The Tiger's Forbidden Mate: A Paranormal Pregnancy Romance

by Angela Foxxe

  “Well, take your time, you two,” Jasper said as she cleaned up the bloody blankets and towels. “You’re going to be sitting in this med bay for a while to make sure you don’t come down with pneumonia.”

  Shawna nodded as she gazed dreamily at her new daughter. The baby’s pink skin was wrinkled and her shock of dark hair was still flecked with vernix. She managed to free her hand from the swaddling and was trying to grasp at something, so Winston reached over and offered his finger.

  His tiny daughter grasped her father’s finger tightly in her pink fist as she hungrily nursed the life sustaining milk from her mother’s breast. Winston felt such a surge of protective love over them as they sat in the med bay.

  Shawna spoke first. “So when am I going to the brothel?” she asked sadly.

  “We don’t have those here,” Jasper said coldly. “The humes wanted to keep that system, but the anima made them do away with that barbaric practice. It was the only positive thing Carl did while he was here.”

  Shawna’s eyes began to water. “You mean, I’m free? I don’t have to go to the brothel?”

  “No… and if you were raised by the Southern Tiger tribe how did you know about the hume brothels?” Jasper asked sharply.

  Shawna took a deep breath. “My mother and I were kidnapped during a slaver raid. I was raised by a hume settlement when the man I know as my dad killed my captors,” she explained. “I didn’t even know I was anima until I met Winston, and Freyna…she is the one who gave me the serum.”

  “You weren’t pregnant at the time were you?” Jasper asked incredulously.

  “Yes, I was,” Shawna replied softly.

  “And you let her?” Jasper snapped at Winston. “What kind of fool are you? The baby could have gotten stuck! What if she lost the… you should have known better!”

  Winston, shamefaced, accepted the berating. “I know. But she just came out of a raging infection. If we didn’t…”

  “Oh god, she could have become a wastewraith.” Jasper gasped. “Yes it was a risky move, but the right one and I guess everything turned out alright in the end.”

  “Looks like it,” Winston said with a smile. “Tomorrow I’ll go to the desert and scavenge some supplies for the settlement to repay the kindness you have shown us, and hopefully to earn ourselves a place here.”

  “That will be good. Talk to the two nudists and they’ll take you over, safely. The giant shark in the bay is our guardian and it listens to them,” Jasper explained.

  “I’ll do that,” Winston said as he stared lovingly at his daughter. “I don’t want to leave either of you right now,” he said to Shawna.

  “I understand, you have things to do, and I won’t be much company while I recover,” she said with a soft smile.

  “I’ll go see what is needed,” Winston said as he kissed Shawna’s head. He then bent down and gave his daughter a soft kiss on her chubby hand and left the room.

  He flagged down Jason as he was walking by. “What supplies are needed around here?” Winston asked.

  “We need oil, we need gas for the generators, we’re running out, that’s why the lights are off right now,” he said.

  “Where do we get that?” Winston asked.

  “Oh, Archie and I go to the tankers and raid them. They’re pretty far out off the shore, but we’re the only ones that can get there, so this is the only settlement on the coast that actually has electricity.”

  “Have you thought of making wind turbines?” Winston asked.

  “That would help. I know Francis can tell you what’s needed for those. If you can get the scrap to build turbines, we won’t need to go to the tankers as often,” Jason said. “That’s a good thing because Snags never leaves the harbor, but his cousins are out there and they aren’t as nice,” he said as he rubbed his bald head.

  “Understood,” Winston said as he walked with the lithe man. “So, what happened to the rest of the dolphins?”

  “Oh…” Jason said sadly. “Archie and I are all that’s left locally. We heard there’s a small pod further north in the Canadian waters, but we haven’t wanted to go up there yet,” he explained. “Neither one of us have any interest in a female mate,” he said blushing.

  “Ah,” Winston said as he delicately dropped the subject.

  “Francis!” Jason called out to the dwarf that was walking down the hall.

  “What is it?” he asked as he ran his hand through his sandy hair.

  “Winston here wants to help build wind turbines to get this place more reliable power,” Jason explained. “He needs a list of parts to get when he goes out tomorrow. He’s trying to earn a spot for him and his woman, they just had a baby today!”

  “Congratulations, man,” Francis said as he shook Winston’s hand. “Well, we need copper, lots and lots of copper. Everything else I think we can piece together from what we’ve got laying around, but we’re totally out of copper.”

  “All right, so gotta get copper.”

  “Yeah, there’s tons of it over in the desert, but the behemoths guard it,” Francis explained. “Some things aren’t worth your life.”

  “Well, I think I know how to get it without getting eaten alive,” Winston said.

  THE FINAL CHAPTER

  The next day, Archie and Jason pulled Winston across the strait to the dock leading into the main area of the desert. “Stay safe. To call us, slap the water three times like one… two… three leave a good space between each slap that way we know it’s you,” Jason said as he pulled the boat away.

  “All right!” Winston said as he shifted into his tiger form. “The things I do for that woman,” he said as he made his way to the sewer entrance.

  He followed his nose and made his way back to his grandmother’s dwelling.

  “Grandmother? Are you there?”

  “Oh, you’re back!” old Martje said.

  “Shawna had a little girl. We haven’t named her yet,” Winston said.

  “Oh, how wonderful!” Martje said as her gaze went distant.

  “Anyway, I’m here for copper. I need to earn a dwelling for us to remain, so I volunteered to make wind turbines for electricity. Do you know how I can get some copper without running into those giants?”

  “Yes, I do, as a matter of fact,” Martje replied as she pulled out her map. “There’s an old power station not too far from here. You can get there through the sewers but you have to surface to get the wire. They’re on giant spools up there, but the behemoths haven’t taken interest in there yet.”

  “Yet being the key word right?” Winston said with a sardonic smirk.

  “Pretty much. You can roll the spool all the way through the sewer line to the beach, luckily enough, but getting it across will be a pain, even for those two dolphins. It’s heavy.”

  Winston nodded as he changed back to his tiger body. “Which tunnels?”

  “Blue and orange,” she replied. “Once you get to orange there’s a dead end but there’s a sewer lid. Push it open and you’ll be in the power station’s yard. Get a spool of copper wire and get on out before the scorpions hear you.”

  “Understood,” Winston said as he started off. “Thank you again, Grandmother. I’ll see if Jasper will let you back.”

  Martje looked at her grandson. “Don’t bet on it,” she said sadly, “I appreciate the attempt, but don’t put your family at risk just for me.”

  “You’re my family, too,” he said.

  “Ah, one that is going to die soon,” she replied. “I’m sad I didn’t get to see your little one, but I’m glad she made it.”

  “You aren’t going to die,” Winston chided the old woman.

  “I’m old, I’m tired, I’ve fulfilled the reason why I was allowed to live,” she said. “That’s all anybody can really ask for. Living for forty years in this pit, I want to see the sun one last time, and go on my own terms,” she said as she hugged her grandson.

  Winston felt grief welling up in his chest, but he understood. When people got
too old to contribute, they chose to take a long walk to spare the rest of the settlement from looking after them and wasting resources. Martje was only doing what she thought was right.

  “May you run always,” he said softly.

  “And you too, Grandson. Now get that copper and go back to your family,” she said as she shoved him out the door.

  Winston carried on with a heavy heart, knowing he wouldn’t see his long lost grandmother again, but took solace in knowing that she was doing it on her own. He walked down the aforementioned tunnels for hours and found himself at the dead end.

  He changed to his human form, stood up, climbed the ladder, and pushed the heavy sewer lid out of the way. Winston poked his head out and was nearly blinded by the noon-day sun so he hastily jumped back down into the gloom of the sewer while his eyes adjusted.

  After a few minutes he poked his head up once more and looked around. He saw nothing except for a few massive spools of copper wire and felt his heart sink. There was no way those could fit down the manhole.

  He climbed up and out and decided to look around some more for smaller spools. He looked at the destroyed brick building and collapsed metal frame and shook his head as he walked toward it.

  Winston was surprised at the lack of local fauna in the area, but also secretly relieved. He decided to stay in his hume form knowing he’d need the use of his hands to move things so he walked along on two legs.

  Suddenly, he felt a shudder under his feet. “Shit,” he whispered as he stood stone still. He decided it would be prudent to change into his tiger form to throw the scorpion off of his tail, so he painstakingly shifted so as not to alert the scorpion as to where he was.

  After the longest shift of his life, Winston stood on all four paws and softly padded around the corner. He saw stacks of smaller spools of copper wire and smiled. Maybe he could roll two of them back to the beach.

  Each small spool would weigh at least four hundred pounds because of the amount of wire on it. So he had to think smart. He jumped onto the top of one of the large ones and pushed the ones he wanted off of it onto the hard dirt with a soft thud.

  The ground shook some more as the scorpion narrowed in on his position. Winston stood still while the giant arachnid fruitlessly searched for any more vibrations from above.

  “Great, how am I supposed to get down?” he asked himself. “If I jump, it’ll just bring the damn thing here.”

  Winston saw a pile of empty wooden spools and had an idea. He jumped from the one he was standing on to one that was right next to the pile of empties. He turned so his back feet were facing the haphazard pile and kicked back, sending the spools tumbling in the opposite direction as to where he wanted to go.

  As the spools noisily tumbled and rolled, the scorpion fell for the bait and followed the cacophony. Winston used the noise camouflage to jump down and push his wire to the manhole and down into the darkness.

  Winston jumped into the dark sewer and didn’t bother closing the lid. He wanted to get out of there as fast as possible.

  He rolled the heavy spools of copper wire down the dark sewer tunnels until he came to the exit. He stopped and looked to see if there were stone crabs sunning themselves and was relieved to find none, so he pushed the wire onto the wet sand and jumped down.

  Winston slapped the water in the rhythm the dolphins instructed and waited. While he waited, he changed to his human shape to help lift the heavy wire onto the small raft.

  After a while, the two dolphins swam up pulling the ramshackle craft behind them.

  “I’m going to need help lifting these,” he said to them as they approached.

  Archie and Jason released the ropes from their beaks and changed into their human bodies.

  “All right,” Jason said as he positioned himself to help lift the copper. “Wow, I don’t know if we can pull this,” he grunted as they waded to the barge. “And there’s two!”

  “I hope that it doesn’t sink it,” Winston said.

  “Nah, it won’t, it’s a pretty good barge with some empty oil drums for extra float.” Archie said as they put the first spool on. “But it’s pushing it. We won’t be able to move this.”

  “Hang on!” Jason said as he jumped back into the water. When he surfaced he was back into his dolphin shape.

  “Oh god, he’s not going to ask Snags...” Archie groaned.

  “Wait, what?” Winston said as he and Archie put the last spool onto the barge, and watched as it sat dangerously low in the water.

  “He thinks Snags will want to help. I really doubt it. That shark is only there because it’s too big and old to hunt in the open ocean,” Archie explained. “The settlers feed it, it guards them. It’s a relationship of convenience, nothing more. We’re just able to talk to him because we’re aquatic as well,” Archie said as he stepped back into the water and changed back.

  Jason came zooming back. “He said he’ll do it!” he chirped. “We just need to haul it a bit further out somehow.”

  Winston stepped off and jumped into the water behind the barge. “Okay you two pull, I’ll push to give it a little extra momentum.”

  “That’ll work, then Snags can take care of the rest,” Jason said as he grabbed a rope.

  If Archie could roll his eyes, he would have. “It won’t hurt to try at least,” he said as he took the other rope.

  The two marine mammals pulled the barge with all their might while Winston pushed it from the shallows. As the two dolphins overcame the inertia, the wooden craft started to move forward in the water.

  Winston didn’t need to push anymore but to save the dolphin’s backs he chose to swim along side them as they pulled.

  Suddenly, a huge dark shape rose from the water, directly underneath the barge, lifting it part way out of the green brine.

  “There’s Snags!” Jason said as he swam up to Winston to give him a hand. “He’ll take it from here; let’s go.”

  Winston clung to the dolphin as he swam along side the peaceful giant shark as it took their cargo across the strait and to the docks of Traz.

  Winston couldn’t believe he pulled it off. He managed to score so much copper wire that the turbines could be built easily, and he knew where to get more.

  The shark pushed the barge up onto the beach and swam off.

  “Thanks, Snags!” Jason called out as he changed shape.

  Winston was freezing again but it wouldn’t be long until he warmed up. The three men rolled the copper wire off of the barge and up to the main gate.

  “Hey! We’ve got wire; let us in!” he shouted.

  The guard looked and smiled. “All right, let’s get that in here!” he said as he started the process to open the gate.

  Winston, Archie, and Jason rolled the two heavy spools of copper wire down the hall to the cheers of those around. Francis came walking up and shook Winston’s hand.

  “Looks like we’ve got plenty to build the turbines. Good job. You’ve earned your flat,” he said with a smile.

  “And I know where to get more, lots more. Giant spools of copper wire, not used not damaged. Just hard to get because of the behemoths,” he replied.

  “We’ll get to that when we need more; right now, we’ve got work to do,” Francis said as he grabbed Winston by the arm.

  The dwarf and the tiger worked tirelessly for the next few days to build and hook up three ramshackle-looking wind generators. While they worked, Shawna stayed in the medical bay to take care of herself and her infant daughter.

  “Well, it looks like you didn’t get pneumonia after all,” Jasper said as she listened to Shawna’s lungs for the second time that day.

  “I’m glad,” she said as she watched her daughter nurse.

  She was tired, but it wasn’t a bone-weary exhaustion that she had when she first arrived. Her lungs cleared the fluid out on their own and she was enjoying motherhood so far.

  Winston had popped in a few times to check in while he worked. Shawna was feeling a bit antsy due to never
seeing him.

  “I wonder what the hell he’s doing?” she snapped.

  “Who? Winston? He’s been building those turbines; it’s hard work,” Jasper replied.

  “No offense, but I’d like to get out of here soon,” Shawna said with a grin.

  “None taken, I’d like you to get out of here as well, but we don’t know if there’s a flat available for you. You also haven’t named your baby yet.”

  “I know… I just can’t think of one,” she mused.

  Winston popped his head into the medical bay. “Hey Jasper, is Shawna able to get up and walk?” he asked.

  “She’s been able for a week now; you’ve just been too damn busy to see her,” Jasper snapped.

  Winston looked sheepish as the old doctor tore a strip off of him. “I need to show you something,” he said as he helped his mate out of bed.

  Shawna clutched the baby securely to her breast as she slowly walked barefoot through the building, wondering what he wanted her to see.

  “Through here,” he said as he opened the door.

  Shawna was blinded by the bright sun outside and winced. “What the…” she stammered.

  “Just come on,” Winston said excitedly as he guided her through the open yard.

  The baby started to fuss as the bright sun irritated her eyes as well and Shawna tried to soothe her. “Shhh… it’s okay.”

  “We’re almost there,” Winston said as they approached the massive building ahead.

  Shawna looked around and saw three tall wind turbines made from pieces of scrap turning slowly in the light breeze. Each one was oriented in a certain direction to maximize efficiency.

  “So that’s what you want to show me?” she asked irritably.

  “No,” Winston said as he opened the door to the main block. “Down this hall,” he said as he practically dragged her down the hallway.

  Shawna looked around and saw solid doors with laundry drying outside of them. There were sounds of music and talking all through the large building.

  “Here we go!” Winston said with pride as he stopped in front of a wooden door. “Open it,” he said as he motioned to the door knob.