Wolf Cree

Ada had nearly become unhinged at seeing her Chicago industrialist lover at her doorstep in Indiana, not the least because he stood beside his natural son—her eldest son, Dan. When Dan had been conceived, Ada was too innocent to know that Vaughn was the father, but Charles had set her straight on that. While pointing out that he couldn't be the father because he'd always used a condom when they had sex, he also said he knew that Vaughn and Shaffer hadn't used condoms when they shared Ada at the St. Louis World's Fair. As Ada hadn't had sex with anyone but those three men at the time and since, as Charles carefully explained to her after having her describe all that she'd done with Vaughn and Shaffer—that only Vaughn had engaged in sex with her that could impregnate her—it became obvious that Vaughn was Dan's natural father.

John had always known he wasn't the father, but he had assumed it was Charles—and it had resulted in strained relations between John and Charles henceforth. It had also led to an unintentional, but natural, holding back in John's fathering of Dan that had resulted in Dan growing up resentful and rebellious. And as Dan grew into his early teens, it became obvious to Ada from her son's visage and his mannerisms that he was George's son. She had always been fearful that John would someday remember his brother's former employer as well and would also figure it out. But he had been so sure the father was Charles that he was blind to the truth.

Turning Dan over to Aunt Martha as quickly as she could without raising the suspicions of either her son or her aunt, Ada took Vaughn down to the bench on the family's lake dock to try to make sense of what was happening, what George was doing here with her son.

"Charles eventually told me, Ada. And I'm glad he did. I have no children. My wife was never able or willing to have them."

Ada was silent, confused, both hating and loving Charles for having passed her secret on.

"So, I've had a house here on the lake for several years," George continued. "I took every opportunity I could to come to the lake and to watch my son grow up from a distance. I didn't tell you because I didn't want to upset you or your life. I could see that you were happy with your husband. I didn't want to make claims on you. But I couldn't help myself; I had to see my son."

Ada could see the rightness of this and they spoke for several minutes in tones of mutual respect and support. But eventually Vaughn got to the central point.

"I want to underwrite your expenses, Ada. At least until you can get on your feet."

Ada flared up then in defensiveness and her strong sense of self-reliance. The couplings with Shaffer and Vaughn happened because she enjoyed them. She would not be a kept woman—not of Vaughn any more than of that loathsome mayor, Denbo.

George quickly noticed the change in her stance. "Just until you can find something that will cover your own needs. I know you want to be independent and I respect that. I know you have considerable skills and will be able to take care of yourself and your baby. But you've been knocked off your feet. Most women would have gone crazy from what has happened to you in less than two weeks."

"Take care of myself and the baby," Ada said dully, getting to center of why Vaughn was here tonight even before he had figured out how to broach the subject.

"Yes. I'm the one Dan has been working for here at the lake, Ada. John remembered who I was, although I had to work through intermediaries. Dan looks so much like me that I couldn't let John see me again. St. Louis was so far in the past, I had to hope that he didn't really remember what I looked like. Charles made me promise not to let John know I was Dan's real father. Charles had told John that he was the father and that he had forced himself on you. He didn't want anything done that would make John worship you less than he did."

Ada began to cry, but she fought back the tears. This was no time to collapse. What they were negotiating here was just too important. This was her son. She had lost two children this week. She knew what George was leading up to. Could she afford to lose another child? Did she really have the right not to? What was best for Dan?

"Dan and I are getting along splendidly, Ada. I'm sure you have noticed that he has become happier and far easier to live with since he has been working for me out here. You are going to have your hands full with nursing the baby back to health and getting back on your feet financially. Let me take Dan back to Chicago with me—as a business arrangement. Indenturing him to the department store business. Just an old friend of John's helping out a family in need, taking their eldest son under his wing and teaching him the business. He's my son too, Ada. I need someone to teach my business to as much as your family needs to provide the best opportunities for Dan in difficult circumstances."

"I don't know," Ada said, churning the options, all of the angles over in her mind. "Dan will think I'm abandoning him."

"No he won't, Ada. We've had a long discussion about this. If anything, his only reservation is the feeling that he will be abandoning you. But we've talked it out. I know he aches to go. And only a adverse reaction from you would change how he feels about it."

One last hurdle. But one that should have been obvious to Vaughn.

"But your wife, George. She'll know the instant she sees Dan. It will ruin everything."

"She hasn't come back from Europe, Ada. And she says she isn't coming back. I don't think I'll ever see her again. We've never really been man and wife. You know why. You of all people know why. And so now I'll be alone. Unless I can have my son with me for a few years."

Ada's plight in the weeks after she had helped see Dan off to Chicago with George Vaughn did not improve much. Thankfully, baby Hugh returned to gurgling smiles and rosy cheeks, but Mayor Denbo didn't let up on his pressure and on his meddling in Ada being able to find employment. As it was, it took most of her time to clear up John's insurance business. The only good thing is that their remaining assets had covered the payouts for the fire damage policies—but only just—and she hadn't been able to keep the lake house. George had told her she could move into his house across the lake, but she would only do so as a last resort.

She was at her most desperate when the letter arrived. Her old beau from Slater, Missouri, William Hagen, had heard of her plight and wondered if she would be interested in helping him with his own plight. His saw mill in Colorado had done so well that a town had grown in the valley below where he was taking the timber and he had opened an emporium there. But he couldn't run the saw mill and the emporium at the same time, and the new town also needed a postmistress. If Ada could get to Colorado, Hagen sure could use her help in running the emporium and post office.

Ada almost cried when she read the postmark on the envelope. It was from Slater, Colorado. He had named the town after the one where they had met and that, ever so briefly, offered so much promise to them both, together.

Ada half thought she would accept the offer if there was any way she could get her household out to Colorado. But it wasn't like she could just pack a suitcase and bundle up baby Hugh and walk out there. She had some possessions she just couldn't leave behind, even if she had a way to transport just the baby and a suitcase that far. Colorado was still primitive; she wouldn't give up some of what she had accumulated of the greater world for anything.

And how had William Hagen heard so fast of her plight anyway? She only had to look at the twinkle in Aunt Martha's eyes to figure that one out. It was obvious that Aunt Martha had contacted him on Ada's behalf. What was less obvious was that Aunt Martha had been in continued contact with William Hagen ever since he had left for Colorado. And she had done everything she could to keep some spark of connection between Hagen and her niece.

There were limits to Aunt Martha's pulling of strings in the background, however, and no one ever knew what led to the appearance in front of the lake house the next day of two Shaffer-manufactured Golden Eagle touring sedans, with drivers who had instructions to drive Ada and her household anywhere in the world the automobiles could reach.

Not more than six weeks after John Raven's death and the total collapse of Ada's well-ordered life, she, baby Hugh, Aunt Martha, and two drivers, one young and handsome and the other not so young, but immediately taken with Aunt Martha, were rolling over progressively rougher roads across Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, and then across the lower swath of Wyoming, through Cheyenne and then Laramie, and, finally, on dirt roads through towering mountains to a dusty town of Baggs, where they would turn directly south and drop down to the brand new town at the mouth of a mountain valley of Slater, constructed out of the wood from Hagen's saw mill up in the high timber in the Rocky Mountains.

By the time they entered Nebraska, the couples had just naturally paired off between the two automobiles, based on their ages and what they were comfortable talking about. The area they were moving through was largely unsettled and there were several nights they had to pull off the road and sleep under the loaded high-chassis touring sedans manufactured by Ada's good friend James Shaffer.

Aunt Martha and the older driver, Thaddeus, were the first ones who gave into the inevitability of their circumstance and human nature.

The night was warm, with a gentle breeze as the two automobiles sat beside a slow-moving shallow river just to the west of North Platte, Nebraska. The sky had been cloudless, the moon full, and there were shooting stars that amazed and delighted the two couples as they sat somewhat apart from each other and murmured ever-more-personal thoughts on the lives they had lived and the experiences they still wanted to have. Ada hardly noticed when Martha and Thaddeus left her and the young, handsome driver Peter Fair. But it wasn't long before she could hear the rustling and giggling under one of the Golden Eagles. And then the moaning and the panting and the unmistakable sounds of fornication.

Both she and Pete were blushing and their discussion was becoming more strained. But Ada felt chills going up her arm when Pete touched her there and then began to stroke her arm. He must have felt the chills too. He was kissing her on the cheek and in the hollow of her neck and then on the eyelids and the mouth. His hands were fumbling with the buttons on her dress and then he had freed her breasts and he was fondling her breasts and rubbing her nipples. Ada felt herself begin to flow. Pete was far younger than she was, and achingly handsome and hard bodied. It had been weeks since she had been fucked, and she was a hot blooded woman. She had not gone this long since Charles had first taken her in his hotel room in Slater, Missouri, and good thirteen years earlier.

She wanted Pete. She realized she had wanted him since they had rolled into Iowa, two days earlier. She unbuttoned the rest of her dress and opened it and pulled off her own undergarments and unbuttoned Pete's fly. She found that he was already hard. Long and thick and hard. He obviously had wanted her for some time too. She was melting. He was so hard bodied and muscled and ardent. She hadn't had a young, throbbing cock inside her for years. She wanted that. She wanted it now. She had held herself so tightly in reserve these past few weeks to maintain her sanity. She wanted release. She wanted a hot, throbbing cock inside her. She wanted Pete.

She was initiating everything now. Pete had no illusions about what she wanted and whether she wanted it. She was flowing for him, and his fingers could tell that she quickly was ready and able to take him. He rolled her onto her back, their pelvises together and she opened her legs to him. He was on his knees between her legs and positioned his cock and pushed it inside her just enough to gain purchase. And then he held her hands over her head by the wrists and slowly pushed inside her and then stroked deep and slowly. Ada made her hips move in rhythm with his stroking, and Pete lost himself in the moment and began fucking her hard and fast. It obviously had been some time since he'd done this as well and that he had wanted her from the first moment he'd seen her.

Having set this motion, Aunt Martha and Thaddeus went quiet underneath the Golden Eagle and, at length, Thaddeus could be heard snoring contentedly. But the younger couple, Ada and the virile Pete, fucked on. After taking her in the missionary position, Peter turned her on her belly and lifted her onto her knees and took her from behind. And then when Pete had tired, Ada pushed him onto his back and she straddled him and rode him to a third ejaculation.

Despite the vigorous exercise, Ada and Pete were up and preparing the cars for the last stage of their journeys before Martha and Thaddeus rolled out from under the Golden Eagle—on opposite sides. Thankfully, the baby had slept through the night, the first night since he had taken ill that he hadn't awakened in the night and required attention. And there was nothing for the rest of that long day on the road to upset his well-rested good disposition, as, although none of the four adults referred to anything that had happened in the night, they were all humming happily to themselves the whole day long.