Chapter 265

With the Alphas at Security headquarters studying the pulse rifle and the women apparently all in the basement, Jeff wandered through the Retreat at a loss as to what he should be doing. Deciding he would work in his lab to pass the time, he returned to the basement. Poking his head in one of the rooms, he got a smile from Kayla who was leading an exercise class – push-ups for the moment.

His position allowed him a view of erect nipples on several of his wives, and a couple of the other Alphas' wives as well, and ... his keen sense of smell easily picked up the scent of exercising females. He suspected that the women would be embarrassed if they knew he had smelled their sweat and accompanying faint odor of musk, but his body recognized the smell and began to react. Quickly stepping back before his erection could become full-blown, he closed the door and hurried toward his lab, his mind on an idea to strengthen the force field he had been working on.

As he opened the lab door, he froze. Arlene had moved from the room she was using this morning, and had apparently commandeered his lab. She had her pulse rifle field-stripped on one of the lab tables as she lectured. Four sets of eyes locked on the Prime as he stopped in the doorway: Arlene's, Alice's, Terri's and Selina's.

Jeff started to say something but changed his mind as his daughter locked eyes with him. "Review your notes," she told the girls. "I'll be back in a minute."

Arlene stepped out the door, closing it behind her. Before Jeff could say anything, she stood on tiptoe, grabbed his neck and pulled him down for a kiss. Breaking it a few seconds later, she quickly said, "Let me explain before you get mad. First off, Alice and Terri are smart, and well, we all know about Selina."

"But..." Jeff got out before Arlene continued.

"Daddy, I've read stories about the frontier. The smaller kids weren't big enough to shoot a musket, or other type of rifle, but they could load the weapon while their father, or some other adult, fought..."

"But," Jeff said, "that doesn't apply to the pulse rifle. It takes only seconds to change a power canister. There's no need for someone to assist the shooter unless we're talking about a spotter who helps a sniper locate his target."

"Terri is strong enough to hold the rifle up and fire it, and I'm almost certain that Alice is too. As far as Selina is concerned, 'no' doesn't seem to be in her vocabulary. And what's wrong with any of them learning to care for the rifle? If something went wrong with a pulse rifle, they could change out parts during a siege. Besides that," she went quickly on when it was obvious she wasn't convincing her father, "they need to think they can be of help. Daddy, this means a lot to them, and remember, these girls are smart."

Jeff opened his mouth to respond, but asked instead, "Uh, has Eric approved of his daughters learning to do this?"

Arlene was shaking her head. "No. He's been at Security Headquarters all day, but Angela told us it would be okay, and she said she would tell Eric. She also approved of me teaching the girls to shoot."

Arlene knew she had the argument won. Smiling up at him, "Daddy, you should have seen Selina. I field-stripped my rifle while the three of them watched, and Selina put it back together without my first showing her how. She just reversed my field-strip. She can't even hold the rifle up by herself – she isn't strong enough, but she can take it apart and put it back together on the table. Alice and Terri aren't very far behind her. In another hour, they'll be able to do it, too. Then all they will need is practice."

The men returned from Security Headquarters shortly after five, each with his own pulse rifle, minus power canister, to practice field stripping and reassembly. As they filed into the dining room a few minutes later, Caitlin turned to meet them. Motioning toward the food bar, "Sandwich fixings, including steaks, are on the bar as well as an assortment of fruit, and sweet rolls from the freezer. It's fix-your-own tonight. We have been busy today and we're just as tired as you are."

"Maybe more so," Bill's wife, Jill, sighed out as she plopped down at one of the tables with two sandwiches and chips on her plate.

"No problem," Dave responded. "I'm hungry enough to eat a horse, anyway. Sandwiches sound good. Right guys?" he said to the others.

If the men were less than happy that they didn't have a hot meal (other than the big pan of steaks), after one look at the obviously tired women, the Alphas enthusiastically responded that sandwiches and/or steaks were just fine.

When everyone was eating, Diana stood. After she had their attention, "When we found out that Security was going to train us – meaning us women – on the pulse rifle as well as some basic combat training, we decided to utilize the week before our classes officially start. Arlene and Kayla have begun teaching us to field strip the rifle, and we've begun physical training, or rather, we've intensified our physical training. Most of us already run on the treadmills and workout in the gym, but starting today, the exercises we've been doing are now being expanded – a lot."

She paused to take a sip from her iced tea. "You guys," she continued, looking around at the men, "are a hard act to follow. Not only are you Alphas, but you're enhanced Alphas. But ... Little One enhanced us also. We can't do what you guys can do, but we're not going into the Sergeant's class as a group of whining, out-of-shape females. Normally, a week of exercise wouldn't gain a group of women very much, but with our enhancement, we think a week of intense effort will make quite a lot of difference, especially since we've already been exercising to some extent."

Stopping for a second, she glanced around herself again. "But ... we would like to ask something of you guys – all of you. We would like to keep our preparations a secret for now. I can well imagine that the Sergeant is dreading this class with us. Surely, he expects us to complain and struggle with the physical aspects of the class, not to say anything about having difficulty with the pulse rifle. We can't learn to shoot the rifle here, but we can become familiar with it and we can certainly practice shooting .22 rifles on the indoor range, and continue to practice with our handguns. We don't expect to compare with a class of Alphas, but we want the Sergeant to know that we aren't a bunch of complaining women, either. Will you please keep our little endeavor a secret?"

The men glanced around at each other with grins on their faces as all of them responded affirmatively.

"Sarge is gonna shit," Art declared. "But I have a suggestion." When Diana nodded at him, he continued, "Why not act as if you know nothing of the rifle, heck, even start off sloppily with your calisthenics. Poor form with your push-ups and sit-ups and so forth, then just get better – far better – quickly. Make him wonder what happened. He's done this for years and he can probably 'read' a person and judge how long it will take to get him or her into shape. Screw up the curve. Make him wonder. Then when the week is out, let him in on the joke."

"Yeah," Van agreed. "As soon as we're done each day, we can brief all of you on what we were taught that day. It should give you one heck of an edge."

"Jeff?" Diana questioned when she saw the look on his face.

"I don't want the Sergeant embarrassed, or disrespected, and you have to remember, he is usually concerned with training the elite who have already had both basic and advanced training – far beyond what this class will cover. These troopers didn't become part of this Security unit by being slouches. So you have to be prepared that he might not be as impressed with you as you expect. But you have my okay under the conditions we've discussed."

"We'll make certain we treat him with respect," Diana agreed. "In addition, maybe after the class is over, we can invite him up for a nice meal."

Supper over, as Jeff left the dining room with the intention of sitting and talking with several of the Alphas in the living room, Diana stepped up to him in the hallway and took his hand. "Walk with me, Husband."

The "walk with me" brought back memories of serious discussions when Arlene was small and he and his wife didn't want their daughter to hear what they were talking about. "What's wrong, Baby?" he asked, but she just glanced up at him for a second, then continued walking down the hallway.

"Let's find a nice place to sit first," was all she would say.

Eventually, she picked an alcove to her liking and ushered him into a seat, then sat on his lap.

"Di, I..."

"You hurt my feelings today."

"I what? Whoa, Girl. I can't think of anything I've said or done to hurt you. I surely didn't do it on purpose. Whatever it was, I..."

She interrupted to say, "I'm the Clan Queen, right?"

"Baby, you know you are. Everyone here acknowledges that. There's a connection between you and every woman here. All the women have said they can feel that you are. We've gone into detail about this many times. Why would you even ask that?"

Diana's eyes suddenly glistened with unshed tears. "Then why are you asking my daughter to teach Terri, Alice, Selina and Bridget to shoot?" Before he could respond, she went on, "I was certainly part of Arlene's early teaching. My gosh. I took her to the range more than you did." She touched his lips with a couple of fingers before he could respond. "I know. You were away working, or with your unit, but the fact remains that I did a lot of her early teaching and supported her learning to shoot, particularly early on. Now, I'm suddenly relegated to granny status."

The 'granny status' almost brought a smile to his face, but reason kicked in and he stopped the response before it showed and got him into deeper trouble. "Look, Babe, I ... I asked Arlene to teach the girls because she's nearer their age and also because you are the Clan Queen. You're involved in everything that goes on here, not with just our wives, but all the other women as well. I just thought that you would be too busy..."

Diana interrupted with, "I will teach the girls to shoot, and ... Arlene will assist me."

"Baby, I've already told Arlene to do it. I..."

But Diana continued, "Since she has already begun the basics with Bridget, she can continue with her, but I'll start the other three."

Diana kissed her husband hard, then came to her feet. "I need to find Alice and Terri, and I'll have a word with Eric to make sure he agrees with our teaching his children the basics. I know that Arlene has gotten permission from Angela, but since Eric is here now, I'll touch base with him anyway. And ... I'll smooth it out with my daughter so there won't be any hurt feelings."

She leaned to kiss her husband, making sure she pushed a breast against his arm. "I know your intentions were good and I appreciate that, but I think it's important for me to do this, at least this time."

As he stood, Jeff grabbed his Queen and pulling her into a hug, said, "I'm sorry, Baby. My intentions were good. I thought I was reducing your workload, and Arlene needs the experience. There's always one of the women looking for you, and I've heard them asking you questions and for help so much of the time that it's a wonder you aren't screaming. Heck, you're hard to find in the daytime because someone always needs you."

She smiled up at him. "When I have too much to handle, I'll let you know. I'm not quite a doddering old lady yet," she said as she squirmed her groin against his leg to tease. "And ... in case you're worried, I'm not going to hurt our daughter's feelings, but I am going to teach the girls to shoot. Now let me go so I can get things started."

She kissed him again, then hurried toward Eric's suite.

A couple of hours later, Jeff put on ear and eye protection and walked onto the indoor range. Bridget was on the far right of the range, firing a 9 mm, with Arlene standing behind coaching.

Alice, Terri and Selina were on the left of the range, Alice and Terri with .22 revolvers and Selina with a small .22 pistol. All were slow-firing with Diana frequently voicing the basics to remind them of what they should be concentrating on.

After a couple of minutes, Diana, keeping her eyes on the girls, stepped back to where Jeff was standing. "Hello, my Husband."

"Hello, Wife," he responded with a grin.