Chapter 11

Wednesday afternoon, Matt’s cell phone rang. “Hello.”

“This is Susanne. The closing on the ranch is set for 3:00 this Friday, at the ranch house.”

“I’ll be there.”

After ending the call with the real-estate agent, he called his mother.

“Hello?”

“Mom, it’s Matt. The closing on the ranch is all set for Friday. I need you to pack up all my stuff at the house and bring it out to the ranch Friday Evening.”

“Yes, Master. Oh, while you are on the phone, I was able to contact my brother Adrian, your biological father.”

“How did the conversation go?”

“It went well. I apologized for how I treated the family. He accepted and agreed to pass it on when he can. I didn’t want to say much over the phone about you. He’s actually here in the US, apparently, his daughter wants to go to college here and he’s here with her looking at universities. They aren’t that far away at the moment. Can I invite them to my birthday party Sunday?”

“I don’t see why you can’t invite them. Talk to Ruth though. She’s the one doing all the planning.”

Thursday, in the Matriarchy’s Virginia headquarters, Delphi, Athena, Isis and Machina sat around a small conference.

Isis spoke first. “I have been able to contact Iron Maiden. She and Zip are in New Orleans waiting for information on the mission. They believe that they have been hired by the Russian Mafia. I also have a telepath, Gypsy, and a perceptive, EyeSpy, on standby.”

Machina spoke up. “The tech division has been working for some time on a stealth armor suit. It’s relatively weak in terms of offensive and defensive capabilities, but it has active camouflage and a full ECM suite, and flight capability. Not much good in a fight, but agents using it should be very close to invisible and highly mobile. Testing on the prototypes has gone well and the first few production models will be ready within days. Have Gypsy and EyeSpy report to the tech division for training in using the suits.”

“I’ll let them know.”

“Good.” Artemis interjected. “The resources are falling into place. Now all we need is where and when. Delphi?”

“While my ability has not been of much use. We continue to look into Mr. Murphy by more conventional means. While the university in College station and his home in La Porte are possibilities, they are not ideal. We don’t want to stir things up with a lot of collateral damage. A real-estate transaction has shown up. He purchased a warehouse from the US Government that had been seized from a human trafficking ring two years ago. He appears to be setting up some sort of business from that location.”

“That gives us a where, what about when?”

“We have obtained his class schedule. He has no classes on Tuesdays, so we believe that is the day he is most likely to be at the warehouse location. How soon?”

“There are still arrangements to be made. Let’s plan for the week after next.”

During their free time on Wednesday and Thursday, Matt and Molly worked on packing up everything in Molly’s off-campus apartment for moving to the Ranch with some help from the rest of the Nerd Pack.

Friday after classes, Matt left to drive to the ranch for the closing, taking Hercules with him. Molly was packing the stuff from her apartment in a U-haul truck with the help of the Nerd Pack and would follow as soon as the truck was loaded.

As soon as everyone else left from the closing, Iris arrived in her mini-van with Megan and her two toys and Ruth following in her Wrangler.

“Hi Iris, Megan. Ruth, I didn’t expect you to be here today.”

“Well, I took the weekend off to deal with mom’s birthday party.”

“Okay. Iris, do you have all my stuff from home?”

“Yes, it all fit in the back of the mini-van.”

“Oh, I almost forgot. There’s an introduction to make. Iris, Ruth, Megan, This is Hercules. Say hello Hercules.”

‘Hello, pack.’

Megan jumped back. “What the fuck!, the dog spoke.”

“Technically no, he didn’t. It’s a power common to animal sparks called voice projection.”

“An animal spark, cool. What else can he do?”

“You’ll all see in a second. Hercules, Iris and Ruth are my slaves, like Molly. Megan is a dominant free woman, she is off limits. Brad and Brandi over there belong to Megan. You can’t use them without Megan’s permission.”

Ruth gasped. “Um, why did you get a dog and what was all that about Megan being off limits and needing permission?”

“Molly wanted an intact male dog. We found Hercules with a breeder of English Mastiffs. I’ve shared my other toys with him, but he Needs Megan’s agreement/permission if he wants to use one of Megan’s toys.”

“Wait other toys, as in more than one not here?”

“Oh, that’s right, you don’t know about Artemis, well for now, her name is Horny Bitch Duchess. The Matriarchy sent another agent to assassinate me. She failed. This one had a buried submissive streak and it’s pushing some of my buttons. I’ll probably keep her. Hercules, show them your transformation.”

Hercules moved a short ways from the group of humans and transformed.

Megan cautiously approached the now giant dog. “This is fantastic. You said he was a spark, Cerberus? Now that’s a real coincidence for a descendant of the primordial Greek god of eternal time. He’s the size of a horse, or maybe a bull. How massive is he?”

“In this form? Not quite eighteen hundred pounds.”

Hercules turned, and all three heads tried to lick Megan’s face at the same time.

Megan swatted the center head. “Stop that you. SIT!”

Hercules sat. Two of his heads turned to look at Matt. ‘She alpha female.’

“Yes, she is. I tried to warn you. Change back.” Matt turned to the rest of the group “Let’s start unloading. My stuff can all go in the master bedroom. Molly should be here with the truck soon.”

As Brad and Matt came back out to get a second load of boxes from the mini-van, the U-haul truck pulled in. Fred was driving the truck, Luke’s car pulled in behind him.

Fred and Molly got out of the truck. Luke got out of his car along with Bob, William, Jenifer and Louise. Fred approached Matt. “Hey Matt. Molly was a little nervous about driving the truck and we figured you could use a hand unloading.”

“No problem, though you might end up getting an eye full. You might as well know Molly isn’t my only slave at this point. I’ve also claimed my older sister Ruth, and my mother.”

“You lucky dog! Your mom?”

“Yep. She and Ruth are both really submissive and mom has been suffering since dad died.”

Molly stepped up to Matt and kissed his cheek. “Hello Master.”

“Go tell my other two slaves we have guests and despite the guests, the dress code for my slaves is skin. And tell Megan that we have guests as well, but the dress code for her toys is up to her.”.

“Yes, Master. Molly stripped, gathered up her clothes and scampered off.”

Luke closed his jaw. “Dude, that’s not fair! Some of us don’t have any toys.”

Matt grinned. “This is my fault how?”

William whispered in Jenifer’s ear. Jenifer blushed, but stripped out of her clothes. At first she tried to cover her self with her hands, but William grabbed her wrists and pulled her arms to her sides. “You are on display, be on display.”

“Yes William.”

Louise walked up to Matt. “And what about me?”

“You aren’t my slave. Though from either end, you can learn something about what you want from watching other’s play. Okay guys, there will be plenty of time to look later. Let the ladies do the unpacking, lets get everything unloaded and in the house.”

They all grabbed boxes and trooped into the house. As they entered, Brad noticed his sister was naked. He sighed, set his box down and stripped.

Iris walked up to Matt, naked as required. “Matt...”

Matt grabbed her and gave her a searing kiss. “They are friends. They already knew about me and Molly. They’re cool with it. We can be who we are around them. It’s not a problem.”

“Yes Master.”

Later after the guests had left, Ruth pulled Matt in for a kiss. “God, that was so hot being naked around your friends.”

They were all sitting around the kitchen table. Iris asked, “Most of the house is furnished, but do you plan to redecorate? What about the bedrooms, only the master is furnished?”

“There will be a few tweaks here and there over time, but I like the way most of it is set up now. As to the bedrooms, The other bedroom over by the master bedroom will be Megan’s when you guys move in. Work with her to see it gets furnished and decorated the way she wants. The other bedrooms will be slave quarters. They should be set up for two slaves to a room, and each slave gets a dog bed, a dog crate and a free standing wardrobe.”

“Yes Master, I’ll see that it gets taken care of.”

Hercules was sitting between Ruth and Molly and Ruth was scratching him behind the ears. “So, Hercules and Molly? Did that take a lot of doing?”

“Nope. Believe it or not he actually understood the concept of sex between a dog and a human woman before we got him from the breeder. As he described it to me, apparently a male employee who was supposed to be watching Hercules’s mother and the litter he was a part of was watching bestiality porn on a computer. He was caught by the breeder and fired. But Hercules, being much smarter than a normal dog recognized the images and was affected by them. Later, closer to when we got him, he apparently tried to mount a female trainer/handler who tripped and ended up on her hands and knees while trying to work with him. The breeder apparently misunderstood what happened and thought he was viscous, so when I was able to “tame” him, we got him relatively cheap.”

Iris laughed. “That’s a really interesting story.”

Saturday, after breakfast, Ruth pulled Matt into a hug. “So, is skin still the uniform of the day?”

“Yes, I like the view. In fact, in general, the rule is that for my slaves, except for collars and footwear, the ranch is a clothing free zone.”

Megan looked up from where she was studying, snuggled between Brad and Brandi. “I like the view too.”

Ruth pressed on. “Any other house rules Master?”

“What’s bringing this on?”

“A slave needs to feel her Master’s control.”

“Very well, Iris, Molly!”

Iris and Molly who were both already listing moved in closer. “Yes Master.” they both said almost in unison.

“Slaves don’t belong on the furniture without permission. Kneel on the floor.”

“Yes Master.”

“Slaves eat & drink from bowls on the floor. You may occasionally receive permission to eat at the table like a free person, but don’t expect it.”

“Yes Master.”

“Slaves need permission to piss or shit. And most of the time, you probably won’t be allowed to use the toilet. You can go out in the yard, or I may get litter boxes to put in public areas of the house.”

“Yes Master.”

“Is that enough for now?”

“Yes Master.”

Matt called Ben Scott.

“Hello?”

“Ben, it’s Matt. I just bought a ranch. I want to set up a dungeon, and I’d like you to come out today and see what areas would work best, maybe give me a quote on equipping it with furniture and what not.”

“Sure I can come out this afternoon.”

“Fair warning, my slaves were pushing me to exert some control this morning, so I made the ranch clothing free for slaves.” Matt gave Ben the address and directions.

Ben pulled his pickup truck into the ranch and honked his horn.

Matt came out of the house. “Hi Ben.”

“This is a sweat place, lots of privacy. The house looks brand new. How did you get it?”

“The sellers were an elderly couple. It had been in his family for several generations, but they had to move into Houston for health reasons. The house basically is brand new. They had a son, a late in life surprise. The son got married and he and his bride wanted a big family so his parents had the house rebuilt and enlarged. Eight bedrooms. The son and his bride died in an accident on their honeymoon. With no one else to inherit, the parents put it up for sale.”

“A tragic story, but you reap the benefits.”

“Ben, have you ever heard of animal sparks?”

“Yes, but I’ve never encountered one, They are supposed to be really rare.”

“Hercules say hello.”

‘Hello friend Ben.’

“Are you serious. Where did you get him?, What can he do?”

“Where and why I got him is a long story for another time. He gets bigger. Three quarters of a ton. And grows two more heads.”

“Wow.”

“Let me show you the spaces I wanted you to look at.”

“Lead the way.”

“The house doesn’t have a good area for a proper dungeon playroom. However, I have three wooden barns, two set up with horse stalls and one used for equipment storage, and a metal machine shed.”

“If you want to do suspensions of your slaves, the machine shed is out. We would have to build structural supports so it would be more expensive. As long as the wooden barns are structurally sound, attach a few pulleys and eye hooks and and a winch or two to the posts and beams and you’re all set. Show me the barns.”

They looked at the barns. The horse barns were clean, but the stalls took up a lot of space. Most of the equipment had been cleaned out from the other barn, which was one open space, but there were still a few odds and ends.

Ben made his assessment. “If you want that kind of thing, the stalls in the horse barns would be easy to convert to cells for slaves, but they confine dungeon play space quite a bit. If you want a more extensive dungeon, the equipment barn would work best.”

“We’ll go with the equipment barn then. What about furniture and stuff?”

“I’ll work up an estimate with recommended starter furniture and gear. If there is anything not on the list that you definitely want from the start let me know, but you’ll have plenty of room to grow it later. How many slaves are you planning to entertain at one time?”

“I have 4 now, but that will likely increase.”

“You kept that Asian woman?”

“No, but I picked up another under similar circumstances.”

Sunday, Downtown Houston, Iris’s birthday party.

Matt was mingling with the guests. Ruth had done a fantastic job organizing the party. It was set up as a dinner reception. There was some time for mingling as the guests arrived before dinner. There were around 100 guests. Then after dinner, a very large birthday cake was brought out, everyone sang ‘Happy Birthday’ and the cake was served. Then more mingling.

The party was beginning to wind down, around half the guests had already left. Matt Spotted Ben Scott and Shadow Man. Louise was clinging to Shadow Man’s side. Matt walked over to them. “Great to see you guys here, though, I have no idea how Ruth got Sam’s contact info.”

Ben coughed. “That would be my fault. Even before your little startup, Ruth called to talk to me about the party and asked if there was anyone else from his Marine unit in the area. I’d kept in touch with Sam and I gave her his contact info even though I knew what he was doing for a living.”

Matt looked at Sam. “So you decided that Louise would be worth your time?”

“Not really, but I decided it was worth my time to find out. We haven’t done much more than talk yet. Though I know of a few consensual BDSM groups in the area and we hit a meet and great yesterday, which turned up some interesting info on Louise.”

Louise blushed and clung tighter to Sam. “I got to meet a lot of dominants and submissives of both genders. I ... I couldn’t seem to make any real connection with any of the male subs, but several of the women...”

Matt laughed a bit. “Don’t sweat it. You wouldn’t be the first woman I’ve know who was submissive with men and dominant with other women. You are what you are, but you have to figure out what that is.”

Sam interjected. “I hate to bring up work at a party, but your friend Fred spotted a weakness with the pick up protocol. As a group those of us with experience are used to using stealth and darkness to grab fresh product. That won’t work so well with the voluntary pickups for your business model. Bringing them out in trench coats was all we could think of. Fred pointed out that a person getting in a delivery truck and not getting out before it left could draw unwanted attention.”

“He’s right, that could be a problem. Do you have a solution?”

“Fred had the solution. The kid is going to be a real asset. Companies deliver appliances and take the old ones away all the time. We build a fake refrigerator. Deliver it to the pickup location. Stuff the subject into it. It might get a bit cramped if the subject is exceptionally tall or heavy, but they won’t be in it long. It wouldn’t stand up to close scrutiny, but from a distance, it won’t draw as much attention even if someone notices we went in and came out with the same refrigerator. If it gets noticed and the cops get involved, we just tell them we had the wrong delivery address or the wrong model of fridge for that delivery.”

“Great, is implementing that going to cause a delay?”

“No. I already talked with the guy doing the prototype van. He’s adding a cargo lift to the back and fabricating a prototype fake fridge. Even with the added work, It should be ready tomorrow.”

Matt spotted Iris, Ruth and Molly standing together. He turned back to Ben and Sam. “I’ll talk you you guys more later.”

Matt walked over where Iris, Ruth and Molly were hanging out. He noticed Ruth was wearing her collar. “How are you all doing? Any trouble with the collars?”

Iris laughed. “Hardly anyone even noticed them. And the few we thought might have noticed haven’t said anything so far.”

“How about you Ruth? Have you worn it at work? Has it been an issue?”

“Yes, I’ve been wearing it at the Hospital. No, it hasn’t been an issue. That I know of, only one person noticed it for what it was, one of the doctors, and her only comment was to ask if I was ‘available’.”

A woman from one of the charities Iris worked for walked up. “Hanna said you were wearing ... You are! Well, congratulations, it’s about time, but why are you wearing it here today?”

“I ... um ... Well, that I know for sure at this point, you and Hanna are the only ones who even noticed. As to why I’m wearing it now, I ... I can’t take it off.”

“He won’t let you take it off, for your own birthday party? The cad! Are you okay? Are you sure he’s safe?”

“I’m fine.” Iris glanced at Matt who nodded. “I’m very sure I’m safe with him. As for my collar, it’s not a matter of permission to take it off. At this point, it would have to be cut off.”

“What do you mean cut off?”

Iris looked at Matt again. “When he put it on me, he put super glue on the threads of the hex screw that holds it closed.”

The woman looked at Matt than looked back at Iris. She giggled. “Your own son? My aren’t you quite the cougar. At least he’s old enough.”

“I ... um ... we...”

“I’ve teased you enough. I have to get going anyway.” The woman walked away laughing.

Matt laughed. “That could have gone worse.”

A man walked up to them. He was a little older than Iris and obviously of Mediterranean origin. He had a young woman Matt’s age with him. The man pulled Iris into a bear hug. “It’s been a long time sister, too long.”

Iris pulled out of the man’s grasp. “Matt, this is your biological father, Adrian. Adrian, this is our son, Matt. Introduce the young woman.”

“Iris, Matt, this is my daughter, well, Ryan’s daughter, Helena. So, Iris what lead you to reach out after all these years that you couldn’t mention on the phone?”

Iris looked to Matt who said, “We should be safe here.”

Iris looked back at her brother. “We recently discovered that Matt holds the spark of Chronos. I’ve had to re-evaluate my stance on the family legends and the breeding program. I ... I’m sorry for everything. But why didn’t you contact us when Matt turned eighteen?”

“Our grandfather was determined to honor the deal he made with Ryan. That you were not to be contacted before Matt was an adult. Unfortunately he was the only one who knew where Ryan settled when he returned to the US, and he took that information to the grave.”