Free Creature Worlds: Solar Slick by Juliet Cardin Page B

absently while I sat out on the balcony with my feet up. Gazing over at Tigg, he seemed content enough. He was used to hard work, and glad for the opportunity to provide for his little family. We were a picture of domestic bliss.
    Tigg, feeling my eyes on him, smiled and looked at my hand resting on my belly. “You’ll begin to grow quickly, my love,” he said.
    “You don’t say.” I’d already surpassed the size of a pregnant Earth woman in her first trimester.
    “We will have to return to Treox about two weeks before you are due to give birth,” he reminded me.
    “Yes. Then hide out in the jungle and stock up on jineg bugs.” They were hard-shelled little crawlers resembling Earth’s cockroaches. “Is there shelter?” Perhaps we’d stay with his brothers?
    “I will build us something,” he assured me.
    A hut made from trees and bushes I guessed. Fantastic. The piss-hole we were in now would sure seem like the Ritz then.
    Tigg saw my frown. “Don’t worry, it’ll be all right.”
    “As long as we’re together it will be.”
    The months passed easily. I grew larger each day while Tigg toiled away in the vast gardens around the inn, coming home late in the day, muscles rippling and sweaty. The weather was comfortable; the cool breezes from the lake made the dingy room we shared smell sweet and welcoming. Each night we spent eating dinner on the balcony, and then locked in each other’s arms in our narrow bed. In the third month of my pregnancy I became too large to accommodate Tigg’s enormous cocks, so we sweetly kissed and caressed each other instead. Tigg didn’t seem to mind the lack of physical sex. He was ever attentive to my incessant mood swings and crazy cravings. Despite my earlier suspicions of King Ranox, we only heard from him once when a messenger arrived to make sure we were settled in. Other than that, we were left to mingle with the many guests visiting from other worlds, or the large staff employed at the inn. Aelon grew used to Tigg’s presence and even began to send up delicacies from the kitchen to me now and again thinking I may enjoy them. Life was calm, predictable and unbelievably happy.
    Two days before we were set to leave, everything went to shit.
    We’d made it known around the inn that we were leaving at the end of the week. Everyone said how sad they’d be to see us go, and even Aelon was melancholy. Tigg reported for duty in the morning as usual and I settled down with my big belly onto a recliner on the balcony. Frantic knocking made me jump up and waddle quickly to the door.
    “What?” I demanded, opening it up in a panic.
    It was one of the porters I’d seen around. He looked extremely agitated, his gaze darting from my eyes to my belly and back up again. “I don’t know how to tell you this,” he began.
    “Tell me what?” Oh no! Oh no! My frantic mind screamed in warning. All of my old fears resurfaced. Clay had found us and had attacked Tigg in the lobby. King Ranox had figured out who my father was and wanted us thrown in the dungeon as traitors. They’d discovered I was half Earthling…
    “Tigg’s been arrested and taken to Malenea for questioning,” the porter blurted.
    Bloody hell! “What? Why?”
    “I don’t know. The king’s soldiers just arrived and whisked him away. I’m sorry.” Having delivered his news he turned on his heels and practically ran back down the hallway. I followed after him, not caring I was in my bare feet.
    When I reached the front desk Aelon was standing there wringing his hands. “Aelon, please, tell me what happened. Why did the soldiers take Tigg?”
    He studied me a moment before he replied. “I don’t know, Minka. Oh, the scandal of it all! They arrested him and dragged him out in front of the guests. We’ll never live this down.”
    “Screw the guests! Did they say anything? Like why they took him away?”
    He shrugged. “They’re the king’s soldiers. They don’t have to have a reason to do anything.