Preparing for a long campaign of ethnic cleansing against the orcs luckily took time, meaning that I had a month after Nysa’s birth before the squadron of Unifiers arrived. During that time, Caspar would take care of all the logistical tasks in preparing for a longer campaign.

At the homefront, I had a discussion with the wives. Because I did not trust the High Hierophant. Nor the King for that matter. I told them as much. “I don’t trust the bastards at the capital not to take advantage of me galavanting about in the northern steppes trying to run down the orc leadership. So I need Shenerah or Emma to go with me, so we can be in constant communication.”

“I’ll go, it’ll be fun slaughtering orcs,” Shenerah volunteered with an eager smile.

“He’s not going there to slaughter orcs, silly,” Emma scoffed.

“What I know about orcs, it’s probably what’s needed to make them gather their leadership,” Shenerah retorted.

“I think Emma should go, you’re pregnant,” Nathalie gently said.

“I’m less than a moon along. There are still fifteen moons until I give birth,” Shenerah waved away the well-meaning worry Nathalie offered. “Besides, Emma would have to stay in cat form the entire time, unless she’s willing to don a collar and manacles.”

Emma actually hissed at Shenerah at that suggestion. “Never.”

“So, I’m the best choice to go with him,” Shenerah said with a little triumphant smile.

“He can just do his memory thing on them,” Mina pointed out. Shenerah gave her a pout.

Emma immediately piled on to that point, beginning to become a little catty. “Also, I’ll be keeping him company during the night. Who knows how long it’ll take. Do you want him to go around with blue balls?”

Nathalie switched to Shenerah’s side, probably did not want her to feel singled out. “Karth can always just create a portal and go back to share some quality time with us.”

“Those portals are majorly expensive to make,” Lily pointed out. However, she added nothing else. It would seem she was trying to remain neutral. She often did when it came time to family discussions.

“It’s not like coins matter much to us,” Shenerah pointed out. “We don’t need them to pay wages, the whole Hold is self-sufficient in all regards except metals. Which we trade with the dwarves with our excess food stocks.”

“Listen—” I started to say.

“Butt out of this,” Shenerah, Emma, and Mina said at the same time, interrupting me. I did the only manly thing to do in that situation, of course, so I backed gracefully out of the discussion.

“It seems to me there’s a cheap solution, me, and an expensive solution, you,” Emma said triumphantly. It was all said without any real venom. They enjoyed a little competitiveness, but it never got out of hand, not that I knew off, so I was not too worried. I was not sure she thought about what she had just insinuated about herself.

While they were discussing who was going to go with me, and me clearly being dismissed from providing any input, I turned my attention to the children and kittens. Only Nysa was in her mother’s arms, the rest of them were playing with Nina.

Well, Baldur was keeping watch as always, but the rest of them had turned into kittens and was climbing and rubbing all over Nina and Zac. Despite not being able to change into a cat as the others could, they still included him in their play. He was giggling in a delightful way, as the kittens would dart in and lick his nose, while he tried to grab their tails.

I was just about to change and join them when Nishka poked her head into the room. Whispered to me so that my wives could not hear, “Milord, Lord Anders and Chione has arrived.”

My mood soured immediately. Artemis must have sensed that because she looked at me and meowed questioningly. I bent down and ruffled her head, getting a delighted purr. “Nothing to worry about, go play with your siblings.”

She did just that, but she still cast a glance back at me before she got tackled by Maeve, and I was forgotten. I took in the joyful but rambunctious scene that was my children playing one last time, letting the peace it filled with me calm my mind a bit.

I made my way down into the receiving room where the two people I hated almost as much as the church stood. I let my displeasure colour my tone when I said, “Oh, it’s you. What a joy. Now what the fuck do you want so we can get you out of here?”

“We’re here paying our respects, to mislead the priests,” Chione said.

“There are no priests in the Hold at the moment, so you can leave,” I replied and turned around to walk away.

“There’s one in our entourage, waiting outside.”

When I heard her say that, I stopped, closed my eyes and heaved a deep breath. “Why?”

“Because some idiot went and killed a bunch of priests, the crown prince, and started the rebellion early,” came the snide remark from Anders.

“Muzzle your pet, or I’ll rip his tongue out. Remember Anders, it’s your fault that the Crown Prince died. Not mine. You were too fucking slow and cowardly,” I growled. Anders looked like he was about to say something, but was stopped by Chione’s hand on his forearm.

After they had stared at each other for a few seconds, she turned to me, “We’re here to trade with the dwarves, and hoping we can get some negotiations done with the priest hanging over our shoulder.”

“Fine go do it,” I said dismissively.

“I wanted to ask if you could provide some names for your contacts in the dwarven community,” Chione said.

“I just deal with whoever is on duty,” I lied with a shrug.

Chione frowned. “That’s a lie. I’m talking about the fringe element that is buying booze from you.”

My eyes narrowed. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Stop being such an asshole and just give us the names,” Anders interjected irritatedly. At the same time, his eyes went to look behind me. Following his gaze, I saw Garion and Artemis, both in human form had toddled into the room.

Garion’s face lit up, “Daddy!”

He ambled forward, Artemis following him. She opened her mouth, and without any trouble at all said the words, “Daddy!”

My heart swelled. It was the first time I had heard her say anything, and as far as I knew, she had never said anything in the presence of my wives either. Suddenly Garion came to a stop and looked at the two guests, as if not having seen them until now. He pointed at them and haltingly asked, “Who?”

“Who?” Artemis imitated him flawlessly. I bent down and stroked their cheek with a loving gesture. Especially Artemis. Her first words, so precious.

“Nobody important, go back to your mothers, I’ll be there in just a moment,” I said and ruffled their heads with a fond smile, making both of them purr. It sounded a little funny coming from Garion in his human form. They looked at me for a moment with big smiles on their faces, before starting waddling back from where they came.

At the edge of my hearing, I heard something that turned my blood cold. It was Anders whispering, almost spitting the words, “Disgusting, the kids are calling their mother's rapist for 'Daddy', we don't need this sick fucker.”

My breathing stopped for a moment, as I watched to see if the kids heard the words. They did not seem to, because they babbled excitedly to each other. Or more precisely, Garion babbled, once in a while using a real word.

As soon as they were out the door, I created a sound dampening circle and threw up an illusion in the doorframe so that no one could see what happened next. In the next breath, I had teleported in front of and above Anders. My knees slamming into his shoulders, sending him to the ground with me on top of his chest.

I threw a barrage of attack spells at Chione, not so much to hurt her, just to distract her long enough for me to hurt the fucker. He screamed in fright, but it got muffled when I shoved my hand into his mouth. Teeth shattered as my titanium covered hands busted through them.

I grabbed his tongue, sharpening some edges and yanked it out. I teleported again, dodging a stone spike, icicle and fireball that all flew through the empty space above Anders. I casually burned the tongue in my hand, as I summoned a wall of stone in front of me to block the lightning bolt flying in my direction.

“I told you to muzzle your pet. Next time I’ll be using one of these.” As I finished speaking, I threw one of the heretical blades on the floor in front of her, the wall I had made crumbling at my command.

“You promised not to hurt him,” Chione said in an accusatory tone.

“He should learn to keep his mouth shut. You don’t get to insult my children, my wives, or anything of mine, or me, without going to pay for that comment,” I snarled back at her. “And you better watch your fucking tone, or I’ll make you serve as the village whore, except you won’t be charging any money for it.”

She had nothing to say to that, which made me suspicious. I reckoned she had some way of getting out of the deal. In an attempt to confirm my suspicion I asked, “Are you willingly going to submit to being collared when I’ve convinced the orcs to summon their heroes?”

“Yes.”

“No trying to prevent it?”

“No.”

“Can you slip out of the collar’s magic once taken root?”

“No.

“Can you prevent the collar from working?”

“No.”

Her every answer rang true to my magic, but I was not fucking sure that I freaking believed her. Not at all. I stared at her. She looked back with innocent eyes. I gestured to the bastard on the floor. “Heal that bastard, and keep him quiet. Why the fuck should I tell you who my sources are?”

She ignored my question as she knelt down to heal Anders. He was looking at me hatefully, but it seemed she took my warning seriously this time. He tried to speak, but she must have put a dome of silence on him because I could not hear anything.

She stood back up and stared me right in the eyes. “Because if you don’t, I’ll tell the dwarves that you’re the one who has been supplying the fringe elements in their society with booze.”

I let out a laugh. “Oh, you’re trying to blackmail me now? I guess having to serve men and women and alike is not enough to scare you. Should I include the horses to?”

“The names?” she asked, ignoring my crude comments.

“Fuck off!” Was the entirety of my answer.

“Very well, it will be a shame when your towns go down a sinkhole because the dwarves learn of your smuggling,” she said and turned around, gesturing for Anders to follow her.

“You want to play this game? Really?” I called after her. She kept walking. “Fine, then I’ll tell Ethan to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth to his former allies.”

That made her stop. Still with her back turned, she said, “You would expose yourself, you would never work with them. You hate them.”

“Indeed I would, I might hate the Church, but when they hear I’ve secretly planted several teleport gates in the elven hinterland, I’m sure they’ll forgive me,” I countered. “True, I do hate them, I hate them a lot. But don’t think for a moment I’ll let you run roughshod over me. We’re not allies, we tolerate each other and try to keep out of each other’s way.

“We share the same enemy, but the enemy of my enemy is not my friend. They’re a distraction that you can use against your enemy. Which is what you have been using me for while gathering your forces. You’ve been using me to play your little games. I’ll go get the orcs to summon their champions, and then your ass is mine, both figuratively and literally.”

“But we could help each other,” she frustratedly exclaimed, having finally turned back.

I looked her up and down. “Fine, kill Anders. I’ll tell you the names then.”

“You’ll have to forget about collaring me then,” she said. I could see she was actually considering it.

“Nope, you’re mine. I won’t tolerate someone stronger than me out there. Even if only by a single fucking step. Yet that single step means a lot of fucking mana,” I countered. “And let me just fucking remind you, that while you’ve been busy politicking around with the other races, I’ve actually struck out against the fucking Church and the Kingdoms. Show me that you’re a woman of action and not empty words. I only ask that you kill Anders, who’s clearly a major liability to you.”

“Then I guess we’re at an impasse,” she said and turned around again. Anders stared hatefully at me, still. I just made an illusion of a tongue licking an icecream cone. If he had looked furious before, it was nothing compared to what he did now.

After they had gone, I went to get back to my family, but as soon as I left the receiving room, I ran into Shenerah. From the look on her face, I knew she had been listening in, despite the silencing barrier I had put up. Each of my wives carried a spell crystal which would allow them to ignore any barriers of silence that I made. I would not be keeping anything secret from them.

She looked at me with concern in her face. “Are you sure that was wise?”

The worry in her voice was enough to make me second-guess myself. If but for a moment. It might not have been the smart play, but I was sick and tired of people using me for their own ends. Especially because they had nothing I wanted. Or were unwilling to pay the price I asked of them.

I gently took her in my arms and told her my thoughts on the subject. She finally nodded. “I guess it makes sense. Nevertheless, I can’t help but worry, Karth. It feels like something bad is about to happen.”

“A lot of bad things happen all the time, the only thing we can hope is that it only hits our enemies and not us,” I said softly, stroking her back. After a minute of just hugging her, I asked, “I take it you won the argument about who goes with me?”

She nodded against my chest. “Yes, I look forward to beating up some orcs. Take some revenge for Yathanae’s sister.”

“Sure, sounds nice and all, I’m all for it, but please remember we need to convince them to summon their heroes,” I said.

She looked up and gave me a vicious smile. “What better argument than ‘Do it, or we’ll burn you on alive or sell you into slavery.’”

“You’ve got a blood-thirsty mind. Should I be worried?”

“Worried? No. I think the thought excites you a little, why else would your dick be hard?”

“Amongst other things?” I responded and caressed her pert buttocks through the thin dress she was wearing. “I got this incredibly hot elf plastered against me, who’s carrying my child.”

“We should not keep the others waiting. Emma is going to kill Anders for what he called Artemis,” she said with a small moan as my hand drifted up to envelope her breast.

“She doesn’t need to, I’ll do it for her, with pleasure,” I snarled, any romantic or amorous thoughts in my head dispelled in an instant at the reminder of the pimp and her whore. This was something that Shenerah was good at doing. We were very occasional friends with benefits, mostly we were just cuddle-buddies, and she carried my child. However, that was the extent of our intimacy. Nevertheless, she was one of my wives and I loved her, even if she was a cocktease.

It was rare she was in the mood for what I offered, mostly she was pairing up with the other wives. That did not stop me from lusting after her, but she had been handling any such situations by redirecting my attention to something or someone else, just like she had just done. Quite the useful skill in my experience and to my frustration. Luckily the other wives were more than happy taking care of my frustrations.

With a sigh I released her and we started walking back to the family room. She walked a little in front of me, putting some extra sway into her hips. When I released a frustrated growl, she gave a sultry laugh.

She stopped outside the family room. With a worried tone, she said, “Karth, you need to be prepared for this trip. The people they send on the expedition with us will most likely be very rude to me, the troopers with less than pure human ancestry. You need to be mindful of this.”

“Don’t worry, I got this,” I said and entered the family room. As soon as I entered the room, I could see Emma was expecting something, and the way she was posturing I knew what it was. With a smile, I changed into my cat form and as soon as she saw me do that, she changed too. She darted out of the room while I got disentangled from my clothes. The chase was on.

It was three days later when the squadron of Unifiers arrived in the Hold. I had a squadron of my own troopers escort them to Fort Kiril, where Shenerah and I met them. It was not the same commander as last time, too bad I would have enjoyed fucking some more with his mind.

I stood on a small stage that was used by instructors to show new moves. Caspar and Shenerah were standing next to me, though she had been uncomfortable with my plan. She had wanted to hide amongst the rest of my troopers, but I had insisted otherwise. Not only was she out where everyone could see her, neither was she hidden by a hooded cloak. At the same time, she was openly carrying weapons.

She preferred fighting with a spear, and she was fucking good with it. If I did not use magic, she would beat me nine out of ten times. In a harness, like the one I had, she was carrying a lot of extra weapons.

The front of the harness carried an assortment of throwing weapons. The back held a short sword and a small buckler, as well as four dragons. Something she was just as fond of as me. She also carried a single rifle, one that was manufactured for long-distance shooting mounted with a scope.

My own array of weapons had not changed a lot over the years. I was still carrying a sabre and a shortsword. The dragons had been upped to four as well. I still carried two hatchets and an assortment of daggers as well. Unlike Shenerah, I was carrying two rifles. One for normal ranges and one for long-range. Just as the one Shenerah had, it was fitted with a scope.

My fear was confirmed with regards to who they would be sending. In addition to the Unifier squadron, there was a priest riding next to the commander. In a haughty voice, he addressed me, “Greetings Lord Karth, you had not needed to take yourself away from your debau—lifestyle to greet us. If you’ll just tell your High Commander that he’s under my command, as well as handing over the control bracers and binding stones, we’ll be on our way.”

I gave him a condescending stare. “You seem to forget yourself. I was put in charge of this expedition by the King and High Hierophant. You can take it up with them if you want, but you’re under my command.”

He bristled at that. “There’s no way I’ll let an ups—”

Whatever he was going to say was interrupted, when I teleported above him, kicked him hard in the head, which sent him sprawling to the ground, before teleporting back on the stage. “You’re speaking without permission.”

The Unifiers went to draw weapons but were met with the sound of hundreds of muskets being cocked, which stopped them cold. “My reputation might have suffered, but I’m the fucking Hero of the Bastion. I went deep behind the elven lines and robbed them of over half a million marks worth of goods. And I got away with it. There’s no one that I can’t best in combat, so you fucking mind your mouth around me, or I’ll send you back to your God, head and dickless. Do I make myself clear?”

He nodded reluctantly from his spot on the ground. I gave him a glare. “I did not hear your response, do you need another lesson?”

“I understand,” he grumbled. When I gave him another stare, he reluctantly added, “Milord.”

“Better,” I harrumphed. “Now on to the rest of you. Unifiers, you’re under my command, that means you’re under the command of High Commander Caspar and his commanders. Yes, they’re serfs, but you better fucking mind them, or I’ll neuter the lot of you, throw your balls in a cauldron and make a stew out of it. You’ll be forced to eat that stew. Do I make myself clear?”

There came a smattering of “Yes, Milord.”. I glared at them. “I couldn’t hear you.”

This time the Unifiers gave a more unified response, “Yes, Milord.”

“Better. Now, what will happen to you if anyone disobeys?”

“You’ll neuter us, make a stew out of it and make us eat it, Milord,” they responded obediently.

“All my troopers are serfs, and some of them are females, what do you think will happen if you order them around or try to take advantage of them?” I asked. When no one answered, I pointed to a guy in the front. “You there, answer me.”

He looked uncomfortable as he answered, almost questioningly, “You’ll cut off our balls and make us eat them, Milord?”

“Indeed,” I said with a big smile. “Everyone repeats after him.”

They did and I looked at them proudly. They were learning. I went on, “A large number of them are Tainted or even non-humans. So what do you think will happen if you talk disparagingly about their gender or race?”

This time the response came immediately. They had learned. I gave them a big smile. “Good work, I knew you could be taught the realities of life. Now, let’s go hunt some orcs.”