The General made a grunt and slapped his Brother on the shoulder. He complimented the man on getting to me quickly. Nu-reeh would have been furious if I had been damaged.

"General," Damien said politely, “may we inquire what has happened? There appear to be increased patrols."

The General motioned and we went into his sitting area. The men sat and I started to kneel on a pad next to Evan. He wouldn't let me and pulled me to sit on the seat next to him.

There was an intake of breath as Evan settled me beside him, but the General's family made no comment. Evan acted as though nothing was amiss and laid a hand over my knee. I knew the internal dialogue, I was family and family sat.

“Something is going on with the bandits," the General said staring at the fire. "They haven't been stealing from the traveling men, instead they take the men. The women have sent us notice of several families gone missing. Today they almost took Turk and his Brothers. They are embarrassed to have been nearly bested."

We sat quietly before Damien spoke again. He didn't understand why bandits would be taking men, trying to take Warriors made even less sense. He pressed the General for information, but there was nothing more to say. The General claimed the women had not told him what the bandits were doing with the men.

“The women don't stop them?" Christof said curiously.

“No," the General said simply, “apparently they cannot. From what we can gather, the women cannot find the bandits. It is a strange circumstance. I fear it will scare the shopkeepers. The men that travel will stop coming this way. It will upset the men."

The General's Brother addressed Damien. He told them that Damien and his Brothers were put on the patrols the next day. They should rest well tonight.

The General and his Brothers were morose as they sat staring into the fire. The responsibility of caring for the compound must be enormous. Secretly, I was glad Damien would not know the same stress.

My family assured the General they would find the bandits, but the General did not look convinced. Eventually he roused out of his thoughts long enough to excuse my men to go upstairs. We left his dwelling quickly and politely.

Outside the main yard was quiet. There as almost no one around. I assumed the men were either running the extra patrols or already in bed. We walked quickly back to the transport we had arrived on.

No one had touched the bags we had laid beside the transport. Several had toppled over, so we had to pick up our things. One bag had several stones the men had brought to the cabin to play betting games. No one had even touched those. We just picked everything up and took it to our rooms.

“Thieving is not honorable," Evan explained as we unpacked the bags in our rooms once we made it upstairs.

“All men are trained to the code of conduct that is acceptable.”

I told them about Earth and how prevalent stealing was. Christof was interested so I talked to him about how stealing was punished, namely, jail and prison. My uncles had spent time in the prison down the interstate, so I described that one in detail.

There was no time for going to the bathhouse tonight, so my men took a perfunctory shower in their quarters. I still took the opportunity to bathe Damien. His Brothers teased him lightly as he relaxed under my hands.

I continued to tell them about the way showers worked in jail and prison, since we'd been discussing that. My uncles had drunkenly told me the horrible things that happened in the showers, so I shared it all. Male on male sex utterly confused Damien's family and the idea of violent rape offended them. What I described to them sounded completely uncontrolled.

“Earth sounds like a horrible place,“ Kein commented motioning me onto the bed. "It is better you are here.

The men all agreed with that statement, but thankfully did not ask my opinion. While I loved them all dearly, the idea that I was nothing more than Nu-reeh's breeding bitch made me unbearably sad. They would not understand that given the opportunity I would absolutely go back to Earth.

The men went right to sleep when they laid down. I'd long since gotten over my jealousy that they could do that. When they were here in the compound and safe, they all fell asleep the moment they got comfortable.

I was comfortable, but lay staring out the window and thinking of Hannah. Stroking my belly, I wondered if a new Life was growing inside of me. On Earth I knew that getting pregnant was an odds game. If the same logic applied here, I'd been bursting with male seed for five solid days. Given those chances another Hannah would be on the way shortly.