Chapter 251

The Retreat

As Angela left the bedroom and stepped into the sitting room of Eric's suite, she noticed a man's jeans, undershorts and a pullover shirt, their size tags still on them, laying on the coffee table. Suspecting that the girls had already found their new clothes, she picked up Eric's clothes and went back into his bedroom.

Eric, having turned on the lights, had just dropped his shorts and was headed for the bathroom for a quick shower. Morning and a full bladder had produced predictable results, and his dick was at full mast. He was definitely an Alpha, but he didn't yet realize it. He had no real idea what an Alpha was at the moment, let alone that he was one, but he vaguely remembered Jeff saying something about an Alpha while he (Eric) was greeting his girls.

"Oh, shit," he yelped, when his sister stepped back into the room.

Putting his hands over his groin, he quickly turned away, only to hear, "Oh, nice ass, Bro. I haven't seen it bare since we were kids."

"Ah, shit, Angie. I didn't..."

" ... expect me to come blundering back into your bedroom. Looks like someone brought you a change of clothes," she finished, walking over to the bed to drop the bundle.

Eric thought about going back to the bed and grabbing a sheet, but she was standing in his way, and he couldn't see hurrying to the bathroom with his ass on display. He turned back toward her, but continued to hold his hands in front of himself. "Look, Sis. I do appreciate the clothes, but would you please get the hell out of here?"

Enjoying herself, she grinned at him. "Why, Big Brother, and I do mean Big Brother. You surely don't need to be ashamed of that thing," she finished, nodding her head to indicate what his hands were trying to cover.

That 'thing' was in the process of an expedited wilt, his embarrassment killing his erection. "Angie, this is not funny..."

"Oh, I certainly agree," she said with a titter. "There is nothing funny about it. That's a real piece of equipment."

"Angie!"

"Bye, Big Brother. I'll meet you in the hall when you're dressed," she said while trying to hold back a giggle. Turning, she walked toward the door, only to snap a quick look back over her shoulder as she started out. Yep, it still looks just as big, she thought. "Wow," she hissed aloud.

"Angie, dammit."

"Yes, Big Brother. I'm gone."

Eric took a quick shower, toweled his short hair dry, then ran a comb through it. After a quick shave, and dressed in clothes that fit better than he'd expected, he pulled the drawer of the lamp table open to stare at his holstered 9 mm. Something had been bothering him about the gun, and he supposed his subconscious was trying to tell him something. Suddenly, he remembered the odd feeling as he had entered the spaceship. My SIG seemed lighter, but I was so focused on my daughters that I didn't pay much attention. How could it suddenly feel lighter? Unless... Sliding his pistol out of its holster, he dropped the magazine – empty. Racking the slide, there wasn't a round in the chamber.

He stood thinking. I know damn well it was loaded when I left the house. How did ... The Ship. That has to be it. Somehow the Ship took the ammunition out of my pistol. Yeah. If she can materialize food out of thin air, she can probably snatch ammo out of a pistol. Shit! I meant to tell Jeff I was armed, but since the store was robbed, I'm so used to having my weapon on me, I just forgot. I'll bet he's laughing his butt off about my dumb ass sitting at his table with an unloaded weapon hidden under my shirt. Shit!

He inserted the empty magazine, put the weapon back into the drawer and went to knock on his daughters' door. When they didn't answer, he eased the door open a bit, expecting to find them sound asleep. Instead, he found a bed already made with yesterday's clothes neatly folded on it.

Wow, he thought. I usually have to practically drag them out of bed at home. Well, unless we're going somewhere, then they're up before me and hassling me to hurry. Now they've even folded their dirty clothes.

Stepping into the hallway a moment later, he saw his sister wave to him from a little alcove a short way down the hall.

She smiled at him as he neared. "You're getting slow in your old age, Baby. What took you so long?"

"I took a shower. Uh, my gun is empty."

Angie thought Eric was saying that the empty gun had delayed him. "And the gun was the reason for the delay?"

"No. Of course not. Hey, I hurried. How did you beat me getting ready?"

"I didn't bring any makeup with me, since I had no idea we were going anywhere other than the park, and I showered last night, so all I had to do was dress and brush my hair. It's not as if we expected to board a spaceship when we left your house."

But Eric was barely paying attention. "Shit. I have a million questions – at least. Let's see if we can find that kitchen." He grabbed his sister's hand and they started down the hall. "Can you believe they have clothes for their guests? Pretty decent fit, too. And yours look like you bought them yourself," he finished, scrutinizing her new outfit.

"Yeah," she said as she glanced at him, "but you can bet these didn't come from Wal-Mart."

"Well, this place they called the..."

" ... Retreat," his sister offered, helpfully.

"Whatever, they also referred to it as 'home.' We haven't seen the outside in daylight, of course, but the view last night was impressive to say the least, and judging from my suite and this hallway, someone spent some major money to build this place. These people aren't hurting – not by a long shot."

"Not to say anything about owning a spaceship," Angie offered with a smirk.

He smiled, "Yeah – that too."

"But, last night, Diana and those other women prepared the food for us, themselves. You would expect a staff of servants in a place like this. They didn't act like rich people, and they treated us like family. They personally escorted us to our suites. Rich people don't do things like that for strangers, do they?"

"Hell, how should I know? But I agree, it seems odd that there wasn't, at least, some staff around last night."

Angie tugged on his hand, "Come on. Hurry. If they fixed our food last night and cleaned up after we ate, it stands to reason that they will be doing their own breakfast preparations. I need to be part of it. We don't want them thinking that we don't appreciate what they've done for us. We have our girls back because of them."

Eric squeezed his sister's hand. "This Colonel ... uh, Jeff as he wants to be called, seems to be really stressed about our girls finding out about this team that rescued them, not to mention the spaceship. I suppose we'll have to sign some sort of non-disclosure agreement before they will let us go."

Angie glanced at her brother. "That worries me. With all they've done for us, I know that you and I will be glad to keep their secrets." She hesitated for a second, before going on. "But gosh, that will be hard enough for us to do, and we're adults." Then with a slight tremble in her voice, "We rode in a spaceship. Maybe they'll let us do it again. Anyway, we'll try to keep our mouths shut, but no matter how good their intentions, our motormouths are bound to let something slip sooner or later." She hesitated a moment, then, "Hon, do you think this Jeff person is really going to let us go? All this – the spaceship, the invisibility, this 'team' of his, all the advanced technology..."

Eric stopped, pulling her to a halt. "For what it's worth, he comes across as being honest. He said something about not knowing how he was going to solve the problem. That doesn't sound like someone who is lying. Nevertheless, we need to be very careful. He mentioned 'blocks.' Whatever they are, maybe they're the answer. But I don't want them screwing around with the minds of my daughters. And I damn sure didn't like them tranquilizing Alice and Terri." He tightened his grip on Angie's hand and started hurriedly down the hall. "Let's go find the girls."

A few moments later, he stopped them by a door. "I think this is it."

"It looks right, now that we're here," Angie replied, "but I would have gone the other way at the last intersection. Let's try it."

Whatever the couple expected when they entered the kitchen, it wasn't what they found – chaos – or it seemed that way to them at first. There was the laughter of many women amid the accompanying noise of breakfast preparations. Angie and Eric had been tired last night, almost numb from fatigue and the assault of myriad shocks in a short length of time: the kidnapping of Terri and Alice, a sentient spaceship, invisible people, the girls being returned unharmed ... Last night, they had realized that the kitchen was big and beautifully equipped, but due to their fatigue, neither one could have competently described the room, let alone the equipment. Now, they were well rested.

"Oh, my goodness," Angie hissed out. "Look at the size of this kitchen, and those ovens. And those counters..."

"We didn't expect you to be up yet," Diana called out as she hurried toward them.

Jeff, sitting at the big kitchen table with the General, Art, Dave, Frank and Bill, came to his feet. "Eric, come sit with us," he said, motioning.

"Daddy. Aunt Angie," Alice and Terri called out as they rushed up.

Terri continued for the two. "Isn't this place neat? We're helping to make breakfast. They're going to serve it on the breakfast bar in the dining room. There's gonna be everything to eat that you can imagine."

After hugs, the girls rushed back into the clatter of pots and pans, steaming dishes and the laughter of women enjoying themselves.

Diana grabbed Angie's hand. "Come on. I'll introduce you to everyone."

Eric mentally shook himself, wondering how someone had managed to get all the beautiful women on the planet into this one kitchen. He had to tear his eyes away from the abundance of jiggling titties as he realized that Angie and his girls appeared to be the only females in attendance who were wearing bras, even if Alice's was just a training bra.

Jeff shook Eric's hand, then introduced him to the men at the table, calling them his brother Alphas.

Joyce came over with a cup for Eric, poured him coffee, said, "Welcome," and hurried away.

Jeff grinned at the new Alpha. "Feel better this morning?"

"Much. The main thing is I have my daughters back. I guess I didn't even thank your, uh, team last night, nor you, for that matter. Jeff, I can never repay..."

Jeff interrupted with, "No thanks are necessary. My team and I just had a part in their rescue. The General here," he said nodding, "has been at war with these ... slavers for a long time. Those bastards were only one cog in a crime syndicate that is much more widespread than most people think."

Eric frowned. "I've heard on the news from time to time about the FBI making fairly large scale arrests of slavers, but I suppose I thought that those arrests had pretty much eradicated the problem, or at least reduced it a lot. Guess I was naive, huh?"

"Once a girl or woman has been kidnapped and is taken out of the country, they're almost impossible to find, let alone rescue. There isn't just one organization kidnapping women and girls, there are numerous ones, and they are spread throughout the world. There's always a market for young, good-looking females. These organizations are hard to infiltrate, and it's even harder to get enough evidence on the perpetrators to successfully prosecute them. Another thing is that once these people make bond, they frequently disappear. And ... they have the resources to hire the best attorneys to represent them – the ones who stick around to go to trial, that is."

"I also need to apologize for wearing a weapon inside your home – even if it was unloaded..." He left the sentence hanging.

Jeff grinned at the new Alpha. "If Ship had asked, I would have told her to leave your weapon as it was. I suspected you would arm yourself before coming to get your daughters – after all, they were kidnapped. Ship has difficulty reading a stranger who isn't a telepath, so she just erred on the side of safety. If things work out the way I hope, you, your sister and your girls will shortly be part of the Matthews Clan, and Ship will accept you no matter how heavily you're armed."

Eric took a sip of his coffee. "Damn, that's good coffee," he absently said, then went on, "Matthews Clan? Jeff, I have no idea what you're talking about, but as I mentioned last night, I need to contact the detective and let him know the girls are back."

"I've already initiated that," General Whitworth said from the other end of the kitchen table. "I have connections with the FBI. A team will visit your detective this morning, and will inform him that the girls were rescued due to the efforts of an undercover agent – which to some extent is true," he said as he nodded toward Art. "Anyway, the detective will be instructed to end his investigation with a note that the girls returned home on their own, and he will be admonished to do nothing else with the case, lest he endanger the undercover agent who managed to free them. He will also be told that you, your sister and your girls have left on an extended vacation to give your children a chance to forget the trauma of their kidnapping."