A New Beginning In A Mana Apocalypse 73 Chapter 73 - Introspection

While I was willing to wait to find out what was going on, I didn't have to. Karen came into the room I was laying in. Like Calidia and Megan she looked like she was tired and worried. Seeing me she was able to relax. The smile she gave me warmed my heart a bit. My relations.h.i.+p with Karen was complicated and with everything that had been going on since I awakened my power, we had never really had a chance to talk about it.

I did know I loved her, we had known each other for far to long not too. I had always been attracted to her, and still was. She was as beautiful to me today as she was years ago when I discovered how I felt about her.

Karen's relieved and happy smile made me think for a moment that there might be a chance she cared for me as much as I did her. With the bonding, and the residual bond left over after the shattering, and her obvious s.e.xual interest in Megan, I had been wondering what part of all this she was in it for.

Karen walked around me till she was close to my head then leaned over and kissed me fiercely, as she came from above me the angle was a bit awkward, but enjoyable. With Calidia and Megan in my arms I could move to touch her in any way, but that didn't seem to bother Karen.

As she kissed me she became even more aggressive her lips and tongue almost tearing into me like she was trying to lecture me at the same time. Through our bond I could feel that she was relieved, happy, enjoying herself, and incredibly h.o.r.n.y.

When she finally pulled away from me Karen was breathing heavily her eyes a bit unfocused for a moment. "You stupid f.u.c.ktard." she chastised me. "You have no idea how worried we were. The twins nearly went crazy since they still hadn't even regained their marital bonds with you before nearly killing yourself." she told me. "Tracy nearly collapsed when she thought she was about to lose a second husband."

I grimaced but Karen wasn't done yet. "Heather isn't any better than Tracy, she might not have lost a husband, but you and Bryan are her only family now and her nephew can hardly comfort her. Rebecca is stupidly blaming herself even though she knows she had nothing to do with your stupidity. The non humans handled it better, but you have to start remembering your life isn't your own anymore Daryl. Whatever our feelings are for you we are your wives and it hurt all of us to see you like that." she told me seriously.

"Sorry." I replied. "I had no idea that would cause so much trouble. I was just trying to help Kayda." I replied trying to justify myself.

"And that might be the only part of all of all of this that let us forgive you. You did it for one of your wives." Karen told me then sighed and lowered her head till her forehead rested on my own. "You can't die Daryl. I still haven't told you how I feel."

I smiled at her despite the fact that she couldn't see it.

"No Daryl, not here, not now." she added as if reading my thoughts.

I sighed but hugged my wives closer to me. It might sound horrible, I know it made me feel horrible, but despite being bonded to them, having their emotions in my head, I still didn't really feel married to them. With how fast everything had changed I hadn't really had the opportunity to accept what had happened and my own feelings on the matter. If I wasn't fixing one issue I was rolled up into some s.e.xcapades with my wives until I was too tired to think. They were mine, and I could feel my possessiveness of them, but in truth I was still the three hundred pound loner loser who had nearly no friends, didn't like his family, and fantasize about every pretty woman I came across. No matter how good I looked now, how many women I claimed as my own, or what kind of powers I was using it was hard for me to convince myself that I wasn't that person anymore, I wasn't going to wake up and find that this had all been a dream. Was it horrible of me, that I didn't want this to be a dream? So many people had suffered and died, but it was the only time I had really felt alive, felt that my life mattered. I was a horrible person, I knew that, but I wasn't ashamed, I was making the best of a bad situation. Now I just had to make it even better, acknowledge who I was now and what I wanted to become.

Nothing changed, it didn't work that fast, but I did feel a bit better and more resolved.

"What about Grace?" I asked after a moment when I realized one of my human wives hadn't been mentioned.

Karen giggled. "That girl didn't worry, she seems to feel that you walk on water. She was confident the whole time that not only would you get better, but get stronger at the same time." Karen told me.

Wow, never thought Grace would think so highly of me.

"She will probably be the worst off of all of us if something happens to you." Karen added.

I s.h.i.+vered at that thought, unfortunately that movement stirred my wives from their impromptu nap.

Megan opened her eyes and caught sight of Karen leaning over my head. "Her sweetie, how long was I out." she asked.

"Twenty to thirty minutes max hun." Karen replied before I could. "You needed it though."

Megan yawned as Calidia opened her own eyes. "He's awake now, I can sleep tonight." she replied brus.h.i.+ng off Karen's words.

Karen grunted then kissed me briefly before messaging me through our bond, 'No matter how I feel about you Daryl, if you hurt her I will be very p.i.s.sed at you.' she told me.

'Nothing to worry about there, I love her too.' I replied to Karen mentally and ignored her blush as I pulled each of my wives closer so I could kiss them before releasing them.

"Are you feeling better?" Calidia asked me obviously still concerned.

I kissed her again just because I could. "I feel amazing." I replied. "Your magic fingers really helped."

She smiled at me as she blushed.

Finally done flirting for a moment I looked at my wives seriously. "So how long was I out?" I asked them. There wouldn't have been this much concern if I had only been out for an hour or so. "And how is Kayda?"

Megan and Karen glanced at each other before looking to Calidia.

"A week." Megan told me when she saw Calidia hesitate.

"A week?" I asked surprised.

Megan nodded. "As a gold core, and your wife I was able to take over and get everything organized. Emy, Mary, Monica, and Karen have been great help in that. The others helped too of course, and Calidia made sure you were well taken care of." she explained.

I groaned, a week? A whole week? That was a lot of time to be unconscious, especially with all the trouble we had been dealing with.

"As for Kayda, she is fine. Like you she went through a transformation, she should be waking up any time now." Calidia told me.

I nodded my mind still having trouble processing how long I had been out.

"Just know that some things have changed. Emy helped provide food and the materials we needed to build homes, I opened a haven for us to fall back too if we need too. Using Annitte's ability we went back to earth for some supplies, found Monica's family, and Heather's twisted sister. How they escaped capture from the Lost Ones, we have no idea. They didn't seem interested in taking anything from the Phoenix area, they were all pretty sick from the radiation, so that might be a part of it. We were able to heal that up though so no worries." Megan reported to me.

I reached out and stopped Megan with a finger to her lips. "You did great." I told her with a smile.

Megan smiled back at me her shoulders relaxing.

I returned her smile. "I love you, and thank you." I told her.

Megan beamed at me.

I looked over at Calidia and tried to understand how I actually felt about the woman. Not the attraction, because there was no denying I was attracted to her, she was a beautiful woman. Looking into her eyes I couldn't say I was in love with her, but I cared for her, a lot.

"Thank you too Caly, and I care about you too." I told her.

"Not love?" she asked seeming a bit disappointed.

"Maybe." I replied, "Then again I know I love Karen, but we have been friends for years, but I am still trying to understand how I feel about her as a husband." I told her.

Calidia didn't seem mollified by that but she was willing to accept it.

I chuckled. "Don't worry pretty girl, I am pretty sure that if I am not in love with you yet I will be soon." I told her. She was smart and caring, always a good trait, confident in her abilities but self conscious of our relations.h.i.+p which I found incredibly cute and endearing. Kind of a like a proud kitten that desperately wanted to be petted but wanted you to go to them instead of begging for the attention.

"How about we get up and you can all show me the changes to our home?" I suggested.

"That's fine, but I warn you. If you pick up another wife without my permission I will cut it off and keep it in my s.p.a.ce pocket until I think you have earned it back!" Megan warned me.

I s.h.i.+vered because I had a feeling she intended to do just that. Maybe superpowers weren't such a great thing after all.

Karen snorted, "Empty threat. No way you would punish us and yourself like that." she retorted with a wicked grin at Megan who blushed.

"Be prepared husband, your wives have missed you and you have a lot of time to make up for." Calidia told me. "Emy made up more of that juice so…"