I smiled at the matriarch as I bowed and wished her well, and safe travel. I reentered the house to find Bella and Isa standing with their arms crossed looking down at me. Oh shit, what did I do now? I looked over at Travis but he was playing wall and not looking at me. On my own then, great.
I decided not to ask and waited and waited and waited, I mean like 20 minutes had to have gone by with me looking at my wives and them standing there watching me. It had to have been 20 minutes, of course I didn't have a clock so I couldn't have known for sure but at least 20 minutes not just one, no way it was only one, right?
Finally Isa sighed and spoke, "Did you not hear me the first time, Mir?" Spoke was a mild term and I could feel her anger, annoyance and disappointment with me radiating off of her. It was surprising and I took a moment to figure out what I might have done this time. I couldn't think of anything happening while we had been talking to the mother.
Vera was coming out of the kitchen at that moment and she stopped to see what the problem was. Seeing her tense looking at the two other women I gave up and asked. "You are going to have to narrow down the subject dear. I am not sure what you are talking about."
Isa stomped her foot and growled. She had never acted this way and that she was doing it in the hall was even more out of place. "You have been pretty good about not saying one thing and then doing another but how you treat 112 has me frustrated, Mir."
"I haven't," I was going to say 'done anything' but that wasn't quite true, "- well you were right about the first time, I shouldn't have done that. I don't know for sure she knew she could have told me no and I would have stopped, but I haven't done any else to her since then."
"I have never known you to lie, Mir." The argument was drawing the attention of my brothers, but they knew enough to not step between me and my wives.
I blinked at her, I opened my mouth to reply angrily but Vera quiet literally jumped between me and Isa. Isa took a step back as I fought to get a hold on my anger. "You misunderstand, mam. I am not sad or hurt. He is not lying; he has done nothing to me, or ordered me to do anything."
Isa looked at Vera in surprise then started, "112, you might-"
"Vera." Isa looked over Vera's shoulder at me in surprise. "Don't use her number unless you are giving an order."
"Okay…" Isa said the word slowly trying to work through her confusion. Her eyes locked onto the words written on Vera's collar, I opened my mouth to stop her but I didn't. I knew she could read, and I wanted to know if the block I had tried worked or not. That moment of not stopping her was all it took. "112 Mud Slut"
Vera flinched but when nothing happened she looked over her shoulder at me keeping herself spread in front of Isa. Isa had started to say release right away but when nothing happened she stopped. "You disappoint me, Isa." I felt fear from Isa as I spoke without tone. I hadn't truly scared Isa before and I wasn't sure how I felt about doing so now. I stepped around the women and headed to my office. I registered that she didn't flinch from me as I moved but her own emotions were all over the place.
Vera started to follow me but Isa caught her shoulder, "Wait, we need to speak first. He will need a bit of time to cool off as well."
Vera didn't shake off the other woman's hand, "As you wish, mam."
I quit listening after that but I stayed aware of what they were doing. I trusted Isa enough to understand what I had done, and why. I focused on updating the walls and my own paperwork. I didn't have to find the women this time. Well I didn't have to find the 18 that were in the house. I now knew more about the collars than I would ever have wanted to know about them. I was still sure I wasn't strong enough to make one, thank the lord, but I could read the control phrases coded into them without having to bring each one to me. I skipped Vera's commands writing two dashes so it was clear I didn't want them trying to order her.
After I finished that task I found a snack and went to the training area to get a workout in. People were wearing me out, the arena might be deadly but it was simple. One of my brothers entered the area but I focused on my exercises. He found a place to watch me from without saying anything. I knew him, and trusted him at my back so I put him out of my mind and lost myself to practice.
An hour went by as I worked, trying to get a nice layer of sweat but I never seemed to sweat as much as my brothers. I jumped in surprise as the other man finally spoke, "Mother piss you off that much, alfa?"
I saw him snort and smile at my reaction but he didn't say anything about it. I looked at him, he was a member of the second group I trained, one of the twins. "No, I get along with your mother just fine. Nope this is much worse, I am annoyed with one of my wives."
The brother's eyes narrowed then he nodded, "You don't seem surprised to find out that my mother owns the house I live in."
"You fight with me brother, the fact that she hasn't traded you now that she can, gave me a point to show her for the future."
"She hasn't had that much time to trade me, not with her mother trying to get me killed to prove again that she shouldn't feel things so strongly, and then your wives thing happened and you got the farms to pay the price, so…" the boy shrugged. "No, but what is going on with you and Isa? Not that I haven't seen you piss off a woman enough to get her to yell at you before."
"Since when do I let you question me mut?"
"Since you want us to pick to do what you do and to teach our children and brothers to do the same, Mir. If you keep us in line under you we can never do what you do."
"So you think you are old enough to be an alfa?"
The brother crossed his arms, "We are the same age, Mir."
"Are we? Toss me a staff." The brother shrugged and pulled two staffs from the rack on the wall next to him. He tossed one to me before taking up a ready stance in front of me. "No one is ever going to give you shit, you want something you have to work for it, brother."