One foot out the door

When the ladies returned, led by Jessica, Grant couldn’t help but nod in approval. While the clothing wasn’t anything he would consider sexy, they had listened to his instructions carefully. Jessica had chosen a pair of khaki pants, a dark green shirt that somehow reminded him of the stereotypical army PT gear, and some hiking boots. It was sensible, and seemed somehow to make sense on her in a way that some of her skirts and dresses hadn’t. it was like he had discovered some sort of tomboy kink he hadn’t even known that he had. The other two ladies…

Grant stopped himself at that thought. He didn’t even know their names yet. He had “claimed” two women, and he didn’t even know their names. That would have to end now. He couldn’t stop claiming women, the ability to be safe and secure in the world that was coming would depend upon it. But that didn’t mean that he had to be mindless in how he claimed women, nor callous about who they were. He didn’t have to be stupid about how he treated these women. He didn’t have to treat them like they had no lives of their own.

“So…I know Jessica, but I’m afraid I didn’t get your name. I’m Grant, by the way.” Extending his hand like he was meeting them for the first time, which he kind of was, Grant tried not to let his inner thoughts display themselves too much.

Instead of shaking, both of the women smiled widely, and rushed forward to embrace him. With their arms around him, and soft sighs of happiness, the two started to talk at the same time. With their words garbling together, there was absolutely no way that he could understand anything that they were saying.

“Okay, okay, okay! Please, one at a time, ladies.” Grant said, a bit of desperation in his voice. “Please, just, take a breath. Now, ladies, let’s do this in a way that makes some sense. I claimed the older of you two first, so let’s go in the order of when someone was claimed.” A gentle smile and a look of admiration for the older woman made sure that his use of the word older had no sting.

“I’m Julie Waters. I work as the branch manager of the Citibank just down the street. I just moved in after my divorce.” As she talked, Julie moved from side to side in a twisting motion, as if trying to make sure that Grant got a very good look at her body. The way her arms were behind her back pushes her breasts up and forward, highlighting the fact that her nipples were absolutely hard. They poked through her light blue shirt, and Grant was unsure if she was wearing a bra or not. It was an inconsequential thought, but suddenly it seemed the most important thing in the world.

“And my name is Alice. Uh, Alice Hernandez. I’m a student with Jessica. I major in Theatre, Master.” The girl that stood next to Jessica smiled shyly, keeping her eyes downcast as stood next to her friend. Her own attire was a cross between what Jessica and Julie were wearing, with blue jeans like the older woman, combined with a white t-shirt and a red flannel long sleeve over that. “I…I just wanted to say thank you for choosing me, Master. I know that you could have any woman you want, but you picked me and that means a lot to me. Thank you!”

With her words, all the others started repeating her words, even Mary. It was as if a spark had been lit with the initial thank you, and now each of them had to make sure that Grant knew exactly how grateful they were that he had been the one who had claimed them. That they were grateful that they had the opportunity to belong to him now.

Holding up a hand, Grant stopped the girls before they could get too carried away in thanking him. They did, after all, actually need to get going before the sun set, and it had been somewhat late when the text had originally come in. Taking a quick glance at his grandfather’s old watch, he realized that only thirty minutes had passed. It seemed a lifetime, given the things that had happened, but even as he watched the second hand continued to tick away evenly.

“Well, thank you ladies for being so amazing and getting changed quickly and coming back here. We need to get going.” With that, Grant turned around and started walking away from the pool. He knew that, if given enough time, one of the girls would either try to start saying how amazing he was for thinking they were amazing, or something else would happen that would set them back on time. He couldn’t quite put his finger on it, but he knew that there was some sort of invisible timer that was counting down. Every second that passed was a second closer to…something. Something that, even if he didn’t have a name for it, he could already feel the surreal dread.

Once the ladies had caught up to him, and for some reason formed a roughly triangular shape around him, Grant continued. “So, we need to have a plan for when we get to the station. It needs to be something that will bring at least two police officers to talk to us, hopefully both of them female. If it’s not both female, we’ll claim hat we can, but the goal is to have at least two cops join us. That way…”

Whatever else he was going to say was lost as they moved through the front doors just as a man was walking in. The woman behind the man wiped everything from his mind. Not only was she topless, and with what looked like whip marks across the front of her breasts, but there was a makeshift gag in her mouth and her hands were tied in front of her with a rope that lead to the hands of the first other man Grant had seen since he left the apartment.

Even as Grant stopped to watch, he could feel a bit of irritation washing through him. What other men were doing with heir women wasn’t his business, more or less, but openly displaying them like that, and treating them like they were animals was just stupid. If they were your women, why wouldn’t you want to take care of them? To make sure they were protected? You were supposed to take care of what was yours, not just flaunt it for the whole world to see!

The frustration bloomed into full irritation as soon as the man walked through the doors to the apartment complex. “What are you bitches doing? I didn’t tell you that you could look at me! Man, you better get your sluts under control!” The nasally voice of the newcomer grated on Grant’s ears as soon as he entered.

“I did not give you permission to talk to my women, let alone talk to them that way. You can do what you want with your women, but don’t presume to give orders to mine.” He heard himself say. It was a brief moment, and one that Grant didn’t normally feel, but whenever the other man had dared to presume he could order his women, Grant knew then that if the man tried anything, there would be problems.

“Well excuse the fuck out of you. Just because you don’t know what you’re doing, doesn’t mean your bitches can just do whatever they want. It’s a new world, and they need to learn their place! The message said so.” The other man said, his greasy brown hair falling briefly into his eyes before being swept to the side. “So like, make sure you do that.”

“Their place is what I say it is. They’re mine, and I decide what their place is, not you.” Grant said, his blood beginning to boil in a possessive pressure to demonstrate to this unwashed asshole exactly why you don’t mess with other men’s girls.

Taking a step forward, Grant’s ice blue eyes locked onto the new comer’s. The blatant challenge in his step as well as the look in his eye clearly wasn’t something that the new comer was prepared for, as he paled slightly, and then stepped to the side.

“Whatever. Asshole,” was the muttered response, and for a second Grant thought that was going to be the end of it. And, if the guy hadn’t reached out and grabbed Alice by the ass, saying that he was claiming her, it probably would have been. With a shout of pure anger, Grant pulled back his fist, and punched the greasy shit in the side of the head. Two of his own knuckles popped, but it was worth it to see the other guy drop boneless to the floor. A muffled wail came from tied up woman who tried to defend her master with kicks and shoulder checks, but Grant had no need or desire to fight with her. The one who had started the issue had been dealt with, and that was good enough for now.