3. Rue

Rue

The walls we stood in front of were intimidating. I stared, craning my neck to see the top.

"You're sure we're in the right place?" I asked.

Taro chuckled. "I'm sure."

"They live in a fortress?" I asked, thinking back to the pictures of their house I saw in their profile.

"They do now."

Ah. That explained a bit. This was a recent change.

Taro led us through the checkpoint, and we were let inside. I wasn't sure what I was expecting but this… wasn't it. I wouldn't know that there were what felt like mile-high walls surrounding me if my hand wasn't resting against it.

There was an entire city within these walls. Children running and laughing. People moving about conducting their business, occasionally stopping to talk. I even heard a dog barking somewhere in the distance.

"Welcome to Base Six."

I looked at Taro. "That's the most unoriginal name you could give a city."

He laughed. "I'm not sure naming this place was a priority."

"What do you put on mail?" I asked .

"Street A, House 9, Base Six."

"That's… sad."

He chuckled. "It's less so than you think. I'm sure once this war is over, it's not going to matter."

My chest tightened. Oh. The walls made a lot more sense now.

"Come on. I'll show you around on the way to the Savages'."

I nodded, following Taro. He had my bag slung over his shoulder, refusing to let me carry it. Gentlemanly and all that. Starting at the front where we'd come in from the travel portal, Taro pointed out several buildings. Up at the front were primarily business buildings. Then shops. The school. A large park.

The expanse of this place was impressive. Once we left the front and started walking down the main street, I lost track of the wall. The city looked like it expanded exponentially.

"How many people live here?" I asked.

"I don't know about right now, but the capacity is 80,000, I think."

"Jeez," I muttered. That meant this place did expand forever.

But I really couldn't tell I was in a walled city once I started walking. The streets were lined with mature trees. There were families in the yards and teenagers walking along the sidewalk. There were cars in driveways and animals outside. We passed a house with loud music blaring from the open windows and someone outside yelling in, "Turn that shit down."

The person inside yelled back, "I can't hear you, the music is too loud. What did you say?"

I laughed, turning my attention away so they wouldn't see my amusement.

It wasn't just a walled city. This was a walled city of monsters. The first time I saw what was unmistakably a shifter walking down the street in his massive furry body, I stopped dead in my tracks and looked around nervously .

This wasn't a city of mixed humans and monsters like in the world I just left. This was a protected city of monsters.

"This is unreal," I muttered, now seeing other signs of monsters. The kid we just passed—his eyes were smokey black, his fingers disappearing in black smoke as he waved at me with a wide grin. That pet wasn't… something that's been cataloged in the human world. It had far too many teeth, even as it wagged its tail and shook its wet fur, covering its child companion in water spray.

"Ewww," he shrieked, laughing as he held out his hands.

I grinned and nearly forgot what we were doing here until Taro turned us down a walkway that led to the front door of a house. There were two cars parked in the driveway and the front door was open with the screen keeping out any pests.

This was definitely not the house pictured within their profile.

"Ready?" Taro asked at the foot of the stairs.

I looked up. There was movement inside. Not close enough that I could make anyone out, but I could still see the signs of a family moving around. Living.

These were species my father had put on the kill list.

Worse, I was pretty sure Savage was a family on their hit list. I'd seen that hit list. I'd been relieved to find out our family wasn't on it, even though shades are definitely hunted. At the time, I'd thought we just lived under the radar.

Now I knew the truth. We weren't living quiet, humble, hidden lives. We made the list.

No! Not we . I had no part of that.

"Yes," I said firmly. Hopefully Taro just wrote my moment of hesitation off as nerves. It wasn't like I wasn't nervous. If for no other reason, I had some shit to tell these men. I wasn't sure what I knew, but hopefully any little thing I could remember would be something useful in some way.

I couldn't let this be the legacy my father left behind. I couldn't let this horror be forever tied to my family. I would do everything in my power to reverse the damage he'd been a part of creating.

"Yes," I repeated, feeling far calmer and more confident than I had a minute ago.

Right now, it was about meeting my new husbands. In about ten minutes, it would be time to confess a whole lot of darkness that I wasn't sure I was well-enough prepared to unload.

Taro nodded and climbed the five steps to ring the doorbell.

We weren't doing this in the traditional sense. Usually, it was three days and then marriage upon first sight. While we would be married today, I needed to have a conversation first. So, we'd meet. We'd talk. And then we'd get married. It was necessary to get this off my chest first. They needed to know.

What I've loved about the process The Harem Project laid out in their family building program was how we basically learned everything about each other before we met. All the big important things. So I recognized the man who answered the door as if I'd known him my entire life. As if this wasn't the first time looking at him in person, but the hundredth.

It didn't take away the nerves or shyness. The anticipation and maybe even a little bit of fear. That was all there. I was still meeting him for the first time. He was a stranger, but one I knew somewhere deep inside me.

Javan's eyes went straight to mine when he stepped in front of the screen door, not seeing Taro at all. They remained on me for a solid thirty seconds before he turned to look at Taro. "Come in," Javan invited, and I suddenly wished there'd been recordings of their voices in the profile. Javan's made my knees shake.

Taro waited for me, stepping aside to allow me to walk inside first.

The house was cool, a very comfortable temperature. The kind monstrous monsters appreciated. Javan remained close, standing just to my side, with his eyes once more trained on me.

He was just as gorgeous as he appeared in pictures but… real. Hi s long hair was tied in a knot at the back of his head, with the sides buzzed short. The gages in his ear were black, about an inch thick, and topped with diamond studs. He had a ring in his nose, and snake bite piercings just under his lower lip. His facial hair was scruffy, unkept. Dark.

His tattoos were everywhere. Covering what I could see of his body in black ink.

That was something all four men had in common—tattoos and piercings. Plus they were big guys. Inked. The images varied as did their piercings, but they were just… beautiful. Works of art. Breathtaking.

Taro set my bag down and turned to me. "Would you like me to stay until your ceremony?" he asked.

I shook my head. "Thanks, but I'm good. Although… you're welcome to hang out."

He knew I was hiding something. He knew the moment I literally fell into The Harem Project, and he caught me from smashing my face on the floor. I thought maybe Taro had a right to know.

"Why not meet us at HP?" Javan suggested to Taro.

As per our contract, we weren't actually having a ceremony. We were signing our paperwork at HP and usually, the AM that accompanied us would be our signing witness.

"I'll head over," Taro agreed.

I nodded, giving him a smile, and we watched him walk out the door. I continued to watch as he moved away from the house.

Javan shut the door and we were plunged into silence as I turned into the room to my four men stared at me and I looked between them. Everyone was standing but Koa, who sat in an armchair, slightly hidden behind Calix.

I was sure this was stressful for him.

Crouching down to my bag, I unzipped it and pulled out a stuffed animal I've had since I was little. I tried not to think about the fact it was given to me by my grandparents and maybe they too were part of Silence.

Crossing the room, I crouched in front of Koa and offered him the stuffie. His lips curved in a shy smile, though he tried to hide it behind Calix's arm as he peeked out at me. He wasn't Little right now—I could see that—but he was still nervous and nervous Littles, even when Big, looked for comfort from their Daddies.

"This is something special I've had since I was little. I've kept it, hoping to give it to someone special to me who I know would love it as much as I do."

Koa's eyes shined. "Thank you," he whispered, accepting the stuffed deer.

Smiling, I sat on the couch and watched as he examined it thoroughly before hugging it to his chest and looking at me shyly again.

My gaze drifted to the others. They were all watching me with the same expression. I hadn't meant to gain any likability points this way, but I thought I did. I had a feeling Koa was going to be nervous around someone new. His profile stated he didn't let many people see his Little because people didn't understand.

I needed him to know I understood and accepted him just the way he was. That's why I gifted him the single thing from my childhood I grabbed before I left. The one thing that meant the most to me.

"You wanted to talk before becoming our wife?" Bryn prompted.

Sighing, my shoulders sagged. "Yes. I have to tell you something and… I was nervous about putting it into the profile."

The atmosphere changed to wariness. Bryn joined me on the couch, while Javan took a chair across from us, facing me directly. Calix sat on the arm of the armchair where Koa sat, once more slightly blocking Koa from me. This time, I didn't think it was to let Koa hide. It was to protect him .

I took a deep breath. "I've always used my father's computer. Usually, I ask first, but he wasn't in his office, and I wanted to check my email. I'd been waiting impatiently for the closing documents on selling some things in preparation to find my family and I get frustrated with opening anything other than pictures on my phone. It's inconvenient and the files don't work the same way. I avoid the frustration by using my father's computer."

Calix nodded. It felt encouraging as much as understanding.

"Except, he wasn't in his office. But since he'd never acted like he was hiding something on his computer, I didn't think anything of it when I went in. His screen was asleep with just a static image of what I thought I recognized as the logo of Silence. Thinking it was just something similar, I woke up the computer."

"It wasn't your imagination," Koa said.

I shook my head. "According to the login prompt, he's a director for Silence. I… I've been questioning everything I thought I knew about my family for the past three days and hopefully I have something that will help. If you know people to give this information to."

Silence filled the room as the four men watched me. Koa had shifted so he could look around Calix. He didn't look like a Little was peeking out now. He looked like a fully grown, very tired man. I swore he'd aged a century in these last few minutes.

"Your profile says you have a parental harem," Javan said. "Are they all involved?"

My shoulders tensed. "I don't know for sure, but… I think at least three of my fathers are. Based on conversations and how they seemed to work closely professionally at times. I would assume planning a mass extinction is a full-time job," I said tightly.

Bryn snorted.

Javan steepled his fingers, looking at me over them .

"I hope you understand why I didn't add any of this into my profile," I said.

"Yes," Javan agreed.

"I'll submit to whatever you need to prove I'm telling you the truth. I didn't know, and have had nothing to do with it. I'm horrified and disgusted and… heartbroken." I've kept my emotions in line for three days; just counting down to get here. But this was the first time I've said it out loud, and it was threatening to break the dam I'd quickly put up.

Calix held his hand out to me. Holding my breath, I took it. His grip was strong. For a minute, he just held my hand. Then he pulled me to my feet and into his arms.

"We believe you," he whispered.

My shoulders relaxed and I sagged into him.

"I can feel the anguish in your soul," Koa said. "Souls?" he mused after a minute. "You feel like multiple people, Ruri."

"Can I make a request?" I asked.

"Yes," Calix answered.

"Can I not go by Ruri? It feels tainted with blood. Rue, maybe? Ruri is a family name and something in my gut says my family is covered in a sea of blood."

"We can do that," Bryn promised.

"And to answer your question, I'm a shade. So in a way, I have multiple souls."

"We should talk about that some time," Koa said. "I've always wondered about shades. I met one in passing and that was a trip."

I chuckled, peeking at him over Calix's shoulder. "I'm happy to answer your questions."

He smiled and once again, he didn't look like the old monster who carried the weight of the world. He wasn't Little either. He was somewhere in between.

"We know somewhere for you to tell your story," Javan told me. "If you don't mind waiting a few minutes, I have a few calls to make so the right people meet us at HP. "

I nodded, shifting in Calix's hug to look at him. He'd already taken out his phone, but his attention was on me. Javan smiled and there was something in it that put me at ease. They did believe me. The entire reason I hadn't wanted our marriage first was because I'd been far too afraid that they wouldn't believe me, and we'd end up in a household that was horribly uncomfortable for the rest of our lives.

But I should have known better. They were the mates to my monster. They'd know if I was telling the truth or a lie.