Concrete mountains rearing up, throwing shadows just about five

“Changing?” Nick was the first one to address what Dakota was saying. “Changing how?”

Dakota responded to that with a look of amusement. “Well, it goes without saying, don’t you think?” She scoffed. “After all, we have four new women in your harem. We can’t keep to the same schedule, so we’re going to change things up a bit! Starting with our little situation here…”

She slithered across the sand like a snake and stopped in front of Mary. The redhead let out a tiny “yeep!” and took a wary step backwards, staring up at Dakota with wide eyes.

“W-what is it?” She stammered out, uncertain.

Dakota let out a long, exaggerated sigh. “You know, Mary, the way things worked out with you… they really weren’t fair, were they?”

She reached up and stroked the redhead’s freckled cheek, making Mary shiver.

“That’s… I mean…” It was clear that Mary wanted to pull away from Dakota, but at the same time she also didn’t. She stood her ground firmly and stared the other girl down with a fierce gleam in her eyes, one that refused to yield.

…She may have been anxious and a little frightened, but still. Refused to yield.

“Ooh, I love the fierce look in your eye!” Dakota cooed. “Even though you were eliminated from the game, you’re still ferocious! Rar!” She curled up her sharp black nails like cat claws and swatted playfully at Mary, coming a little too close to the other girl’s face for comfort.

Then the smile slid off her lips and her brow furrowed into a dark expression.

“…I can relate to that quite well myself.”

Mary swallowed. She wanted to tell Dakota that their situations were different; Dakota had gotten kicked out of Nick’s harem, while Mary, technically, was still a part of it, even if she wasn’t in the competition anymore.

But she didn’t say that. She let those words die in her mouth, because she could see how much pain Dakota was in.

Instead, she said this.

“I’m still a part of Nick’s life, Dakota, same as you. Just because I got kicked off the show, that doesn’t mean I’ve lost my place in his heart.”

Dakota’s hands fell to her sides and her eyes widened. Her jaw slackened in shock.

“You… but that’s…” She stammered, trying to find the words.

Then she did what she always did when she didn’t know what to say. She got mad.

“Whatever you say!” Dakota snapped, tightening her grip on her cane. “It sounds like today’s your lucky day, then! Because now that we’ve got so many new women in the harem, the system is going to change slightly!”

“Change how?” Kim asked, echoing Nick’s prior confusion. She was speaking for a lot of people at this point. “It’s not just about adding new days, is it?”

“It wouldn’t be,” Dawn said, shaking her head. “Things are definitely different here. After all, the previous schedule gave two nights to the Auditionee; in order to get them to spend more time with Nick, correct? And one of those nights was the night after the challenge, when the new Auditionee would have joined the group.”

She turned and looked at the four women assembled on the beach in front of her.

“…But there are four new Auditionees this time,” she pointed out. “And no more eliminations. What, are they all going to spend the night with him or something?”

“Hey, who knows, could be fun,” Vivian chuckled, elbowing Ella in the arm.

Ella wasn’t exactly thrilled by the possibility. “What?!” She blanched, and shook her head back and forth frantically. “That’s-! I don’t-! NO!”

Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin smiled as well, but her chuckle was silent.

And Amelia just rolled her eyes and scoffed.

“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Nick said, shaking his head quickly. Not only would that involve his stepmother, but it would drag Cinder and Ella into the mess, too. And an assassin! He wasn’t sure how he’d interact with any of them, but he would much prefer doing so one on one than to have a resulting conflict overpower things.

Dakota just smirked.

“You’re exactly right, Dawn,” she said to the cat girl with a nod, and crossed her arms over her chest. “That would be a little too chaotic, even by my standards… for now, anyway. But who knows? More and more women are getting invited up to the Master’s Suite these days…”

She glanced over at Carly as she said this, and the cosplayer shrugged.

“Hey, whatever. You’re the one who vetoed,” she replied, earning another chuckle from Dakota.

“…Yes, indeed, I did. But to answer the question I see etched over all your faces, the truth is rather simple. You’re right, Dawn, there’s simply no way to maintain the previous schedule with the Auditionee system being abolished. And with all these new girls, we’re going to change things up a bit! That’s right- the current week will be extended. Now, each girl in Nick’s harem will have their own day with him, for a total of 12 days per round, with the 13th day set for the challenge!”

“So wait, each round is 13 days now?!” Sylvia gasped. “B-but Dakota, that’s going to be really messy! How will you even organize that?”

Dakota was clearly miffed that the former host had interrupted her, because she looked scornfully at Sylvia and clicked her tongue. “Tch. This is the problem with you girls, you don’t understand my vision. The previous schedule was unnecessarily bloated… a whole extra day for the Auditionee? Just to go over the popularity polls? Unnecessary!”

“I think I know what you’re getting at!” Rose gasped. “So… you’re going to make the popularity poll be on the same day as the challenge?”

Dakota was caught off-guard by that. “Why… that’s exactly correct, Rose,” she nodded. “You’re not as dumb as you look!”

“Hey!” Rose exclaimed.

“Perhaps now that you don’t have to worry about that frizzy hair of yours, you can use that brainpower on something else,” she giggled.

“HEY!”

“Just get over it, it’s not worth it,” Dani muttered, holding Rose back. She knew she didn’t exactly have a leg to stand on talking like that, but she’d learned her lesson about letting the host get to you, and she didn’t want Rose repeating her own mistakes.

“I think I get it,” Kim nodded. “So what you’re saying is that the popularity poll and the challenge will be on the same day, since there isn’t any necessity to have those days split up anymore. After all, there won’t be any Auditionees.”

“That’s right,” Dakota nodded. “Very good, Kim! I’m so proud of all of you! Yes, we’ll be getting rid of that extraneous day; now each girl will get their own day with the master! Of course, you can do whatever you like; you don’t have to spend your time with Nick. But it would be very beneficial to you, perhaps, if you did…”

The threat in her voice was clear; at the same time, though, she’d never actually **** anyone to be with Nick, or imposed threats or the like on them before. So it landed kind of flat on the group, who merely regarded her statement with exasperation and frustration.

“Are you stalling so you don’t have to reveal the schedule?” Gina guessed suddenly, and Dakota’s pale face flushed.

“What kind of statement is that?!” She growled. “Don’t you know anything about how to built anticipation?”

It was clear Dakota didn’t. The girls weren’t anticipating anything. They were just burgeoning with concern.

“I have a question myself,” Kim said, crossing her arms over her chest. “You said that the schedule got rid of the extraneous day, but there’s still the question of that 13th day, for the challenge,” she pointed out.

“I-I think the same way!” Morgana blurted out, nodding her head up and down rapidly. “Who’s going to get that night? It’ll be right after our transformations…”

“A valid point,” Dawn nodded in agreement. “You said that these days would be spent with us and Nick, but what about that last day? Which one of us would be given that one? It’s not exactly fair to not get a full day; that was one of the benefits of the Auditionee system as it worked before, wouldn’t you agree with that?”

“…I definitely would,” Dakota nodded. With a sharp smile, she tapped her cane in the sand, and then turned to Mary. “And that’s where you come in, my dear! Oh, we’ll still be changing up the schedule every week, so that the girls all have their own days… but Dawn and Kim have raised a valid point! Who will be getting that night? Why… his wife, of course!”

It took everyone a second to process that. And for Mary, it took far, far too long to realize what Dakota was really saying.

“…Wait, me!?” She sputtered, pointing at herself in shock. “I-I get a night with him?”

“Really?” Nick’s heart surged with hope.

Dakota raised a confused eyebrow. “…Of course you do,” she answered, as if that was the most obvious thing in the world. “Is there any reason you thought you wouldn’t? You’re his wife, after all! You’re still an official member of the harem, thanks to that ring.”

She pointed at Mary’s hand, and Mary looked down at the shining piece of jewelry on her finger. She blushed, and raised her head to gaze hopefully up at Nick, then at Dakota.

“…Really?” That was all she could say at this point. She’d been burgeoning with doubt and worry this whole time, thinking that she would only get to spend time with her husband while he was entertaining other women, but as Dakota described things…

“That’s right,” Dakota nodded in assurance. “As Nick’s wife, you’ll be getting the first night of each round with him! Or the last night, depending on how you look at things. But since it’s the start of the round, and the first night after everyone gets their transformations, I choose to look at it as the first night of the round!”

“That’s great, Mary!” Sylvia exclaimed.

“Yeah, congrats!” Holly nodded eagerly.

“I see, so in that case, Nicholas will be spending the first night with his wife, and only his wife… that is certainly beneficial,” Amelia noted, pushing up her glasses.

“That’s great,” Nick sighed in relief. “I-I thought… well…”

He turned to Mary, and their eyes met. They both breathed another sigh of relief. They’d been on the same page- worried that because Mary was no longer in the competition, she wouldn’t get a night with him.

It was such a relief that that wasn’t the case.

“That’s the kind of happy ending I like!” Morgana beamed. “Congratulations, Mary!”

“I suppose that’s the logical thing,” Dawn agreed.

“Screw logic, it’s just about doing what’s right,” Kim replied.

“Exactly,” Dani agreed with her. “It would suck if Mary couldn’t get any time with Nick to herself, after all.”

“It’s only fitting that Mary should get a night with him as well, I suppose,” Rose admitted. She reached up to twirl a lock of her hair, before remembering it was mostly gone. “After all, it wouldn’t be fair otherwise.”

“It looks like someone’s pretty thrilled about it herself,” Carly noted with an amused smirk. “You can say you’re happy for her, you know.”

Rose huffed and turned up her nose, ignoring the redness on her cheeks.

While Carly laughed at Rose’s expense, her sister seemed uncertain. She was almost nervous, and she wasn’t quite sure why.

Then she felt Dakota’s eyes on her, and realized the reason.

“Wait, so… if Mary has her night with Nick at the end of the round, and then each girl gets their own night with him… what about me?” She asked quietly. She’d been trying to keep her voice down so people wouldn’t pay as much attention to her, but that didn’t work properly.

Everyone turned to her.

“Hey, yeah, that’s right!” Carly exclaimed, jumping to her sister’s defense immediately.

“Marley won a prize from Gina’s party just like the rest of us did,” Sylvia said, also coming to Marley’s aid. “A trip to Dream Alley, right? Shouldn’t you make good on that? You said you’d work in some time into the next round!”

Dakota’s eye twitched.

“Yes, I am aware of that,” she said, trying very hard to keep her temper in check. “And I meant what I said. There was no need to cut me off like that, Marley.”

She glared at the brunette, and Marley shivered. “I-I didn’t mean to,” she mumbled, looking down. “It just came out…”

“Hey, don’t pick on my sister!” Carly demanded.

Dakota narrowed her eyes. Then she took a deep breath, and exhaled. Her face softened and she shook her head.

“…I had no intention of picking on anybody,” she assured the girls. “Don’t worry. I haven’t forgotten. I was getting to that.”

She turned to Mary.

“Unfortunately, Mary, you’ll be taking a hit on this one,” she apologized without a trace of genuine remorse. “Tonight, Nick, Marley, you’ll be going on a dream date of your own, to Dream Alley! Isn’t that fun?”

Marley and Nick both gasped in surprise.

“Wait, tonight?!” Marley had been expecting something to happen, but not so soon!

“That’s… I mean, I guess that’s fine?” Nick said, still a little overwhelmed. He’d had a hell of a day, and honestly? He could really use a good night’s sleep after all the additional hours of time that had compiled in his mind thanks to his prior experiences with Dream Alley.

But apparently, his time wasn’t up quite yet.

Nick and Marley shared an awkward look.

“Now, I know this is a little ****,” Dakota mused, tapping her chin with a smirk on her face. “After all, you just got back from four dreams. But don’t you see? If we fit in a fifth, then everything will be just fine, wouldn’t you agree?”

With a cackle, she raised her cane, and the jewel embedded in the head began to shine with a black light.

Nick and Marley both gasped.

“Hey, wait!” Nick exclaimed.

“N-not now!” Marley shook her head frantically. “I’m not ready yet!”

Even as they exclaimed their objections, they both knew that there was no reasoning with Dakota when she was like this.

…Assuming, of course, that Dakota was serious.

The dark-haired girl lowered her cane, and she laughed.

“…I wouldn’t do that,” she assured them.

“…Huh?”

The would-be date pair both uttered a confused statement and stared at Dakota. The other girls were just as flummoxed.

“I could send you now, and half of me is very tempted to,” Dakota said, shrugging her shoulders. “But you see, now isn’t the best time. We have other rules to go over, after all. That’s why I haven’t sent Kim off to work just yet.”

“…Shit! I forgot!” Kim gasped, her eyes widening in surprise. “That’s right! Um… thanks for that, then, I guess?”

She was so used to getting spirited away right after the challenge that she was actually appreciative of the fact that Dakota had let her stick around this long.

“…Of course, this means when we’re done here, you’ll be working pretty hard to make up for that time,” Dakota pointed out to her. “You won’t get back until very late.”

“Yeah, I kinda figured,” Kim muttered. It was probably for the best, anyway. She doubted she’d be getting much sleep tonight.

What she’d done to the man who’d sired her… it was weighing hard on her, even though she knew that he deserved it. Not only would tonight be difficult, but she envisioned many sleepless nights in the near future.

Sensing Kim’s discomfort, Dakota smirked.

“Of course, with your new transformation, you could always take the rest of the day off,” she pointed out. “You do have Sick Day now.”

That was another thing Kim was considering. But she shook her head.

“Somehow, I don’t think that’s a good idea right now,” she replied. If anything, working would get her mind off of her concerns. Right now, it would be a good distraction. “I’ll save that for when I need it. At least until I see how imposing the punishment transformations will be.”

“Fair enough,” Dakota sniffed, putting zero effort into concealing her disappointment. “Now then, though, we need to get back to the matter at hand. As I said before, there are still a few new rules to look over. But before that, since we’re on the matter already, shall we see what everyone’s schedule will look like? Let’s see just what the order all our new girls will be entering the Master’s Suite in this week will be!”

With a laugh, she spun her cane and flicked the tip of it towards the large screen hanging over the beach.

The names and numbers shifted, and reordered themselves.

1. Dani

2. Morgana

3. Amelia

4. Carly

5. Cinder/Ella

6. Sylvia

7. Kim

8. Gina

9. Vivian

10. Dawn

11. Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin

12. Rose

“Well? What do you think?” Dakota asked, looking out over the crowd.

“Last!?” Rose, of course, was the first one to speak. “I’m last?! Why am I last!? That’s not fair!”

“So I’m first, huh?” Dani was a little surprised to see that. “I mean… I suppose that’s not a huge issue or anything…”

“I’m second…” Morgana turned pale. It was too much to deal with at the moment.

“Huh, so I’m near the back huh?” Vivian stroked her chin thoughtfully. “Well, that’s not so bad… guess we’ll have to play the long game on this one, Octavia.”

“As you wish, Lady Carrington,” Olivia said with a sharp nod.

“Party in the middle of the week, huh?” Gina cracked a grin. “Should be fun…”

“I’m day 6… wow, right in the middle, huh?” Sylvia was surprised Dakota had been so charitable. “Wow, I would have thought that Dakota would put me right at the back…”

“I’m earlier than I expected too,” Carly nodded in agreement. “I should think about who I’m taking up with me…” She glanced at Dani. While that was definitely where her mind was at, it might be better to choose one of the new girls.

And while Vivian might have been cool with things, Amelia seemed completely cold to her position. She had no response either way. But as for the other new girls…

“I-I have to be with him… so early?” Ella squeaked. She’d hoped that she would have a little more time to prepare. She flicked her rubber band to calm herself down.

There was someone else who needed some calming down herself.

Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin seethed, glaring venomously at Dakota. The distaste at her placement in the rankings was evident. She stormed towards the host, burning with murderous rage, and Dakota merely regarded her with amusement.

“I know you’re a little impatient, young miss,” Dakota said, turning and addressing her directly. “But perhaps you should think about it like this. You’ll now have all round to win over Nick’s heart. And, in doing so, get him to fall for you! That way, when you have your night together, you can skip right to the good stuff!”

The assassin’s eyes widened.

“Well?” Dakota narrowed her eyes with a knowing smirk on her face. “Doesn’t that sound just magnificent?”

Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin nodded cheerfully and cracked a wide smile. That was one bombshell defused, at least.

Nick looked over at the fretting Ella, and hoped that the next one would be just as simple.

It’s a good thing Amelia will be early in the week, he said to himself, glancing at his stepmother. He never imagined he’d have a thought like that. But he felt like it was important to talk with her about everything moving forward. And hopefully, if it was early enough, she wouldn’t end up getting bombarded too much by the sexual atmosphere of the hotel.

Of course, Vivian was her roommate, which would mean…

…

Wait a minute.

“Hey, wait, Dakota, I just thought of something,” Nick said as the other girls were talking about their own positions in the rankings. “Where are the new girls going to sleep?”

Dakota blinked.

“With you, of course. That’s kind of the point?” She noted, rolling her eyes.

Nick flushed. “Uh, no, not what I meant, I mean-! Well, it’s just…”

“There are only four rooms,” Dawn pointed out. She’d been quiet about her own ranking, since she didn’t want to rock the boat, but that had caused her to be more attentive. “Because the hotel was initially designed for just our four teams, right?”

She turned to Sylvia for confirmation, and Sylvia nodded.

“Yeah, that’s right. Daddy was only going to have eight women in his harem and the Auditionee at any given time…”

“Well it’s a hotel, right?” Rose pointed out. “So there must be some extra rooms somewhere, isn’t that right?”

Nick turned to Dakota to see what she had to say.

Dakota’s smirk spoke volumes.

“Oh… don’t worry about that,” she purred with a silky-smooth voice. She twirled her cane, and it flashed, and the beach around the group began to spin.