Chapter 385

The Retreat

Diana, Susan, Arlene, Charlotte and Ada sat at the smaller of the kitchen tables chatting after the cleanup when Diana asked, "Do you two have sports bras?"

Charlotte answered while glancing at her Mom. "I do, but I don't think Mom does."

Ada was shaking her head. "With the arthritis, there was no reason for me to own one."

"We'll get on the net and get you some ordered," Diana responded. "Overnighting them, you will have them by tomorrow afternoon. A regular bra will have to do for today."

"And we're going to..." Ada responded, leaving the question hanging.

Diana smiled as she said, "Get the two of you started exercising."

"Exercising? Oh, my. I haven't done anything in years," Ada worried.

"And I haven't done much, either, other than what exercise I got while working," Charlotte was quick to add. "I've occasionally walked some, but most of the time we were tunneling in areas that were not conducive to casual walking, let alone running, and after I worked all the hours I did to bring in a little extra money, I just wasn't in the mood."

"All those hours were to help support me," Ada said as she reached over and squeezed Charlotte's hand.

"Well, neither of you will ever have to worry about money again," Diana said, her voice positive.

"But we can't continue to accept your charity..." Ada began.

"My last paycheck should pay what bills are due, and we have a small savings account, but I surely agree with Mom. We can't accept your charity forever..."

"It isn't charity," Arlene and Diana said as one, then looking at each other, grinned.

Diana continued with, "You both now have quite a bit more money in your accounts, and the accountant has instructions to make certain that it remains that way. Now, let's get back to the subject at hand. Most of us don't run outside in cold weather. Jeff, Arlene and Kayla do, but the rest of us run on the treadmills – at least in the winter – well, other than Selina, although she does exercise with us a bit. We have an area in the basement with all the latest equipment in addition to the best treadmills, thanks to Frank having installed everything he could think of for his employees."

"But, what's this about our accounts. Do you mean..." Charlotte started.

"I snooped and got your account numbers for the accountant. As we have told you two over and over, you are part of us now – family." As the two women began to bluster, Diana quickly went on, "Enough said on that subject."

"But..." Charlotte started before Diana cut her off with a change of subject.

"Your bodies are different in ways that takes a bit of getting used to. They have been enhanced, of course, but there are some things that you need to understand better. While the process is ongoing, most of the major enhancements will finalize in the first week or so, but as I understand it, small changes will continue for a while, and of course, there is continued maintenance throughout all our lives. But the point I'm trying to make is something that we've learned over the months. You need to be aware of just what you can do now – what your bodies are capable of."

Diana's face flushed as she grinned at the two. "I assume that you have noticed that orgasms, uh ... are not what they used to be," she grossly understated. "And before you can become flustered at the implication that you masturbate, well, all of us here have been enhanced. And I've already mentioned that the super-enhanced sex drive that Arlene and I received before Little One knew to tame it down a bit, got us into trouble. Enhancement no longer does that to any of us, but still, we are much more aware of our bodies, and our orgasms are far beyond what a 'normal' woman feels. Even married to an Alpha, or in our case, to a Prime, does not mean that we don't masturbate on occasion. Certainly, we do when he's making love to another of us, if we aren't touching either him or the woman he is making love to.

"So back to what I was trying to say. Your bodies will now occasionally react a little differently, shall we say, than you would normally expect."

"I certainly agree with that," Charlotte responded as she blushed intensely.

Diana grinned at her, "I can well imagine what you just alluded to, but there are other things as well. You're stronger now, and that can cause embarrassments and maybe even accidents until you get used to the new you. Ever jump up a little to snatch something off a high shelf that you couldn't quite reach? You might want to practice that, because you might well jump a bit higher than you expect to. And I doubt if you will ever have to ask a man to unscrew the top off a pickle jar or use a device to get the job done ever again. Ever run up stairs? Your extra strength could cause you to misjudge and maybe even trip. Lots and lots of little things. In other words, your mind is not accustomed to your new body's strength and reflexes.

"Full enhancement used to come on a little slower than it does now. You would feel great from the beginning, see and hear better, all those things, but your full strength came on over a longer period of time. Still, we had to get used to it, but the enhancement generally gave us more time to become accustomed to it. We all, pretty much, exercised anyway, and that helped, so we want to make sure that the two of you get started right away. Oh, you aren't going to be super women or anything like that, but you are stronger than you have ever been, and your bodies will respond to exercise better than you can imagine. Exercise will still leave you with sore muscles, but that soreness will go away far quicker than it ever has before, and the gains will also be greater and in a shorter period of time.

"There are also a couple of other things. Jeff wants all of us to be able to defend ourselves. Helen is our physical instructor, and like everything she does, she is extremely competent at it. Any normal man who thinks the women here would be easy prey is in for a violent surprise. And then there is Security's training. You will eventually learn to fire a pulse rifle and will be introduced to an obstacle course from hell. Jeff's women can fight singly or as a group, as some badasses have already found out the hard way – and died in the process."

"Died?" Ada wondered aloud.

"Yes," Diana responded, her voice cold, "and my daughter came close to dying when one of the bastards shot her, but she shot him dead. But again, Little One and Ship saved her."

"Oh, my goodness," Ada and Charlotte said in unison.

"Done and over with," Arlene quietly responded.

Diana reached to squeeze her daughter's hand for a moment before continuing. "Let's go on with what I've been trying to say. Jeff, our beloved husband, is not a dictator, but he strongly encourages his women to leave off bras unless we have company, are going somewhere, or we are exercising. He loves to watch 'titties bounce and jiggle, ' to quote him. And to be honest with you, I love to please my husband, as do my sister-wives. And that goes for the other women here and their husbands. But even Jeff agrees that running is too much for unfettered breasts."

"We didn't wear bras this morning," Charlotte replied, "but it still feels odd to do that with men around, although none of them seemed to pay any attention."

"Oh, they paid attention all right, but they were being discreet about it. When you marry Jeff, that will change. And before the wrong thoughts cross your minds, no, none of them will ever touch you. The men have a ... pact, I guess you could call it. They will look at another Alpha's wife, but touching is out of bounds. Right now, you have no real conception of what an Alpha's word really means, but you will over time. You could crawl naked into any Alpha's bed – at least any Alpha who is part of the Matthews clan – and you would be totally safe, because they all know that you will one day belong to Jeff. There are other Alphas out in the world, and I can't speak for them, but ours will never violate that pact. You're fair game until an Alpha claims or marries you. After that, you belong to him – period. And before you ask, it's obvious to all of us that you will one day belong to Jeff."

Both Charlotte and Ada blushed, but before they could comment, Diana went on. "So ... why don't we stop by your suite while you two put on bras, and we'll go familiarize you with the exercise equipment?"

As Ada stood, she worried. "I hope I don't disappoint you. It's been so long..."

"Don't even think about worrying. We'll start with very easy things, but you will be up with the rest of us before you know it."

Ada and Charlotte passed a look that might have said, "This is going to hurt." Both were well aware that the women at the Retreat were in great shape – not just beautiful – but with beautifully toned bodies as well.

"You must remember that I'm fifty years old," Ada said as they walked out into the hallway.

Susan snorted a chuckle. "Yeah, I tried that, too. I suspect they won't pay any more attention to you than they did to me. The thing is, your body doesn't just look thirty. For all practical purposes, it is indeed young again. And like Jeff and Diana told you, with a little concentration, you can look eighteen again, if that's what you want. But whatever you look like, your body is perfect – far better than it has ever been. I never had as much fun in my whole life as I've had since I came up that damn driveway. I was on a mission to bring my daughter back home to the Atlanta area, or even Florida – anywhere other than out here, but my son-in-law intervened and I fell head over heels in love with him. And at the same time, I suddenly had a body that was better than the old one had ever been. Then he made love to me. I'm his, and I will be his for the rest of my life. I could not dream of a better life. And... you two are going to have some of the same experiences. When you finally give up and accept that hunk for your husband, it will take a month to get the grin off your faces. If he were here..." Susan began before Diana interrupted.

"He's holed up in the General's office doing man things, Mom. Gonna have to wait until tonight," Diana said with a little giggle.

Arlene, now also interested, looked over at Susan as they headed toward Ada and Charlotte's suite. "We could waylay him as he leaves the General's office..." she began.

"Arlene," Diana said, trying to sound stern, but failing miserably, "he screwed you unconscious last night. Surely you can wait until tonight."

Arlene grinned back at her mother, "Well, it was worth a thought, but I guess you're right. But ... I'll bet it wouldn't take you long to join in if I talked him into it."

Both Ada and Charlotte were blushing as Diana turned to them. "Sorry about that. I guess we tend to forget that you haven't been here long, but somehow you just seem to fit in so well, that we ... Well, I apologize."

"No need to," Charlotte responded. "I'm not a virgin, but then again, I can't seem to keep from blushing. I can even feel my face flush when I do."

As they entered the suite, Diana said. "All of us blush, even the men. Not quite as much as the women, true, but still they do it. We think it's because our bodies are in such good physical health. But you might as well get used to it, because it seems to happen to all of us if we're even slightly embarrassed. Just another of the properties of the enhancement that we didn't expect."

Ada and Charlotte went into their bedrooms, but were back shortly, wearing bras. "We don't have real exercise outfits," Ada apologized. "Will our shorts and tennis shoes do?"

The three Matthews women hadn't changed from their usual shorts, tight tops and tennis shoes that they frequently wore inside the Retreat, suspecting that Ada and Charlotte didn't have dedicated exercise wear, but they had slipped on bras earlier. "Sure. That's all we have on. When we're ordering running bras, we'll get you some exercise outfits, too."

A couple of minutes later at the bottom of the stairs, Diana pointed to a door, "When the men aren't around to hear, we call that the testosterone room, or the grunt room, because they frequently make weird noises when they're lifting. Otherwise, it's known as the free weight area. Actually, we sometimes work out a little bit in there, but our equipment is on the back side out of the way. None of us want bulky muscles, so we keep the weights light if we decide to use any of them at all. All us women prefer to use the machines in the main room. This way," she said as she led them into a much larger room with many machines.