"Forged in Fire"

When traitors maroon the immortal king Pietas on an alien planet, there's no escape. Half a million of his followers were transported as well, asleep in their cryopods. Pietas could create a new world, rule his people, and start completely over. Except there's no technology, no infrastructure, and every pod is set to open at the same time. Stacked atop one another in inoperable units, the pods will trap his fellow immortals in a gruesome cycle of repeated deaths, lodged within the very pods that should have offered sanctuary. Unless Pietas can free them before that happens. At his side is an irascible mortal who'd once been his jailer, and a fascinating woman who's the designer of their people's finest weapons—and telepathic. Just his luck, Pietas has been adopted by an entire tribe of know-it-all sentient panthers. But first, he must deal with the most dysfunctional family in the history of forever...