by Xander Jade
I nodded, “Twenty-six.”
Both put on a predatory smile. Celina came over to me and rubbed my biceps. “Honey, how old do you think we are?”
Looking them over in good detail, I shrugged and said, “Lily, thirty-three and you, Celina, thirty.”
The duo giggled.
“Thank you for the compliment, darling. I’m a hundred and five and Celina is a hundred and twenty.”
Huh. Definitely still hot though.
“Wow, you two age well then. Of course, I don’t know how old your kind can get.”
Celina was still touching me. “My kind can range from two to three hundred.”
“Two hundred for me.”
Grunting, I said, “You ladies are gorgeous and still in your prime. I don’t understand why you are having issues with joining a family.”
The ladies turned pink, or at least their cheeks did. Celina asked in a low voice, “You think we’re pretty?”
“Yeah. Who wouldn’t?”
The males of this world must be blind if there are beauties like this hanging around by themselves.
Lily cleared her throat. “Dominic, thank you for that compliment. To answer your question, most think having a beastkin in their family will disrupt their cohesion.”
“Cohesion? What’s that got to do with anything? Family means hard work, compromise, and yes, even bad days. But it also means love, compassion, and being there for one another.”
Celina shook her head, “You’re definitely different. And not from around here.”
I shrugged and they went to their rooms after saying goodnight. I walked to mine and when my head hit the pillow, I was out.
Chapter 6
Morning came early, my muscles groaned as I got out of bed. I was feeling the work from yesterday and today wouldn’t be any better. I sighed, knowing the kind of day that awaited me. Although it would be cut short, due to my date with Isabella. I was cautious about starting a relationship with her or Felicia. Not coming from a multi spouse society, I didn’t know what to expect. Hopefully I wasn’t going to embarrass myself, at least we were just hanging out to get to know each other. I was roused from these thoughts by a nice aroma. Mmm… bacon. I went straight to the privy and did my business before coming back to see both women up and cooking. Hmm. I like a woman that can cook. When they saw me, they smiled.
“Good morning, Dominic,” Lily spoke out. Celina chimed in after her.
“Morning, ladies. Sleep well?”
Both nodded in agreement. Celina was at the cook stove watching the bacon, eggs and onions cooking. Lily was cutting up fruit.
“Hope you don’t mind. We wanted to cook you breakfast,” Celina smiled, her tail swaying back and forth.
“No, I like a woman that can cook. Especially for me.”
Both glanced at each other and went back to what they were doing. I sat down after getting coffee.
“What time are we leaving?” Lily asked politely.
“It will be this afternoon. I have work to do beforehand, though.”
Celina turned the bacon and said, “If you don’t mind me asking, what are you going to town for?”
I thought about that and decided to tell the truth. “I’ve got a date.”
Both women looked at me. Lily questioned in a low voice, “We’re not hindering you in any way are we?”
“No. Why would you ask that?”
“Because we don’t want to start trouble for you,” Celina responded.
“Other women may not want others to mess with their courting,” Lily explained.
I waved a hand in dismissal. “Isabella and I just met, this is our first date, so you’re not messing with anything.”
They both relaxed and nodded. Lily asked, “Any others?”
“Yeah, Felicia. Met both of them in town the same day. They’re friends too.”
Both of the females sighed. Celina sounded hesitant when asking her question, “Can we come back and visit?”
I smiled and replied, “Of course. You are welcome, anytime.”
They grinned and we sat down to eat. Celina brought over bacon, eggs, onions, and cheese. Lily carried the bread and fruit to the table. The ladies made sandwiches, fruit as a side. The food was delicious and we talked about farming and what I was growing. After breakfast, we cleaned up and they followed me outside.
“We would like to help if we can, Dominic,” Lily stated while walking next to me.
“Sure, I need to gather the eggs and milk, then feed the animals.”
I took them to the barn and opened the door. We walked in and the women whistled. Celina commented, “When you do something, you go all in. Four dairy cows, Dominic?”
I shrugged and said, “I’ll need them later on. Chickens are out back.”
“Alright, where are the baskets? I’ll take care of that. Lily, you want to start milking with Dominic?”
Lily nodded and the ladies helped me with my chores that morning. Actually, I enjoyed the company. They were lovely to have around. When the chores were done, I looked around for Scar, but couldn’t find him. Odd, this was the second day. I guessed he was off hunting.
Celina was watching me and asked, “Something wrong?”
I shook my head. “No, just haven’t seen my companion around.”
“What companion?” Lily asked.
“When I found this place, a panther was in the area. He had a kill and was guarding it, but he let me be when I gave him some food. The creature was badly malnourished and healing from wounds.”
Celina whipped around. “Did you say panther?”
“Yeah, why?”
“When was the last time you saw him?”
Thinking about it, “Yesterday morning, before you showed up.”
Both nodded and Celina took off. I watched her run around, smelling everything. Lily stayed with me. “The panther is a beastkin. He should’ve shown his other form. The poor thing must’ve been either hurt or malnourished to the point where they couldn’t shift.”
“Wait, you guys can shift into your animal form?”
She nodded and replied, “Yeah. We don’t do it very often, unless it’s warranted.”
Hmm. That’s cool.
We waited for at least ten minutes before I saw two black felines coming our way. One was huge, the other, which I recognized, was half the size.
“A puma. Damn, Celina’s beautiful.”
Lily snickered, “Yep.”
Both black felines walked up and stopped a few feet from me. The two then shifted forms right in front of me. It took seconds but was no less cool. Celina popped her neck and back. Scar stretched out as well. He was a kid, maybe 5’3” with dark hair and a skinny frame with scars on his arms and torso. His eyes were blue, and he had pointed ears and a tail. The boy looked down but Celina popped him on the back of the head. He yelped and looked up at me.
“Sorry, mister. I… you didn’t seem to mind me being around and fed me. I didn’t mean to deceive you.”
“Not a problem, but it makes me wary, son. What’s your real name? I doubt you want me to continue calling you the name I gave you.”
The boy answered, “William, good sir.”
“And how old are you?”
“Twelve.”
I nodded and looked over at Celina.
“William is an orphan. I’ve seen him in town, but it’s been some time. Must’ve been staying out here on his own.”
He nodded and asked, “Why were you out here by yourself?”
He let out a deep breath, “Don’t fit in at the orphanage, the women are mean and treat us like dirt.”
I looked at the two female beastkin for some information regarding this. Celina advised, “He’s not fibbing, they really don’t take care of them, especially our race.”
“Why don’t the leaders of this town intervene if it’s that bad?”
They looked at me like I was crazy.
Lily chuckled. “You really must not be from around here. The
baroness could care less, she and her family run this town. They aren’t evil people, but they don’t take care of matters like this or involve themselves unless it makes them money.”
Celina nodded and said, “Yeah, our town could be great and flourish, but with those idiots in charge, it won’t change.”
Hmm.
“What about the magistrate?” I learned that title when reading about this world. I knew they didn’t have judges, they had magistrates. They had city guards instead of police.
All three laughed for a couple of minutes before Lily responded, “She’s even worse, the fat ass doesn’t even leave her office unless she has to, they only have trials when it’s convenient for her and her sister-wives.”
Huh, this doesn’t sound promising. If that’s the way here, then it may not be right to send the kid back to the orphanage.
I looked over at the boy. “Do you have any skills, son? Besides being able to shift?”
“No, sir.”
“It’s Dom, you don’t have to call me, sir. And ladies, call me that as well.”
They nodded.
I was tilting my head side to side, thinking about how I wanted to proceed and just thought fuck it, I will see if the lad can listen and work for his keep.
“William, I’ll let you stay here. But you will have to work for your room and board.”
He stared me in the eyes and breathily stated, “You’ll let me stay?”
“As long as you obey and work hard, then yes.”
He had tears in his eyes. I wasn’t sure if my offer warranted those. I went over and held out my hand. William winced at first, but took it and we shook hands.
“Welcome, William. Did you eat this morning?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Okay, let’s have you answer a question. Can you use a bow or a blade?”
He shook his head and I advised, “Well, training starts today young man. If you are living here with me, then you’ll be able to defend yourself and others if need be.”
His eyes went big. “You’ll teach me?”
“Yes, is that a problem?”
Celina responded, “It’s out of the ordinary. Like we said, our kind isn’t respected in any way.”
“I was going to ask something about that. He’s a male but he’s a beastkin. Is that why he isn’t coddled?”
Lily answered, “Yes, exactly.”
“Alright, let’s go learn. Ladies, you want to join us?”
They both gasped.
Lily put a hand on her chest. “You would teach us as well?”
This isn’t rocket science, people.
“Sure, unless you would prefer not to.”
They both answered, “We’d love to.”
I took the trio over to my target area and set up the targets for them. It was slow going at first, but they picked it up fast. William was a good shot, with practice he would be great. The women were getting there. After our training session, it was lunchtime. The women went and fixed us sandwiches while us males picked up our mess.
William talked in a low voice, “They like you ya know?”
“Huh?”
“Lilyann and Celina. They like you.”
“Oh, well, I like them too. Nice women.”
He snorted, “No, Dom. They like you, like you.”
I thought about that and replied, “What? No way. We just met yesterday. Besides, those ladies are out of my league as are most women.”
William snickered, “Man, you’re blind then. They want to stay too. I can see it in their eyes.”
Grunting, I didn’t believe him. We finished with our clean up and washed up at the pump before walking inside. The ladies were setting the table.
“It’s nice to be inside,” William commented.
I nodded and thanked the ladies for their help in the kitchen.
“Not a problem, Dominic. We appreciate you letting us be here,” Celina purred. William snorted. I just shrugged it off and dug in. The four of us had decent conversation, most of it pertained to learning about William and the ladies. They told me a bit about themselves. I talked about the new house. William asked, “How many bedrooms are you going to have in your new home?”
“Four, but it will be easy to add on if needed.”
He looked over at the ladies and said, “More will be needed.”
The females blushed and looked away. William chuckled at their reaction. I drank my water and told him, “Alright, William. Let the women clean up, it’s time to get to work on the house.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Dom.”
We walked out after thanking the women again. I started on the rock foundation and had an epiphany. Lime and sand were used to make mortar. I had seen a deposit of lime down the creek. Sand was all over the place across the creek. That would make a better foundation.
William called out while I was walking away, “What exactly is your plan, Dom?”
I turned around and explained my concerns about water or even the earth moving the structure in time. I wanted a solid foundation to sit my house on.
He was deep in thought for a few moments. “That sounds fine, but why not just have an earth mage come out to do this?”
“And how much would they charge for a project like this?” I started walking away at that response.
He shrugged and replied, “Probably wouldn’t be cheap. What about concrete powder blocks? You could use it for the walls to sit on instead of the ground.”
That brought me to a stop and I walked over to him, “You have concrete here?”
William looked at me as if I didn’t have all my marbles. “Yeah. They sell it and the blocks at the hardware store in Capena.”
Well, shit. I laughed and sat down, shaking my head. “I didn’t think they would have it. That changes my plan some.”
I got up and decided that it was still a good idea for the foundation to be somewhat level and strong for the walls to be built on.
“I agree with the concrete blocks to sit the walls on but the foundation still needs to be sturdy. Let’s see if my plan for the mortar and rocks will still work for that.”
He nodded and we went to grab the buckets from the barn. Both of us made multiple trips to get loads of each to mix together. I combined each carefully at first to see what the percentage would be for a finished product. Finally getting the ratio right, I started scraping the mortar out and placing it between the rocks. It took time to get even a quarter of the way done. I stopped and put our tools away before cleaning up.
“William, wash up. I have to head into town and drop the ladies off. I won’t be back for a bit.”
“No problem.” He walked off to start cleaning up.
I went back into the cabin to get dressed. Opening my closet, I looked at the clothing before me. I would need to get some different attire soon because the plain looking clothes I had now weren’t working for me. When dressed, I went back out and groomed, then hitched the Jutlands, Suede and Sandy, to the wagon.
The women were waiting for me in the kitchen as I walked in to get some water. Lily handed me a picnic basket. I had asked them for ideas about what to do on my date, as I had no idea of Isabella’s interests, and they had advised on a picnic. Inside the basket were skewers, some venison and ham sandwiches, and fruit for dessert. I smiled and thanked them.
“You ready, ladies?”
They nodded and I helped the duo up and onto the wagon, before climbing aboard myself. I placed the picnic basket on the floor and released the hand brake, led the horses out onto the access road and set out on a slow trot toward Capena.
~~~~~~
The days leading up to Thursday, Isabella was excited and tense at the same time. Her love life, if you could call it that, was little to none, unless you counted the trysts with Felicia. She loved Felicia, those times with her were filled with love and passion even though they weren’t sister-wives. Her late family had five sister wives and Ian, the male, she would describe as a pussy on one ha
nd and a complete moron on the other. Ian ended up getting thrown off a horse he was trying to break. In the end the horse broke him.
Isabella wasn’t that distraught over losing the family, but was somewhat upset about having to get into another one. She was married to the idiot for about ten years. Abby was the best thing that came out of that situation, but being a widow was tough on them. Isabella met Felicia at one of the boarding houses and they hit it off immediately, becoming fast friends and loyal to each other. Their girls also became inseparable.
As the years went by, no man caught their fancy and since they already thought of each other as sister-wives, the women started taking care of each other’s private needs as well. Now that Dominic had come upon the scene, it was a different story. Both women desired him and wanted to see if they could end up together in his family. They’d had a long discussion the night before after one of their trysts. Felicia had told Isabella not to worry about anything and let it ride out, but Isabella didn’t want to be without her friend and lover. That statement had started to give Felicia concerns as well. Both ended up with some tears in their eyes as they had fallen asleep for the night.
It was now around noon and she was dressed in her best outfit, although it was worn out. Money had gotten tight the past few months, with rent and other items that needed payment, but she put a smile on her face. She didn’t care one iota about the way she was dressed, it was the gentleman that she was meeting that filled her thoughts. She had been daydreaming a lot since business had been somewhat slow that week, about how she could strengthen his family if he married her and she could somehow convince him to have Felicia as well. The kicker was that they had teenage daughters that were almost of age.
Isabella sighed. She’d had an argument with Abby and Julia last night about their coming of age, but both of them wouldn’t hear of it and said it wasn’t high on their to-do lists. Isabella and Felicia explained to them for the hundredth time, being with a female is totally different than a male. They advised, once you get that first dick in your cunt, then you’ll be hooked. The girls laughed at them and shook their heads, not caring anymore.
Isabella took a deep breath and waited for her gentleman caller, hoping that in the near future she would be getting a good dicking. She had missed it.