CHAPTER 558: DUKEDOM

“What do you mean?” Haley pulled back and met Mason’s eyes. “What’s wrong?”

“The patron alert,” he said, confused when he still didn’t see recognition in his wife’s eyes. “I got some message you were in trouble. But I couldn’t…” he shook his head, fighting the wave of guilt. “I couldn’t just leave them in the raid. Their lives were in danger, and the alert seemed…mild? I don’t know how it fucking works. But…”

Haley’s blue eyes glazed as she scanned her profile. Lodie was still standing there looking awkward, and utterly confused. Mason was still completely naked with Haley in his arms.

“I should see your patron alerts, but I don’t see this,” she said. “I don’t see anything. It didn’t give me any kind of message. When did you get it?”

He looked at his own profile and gave her the exact time stamp, and she took a breath.

“I was with Seul-ki.” Her face relaxed as if she was finally putting some puzzle pieces together. “She was supposed to meet me the next day, but we couldn’t find her. With everything going on I didn’t…” she shook her head. “She gave me something to drink. It was a little strange but I didn’t…” she touched her stomach with a panicked look, and Mason felt his hands curl.

“Do you think it had something to do with our baby?” she whispered. “Why would she…I mean…I don’t understand what’s going on.”

“I don’t believe that,” he said, scanning her quietly with Ranger’s Mark. All he saw was a perfect woman with a tiny fetus growing in her belly. “There’s no chance she could have hurt our child with a ‘mild’ warning. And you look completely healthy.”

She hugged him again, and he closed his eyes and ran his hands up her back. The familiarity of her scent and embrace was like some drug that stripped away the world.

“I missed you,” he said. “We’re done here. No casualties. Raid cleared, rewards to come. As soon as we’re wrapped up we can…”

“Mason.” Haley pulled back and gave him a hard to read (but definitely amused) look. “I think perhaps you should introduce me to that lovely girl before you explain your plans for world conquest.”

“Oh. Right.” He was reminded yet again of his nakedness. And also that with Haley in his arms he was at least at half mast without any way to fight it. “This is Lodie. She’s…”

“Are you his wife?” Lodie stared at Haley’s hair. “You’re so pretty. I didn’t know hair could be that color. And um, I’m supposed to make babies with the hunter lord goblin. But, I’m really clever at bombs and things. And I’d like to be an overland engineer…warrior…princess. I’d be the first! I know it’s weird.”

The goblin put her hands behind her back and scuffed at the floor with a toe. Haley shook with a delighted laugh, putting her head on Mason’s shoulder.

“She’s very cute,” she whispered. “Have you…?”

“I have not,” he said sharply. “And whatever you’re thinking, just drop it now because…”

“I’m Haley,” his beautiful blonde said. “And I’m the hunter lord’s concubine. But I’m also his assistant. I negotiate his contracts.”

Lodie’s eyes popped and she nodded eagerly, like a woman teleporting into Mason’s shower now made complete sense.

“Will work extremely hard,” Lodie said. “I mean I will. On top of bomb making, and… all kinds of other things. Well, I’ve only been a princess for…a few years? But I’ve been shown how to please a male on mushroom heads. So, that’s not a problem. Because when I do a thing, I do it best. Not better than you, I’m sure! I just mean…” Lodie blushed, and Haley giggled before kissing Mason’s cheek.

“Can we keep her?”

“Lodie…” he licked his lips. “You don’t have to….I mean I have plenty of concubines. That wouldn’t be…”

“You don’t mate with your female warriors?” Lodie asked, looking confused. Mason opened and closed his mouth, trying not to look at a smiling Haley.

“Not…all. And that doesn’t…what I’m saying is…they don’t have to. You can be a warrior, and just a warrior. You don’t have to be a, uh, concubine.”

Lodie looked almost…disappointed? She was fiddling with her feet again, and Haley was giving him that ‘oh you stupid American’ look she’d long ago perfected.

A topic change. They needed a topic change.

“The seed,” Mason said, shaking his head when Haley grinned. “I mean the very special object I left you in charge of. Is it safe? Any problems in Nassau while I’ve been gone? And what about those people we took in?”

Haley shook her head, with a clear and unspoken ‘I know what you’re doing and it’s not going to work’ expression.

“Everything is safe, and fine. No troubles for you to worry about.” She looked around the room. “I’m guessing you’re here to rest? Oh I like that little fireplace. Does it work? We could start a fire and climb into the bed. When I’m cozy I’ll tell you anything you want to hear.”

The brand new, phase three Mason with iron discipline was crumbling. Fast. Haley was running her lips over the skin on his neck, her arms around his shoulders. Stretching her arms had pulled up her skirt, and Mason’s treacherous hands were drifting down her back.

“I have to get rid of Lodie first,” he mumbled. Haley chuckled and kept touching.

“Do you.” Her eyes were still glazed, and she blinked and turned back to the goblin. “Lovely Lodie? I have a contract made. Please look it over. I’ve given you two options, the first as a ‘warrior peer’ in Duke Mason’s House. The second as…”

“Duke?” Mason blinked. He opened his profile and saw a title he’d somehow missed, which at least had a little arrow showing why. It had something to do with his becoming a ‘chief’ (apparently the system wasn’t impressed by goblin titles, either) of the mountain tribe, on top of being a baron, and a ‘Nexus Lord’.

“Mmhmm,” Haley purred. “New options. More points. As I was saying, Option two is…”

Mason’s profile blinked as a new contract popped up. He saw Lodie’s name and titles appear in his list of House Warriors, just like a human would, except without a marker to show her as a ‘player’. More text scrolled.

[Title gained: Noblesse Oblige (Goblin). Gain a concubine of noble heritage. +2 presence. Increased status with applicable race.]

“Haley…”

Mason’s words failed him yet again. Had she just offered the poor, desperate girl some kind of ‘better’ contract if she agreed to be his concubine? If so, he wasn’t happy. He had so many women, he had absolutely no need or interest in incentivizing anyone to increase it.

Except Haley would absolutely know that. He couldn’t believe she’d do that without talking to him first, so for the moment he was mostly just confused. He was about to ask what exactly was going on when Lodie put her hands to her face and hopped up and down.

Then she came rushing forward, slapping her face against him just under his chest before he could figure out how to react. His exposed dick was pressed against her, and immediately twitched at the contact.

“I promise to be so helpful and please you so much.” Lodie looked up and beamed. “I feel like I’ve been practicing forever.”

“Option two,” Haley finished, grinning, “is a warrior peer in the House, and a place as the duke’s concubine. With no change in reward. Only…responsibilities.”

Mason blinked, looking between Haley and Lodie, still utterly confused.

“But…why. Why would you do that? You don’t get anything.”

Now it was Lodie who looked confused, and Haley shook her head like he was being obtuse again.

“Well I get to…I mean I…” Lodie blushed again. “I don’t want to make babies. But…maybe um, ride big lord duke?” She grinned like she was being naughty. “If he likes that. Then maybe baby maker shuts up.”

She looked at Haley with a ‘am I right?’ kind of expression. Then she just looked embarrassed again.

“If…whenever the duke…wishes. Of course. I only ask he shoots seed…” she shrugged, and put her hands under her breasts, giving them a jiggle. “Or…on back? Or…in mouth! Anywhere else, really. At least for now. Oh this is going to be so much fun!”

Mason’s dick had moved a lot closer to full mast. He again looked at his smiling wife, one of her hands slowly unbuttoning the top of her blouse, the other sliding up his leg. Lodie still looked pre-occupied trying to figure out where he was going to cum on her.

“Maybe I’ll…get that fire going,” he said, trying not to think about the little goblin naked.

“Oh!” Lodie held up a hand. “I can do that! Firemaker gizmo. Very good. Can I get lord duke consort anything else? Maybe food? Maybe extra servant girl?”

“Why would I…no. You don’t…” Mason sighed, glaring at the ill-concealed laughter of his wife as she moved a hand closer to his manhood. “The fire…would be fine. And you can call me Mason. I’d prefer that.”

Lodie nodded and zipped towards the fireplace with obvious pleasure, pulling out a tool that looked about ten times more elaborate than any reasonable Firestarter. Haley was doing her best to push him towards the bed, but he forced her back to the door.

He checked that it was locked. Double locked. And then he jammed it with a nearby light for good measure, and scanned the room with all his inhuman senses for some kind of secret door.

If he was going to fuck a goblin girl, he sure as hell wasn’t going to end up being caught and mocked for it like the others. It wasn’t a permanent solution. But he’d at least buy himself some time, and give it some thought, and figure it out.

Haley’s hand had now wrapped around his shaft, her lips pressed against his ear as she nibbled and licked.

“Hmm. Where to start,” she whispered. “Maybe teach her how to suck you off? Or you could bend me over while she watches first. I missed you so much. I’m already soaked.”

Mason inhaled, knowing there was no way he could resist Haley, even if he wanted to. Which he didn’t.

Lodie was bent over the fire, the swell of her ass pressing against the tight leather of her pants. She had her tongue out as she clicked her weird tool, glancing back at him with a big, happy smile as the log lit with a roar.

“See?” she said. “Very fast. Now more time for making lord happy. Does our lord duke, er, does Duke Mason…?”

Lodie noticed his eyes on her body and stood straight looking very pleased. Then she grabbed the waist of her pants, and started to peel them down over her wide hips and pert ass like a stripper on her first day of work.

Haley watched and squeezed her warm hand harder on his shaft, her breathing getting faster. He managed to turn his eyes away long enough to see Haley looking up at him with a big, hungry smile.

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