When we returned to the room we had left I found Mary laying on the bed waiting patiently. I walked right up to her then pulled her into my arms and kissed her in greeting."Miss me already?" Mary asked her face still expressionless as always.
"I know you and Emy share thoughts, but you are still separate beings." I told her with my bond.
Mary relaxed in my arms. "Yes." she replied simply in my mind.
"Anything happen when we were gone?" I asked.
Mary shook her head. "No but I have heard everyone getting ready." Mary replied.
I frowned then looked out the window the sun had just barely started to rise. "I thought we were in there longer." I commented aloud. It was bad, I knew we needed to get up early for the raid but with all that had happened last night I could have swore we overslept.
"Emy has some control over time, she slowed time in her haven so it felt like you were in there longer." Mary explained.
I nodded relieved someone had some forethought.
"Ahh!" Karen screaked then dashed out of the room in a hurry.
We all watched her go then looked around trying to figure out what was wrong with her.
We didn"t have to wait long as Karen returned a few minutes later with Heather in tow. She looked like she had been crying, alot.
I went to her quickly and wrapped my arms around her. "Sorry Heather." I told her remembering that Karen had promised to get her when we thought we were just going to have s.e.x.
"You should do better at keeping your promises." Rebecca commented coming into the room behind Heather with Bryan in her arms and Emily at her heels. She didn"t look happy and glared at me.
"It is my fault Rebecca. I made the promise to Heather not Daryl." Karen spoke up.
Rebecca frowned then she relaxed a bit. "Good. Don"t start developing the promise breaker habit. It"s better not to make them than it is to break them." she told me.
I nodded as I agreed with her.
"How are you?" I asked Rebecca as I scooped Heather up into my arms. The girl practically melted into my arms.
Rebecca sighed then deliberately looked into the hallway before closing the door. "Things are a bit hectic. Marshal got it into his head that he can have me and Rosa, Rosa isn"t arguing with him but I can tell she isn"t thrilled with the idea, and honestly I am not either. Though he is convinced that if I am alright being with you and your many wives I should be happier being one of his two women." she told me. "If you weren"t so important he would still be hounding me."
"What did you tell him?" Grace asked moving to her side.
Rebecca looked a bit embarra.s.sed, "I told him that if he kept trying to poach one of your wives you would kick him out." she admitted.
I groaned.
"Is that a problem?" Rebecca asked with a frown.
"Yes and no." I replied. "No, I do not mind you using me as your shield. That is something I will do without a problem. Threatening to kick them out might have been extreme though." I replied.
"So you aren"t going to kick my daddy out?" Emily asked with tears in her eyes.
I shook my head. "No Emily, not if I don"t have too." I rea.s.sured the little girl.
Emily nodded happily as she wiped her eyes while Rebecca seemed to flinch. "I can see your point." she admitted to me. "Sorry sweetie, your daddy just made me mad." Rebecca told Emily.
"He deserved it." Heather said from my arms. "He was really being a jerk. Somehow he found out or bonds to you were gone. Courtney has been around trying to get her claws into me and the twins too." she complained.
"Do you want the marital bonds back?" Megan asked the two women seriously.
Rebecca hesitated for a moment while Heather nodded. "Yeah."
"You sure?" Rebecca asked Heather.
Heather nodded. "After Courtney came by and tried to convince me to meet up with Michael and his group. It was clear she is recruiting for his harem and if I am not interested in that then they have other single guys who would be interested." she told us. "After I turned her down I thought a bit and realized there wasn"t anyone else who could offer me what I wanted."
"The bond?" Megan asked knowingly.
Heather nodded. "He might have a lot of girls but with the bond I can feel that he cares. I miss that, a lot more than I thought I would." Heather explained.
Rebecca sighed then nodded. "I know what you mean." she admitted too. Then hesitated a moment looking down to Emily who looked back up at her. I could feel how conflicted she was about the decision.
"You don"t have to make the choice now Rebecca." I told her.
Rebecca shook her head. "Yes I do. I need to draw the line with Marshal it doesn"t do either of us any good to draw this out." she replied.
"Kiss him." Emily told her mother. "Didn"t you tell me you will know what you feel for a man when you kiss them?"
Rebecca chuckled, "I told that to your aunt, you weren"t supposed to be listening." she chidded her daughter.
"I couldn"t sleep mommy." Emily replied averting her gaze.
Heather wrapped her arms around my neck and pulled me down for a kiss. I had no trouble accommodating her. However while I wanted to give her a thorough kissing she pulled away and wiggled out of my arms. "I"m good." she told me with an impish grin. "Just confirming."
Before I could retort Rebecca was in my arms seeking my attention. Her kiss lasted longer and was far more pa.s.sionate. Thankfully I had enough self control to resist going further while Emily was present.
Fine I admit Megan had to mentally interrupt us when we were about to go farther.
I broke our kiss and stepped back so Rebecca wasn"t pressed against the wall anymore.
"You don"t kiss daddy like that." Emily commented.
"No, not anymore." Rebecca admitted. "I agree too." she told me.
I nodded and quickly elevated the girls bonds as I had with the others. Now only Tracy and the twins were left.
"You will need to speak to the twins, and soon." Heather told me.
"Really?" Karen asked. "I thought Jamie was almost as infatuated as Grace."
"She is." Grace agreed. "Jessica isn"t far behind, but Derek isn"t happy with it and he has a lot of influence on them. Now that Jamie is healthy and the bond is gone he doesn"t want them to come back to Daryl, especially not when the number of girls you have keeps increasing."
I couldn"t blame him for that. What father would be alright with it? I was more surprised that Grace"s father didn"t protest more.
Knocking on the door interrupted our discussion. I opened the door to find the twins and Derek. "Welcome." I greeted them giving the twins a wide smile.
Jamie returned the smile happily while Jessica seemed more reserved. Derek just glared at me. "Are you ready?" he asked.
I nodded then looked back at my girls. "Grace, Calidia, Karen, Nala, and Dena are with me. Trill and Mary can keep watch over the hotel." I said aloud then asked Mary if there had been any trouble with her being the only empress in the hotel last night.
"No, none one was willing to approach us after our display of might." Mary replied mentally.
"Just them?" Derek asked.
"They are all gold and silvers, our presence will be enough to frighten off most of the beasts, twisted, and plants. We will also create the s.p.a.ce tunnels. If there is something that isn"t afraid of us it will either be humans, or another gold. We can deal with those depending on how they behave." I replied.
Derek frowned but didn"t seem able to argue. "Are you going to take in more people?" Derek asked.
I shrugged. "Maybe, depends on the people and what kind of supplies we find." I replied.
Derek nodded. "Criteria?" he asked me.
I frowned. "How about we meet them first before deciding." I replied.
Derek frowned again. "So if they have no pretty girls they don"t get to stay?" he asked angrily.
I frowned. "I have never said that and have not even practiced that." I replied with a frown.
"So you are saying you haven"t been making the rounds through my female soldiers trying to find another bed warmer?" Derek asked with a glare.
"I am saying exactly that. I haven"t had time to even consider something like that let alone actually meet any of your soldiers except when I saved everyone"s a.s.ses from that nuke. I haven"t even been able to find time to meet with Jamie and Jessica and they take higher priority that some unknown soldier girls." I replied.
"I told you." Jamie said happily a big grin on her face.
I looked to Karen, "Check on Courtney." I told her.
Karen sighed then nodded.
"Take Mary with you." I added.
Karen winced but nodded.
I frowned, "Would you rather someone else?" I asked her.
Karen nodded. "No offense Mary but your figure is a bit of a distraction, especially among Michael"s group." she told my green haired girl.
"None taken." Mary replied.
"Can I take Jamie and Jessica?" Karen asked.
"You have to ask them, but won"t they be just as distracting?" I asked looking to the twins.
"Who is Courtney?" Jessica asked suspiciously.
"My brother"s girlfriend." Megan replied for me. "Pretty strawberry blonde who thinks too highly of herself."
"I know her. I thought she was with Daryl the way she seemed to think she walked on water." Jessica said looking to Derek.
"Yeah she can be a real b.i.t.c.h." Karen agreed.