartstring tugging.