Taking Tilly (19 page)

Strolling along the walks or lounging
on padded benches were women that clearly hailed from the same race
of giants.

As if they felt her gaze, they turned
and stared.

The problem was, they seemed a lot
more interested in the man she was standing with than Tilly liked.
And she left wondering, if they decided to bestow their wonderful
selves on the men, would the men be quite as pleased with their
toys or interested in them?

Or would the alien women demand that
they be piled back into the ship and taken to the slave market for
sale to the highest bidder?

She thought it was
possible.

She didn’t
think
the men would
simply dispose of them as if they were garbage and of no
value.

Chapter Twenty One

Almost a week passed before she had an
actual face-to-face confrontation.

The Earth women, to their delight,
discovered they had the freedom to wander about the colony as they
pleased in the afternoons. They were occupied from breakfast to
lunch servicing the needs of the men who were able to break away
from work. And they were very occupied after the evening meal until
well into the night.

But they were free to roam and tease
the men throughout the afternoon.

The Merkdar women, feeling the heat of
competition, although they clearly thought they were so far above
the Earth women as to hardly fit into the same category (female)
decided to remind the Merkdar men that they had a dozen women of
their own that they should be vying to impress and court. They
began to leave their ivory tower in groups of three and four and
stroll about the growing city—approving of the work being done and
sometimes giving the men pointers about what they could do to make
the structures more comfortable and appealing.

For the most part, the men seemed to
view them with adoration and complete indulgence.

Emily made a gagging motion when a
group swept past her group with their noses in the air, however,
and the men who happened to catch it chuckled—a little uneasily,
granted, but they didn’t immediately throw down their tools and
beat them.

Well actually, Tilly corrected
herself, they might well have done just that because they did put
their tools aside and sweep Emily’s group back to the hotel. And
they were gone a very long time. And Emily looked very pleased with
herself when she reappeared.

So did the other women for that
matter, so although Tilly was well aware of Emily’s penchant for
violent sexual torture, either all of the women were—doubtful in
Tilly’s book—or it wasn’t the sort of punishment the Merkdar women
seemed to think it had been.

Tilly’s confrontation was way worse in
some ways.

Commander Torin had sent his
navigator, Aron, to collect her, although she didn’t actually know
there was a purpose to it at the time. She thought he’d merely
arrived to walk with her—escort her. Unlike the other women, she
was always escorted either by Prince Rafe, Commander Torin, or his
second—Kane, or one of Torin’s other crewmen—Max, Aron, or
Lucien.

There was definite purpose to the
walk, however. They headed straight down the main street when they
left the hotel and directly to the very fringes of the
village.

The woods crowded close to the village
at this point, but there was a fair sized clearing to one side and
six beautifully muscular, sweating men—stripped down to trousers
and boots only—working on clearing more. Well five. The sixth, who
was also sweating as if he’d been working with them, was seated on
a freshly cut log with one of the trio of Merkdar women also
present went Tilly arrived with Aron.

The women sniffed and curled their
lips as if they smelled something rank, but none of the three
actually acknowledged Tilly’s presence otherwise.

Torin didn’t even glance at them. He
stopped when he noticed their approach and motioned for Tilly.
Ignoring the provocation—both in the insult and the way the one was
fawning over the prince, Tilly set her jaw and stalked across the
clearing.

She nearly tripped on the
debris.

The women snickered.

Aron caught her and kept her from
falling and Torin strode quickly to her. Catching her chin and
tipping her face up, he shook his head. “Careful! Fall and hurt
self.”

Slightly mollified, Tilly sucked in a
breath and released it slowly.

Then Torin slipped his hand down and
cupped her belly.

She glared at him.

To her surprise, his lips curled up at
one corner. He settled a hand heavily on her shoulder and turned
her to look as he gestured with his other arm and spoke to her in
his language.

She didn’t have a fucking clue what he
was talking about, but she got the impression he was explaining his
plans for the place. He looked down at her and grinned abruptly.
Leaning down, he brushed his lips across her crown. “House here for
mama and baby.”

Tilly’s head bobbed up so quickly she
almost bumped his nose. “Really?” she asked, thrilled beyond
measure.

“
Yes,” he assured
her.

She squealed with excitement, threw
her arms around him, and squeezed him tightly. “Thank
you!”

He stroked her head, tightened his
arms around her for a moment and then shifted away from her. “One
for all,” he said, nodding toward Kane with his chin. “All make
this.”

Tilly was more relieved that he’d
given her permission to thank them all with the same warmth than
she was dismayed or uncomfortable. She turned and rushed to Kane,
nearly tripping and falling on him. He caught her and lifted her up
and squeezed her in a bear hug and popped bones before he let her
go with obvious reluctance.

Her enthusiasm held until she’d made
the rounds of Torin’s crew and then nosedived when she turned to
look at the prince. To her surprise, he excused himself, rose and
approached her with his arms out. She threw herself at him—almost
literally.

“
Well, now that I have
seen one of the creatures up close, I can’t say that I’m especially
impressed. But then I don’t suppose one can expect a whore to
behave any better.”

Prince Rafe stiffened and
turned to look at the woman who’d spoken.
“My little Tilly cannot understand you, but I
can
,” he said in a low, threatening
voice.
“These little Earth women were
taken from their home and people without their consent and they
have been used shamelessly by ours because of our desperate need.
You will not use that term about my Tilly—or in fact any of the
Earth women—when they have given hope and joy and a future to our
people. They have saved us from the misery of mere
survival.

“
I have chosen Tilly to
bear my heir when she has borne Commander Torin’s and I will expect
her to be treated as my woman—my mate—should be. Is that
understood?”

The women paled and quickly
bowed.

Tilly had no idea what they’d said,
but it had been clear enough that it was insulting just from their
expressions of contempt and the tone of voice.

It was also clear that the prince had
taken them to task for it.

But the looks the women shot at her
when they bowed to the prince also made it clear that they were a
long way from conceding defeat and she had enemies.

She was able to mostly put the
uncomfortable confrontation from her mind once they’d left,
however, primarily because the men made it clear that they were
expecting the baby she was carrying to be a first.

She hadn’t counted on that! She hadn’t
even completely digested the fact that she was pregnant.

But then Prince Rafe pulled her close
to him and whispered sweet nothings in her ear.

“
Mine next.”

Tilly pulled away and looked up at him
in confusion. He slipped a hand between them and settled in on her
rounding belly. “Commander Torin’s here. Den Prince
Rafe’s.”

Tilly felt her jaw sag as that sank
in. She whipped a look at the other men and discovered they were
grinning. “Uh oh. I’m in trouble.”

* * * *

It almost seemed as if everything
began to happen in fast forward after that. The men brought
gifts—all sorts of things—and she wasn’t the only one being
showered with every treasure the men could think of to please them.
Before long all of the rooms were crowded with
offerings.

The one gift all of the women loved
most, though, was a machine that made clothing!

Granted, it was only capable of
producing simple designs—well, one. It could make a t-shaped tunic
length piece or a t-shaped ankle length robe/gown. After they’d
played with it a while they managed to make simple trousers with
it, as well. And the machine created the cloth, so there was no
limit to the wardrobes once they figured out which plant fibers
worked for weaving.

Tilly thought they were
fairly unanimous in having had no real domestic talents, or much
interest for that matter, before they left Earth, but they were
also unanimous in being extremely interested in the machine. They
began to squabble over it, in point of fact, until the prince put a
stop to that and gave them one day each to use it. They had to
contain their impatience after that and wait their turn, but at
least they knew they
had
a turn and no one to dispute it when it was their
day. Tilly spent her time experimenting with different fibers and
dyes and patterns while she waited. And she didn’t focus entirely
on herself. She made things for her new home and the baby she was
expecting.

The home was completed, thankfully,
several months before the baby’s arrival. It wasn’t an easy first
experience for Tilly. She was frightened for one thing. For
another, she’d discovered about half way through that there wasn’t
a doctor among the group. There were a couple of nurse/medics, but
no doctors—no hospital and very little in the way of
medicines.

To her relief, the men had been
planning the ‘project’ instead of leaving it entirely in her hands
as an Earth father most likely would have. She had a special
birthing chair and the nano-suit was there to help control the pain
and the contractions.

Which was a good thing
because it was a whopping
huge
baby!

Tilly was surprised she couldn’t walk
and talk upon arrival!

The men were absolutely ecstatic!
Torin looked a little faint part of the time and a little green
part of the time—during the delivery—but the others crowded around
and fought over who would hold her.

That was … downright
shocking. She hadn’t expected the men to pay much attention to an
infant—particularly a female! But
she
got more attention than her
mother!

Well, her mother was mostly jealous
because they were so busy taking care of her that she had to demand
to hold the baby.

As she drowsily studied
the men gathered around the baby, she realized just how lucky she
was that she’d been kidnapped so long ago and taken to another
world by alien slavers. If that hadn’t happened, she would’ve had a
very boring life and
might
have found a good partner and had children—and
might not have.

She had purpose here, though. She had
love. She had security.

She had a lot of fucking
enemies, too—because the Merkdar women totally despised her—but
what the hell? She had her guys and they were
bootiful!
Besides being hung like
rogue elephants and really, really good with their
trunks!

The End.

Be sure to watch for the next book in
the Alien Slavers series—Breaking Brandi.