Empire Builder 1: Breed, Populate, Conquer Dante King (i read books txt) 📖

Chapter Fourteen

After finishing their shower, Ben and the women returned to his master suite to change. Together, they placed all the eggs in a row on one side of the bedroom, the hybrid egg towering over all the others.

Melody’s second egg was particularly warm to the touch. Ben inspected the shell, but couldn’t see any cracks yet. He wondered when it would hatch, and what his second child would look like.

“Think it’ll be a boy or a girl?” Ben asked Melody.

She smiled at the egg with the proud look of a mother on her face. “I’m sure we won’t have to wait too long to find out.”

“Back in my world we could use special tools to find out. Then again, back in my world we had to wait a hell of a lot longer for the birth,” Ben reminisced.

Melody’s eyes widened. “I didn’t know you had such magic in your world.”

“Your world?” Vinata spoke up. “Where are you from, Ben?”

Fuck, thought Ben, realizing he’d slipped up and revealed his secret once more.

All three naked nymphs looked at him, puzzled. They knew he was the Forgotten Ruler, but he’d omitted to mention where he was originally from.

The three of them formed a small half-circle around him, his stomach tensing as they all regarded him with the same expectant expression. Ben had slipped up before, but had managed to cover it up each time. At that moment, however, he sensed that there was no talking his way out of it—they were going to find out the truth.

The tension in his gut dissolved as he thought it over. His followers deserved to know the truth, he figured. He wasn’t about to start off his rule as a liar.

“I come from another world,” Ben said. He felt relieved as soon as he spoke the world.

“You mean another realm?” Lulu asked.

“I’m not sure how else to explain it,” Ben replied. “Somehow Melody magically transported me here from a totally different place. My world, the world I was born into, doesn’t have magic. I guess that’s why I was reincarnated there.”

“Reincarnated?” Lulu echoed. “What does this mean? How is it that you are the Forgotten Ruler, when he died thousands of years ago?”

Ben realized he had no idea. On his world, reincarnation was spoken of by Hindus and Buddhists, but he didn’t think he could look to them for a very scientific explanation. He glanced over at Melody.

She understood and began to explain. “My teacher and mentor, the Archmage Kamila, told me what little we know of reincarnation. It is a very rare occurrence, granted only to the most powerful. We assume that the Forgotten Ruler gained this power through the help of one of his wives. Some of them are known to have had power over the spirit realm.”

“Will we meet these wives?” Vinata interrupted.

Melody shrugged. “Only if they still live. It is possible that some survived in the dungeons, or through the use of reincarnation on themselves.”

“That would be exciting,” Vinata whispered.

“But what is reincarnation, exactly?” Lulu pressed.

“All we know,” Melody continued, “is that when Ben died, his soul did not dissipate into the aether like the souls of ordinary people. It traversed the vastnesses of the spirit realm for thousands of years, waiting to find a home once more.”

“And it found Ben?” Vinata asked.

Melody nodded. “The soul of Benzhameen is Ben’s soul, though this is not the body he once had. Benzhameen’s memories were also lost.”

“Will he ever get them back?” Vinata was like a small child, with her impatient questions.

Ben smiled to himself, almost feeling like he was being discussed as a foreign specimen. He was too curious to interrupt though.

“Perhaps,” Melody said. “There may be a way to recover these memories. Ben must be careful if he is to take this step, however.”

She gave him a warning look. “He may not be able to choose which memories come back. If he recovers the memories of his eons long sojourn in the spirit realm, it could be enough to drive him to madness.”

Ben shuddered at the thought.

Vinata moved closer to him and placed a hand on his chest. She looked up at him with wonder and curiosity. “You are so full of mystery.”

Ben put a hand on hers. “What I’m not full of right now, is food. I’m still waiting for that meal you were going to prepare.”

It didn’t hurt to keep these women on their toes, even if he was prepared to sire children with them. Besides, he figured, he was still trying to wrap his head around what had happened to him. Maybe it’d be better to wait until he had some answers of his own before he tried to explain it all to the others.

“If there’s one thing I know,” he continued. “It’s that I don’t do my best thinking on an empty stomach. So, how about that meal?”

Vinata opened her mouth to speak, her finger raised as if she were ready to make a very important point. Or, Ben figured, to give him some back talk.

But Ben simply raised his eyebrows, encouraging her without a word to stow away whatever she had on her mind.

“Less talk, more food,” he said with a smirk. “Now, get that ass in gear.”

Surprise flashed on her face. She clearly wasn’t used to having people speak to her that way. The surprise gave way to a sly smile that tugged at the corners of her mouth. Evidently being ordered around appealed to her as well.

“I’ll get to the kitchen right away.” She turned toward the door.

“See that you do.” Ben reached out to slap her ass on the way out, but her dryad garments sprouted into life on her body instantaneously, and his hand only met leafy underwear.

The other women laughed as Vinata dashed out toward the elevator. Lulu and Imogen got dressed in their traditional clothing again. While they had been naked, the tower had sucked these clothes away and returned them