A New Beginning In A Mana Apocalypse

When we all made it back down to the livingroom to get something to eat. Something I hadn"t done in over a week and the moment the scent of food reached me I consumed far more than I usually did, even as a fat kid. Kayda also ate enough for three other people.

While we ate Kayda and I told the others about the strange visit from the observer. However none of them seemed to care much about it. As there didn"t seem to be any danger involved with her visit they had too many other things to care about.

It was only after everyone had finished their meals that I found out that Megan had been serious. She and the rest of my wives had no intention of letting me out of the house for the next couple days. While I would normally love to spend several days with my women in and out of the bed, I had been out for a week and was more than a little curious as to the changes that had been made in the haven.

"There really isn"t much to see." Megan told me with a sigh from beside me while Jessica sat on my lap. Since we weren"t in the bedroom the girls had been rotating the who got to sit beside me and on my lap as I tried to talk, which wasn"t nearly as easy to do when none of the girls around me wanted to sit still.

Worse Rebecca had joined us with Emily and Bryan after breakfast. I felt incredibly guilty when I realized that I had actually forgotten about her. Another sign that I might have too many women in my harem. However the absence was necessary as someone had to care for Emily and Bryan. Daniel and Danielle whom Trill was still concerned for were under the care of Momma and Kelly. Personally I thought Emily and Bryan could have been watched by them too, for one night at least so I didn"t find myself in such an awkward position, but Rebecca was completely against it. I had a feeling there was more to it than that, maybe something involving Marshal.

After arriving I had spent some alone time with Rebecca so she didn"t feel left out or neglected. Now I wanted to go out and see what was going on, only to find my wives all reluctant to let me out the door.

While I am sure I could easily force my way out. That would just lead to so many other personal issues between me and my wives that I decided that it wasn"t a great idea.

"Is there something you don"t want me to see?" I asked Megan a bit suspiciously.

"Probably another woman they think you will s.n.a.t.c.h up into your harem." Kayda chimed in.

All the other wives gave Kayda a dirty look that shut her up.

"How?" I asked. "I had seen everyone that came into the haven a week ago, none of them, including Jasmine"s girls, caught my interest."

Megan shifted about uncomfortably.

I replayed the conversation I had before going through my actual transformation. She had mentioned finding Heather"s sister, Monica"s family, did they find more than them? "How many?" I asked.

Megan and the rest of my wives didn"t meet my gaze.

"Emy?" I called out.

"Fine!" Megan growled exasperated. "We took in a large group of twisted with Heather"s sister. We have to talk to you about them. Monica can keep them in line, but just barely. Oh and Emy helped me pull those you caught in Vegas out of your s.p.a.ce pocket before they could starve. Same thing with them." Megan started to tell me rapidly. I wanted to get her to slow down but I doubted I could get her going again if I interrupted her.

"There were a lot of people with Monica"s family. They are scared to death of her so she hasn"t been able to hold her kid, but at least we know they are safe." Megan continued.

"Thank you." Monica spoke up.

Megan continued like she didn"t hear anything. "Since the Lost Ones didn"t seem to bother with our home, we decided to use Annitte"s ability to find other survivors and bring them back here to try and balance the population. Even with Jasmine"s girls there are a lot more men than women and none of those girls seem interested in men at the moment. We found three large groups and seven small groups that were willing to join us. With the humans we also found a number of beasts that have fallen under the control of Nala, Dena, and Trill." Megan finished.

I think I understood now. "But there are some who didn"t." I said. "And there is at least one who is an empress, which would qualify under the agreement about taking in new wives."

Megan frowned but didn"t reply.

I sighed, despite my normal interest in taking on more wives, a night with fifteen of them and realizing I had forgotten about a wife had made some very drastic changes to my way of thinking about it.

I looked over to Nala, "How many, what are they, and is it really necessary?" I asked.

"Two, and yes it is necessary. One seemed like we could put her under Dena, but it isn"t working very well. While a prey like Dena they don"t really fall under the herd label, we could try and force it but it will only cause issues, different temperaments and all that. The other is a predator, a snake." Nala tried to explain.

"I am not a prey!" Dena interrupted angrily.

Nala gave her a big grin and leaned closer to the silver haired woman who was sitting next to her. She grabbed a handful of Dena"s oversized bust startling her then licked her cheek. "But you taste so gooood." she commented practically purring the last word.

Jessica wiggled on my lap as the show in front of me got a reaction from me.

"She is, or was a diamondback rattlesnake." Trill offered as Dena and Nala continued to argue, though it looked like Dena was loosing under Nala"s unorthodox arguing technique.

"Nala understated the situation. The rabbit is an empress despite her normal disposition to be prey and like any other empress she doesn"t want to bow to any of us. The snake is a predator even if I see her as prey, and like the rabbit has no desire to fall under Nala"s group any more than the rabbit wants to fall under Dena. Our choices are to bring them into your harem or kick them out of the haven." Trill explained.

I sighed, a bunny girl perked me up for a moment then I calmed down, two more girls would put me at eighteen, this was getting ridiculous.

"Is there any way we could set them up with one of the other male leaders?" I asked.

Utter silence greeted my question. I looked around to see every one of my wives staring at me with surprised looks. I couldn"t blame them, I was a bit surprised myself.

"You don"t want them?" Megan asked hesitantly.

"I have a lot of girls already." I replied. "And if it keeps on like this, where does it end? Will I get a small birds girl when a crow, or finch becomes and empress? What about the sea going beasts? Will I have to take on a fish, mammal, shark and squid? There are sea snakes too. Where am I supposed to draw the line and accept the fact that I have enough wives?"

"It"s a good question. Though you might have to get used to the idea that you are going to have many more. You haven"t even met the women from the other species yet." Annitte commented as she suddenly appeared in the room.

"What other species?" Megan asked a panicked look on her face.

Annitte smiled at her. "There are thousands of other world chains, do you think humans are the only sentient species in all the worlds? There are elves, dwarves, mer, angels, devils, and so many more.

Megan glared at me angrily like this revelation was all my fault.

"Why not just continue with your normal accept them all and deal with the consequences later approach?" Annitte asked.

I shook my head without responding. I felt another thrill at the idea of a elf and angel women but pushed it down. "What brings you here sister?" I asked ignoring her question.

"Your visitor last night." Annitte replied.

"You were watching again?" I asked her coldly.

"I was curious to the changes your transformation had made in you and Kayda. "Really impressive, by the way." Annitte defended.

I glared at her angrily. Jessica shifted then kissed me to diffuse my anger, or because my ongoing "reaction" pressing into her was getting a similar reaction from her.

"Visits by the observers are rare." Annitte told me quickly changing the subject.

"What are they?" Kayda asked.

"Deities. Those who are so much stronger than we are they seem like G.o.ds." Annitte replied.

"So they are the G.o.ds?" Annitte asked.

"No." Annitte replied quickly. "Many of the myths in your world are based on the appearance of other survivors pa.s.sing through. However some of them are based on beliefs that transcend your world. I have no idea which of them are that way, and I don"t care. Just know that some survivors and the deities have a G.o.d, or G.o.ds, they believe in. Usually they are the supposed creators of everything. You don"t have to worry about the G.o.ds, if they exist they seem to be more than willing to just watch without intervening. The deities aren"t G.o.ds, just very very powerful individuals. Thankfully they usually don"t bother to intervene in our lives. Which is why I am here. What did she want?"

"Other than to tell Daryl off? Daryl and I seem to be a completely new species." Kayda replied for me.

Annitte frowned at that news.

I smirked it seemed Annitte wasn"t always peeking, we had already had this conversation earlier.

"I am not sure if that is even important. With your bonding ability you shouldn"t have any issues with giving me nieces and nephews no matter your species." Annitte commented. "As for my other reason for visiting." she said looking at Megan. "Everyone knows he is awake, Derek"s foul mood gave it away. You can"t hide him in here forever."

Megan groaned then covered her eyes and sighed.

"As for you, just suck up and accept it. You set the standard already, if you don"t take them in it is going to cause a lot more trouble than it will be worth." Annitte told me seriously.

I frowned at Annitte angrily. Was she really telling me that I had no choice in the matter. I had to take them as my wives whether I liked it or not? I wasn"t going to go along with that. It was obvious that Megan wasn"t comfortable with it. My other wives either. No one was going to force me to do anything I didn"t want, and right now I didn"t want to make my wives any unhappier than I already had.

Annitte smiled. "That is more like it Daryl. Now remember that feeling. No matter how many of the others are helping you run this place, this is your haven!" Annitte told me.

I nodded to her.

"Are we done yet?" Karen asked.

"Yeah I think so." Annitte said with a smile.

"Finally!" Megan sighed relieved. "I still don"t see the point of this. We would have supported him either way."

I frowned at Megan confused.

"I wanted to know how he would react. Would he blindly accept it as he has up to this point? Or would he stand up for himself and all of you?" Annitte replied.

"I think you just like the drama." Megan retorted.

"You helped." Annitte replied.

"What is going on?" I asked then stopped realization dawning on me. Empresses weren"t nearly that common. I had only met one and my other two could be considered home grown. This was a test Annitte set up. To see how I would react if they tried to push me to accept new empresses into my harem. Realizing what was going on I glared at my sister while feeling a bit hurt that my wives had gone along with it.

"He needed to know this too. Whether he runs this place or not, everyone knows this haven is his. With as many of you girls as there are, there are bound to be those who think it wouldn"t matter to add one more. Even if we don"t go back to Earth we will meet other survivors, both human and not. Let alone there are plenty in our current group ready to prost.i.tute their girls to get closer to him or at least his position. We all needed to know how he was going to react to this so we could plan ahead. There was no right or wrong choice, just an acknowledgement of how you plan to do things."