Chapter 10A: The Cradle of the Pack

The end of a large story

Those words brought my human summers to an end. After Erica, anyone wanting something from me had to brave the cradle of the pack. She made a choice from fear and a habit of emotional pain. I made the choice not to experience her again.

I never thought of what could have been though. Too much of my fate had been sealed on the deathbed of the only man I could call father.

"Take care of my family, David." His voice was weak, but his eyes were strong. I nodded, but it was not enough. He reached out to take my hand.

"Say the words, David."

"I'll take care of our family, Roger."

"You're a good son, David," he whispered. "Make me proud."

They were the last words he spoke; it should have been 'I love you' to Rachel.

My family did not need me to be whatever would have made Erica happy. They needed a wolf: the worst of the pack, loyal to blood like my grandfather and Roger had been.

Roger chose 'Make me proud' over 'I love you' and so did I.

A week after the Formal, Taylor and I waited for our lunch guests at her favorite restaurant.

Michael, Rachel, key members of my family, and I had discussed at length the potential damage to Smith Holdings if we pursued the three idiots to the full extent of the law. We arrived at the same conclusion most corporations come to when facing similar situations--unconditional war was not worth the time or expense. The real damage was to Smith Holdings' reputation; keeping the issue in the financial press would prolong the bleeding. The men stood to split millions, but it was drops in a bucket of water compared to Michael's careful accumulation of the Smith Holdings' bankroll.

The Feds were hounding the three outlaws and drawing blood. The best strategy called for Smith Holdings to cooperate rather than carry the torch. The idiots were being squeezed between the scrutiny of the federal government and Smith Holdings' party line: 'They were incompetent idiots who couldn't lead ants to a picnic.'

They could have sued for libel, but a civil court's less strict evidentiary requirements would have given us the opportunity to crucify them on the record, not to mention recover some of the money in a counter-suit.

Marisa's suggestion had merit though; I was willing to empower someone else to bury and twist the knife. Taylor squirmed nervously, occasionally sneaking a glance at me. The Coven had begun the process of making Taylor something my baby sister would treasure. Taylor protested the treatment until I offered to look into businesses for her; somewhere rustic, Alaska had come to mind right away.

"They're here, David," Taylor said. The Coven taught her to speak to me with respect weaved into her tone. Tawny had completely lost it (red hair flying about and all) at the first and last time Taylor spoke sarcastically to me. I was looking forward to using the two wives as Tawny's scratching posts.

Better them than me!

Samantha Jones and Elizabeth Shell looked extremely unhappy, fucking pissed actually, when they sat down.

"Why is she here?" asked Samantha, the obvious leader. She had salon blonde hair and was made up exquisitely. Looking at Taylor, her brown eyes sparked with hatred. I noticed her surgical augmentation at the Formal, but most of her trim body was acquired at the gym under the watchful eye of a personal trainer.

Elizabeth was the prom queen's homely sidekick. I did not consider her unattractive by any means. In fact, she had my mother's curves in a package four inches shorter; but her visage projected a self-image forged by the insecurities of other women. I considered bringing her potential out a public service. Samantha was in for a surprise if Elizabeth did not agree to my offer.

Elizabeth was watching Taylor, but my intense study turned her dark chocolate eyes towards me. I smiled before looking at Samantha.

"I would appreciate if you moderated your voice, Samantha," I said quietly. Taylor's back tightened; she had come to dislike when I spoke softly. Her ass still ached from her last encounter with my chagrin. I did not lay a finger on her, but Brittany despised the tone and made Taylor pay dearly for making me use it.

"Why the fuck should I care what you would appreciate? It's not like you haven't done a great job of fucking me this week!" Samantha was fraying at the edges as her husband's status, and consequently her own, deteriorated.

"Please don't speak to him like that," Taylor whispered.

"What?" Elizabeth asked. Taylor's demeanor adjustment shocked her out of an ingrained quiet.

"His women don't like when you speak disrespectfully to him!" Taylor said looking at me. "Especially Brittany! She hates it! If she turns against you, Rachel will stand with her. You need Rachel on your side if you want any of the money your husbands stole."

Elizabeth's intelligence was on display as she studied me. Samantha's eyes showed cunning and a hyena's desire to push for every scrap of flesh.

"What are you talking about?" Samantha asked contemptuously. "Why should I care about what any of those bitches dislike?"

I took a deep breath and stared at her.

"Are you stupid or just trying to goad me?" I asked. Elizabeth stared at Taylor, who was aghast and nearly shivering from Samantha's words.

"What have you done to Taylor?" Samantha asked. She had not missed the reaction either. Elizabeth's eyes narrowed.

"To her discredit, as well as misfortune, Taylor forced me to take decisive action against her."

"Why are we here?" Elizabeth asked before Samantha could say anything else. I smiled at Elizabeth, less than five minutes and she was already stepping into the spotlight.

"Well, ladies--your husbands, as well as Idiot Number Three, stand to profit in the millions from their betrayal of Smith Holdings."

Samantha snorted derisively at the thought anyone profited. I bowed my head acknowledging the funds were out of reach while the three were under federal thumbscrews.

"Smith Holdings is more interested in recovering lost ground than getting our money back. So while it's untouchable for now, I believe they will eventually have access to it."

Elizabeth put her hand on Samantha's and shook her head before she could interrupt me.

"There is an outcome which Smith Holdings would consider a satisfactory ending to this affair... that I would find satisfying."

Taylor snorted and looked away from anyone at the table. Samantha did not need Elizabeth to tell her she should be polite. She stared at her napkin; her brow furrowed as she measured the possible meanings of my statement.

"You want us to have the money," she said finally.

"I wouldn't go that far. Let's say, given the circumstances, I would prefer the two of you see a majority of the profit from your husbands' little embezzlement enterprise."

"What do you mean by majority?" Elizabeth asked. She straightened in her chair and almost seemed to offer her ample breasts as an appetizer.

"I would like to see your husbands left with half of the total wages and payout they would have garnered had they waited for my eventual rise at Smith Holdings."

They gave each other confused looks.

"I thought you had taken over Smith Holdings," Samantha said.

"Do you think a nineteen-year-old can run a company as complex as Smith Holdings?" I asked seriously. She tilted her head and raised an eyebrow.

"I am Roger Smith's answer to the company's leadership needs. I have the absolute loyalty of everyone who matters," I said. "But what I know about Smith Holdings and its daughter companies barely qualifies me for the lowest management position, IF they were willing to hire someone with so little experience and an incomplete education!"

I hesitated and looked out the window before finishing, "I will protect Smith Holdings even from myself."

"Then I don't see what you have to offer us," Samantha said. She made sure to inject her voice with respect though. I studied her more closely; anyone who could adjust that quickly was worth a second look.

"Your husbands, the third idiot, and Taylor were protected by Michael and Rachel's kindness. It is also a losing proposition for Smith Holdings to pursue a vendetta against, therefore vengeance has been left to me."

"How are we going to get to the money?" Samantha asked warily.

"You WERE planning on divorcing your idiots, correct?" I asked curtly. Elizabeth nodded hard; Samantha did not find the question worthy of an answer.

"What would you do to possess the full details of your husbands' financial portfolios as put together by Smith Holdings and the federal government?"

"Anything!" Samantha exclaimed. Elizabeth looked at Samantha and me; her eyes were trying to calculate what the word would cost her.

"But wait, that's not all!" Taylor said in a sarcastic impersonation of a talk show host. I looked at her; she blushed.

"How are we going to get around Smith Holdings and the federal government so the money can be a part of the divorce settlement?" Samantha asked.

"Funny you should ask," I replied with a smile. They leaned towards me in expectation. "Smith Holdings is not interested in the money, and the federal government wants an indictment on the unmarried idiot."

"What did Jacob do?" Elizabeth asked anxiously.

"He crossed the line. We're pretty sure your husbands did not go with him, but the Feds are hoping they had enough survival instincts to get their hands on the information needed to save their asses if the plan went sour."

I looked from one to the other.

"The Federal and State prosecutors want to put an immunity agreement on the table for your husbands' testimony. Part of the offer would be an equitable split of the assets. As long as they were not involved in Jacob's side-trip, they would be allowed to keep their fair share of those assets."

Samantha nodded for me to continue.

"Behind closed doors, Smith Holdings has decried the agreement. State lawmakers care because we employ a politically active workforce and are kind to the coffers of our supporters. The feds normally would not be bothered, except in the last year a few products manufactured exclusively for them by a daughter company have seen promising improvements. A few voices insisted if Smith Holdings was to be fucked, someone had better reach-around."

"What does that mean?"

"It means your husbands' assets will remain frozen for the length of the federal trial... except for any divorce settlements."

They sat back, lost in their thoughts. Samantha recovered first and looked hard at me.

"I've looked at your life with your husbands," I said. "Samantha, your father was a major force in getting your husband ahead. Elizabeth, you've given up some dreams for your husband's career."

They nodded slowly.

"With the right judge, a generous reconciliation is not out of the question. Considering the air of treason that will come to surround your husbands, the judge might lean towards using the settlement punitively."

"How do we get in front of a judge like that?" Samantha asked. Taylor put a business card in front of each of them.

"There is a very good divorce specialist at the law firm Smith Holdings retains. He has begun the paperwork and is willing to cash in some favors to get in front of the favorite judge of divorcing women in this state. I hear the man gets a mountain of Christmas cards each year and is never without attractive, divorced female company."

Samantha sat back smiling.

"What do you get out of this?" Elizabeth asked. Taylor let out a tiny laugh and nodded at Elizabeth. Her reaction got Samantha's attention.

"You don't strike me as the generous type," Samantha told me.

"You're absolutely right; normally, I would not be generous to either of you," I said smiling.

"This is also indirect for vengeance. You want blood," Elizabeth said. I nodded, acquiescing the point.

"So what do you gain out this?" Samantha asked, getting back on point. I hesitated, considering the best way to present the bill.

"Just lay it out on the table, David. It will make it much easier to say yes," Elizabeth said. Her eyes flashed as if she knew what was coming.

"Okay," I said. "My mother says when it's millions, women are allowed the luxury of calling it something other than whoring. Is that clear enough?"

Samantha was stunned; Elizabeth leaned forward.

"How often? For how long?" she asked.

"As often as I want, when I want, how I want," I said in clipped tones.

"For how long though?" she asked after a nod.

"Until two years after your divorces finalize."

"Is this how a boy like you gets pussy?" Samantha asked infuriated.

"Shut the fuck up, Samantha!" Elizabeth said harshly. They stared at each other for a couple of minutes, struggling for dominance of the relationship. Samantha had no chance though; millions of dollars did come with luxuries. Samantha looked away.

"I want that whore though!" Elizabeth whispered. Her eyes burned into Taylor who flinched. I shook my head, wondering how stupid a man had to be to throw away a love like hers.

"Why not?" Elizabeth asked.

"I wasn't shaking my head at you; I was thinking about your husband's foolishness."

Elizabeth nodded and turned back to Taylor. I reached under my chair, grabbed the rose-length box, and placed it in the middle of the table. The women looked at it; Taylor's eyes held fear and something else.

"What is that?" Samantha asked.

"If you agree, you move out of your husbands' homes tonight."

Elizabeth nodded.

"You don't touch another man until our time together is over."

Elizabeth nodded again.

"Women are free game, as long they had or are, at least, willing to have sex with me."

Elizabeth raised an eyebrow but did not protest.

"You will have one other responsibility," I said, opening the box and letting them see the black riding crop inside. "Making Taylor an obedient pet for my baby sister."

It was if someone dropped a silence grenade. Samantha and Elizabeth took their eyes from the crop and looked at me; Taylor's tear-filled eyes did not move away from it.

"Taylor chose the Michael she wanted over the Michael she married," I said. "She has recently discovered the Michael she loved was the one she lost. Unfortunately for her, my baby sister is now the woman Michael wants, the one he's with, and the one he loves. I offered to solve Taylor's problem. On Michael and Marisa's return from their honeymoon, Taylor will become my sister's adoring pet. The benefit she will receive is to be as close to the man she loves as she can ever be again."

Both women had moved beyond stunned.

"Taylor believes Marisa and Michael won't last, and this is the penance she must pay for a second chance with Michael. She doesn't know my sister or..."

I shrugged and let it go. Both women's eyes moved from Taylor, me, and back to Taylor for a few minutes. Elizabeth reached into the box and pulled the crop out. She smiled realizing the pleasure using it would bring her.

"I expect Taylor to remain free of any permanent marks," I told them. "But if she misbehaves around me or someone in my family, I'm sure the women will use the crop on the three of you as punishment."

"You expect us to agree to this?!?" Samantha spat.

"I'm offering you the power in your divorce, which means millions. I'm putting a big part of the reason you are here, Taylor, into your hands. Is what I'm asking unreasonable?"

Samantha looked at Elizabeth, who stared back.

"It is not like you're going to be my pets; neither of you fit into my life. I don't want you to be a part of it but the occasional weekend getaways do have a certain allure."

I smiled at the way Elizabeth's grip on the crop tightened.

"I'll tell you what, I'll go to the bar and have a drink. When you've decided, send Taylor to me. She needs practice fetching anyway." I got up to and pushed my chair in.

"Feel free to ask Taylor what's its like to be in my bed when I don't like you. Then try to imagine what it would be like if you help me get even with your idiots."

I could watch the three of them talking from my barstool. I ordered drinks for them and had a seltzer-water while talking to the bartender. He asked why I was sitting at the bar when I was apparently with the women. He humored my tale of offered sexual slavery.

Taylor came up and sat in the chair next to me. She handed me the crop, nodding her head. The bartender's eyes widened at the crop. I looked around the empty restaurant and decided to have some fun. I positioned Taylor so she was bending over the stool. I handed the crop to the bartender.

"Do what comes naturally."

I walked in front Taylor. I lifted her chin until she could look at me. The tears of humiliation had been her company for the last week.

"Stay there until he's done," I ordered.

I walked back to the able and sat down.

"Where's Taylor?" Elizabeth asked.

"The bartender did not believe me about the issue you were deciding, so I left him with Taylor and the crop."

"FUCK NO!" Samantha exclaimed angrily. "That bitch is mine now!"

She pushed her chair back hard enough to tip it over and ran to the bar. A minute later, Taylor hurried toward us with Samantha hot on her tail. Taylor sat gingerly, not meeting anyone's eyes. Samantha looked at Taylor with some deep curiosity after sitting down.

"She was enjoying it," Samantha told Elizabeth. It surprised Elizabeth as much as Samantha.

"You're not going to enjoy our time together?" I asked Elizabeth. She gave me a tiny smile. I was definitely going to enjoy my time with her.

"Where are we going to live?" she asked.

"Taylor has a large house."

"The divorce is going to time, and we don't have jobs," Samantha said pushing to see how far I had thought things through. I had not, but the women in my family were detail-oriented enough to cover for me.

"The lawyers will take care of it; I believe the term is interim alimony."

"How deep in your pocket is that judge?" Elizabeth asked incredulously.

"Ladies, you've devoted your best years to husbands who are under federal investigation. Your husbands' best friend is facing an indictment for espionage; not industrial espionage but 'succor to the enemies of our nation' espionage. An indictment your husbands can only avoid by becoming government witnesses. Everyone feels a great deal of sympathy for what you must be going through."

"Do you always use what people expect you to feel to turn things your way?" Elizabeth asked bitterly.

"Have I answered your questions honestly?" I asked. She nodded slowly.

"What more do you expect from someone who had to save his family from your husbands?"

"What I think is that our husbands got caught between you and your family," Samantha said quietly. Her gaze on me was rock-solid.

"Your husbands would have walked away very well compensated had they been loyal. Does the 'why' matter when you've been hung you out to dry?"

Elizabeth shook her head.

"When do we start?" Samantha asked, opening her menu. I stared at her; she noticed the silence and looked up.

"You've taken care of everything, right?" she said with a shrug. "You're paying for the lawyers. You have everything I need to get what I deserve in the divorce. You're willing to give me a toy to play with. You're not bad looking, and you must be a fantastic fuck or that bitch wouldn't have enjoyed being cropped by a stranger."

I raised an eyebrow. Samantha looked over her menu again before continuing, "I'm fucked! I did my share of the crying long before you invited me to lunch. This might be the best way out; it might even be the only way out. If Rachel had chosen my husband, it wouldn't have ended well for me. On the other hand had he behaved himself, he would have eventually replaced me with a younger woman. You're willing to un-fuck me. In return, you want me to turn the knife in divorce court; like that's something I don't want to do anyway. You also want to fuck me every now and then with a dick instead of the unsatisfying ways my husband took me to the wall. Let me think, I get back at my husband while being a kept woman for a few years, and I walk away with most of his money!"

Elizabeth let out a bark of laughter.

"When you put it that way..." she said.

It was a quiet meal; the women tried to act casual, as if we had not just completed the negotiation of their life. We drove to Elizabeth's house where the moving people were waiting. Samantha shook her head and drove to her house to greet her set of movers. Brittany had organized the entire process so I drove to Taylor's house and waited in the study for them.

The material I needed to read was similar to a class I had already taken making it hard to focus with the noise outside the room. Someone knocked on the door to signal everything was ready. I put my books away and joined them in the living room. Taylor looked nervous while the two women shared courage from a bottle of white wine. Brittany sat watching them. I thought Tawny was supposed to be present but put it out of my mind before sitting down.

Elizabeth and Samantha looked at me.

"I haven't had sex with anyone other than my husband for years," Elizabeth announced quietly.

"Would it make you feel better if you started with Samantha?" I asked.

"You can't ask us to do that!" Samantha said after a moment of stunned silence.

"It's millions, Samantha," Brittany said coldly. "We can ask for anything, can't we?"

"I've never!" Samantha said looking at Elizabeth who was quietly studying me.

"Elizabeth!" Samantha exclaimed in exasperated. Elizabeth turned to look at Samantha.

"I tried it in college, before I met my husband. David discussed it at the restaurant, you just weren't paying attention."

"I KNOW what he said! I just didn't think he really meant we had to participate," Samantha said angrily.

"Does it change anything, Samantha?" Elizabeth said with her eyes blazing out the anger she had held in since she discovered how deep her husband buried her. "If I have to fuck you, Brittany, Taylor, and every other woman that takes his dick, it will not be worse than what my husband has already done to me."

Elizabeth turned her face and the tears poured down her cheeks. Samantha sat quietly as her own tears escaped.

We sat in silence until the front door opened. I turned to look at Brittany who was smiling.

Marelin walked in wearing black high heels and a silk choker. Her cheeks flamed from the embarrassment of walking naked from the car to the house. She sat down beside Taylor.

Tawny entered the living room a few minutes later carrying metal tubes. She wore black patent leather from her toes to the bands keeping the red hair out of her face. Elizabeth and Samantha sucked in a hard breath at the sight of the miniature dominatrix. I swallowed a smile when Tawny winked at me; she looked as hot as a steam pipe and knew it.