Blood Red Petals Ankle Deep — M.G. Lewis

Second volume in the Nraak Confederation Series: Suura was Seeshuse, born into the Saamu family, one of the three great dynastic families which had ruled the Empire for a hundred generations. His grandmother had told him about the Nraak, and about the war in which she had fought as the Empire tried and failed to absorb the Nraak home world. He found her description to be somewhat lacking when he came to know them, when the Nraak raided his world and killed his family. He would fight them again and again, with and without the blessing of the Empress, but when a new ally made itself known to him, he was desperate enough to listen to them and perhaps give them what they demanded. (Volume 1: An Orange Sherbet Sun in a Latte Sky ----- Volume 3: Antique Ladies and Gray Malevolence)"