The hivemind is conquering for me?

For the next twenty minutes, Kathrine and paraded around the room introducing me to her 'friends.' At one point we met Alannah and Evie again and struck up conversation. It turned out that they held no bad feeling in regards to standing them up and they actually found another couple they had been intimate with in the past to swing with so they had there fun regardless.

Now in the presence of people I was at least a little familiar with, I slightly urged Kathrine to stay with the two of them until the ceremony began. My plan was foiled however, when Evie looked past Kathrine's shoulder and her eyes opened in surprise. "Oh boy, I am not being anywhere near this, come on Babe." Evie said and dragged Alannah away from the scene that may possibly unfold now.

In her confusion to Evie's action, Kathrine turned around and saw entering the room, two very familiar faces to her. In an instant, almost as though he felt her gaze, Kathrine's husband looked right back at her.

There was tension for a moment before the two of them seemed to come to a non verbal agreement to stay out of each others way. That was until a Sepiidan that was accompanying the man spotted Kathrine and smiled with jubilance. "Kathrine!" The Sepiida screamed, causing everyone nearby to look at the alien as she ran over to Kathrine.

"Talia." Kathrine muttered with disgust so only I could hear it. Talia, ignorant of the hate her boss wife was directing at her ran forward and attempted to hug Kathrine as hard as she could, but was kept at arms reach by the woman.

"So the fat slob really did bring you? Moron, why would you bring her to this event?" Kathrine said as her husband came into earshot. "Because out of my three true wives, she worked the hardest the last few days in order to prove she should be here. Speaking of bringing another to the event, who is this man?"

The way they spoke to each other was not shouting, but very snide like they were well practised in disliking each other to the point it came naturally. It caught me off guard as I stared at the man in front of me.

He was 5ft9 and looked nearly 400 pounds. Looking at his face, he could have been attractive once, but years of neglecting his body had left it naturally greasy. The only redeeming quality I could garner visually, was his thick luscious grey hair that would make him look like a silver fox if he lost some weight.

Snapping out of my thought realising I had paused a little too long, I replied. "Hello, I am Apollo Lambdason." As though drawing attention to my presence by speaking, Talia, who was struggling to hug Kathrine a moment ago, looked in my direction and suddenly squeaked.

It was involuntary on her part, but her instincts began acting up. In that moment she had to make herself seen by that man as her reproductive instincts were screaming that this person was a genetic goldmine!

She then barged Kathrine and her husband to the side before she yelled. "Hi, I am Talia! I came here with Milo! How many wives do you have? I bet its a hundred." Talia wanted to add that perhaps she could be the next one, but with her currant husband in close proximity, she had to play it cool as to not ruin her current relationship in case the superior mate was not interested.

Before I had a chance to respond, Kathrine lifted the Sepiidan up by the back of the neck and threw her into the crash pad that was her husband. "Keep away from us the rest of the night or she is going over that balcony out there, do you understand?"

Milo held his gift wife in his hand and on reflex began stroking her back. He had not seen Talia act like that before and it left him preoccupied in his thought as Kathrine ushered off her boy toy.

After we walked to the other side of the room, I spotted Valerica walk over to Milo as Kathrine began venting. "Do you see why I dislike her? She is so fucking ditzy. you don't just scream at the top of your lungs when you see someone here." Kathrine then squeezed her hands and they began shaking. "And then the way she looked at you then. Everyone in the hall recognised that look. I am so embarrassed."

After saying that, she leant up against the wall and took a long heavy breath. Not caring about anyone else in the room, I pull Kathrine away from the wall and bring her in for a comforting hug.

I held her close not saying anything for a moment before I softly spoke. "It could have gone a lot worse if you think about it. I feel like we got off pretty lucky with just some greetings before we split off again. Now you can just ignore them for the rest of the party."

Kathrine smiled at my attempt to cheer her up as she took my hand. "I suppose you are right, but I need a drink." She was shot down however, by a voice from behind her. "No drinking until the queen gets here. She will be making her rounds at the other halls before staying here for a few hours."

Valerica smiled at me after saying that to Kathrine. "You must be my new good luck charm Apollo, the last time her and fatty over there were at an event together, all hell broke loose." She then turned back to Kathrine and smiled. "And you should be glad to know that Milo has promised to go down to the other hall after paying his respects to the queen so you won't be antagonised all night."

Kathrine looked at her mother Sceptically, Milo was as stubborn as they come and would not just leave the main party because he created a scene. "I will see it when I believe it, for now lets just continue our rounds." Kathrine said as she took my arm into hers.

As we were about to walk off, I felt Valerica copy Kathrine's posturing and linked onto my other arm. "Ah, ah, ah, my darling daughter, I want to introduce my new son to the old bags over there, they don't believe my Apollo is my new baby and I have to prove them wrong!"

"Wait Valerica, you do know I'm not actually-" As I was about to suggest that perhaps Valerica was taking things a little too far with the son stuff, she attacked my very soul as she hit me with the most powerful puppy eyes I had ever seen in my entire existence...

With Valerica now wrapping her arms around me from behind, she had a smile plastered onto her face as she began parading me around her friend groups. "So you really are Valerica's new son? I did not think she had it in her to push another one out at her age." An elderly woman questioned

"Oh no, My boy is adopted Penny, though soon he might become a part of the family in another way, isn't that right handsome?" Valerica said rubbing her cheek against mine. Not wanting to witness another attack on my soul in such quick succession, I decided to just go with everything Valerica was saying for the next twenty minutes.

It was after those twenty minutes that my cheeks were saved from grandma pinches as a herald arrived in front of the elevated thrones at the end of the room. Without addressing the room first, the herald simply shouted. "A thousand victories to you all."

In response, almost everyone in the room shouted back. "A thousand victories to Spartari!" 'Jeez, what's creepier, a cult chanting bank and forth or a bunch of nobles not in a cult chanting back and forth.' I thought as I looked around, not realising a couple of people were watching me. Your next read is at m v|l-e'-NovelBin.net

"I would like to take this moment personally to thank each and every one of you here in attendance today. It means a lot to Queen Elaine that you have travelled far and wide from all corners of our great empire to celebrate her birthday with her today. Now, If you will all prostrate yourselves for you King and queen and your ears shall no longer be burdened by my voice!"

As people began dropping to their knees, some chuckled at the heralds last words as they did so. I also bowed even though my allegiance is not to Spartari, as I would definitely kick the bucket If I did not.

As we all knelt, a door opened behind the thrones and two figures emerged from the door before sitting down on the thrones. The pair held hands for a moment before the woman stood up.

"I shall keep my speech short as I am among friends and family. I am honoured to have you all here to celebrate my birthday this day. I only have three rules you must follow tonight. First, don't ask me what age I am turning or I will have you executed." A murmur of laughter went around the room after she said that. "Second, as you know by your attire, we are going classical this evening. As such, if you are seen without a drink in your hand after my speech, two will be placed in your hands and you must drink one whole before you can continue any other activity.

The queens face turned soft after the second murmur of laughter. "And my third and final rule of the night."

"Have fun!"