Marlene

Marlene ("Mar-lenn") is a main character of Barbarian's Seduction. She is one of the human women in stasis in the first crashed ship. She is mated to Zennek and mother of Zalene.

## Description

Marlene is from France. She has black hair and pale skin.

## Personality

Marlene is quiet natured but has a quiet confidence to go with it. She is comfortable with her sexuality and discussing sexual topics in public. She can be sassy, especially in French.

She is best friends with Ariana and offers her emotional support.

Marlene is very superstitious and sees signs of her mother everywhere, especially in things shaped like a heart, which her mother loved.

## History

Marlene was born and raised in France. It was always just her and her mother, her father abandoned them when she was three years old and she doesn't remember him. She and her mother were very close and Marlene had a hard time after her mother died of cancer, four years prior to her abduction. However, she felt her mother sent her messages through the heart shape, and she found comfort in that.

Prior to the start of the series, Marlene was visiting friends in America. While in Fort Lauderdale, she was abducted. This was in 2015.

In Ice Planet Barbarians, she was awoken from a stasis pod after Sa-khui came to rescue the girls.

While she is aware she should be panicking, she saw hearts and felt comforted that all would be well. She then quickly resonated to Zennek. They left the group to fulfill resonance, and she found Zennek to be a shy but welcome mate.

After resonance was fulfilled she befriended Ariana on the way back to the cave. She became the only girl to learn about Ariana's anxiety disorder. Marlene predicted there would be a special bond between the girls who resonated on that first day.

When she arrived at the cave she was nervous to met Zennek's large family as she had never had a large family herself. However, Zennek's mother Kemli wore a necklace that was covered in heart shapes, and again she felt her mother was telling her all would be well.

During the next months she quickly became best friends with Ariana and they offered each other support.

Around fifteen months after resonance, she gave birth to a daughter, Zalene. Zalene's name came from a hybrid of Marlene and Zennek.

Marlene regularly spoke French with her mate and taught some of it to her daughter.

During present day sequences of Barbarian's Beloved, Marlene comforted a pregnant Ariana, who was missing her mate Zolaya. Marlene suggested to Ariana to go visit the dirtbeaks suggesting they were like owls and would ensure that her child was a girl.

### Barbarian's Seduction

During the present day sequence of Barbarian's Seduction, Marlene is troubled as all the hearts she usually see are missing and she feels something is going to go wrong. When Zennek and Zalene don't come back from a hunt she tries not to panic. There has been a huge snowstorm and even after the snow stops they haven't returned. Her mother has never abandoned her, but now is the time to make her own luck. She will find her family.

Marlene, Salukh, Borren, and Vadren head out to find Zennek and Zalene. They discover the two trapped in a cave by metlaks who turned up after the snowstorm ended. Once they are rescued they tell her that they saw hearts while they were trapped. Marlene realizes her mother hadn't abandoned her but instead went to watch over her mate and daughter.