Chapter 49

Susan, her mood melancholy, had wandered the halls for a while now, occasionally stopping to sit in a window seat and stare out at the grounds, then after a while, walking on to idly explore as her thoughts, too, continued to wander. At the north end of the retreat, she found a little alcove with a window seat. Sitting, she slipped her shoes off and put her feet up on the lush leather. Most of the outside lights had been turned off, leaving only the security lights at various points about the property — pools of brightness on the intense white of the snow, those points of brightness interspersed with the darkness of the night. Her mind never seemed to be far from one glaring point: her son-in-law was sleeping with his own daughter — Susan's granddaughter. In one sense that gnawed at her soul, yet it was obvious that Arlene was happy. Susan had stopped in the game room a little earlier. Chirps, squeaks, gunfire, the roar of engines, and more filled the big room, all to the even noisier squealing accompaniment of teenage girls having a marvelous time.

Susan had remained just inside the door as she watched. After a time, she started to turn to leave when Arlene shifted slightly and smiled at her. Susan had the distinct impression that her granddaughter had known she was there all the time. Arlene appeared to be about the same as she had been in Georgia — scary smart, pleasant to be around — but still there was a subtle difference; something about her that made the teenager seem more grown up. The young girl she loved was there, but a little older. Begrudgingly, Susan realized that along with that girl was the confidence of a young woman — a young wife.

Susan had been raised in church, in a society that said incest was wrong. She had always believed that, yet ... her own daughter appeared to not care. Moreover, she even seemed to embrace it. Diana had told her that shortly after they moved to the retreat she had realized that Jeff was getting ready to tell her that he wanted a divorce because of what Diana had done with Jack. Susan hadn't heard the details of that yet, but it must have been bad. Bad enough that Diana and Arlene had cooked up some crazy scheme to keep Jeff from leaving. Diana had mentioned that Arlene was supposed to seduce Jeff. Susan guessed that Diana was going to use that as leverage to get him to stay, but the seduction had gone awry when Jeff had fought it.

If he had resisted, how then had Arlene become his wife? How had he talked Diana into allowing multiple wives for him? Susan had almost said whore in her mind, but balked at calling Ann, Jennie or Melissa that, let alone Laura. Laura was a good woman, using most anyone's values as the gauge. She had raised her daughter by herself, and Susan had never seen the first man around her. Just about the only friend Laura had during past years was Diana. Susan damned well knew that Diana wasn't lesbian, so that wasn't their tie. No, Laura wasn't a lesbian. And she had made her own way until she lost her job and came out here. Now ... Susan didn't know "now."

And what was all this crap about Jeff being an Alpha — a Prime? They had talked some about this Prime business, but it didn't make sense. Where did this idea come from? She had asked Diana that, but she had sidestepped the issue. If Diana believed all this bullshit about Alphas and Primes, why wouldn't she tell her where it came from? Yet, Diana's sincerity tended to reinforce her arguments. It was obvious that Diana believed it, true or not. And Jeff was ... different. He had always been a good-looking guy — tall, muscular, driven. She had read a novel once where the hero had a sense of ... command about him, as the author put it. She hated to admit it, but Jeff had something like that. Oh, he didn't seem to go around bossing everyone, but somehow, he didn't seem to need to. Everyone seemed to want to do what he asked, what needed to be done without his even asking.

Her thoughts continued to ramble. I haven't been here long, but Diana has said that she and her, uh, "sister-wives" never argue. Yet none of them seem meek to me, far from it. How then can they get along so well? Laura rose through the ranks of her company without having round heels. I'll never believe she fucked her way to the top — not Laura. No, she certainly isn't meek — a workaholic maybe, but never meek. And Helen, their teacher, the genius, is about as far from being meek as you can get. Yet the genius helped prepare supper just like the other wives, all of them laughing and kidding, then it suddenly came together the same time as if by magic when they put the food on the table. Afterward, they cleaned the kitchen with me virtually standing there with my mouth open as I tried to help. The girls are scary, too. One of them starts to say something and another finishes the sentence. Come to think of it, several of the women did that. And sometimes they say the same thing at the same time. How can Jeff stand that? It would drive me crazy.

Jeff — always back to Jeff. All his women seem to almost worship him, and I'll have to give the Devil his due, as the saying goes; my son-in-law seems to feel the same way about them. But the bastard is fucking my granddaughter. I want to cut his nuts out for that, but ... Oh, shit, I don't know what I want. Now I've acquired three new granddaughters since I've gotten here, granddaughters who are here because Jeff rescued them from some ... animal who raped them and kept them locked in a cage. They would still be in that cage, were it not for him. There I go with Jeff again. But the girls are serious about me being their Meemi. I can't let them down, but I live so far away. And I barely make enough to get by. I won't be able to buy them gifts, at least not anything worthwhile. Diana wants me to live out here — up here, I guess you would say since we're on a mountain. I can't move up here, though. I can't live in the same house with someone who is committing incest with my granddaughter. And no matter what he says, I can't believe he wants me here. I've used every opportunity to cut him down, and I've done it for years. Oh, most of the time, they were just little digs, but he knew — knows — how I feel about him.

Oh, crap, I'm so mixed up. And what about how he made me respond to him? If we had been alone, and ... and ... Would I have let him screw me? I'm forty-seven years old and he's, what, thirty-five I guess. Hmmm, he looks younger than that, even. But he couldn't have been interested in me, not with all those beautiful women and girls for his wives, but I felt his erection pushing against me. I was humping his leg, for goodness sake. I can't believe I did that. And Diana said she would have him fuck me on the table if I didn't admit that he turned me on — that I could feel his pheromones. Well, I don't know about pheromones, but he did something to me, else I would never have acted like that. I mean, he is a good-looking guy, but he's my son-in-law, for crying out loud. And he's almost young enough to be my son — almost. Shit, I'm screwed up. Maybe I need to talk to Arlene again.

Getting up, she headed purposefully down the hall — in the wrong direction. Realizing her mistake shortly, she reversed her course, eventually finding one of the main hallways. This place is a maze, she thought as she looked first one way, then the other. Orienting herself at last, she went looking for Arlene.

A few minutes later, Susan stopped in the doorway of the living room. Arlene and Ann were sitting at a little table near the front window, textbooks in front of them. Arlene put down a yellow highlighter and pulled a long cigarette out of a pack. The two continued their discussion as Arlene lit the cigarette, almost making a production out of it. Holding the cigarette in her hand, she blew smoke toward the ceiling as Ann slid an ashtray near.

"Hi, Meemi," both girls chorused as Susan came in.

Ann got up and moved a seat over. "Sit with us," she said.

Susan nodded to the books scattered about, "What's going on?"

"Studying for a calculus test," Arlene said.

"When's the test?"

"When we tell Helen we're ready for it," Ann replied.

There was quiet for a moment, then, "When did you start smoking?"

Arlene smirked, then paused to pull on the cigarette. Again blowing the smoke toward the ceiling, she finally said, dragging out the word, "Weelll... officially, a few months ago, but I've been stealing cigarettes from Mom since I was twelve."

"I never knew that," Susan said, crossing her legs at the knee, uncomfortable in hearing what Arlene said. Susan remembered Arlene occasionally smelling slightly of cigarettes, but at the time she had just thought it was because Diana smoked around her.

"How did you get away with it for that long?"

Arlene giggled. "Mom bought them by the carton. After she opened the carton, I would slide the packs out and take one from the back, then put them back just like I found them. By the time she got to the last packs, she wouldn't notice if just one pack was gone, since she's never been a heavy smoker and didn't use them up very fast."

Arlene thought for a moment, then continued, "Right after the episode started with Jack, Mom saw me with a cigarette, and she just left a pack out for me. There's more to it than that, but I'll tell you the details later when you're more convinced about other things," she finished.

"Baby, you shouldn't smoke. It's been five years since I've smoked, and I hope I quit in time. Cancer kills far too many people who smoke, or have smoked."

"That's true," Ann broke in, "but it doesn't apply to us. We could all smoke for the next hundred years and nothing would happen."

"Well, you would be a hundred and sixteen then," Susan laughed. "I doubt if any of us will live that long."

Arlene put her hand over Susan's for a moment. "I know you don't believe it now, but you might just be wrong there. Look at how young Mom looks..."

"And Jill," Ann added.

"Not to mention Helen and Laura; heck all of us," Arlene continued. "Meemi, we won't age unless we want to look older. Our cells will reproduce perfectly, just the way we were 'designed.' No disease will affect us; injuries will heal quicker. Smoking won't hurt our lungs..."

Perplexed, wondering if Jeff were feeding them this line of crap, "Where are you getting all this? I mean..."

"You'll start to believe, Meemi," Arlene interrupted, her enthusiasm growing. "Tomorrow morning when you wake up feeling better than you have ever felt in your life, you'll start to believe."

"What's this about tomorrow morning? Why will I wake up like you say? What's going to happen tonight?"

"I've said more than I should," Arlene said, her voice quieter. "I might just have gotten myself in a bit of trouble. But Meemi, I love you. We all love you, and I let my mouth get away from me."

Susan chuckled. "Well, I don't know what you're talking about when you say you may be in trouble, but I can guarantee there is one person in this grand building who does not love me..."

"You're wrong, Meemi," Ann said. "You're wrong. Jeff might not love you the way he does us wives, but he respects you..."

"Bosh..."

"He doesn't talk about you behind your back, well other than a comment or two about dreading what you're going to do next. He's said a lot of good things, too," Arlene said.

Susan took Arlene's cigarette from her hand and put it out in the ashtray. "You two are rationalizing because you love both of us and don't want to see us fighting. That man detests me..."

"Meemi," Arlene broke in, fighting back a grin at her grandmother's attempts to make her quit smoking, "our husband is well capable of cutting you to verbal shreds if he wishes. If that doesn't work, he's also capable of turning you over his knee and setting your ass on fire — and I'm not talking about sexual play, either. He wouldn't do that when Pop was alive. That would have been an insult to your husband. But if I were you, I would be a little more careful now. Dad has changed since you've last been around him."

Arlene got up with the ashtray. Dumping its contents in the wastebasket, she took a tissue and wiped the ashtray clean before returning it to the table. Reseating herself, she looked at Susan. "Better pay attention to what Mom says. She wasn't kidding about having Daddy fuck you on that table. You squeaked by on that one, but Dad will usually do what Mom asks. If she thinks she can't convince you any other way that Dad is a Prime, she'll have him seduce you in front of us. If he dumps his pheromones with all of us around, he'll wind up doing all of us right after he screws you unconscious."

"You two really believe this, don't you?"

Arlene, looking exasperated, stared hard at Susan. "Meemi, he has given me orgasms just holding and tenderly kissing me. He doesn't need his pheromones; he does something with his mind that he calls a push. Instead of pushing his pheromones, he pushes something in our minds. It's like he turns on a switch. We orgasm whenever he wants us to. If he does it while he's making love to us, it is so intense that we pass out. It's the most wonderful feeling in the world. He's a Prime, Meemi. Alphas can do it too, once they've been enhanced and they learn how, but he's a master at it. Mom has already said she's becoming frustrated with you. I don't know whether Daddy will take you if Momma tells him to, but if she asks him sweetly, you might as well lie down and spread your legs."

Both girls giggled, obviously thinking Arlene's remark was a lot funnier than Susan did.

Susan could hardly believe that Arlene had talked to her that way, but then again, it was hard to believe she (Susan) had humped her son-in-law's leg in front of her daughter and granddaughter, either. By unspoken agreement they changed the subject, chatting about the recent snowstorms and the magnificent building they were sitting in, until it became obvious that the girls wanted to continue with their studies. Excusing herself, Susan headed for bed.

Later —

"Daddy, I think I screwed up," Arlene said as they readied for bed. At Jeff's raised eyebrow, she looked down at the floor as she stood in front of him, then finally met his eyes, "Meemi was kinda bugging me about my smoking ... Oh, shit," she said, then went hurriedly on, "I told her she would feel better than she ever had in her life when she wakes up in the morning. I'm sorry; uh, we were talking about you and ... after I ran my mouth, she started acting suspicious."

Jeff hugged her. "No matter. I'll just wait a little later to go. Little One will make sure Mom is deeply asleep before I even get near the bed."

"Jeff, you're not going to sit in the corner again are you?" Diana asked, joining their conversation. "Kayla told me you laid next to her and held her hand while Little One worked on her, but you had said that you usually sat in the corner while Little One did her thing. I know you don't need much sleep, but that's ridiculous. No one here thinks you're a rapist," she said in jest.

"Don't bet on that," he said with feeling.

"Well, crap. She doesn't really think that. She's just hung up about the incest thing. Do you want me to go with you? There is plenty of room in that king-sized bed for the three of us if you insist on protecting my mother's virtue," she finished with a grin.

"'Protecting' her virtue," he laughed, "Earlier, you were threatening her with me fucking her on the table."

"Yeah, and I was scared she would challenge me on that."

Jeff grimaced. "You were afraid she would challenge you; I was scared to death she would."

Diana touched his arm. "And besides, you know I was kidding about the virtue thing. I just thought I might get some alone-time with my husband while Little One did her thing."

Jeff just looked at his wife. He wasn't yet up to making love to her while lying next to her mother. "We'll take our time making love tonight. She should be asleep by then, even if she is suspicious that I'm going to do something."