Chapter 576

The brides, as brides generally are, were beautiful – these, superbly so. The groom, decked out in his tux, was nervous but said his lines without stumbling, although he did have a sweat-dampened forehead.

The chapel, as they had begun referring to the area lit with numerous colored lanterns deep within the cave, seemed to amplify and enhance the beautiful sound of Dave’s 12 string guitar in the hands of a master guitarist. In what seemed a very short time, the four were married and walking up the aisle as they were showered with rice. No one worried about birds getting to the rice this deep in the cave, so Arlene insisted that birdseed wasn’t necessary – besides, rice stings more.

Morales was expecting Arlene or some of the other girls to try to put a handful of rice down his collar, and ... he was ready for them – not that it did any good. Arlene and Ann, along with Alice and Terri (Eric’s daughters) mobbed him, and Ann managed to climb his back to shove a handful down his shirt collar.

Ashley and Christine, not having been involved in any of the Matthews Clan’s weddings before, were at first, stunned, but then laughed uproariously. Morales promised the girls dire harm while laughing just as hard as everyone else.

Thanks to the women and Ship, there was far more food at the reception than they could eat, and the cake, decorated by Hope, was so beautiful that they were hesitant to cut it.

With everyone laughing, the men kidded Morales about staying the night with them.

Before long, the women were cleaning while the men put away tables, folded seats and generally helped put everything back in its place. They sent some of the excess food with the Clan, and the rest, including several pieces of the wedding cake, was stored in stasis chambers for later. The stored food would be as fresh ten years from now as it was when it was prepared.

There was laughter and some tears as the Matthews Clan boarded Ship. Seconds later, she was in high orbit, and Selina was tweaking her calculations for the trip to Earth.

Morales stood, a new wife hugging either side, as they all, including Jasmine, stared at the sky for long moments after Ship had disappeared.

Morales glanced at first one, then the other of his new wives. “I suppose that this is something that women generally say, but this almost seems unreal. Granted, it’s something that I fantasized about back on Earth, but even after the two of you arrived on 2214, it still seemed that it would never happen.”

“Well, it did, Buster, and it’s too late to back out now,” Christine said, half-seriously.

Jasmine stood before the three. “I never expected to be included in your wedding like that, but when Jeff and Diana declared that we were all married to each other, I ... felt your love wash over me...”

They had walked back inside where they removed their coats and Morales returned his rifle to its rack.

“So, was I the only one who felt it?” Jasmine asked as she looked at the others.

The girls passed a glance before Ashley answered. “We have never felt anything like that before. It certainly didn’t leave any doubt that we’re loved,” she finished with amazement showing in her voice.

Morales turned serious. “When I felt it, I thought it was just my imagination, but we all felt it, too, huh?”

When they agreed, Jasmine grinned. “Well now, are you three going to wait until night to consummate your marriage?”

“Oh, hell no,” Morales responded just as they knew/hoped he would.

Although Jasmine tried to defer – even offered to go for a stroll with the wolves, Ashley, Christine and Morales vetoed that – vehemently.

“We’re all married, or did you forget what we all felt?” Ashley insisted. “And don’t forget, we did have that fabulous cock of his in us a few times while back on Earth.”

Nevertheless, when they made love a little later, Jasmine made sure that both Ashley and Christine had a pussy full of sperm before she allowed Morales to take her.

In sympathy of the wolves’ feelings, they had pulled the curtains around the group’s sleeping area and activated the noise-canceling projector that Jeff had left for that very reason. Since the wolves’ sense of smell was so acute, Morales and Jasmine knew that they were hiding practically nothing from them, but at least the animals didn’t have to listen to the screams of the women as they orgasmed over and over.

After a brief nap to recover, Christine came to her feet. Wincing a little, she giggled before telling her new husband, “I’m a bit sore.” When Ashley said she was a little sensitive also, Christine went on. “Granted it’s been a while, but that thing hanging between your legs tends to stretch a girl out some, even if she used to be a whore.”

“You are not a whore and never were – neither of you,” Morales fervidly insisted. “You two were call girls, and you have told me that you were very selective about the men you dated, and you limited it to when you had to have money for school or to live on. Not to mention that you made them wear condoms and even refused to kiss them on the mouth. Let’s be realistic about it. That is far beyond what a large number of college girls can say. By the time some of them graduated, they had fucked more than a hundred guys. They don’t even call it dating, but just say they ‘hooked up’ with a guy – and they do it practically every night.”

“Call girls, tramps, whores. Same difference,” Ashley said. “But yes, you were the only one we allowed to kiss or enter us without a condom.”

“Whores will fuck anything,” Morales growled. “Call girls charge many times more and are selective about the men they will sleep with. And you were doing it for an excellent reason. You had no other way to get your degrees without running up an enormous bill that would have to be paid off over the coming years.”

Jasmine hadn’t said anything but just sat there listening.

“When you refer to your past life, I would appreciate it if you two would drop any comments about the two of you being whores,” Morales insisted.

“Baby,” Ashley said as she and Christine snuggled against their new husband, “we appreciate what you’re trying to do, but the fact remains that...”

“You were call girls, just as my husband insists, “ Jasmine broke in to say, emphasizing the words, “And from what my husband says, you were very selective about your clientele. We are all equal here. Before my husband, I’ve only let two guys screw me, probably a total of five minutes, but when I decided to lose my virginity, I was cold-blooded about it. If I couldn’t find anyone that I could respect to try out sex with, then I should have remained a virgin until I could. At least you two had a darn good reason for having sex with those men, but I didn’t. And from what you’ve said, there weren’t that many men, anyway. You had a few reoccurring customers who could afford you, and who you trusted.”

Ashley and Christine looked at each other before bursting out laughing. Christine eventually said, “I have never heard such convoluted reasoning in my life, but we love you for trying to soothe our feelings.”

Before she could continue, Morales came to his feet to dress, but stopped with his pants in his hand. “Jasmine’s reasoning may be suspect, but neither of us wants you two to call yourselves whores,” he growled as he put one foot in his pants while continuing, “I’m serious about that. You’re my wives now, and the only thing that matters to me is that you’re here and married to me. If I hear you two calling yourselves by that name again, I’ll turn you over my knee and spank you, and ... it won’t be fun, either,” he finished as he began to put the other foot into his pants.

In a flash, a surprised and staggering Morales had three sniffling women trying to hug him to death. Of course, his foot was caught in the pant leg, so rather than fall and take everyone with him, he let go of his pants to drop about his ankles. When the weeping was over, and they discovered his pants, they, of course, teased him mercilessly.

Jasmine stepped back. “I don’t know about you guys, but I need to pee,” she said as she stressed the word while hurrying to put on her clothes.

“Me, too,” Ashley and Christine returned as one.

By the time Jasmine and Morales were dressed and had their coats on, Ashley and Christine were standing near the door handing out rifles.

“We need to go hunting,” Morales announced after they had done their thing and were coming back down the entranceway.

“I thought we had plenty of meat,” Jasmine responded as she slid the door open.

“Oh, we do, but I think it would be better to teach our new wives to hunt before we have to because of running low on food. Jeff and Diana have been here a lot lately, but we can’t count on them always bringing us food, so we need to prepare, and part of that preparation is teaching Ashley and Christine to hunt.”

“Good points,” Jasmine agreed.

“I don’t know whether I could shoot a deer, no matter if they are much bigger here on 2214,” Christine hesitantly responded.

“Me, either,” Ashley agreed.

“Whether you can or not is one of the main reasons that we need to go hunting.” When the two new wives frowned, he went on, “Look, I was hesitant when I first got to 2214, and the first animal I killed left me feeling a little sick, and to tell you the truth, I’m still not too keen on killing animals, well, unless its one of the carnivores. But fact is still fact. We kill, or we don’t eat. We don’t have the option of buying our meat at the supermarket all nicely cut up and wrapped. But those animals had to die, and most of them were in a slaughterhouse with all the smells of blood and other scared animals. Here, if we do it correctly, one minute they are standing there eating or whatever, and the next they are dead. At least they don’t die scared out of their wits.

“Granted, now that the Matthews are watching videos of us and are coming to visit, they wouldn’t let us starve, but you have to remember that the prisoners were put on this planet to sink or swim. Remember what the General said: some of those sentenced here didn’t make it, and a few of those deaths were caused by starvation.

“The General sat and actually chatted with me about it, commenting that some of the prisoners had attitudes similar to Robinson’s. They refused to read the material or train back in their cells on Earth before they were sent here. Some couldn’t use their bows or crossbows well enough and consequently, wasted their arrows and bolts trying to kill something. Some didn’t look for caves, nor try to build a shelter in a tree or on a steep, sheltered bluff that might give them a little protection from some of the animals. Instead, some just made a campfire – if they bothered at all – out in the open. One managed to live for a while but ran out of butane in his lighter and didn’t know how to start a fire with the flint and steel the General sent with all of us. Sometimes one of them that was living out in the open, unprotected, succumbed to the first carnivore that smelled him and came for lunch. The training paperwork they gave us back on Earth stressed these points and many more. I didn’t want that to happen to me, so I studied and practiced while in that prison cell. Hell, the cell opened to a little area that we could use as a range where we could practice.”