by Sam Hall
“We’ve been meaning to approach you,” dark haired guy said. “I’m Blake.”
“Nice to meet you. You have?”
“Yeah,” sandy haired guy said, “I’m Rhett. You’re gonna need a pack if you are going to stay here. Shaun, Slade, you won’t see much of them until you’ve made your decision…”
“What?” I interrupted his spiel. “What’s happening with Slade and Shaun?”
“Until you’ve decided who your pack is, the guys you’ve slept with will hang back, see if your other partners are ones they can live with. They may start banding together, showing an obvious preference for the blokes they reckon should be in the pack. Some of them will form blocs, start making their moves as a group to try and influence your decision. Then the fighting starts.”
“I’m sorry, what fighting? Kelly said everyone was cool and groovy about this stuff.”
Macca chuckled at this. “Well, it certainly doesn’t take place during business hours, does it? But a bunch of red-blooded blokes all wanting the same thing? C’mon love, you know that’s not going to happen.”
“You take us on, all the work is done,” a guy with long, dark hair at the back said, “We all get along, you don’t have to go through the drama of choosing. We’ll all move to one of the bigger places on the other side, and then you can relax and have every need catered to by seven guys who want you.”
I was going to start laughing at that. Seven guys I’d met five minutes ago ready to settle down and fuck me stupid for ever and ever? It sounded completely ridiculous on paper, but the thing about sitting with a whole bunch of dudes in their undies, I could tell at least physically they were into the idea quite easily.
Brandon walked in with the last load and said, “You coming?” Then he took in all the men seated around me. “I’ll make the next delivery and then come back, OK?”
“You could join us,” Jake said. “She smells like she’s into you and as long as you’re not a dick, we could make room. You gotta better chance with us than on your own.”
This made Brandon stiffen. “I know exactly what she smells like. I’m not interested in this little power play you got going on. I’ll find my own way, the same as my dads did. It’s the woman’s choice, it always has and always will be. You guys, you’re trying to take that from her. Julie, are you OK here?”
“I …” should have gotten up and walked out. They were very good looking guys, but they could be kitten killing, axe murderers for all I knew. Macca chuckled when Brandon walked out, and they all seemed to shuffle closer. I was enclosed in a very manly cocoon.
“You choose us, and you’ll see just what we can do,” Macca said. “Seven guys? You’ll never be left unsatisfied. You can keep coming and coming, there’ll always be someone to take you there.” His hand landed on my thigh, feeling warm even through the thick denim.
“We’re bringing in good money,” Blake said, placing his hand on the other leg. “All of us are either at the mine or in the barracks. Lot of hazard pay.”
“You’ll never have to lift a finger,” Rhett said as the guy at my feet slipped off one shoe and began pushing hard with his thumbs into the sole of my feet. I fought to hold back a groan, but one of the others noticed and started massaging the other foot. Blake jerked his head at one of the guys standing by the door, and I watched him stalk around to the back of my couch, his hands slipping under the neckline of my blouse when he arrived, fingers digging into my shoulders.
For a few selfish moments, I let myself go with it. I could feel the hands on my feet forcing the muscles to become soft and supple, those on my thighs creeping higher and higher. For a moment, I knew I could meet a need I’d never really acknowledged before, the need for more. My last real relationship was with Trevor Noakes, a guy I’d been to school with. He’d been a few years ahead of me and then left to help his dad run the local car yard. He was a nice looking guy, nothing on these blokes, but he had a full head of dark hair and a twinkle in his eye that made it look like he was always having a good time. We had an active sex life, he gave a shit about my pleasure, but… We’d be lying there, both having come hard, revelling in the afterglow, and a sneaky little voice at the back of my mind asked for more. My cunt would be wet and swollen, my clit still throbbing, and if I had more touches, more licks, more dicks pushing into me, I could keep this pleasure train going and going… I never said anything, frightened at what he might say and feeling like the most selfish bitch in town. Plenty of my girlfriends bemoaned their self-centred boyfriend’s lack of technique in the sack. I was one of the lucky ones but… This was that opportunity, I realised as I let my eyes close. I would never get to the end with these guys, never want for more. I’d have a string of fingers and lips and dicks to keep wringing the ecstasy from me, until I just couldn’t anymore. Another set of hands took up their place on my shoulders, the fingers digging now into my collar bone and moving lower…
“Tell you what,” I gasped out. “You tell me what happens on the full moon, and I’m happy to give the lot of you a test drive.” My eyes flicked open, and I smiled when I felt the hands still all over my body. Those many eyes that had been burning into me with smouldering gazes now looked wide eyed and worried.
“Babe,” Macca said, not moving his hand from the top of my thigh as he came closer, “we want you to have whatever you need…”
“Then give me answers.”
He stopped and placed his forehead on my shoulder, “We do that and we’re gone, exiled, never to come back. We don’t have family out in the country to go to. Beyond the Sanctuary, there’s nothing for us.”
I snorted at this and pushed their hands off me, only semi-regretfully. “You guys are young, good-looking, fit. You could easily get a job stripping at the very least, but seriously, if you’re working in the mines there’s plenty of work in that industry going all over the country.”
Blake shook his head sadly, “It’s always going to be the Sanctuary for us. We were all born and raised here, and this is where we’ll live all of our lives.”
“But if you went to town, you’d have no problems finding women, believe me. The way you guys look, you’d have women throwing themselves at you. Better looking, richer.”
“We don’t want other women,” Macca said, moving so his lips rested against my neck.
“We want you,” Blake said, mirroring Macca’s actions.
“And I want answers,” I said as I got to my feet. I picked up my shoes and then stepped free of the insta-harem. “I have no idea what happens on the full moon. Does it happen to me? Do you guys all go bug nuts and rampage around the countryside? Is there an epic surprise party, and you’re all just really committed to making sure I don’t know about it? Seriously, this place has me tripping balls as it is, seven hot guys begging to fulfil my every whim, but I need to know what’s going on. I’ve never even had a threesome before, and I’m prepared to go in that room and do whatever you like, for answers. That’s what I need, answers.”
“Fuck,” Blake cursed, adjusting himself from what was apparently an uncomfortable angle. He looked meaningfully at Macca who just shook his head.
“Where would we go? There’s no Mackenzie’s left in the county, not that remember this side of the family,” Macca said. He looked around at the other guys, and they all appeared similarly despondent.
“There’s also no promise of anything beyond this one fuck,” Rhett said, taking my place between Blake and Macca. “We’d lose our jobs, all of our savings, our homes, our families. We’d lose everything for one taste of pussy. I’m sure it’s just dandy and you are a spitfire in the sack, but that’s not enough to turn my back on all I’ve ever known. Honey, I get you want to know what’s going on, but you’re looking at this all the wrong way. You could spend the next two weeks on the company’s dime, exploring every sexual position and scenario you’ve ever thought might make your pussy twitch, and no one will be concerned.”
“And the thing that makes us nuts is on some level,
you want this,” Macca said. “Your nipples are just about burrowing through your shirt, and I reckon your cunt would be wet enough to drown me if I could get my head between your naked thighs.”
I rolled my eyes, “Seriously? That’s your rationale for fucking you and your mates and going unquestionably to meet my unknown fate? That I am horny? I’m always horny, have been since I got here, which is weird.” I thought about it for a moment, I wasn’t usually this turned on, even back at high school and full of hormones. “That’s nothing special. Ever since I came here, I feel like I’m a cat in heat.”
Apparently, that was the wrong thing to say. Every guy in the room froze, then Macca came over and dropped to his knees, burying his nose into my stomach. “What the fuck are you doing?” I cried but he held me close in an iron grip, taking several long sniffs, lower and lower. “Fuck off!” I said, and shoved him away. He got to his feet and turned to the others, shaking his head. “What the fuck is wrong with you? You’re not a dog! You want to sniff my butt next?”
“What’s going on?” Brandon said, arriving at the front door.
“This dickhead sniffed me!”
Brandon looked at Macca with a disbelieving expression, “You can’t have gone that long… If she was, we would all know, so keep your nose to yourself. So, Julie, you get anywhere with these guys? No? You wanna come with me?” I nodded. “Catch ya next Saturday, fellas,” he said, waiting for me to walk out and then letting the sliding door slam shut behind us.
“You OK?” Brandon asked as I got back into the car. Bud had gone with apparently, keen to keep finding new smells to sniff. That said a lot about Brandon’s character, that my dog was prepared to leave me and go with him.
“I…don’t know.”
“Look, don’t worry too much, if you can. I know it stresses you out, not knowing, but if my word’s worth anything, I can tell you it will be OK. What’s coming? I’ve never seen it hurt or harm anyone, emotionally, physically or spiritually, if that helps.”
“It’s not a big orgy, is it?”
He laughed at that. “No, not unless you want it to be. If that’s what worrying you, I can say it’s not in any way sexual.”
“Strangely, that’s both a relief and a disappointment.”
“Jules, you gotta let that patriarchal bullshit holding you down go, love.”
“Really, that’s your response? Feminist theory?”
“Think about it,” he said. “You have two different types of people in a heterosexual relationship. One of them is big and strong and muscly, and capable of one orgasm before needing half an hour or so before he can go again. The other is often soft and curvy and sweet.”
“Yeah, I get the idea.”
“And can, but not always, have orgasm, after orgasm, after orgasm, if that’s what she wants. Why would the big muscly one use all of his power, verbal, political, social, whatever, to demonise the women who want to exploit that delightful biological quirk to its fullest? She’s a slut, a whore, she has a mental illness, she shouldn’t be able to keep custody of her kids, or get a job unless it’s on her back. It’s fear, love, that the all consuming hole that provokes so much pleasure in him is not wholly satisfied by him. He is not enough.”
“You’ve been reading some Freud at the library, haven’t you?”
“But seriously, I don’t know how you can’t see it. Men have used their control over women for so long, you girls keep perpetuating it without any interference from them. Wives don’t want to lose their husbands, so they toe the line. They raise their daughters to toe the line so they’ll have a chance of marrying, to have their own daughters and perpetuate the cycle. It’s mothers who perform female circumcision on their daughters, not fathers.”
“Really, you don’t think that’s a bit of a jump from my reluctance to fuck those seven guys back there?”
“Fuck them, don’t fuck them, doesn’t worry me. Have sex with no one here, if you like. That’s the point, if you like. The attention you are getting right now is largely because you’re ambivalent. You’re into it sometimes, and not others. Guys don’t know whether to approach you or not, whether you want it or not. Because there’s so few women here, they’ll keep asking, just in case you say yes.”
“I have said yes, twice.”
“And everyone knows that, which of course, means hope springs eternal. If you seriously don’t want what anyone’s got to offer, say no a bunch of times and people will stop asking, I promise. But if the only thing holding you back there was inherited sexual repression… well, you should imagine that you are on some kind of exotic tropical island, where the culture is very different to your own, where it’s expected that you will operate using a new set of sexual mores.”
“Are you hoping to talk yourself into my bed? Is that it? Did Slade say he talked me around, and you thought to try the same?” I said, looking at him through narrowed eyes.
He laughed. “Nope. Can’t say I’d be sad for the chance but…” This earned me a long look, and when his eyes went back to the road, he reached down and adjusted his dick to what was apparently a more comfortable angle. “There’s a lot of guys rushing to get into your pants. Me, I’d like us to be friends. Your hot, hot, very willing friend, if you decide to choose me. But if you don’t, still a good friend.” I laughed at that. "As your friend, I’m just saying, don’t let a bunch of dead, old guys stop you from having fun. You have power here, a lot of it, don’t be afraid to use it.”
“With great power comes great responsibility.”
“Spiderman?”
“The French Revolution, I think.”
“Well, whatever. Just treat the people you are with respectfully, and you should be fine.”
14
We sank into silence until we reached the next house. The guys were awake there thankfully, but similarly underdressed. It had been warm last night, but I was comfortable in my jeans and top, so I wasn’t sure why they were stripped down that far. They looked very interested when I dumped their beer and food on the counter, but I stopped them cold with a question about the full moon. Brandon just smiled and shook his head as each guy backed right off after that.
“Now, we’re heading to the married quarters, so there’ll be bigger boxes. I’m going to take you somewhere special first though, OK?”
“Where?” I said frowning.
“You’ll find out in a second. It’ll be fine. Just trust me.”
We drove through the admin sector, past a lot of sheds and buildings I was still yet to visit, and then back up the hill. The houses were a lot bigger on this side I realised, with sprawling gardens filled with children’s play equipment. Brandon skipped all of them, heading down the third row and pulling up outside one three quarters the way along the street. He smiled as he got out of the cab. “C’mon.”
We picked up the boxes and Brandon got the gate for me, walking up a pretty white stone driveway to a house with a huge porch running around each side of it.
“Hey, honey!” I heard a feminine voice call out. The door opened and a beautiful woman of slim build with long dark hair arrived at the door. Am I meeting his girlfriend? I thought. That’s something I’d never really asked about, if blokes had multiple girlfriends as well. She was pretty enough to be so, which sent a stab of jealousy through me. Where did that come from? “Did you bring our stuff first again? The neighbourhood is going to kill me if you keep doing this. Especially Phyllis, you know how she is about precedence. Oh, who’s this?” Her eyes flicked to me, and then the broadest smile split her face. “Is she…? Have you…?”
“Mum, this is Julie. She’s the new girl, Finn’s offsider. Julie, this is my mum, Janice.”
“Nice to meet you,” I said.
“Come in! Come in! So you’re from the outside world, huh? Your head must be spinning right about now.” She turned to Brandon, “John and Bill are at the pub, but Adam and Duke are in the den looking over the books. Go and grab them.” He walked down the hallway obediently. “So how are
you coping, honey? I’m a Sanctuary girl myself, but my best friend, Carissa, I still remember when she first came here, poor thing. Her head was spinning for weeks.”
“Spinning would be a polite word for it. The way people live here is just so different,” I said cautiously. I didn’t want to just blurt out that I thought it was weird that she had four husbands and looked only a little older than me.
“The harem thing? I know from Carissa that the way we do things here is quite unconventional. Maybe I should introduce you, might help you adjust?”
“Ah, yeah. And then there’s that full moon thing.”
“Still not telling you what’s going to happen until afterwards? I’ve talked to Kelly about this for years. I don’t think it’s the right way to go about it, but I’m not the matriarch here.”
“You can’t fill me in at all?”
“Not without losing everything. Kelly runs Sanctuary well, and is a fair and reasonable boss, but that is absolutely no go for her. I’m sorry, it’ll be OK though. Once you find out, it’ll probably be a let down, I think.” She saw my face and reached over and rubbed my arm, “I know, honey, it’s not fair. Look, some people are coming around for a BBQ this afternoon. Carissa will be there, you want to come and meet her? She’d have to have a lot of advice about how to cope in the next few weeks.”
“Yeah, sure.”
“So, how’s my son treating you?”
I was giving Brandon a glowing recommendation when two men came into the kitchen. One of the guys was tall and had that big, bulky, muscled look bodybuilders have, with a short crop of greying black hair. The other looked like he could be Brandon’s dad. He had a similar lean build, covered in compact muscle and waving dark hair that fell to his shoulders. Both of them took me in and burst into smiles. “So, this is Julie,” big guy said, taking my hand. “I’m Brandon’s dad, Duke.”
