Chapter 641

The Retreat

Morales and his wives arrive at the Retreat.

...”Hey, Husband,” Arlene said a moment later as she tiptoed to give her spouse a quick kiss.’

“Any problems?”

“Of course not,” she returned while raising an eyebrow. “Ship would never allow anything to happen to me — or any of us. She loves us too much to let anything bad happen.”

“Diana delayed breakfast to give you guys time to get here,” Jeff told the new arrivals.

“Oh, goodness. She shouldn’t have done that,” Jasmine said, worried they were interrupting.

Jeff let out a chuckle and voiced his response a little louder so all the Moraleses would be sure to hear. “She said she would have been lynched if she hadn’t, and I’m not referring to my other wives. You might as well get used to it — all of you. You’re basically celebrities, and you will probably be asked many questions about living on 2214 by practically everyone here at the Retreat. Remember those videos? Even with the intelligent cameras refusing to record any of your private lives, there is still a tremendous volume of information about living on another planet — a primitive planet with aggressive and dangerous animals. What is practically an everyday occurrence to you is frequently far from being common knowledge for most of us.

“I’ve already watched a few snippets from our trip to the plains, and trust me, that old aurochs bull trying to see how much damage the younger one did to his, uh ... privates, is even more amusing on the big screen.”

“Not to mention the females trying to follow our Alpha Prime,” Diana said as she met them when they passed through the door at the top of the steps from the garage.

“Oh, bullshit. They were following the crawler, and you know it,” Jeff tried.

“How about you, Adrienné?” Diana asked the young alien. “Were they following Jeff or the crawler?”

Adrienné, still trying to comprehend the frequent teasing interplay between the humans, was hesitant to get involved for fear she might say something that would be considered improper. However, after a couple of seconds of silence, she naively commented, “If we are assuming that the aurochs females were after a male, I might point out that Mr. Morales was there as well.”

“Well, he’s taken, and they can’t have him,” Ashley said with a chuckle and a hug for her husband.

Laughing, they walked on down the hall, but Diana noticed the look on Morales’ face just before he asked, “The, uh, General isn’t here, is he?”

Diana put a hand on his arm before turning to face him fully — the group now stopped in the hallway. “This is my house, and the General is a guest — period. He has not spoken a word about you in weeks that wasn’t a compliment. Besides, I have never heard him say anything negative about you. He says he’s watched all your videos and continues to do so. And before you put a negative connotation to it, everything was said in a complimentary way. It’s time you realized that you are among friends — and that includes the General and all of us. Now, a number of my sister-wives and some of the other women who live here have made a delightful breakfast with an expanded selection to honor you and your family, so let’s get to it.”

After turning to Jasmine, the Clan Queen continued. “Jas, I’m a bit worried that your man will — shall we say, be a bit bashful and hold back with his selections, so would you and your sister-wives make sure he has a full plate of the things he likes? Everyone here has been enhanced, so large plates or platters are the norm for the men, and on occasion, for the women also. Fill his plate with the things he wants and expect to get him seconds. We are in no hurry to do anything else this morning, and the buffet will keep the food hot, so please expect to be asked questions about your lives while you eat.”

They had no sooner stepped into the dining room than the General saw them and hurried to shake Morales’ hand, then greet the women. After turning back to Morales, “Where did you learn to raise crops like that?” he asked to the utter astonishment of the once prisoner. “My wives and I are amazed at your garden, both at its size and the quality we see on the videos.”

“Uh, it’s all due to my wives. Jasmine’s family had gardens when she was growing up...”

Whitworth realized he was holding things up and stepped back. “Oh, sorry. We can talk about the garden later, but Ellen was raised on a farm, and she says those are the best looking potato plants she has ever seen. Can we get together later so she can grill you and your wives about the garden?”

“We would be flattered, General,” Jasmine answered for her husband.

“Wait, where are the wolves?” Diana interrupted to ask as the General went back to his table.

“I told them to wait in the hall,” Morales answered.

“What? No way. They are far too intelligent to have to eat in the hallway just because they walk on four feet instead of two, and they’re celebrities besides. I have a table set up for them. Arlene, and a couple of my sister-wives, with Selina, Alice and Terri have asked to eat with them.”

“Are you sure, Diana?” Morales hesitantly asked. “We have long since stopped treating them as wolves, but it’s obviously different in the cave...”

“I’m certain,” Diana said just as Arlene and Selina came in with Selina riding on Lila’s back and Lobo following.

Both wolves looked toward Morales and after a second, he nodded his okay.

Alice and Terry were already waiting at the table, and an inquisition soon started about what the wolves might want to eat for breakfast.

“Well,” Arlene said with a smile, “we know what the Chihuahuas like, so let’s start with big plates of those things and go from there. Of course, steak is always on the menu around here, so we’ll make certain there is plenty of that, too.”

Jeff glanced over a while later to see the wolves seated on the floor, which was the perfect height to reach their plates on the table. Plates as in plural. Had it not been for the enhancement, Lobo and Lila would have gained weight this morning.

What caught the Prime’s eye was the way the girls and wolves were interacting. The girls were obviously asking questions, then pausing to look at the wolves as if they were answering.

Joyce, sitting beside Jeff, gently elbowed him in the side. “Staring isn’t polite, Husband,” she teased.

“But they’re...”

“They’re young,” the once-deputy said. “Maybe they don’t know that they can’t really talk to wolves — or whatever those magnificent animals are, so ... they’re doing it anyway.”

After a pause, she went quietly on, “Eric had better get off his ass and let those two girls know he’s going to give up and marry them when they’re old enough — otherwise, there’s the possibility they might start looking elsewhere. In case you haven’t noticed, Husband, both of them are filling out their clothes quite nicely and are well on the way to having very sexy figures, particularly Terri, since she’s the oldest.”

“I hadn’t noticed...” he began, but the expression on his wife’s face made him change his mind about his response. “All right. They’re little dolls and fast becoming beautiful young women. If I were intending to marry them, I wouldn’t let them out of my sight.”

“Oh, really?” Joyce responded coyly. “Then why is Aiko sitting over there with the General and his wives instead of here with us, hmmm? Aiko was beautiful when she came into this house beaten almost to death. Now, with the enhancement and all the exercise she has been doing, she is even more beautiful — and sexy. The exercise routine is toning her muscles and giving her confidence back that her father and the asshole she was forced to marry had beaten out of her.”

“She’s just visiting with them...”

“Indeed, she is,” Joyce agreed. “And I’m certain she has no ulterior motive for eating with them. After all, you have a new wife that you need to show extra attention to, so Aiko is just visiting. But she isn’t blind, and we have many mirrors here in the Retreat. She knows what she looks like, and with the enhancement making her body perfect, she is feeling just as sexy as all of your wives do. She wants the man she loves to make love to her, and she wants to try out things that we talk about that she has never experienced. That asshole never cared for her. The only orgasms she has ever had were self-induced. You can bet that her daughter has been bragging about her new husband and how he can make love to all his wives at the same time, yet they all wind up feeling as if he were making love to each of them and no one else.”

“But I just married Kei...”

“If you’re worried about what Kei will think, then you should have a talk with her. Regardless, you need to spend more time with Aiko. She’s busting her ass with her training, and guess who she’s doing it for? You are, indeed, the boss. You’re the Alpha Prime, but the General is a rugged-looking guy with lots of power — two things that turn a woman on. She loves you, but don’t wait for her to feel that she’s being rejected. More than one woman has made a poor decision because of frustration.”

“Damn, woman. Where did all this come from?”

But he knew from the expression on Joyce’s face as soon as the words were out of his mouth. “My wives?” he asked, almost to himself.

“You said it. I didn’t,” Joyce responded before kissing him on the cheek and walking away.

Aiko had just taken a stack of dirty dishes to one of the sinks to be rinsed before being put in a dishwasher when Jeff walked up behind her. “Baby?” he whispered into her ear.

When she spun around, he flipped her onto his shoulder and walked out of the kitchen with the stunned woman, the sound of laughter and giggling following them.

But Aiko wasn’t one of the ones laughing or giggling. “Wait, Jeff,” she said while trying to push herself off his shoulder. She might as well have been pushing against the mountain they lived on. “Hush,” he said. “We need to talk in private.”

“The living room...”

“ ... is way too public. One of my wives has just informed me that I was progressing beyond the normal stupidity of the average male. Oh, she didn’t use those exact words, but that’s what she meant.”

“Well, she may have been right,” Aiko mumbled, but Jeff didn’t respond to her comment.

After making his way down the hallway, he turned in at their suite’s door, went on past the sitting room without slowing down, then on into the bedroom. His wives had rushed out early to begin preparations for a big breakfast for guests, so they hadn’t made the bed yet. There was still a faint smell of sex in the room even with the Retreat’s superb air purification system. Carefully, he eased Aiko into a chair not far from the bed.

The tiny woman was embarrassed when she noticed several big wet spots on the bed, and her face reddened in response. “I would have gone with you if you had asked,” she exclaimed more aggressively than he had ever heard from her in the past.

Hmmm. Maybe all that exercise is helping in ways I haven’t considered.

Aiko took a breath, “Jeff Matthews...”

“Coffee or tea?” he interrupted to ask.

“What? You brought me down the hall thrown over your shoulder as if I were a sack of potatoes...”

“You drank tea for breakfast, so I assume coffee now?” he interrupted yet again.

No one had made coffee in the bedroom that morning, so he set the One Cup to making coffee for them.

A couple of moments later, he put the filled cups and a container of sugar on a tray, then cream from a stasis chamber. With spoons and napkins, he came back to set the tray on a low table in front of Aiko’s chair.