Chapter 22

Heinrich hadn't been this angry in a long time. He couldn't believe how badly his men had faired when he sent them to destroy his weak brother's Mexican slut. In Heinrich's mind, Walter's first big fuck up was when he married that Latina bitch!

"It was my hard work," Heinrich thought, "that set the stage for the Conglomerate to reach the next plateau. We would have owned the drug traffic routes through Central America and a slice of the pie in Western Europe; but my weak brother decided to say no. After the cartel settled their issue with Walter, his bitch stepped in and mucked up the works. Why couldn't the slut have just stayed out of the way? Was she really too stupid to know that running a large conglomerate was a man's job?"

Heinrich knew Maria didn't trust him; and the few times he had tried to mend the breach and step in to "help her run things", she had rebuffed him. Now the cartel was trying to deal with her directly and cut him out of things; but Heinrich wasn't going to let that happen on his watch! He had used his growing wealth to put an alternate plan together that would allow him to perform the work and earn the rewards that his brother had been too moralistic to handle; but if the cartel was successful in their plan to convince Maria to work with them then all of his hard work would once again be to no avail!

"I'll not let the little slut fuck things up for me again!" he had vowed to himself. Heinrich felt that killing "the stupid slut" would effectively eliminate the cartel's alternatives and force them to deal directly with him. He had sent four assassins to do the job and paid the stooge he usually used in that area of Mexico to keep a lid on things. Damn what a fuckup! Three of the four assassins get their asses kicked and are sitting in the cooler at the local morgue, the fourth assassin is unaccounted for and could be out there blabbing his mouth off, and the lousy cunt is still breathing! In all of his years Heinrich had been careful to "keep his hands clean" by letting others do his dirty work; but this time he wished he had made an exception.

He only had one source inside the Estate and while they insisted that Maria wasn't there, they also swore that they didn't know her whereabouts. Now he would have to find out where she was all over again. At least he had enough manpower to watch the other three residences she owned. He thought for a moment about the placement of people he had been able to infiltrate the cartel with and how fortunate it was that he had done so; otherwise he wouldn't have known about their renewed interest in Maria.

Picking up the paper and looking at the incredibly preposterous headline once again, Heinrich wondered aloud "Ninja Warriors and Werewolves?" Well perhaps that was the best Inez could do under the circumstances. At least it beat having any direct connection made to him or his organization; of course there was still the fourth assassin unaccounted for. Who had pulled this off and why? Surely the cartel wasn't protecting Maria yet? Heinrich's informant inside the cartel assured him that the cartel hadn't even made its proposal to Maria yet; so who is protecting her?

Maria awoke in the morning in an unfamiliar place. She was frightened at first until she saw Enrique dozing in a nearby recliner. Slowly the memories of the evening before returned to her, bringing at first a few moments of panic followed by a sense of relief at having escaped danger. Maria and Enrique had talked for quite sometime after they had been shown to a room to sleep for the night. Enrique felt they would be safe here after having seen the proficiency of the Ninja Warriors first hand and he told Maria so. Glancing at the clock on the nightstand Maria saw that it was early afternoon and realized that she had slept for hours undisturbed by any dream or nightmare. "That alone," she thought, "is reason enough to thank the wizard."

Maria wondered just what the word wizard really meant now that she had encountered one outside of a fairy tale. Realizing that there was quite a good chance that Enrique had been getting even less sleep than she had recently, Maria carefully pushed the covers back and quietly moved off of the bed. The exquisite garment the wizard had magically created for her the night before was hanging up in her closet. She made her way to the bathroom and was pleasantly surprised to find that it had been equipped with everything she might need. After an exhilarating hot shower, Maria was fully awake. She combed out her long and lustrous black hair and wrapped a towel around herself; finding Enrique still asleep in the chair, she dropped the towel and wriggled into the beautiful garment the wizard had provided for her. When Maria opened the door to her room and looked out, the first thing she saw was the smiling face of the wizard as he walked towards her.

"Good afternoon Maria! I hope you slept well," he said. "You look lovely!"

"Thank you Sir. I did sleep well and for that, as well as everything else you've done, you have my gratitude," Maria said with a smile of her own.

Dale was happy to see a smile on her face; it made him feel worthwhile to be able to do something nice for someone else who truly needed it. "Now, you've probably got an enormous amount of questions on your mind I would imagine. Would you join me for lunch? We can chat as we get a bite to eat," Dale suggested.

Earlier in the day, while Maria was still resting from the excitement of the night before, Dale had called all of the members of his household together and apprised them of her situation. Angelina showed him the headlines in the morning paper. Dale thought the whole thing had gone off rather well; but Fang seemed to be a bit upset at being called a werewolf.

"So she will be staying with us for a while?" Lizzy asked, her tone revealing a trace of concern.

"Yes Little Darling," Dale replied.

"Does that mean we have to wear clothing all of the time?" she asked causing everyone else to laugh.

"I'll see what I can do about that Lizzy; I sure wouldn't want to deprive myself of the visual delight of seeing all of you beautiful ladies in your birthday suits!" Dale answered with a grin.

"That's a relief;" Louisa said, "after all, we wouldn't want your titties in a tizzy Lizzy!"

"I hope you don't mind eating alone with me Maria. I'm afraid the rest of my family and most of the servants have gone off to do a bit of sightseeing. I'll introduce you to them when they get back though since several of them are anxious to meet you," Dale said as he led her out into a private courtyard. He held her chair and after he was seated, moved to the other side of the table to sit across from her. There was quite a selection of food and juices on the table as well as a chilled bottle of wine.

"This looks very good!" Maria said with another smile.

"I was hoping you might find something you'd like. Since I didn't know what your preferences were, I had room service deliver a wide selection; that way there will be enough for Enrique when he wakes up," Dale told her.

Maria placed a piece of toast and some fresh fruit on her plate and began to eat as she looked at her surroundings. The Penthouse suite covered the entire top floor of the sizeable hotel building and had a large central courtyard with palm trees and a wide variety of tropical plants, bushes, and flowers. Birds were flitting from bush to bush occasionally bursting into song.

"This certainly is a lovely setting. If you don't mind my asking, where are we?" Maria asked.

"Of course I don't mind. Though we've met under less than ideal circumstances I want you to feel like a guest, not a prisoner. We are in Mazatlan."

"I thought we might still be in Mexico; but considering our method of travel I guess we might have gone most anywhere," she said somewhat shyly.

Maria seemed to be enjoying her food; but appeared to be somewhat timid about asking the questions that Dale was certain must be going through her mind.

"Maria, I assume you must have some questions?" Dale prompted her.

"Well yes, so many in fact I'm not sure where to begin; but somehow the ones I was dying to ask last night aren't really the ones I want to ask first now that I have the opportunity," she said somewhat awkwardly. She remained silent for several minutes apparently in deep thought. Eventually she looked up at Dale and realized he was patiently waiting so she began to speak again.

"Last night I had all kinds of questions running through my head about magic and wizards and other things that I had been taught were fairytales to be told to children as they listened on their father's knee. It's pretty astounding when you discover that some of those things are reality. Last night it seemed very important for me to learn more about which of the stories I had heard might have some basis in truth; but now that I'm near you I find that it isn't your magic that intrigues me as much as it is you yourself. There's something different about you that touches me and makes me want to know you.

Last night when you held me in your arms to comfort me I began to feel safe for the first time in quite a while. You saw my nakedness and didn't take advantage of me for it. You concerned yourself with my safety; but you still gave me choices. I sense the power in you and know that you could probably have just done things your way with none to oppose you; yet you valued me enough to make sure I felt included in the decisions that needed to be made. All of those things tell me that you are a rare soul Wizard Manix and someone I want to know."

"I have a confession Maria. You are a very beautiful woman and I have a penchant for beautiful women. I knew who you were and had wanted to meet you long before I saw you standing there in the moonlight; but I didn't know just how to go about approaching you. You are beautiful and wealthy, and many might seek to know you with some thought of your wealth in mind; I was afraid you might think me to be the same. I am quite wealthy in my own right and don't need your money; but how could you know that. I don't reveal my status as a wizard to very many, and had we met any other way it might have been quite sometime before I found the right way to let you know about that part of me. If the fact that I'm a wizard doesn't complicate things enough, I was also concerned that you might not be able to accept my lifestyle and might think poorly of me for it; and for that matter you still may feel that way when you learn more about me," Dale told her.

"Well Manix, why would you say that?" Maria asked.

"Manix is the name I use in the wizard realm Maria."

"I'm sorry; but I'm not really sure how to address you. That's the only name I have for you," she replied.

"That's not your fault, it's mine. Most people know me as Dale Young. You can call me Dale if you'd like. When I spoke of possible issues with my lifestyle it has a lot to do with my family and my household. I don't exactly fit well within society's version of normal," Dale said.

At this Maria began to laugh quite hard.

"What's so funny Maria?" he asked.

"Just how well did you think I'd expect a wizard to fit into societal norms? They don't even believe you exist; how can they expect you to be like them," she replied.

"I guess I had that coming; but I was referring to things more in the sexual spectrum than anything else."

"Oh! You're not gay are you?" Maria asked in disbelief.

"No Maria, I'm not gay. This is getting even more awkward for me than I had anticipated; perhaps I should just spell things out very clearly. There are many women in my family and household who share my bed," Dale told her.

She didn't look shocked in the least, much to Dale's surprise. In fact, he noticed that her nipples had hardened and seemed to be straining to break free of the glove-like dress she was wearing.

"How many women Dale?" Maria inquired.

"Right now somewhere near twenty."

"I have a confession to make as well Dale," Maria said.

"And what would that be," he asked in a quiet voice thinking she was about to reject him.

"I want to believe that there's room for at least one more in your bed!" She said with a wink.

"Really?" Dale asked.

"Yes really! The only dreams I had last night once you told me goodnight, were dreams of you mounting me and thrusting your hard shaft within me over and over again!"

"And the fact that you would have to share me doesn't bother you Maria?" Dale asked as he reached across the table and touched her face.

"I'll take you anyway I can if you'll have me. I would be happy to have such a wonderful man as you in my life; besides that, when you wrapped me in your arms last night I felt something long and thick underneath your robe, and while I'm sure it's quite magical, I know that it wasn't your wand! I think you probably have enough to go around!" she replied with a mischievous expression.

The two laughed together and once again Dale marveled at the way things had changed in his life. He would never give up the relationships he had with the other women in his life and found it to be wonderful that Maria would be willing to fit into his unconventional lifestyle just to be with him.

"Thank you Maria. There are a few other differences you should know of as well," Dale said as he began to tell her about the other people in his family, the nudity that they preferred, and finally his slave women.

She took it all in stride telling him that "after meeting Ninja's and a talking Wolf, I guess I don't have too many preconceived notions about a Wizard's lifestyle to overcome."

He called the two body slaves that had remained in the suite to protect him and introduced them to Maria. After she had time to exchange greetings and pleasantries with the two women Dale turned to them and asked, "Patricia, Eunice, what am I to you?"

"You are our Master?" the two replied.

"And what are you to me?" he asked.

"We are your bodyguards, servants, and sex slaves," they answered.

"Did I ask you to become my slaves?" he asked anticipating Maria's question.

"No Master. We have chosen to become yours of our own free will and are pleased that you have accepted our service."