Raider Warlords of the Vandar is an alien romance series written by Tana Stone. The perspective switched back and forth between the two main characters; male and female, along with a periodic random party's perspective. The plot surrounded a galactic war with two sides: the Zagrath Imperial Empire and those who opposed it. The Empire was made mostly of an advanced human race; not quite human anymore, through genetic modifications and advancements. The Vandar Raiders were warriors that fought the Empire and all who associate with them, while aiding those who rebelled against them. These weren't noble warriors. The Vandars were ruthless raiders; taking, plundering and destroying everything in their paths. The Vandar species were muscular humanods, with tannish-bronze skin, dark hair, tattoos and tails. They dressed half-naked in leather kilts with midevil battle axes as weapons.
Written in first person, Prodigal is the 7th book in this series, and follows Vandar Raas Ronnan and the human female Sloane.
Sloane was a pilot for the Valox resistance fleet. While everyone assumed that the Empire was destroyed after the war (in book 6), Sloane's gut instinct told her that the enemy was far from conquered. Turned out, she was correct. Unwilling to give up on her mission for revenge after they killed her lover (Leo, who was also a pilot for the resistance), Sloane took an old fighter vessel on a reconnaissance mission, which wound up breaking down in the middle of space. That was when Ronnan's hoard stumbled across her ship and took her captive.
Ronnan was the Raas for the Kyrie Vandar—the Lost Vandar. Their fathers had revolted against the Vandar leaders and been defeated, then cast out to live the rest of their lives in unknown space, take alien mates, and survive without the protection of the hordes. His father's horde was exiled, and after taking refuge on Selk, also took Selkee mates. The Selkee were known for their intellect. They did not have military might, but they were prized as great strategists and thinkers. Ronnan was a halfbreed, with a Vandar father and Selkee mother, as were his entire hoard. As a result, they had light blonde hair (white), which set them apart from their Vandar brothers. Everything else about them was distinctively Vandar. The Selkee descended from magical beings and could not be marked by another with mating marks. His father believed that Ronnan needed a Vandar mate and that only with a Vandar female could he be sure to restore their blood line. He left his home planet of Selk to fulfill his father's mission of reclaiming their rightful place among the Vandar.
The couple officially had sex in chapter 21, at the 44% mark. The mating marks didn't appear until near the end of the book, after Ronnan sent Sloane away. The lack of communication and acceptance drove me crazy. Ronnan was hell-bent on following his dead father's wishes to the point that he turned his back on Sloane and pushed her away, denying his own feelings. There's always one party that seems to have a hangup and refuses to give in to their feelings. I read this genre of books specifically for the raunch. Delaying sexual intercorse anytime after the 48% mark is like dangling the cheese so long it molds. What initially made me love this particular series was that this wasn’t some alien species that protected all women and honorably waited for consent. No. They took what they wanted. Which made for some very spicy sex scenes in the first book. I wouldn’t exactly call them “romantic,” more like brutish and carnal, which is right up my alley. I liked the idea of less nobility and morals, and more savage dominance. Unfortunately, there had been less and less of that as the books went on, which left me disappointed. This series turned into the same book over and over again, just with different characters. I was so bored with the 6th book that I sped-read the last quarter just to be done with it. I thought that the series was over, but alas, it continues.