Page 33 of Minding the Minotaur (Monsters of the Labyrinth #1)
A RLO
There’s the feeling of my skin being plastered to my skull as the cape transports us, and I hold on to Sammy for dear life as the full force of crossing into the Labyrinth bears down us. We tumble and twist and judder, and finally land with a jarring bump on a hard surface.
There’s talking and laughter all around us.
Where the fuck are we?
Sammy groans, and I quickly pull the cape off us both so I can check that she’s okay.
She tumbles off me and onto a flagstone floor.
I look around, blinking, as multiple sets of species, seated at tables with checked tablecloths, survey us with curiosity. My stomach rumbles at the delectable smell of fried chicken. Fuck me, we’ve landed in Digger’s Diner.
Someone is already helping Sammy to her feet. It’s Kazmo. She stumbles and slumps onto a chair as Digger himself comes trotting toward us, concern written all over his shaggy goat face.
Now Brody is peering at me. “Fucking great. Broadcast to everyone that you stole the cape, why don’t you?” he grumbles. I can barely grunt in response as I do my best to struggle up. I have to check on Sammy.
I manage to drag my body over to her chair.
“Babe, are you okay?” I murmur, gently loosening her clothing so she can breathe better.
“Oh Arlo!” She bursts into tears and flings her arms around my neck. “I never thought I’d see you again.”
“You thought I’d leave you up there?”
“I—I hoped you’d come, but I didn’t know. How did you know where to go?”
I look at the cape spread out on the flagstone floor. “Maybe it knew where it was going after all—though it still dropped me in a dumpster,” I say ruefully. “Then I saw you get out of the car and followed you, got there as they tried to sedate you, just in time it seems.”
Looking up at Brody standing next to us, I say, “Hope lending me the cape didn’t drop you in it.”
Brody pulls a face. “The things you do for your mates,” he grumbles.
I thank him, then turn back to my girl and we kiss, slow and gentle.
She tastes so sweet and delicious, it’s like offering a drink to a guy who’s been dying of thirst. She must feel the same, because we seem incapable of stopping, even in public.
In the end, the cries of “Get a room, will you?” make me draw reluctantly away from her.
“Are you hungry?” I ask.
She shakes her head. “My tummy is a bit upset.”
“That’ll be from the portal travel.”
My stomach obligingly lets out a loud grumble, and Sammy smiles. “If you need to eat, that’s fine, but I won’t just yet. ”
Something about the green tinge to her face makes me think it’s more than just the portal travel.
“Babe, are you sick? Did they harm you?”
“No, not sick, just—” Something in her expression gives me pause.
It seems everyone else is pausing too—the whole cafe goes quiet.
“I’ll tell you later,” she says, glancing around.
My eyes search her pale face and worry clouds my mind. What if I’ve brought her back while she’s still suffering residual Earth sickness? What if she can’t get well here? “You’re okay… aren’t you?”
She dimples, and a little color suffuses her cheeks. “I’m really and truly okay, Arlo.”
A breath huffs from my lungs. “Tell me I did the right thing, bringing you back?”
“Arlo, how can you ever doubt that?” The love in her blue eyes reassures me.
“They were holding me against my will. From the moment I woke up from that coma, all I wanted was to get back to you, to be in the Labyrinth. This is where I belong, Arlo.” She looks around at Silas and Kazmo and Brody.
“Here with you, and the rest of the monsters. This is my home now.”
I hear a collective sigh from the assembled monsters. Glancing up, I see that they’re all a bit misty-eyed. We monsters don’t get paid many compliments, and certainly not by humans.
I wrap her in a gentle hug, kiss her softly on the lips, gaze into her beautiful eyes. “Then let’s go home,” I say quietly.
And she nods.
Standing up, I feel so much stronger. Maybe knowing that Sammy is here and okay has restored my strength.
I take the cape off the floor and try to hand it to Brody, but he refuses to take it.
“I don’t want anything to do with that bloody thing until you’ve cleared this up with Otis.
And told him you handcuffed me to get it. ”
“You escaped, though?”
“Yeah, like you said, it was easy in my bear form.” He grins, and I give him a playful cuff over the ear. Brody cuffs me back.
Kazmo offers us a lift in his ute, and I gratefully accept. Any other time I’d stroll hand in hand with Sammy, showing her more of the sights of the Labyrinth. But today is not that day, though I hope those days will happen for us soon.
I’m not on house arrest anymore, and Sammy is… home. I draw in a sharp breath. It feels right to think that. Like she said, the Labyrinth is where she belongs, where she is loved.
When Kazmo leaves us at the front door, I carry Sammy inside and gently place her on the sofa in the snug. “Now, you really must eat.”
“I guess…” She frowns.
“I’ll get Tippy, and you can ask her for something that you fancy.”
When Tippy comes in, she suggests, “How about a healing smoothie?”
Sammy gags. “No—sorry Tippy, it’s not that your smoothies aren’t lovely, it’s just?—”
“No offence taken.” Tippy smiles and proceeds to go through a list of things involving lots of vegetables, which all sound very unappetizing. Finally, Tippy says, “I’ve just made a fresh loaf of sourdough.”
Sammy’s eyes light up. “Have you got a jar of peanut butter by any chance? And jelly?”
Tippy smirks. “I may have a secret stash.”
“Yes please!” Sammy slumps back on the sofa with a sigh as Tippy trots off to the kitchen.
I sit down next to my beloved, take her hand and kiss each one of her fingertips.
“I thought I’d never see you again.” She sighs .
“You don’t get rid of me that easily.”
She snuggles against my chest. “That building they took me to had the same insignia as the clinic here. The serpent.”
“Yes, I realized that. What was that place?”
“It’s called DV Medical and Biotech Research. It was horrible.”
“Why were you there?”
Sammy bites her lip, and then in a low voice, she explains the events that led up to it. How she woke up from her coma, all the tests they did on her. Finally, she looks up at me, her eyes shining, and whispers, “Arlo. The results of those tests show I’m pregnant.”
My jaw drops. I try to say something, but all that comes out is a strangled growl.
“Oh—” Sammy’s face crumples. “Aren’t you happy?”
I wrap my arms around her, my jaw working. “Babe, I am. I am so happy. I mean… I hoped , but I didn’t dare think it could happen so soon.”
“It’s very early days,” she rushes on. “There’s no guarantees. And with the coma, who knows… but at least I’m here with you now. Oh Arlo, they wanted to do experiments on our baby.”
Rage fills my chest. “WHAT THE FUCK?” I roar.
“They said they were going to… conduct tests while I was pregnant to see… I don’t know what exactly. Something about me having five times the enzyme levels of any of their other test pregnancies. It’s so scary, Arlo. What if… what if they come after me?”
“Let them try,” I growl fiercely. “The whole of the Labyrinth will rise up against them.”
She clings to me, her face still clouded with worry. “They saw you—bits of you. Enough to know you’re a monster.”
“They wouldn’t know what species I am.”
“But the enzymes in my blood… Eventually they’ll put it all together. It’s the same research company that you sold your sp erm to, Arlo. They’re bound to work out it’s the same…” Her voice trails off, her features pinched and pale.
I’m silent, trying to take all this in.
Sammy continues, “I think it’s because you can breathe out there on Earth, but I can’t. And maybe our baby could …”
“Which means our youngling could live above ground,” I say, stunned.
“Yes, Arlo.”
“Fuck, I get it.”
“Now can you understand why I’m so worried?”
“I can, but they won’t find us here, I promise they won’t, pet. Me and Otis and Jax will make sure of it.” I sound confident, but the news has shaken me on so many levels, my head is reeling.
Fortuitously, Tippy arrives with the peanut butter and jelly sandwich and Sammy devours it ravenously.
“Ah, that does feel better,” she sighs, dusting the crumbs off her gorgeous tits.
“And now we need to stop talking about this, at least for now, and you must rest, and trust that I will keep you and our baby safe.”
She sighs. “I trust you, Arlo. And Otis, and Jax, now that I know he saved my life.”
“Yeah, well, admittedly, trusting Jax takes a leap of faith,” I laugh. I am finally, grudgingly, gaining a small morsel of respect for that malnourished-looking human.
I put my arm around her and stroke her hair, making soothing sounds, whispering sweet nothings in her ear.
It still hasn’t quite sunk in that my beloved is pregnant.
I am filled with a raw mix of joy and fear about what this could mean.
One thing I know is that I must not let Sammy dwell on this. She needs to recover from her ordeal.
And I have to work out how to break the news to Otis that I have been sighted, however briefly, in the portal cape.
There’s no doubt that our sheriff will be mighty pissed when he finds out I’ve exposed myself, and all of us monsters, to danger, yet again.
But what choice did I have?
When I tell him Sammy is pregnant with my baby, he’ll understand. I know he’ll do everything in his powers to protect her. And by the sound of things, she is carrying a unique youngling, one that could have superpowers even.
It’s mind-blowing. But for now, I keep my thoughts to myself.
As I stroke Sammy’s hair and whisper in her ear how happy I am that’s she’s expecting our baby, I feel her getting heavy in my arms.
“You need to sleep, babe,” I husk.
She lets out a mewl of protest, but already her features are relaxing toward slumber.
I lift her up and carry her to the bedroom, lay her gently on the bed, fluff the pillows around her head and pull up the coverlet. She turns on her side and places her hand under her rounded cheek, and snuggles down like a golden-haired princess.
My princess.
My heart melts, knowing our tiny little one is growing inside her. I stare at her for another long moment, then I tiptoe out of the room to call Otis.