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“Construction, on the married quarters side,” Mack said, apparently the spokesperson for the group.

“So, do you have partners? What’s your wife’s name? Have I met her?”

Mack smiled slightly and seemed to relax a little. A girl would have to be a bit weird to try and use questions about your girlfriend or wife as a way to crack onto you. “Louise, and I don’t think so. She works in the married mess, running the kitchen.”

“So, there’s two different messes? You guys don’t eat with the single blokes?”

He shook his head, “Not normally, we just needed to grab a quick bite today. Too many hot heads, and I’ve got a daughter. Not old enough to date any of these idiots, but some of them don’t seem to get that message.”

“Are single women allowed in? I mean, if they aren’t looking to…you know.”

The guys all looked at each other, as if considering it, then shrugged.

George, an older guy with thinning blond hair, said, “I guess so. I admit, you’d want to run it past the women first. They get a bit…

protective at times, but we’ve had some come over if the crap that goes on here gets a bit much.

If you’re not a troublemaker, people shouldn’t take issue with it. ”

“God, no. I just want a bit of peace and quiet and normality.”

“Hello there, Miss Julie.” As if summoned by the devil to contradict my words, I looked up to see Brett and his buddies, the three blokes from this morning, coming and taking a seat in front of or beside me. Mountain dude boxed me, blocking my view of the people I had been talking to.

“How’s your day going?” the darker haired guy asked, picking up a sandwich and biting into it.

“I’ll talk to the missus,” Mack said, getting to his feet, his mates following suit, “and get back to you.”

“That’d be awesome,” I said as they filed out. I turned to dark haired guy and said, “I’m Julie, and you are?”

“Darren, Brett and Monster.”

“Monster? He’s a big bloke, but why….” and then it occurred to me why he had that name. I looked down at my plate, studying the other half of my sandwich with rapt attention.

“Don’t worry about it,” Monster rumbled. “Most girls want to know if I’m big all over.”

“Right, well, your mother didn’t name you Monster. What’s your real name?” I asked, wanting to change the subject to something, anything else.

“Peter,” he said, almost shyly.

“Right, well, Pete, what do you do around here?”

“Well…” Darren said with a smile.

“Seriously, what’s your job.”

“Some construction, some mine work,” he said.

“Mining? The place behind the fence?”

“It’s the cash cow that keeps all this ticking along,” Brett said. “No mine, no Sanctuary.”

“So, what do you two do?”

“Drive trucks, haul out the ore and take it to the export site. So has Kelly had the chat with you?”

“Yep, and it was seriously awkward, and then I walked in on my colleagues making out in the storeroom of the shed. So if we could get off the sex topic, that’d be great.”

“Nerida huh?” Darren said. "She on with Sonny now?” I nodded. “She likes her variety, does Ms Nerida. We had a bit of fun with her there for a while.”

My eyes flicked to Pete, who was eating from his full plate with gusto, to a smirking Darren, to Brett who was watching me closely for my reaction. “What?” I asked, knowing I didn’t want to know the answer, but unable to stop myself from asking, “All three of you?”

Brett nodded slowly, his light hazel eyes, a weird mix of green and amber, held mine.

“See we grew up together here. Been mates since we were little kids. Girls, they think they want the Monster there, but when push comes to shove…” Darren grinned at the clumsy joke.

“They need us if they want to climb the Mountain, or they will be very sad and sorry for themselves the day after. We help to…broaden their horizons, in preparation.”

“So what? This is like Goldilocks and the three bears? This one is too small…” I pointed to the grinning Darren, whose smile was wiped away. “This one is too big and will rupture my cervix.” I pointed to Pete. “But this one is what? Just right?”

“You cheeky bitch…” Darren muttered, but Brett held up a hand, silencing him.

“Only one way to find out,” Brett said.

I looked sideways at Pete to see his fork had been put down, and he watched me as well with hooded chocolate brown eyes.

Now, I’m not too prissy to admit I was in some ways curious.

I lived in the age of the internet, so I’d seen a bunch of monster dicks going into places it seemed physically impossible to fit them, and seen girls moaning like it was the greatest fuck they’d ever had.

Finding a partner similarly blessed and looking forward to a long life of painful sex and possible prolapse didn’t seem like the most awesome thing in the world, but as a once off…

He was like the sexual equivalent of bungee jumping or parasailing.

I looked back into Pete’s eyes and then said, “So you’ve been quiet during all of this.

Is every sexual encounter you have a foursome?

Do you like always sharing with your mates? ”

His eyes dropped to his plate, then flicked to Brett and Darren before coming back to me, meeting them head on.

“A lot of girls, when they’re horny, think it's gonna be the greatest thing in the world, so the expectations are sky high. But when it comes down to it… Hearing a girl yelp in pain doesn’t do it for me, not even a little bit.

Watching them freak out and pull away, trying to put as much distance between you and them…

” He turned back to his food and picked up his fork, methodically putting food in his mouth and chewing.

Don’t look at his pants, don’t look at his pants , I told myself over and over.

The part of me that wasn’t an arsehole recognised that his story made me sad.

I couldn’t imagine the majority of my sexual relationships ending with my partner shrinking away in horror.

The other part wondered just how big was big.

"OK, I get that I asked, but seriously, enough. You call him Monster?” I shook my head. “Look you guys, you all talk amongst yourselves, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Then you can circulate something for me. I had a chat with a couple of the married guys here, and they’re going to ask if I can get permission to take meals over in their mess.”

“Fuck, you wouldn’t,” Darren said.

“Yes, I will disappear into the married quarters. Fuck, I’ll ask for my accommodation to be over there if needs be.”

“Or…” Brett said, jaw flexed tight.

“Or you can circulate that I want everyone to back off a bit. I’m in a new job, a new place, and I’m trying to adjust. I’d like to get to know my workmates, not be told about the size of their dicks within five minutes of a conversation.

I get that I started this, and I’m sorry Pete. I shouldn’t have checked you out.”

“It’s OK,” he said with a small smile. “I checked out your arse when you took off for the admin building.”

“OK, then we’re all even here. But going forward, I want everyone to chill. No more getting food for me, or offering to stretch my vagina enough to take your friend’s dick, are we clear?”

“That go for Shaun as well?”

“It goes for everyone.”

“Yet he gets to take you out this afternoon.”

“Because he was nice to me.”

“You can’t blame us,” Brett said, seemingly the leader of this little crew.

“Some guys, they do the nice and supportive thing well. Some guys, their skills are elsewhere. Every guy that’s interested is gonna want to offer what they have, no matter how you might react, just in case it gets them a picnic in the afternoon sun.

” He got to his feet, Darren following hard on his heels.

I turned to Pete, putting a hand on the broad expanse of his arm as he went to go as well.

“Y’know a woman that wants you for you, she’s going to find a way to deal with whatever you’ve got going on there. Women have babies, some even stick fists up their twats. There has to be at least one who’d be able to deal with what you’re packing.”

“Yeah, maybe,” he said, and then followed his mates out of the hall.

“Hey Finn, you want me back at the shed, over?” I said into the walkie talkie.

“Yeah, we are en route. Get the doc and tell her we have some injured incoming. You might need to broaden your skill set and act as a nurse.”

“Um…” Was he fucking serious? Can do attitude, Jules, can do. “OK, will do.”

I made my way over the vet at a rapid clip, Buddy getting tangled in my feet, thinking I was playing again.

“Settle down, dog!” I snapped. “Stay here,” I said, and he settled down by the surgery door.

I opened it to find the vet working at her computer, a sandwich sitting uneaten beside her.

“Doc, I just got off the comms with Finn, and he said they are bringing in some injured people?”

“More?” She sighed and got to her feet. “Help me get the kit out, then scrub up using that soap over there. Do not touch anything once you’ve washed your hands.

” Several guys came in not long afterwards, carrying the limp body of a man.

“On the table,” the doc said. “What do we have? Contusions and lacerations?”

Whoa. When I turned around, I saw the man was covered in blood, long shallow slashes having cut through his clothes and skin.

I swallowed, then blinked. I’d seen stuff like this on TV, but never in real life.

I knew I should do something, anything, as the man moaned in pain, but I found myself frozen to the spot.

“Yep. Billy will be fine for now, it’s Neil I need you to look at. We’ve applied a tourniquet,” Finn said, striding into the surgery.

“This is happening with greater frequency. It’s just getting worse as we get closer to the full moon.”

Finn seemed to see me for the first time. “Julie, can I get you to go to the mess hall and grab us some coffees? We missed lunch and are running on empty.”

That was what I needed to reanimate me. I shook my head, trying to clear it, and said, “Sure, of course. I’ll bring some food as well.”

He just nodded, and I took off at a run.

Fifteen minutes later, I’d loaded up a trolley I’d borrowed from the kitchen staff with jugs of hot tea and coffee and a tray of sandwiches, and was pushing it over to the surgery.

I left the trolley outside, as there was a bit of a step in front of the side door, and I couldn’t lift it over without dislodging some stuff.

I grabbed the jug of coffee and some mugs, and pushed my way through the first swinging door.

“You’re going to have to watch the girl. With her heritage, she’s going to be one of you, and uninitiated is vulnerable. They are getting more aggressive, looking for any vulnerability. They obviously think they can get through…” that sounded like the doc.

“Not if I can help it.” That was definitely Finn.

“That’s Sharlene’s son. David’s went last week, and Arlen’s,” another voice said. “They’re doing what they can, but seriously, they need help. We need to go through the gate with some reinforcements.”

“Not with new blood around.”

“Those guys know how to mind their manners.”

“And if she goes into heat?”

“Yeah, alright, but you’re going to have to pull everyone back. Right now, we can't protect the whole area.”

“That means we cede the land to them.”

“I don't know what else you want me to do.”

I made a bunch of scuffling noises in the airlock and then pushed my way through, letting the doors bang behind me.

“Got the coffee,” I said. “There’s mugs and tea and milk and sandwiches outside. I’ll bring them in.”

“Thanks, Jules,” Finn said, looking exhausted. “Slade, give her a hand, will ya?”

Slade was a well-muscled guy with short, reddish hair and a scruff of a beard across his chin.

“Alright.” He didn't wait for me, striding out the way I’d come as I set down the jug and mugs.

When I went outside, he was looking at Buddy with a slight smile.

“You got him well trained. Most dogs would have scoffed the lot while we were inside.”

“Nah, not Buddy. Good boy!” I said, and tossed him half an egg sandwich.

“He thinks you’re the alpha,” Slade said.

“Maybe. Animal behaviourists are revising their thoughts on that now.”

Slade shrugged and then put me to shame, picking the trolley up with little effort and placing it inside the entrance.

“Looks like you have no problem calling the shots with the dog.”

Inside, I made everyone their drinks and handed out the food. They seemed grateful, though distracted.

“Look, I’ll be stuck here for a while with the doc,” Finn said. “Training’s not going to happen today. It’s two o’clock, why don’t you call it a day?”

“You sure?”

“Yeah, go home. You haven’t had much of a chance to settle in, and we can try again tomorrow. It looks like we have a security problem, and I’ll need to focus on that. Until you get your full training, I won’t be able to take you with me.”

“Oh, OK.”

“I’ll come by your bungalow at 9 am, and hopefully we’ll have a better day.”

“No problems,” I said. Slade watched me stand up, his tea cup frozen midway between the saucer and his mouth. I waved goodbye awkwardly and walked out. They want to get rid of me , I thought as I left, why?