Chapter 192

VAN AND ADRIANA'S FARM

Van and Jeremy found themselves awkwardly standing in the kitchen after all the women seemed to have come to some silent agreement and hurried to Paulette's bedroom. Van supposed they had opted for some type of female conference, and he also wondered if Adriana was avoiding the pheromone-laden air of the couple's own bedroom.

"What brought that on?" Jeremy wondered aloud, then without waiting for an answer, "I guess we need to put up the cold stuff," he commented as he took a container of ice cream from a grocery bag.

Van avoided answering Jeremy's question about the women. "You three went a bit overboard," he said somewhat inanely as he stood with several items in his hands with no idea where to put them. "What's all this stuff?"

"I guess Connie and Denise felt guilty about coming for another meal without bringing something. I just pushed the cart."

"Learning to say 'yes, Ma'am' already?" Van tried to joke.

Jeremy put the ice cream inside, closed the freezer door and turned back to his father. "Dad, what the fuck is going on?"

Van, stood holding a can of walnuts and a bag of chocolate chips. Not knowing what else to do with them, he just put them on a kitchen counter. Stopping to give a furtive glance at his son, the father cleared his throat and said, "Let's get the steaks marinating, then I'll ... tell you what's happened."

Since it was becoming obvious that the women weren't coming back anytime soon, father and son put potatoes in to bake and tossed a garden salad. Later as they stood on the deck ready to put the steaks on the grill, Jeremy's exasperation reached a peak. "Dammit, Dad..."

"I'm going to marry Lillian," Van blurted out.

"You're..." Jeremy started, but stopped when he saw the look on his father's face.

"Look, Son, I know how kids don't want to think about their parents being ... well ... making love – having a sex life. But your mom is still a young woman and ... well, I'm sure not an old man. Hell, I'm not even forty, yet. With Little One, I feel better than I did at twenty, and in case you haven't noticed, your mom is already showing the effects of what the Healer did to her – I guess I am, too."

"I never thought of you two as being old..." Jeremy started, then a look of comprehension struck his face. "Alphas – we're Alphas, and Mom is becoming a Queen, isn't she? I mean ... uh, I saw those splotches on her blouse. Jeff said his Queens lactated. That has to be it, isn't it?" Then after a second, continued almost to himself, "She is looking younger."

Van let out a sigh. "Look, Jeremy, I've had feelings for Lillian. Feelings I haven't acted on in any way, even though I've had those feelings for a long time now. It's not that I just feel sorry for her, hell, we all do. But in addition to that, she's a fine person, and suddenly she's thrown into an impossible situation after losing the man she loved. I swear, though, I've kept those feelings bottled up – well, until today. I love your mother more than life itself, then when she suddenly hit me with this idea, well ... she overwhelmed me. I swear to you that it was her idea, and she's behind this one hundred percent. Your mother wants me to marry Lillian. More – she practically demands it. And you're right; she thinks she's becoming a Queen. She says her suddenly lactating is proof of it."

"And..." Jeremy said, his inflection unfathomable to his father.

"If you three had been a few minutes later getting here we would have ... uh ... consummated the marriage before it happened."

At Jeremy's amused look and beginning chuckle, Van went quickly on, "I asked Lillian to marry... us, and she, well, we wound up on the floor with her hugging me, and I kissed her and ... I guess I screwed up and let my pheromones loose – completely, I think. If you hadn't come in when you did, we would have been..."

By then, Van was beginning to be a bit pissed as his son's laughter quickly escalated into guffaws. "Oh, shit. Oh, shit," Jeremy got out as he held his belly and sat down hard – collapsed – onto an Adirondack chair behind him.

"It's not that funny. Have you let your pheromones go? I wouldn't laugh too loud until you have. Jeff cautioned me to be very careful with them, and in the beginning to only use them when we were already making love, but Lillian surprised me, and she felt so good with her breasts pressed against my chest, and she was..." He had started to say something about her squirming her pussy against him, but decided to shut up before he embarrassed himself more. "And, well, anyway, I finally realized that I had dumped pheromones – a lot of pheromones. The women were practically raping me. Then we heard you in the kitchen. Another few seconds and nothing would have stopped us."

Jeremy, his face still red from laughing, looked at his father, who was obviously becoming more frustrated by the moment. "Dad, it's not what you think," he gasped out. Then taking a breath to calm himself, "Oh, sure, I find it terribly amusing that my parents just lost it and were preparing to, uh, fuck like rabbits, but that isn't all I was laughing about." After a last chuckle, he wiped his eyes with the back of his hands. "Uh, you see, I decided to experiment a little last night. Well, I guess we experienced just about what you did. We're out here now – not that we don't enjoy being here, because we certainly do – but well, we're all too sore to make love tonight. I thought I could do the pheromone thing, you know, just let a little out to enhance our love making, but I guess I got a bit too excited. My women and I almost fucked each other to death – not that I'm complaining, mind you," he said with a chuckle, "but we're definitely out of commission tonight."

"So, with nothing else to do, you decided to come visit your parents," Van said, trying to keep his face straight.

"Dad, it wasn't..."

Van laughed at his son's discomfiture, "Oh, I know that, but I couldn't resist. Anyway, I now know what Jeff was talking about when he said Little One was stronger than she used to be. Something about her enhancements coming about quicker – more fully – and not giving the new enhanced Alpha time to get used to his abilities, I think was the way he phrased it."

Jeremy got up and took their iced tea glasses into the house to refill them. Back a moment later, he handed his dad his glass and grinned at the older man. "So what are you going to do?"

Van didn't answer for a moment as he turned the steaks. Finally looking back at his son, "I'm almost afraid to be in the same room with them. I'm afraid I'll pick up where we left off. You don't understand how intense..." but he stopped when he saw the grin getting bigger on his son's face. "Well, maybe you do," he finished with a little chuckle.

"Measure Mom and Lillian, call up Diana and get her to call the measurements in to the dress shop. I understand they're running a night shift, and Diana's orders are always next. I'm sure the Matthews will marry the three of you any time you wish. They have the marriage thing down to a fine art. Marry Lillian, or take her as your mate, then marry her whenever the three of you decide. But, Dad, if all three of you have felt those pheromones, you know you're going to take Lillian sooner or later – probably sooner."

Van sighed again, thinking he had done that a lot lately. "The way the women were acting, sooner would be more likely. Do you suppose..."

Jeremy interrupted with, "The Matthews have been involved in this Alpha thing much longer than we have. What Jeff told me just makes more sense now, and from what you just said, it does to you, too. Get on the phone, or better yet, have Mom talk to Diana. If Mom thinks she's a Queen..."

"She suddenly started lactating," Van reminded.

" ... then she and Diana are the ones who need to discuss this."

"Son giving the father instructions..." Van started with an amused look on his face.

Jeremy chuckled. "I have twenty-four hours more experience with the pheromones than you do, Dad, and a whole lot more soreness."

Van didn't immediately respond to his son's words, but said instead, "Call the women. We're ready to eat as soon as we get this meat back into the kitchen."

THE RETREAT

Jeff's wives, along with Sheriff Tate's wives, sat in the living room near the fire, soft drinks nearby as they chatted. When the phone rang, Arlene answered it, talked for a few moments, then brought the instrument to her mother. "It's Adriana."

After greetings, Adriana hesitated slightly before she continued, "Diana, you talked about Queens, and said that most multiple marriages had one, right?"

"Yes," the Queen responded, "that's true, if there is an enhanced Alpha involved, and one of the wives fulfills certain conditions, of course."

Adriana went on. "And if a wife decides to have another woman join their marriage – mate with her husband – it can cause changes that result in the original wife becoming a Queen, right?"

"That's the way I understand it. But remember, as I told you before, much of this is guesswork from what's happened to us, and from what Little One has told Jeff about the race that created her. Also, there are born Queens, according to Little One. I think Mom and Arlene fall into that category – as well as me, I guess."

"I'm giving milk like I have twins," Adriana blurted.

Diana sat quietly, knowing there was more. Then finally, "And..."

"I decided that Lillian, our next door neighbor who lost her husband a few years back ... well, I decided that Van needs to marry her. This morning, I woke up with my nipples itching like crazy. When I scratched them, my fingers came away wet with milk. It's been increasing ever since. I finally found my breast pump from when I weaned Paulette. It still works..."

"So Van doesn't like to nurse?" Diana teased.

Adriana didn't notice the teasing and answered instead, "It's not that. I think he would love to nurse me. It's just that he ... uh, kinda lost it with his pheromones. The first thing we knew, Lillian and I were well on our way to raping him – not that he was resisting any. If it hadn't been for Jeremy and his wives arriving just then, we would probably still be going at it. But he loves Lillian, and she loves him. I'm sure the sex would have been wonderful, but we all want us to be married before we do that."

"So?" Diana prompted. "I assume you want us to marry you, or we probably wouldn't be having this conversation right now. When? We can do it anytime."

Adriana hesitated for a second. "Di, I want it to be special for her, " she said as she locked eyes with Lillian who was sitting only a few feet away. "She's had such a hard time, and she loved her husband so much. Do you think there's any way we can get that dress shop to make the two of us matching wedding dresses, and do it quickly? We told her about the wedding Connie, Denise and my son had. She's insistent that we both wear wedding dresses and have a wedding like theirs, if possible. I know the dress shop made Connie and Denise's dresses quickly, and we have the money, but..."

Diana chuckled. "You sound like you're really in a hurry."

"Di, I feel ... strongly about this." Adriana stood and walked to the other side of the room before speaking quietly into the phone. "I want the next time Van and I make love to be with the three of us – to include Lillian. And now that Van has been enhanced, and he's used his pheromones, I... we can wait only so long."

"And you have been enhanced, too," Diana injected.

"Uh, yeah, I guess you're right. Since we were at the Retreat, Van and I can't seem to keep our hands off each other. When he got down on his knees and asked Lillian to marry him, we all wound up on the floor when she tried to get into his lap. He let too much of his pheromones go and we almost raped him right there. We want to be married before we make love the first time – all three of us together, that is," she repeated, "but waiting is going to be a problem after what he did with his pheromones."

Adriana went back over and reseated herself, apologizing to Lillian and telling her it was more of the things that she would know about in the next few days. Then back to Diana on the phone.

"Do you remember how to take the measurements like you did for Connie and Denise?"

"Sure."

"Take them as soon as you can, and call me. What size is Lillian?"

Adriana looked over at her friend. "Practically my size. We've swapped outfits before. I guess my bust might be a little larger than hers right now, since I'm lactating," she finished with a blush, after Lillian's nod of agreement.