Chapter 37

I got home about three minutes before Akane and Veronica, who had both sent me some interesting text messages about an hour or so ago.

Akane: hey roxy can you have nel waiting for me in my room when i get home?Roxy: Sure, but I can get you Nel's familiar, too, if you'd like?Akane: <3

Veronica: Roxy, I apologize if this is impertinent, but... do you happen to... like alphas?Roxy: The short answer is, yes. Why do you ask?Veronica: May I pay you a visit this afternoon and explain in-person?Roxy: Sure thing.

I had just closed my bedroom door when I heard the front door open, and sighed, opening it back up and sticking my head out to greet Akane and Veronica.

"So, how're you two doing?" I asked.

"It's our last weekend before finals and graduation," Akane said. "So we are going to relax."

"As much as we are able, at any rate," Veronica said. "In all honesty, our successful graduation is all but assured, but there are significant enough benefits to graduating with honors, which requires exceptional performance on the final exam, that we judge it to be worth the effort of preparing as much as we have been."

"And part of that preparation is taking some time to unwind, relax, and take care of ourselves," Akane said. "You two have fun talking about swords and guns, or whatever it is alphas talk about when there aren't omegas and betas around. I am going to get fucked."

With that, she opened her bedroom door, stepped inside, and shut it.

"I bet my sword is bigger than yours," I said, turning to face Veronica.

"Hm? Why would that-" She blinked, and then blushed mightily.

"C'mon in," I said, beckoning her into my own room. "Let's talk."

She stepped in and past me, and I closed the door behind her, taking in the sight.

Which... honestly wasn't all that impressive. Hers was a pretty face, sure, but the full suit of plate armor she wore, while aesthetically pleasing, was not precisely what I'd call erotic.

"So..." Veronica began quietly. "When... you said that... the short version was, you did... like alphas...?"

"The long version," I said, taking pity on the poor anxious girl, "is that I'm from a world where humanity's sex/gender variance was different. This world, with its alphas and betas and omegas, feels to me like it only really has one gender, in three different flavors, none of which override my baseline attraction to that gender. Which is, obviously, a pretty reductive viewpoint, being basically 'a hole's a hole,' but unfortunately, I can't change where I grew up, and it's going to take a long time for me to properly naturalize to this world and its cultural norms."

"I... see," Veronica said.

"However," I continued, "if your goal here is to get me to kiss you some more, on purpose this time, then sure, I'd be happy to indulge you."

"I- you-" Veronica started stammering, then shook her head, her blush renewing itself. "You are incorrigible."

"I assure you, I am toning it way down for you," I said. "If I went into any amount of detail about wanting to fuck you, you'd probably burst into flames."

Veronica, at that, got so flustered that she had to sit down, in one of the chairs I had just scattered around my room because organizing is for suckers, and the only cleaning I did was immediately after alchemy, using disinfecting magic.

"...I'm sorry," Veronica said after a moment. "I... must seem ridiculous, to you..."

"You seem anxious and uncertain," I said. "Which, with some basic empathy, is completely understandable: I'm the first alpha you've ever actually kissed, aren't I? And you've probably grown up with the idea that liking other alphas wasn't something you're allowed to do."

She nodded, silently.

"Well, allow me to tell you, right here and now... that's a load of bullshit," I said. "I, Roxanne Updyke, honored member of the Delver's Guild and personal friend of Cecilia Ironborn, hereby give you, Veronica Vega, explicit permission to want to kiss other alphas. In fact? I'm going to tell you it's good that you like other alphas. It's good that you want to kiss me, because I want to kiss you too."

She made a tiny little noise, and squirmed in her seat, blushing even harder than I thought was possible; if it weren't for the fact she was a Paladin, I'd worry she was about to get a nosebleed.

"So," I said, sitting down on the side of my bed. "First and foremost, put that armor away; you're safe with me, and it'll just get in the way."

Veronica nodded, and closed her eyes, furrowing her brow in focus. With a tiny, barely-audible whuff of displacing air, her armor disappeared into her inventory, leaving her in a gambeson and tights, both in pristine white cloth; likely enchanted, to keep from staining.

With the armor gone, I had a better, but still not unobstructed, view of her figure; after all, a gambeson was padded, and there were likely other enchantments at play to alter the fit, and possibly even flatten whatever chest she had, much like Akane's sports bra of holding. Still, the sight was worth taking in, with her decently broad shoulders, somewhat narrowed waist, and hips that were notably broader than average for an alpha.

"Now," I continued, lifting a hand to beckon her. "Come sit in my lap."

Hesitantly, she stood up, and approached me, before, with some more hesitation, seating herself in my lap, her back toward me.

"Do you just want to cuddle for now?" I asked.

She nodded.

"I can work with that," I said, wrapping my arms around her waist. "Let me know what else you want, once you're ready.

This was, I found, an interesting and fresh experience. Veronica was hardly the first submissive I'd had in my arms, but it was very disingenuous to compare her to Akane's ravenous hunger for girldick, or Nel's casual easiness with her sexuality. She was... she was shy, and nervous. She needed a caring, tender touch to coax her out of her bashful shell, and only then could I milk her prostate.

"You're warm," I said quietly, placing my chin on Veronica's shoulder.

"....Thank you," Veronica whispered back, placing one hand over mine. "You... you are warm as well. And... pleasantly soft."

I smirked.

"You like your alphas stacked, eh?" I asked, squeezing her tighter against my chest.

"I- ah- am... mostly neutral on it, but..." She swallowed, loud enough to be heard. "Well. Soft warmth is nice."

"Understandable," I said, nodding. "It's one of the things I like about Akane."

Veronica sighed quietly.

"I... must confess, as much as Akane is a dear friend of mine, I... cannot bring myself to feel for her the way an alpha should towards an omega," Veronica said quietly.

"That's alright," I said, squeezing her reassuringly. "You don't have to. The both of you have me."

Veronica swallowed audibly once more.

"Did that touch a nerve?" I asked.

"The... that... may have excited me," Veronica whispered.

"Oh?" I asked. "Does someone like the idea of being treated like an omega? Of being being in my harem?"

She squirmed a little in my lap, then nodded, wordlessly.

"That's nice," I said. "Because I'm a fan of treating you that way, too. As you can probably tell." I shifted my hips a bit, just to remind her that her ass was parked riiiight up against my cock.

"I- that-" She took a deep breath to center herself, then sighed shakily. "This is unfair. I am a prince in exile, heir to the rightful King of Vega. How is it you are able to undo me this thoroughly?"

"Because I wasn't raised by someone who taught me to be ashamed about liking girls," I said. Granted, that was mainly because I'd been raised by someone who thought I was a boy, but still. "Also, I do hope you understand just how much potent ammunition you just gave me with that one sentence."

"What do you-" Veronica began.

"Princess," I whispered into her ear. I then pulled my head back and cackled as she shivered lustily.

"So mean," Veronica grumbled.

"And you like it," I asserted.

"...Perhaps..."

I sighed contentedly, then adjusted myself a bit, scooting back on the bed.

"I think I'm going to tip us over," I said. "Let us lay down and cuddle. That alright with you?"

Veronica nodded wordlessly, and I did as promised, depositing us on our sides, before scooting back some more and pulling her away from the edge.

"This is an awfully large pillow," Veronica remarked.

"Yeah, it's... admittedly, not the best for laying on your side, considering the angle," I said a bit sheepishly. "But, well, despite how I've conducted myself so far, I'm gonna have to admit that I mostly only really use my bed for sleeping, and I do that on my back, where the wedge is a lot more comfortable."

"It's not that bad," she demurred.

"Fair enough," I said, then fell silent. I'd run out of things to say, and it seemed she had too.

"...So..." Veronica said, because I wasn't allowed to be right about things. "...what do you get up to, now that you aren't working as a longshoreman?"

"Well, I was doing some delving for a little while there," I said. "But about a week ago, I had to take a break to deal with that bandit gang I pressed into community service, and do some management there. Spent the last week or so helping them build some proper, permanent quarters to live in, and trying to find answers to 'what do we do with the kids,' because it turns out they do have families they'd like to live with."

"I see," Veronica said quietly, mostly to show she was listening.

"But," I continued, "I should have things settled and stable in another week, just in time for you and Akane to graduate. We can go on a delve together, see how compatible we are, and then go from there."

"That sounds nice," Veronica said, nestling back into me.

"And, of course," I said quietly, "I can take the weekend off to spend it with you, if you'd like."

Veronica hummed quietly. "I think I'd like that. Having an extra sparring partner would be nice..."

"I might even be a better fit than Akane," I added. "Did I tell you that I used that Slotless Paladin Unlock? I hit Level 3 with it right before I had to stop delving."

"Good," Veronica said. "Then I won't have to go easy on you."

I chuckled quietly. "I'm not getting into a sword-measuring pissing match with my little Princess," I said, relishing the surprised sputtering that provoked from her. "Now, how about a kiss before we take a nice little nap together?"

Veronica carefully rolled over in my arms, and gave me as unimpressed a look as she could muster, which melted as soon as my lips touched hers. She was warm and soft, and I let my eyes drift closed as we laid there enjoying each other. At some point, we'd have to let go and get up, but for now...

It was nice.