Chapter 196

With mixed emotions, Paulette watched her father take first Adriana into the honeymoon suite, then a moment later, return to pick Lillian up and cross the threshold with her in his arms.

"Penny for your thoughts, Little Sister?" Jeremy teased as he put his arm around Paulette.

Paulette's mind returned to the world around her as she was first hugged by her brother, then Connie and Denise.

"Was I that noticeable?" the teenager quietly asked as she glanced around somewhat guiltily, but none of the other people there seemed to be paying any attention to her.

"Who cares?" Jeremy responded as he leaned in to gently kiss her on the lips, then to encircle her in his arms when he noticed the sparkle of tears in her eyes.

In a quiet, but choked voice, Paulette whispered into his ear, "I'll be fifteen tomorrow. I have another whole year to wait. I'll go crazy. Since you ... I don't know. Since things have happened," she stumbled out. "Since Little One enhanced us ... it seems much harder to wait – much harder. I guess you guys marrying, then Dad and Lillian..." She stopped for a second. "I'm confused." Then with a rush, "I just can't get you off my mind. I need you so bad," she whimpered before sucking in a breath and hugging him tight, her body trembling.

Connie and Denise glanced at each other, then Connie reached to grab Paulette's hand. "Come on. I think we need some girl talk."

Denise turned to Jeremy, pulled his head down and kissed him. "Help with the cleanup, Honey, or talk to Jeff, or something. We'll see you in a little while." Turning, she hurried to catch up to Connie and Paulette, who were already walking toward Paulette's suite.

Jeremy helped Jeff, but with all of Jeff's team, Security, and the other Alphas, it took only a short while to store the wedding decorations, run the vacuums and put the furniture back in place.

The women were still putting up the food and dishes from the reception. Quinton, Art, Dave and Fred had gathered near the fire to talk and drink coffee and soft drinks, but Jeff had not yet joined them. Putting a hand on Jeremy's shoulder, the Prime quietly asked, "Do you want to talk about it?"

Jeremy's focus came back to the present. "Uh..."

"Why don't we get a cup of coffee and go sit in my office?" It wasn't a question. "It will be quiet there," the Prime added.

"I'm sorry, Jeff. I didn't mean to be so obvious. But ... I guess I do need to talk to someone, although I can't see a solution to my problem."

The two took mugs from the serving cart and Jeff poured for the two men. "Can't ever tell. Sometimes, just talking through a problem helps."

A few minutes later, they sat in comfortable seats in Jeff's business office just down the hall from the Matthews' suite, but Jeremy seemed reluctant to get to the subject. Finally, when they had worn out casual topics, Jeff crossed his legs, leaned back and looked at the young Alpha. "I suppose that Van told you he talked to me a short while ago about a loan for the adjacent farm? Incidentally, he has also told me that I could speak freely with you about any subject involving him or his women."

"Jeff, we don't have any secrets from you, either. And yeah, he told me he called Mr. Aldridge and offered him his full asking price. I was wondering about that. I'm sure we could have talked him down some."

"No need," Jeff inserted. "Van said the price was reasonable, but like you, said he could probably talk Aldridge down a bit. But ... if the price is reasonable for the property, it seems a little ... Well, there was no need. This sale is probably Aldridge's retirement. No use to cheat him out of part of that, just because we could."

"We'll get you paid back, but Dad is a little hesitant about the first couple of years..."

"Stop," the Prime said. "You – all of you – don't seem to understand. When I welcomed all of you to the family, it wasn't just a civility. I was dead serious. You are part of my family. My family of Alphas, if you will. And I even suspect there's some actual biological links somewhere over the ages. Whether there is or not, you and your father are Alphas. Your women become part of you when you mate with them. Family stands together – helps one another.

"If I'm to believe that I'm a Prime, then I have to take the responsibility that goes with the position. I didn't ask for this, but somehow, I've been given gifts that others have not received. I'm no better than anyone else – far from it. But ... it looks like I'm head of the clan, whether I like it or not. I think you've realized that you truly are an Alpha – one of us. If you stop and think about it, family is really the only term that fits.

"Somehow, I've been given more money than I could ever imagine having. And ... it seems as if the more of it I give away, the more money I somehow make. I have shared that wealth, to some small degree, with my Alphas, and will continue to do so. And I must admit," he said with a grin, "that you're a group of people that's damn hard to share it with. I've had to fudge the truth to get any of you to take anything from me, but look at it from my point of view. I have family who needs money, and I have it practically running out of my ears. What would you do in my shoes, hmmm? In other words, the chance of me taking any of that money back that I've agreed to loan your Dad is zero to none."

At Jeremy's shocked expression, the Prime went on, "Now, I expect you to keep this little conversation quiet, at least until the property deal goes through. But somewhere along in there, I need to let Van know that he doesn't have to worry about paying the money back. I want my Alphas to prosper. I want us to become a close-knit family. If I can help that along by the use of a little money to ease things a bit, then so be it.

"Like I asked Van, just please, let my accountant get involved. He has already saved me a substantial amount of money, and he has people who are familiar with farms and ranches, at least as far as the money side of the operation is concerned."

"Shit, Jeff ... I didn't expect..." Jeremy just sat and stared at the person he was beginning to believe was truly a Prime, or at least was different – he wasn't even certain he knew what a Prime was. Hell, he thought, I don't really know what an Alpha is, but after Little One, I feel different, and it's more than just being healthy. He thought for a second, then, My wives seem to have already accepted this, but...

"So, what did you really come in here to talk about?" Jeff asked as he again watched the emotions chase each other across Jeremy's face.

Jeremy drained the last of his coffee and put the cup down on the table in front of him. Then with a sigh, "I have a problem."

Jeff just raised an eyebrow and looked at the younger man.

"I think I've fucked up," Jeremy quietly said.

"Something we all tend to do from time to time," the Prime joked.

But Jeremy went on without acknowledging Jeff's comment. "My sister is acting ... funny."

Jeff just continued to look at him.

Then in a rush, "I guess I've loved her all her life. There's always been a ... bond between us. Even when she was just a tiny baby, Mom would call me to come and calm her. Paulette could be crying like crazy, and when I picked her up, she would stop, almost instantly – every time. When she got big enough, she would come into my room in the middle of the night and crawl into bed with me. I was about nine or ten, I guess, and she was three the first time she did it. I didn't even know she was there until Mom came tearing into my room one morning screaming that she couldn't find Paulette. When I sat up, Paulette made a noise and sat up beside me, rubbing her eyes. I thought Mom was going to have a stroke when she saw my sister, but I think it was mostly relief that Paulette hadn't been kidnapped or something."

Jeremy sat silent for a couple of minutes, and Jeff just waited, before Jeremy went on. "It continued for several years until I became a teenager. Mom sat her down and had a talk with her. Paulette, of course, later told me everything Mom said, but basically, Mom just tried to explain that teenage boys needed to be alone in their bedrooms. Paulette didn't really understand at first, but several years later, she understood and teased me about needing to be alone so I could... 'jerk off.' Can you say, embarrassed? Not only was my little sister talking to me about my masturbating, but my mother knew."

Jeff was chuckling. "I don't even have to imagine," he said as the chuckle became laughter. Then after a moment, "I can say, been there, done that, except mine was probably worse. My mother marched into my bedroom with a roll of toilet tissue, put it down on my bedside table, and told me to please quit using her nice washcloths and use the tissue, instead. I thought I was being sneaky, because after using the cloth a few times, I always put it in the dirty clothes hamper with the others. After a while, I think I figured out how she knew. The cloths were white, and I must have been leaving a stain on them. Whatever it was, I sure didn't have the gumption to ask her. That roll of toilet tissue sat there unused while I jerked off in the shower, or out in the garage. Eventually, I got another roll of tissue for my, uh, personal use, and hid it in a shoebox in my closet. I think the roll on the table was still there when I moved out to marry Diana," he finished with a chuckle.

After the laughter, the men sat until the silence became uncomfortable. Jeff stood and walked over to the small refrigerator in the corner. "Want a soft drink?"

"Yeah, anything."

Jeff pulled out a couple of drinks and tossed Jeremy one. Reseating himself, he unscrewed the top, took a sip and waited.

Jeremy made his decision. "Could you tell me about pheromones? I mean, other than the brief outline you talked to me about."

Jeff took another sip of his drink, then, "Well, that 'brief outline' I gave you was a good portion of my knowledge on the subject. But, I'll tell you what I know, and to be truthful, it's damn little." After a moment of contemplation, "I guess it started at a restaurant in Winter Park. I was, uh, discreetly – I thought – enjoying viewing some very nice looking females when the waitress started coming on to me, and I mean, really coming on to me. To make a long story a little shorter, Diana eventually decided that I was producing some type of attraction pheromone, and 'suggested' I get control of it, or them, as the case may be.

"I've talked to Little One about the pheromones, but keep in mind that our races, though similar, are drastically different in many ways. One of which, and a big one at that, is that they're telepathic, and we, obviously, are not. And regardless of what you've read in fiction stories, communication – at least the little I'm familiar with – between telepaths and non-telepaths is ... difficult. They just don't think the way we do, and my mind isn't designed to receive that much information in that short a period of time. Little One readily tells me anything I ask, but I have to decipher what I'm looking for out of something I call concepts. We're better at communicating than we use to be, and I can easily communicate with the Ship, but then again, it's totally different. With her, I'm ... immersed in her mind.

"The Ship tells me that communicating with the race who created her would be more like the way I communicate with Little One, so that's why I say that communication between telepaths and non-telepaths would be difficult. I don't suppose we'll really know until we meet some of them. All this is to say that the information I've received from Little One about pheromones is subject to my interpretation of what she's trying to send to me.

"Diana and I think that pheromones' influence can vary. For instance, they have little effect on another Alpha's mate, nor do they, we suspect, have much effect on a female who is truly in love with her mate, whether he is an Alpha or not. That part, I'll admit, is mostly speculation. Di also thinks that the pheromones serve more than one purpose. They obviously attract the Alpha's mate – and that's a two way street – but she thinks that they also tend to ... shape the women of the household. My women, and the other Alphas' women, don't seem to have any major disagreements, either among themselves, or with any other Alpha's mates. They're not zombies or anything like that; they just love each other and tend to get along far better than a group of women with one man would be expected to do. Also, after they've worked together for a short while, they seem to ... mesh into a ... system that's almost scary. You've seen them work together in the kitchen?" At Jeremy's nod, "That's what I mean. And it happens with everything they do together.

"Di also thinks – and I do to – that the Queen may have a pheromone or something similar that tends to bind her sister-wives to her. We're not sure this is restricted to Queens. Fred doesn't seem to have a clear-cut Queen, but his women get along just fine – although I suspect that Carla will eventually be his Queen, but that's just speculation. Nor do we understand why it hasn't already happened. Possibly, the varying times have something to do with Little One being stronger now.

"Anyway, pheromones, I think, are only one of the binding forces that an Alpha produces. We think there's a mental aspect to an Alpha's bond with his mates. And again, the bond goes both ways, as I'm sure you've noticed. Can you imagine yourself without either of your two women? No use to answer that," Jeff quickly added, "but trust me on this, those feelings will continue to intensify. And ... there's more. I talked about family, and everything I said is true, but something bonds us Alphas to each other, too, I think. I don't know whether it's pheromones, or something else. Diana says there's also a mental bond between her and her sister-wives, and I'm just as certain there is something between me and all my wives – something beyond the pheromones, as I've just mentioned.

"All of this is new to us, and there's no set of directions that comes with being an Alpha. I do know that Little One's enhancement is awakening ... things – processes in us that none of us probably had before, or if we did, they certainly weren't fully developed. I know I can do things now that I couldn't before. And before you ask, I have no idea where it will all end. I'm still learning.