The Misty Vixen Newsletter | August 2024

July was an extremely unproductive month. This time, however, I at least feel like I have more of an excuse than usual.

I had surgery.

Before we get into that though…

Despite everything, things did get released.

  • BULLETS, BLADES, AND BABES is a haremlit anthology and the second secret project I had been referencing. I have a post-post-apocalyptic slice-of-life novella within this anthology. It’s completely original, not tied to any other universes, and is called FOR THE FUTURE. In short, it’s a little peek into the life of a few people in the future who agree to become part of a breeding program after several global disasters severely thinned humanity’s numbers. I’ve wanted to write something related to breeding in a sci-fi or near-future setting for a long time now, and this is me dipping my toes into it. The entire anthology is presently 99 cents, AND it also has an audiobook version if that’s a must for you.

  • OUR OWN WAY 4 audio is here!

  • BENEATH THE ASHES 3 audio is here!

  • DEAD FREEZE is here! For those of you who don’t know, this is a survival/horror sci-fi novel I wrote with Lara X. Lust. It is the first in a planned trilogy. It’s got a bit of a harder edge, but I guess that shouldn’t be too much of a surprise if you’ve read any of my other survival oriented stories. In short, it’s set in a future where a galactic zombie apocalypse has occurred. It’s set in the same universe as DEAD DRIFT. The basic plot follows a guy coming to a frozen, zombie-infested world looking to rescue some people and in the process, gets stranded there himself, and now he has to rescue the handful of (hot lady) survivors, kill zombies, gather resources, and find some way to escape. We’re going to try to have the other two novels out before 2025, but this year has really thrown me for a loop so far.

Because I began my career with a policy of just not talking about my personal life, I don’t really want to go into any specifics about what happened in July. Basically, I had a relatively minor surgery and almost every part of it didn’t really go the way I wanted. The actual surgery itself went fine, but everything before and after just caused problems. As I entered July, I basically thought I’d be okay about my surgery, because I knew it was coming. And while I wasn’t sitting there dreading it constantly, my anxiety manifested in other ways. Namely, it became almost impossible to get anything done. Everything in my life sort of became like smoke, it just drifted out of my grasp no matter how hard I tried to hold on.

Then the actual surgery happened. While it seems to have gone the way it was supposed to, I had to get full-blown anesthetized, which I have never experienced before. While the actual experience of being anesthetized was nice (it was more or less like people describe it, you sorta nod off and then come to without any real sense that time had passed), I didn’t realize it was going to fuck with my brain. I was hazy for almost a week after, forgetting things more than normal, struggling with concepts, having trouble keeping hold of thoughts. It sucked. That has passed, thankfully. For the most part. I think.

Really, the biggest problem has been pain. It hurts to move very much, so I’m sort of just laid up. Which you’d think would be like the perfect goddamned time to get a lot of writing done, but I just…still can’t? I mean, I’ve gotten some stuff done, but I think this specific aspect is the burnout I’ve been accumulating for…literal years now making its move yet again.

Anyway, here is the good news: I am healing. Slowly, but surely. I decided early on that I’m not going to make the stupid mistake so many other people do and try to force myself to do stuff too quickly and then hurt myself and make the healing take even longer. So I’ll still be taking it easy until I’m fully healed up. I do not know when this will be, but I do intend to make a stronger effort to write more consistently.

Quick bullet point roundup.

  • GOBLIN GIRLS DO IT BETTER III is what I’m looking to work on most still. I want to get it written and out. Despite my efforts, I barely managed to get it over the halfway mark before now. I’m really truly hoping to have it out this month.

  • LAKESIDE COUGARS is going to take front and center focus the moment Goblin Girls III is done. I’m going to genuinely try to have it done this month, but I also genuinely do not see it happening. I’m honestly fucking pissed about it because it’s a ‘summer fun’ novel and I wanted to get it out for summer but that’s basically off the table and I’m unwilling to wait an entire other year just to get it out next summer. Anyway, I’m going to try very, very hard to have it out before the end of September.

  • DEAD FREEZE 2 is still in pre-production, unfortunately. I’ll be working on it where I can find the time.

I hope things are going well for everyone. Wish me luck.

Goblin Girls Do It Better III Preview | Chapter I

Here we are at last, with the third and final Goblin Girls Do It Better!

First chapter is below.

Second chapter is on my Patreon for 1$/month Patrons.

Third chapter and on through to the end will be posting for 3$/month Patrons in this collection.

I hope you enjoy!

Something awaited them in the logging mill’s attic.

Lucas looked to Nysa. She had heard it as well.

He made quick motions to her. She nodded tightly and slipped off. It was still impressive, how silently she could move, given her build. Whatever it was, it shifted again. There were two ways up into the attic of the old mill, and as Nysa got into position at the ladder, he began ascending the stairs. She moved with him, carefully hauling herself up the old rungs.

Both ladder and stairwell creaked.

Lucas prepared himself for the worst, though he had the impression that whatever it was up there wasn’t particularly large. That didn’t necessarily mean it wasn’t dangerous. He flashed back to that damned Larsis creature from a few months ago and how close he’d come then.

He was going to be first up, as the stairwell was exposed. He crept up it, crossbow at the ready, and studied what there was to see. It looked about as he’d expected it to: a dusty room, half-filled with an uneven mishmash of supplies and furniture. Gray sunlight filtered in through a poorly maintained roof and a single window across the way, slanting shafts of pale light across the chaos.

There were no obvious signs of recent passage, but even as he came to the top of the stairs, he heard something shift near the center of the room. He saw Nysa’s dark-haired head rise into view from behind a low bookshelf across the way.

He made a few more quick hand motions to her and she nodded once more.

He loved working with Nysa. Each of the women now in his life offered him something unique, some special thing that they shared, mostly by dint of who they were. Ella offered a comforting, social ease, a sense of relaxation. Talia offered him a seriousness that most of the others lacked. She was the one he went to when he was craving longer or more philosophical conversations that the others simply lacked the patience for or interest in.

Nysa, however, offered him something he’d forgotten he enjoyed: a fierce, brutal competence in the field. She acted like the old hand adventurers he ran into, like the veterans of war who could never really go back, even after the war was over, and instead opted to roam the land.

Her seriousness still made her stick out back at the village, and it was clear that even now, she was still struggling somewhat. Out here though? She seemed in her element as nowhere else, and something in him responded very strongly to that.

Sometimes they spent entire trips out in the forest without exchanging a single word, both of them not even just comfortable operating this way, but comforted by it in some ill-defined, tacit manner that probably wasn’t very healthy.

Well, he supposed that was all right. The world was often not a healthy place.

They crept forward, the attic a potential battlefield.

They’d hit this abandoned mill for the same reason they’d been hitting derelict locations for a few weeks now: resources. Either stuff they could make practical use of immediately or stuff they could sell. Although he was finding it a little ridiculous, just how much ‘stuff to sell’ they had. It now occupied a pile at the back of their main cave and it was beginning to resemble a dragon’s hoard, simply because they had nowhere to offload it.

But that was a problem for the rapidly approaching future.

Whatever it was, it shifted suddenly. It was low to the floor, had to be hiding beneath a huge dresser that sat near the center of a cluster of random objects. Lucas had a strengthening suspicion of what it was, especially as he caught a whiff of strong animal scent, but he had to be sure. Once he saw Nysa was in place, he pulled out his sword and then poked the dresser with it.

It tilted back just a little, an inch and a half maybe, and then he released it. It banged to the floor and something let out a chittering yell and scurried out of the cluster of furniture in a frantic motion. Lucas sighed heavily in relief as he saw that it was indeed just a raccoon. Nysa frowned in disappointment as she watched it race off to a hole in the roof and vanish.

“Disappointing,” she muttered.

He chuckled. “You were hoping for a fight?”

“Maybe.” She considered it. “I suppose not.” She looked down, frowning. “And I suppose we must now search this place over.”

“From the top down is often a good policy,” Lucas replied.

Nysa sighed and sheathed her blade. “I guess we should get to work then.”

He nodded and they did.

It had been a month since they’d celebrated finding the Heart of Peace.

Lucas had been expecting things to happen, but while he would not say it hadn’t been a busy month, it had sure been an uneventful one. Which he was fine with. Very fine with, actually, given everything he’d been running around getting done, but it was making him paranoid. Like something was coming for them, it was just taking its time getting there.

For the most part, they’d just been building and gathering.

Making a village from scratch was a lot of work. Doing so with mostly the help of goblins was even more work, given how prone they were to...giving into disruptive thoughts. Thankfully, most of those thoughts were along the line of ‘I want to tickle my friend’ and not ‘I want to set this hut on fire’. Or, at least, if it was like that second one, they didn’t give into it.

Although Lucas had been learning that goblins needed ways of releasing pressure. It was actually a kind of fascinating learning experience, but at some point he’d become aware of the fact that there was indeed some kind of ebb and flow to their more psychotic tendencies. There was this kind of internal pressure that built in them, naturally and eternally.

Some things could make the pressure build faster, some things could slow the pressure’s growth, but you couldn’t stop it. And, Lucas had deduced finally, even if he could, he wouldn’t. Because it was somehow integral to who they were, some crucial, core component of their own internal goblin essence. He knew it partially because he had something similar in himself.

And so, in order to keep them from doing big insane things, he had been learning that they could do little wild things and that would be fine, provided it was done often enough. It was so interesting because, except for perhaps Talia, none of them seemed aware of this. He had been slowly introducing the concept to them over the past few weeks and it seemed to be going...all right.

“So I was meaning to ask,” Nysa said, breaking the silence that had begun to fill the attic, “how are you holding up? I know most everyone has been more difficult lately.”

Lucas chuckled. “Yeah. I’m all right. Finding myself a little run down, and I’d like to get more sleep, but it hasn’t gotten serious quite yet.”

It had occurred to him at some point over the last two weeks that the abrupt uptick in arguing, crying, or yelling goblin girls was a direct result of so many of them being pregnant. He’d been around pregnant women before, (for a while there, he’d sought them out, for obvious reasons), so he at least knew that pregnancy could screw up emotions. Izzy had become a holy terror at times, getting into arguments with everyone over just about everything.

Every day that passed, Lucas found himself even more grateful for Nysa, Kiara, Clover, Syl, and Jacinda. Although in truth, it was Syl who was doing a lot of heavy lifting, emotionally speaking. He had often heard her described as the mother of the village, and it seemed truer than ever. She seemed to spend most of her time counseling the others, breaking up fights, or whatever other emotional oddjobs cropped up.

And while Lucas was more or less living a dream of sleeping with seven very noticeably pregnant women, he had promised himself after a particularly brutal day last week that he was never, ever, ever again impregnating more than three of them at a time. And he was certain that this conviction was only going to strengthen after they actually gave birth.

He was also absolutely certain that if they really wanted to get pregnant, the goblin women he shared his life with could pretty easily talk him into it.

Lucas glanced at Nysa. He thought the conversation would keep going, and from what little he could see of her expression, he thought she was struggling to think of something else to say. He hid a smile and kept searching through the mess for the moment.

Their relationship was...still being sorted out.

He had honestly expected something to have happened between them by now, as Nysa was clearly interested in him. She’d avoided him for a little while, but then seemed to go in the opposite direction this last month, hardly leaving his side. He kept thinking something would happen, because she was giving him all the correct signals.

He thought she might come to him abruptly and confess her feelings, or kiss him randomly, or perhaps wake him in the middle of the night. In fact, a few times, he’d been sure that she was about to actually talk to him regarding her feelings, but she didn’t follow through.

For a time, he’d simply settled on the idea that she had decided she wasn’t interested. Which was fine. If you weren’t into someone, then you just weren’t into them. But she had been hitting on him, and all four of his wives had, at one point or another, let slip that she’d had discussions with them about the possibility off sleeping with him.

In truth, he had the idea that he was looking at a very long, very extended case of a woman trying to make up her mind. What was truly confusing him, though, was why it was taking so long. Things had more or less settled. Sure, there was more to be done, but life in the village felt comfortable now. It had something of a routine to it.

No, something was bugging her still, but he was beginning to suspect that it didn’t actually have anything to do with him.

So, while she sorted it out, he was glad to keep spending time with her and occasionally flirting.

Speaking of which…

“Hey, can you move this for me?” Lucas asked after he’d finished searching a dresser.

“Yeah,” Nysa replied, striding over and picking it up.

“You’re so strong,” he marveled as she set it down elsewhere.

Nysa paused and although she was facing away from him, he could almost hear her blushing with a small smile on her face. He’d taken to saying that to her. At first she had mistook it for mocking, given she’d informed him multiple times she was stronger than he was before he’d essentially dominated her with speed and skill. But he had convinced her that it was a genuine compliment, and at some point she’d realized he was flirting with her whenever he brought it up.

“You know,” she said, still facing away from him, walking to a desk and beginning to look through it, “most men do not value physical strength in their women.”

“You should by now that I’m not like most other men, at least in this regard,” Lucas replied.

She snorted. “Yeah, I was going to say, you’re exactly like most men in how easy it is for one of your wives or mistresses to get to you to do things. All they have to do is lift their dress.”

“Is that so unreasonable? I’m literally surrounded by attractive women all day every day, most of whom I’ve impregnated, almost all of whom I’ve slept with.”

He and Kiara still pretty regularly went at it. He didn’t say it outright, but at this point, she was the only one who he hadn’t been intimate with.

“Not unreasonable, I suppose,” she murmured.

He paused, noticing a change in her tone. He looked at her. She was no longer searching the desk, instead just staring down at it.

“I didn’t mean anything by it, Nysa,” he said.

“I know you didn’t,” she replied, finally turning around and fixing him with a firm stare. “I’m not angry. I just wanted to say that...I know we’ve danced around sex since the beginning. And I know that I’ve said I want to, and that I will. And that you’ve been extremely patient with me. And none of that has changed.”

“I don’t want you to feel like you’re obligated to do it,” he replied. “If how we’re going along now is more comfortable for you, I won’t resent you for it. I won’t ask you to change it.”

She smiled an awkward smile. “I really appreciate that. And I believe you, truly. I don’t feel like you’re trying to guilt me into it. And I wanted to say that I’m going to be ready to do it soon. I’m still...examining my emotions, about certain things. Something’s bothering me, something we haven’t really dealt with yet.”

“I’m willing to talk about it, whatever it is,” he replied.

“I know, and I’m thankful, and I will. Just...not quite yet. That being said...I would like a kiss.”

“Right now?” he asked. She nodded. “Gladly.”

Lucas felt his heart flutter briefly in his chest as he stepped up to her and placed his hands on her hips. He’d been hoping for this since he first saw her. He waited, seeing if she wanted him to take the lead or not, and she didn’t. She leaned in, a surprisingly shy half-smile on her flushed face, and pressed her lips to his own.

She had very nice lips. After a brief pause as she kissed him, Nysa tilted her head and slipped a hand over the back of his neck. She pulled him deeper into the kiss, and he had to duck to get it properly, (something he was very used to by now), and then she parted his lips with her own and pushed her tongue into his mouth.

It had a different feel than the others, a different shape as well, and a different taste. Her natural taste was stronger, more intense. She kissed him with a fierce passion for about five more seconds, their tongues twisting and tasting, and then she pulled back, a little abruptly.

“Oh wow,” she said softly, breathing more heavily.

“Good, I take it?” he replied.

“Yes. Good.” She blinked. “I had...forgotten.”

“Just how satisfying and intense physical intimacy can be?”

“Yes.”

“Once you’re feeling ready, I will be more than happy to reacquaint you with it.”

“I appreciate that.” She cleared her throat. “We should probably get back to work.”

“We should,” he agreed.

The Misty Vixen Newsletter | July 2024

Okay, I’m back!

I feel a bit less insane now that I had my break. Time for updates!

 
 

Those are the bullet points.

Some things happened in June. Got my laptop fixed. Cleaned my house. Got checked out by my doctor and learned that my health problems are very likely stress-related, which is a mixed bag result. I’m still having some problems, but they sure calmed down a lot. I’m hoping that as I get back into a saner rhythm, they’ll disappear completely.

I did actually write a little bit while I was ‘on vacation’. I had the notion of writing basically a short story of an encounter between a guy and a somewhat older woman in a contemporary setting and releasing it for free as a mono-romance short. I got through most of it but ended up not finishing it because I ultimately figured no one would actually be interested in it, so now it’s just kinda sitting on my harddrive.

Right now, with Beneath the Ashes wrapped up, the current plan is to hit Goblin Girls III hard until it’s done, while working on Lakeside Cougars in the background. Once Goblin Girls is finished, Lakeside Cougars is the one that’s going to get hit hard until it’s finished. In the farther background, I’m beginning what could be called pre-production on Dead Freeze 2 with Lara.

The plan beyond that?

Now that I’ve had a little time to sort of reorganize my thoughts, this is what I’ve got:

  • The plan largely depends on how Lakeside Cougars does. If it does like really well, I might have to rearrange some things. But I genuinely don’t see that happening. Well, probably. The problem is this book is something of a wildcard. I’m definitely going against the grain by writing something specifically about cougars and only cougars. That being said, the only thing that changes is how many novels it’ll get and how furiously I’ll work on it. Regardless, once Goblin Girls is done, it’ll take front and center, and what will likely happen is I’ll make it my primary focus until the trilogy is done.

  • Dead Freeze is something I’ll be working on in the background until it’s done as well. Got it slotted for a trilogy and, if all goes according to plan, all three novels will be out in 2024. That being said, do not hold me to that, because individually, both Lara and I are rather unpredictable, and that only gets worse if we’re together.

  • Our Own Way will be mostly what takes up the rest of my time. I have a minimum of two more novels planned. I’ll need to see how I feel and where I’m at, narratively speaking, at the end of Our Own Way 5 to see if there needs to be another beyond 6. That being said, I do intend to get a couple of bonus shorts written and up to my Patreon at some point over the next few months.

  • After all that? Well, once Lakeside Cougars and Dead Freeze are both safely written and squared away, and at least one more Our Own Way novel has been written in 2024, I intend to sit down and go hard with Shelter From the Storm. I have definitely learned my lesson: don’t start side projects with the intent to come back and work on them piecemeal. That…does not work for me. Unfortunately, as I’ve mentioned earlier, enough time has passed that I can’t just pick back up the story. I need to actually sit down, read over what I’ve written, flesh out my plans a little more, and then start tackling it regularly. So the good news there is that I definitely do not want to abandon this story, I want to keep it going, even if it’s going to be the riskiest thing I’ve ever written, given how depressing it is.

I had hoped to tackle more before 2025, but it’s looking like that just isn’t going to happen.

Oh well, on to Goblin Girls.

I Am Taking A Short Break

So, this realization suddenly hit me: I need to just call it for the month.

The short version of this announcement is: I am taking the rest of June off and Lakeside Cougars is definitely not coming out July 1st. More updates on July 1st. (Dead Freeze should be out soon, though, and I’ll do a proper post about that.)

Longer explanation: We already know the whole song and dance with my anxiety/depression. That being said, I knew at the beginning of the year that burnout was coming. I was just hoping that I was going to be able to get more done before it struck.

Unfortunately, it hit hard in the middle of writing Beneath the Ashes 3, and it had already been hitting before that, but at some point during production of that book, writing became like passing a kidney stone. Finishing a novel under these conditions is…taxing. Heavily. And doing so while also working on other projects can be worse.

I still have a lot to do this year, but my thoughts are like…smoke right now. I can’t hold onto anything for very long, creatively speaking. When I get like this, I usually have to face the fact that I need to just shut down for a while and let the dust settle and get my brain back into place.

I might work on something short, because I am a compulsive writer, but otherwise I’m going to vanish for a bit. (Except for when Dead Freeze comes out.)

Sorry, I imagine this is annoying by now. Actually, I imagine it’s well past annoying. But like Burt Gummer once said: I’m doing what I can with what I got.

The Misty Vixen Newsletter | June 2024

This one will be short.

May was not kind to me, but now for completely different reasons. In short, my primary laptop broke and I’m dealing with getting it repaired, and I’ve been running into some new medical problems that are concerning and distracting, and I’m also trying to figure out how to deal with them.

As expected, this really fucked things up for me. Especially because it’s becoming increasingly obvious that I need to take an actual break, because I am burned out, but I keep having shit I have to get done, so instead of putting my nose to the grindstone and grinding it out, I’m trying to do that, but having to stop very frequently because I’m fucking exhausted.

Anyway, enough complaining. I’ll give you a quick bullet point list of what’s up.

  • BENEATH THE ASHES 3: It’s posting to my Patreon right now. I’m basically on the home stretch. I’m going to have it wrapped up in the next week or so, and then it’ll probably take another week or less to actually get published.

  • DEAD FREEZE: This is the main top secret project. It is the first novel in a new trilogy, coauthored by Lara X. Lust. I’ve done my work and now Lara’s doing hers. The novel is being posted to Lara’s Patreon right now. We believe it will be out this month, but it’s still cooking at the moment. It takes place in the same universe as Dead Drift. It’s Action/Sci-Fi/Horror. Basically base-building and survival in a galaxy long since overrun by zombie monsters.

  • LAKESIDE COUGARS: This one is still cooking, but I seriously fumbled it in May. I intend to make some more meaningful progress before I pick up Goblin Girls III.

  • GOBLIN GIRLS DO IT BETTER III: Gonna try and get this written and out by July.

  • SECRET PROJECT: The other secret project I’m involved in seems to be shaping up for a release before too long. Again, can’t say anything more than that, but I’ll definitely let you all know the moment I can.

  • OUR OWN WAY 4 PAPERBACK: If you’re still waiting on this, it is coming, I’m still waiting on my main laptop be fixed first.

And that’s it. Uh, wish me luck with my problems.

Beneath the Ashes 3 | Preview

The third and final Beneath the Ashes novel is finally arriving!

Below you can read the first chapter for free.

You can find the second chapter right here for 1$/month on my Patreon.

You can read the rest of the novel as I write it in early access here for 3$/month on my Patreon.

Enjoy!

Ethan was as close to death as he had ever been.

He and Kasumi froze as one of the Death Bots they were carefully maneuvering their way around abruptly halted and turned his way. They waited as it seemed to scrutinize them, both covering it with their rifles. They’d packed armor piercing rounds for this trip, but he knew that if they were discovered here and now, they’d die.

The Bots would rip them limb from limb while pumping them full of bullets.

The red light of the Bot’s eyes seemed malignant, hateful even. Suddenly, it turned away and resumed doing whatever it had been doing. Ethan slowly exhaled, his body relaxing just the slightest. He looked to Kasumi.

Even her poker face was starting to slip. She had a faint sheen of sweat on her forehead. She nodded her head gently to her left and he nodded. They resumed their journey.

When Donovan had come to him with a new mission, Ethan had been dubious from the start. Mostly because the expression in the man’s eyes had immediately given away the fact that it was going to be extremely high risk.

Take out a Death Bot factory.

More of them had been showing up in the two weeks that had passed since they had saved the bastion and come back from that extremely bizarre place. That alone would’ve been a problem, but one that they could handle. But that wasn’t the only issue arising.

The creatures that had been getting smarter and coming in closer and closer to the bastion were now smarter and closer than ever.

But that was a future problem, for the moment he knew he needed all his focus.

And all his luck.

If the old tech that was standing between him and death didn’t keep doing what it was supposed to do, well…

At least it would be a fast death.

He and Kasumi reached a junction where two corridors connected and slipped smoothly into it. There, they took a moment to catch their breath. She took a look around, back the way they’d come and down both of the other corridors that slanted away from them, leading deeper into the complex. Then she settled her gaze on him.

She asked him with hand motions if he was still doing well. He responded affirmatively and that he was ready to keep going. She smiled, just for an instant, then turned towards the rightmost passageway and set off down it.

Things were different between them now, and in a great way.

It had taken some time, mostly because they were all so damn busy lately, but Kasumi had finally moved into their house. She’d brought surprisingly little, and when he’d asked her about it, she’d said she’d donated most of her stuff to people in the Pit and was viewing this as a kind of fresh start. And things were definitely different.

Kasumi was a reserved woman, but with him now, she was more open. She smiled more, she laughed more, she relaxed more. That was something he had really noticed. Kasumi always seemed tense, ready to strike or to tackle some difficult problem, no matter where she was or what she was doing. It was nice to see her relax.

It was also admittedly very nice to have her in his house and in his bed so often. Or, rather, to climb into her bed, as that was where she preferred to get intimate with him.

And hopefully they would be able to do that again tonight.

He followed her carefully down the empty hallway, the smell of oil and rust and rot surrounding them. It was accompanied by the sounds of machinery and Death Bots banging around. Ethan kept feeling the urge to look behind him but kept telling himself there was no need and he should focus on the front.

If a Death Bot was coming his way, he’d know it. They weren’t exactly subtle.

They reached the end of the hallway and stopped. Kasumi took a long, cautious look around the next room and then signaled for him to wait. He resisted the urge to sigh, they had already been crawling around this place for what felt like hours.

He thought back to the briefing, trying to comfort himself, remind himself that they had a plan and knew what they were doing.

Death Bots, which had a much more mundane name when they were invented, came from mostly automated factories built before the surface turned to ash, and a few after. They were supposed to be protectors at best, soldiers at worst. The reality of the situation ended up being that the factories just kept on rolling and pushing out killer robots, and those killer robots, without proper programming, tended to wander around and kill.

It had taken some doing, but Donovan and the Governor had finally tracked down where the local Bots were coming from. After that, they’d done a little scouting. From there, they’d brainstormed on how to deal with it.

None of the options had been good.

The initial thought had been to just bomb the place or maybe cause a cave-in, but two primary things kept them from doing that. The first was that there were a lot of resources that could be salvaged from this factory. The second was that there was the very real possibility that they would be able to initiate a kill-command that would not only allowed them to take the factory, but would also shutdown every Bot that had come from it and was still going.

Given that was the most desirable option, (especially since they were still painfully, worryingly low on certain resources), they then turned their attention to the very obvious question of: how do we do this without dying?

Because taking a Death Bot factory was a brutal, savage thing, even under the best circumstances. Donovan had initially been drafting a plan to essentially storm the place with every single Crawler backed up by a dozen security personnel.

That was when Kasumi had offered her own idea.

She’d come across references to devices that were supposed to make you invisible to the Bots. According to her, it sent out a continuous command for a thousand foot radius that forced every Bot to essentially ignore the wearer. Theoretically, they should even be able to walk right up to a Bot and slap it across its cold metallic face and be fine.

No one was willing to test that, though.

Kasumi had apparently been looking for one of these for a long time now, and had been in touch with a tech expert in another bastion who knew how to make them. She’d been piecing one together for a few months now, as apparently they were difficult to construct. She’d been keeping the information back mostly because she didn’t want to get everyone’s hopes up.

Donovan had been dubious, but had ultimately given her some very rare, valuable resources from the tech vault to allow her to finish making two of them. And that was all she could make, just the two of them. Given the choice between this and an all-out assault that would almost certainly result in heavy casualties, the Captain had reluctantly gone with Kasumi’s plan.

It was a hell of a gamble, but they all trusted her and Ethan to make it happen.

Though Ethan, (and Kiva when she heard the plan), had insisted on testing them out at least once. And they had, firing up a Death Bot they’d salvaged and running a few tests. It had worked, but Ethan was still uncertain.

Regardless, he and Kasumi had been dispatched quickly.

Ember had been especially upset, given how dangerous it was, and he knew he was going to be handling her stronger emotions for the next few days at least. He felt bad, but what could he do? This was the job he had signed up for.

This was a job that needed to be done.

Kasumi signaled to him and he shadowed her out of the chamber, coming into a low, long machine shop. For whatever reason, it was dark and derelict. There were a handful of Bots around, but they looked deactivated, standing along the walls or at worktables, frozen in time.

This was going to be bad.

The place was poorly lit thanks to the fact that only the door they were coming in through and the one they had to leave through were the only things offering light. They couldn’t risk turning on their flashlights because they weren’t sure if that would draw attention, if the Bots’ programming would identify that as a problem.

Kasumi led the way into the dim tech bay. Ethan followed, struggling to maintain his silence and composure. They’d had to walk four hours just to get here because a few tunnels were collapsed, so they’d had to go almost an entire mile out of their way in the wrong direction just to get to another tunnel that would bring them back around to where they wanted to go.

They moved with great care through the machine shop, walking between two long rows of tables packed with tech and gear and tools. Even in the wan light, Ethan could identify several things that would be useful to them. This place had to be an absolute motherlode of technology and if they could get here and strip it down, it might help them for months or even years to come.

Oh crap, Ethan thought miserably.

Near the darkest central part of the room, he saw that two bots were standing almost back to back. There was enough space for Kasumi, there was probably enough space for him. He began looking around for an alternate route, as he was none too eager to get that close to a pair of Bots, and that was when the lights suddenly snapped on.

Both of them jerked in shock and it was only a lot of discipline that kept him from squeezing the trigger in surprise and fear. The Bots around them immediately came to life and began working. They were all fixing or dissecting various bits of technology.

Interesting. Apparently Death Bots were useful for more than just death. He wondered suddenly if they might be able to reprogram them...but that was a thing that had been tried before. He knew some bastions supposedly used ‘tamed’ Death Bots for security, but he also knew there were horror stories of them going rogue and killing a lot of innocent people.

Ethan had to strongly resist the urge to turn around and back out, or to say something to Kasumi. She was rigid, but facing away from him, no doubt trying to solve this new problem. He took a quick look around and saw that, unfortunately, the alternative paths were even more blocked off than this one, either by more Bots or piles of crates.

Kasumi signed to him to come closer. He stepped up beside her. For a moment, she seemed to struggle. They only had so many things they could effectively communicate with their hands. Finally, she pointed to the two Bots in front of them, then motioned for him to stay still and watch her. He nodded, curious as to what she’d come up with.

She studied the Bots closely. They were moving as they worked, their bulky metal bodies shifting to and fro, making the path between them even more dangerous. Kasumi took a step closer to them, now so close that she could reach out and touch them.

Ethan felt his entire body seize up in terror as he prepared for the worst.

Abruptly, Kasumi slipped through.

Nothing happened.

The machine shop continued buzzing and banging along as it had been. She turned around and looked at him urgently, then motioned to the two Bots. She brought her hands together, palms flat, fingers pointed up, as though she was describing how big something was. She brought her hands apart, then moved them back together.

When he didn’t respond, she did it again, a little more urgently, and suddenly it clicked.

The Bots were moving in a rhythm.

Rhythms were predictable.

He nodded and motioned for her to back up, then he took a moment to make sure everything on him was still cinched down or secure in a pocket so he would make no extra noise and have as slim a profile as possible, then he studied the Bots.

Whatever they were doing, it probably wouldn’t last, in that they would start another task and the rhythm would change. So he had to do this now. He watched as they leaned away from each other, then back towards each other. The pattern quickly became obvious, the problem was that it was going to be a very narrow gap.

Oh well, you didn’t have this job without taking risks.

Ethan stepped closer, waited, and then shoved himself through. He actually felt his chestplate brush against the back of the Bot. Then he was through and preparing to feel a cold, giant metal hand suddenly clamp onto the back of his neck and snap it with horrifying ease. That didn’t happen, however, and the relief he saw on Kasumi’s face made it obvious that it had worked.

She gestured sharply to him to follow her and he did without hesitation. A moment later, they were finally free of the tech bay. She led him into another corridor, down it, through a door and up some stairs and then into another corridor. He wanted badly to ask how much further, because that last scare had apparently knocked his mental map of the place cleanly out of his skull. He and Kasumi must’ve studied it a dozen times, but suddenly it was gone like smoke on the air.

Kasumi, however, seemed to remember just fine. She led him unerringly down the corridor, then up a second one, and finally in through a door. It led to a dusty room full of beeping, blinking pieces of tech that covered the walls in a chaotic mess. All of it seemed to be hardwired into a single big console at the back of the room.

Ethan felt relief flood him. This is what they’d been looking for.

Kasumi gestured at him to guard the door as she pulled out the data storage device. This was it, the moment of truth. Ethan waited, aiming his weapon at the door they’d just come through. While it was clear that the tech for making you invisible to a Bot worked, he was far more dubious about this particular piece of software.

Apparently the Crawlers had found the killswitch, as they were calling it, some time back. Every factory came with one, or they were supposed to anyway, but the problem was that they were small and portable and important. Which meant that they tended not to actually stay in the factories they were intended for.

And, unfortunately, you couldn’t just upload it from anywhere, it had to be in the actual factory to work properly. Ethan didn’t really understand all of it, and apparently it was too complex to try and teach him in the time they had, so they just knew that they were going to have to rely on Kasumi.

Ethan became aware of a heavy metallic stomping. There was a Bot out there somewhere, getting closer. Shit. Maybe Kasumi had tripped something, he could hear her working back there. The stomping was getting closer. Before long, he could tell it was in the actual corridor just outside the room, and it was still coming closer.

He tensed as a large shadow fell across the floor just beyond the doorway. It had been stuck open and he hadn’t wanted to bother trying to close it for obvious reasons. The Death Bot stepped suddenly into the doorway and Ethan tensed worse than ever as he covered it with his rifle. The Bot stood there, motionless, but he could hear its internal devices working.

Was this some kind of standard check or did it realize something was happening?

Or was it something else entirely?

If he didn’t know any better, he’d say the thing was confused.

Abruptly, a whirring sound inside of the Bot got louder, and then louder still. It seemed to be staring directly at him now. Ethan swallowed, breathing heavily, sweat pouring down his face now. With a jerk, the Bot raised one arm. Its hand opened up and a gun barrel appeared.

“Kasumi–” Ethan began, breaking the silence as he started to squeeze the trigger.

“Got it!” Kasumi replied.

Abruptly, the light went out of the Bot’s eyes and it froze up. All the sounds that had been coming from it ceased. All around them they heard a lot of clanking and banging, and then silence. A long moment went by.

“Fuck,” Ethan said, slowly lowering his rifle. “That was way, way too close.”

“Yes,” Kasumi agreed quietly. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’ll be fine,” he muttered, eyes still locked onto the Death Bot. “So it really worked?”

“Yes, it did what it was supposed to do. They’re fried. Not just off, but fried. They aren’t coming back on. We did it, Ethan.”

“Good. Now, uh,” he stepped cautiously forward and poked at the Bot. It barely moved. He sighed. “Let’s see if we can figure out how to get around this thing.”

The Misty Vixen Newsletter | May 2024

So, first the good news. I have some things that got released!

 
 

OUR OWN WAY 4

RAW - THE COMPLETE SERIES AUDIOBOOK

GOBLIN GIRLS DO IT BETTER II AUDIOBOOK

BENEATH THE ASHES 2 AUDIOBOOK (May 6th)

Also, I am officially teasing one of my two secret projects.

Yep. This is happening again, and this time I’m actually going to put my name on it. I don’t really want to say much, as it’s more of a Lara thing than a me thing, and she’s the one in control. What I can say is that there’s a good chance we’ll get more information either this month or next month. If you are paying particularly close attention, there is a detail in this picture that could give some insight as to what it’s going to be. But yes, all I can say for now is that we are collaborating, it is haremlit, and it should be out sometime in the summer. But given the whimsy of life that is subject to change.

Okay, now we talk about the bad news.

I definitely overworked myself. At the beginning of the year I was looking at a mountain of novels to get written and so I set a really brutal pace, essentially trying to work on three or sometimes four books at the same time. And it…has not worked out. Obviously.

I had a really bad time during the end of April and had to kind of just fuck off and get my shit back together. I’m still kind of doing that right now. It’s pretty obvious to me that I’m burned out, but I can’t really relax, I’ve got too much to do. That being said, I am going to tone things down a little bit and only work on two novels simultaneously instead of three or four. Consequently, this has caused me to reassess my plan. Part of the problem is that unfinished series can really bother me. I should’ve learned my lesson from the last time this happened with Monster Girl Inn, and I suppose I did learn my lesson, because this time I didn’t really choose this situation, my hand was sort of forced.

Whatever. Anyway, here is a bullet point list of information that should sum things up nicely.

  • BENEATH THE ASHES 3: This is my main focus. This one will likely have a June release. I am intending to begin posting chapters for it to my Patreon on May 13th. BTA2 audio is set for May 6th. Based on the data presented so far, I’d say you should expect BTA3’s audio sometime in August, but audiobook producing is very potentially chaotic, so don’t quote me on that. After that, it’ll be done. Sometime in the future, at Royal Guard’s discretion, The Complete Trilogy for eBook and audio will drop. It will have no bonus content, as I opted not to write any. And that’ll be it for Beneath the Ashes.

  • LAKESIDE COUGARS: So, this is Project #2 I’ll be working on alongside BTA3. I unfortunately had to basically bail on it for most of April, so I’m nowhere near where I should be. Unfortunately, this means I will definitely not make the June 1st release date. I’m going to go ahead and just push it back to July 1st. I will probably make it, but this is exactly the reason I have always hated trying to put release dates to things. I’m just too unreliable thanks to my mental health problems and complete lack of motivation. And I won’t be able to make it first priority until I deal with Goblin Girls Do It Better.

  • GOBLIN GIRLS DO IT BETTER: So it’s become clear to me that I need to prioritize wrapping up this as well as Beneath the Ashes. As soon as BTA3 is done, I’m going to get right to work on Goblin Girls III. I’ve got an idea of how I want this to go and it’ll be a nice way to cap off the trilogy. If I’m really lucky, I can get it out in June, but there’s a decent chance it’ll be July. Then it’ll be done. Once Goblin Girls is done, I will shift my focus to Lakeside Cougars.

  • OUR OWN WAY: So, the good news is that I’m now positive there will be a book six for this series, and more books are on the table. The most recent launch went well (it managed to crack the Top 1000 for a little bit and hit #1 Bestseller status in Men’s Adventure, always nice), and I’m getting the impression that Our Own Way is a series with some longevity, financially speaking. I’m always reluctant to start going on about business and finances, because it always has such a sour taste and I know people get grumpy when an author abandons a series due to poor sales, which is understandable. But Our Own Way is earning pretty solidly. My impression is that it’s a slower burn earner, in that it earns less on a week-to-week basis, but earns more consistently, which is kind of a big deal. All in all, this boils down to good news if you like the series! At minimum there will be two more books. Also, at some point in the not too distant future, I’m going to write at least one bonus short set between Our Own Way 4 & 5, probably two, maybe even three. The final thing I want to say is that unfortunately, it’ll be a while before OOW5 comes out. I was very distracted while writing OOW4 and it was not a good experience, so I want to be in a better, clearer space before I tackle it.

  • SECRET PROJECT #1: This is the smaller one. I’ve done my part for it, but I’m just a small part of the overall project. Still can’t talk about it and so far I haven’t heard very much about the behind the scenes besides the fact that they’re still putting it together. Regardless, it’s out of my hands and I’ll make a big announcement about it whenever I get the green light to do so. I can’t imagine it’ll be more than a month or two longer, but that is very much a guess with only a bit of insight. I am very much not at the helm of this, I just showed up, did my job, and fucked off.

  • SECRET PROJECT #2: So this is my collab with Lara X. Lust. I would say it’s the biggest project we’ve done together. As of now, I have more or less completed my contributions to the project, and it is now in Lara’s hands. I would say she is at the helm of this one, I’m just assisting. I’m not sure when it will come out and as I said above, I’m reluctant to say very much, since she’s the one who will be making all the decisions and I don’t want to speak for her. Naturally, I’ll talk about it more when I can. I’m thinking people will enjoy it a lot.

And I think that’s everything. I’m going to go try and clear my head before firing things back up next Monday.

Spring Giveaway!

So I’ve decided to have a big giant giveaway/sale because reasons.

From right now until the end of April 26th, most of my library will be free, and most of my collections will be 99 cents!

So, if you have anything missing from your collection, now’s the time! Here’s a list of everything.

RAW

MONSTER GIRL INN

A WARM PLACE

HAVEN

HELLCATS

ALIEN HAREM

DESIRE

LIKE A FINE WINE

SCI-FI SINGLES

WANDERLUST

LUST & ADVENTURE

FANTASY SINGLES

PARASEXUAL

PARANORMAL PASSIONS

PARANORMAL SINGLES

SEX & SURVIVAL

POST-APOCALYPTIC SINGLES

OTHER

The Misty Vixen Newsletter | April 2024

This month’s newsletter will also be a bit short.

I definitely ran into some issues in March, but they seem to have passed and they didn’t interfere too much with my writing. Or at least that’s what I’ve been telling myself. In terms of raw output, I have actually been trending upwards on a month-by-month basis so far, so this is good. The problem is that those written words are spread across several different projects. If I was just working on a single project, I’d have a novel and be on my way into the sequel based on March’s output.

Anyway, here’s what happened last month.

 
 

GOBLIN GIRLS DO IT BETTER II was officially released.

And early access to OUR OWN WAY 4 was launched.

And finally Lakeside Cougars was revealed!

April is pretty much going to be more of the same.

  • OUR OWN WAY 4 will be finished this month. Right now, it’s looking like almost certainly a late April release.

  • LAKESIDE COUGARS will continue to see regular updates at one chapter per weekday (Mon - Fri).

  • Once OOW4 is finished, I’m going all in on BENEATH THE ASHES 3. I’m intending to have that finished sometime in May.

  • Still basically no update on SHELTER FROM THE STORM. I’ve come to realize that enough time has passed that I’ll need to do a full re-read of everything I’ve written so far and refresh myself on it. I want to clear a few things from the table before I do that.

That’s pretty much it. Things are basically looking the same as when I started at the beginning of the year, but some things will probably shift in priority. Beneath the Ashes 3 is top priority, as it’s the only one that’s on a contract and has other people waiting for it, professionally speaking, to be finished. I’d say Lakeside Cougars has second priority, because I’ve been promising it for so long and I really do not want to push it back any further than I already have. I’m still waffling on Our Own Way as a series, if I’m going to continue it past five or not. I imagine I won’t have a sure answer until I actually sit down to begin working on OOW5.

If anything needs to get bumped to the back burner to make room for the priority projects, it’s definitely going to be Goblin Girls III. I still was holding out some kind of hope that maybe the sequel would get more attention and take off at least a bit more than it already has, but no. Goblin Girls II pretty much was the final nail in that coffin. That being said, I am committed to finishing the trilogy, and definitely in 2024. It might just get bumped back a bit.

The only other thing I have to say for the moment is that I’ve got two secret projects. One of them is finished (on my end, at least) and will be out sometime in the nearish future, I think? If you’re active in the community, it shouldn’t be a surprise what it is, but I still don’t want to actually talk any details in case that might fuck things up. The other secret project is still too secret to actually talk about, but it should be, shall we say, familiar to you if you’re familiar with me. It will also be out in 2024, so you don’t have to worry that this is some thing that’s still years off. Depending on how April goes, I might be able to talk about it in May, but probably closer to June or even July is when I can speak of the details.

That’s it. Wish me luck.

Our Own Way 4 Preview

Our Own Way 4 is kicking into production!

Below is Chapter 1.

Here is where Chapter 2 presently is, and where all future chapters will be posted for my 3$/month Patrons!

I hope you enjoy!

“I think maybe you broke him,” Chloe murmured.

Ellen chuckled. “Gabe? Are you still with us?”

“Yes,” he managed. “Um. Krystal. Hi.”

Krystal snorted, then laughed. “Hello, Gabe...are you okay?”

“I’m still a little baked,” he replied.

“Oh, right.” She giggled and shook her head. “I guess that’d be a side effect of doing this the day after. Ellen tells me you’re a real fucking lightweight.”

“I did not say that,” Ellen replied. “Don’t you dare start this shit again.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Krystal replied.

Gabe again lapsed into silence as he studied her. All of her pictures hadn’t really done a good enough job of conveying just how hot Krystal was.

He knew some of that was just a side effect of pics and vids, but a lot of it was her physical presence. There were just some things you didn’t realize about a person until you were actually in a room with them.

Like Krystal’s sheer confidence. She wore it like a second skin. And it made sense, given she’d spent so long being ridiculously attractive.

She wore a simple pink tanktop, through which her nipples were visible and her considerable breasts were outlined, and a pair of pink sleeping shorts. Good lord, her fucking thighs. Her thick, pale, smooth thighs.

And her tattoos.

Up close, they were amazing. Or maybe they just were because they were on her.

“Why are you just staring at me again?” Krystal asked, laughing as she sat up.

Good lord, she made simply shifting position look both suggestive and arousing. Although he supposed in these clothes and with that body, it was a lot easier to achieve.

“I’m just realizing...that now I have two brats in my life,” he replied, and everyone else laughed.

“Two and a half,” Ellen said.

He sighed and they laughed again.

“Come and sit down,” Krystal said.

“Good idea,” he replied, and finished getting out of his coat and shoes, then sat down on the couch beside her. “Damn,” he whispered.

“What?” she asked.

“You’re just...really attractive. You are aggressively attractive,” he replied. “And you smell really good.”

“I sure hope so. I spent an hour at home cleaning up and then another half hour here making myself look good.”

“Yeah, like you have to try so hard to do that,” Ellen muttered, rolling her eyes.

“Oh my God, you and are I going to fight so much,” Krystal replied, glaring at her with a small but intense smile on her face.

“Yep,” Ellen replied. “I don’t know if Gabe will survive having you, me, and Emily in the same room at the same time.”

“Is that going to be a thing? We never really locked that down…” Krystal asked.

“Probably. We still need to smooth over things with Abby,” Ellen replied.

“Is there a problem with Abby?” Gabe asked.

“No,” Ellen replied. “I mean, not-this isn’t related to the thing you are doing with her. Abby just–”

“Wait, what are you doing with Abby? I was led to believe she’s a full on lesbian,” Krystal interrupted.

“It’s personal, Krystal. And she will tell you if she wishes to,” Ellen replied firmly.

“Hmm. Interesting.”

“Anyway, Abby has a somewhat...exaggerated perspective of Krystal, and her influence on Emily, and she has...concerns that Krystal might bring Emily’s crazier tendencies out of dormancy.”

“Oh, big word,” Krystal said.

Ellen sighed. “We just need to show her that while you’re still a fucking smartass bitch, you aren’t the goddamned psycho she thinks you are.”

“What exactly did you do to inspire this?” Gabe asked.

“Nothing! She’s just slandering my good name,” Krystal replied.

“Give me a fucking break,” Ellen muttered. “That’s not what’s happening.”

“I know. What’s really happening is Abby has identified me as a threat. Emily and I...used to have fun. And she’s paranoid I’ll evoke that particular fun-loving aspect of Emily just a little too much.”

“I fucking knew you two were fucking around,” Ellen muttered.

“I mean it wasn’t a secret, and we would have invited you, you know,” Krystal replied. “And now you have a boyfriend that you actually trust, so…” She reached out and placed a hand on Gabe’s leg. “Now we can have fun together.”

“Yeah but you’ve got some others to contend with,” Ellen said.

“I think we can all...play nice, when it comes to Gabe,” Krystal replied.

“I know I can,” Holly agreed.

“Probably yeah,” Chloe said.

Krystal laughed. “I guess you’d have at least some difficulty with me fucking your boyfriend given you thought I was too hot to exist.”

“Not to exist, just to be...oh whatever,” she muttered.

“Seeing you two argue is going to be something else,” Gabe said.

“I’m so frustrated that you aren’t into women. Goth girls were my fucking jam back in the day. I mean they still are, but I’m in a relationship now.”

“Wait, so I’m not completely clear...are you here to fuck just Gabe, or can we have threesomes with you and Gabe?” Holly asked.

“I can fuck everyone in this room, and Emily and Abby,” Krystal replied.

“You really think Abby is going to be down for that?” Ellen asked.

“Oh come on, is she really going to say no to all this?” Krystal said, shifting back and forth, making her considerable breasts jiggle.

“Abby’s cold as fucking space when she wants to be,” Ellen said, “but...that’s a good point.”

“Right. Anyway,” Krystal refocused on Gabe, “I am here as a bit of a present, and a vacation. I am here for you, Gabe. Well, and to reconnect with my two best friends and hopefully make a few new friends, but yes, I am here mostly to get high and lay Gabe. Because I want to find out what exactly is going on that locked Ellen and Holly and Chloe down. And also a cougar?”

“I haven’t fucked Sadie yet,” Gabe replied.

“You fucked Isabella, though,” Ellen murmured.

“She sounds so fucking hot,” Krystal said. “But yes, I’m curious. Not doubting! Obviously, it’s working, but I want to...experience it for myself. Also, for the record, Liz and I went and got tested out of an abundance of caution last month and we’re good. Also, I’m on birth control. Started back up when I began seriously considering fucking you and Liz said I could if I wanted.”

“So what I’m hearing is I can creampie you deep and hard,” Gabe replied.

She laughed and grinned a mischievous grin. “That is exactly right. However...before we do that, I do have some things I want to buy from the store. And also to tease you, sexually.”

“Oh my God,” he groaned. “Are you seriously a brat?”

“More or less. I’m a bit of a brat bitch and I’m a switch with an emphasis on being a sub. And I’m one hundred percent submissive while I’m here...at least to Gabe.”

“Oh, you’re going to give me some trouble?” Chloe asked, crossing her arms.

“I would love to give you trouble,” Krystal replied.

Holly laughed. “Kinda backfired.”

Chloe sighed heavily, blushing now. “Whatever.”

“So we’re going to the store then? There’s one not too far away,” Gabe said, getting up.

“What’s that one store you used to work at? I want to freak out that bitch who laughed in your face,” Krystal replied.

“You know...I think we’ve pushed our luck enough as it is,” Gabe said. “Let’s not keep that going.”

“Oh fine, whatever,” Krystal muttered, offering her hand.

He took it and pulled her to her feet, then looked down at her body. It was seriously so difficult not to try and convince her to go back to the bedroom right now and just...go at it. She was insanely hot, and even though he had actually seen her naked already, he wanted nothing more than to see her nude body here and now, in the flesh.

But that could wait. Clearly she wanted to mess with him first.

“You’ll need to put on more clothes,” he said.

“Fine, but only because it’s cold,” she replied.

“Oh yeah? Are you saying I couldn’t make you?” he asked.

She had been in the process of walking back to the bedroom but stopped in the doorway that led out of the living room. She turned around.

“I don’t know, could you?” she replied, again hitting him with that little smirk.

Gabe didn’t really think about his response, he just gave it, shifting a little towards her. “Krystal, go get your clothes on. Now.”

He could sense the others staring at her intently now. Krystal opened her mouth but no words came out. She blinked, then an almost imperceptible shiver ran down her.

“You are shitting me,” she whispered.

Immediately Ellen started laughing. “I finally get to see you tamed.”

“I am not tamed, you blonde bitch. I’m just...surprised.”

“Krystal. Now,” Gabe said.

Krystal’s eyes widened a little. She began breathing just a little faster and...was she blushing? Yeah, she was definitely blushing. She closed her mouth after another few seconds, turned around and walked out of the room.

“Wow,” Chloe murmured.

“Yeah, honestly I’m impressed. Either she’s mellowed or you’re that good,” Ellen said.

“That got hot fast,” Holly murmured. He glanced at her. She was sitting on the couch blushing as well now.

“It is actually really sweet to see it in action,” Ellen said. “Krystal has more than met her match.”

“So did she used to be just really stubborn and difficult?” Gabe asked as he went to get back into his shoes.

“Oh yes, you have no fucking idea. The arguments I saw her have with her significant others. Just...man. She could get white hot. Clearly she’s mellowed, I don’t think she’d have this relationship with Liz if she hadn’t, but it’s still nice to see. It’s going to be amazing watching you fuck and dominate her.”

“Yep,” Holly and Chloe said at the same time.

“I’m very, very much looking forward to it. Also, I should say it now since I’m thinking about: thank you for arranging this. This is an amazing Christmas present,” he replied, getting back into his hoodie.

“You are welcome,” Ellen said, grinning.

“Yeah this was really Ellen’s doing, I just gave permission,” Chloe said.

“Yeah,” Holly agreed.

“All right, you fucking prick,” Krystal said as she emerged from the bedroom, this time wearing a pair of jeans that did a lot to show off her hips and her sweet ass and a t-shirt that also showcased her big, pale breasts. “I’m ready.”

“Get your shoes and your coat on,” Gabe replied.

“You–” She stared at him hard, then sighed and began getting her shoes on. “Either I’ve lost my touch or you are way too good at that.”

“Probably both,” Gabe replied.

“Beat me to it,” Ellen said.

“Oh my fucking God, what have I gotten myself into?” Krystal muttered as she finished up and then pulled on her coat. “All right, come on, let’s do this. Also you are paying for my groceries. If you’re gonna treat me so effectively like a submissive brat then I am going to behave like one and I want the full experience.”

“Fine, fine, get your fat ass in the car,” Gabe replied.

“Oh yes sir,” she said, rolling her eyes.

Gabe walked up to her as she stooped to grab her purse, pulled his hand back, and then smacked her ass hard enough that she let out a shout in surprise and whirled on him.

“Gabe!”

“You heard me.”

Krystal briefly cut her gaze towards Ellen, who just rolled her eyes. “You asked for this. Literally.”

“Oh whatever, let’s go.”

…

“Why do I have to drive?” Krystal complained as they got into her car.

“Because I’m still buzzed,” he replied.

“Oh. Right. That’s...pretty responsible, actually,” she muttered.

“Yeah. Turns out, if you want to be the head of a household, you have to be pretty responsible.”

She laughed as they put their seatbelts on and she started up the car. “Is that what you are?”

“Isn’t it?”

She sighed. “Seriously, what the fuck? How are you like this? I mean, I didn’t exactly expect you to be awestruck by me, but like this is ridiculous. Also where am I going?”

“Continue along this street until you hit Maple, then turn right,” he said. “And I’ve already seen you naked, and I regularly fucking rail and dominate Chloe, Holly, and Ellen.”

“...I guess I should’ve seen this coming.”

“Oh come on, are you really going to pretend this isn’t exactly what you wanted?” he asked.

“I mean...maybe! Maybe I want to pretend that!”

He laughed. “Why?”

“Pretending is fun.”

“Yes it is. Although before we go any further with...things, there is one thing I really want to do.”

“What’s that? Sounds serious.”

“It is. I want to have a real, genuine, live conversation with your girlfriend. I believe that all of this is on the level, obviously, but...I just want to talk with her and get a sense for how she’s...I guess where she’s at with all this, mentally.”

“That’s fair,” Krystal replied. “And I don’t mind. I’ll text her while we’re at the store, then we can go home, you two can have that talk, and then you fucking hold me down, scream at me, and fuck my brains out.”

“That sounds so fucking amazing.”

“It had better.”

“Ellen’s right, you’re definitely really full of yourself.”

“Oh fuck off, like you aren’t?!”

“I’m...still figuring things out.”

“Yeah, well, I’ve been hot for as long as I’ve known about stuff like that. Yeah, fine, I’m kind of full of myself and a touch arrogant, but it’s a side effect of being told how fucking hot I am by fucking everyone for fucking decades, okay?”

“...so, sensitive topic.”

She sighed heavily. “It’s complicated.”

“It always is.”

“Yep. Okay, where is-oh, there it is.”

She pulled off the road a moment later and parked in the lot among the other cars. As they headed inside and grabbed a cart, Krystal kept close enough to him that she almost tripped him.

“Krystal, come on!” he hissed.

“What?” she replied.

“I am going to trip over you, for fuck’s sake.”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about, you just need to watch where you’re going. Don’t blame your dumbass ‘I can’t walk right’ on me.”

“Holy shit,” he muttered, staring at her for a second. “You are seriously gagging for it.”

She leaned in and put her lips right next to his ear. “You have no idea.”

Then she pulled back and smiled sweetly at him. He sighed, got himself back under control, and headed deeper into the store. As they began moving through the aisles, Krystal grabbing several things and tossing them into the cart, she proved to have a stronger brat game than Chloe.

Although not by that much.

She was constantly fucking with him. Poking him, pulling his hair, muttering something under her breath. Holy shit, this was their first day together.

Their first hour together.

As they got back into one of the side areas where there seemed to be no one else, Gabe grabbed her suddenly and pulled her up to him.

“You are seriously fucking asking for it, you know that?” he growled, his face an inch from hers.

“Am I now? I think you’re just being silly,” she murmured, unable to keep from grinning.

“When we get home…”

“Yeah? What are you gonna do, huh? What exactly are you going to do about it, Gabe?”

He prepared to tell her, but was interrupted by a familiar voice saying: “Gabe?! What the fuck!?”

He and Krystal both leaped away from each other in surprise and he turned to see who it was that had found them back here.

It was Chloe’s sister.