Chapter 262

The Retreat

Earlier in the afternoon, just after Matt and his women left, Jesse and Alesha walked into the living room where Jeff was sitting. The Prime came to his feet, grabbed Jesse's hand to shake, then gave Alesha a hug.

"Diana called and said you wanted to talk to us," Jesse remarked as he and Alesha took seats on a couch across from the Prime. On the way up, both had worried that Jeff wanted his Escalade back, since they hadn't yet saved quite enough for a decent down payment on a vehicle for Alesha. Because of where she worked at the ski lodge, she had to have a good all-wheel drive vehicle. Before either could comment, Jeff leaned forward.

"First off, I need to clear the air about something that has been bugging me. Jesse, I've tried to respect your wishes, but I'm having problems with that."

Jesse frowned a question.

"I didn't notice that you were an Alpha until after the blocks several weeks ago. Whatever happened, I could feel it after that, and I told you so at that time. But for whatever reason, you, more or less, rejected the idea. And in addition, the two of you have essentially stopped coming around here."

"Jeff, we're..."

"I know. I know. You've told me that the two of you were trying to save up for a car for Alesha, but dammit, you already have a vehicle. The Escalade is a good, safe vehicle for her to drive anywhere she wants to go. It's not as if I can use the thing. Not to mention that I have more of them, and certainly don't need the one you two have. Hell, as far as that's concerned, it practically takes an act of Congress to get me away from this place. Security has to check out the area I'm going to, then escort me all the way there and back. It's simpler to just stay here, no matter how disgusted I am about it. Hell, speaking of simpler, it's easier to walk out to the Ship and make an orbit around Earth, than it is to arrange a trip to take in a movie in Winter Park.

"That is just an irritant, but it's still the reason I haven't visited you two, and have to ask you to come see me, instead. But I shouldn't have to ask the two of you to come up here. You could be living here with us..."

"Jeff, we've gone over this. We want to be on our own, making our own way."

Jeff let out a sigh. "Yeah, I know, and I respect that, but the fact remains that if it weren't for the two of you, Joyce would be dead. My wife would be dead. Can't you understand what the two of you mean to me?"

"Jeff, we just did..." Alesha started, but Jeff cut her off.

Focusing on Alesha, "Since you have stopped spending the night here, you're no longer gassing up the Escalade here, so that means you're buying gas, and ... since the credit card in the glove compartment hasn't been used, you're using your own funds to do it with."

"Jeff, we're adults; we need to buy our own..."

"You need to use the credit card. I'm afraid if it isn't used, the company might cancel it, so please use it."

"Jeff, where is this going? I know you didn't ask us to come up here just to tell us to use the credit card that's in the glove compartment of the vehicle you loaned us."

Jeff sat back and crossed his legs. "We're closing on the mostly-completed ski lodge that's just up the mountain past where you work, Alesha."

"Oh, wow," she said. "That's going to be a truly beautiful place. It's a shame they stopped working on it, or at least, I thought they had. I rode up there a couple weeks ago and I didn't see anyone around."

"Well, there will be tomorrow. Dave, Evie and I are scheduled to meet with the owners tomorrow afternoon to close on the deal. The closing would already have been completed, but my attorney discovered there were liens on the property because the people who owned it had not paid for several deliveries. But that's taken care of now, and the title is clear.

"Dave's crews are going to finish the project – actually they will be upgrading a lot of the design to help attract wealthy customers. He and Evie think they can have the whole place completed in a month's time."

"That sounds nice," Alesha said. "With the place so beautiful, it will probably stay full."

"But there's a catch," Jeff allowed, his face suddenly very serious.

"Money?" Jesse thought aloud.

"Nah," Jeff continued, "Frank and I are going to put up most of the capital. There's another problem, but I think I have the solution. You see, I have to have a manager to run the lodge, and with a bunch of wealthy customers, I'm going to have to provide them with security, particularly at night."

Jesse spoke up with, "Oh, the security shouldn't be a problem. Several of our guys live in apartment complexes and ski lodges to provide on-call security at night for a cut on their rent. A couple of them even get their apartments free. I..." And it suddenly dawned on him why Jeff was grinning.

"The first project Dave and Evie will begin is an expansion on the back side of the main building for my lodge manager and my security manager's living quarters. You guys interested?" Into the stunned silence, "Of course, each of you will need an all-wheel drive vehicle, so I'll buy another Escalade if you decide to work for me. And, Alesha, you will obviously receive a substantial raise over what you're making at your present job. Jesse, if you accept the job, we will negotiate a salary for you." And it will be at least twice what you're making at the Sheriff's Office now, Jeff thought to himself. Then aloud, "To set your mind at ease, Jesse, this job will in no way interfere with your current employment. Also, I've checked with the Sheriff, and he tells me basically the same thing you have about various Deputies being live-in security. He has no problem with what I've just proposed."

"You're doing this just for us," Jesse accused.

"Got to have a manager and a security person. If you two refuse me, I'll have to advertise and try to bring in someone competent to run the place for me. Then I'll have to worry about being cheated once they get established. But I guess I can just call the Sheriff and have him check with his people about someone being my live-in security. But it would be a lot simpler if you two would just say yes."

Big tears slid out of Alesha's eyes as she grabbed Jesse's hand. Jeff handed her a box of tissues that his women always kept near. Dabbing at her eyes, she said, "I've never managed a ski lodge before. I mean..."

"So? How many times have you complained that your manager leaves everything for you to do and is gone most of the time chasing women, hmmm? You don't have the title, but you are doing the job. Besides, I'm not going to just dump you into the position without assistance. My attorney and the accounting firm will set everything up for you, and I'll have an agency work with you on hiring the staff. We'll pay a little more and insist on the best people. I'll have either Fred or Quinton there when you do most of the interviews. They'll be able to tell if you're being lied to, and Jesse, from what you've alluded to, I think you're damn good at detecting lies as well. That's an Alpha ability, or one of them." Then with a slight hint of sarcasm, "But that's right, you're not an Alpha, huh?"

A blush crept across Jesse's face.

"And ... you weren't here earlier when we decided that all my Alphas would receive some basic training with military weapons. Have you heard that an enemy force was killed about five miles from here? We didn't fire a shot. Apparently, Mother Nature took care of them for us with an avalanche. But the aborted attack brought about a reality check. So, the Alphas will receive a week's training on combat basics while learning to care for and fire the pulse rifles. When they're up to speed, our women will undergo similar training."

"Jeff, I would love to, but I have to work..." Jesse started, but Jeff motioned for him to wait.

"Quinton says that the basic combat training would just be part of your departmental training, and he'll be there too. He said he would tell your Lieutenant that you would be off from your current assignment for a week while you undergo specialized training. Hell, come to think of it, I might be able to work in some ongoing training for the Sheriff's Department, if not the whole department, then certainly for your Swat Team. Not with the pulse rifles, of course, but with conventional weapons."

"So, Alpha Goodman and Ms. Turcott, what do you say?"

Alesha, tears again pouring from her eyes, turned and buried her face in Jesse's shoulder.

"Jeff, I ... Uh, surely you didn't buy the ski lodge just to give Alesha and me a better income..."

"No friggin' way," Jeff assured him, but Jesse knew the Prime was lying. It was then that Jesse finally understood just how much Jeff cared for the two of them.

"I still don't think I'm an Alpha," Jesse mumbled under his breath, while blinking several times to keep from embarrassing himself.

Much later, at approximately the same time Matt was making love to his women, Jeff stood in the sitting room of his suite near the closed bedroom door. Fuck it. I haven't done anything wrong. I had to go with Mayberry this morning. If I had not, he would be dead now. Besides, I didn't know what was going to happen. I just knew I had to go. Diana used to pull this attitude shit years ago, but she hasn't since we moved out here. One woman with an attitude is one thing – but fourteen? Well, thirteen. I don't think Arlene is part of this.

He stepped through the door. All his wives were sitting around the room still fully dressed, all seemingly intent on talking to each other – ignoring him. All save Arlene, who was sitting by herself staring worriedly at him. Before he quite realized what he was doing, he loudly cleared his throat.

From his near-perfect memory, he rattled off Mayberry's emergency notification number. "Mayberry isn't married. That's his mom's number. Why don't you call and complain to her that I saved his life this morning. And just to set the record straight, I did not know exactly what was going to happen when I got in that helicopter, but even if I had known, I would have been there to snatch him out of that machine before it slid down that cliff face and went over the ledge, and I know for a fact that any Alpha that has ever been in this building would have done the same thing. Should I have stayed home this morning and let Mayberry die? Would that have made you proud? I am sorry I worried you, though. You have all been wonderful to me, and I hate that I caused you concern."

He looked around the suddenly very quiet room. "I'm going to take a shower. If you want, I'll sleep in another suite tonight." With that, he turned away, walked across the room and into the shower area.

Arlene saw her mother silently mouth, "Ah, shit," before getting up, quickly dropping her clothes and following her husband. Seconds later, a gaggle of nude wives hurried to catch up with their Clan Queen and husband.

An hour later, waterlogged, a somewhat dried off Jeff, practically exhausted from fourteen sexually aggressive females trying to make up to him, staggered across the bedroom with a passed-out wife on each shoulder. Managing to gently lower each of them to the bed, he stood facing his Clan Queen as his other wives came by for a kiss before going to bed.

"You still have one more female to appease," Diana remarked, nodding toward Little One's drawer.

Jeff looked at the drawer, then back at Diana. "Maybe she hasn't..."

"I can usually feel if she wants to go onto your back, or even mine, but I haven't felt anything from her all day. I suspect there's another doghouse for you to negotiate, and this one might be a wee bit harder to escape from. It seems that I remember you saying that it was impossible to lie to a telepath, hmmm?"

With all his wives finally in bed, he had put it off as long as he could. He gently pulled the padded drawer of the bedside table open to stare down at Little One. Reaching a hand in, he picked her up and put her on his shoulder, striving to not flinch as he did so. Amazing him, without comment, the little alien flowed onto his back. "Little One, I..."

{{{ So, in addition to abandoning me, now you propose to lie to me. }}}

But I haven't even said anything yet. I was just going to apologize. I couldn't take you...