Queen of Their Colony (Kindred Tales)

“I think they call it ‘curvy’ now,” a third woman chimed in. “That’s the PC term for it.”

“Well, Cindy, you can call it what you want but I call it letting yourself get out of shape,” Karen sniffed. “And now that Gregory left her, Terra’s just going to be alone forever. What man is going to want some washed-up, fat, ex-wife? She’s never going to find anyone to be with her again! She—”

“Oh my God!” Lila suddenly gripped her arm so tightly it hurt.

“Ouch! What do you think you’re doing?” Karen demanded. She wasn’t used to be interrupted when she was talking. Her own husband was the CEO of the company and all the other wives deferred to her because of it.

“Look…just look,” hissed Cindy, who had her head turned and was staring towards the back of the church.

“Look at what?” Karen demanded. Was the bride—that skinny little intern they all hated—already coming in? She hadn’t heard the bridal march start.

Turning her head, she saw what was making her fellow wives gasp and she couldn’t help it—her own mouth dropped open in awe as well.

Walking down the aisle wearing a gorgeous green dress that hugged her full curves was Terra, Gregoryory’s ex-wife and the very woman they’d just been gossiping about!

“She looks so young!” Cindy whispered.

“What did she do to her skin? She’s actually glowing!” Lila added.

But then someone else came into the chapel entrance—or rather, three someone elses—and all eyes went to them.

“Are those…Monstrum warriors?” Cindy asked in a shaky voice.

“Oh my—I’ve heard they’re absolute animals in bed,” Lila whispered, fanning herself.

“I’ve heard that too.” Karen sniffed. “But you can’t believe everything you hear, girls. Anyway, I never heard that Mindy or Gregoryory had any Monstrum friends. Who are they with?”

And then the three huge warriors—one with red skin, one with blue skin, and one with green skin—all came up behind Terra. The green one put a hand on her shoulder just as the red one slid an arm possessively around her waist and the blue warrior started murmuring in her ear.

“Oh my God, I don’t believe it,” Karn said blankly. “It can’t be true—they’re with her?”

“I know—all three of them?” Cindy squeaked.

Their whispers must have drawn Terra’s attention because she looked up and gave them a little wave and a smile. Then she and her three Monstrum settled in a pew together and waited for the ceremony to begin.

Afterwards, the ex-wife and her three new lovers was all anyone could talk about. Mindy, the wife-stealing intern, (as the other corporate wives had dubbed her,) complained Terra and her Monstrum lovers completely stole the focus of her wedding.

“I told her she could bring a plus one—not a plus three!” she huffed, pouting to her new husband at the reception afterwards. “Nobody even looked at me when I walked down the aisle! They were all looking at her!”

As a matter of fact, Gregoryory had been looking at his ex-wife himself, quite a bit. Terra looked positively radiant—better than he’d ever seen her. It was hard to believe she was the same woman he’d left to be with his intern.

I swear she looks Mindy’s age, he couldn’t help thinking as he watched her across the crowded wedding tent where she was sitting surrounded by the Monstrum warriors. Why did I ever leave her?

It was a question he couldn’t answer—even when he looked at his pouty new bride. Mindy was pretty enough, but she was kind of skinny and bony and, at times, very immature. In fact, she was often extremely irritating, he admitted to himself. The thought of spending the rest of his life with her got less and less appealing as time went on. In fact, he’d only gone through with the wedding because it was already paid for and so much of it was non-refundable.

And now that the focus of the wedding had been stolen and the spotlight was on his ex-wife instead of his current one, he was sure he’d never hear the end of it.

In fact, he was right. Terra and her plus three were all anyone could talk about. Their mutual friends all dropped by her table to be introduced and even his son, Sean, came by and said, “Dad, did you meet mom’s new guys? They’re so cool!”

No one even watched the cake cutting because they were too busy staring at Terra’s table. And the toasts were completely uninspired. The CEO of Voton Tech , the company Gregory worked for, kept losing his train of thought as he stared at Gregory’s ex-wife and her dates. The reception was a total disaster—at least from Mindy’s point of view, and Gregory had to hear her whiny, nasal voice complaining endlessly about it all…night…long.

At last, as he watched his ex-wife dance with each of the Monstrum in turn and Mindy pouted and complained, Gregory finally couldn’t stand it anymore—he had to know what was going on!