Chapter 1: Preparation

Shannon sighed. She was so not ready! The eighteen years old MAJOR had spent almost three hours already, working on her look. She had to be perfect. She couldn’t afford a bad impression. Her family would visit old friends for the first time in ten years. Their older girl had to be the absolute representative of MAJOR exquisite behavior. The Matthewson family had finally returned to Old Creek for a week, leaving their home near New Orleans. They had moved ten years ago, leaving a neighborhood tainted by the Mac Ferlan’s Incident.

Sharon remembered how she had cried at that time. She didn’t want to leave. All her friends were here. Jefferson, scrawny for a MAJOR but so funny; Elie, her long ginger locks the stuff of many jealous day-dreaming from her; Alaric of course stronger and calmer than any of their circle of friends. And Alejandro. Even today, ten years after seeing him for the last time, she remembered the Minor. He had been the first she had ever seen.

Shannon’s early opinion of those little peoples had been formed from her experience with him. And she had to admit that even as a kid, he had been far from the typical Minor. He had never been meek, almost never bonded by his parents and quite capable… and the cutest little bunny she had ever seen. She remembered how she always wanted to hug him, to cuddle him and to not let him go. Which is probably why he always avoided being alone with her!

Those fond memories brought a sad smile to Shannon’s face and forced her to return to the present time. This era had ended in horror. The stupid little girl she had been was no more, much like the innocent boy Alejandro had been, she was quite certain of it. Today, she was a rising star. Her parents both worked in new technology and she had absorbed so much knowledge living with them that she had already managed to launch her own tech-oriented business, Fire-Brand, which dabled in anything from Facebook to state of the art robots, applications for smartphone or new medical technologies. People were going crazy about it, and she was quite happy with that. Without it, she wouldn't have been able to buy for a week at Old Creek with her whole family.

She was already a millionaire and her wealth would only keep growing, she expected to be a billionaire by the end of the day, she was sure of it. Yet, despite all her accomplishments, she remained single. She had many MAJOR suitors, but she had so far refused them all. After all, MAJORS were easy to get for her. She was a beautiful black woman, after all, and rich as hell. Sure, not the typical trim and athletic MAJOR girl, but still. Her incredibly wide hips, her enormous ass and her gigantic breasts were only partially the result of  junk food but mostly came from genetic. Her heart-shaped face, almond eyes, with their deep and warm brown color remained, thankfully, almost untouched by her bad habit, being only slightly more plump than usual. She was able to turn heads wherever she went, and so far no MAJOR had resisted even on flex from her ass, when no Minor was on the ground.

For this very important evening, she had put a bright purple lipstick, the one which complemented so well her dark skin tone, and eye-liner of the same shade. She had chosen to let her incredibly long curly hair turn into a great black mane, which went so well with her purple dress. The cascade of black waves came to a stop just over her butt-cheeks, long enough to entangle a Minor or two in them. Her dress exposed just the right amount of her calves, and her nude back was covered most of the time by her hair. And incredibly vast cleavage was perfectly contained in it, thanks to her custom-made black bra she wore underneath. Still, all of this did not make up for her one blemish. Her freakish size.

Even for a MAJOR, Shannon was tall. In fact, she was ranked third in the Top Ten Tallest MAJORS of the country, where she was the first woman and the only one still young enough to grow more. She knew that most MAJORS would kill to be in her situation, since size and strength played such an important role in today’s society, despite its refinements. Sadly, such an insane size meant that every and all Minor she ever showed interest in had been too afraid to actually bond with her. She had never dated one, and yet, they were the ones who kept her awake at night, fantasizing about a life which would never be. And the simply idea of getting a Minor by force was abhorrent to her. She still remembered vividly the horror of the Incident.

Therefore, despite all her successes, she was still a bond-virgin.

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Alejandro grunted while lifting the 70kg (154 lbs) on his bench-press. It was his upper-most limits, had been for years. Still, frustration mounted. He was certain that, had he two arms, he would have been able to go easily through the hundred to reach the 150 and perhaps even above. Instead, he had to bother with putting his left stump into the prosthetic contraption he had created to even be able to lift weight. It was particularly infuriating when he remembered that his little sister, Lindsey, had been able to lift twice as much at age four without any difficulty.

“What are you doing!?”

As if he had called for her, Lindsey bursted into his room, as loud as ever. Alejandro liked his younger sister very much, but even for a MAJOR, she was incredibly loud. Somehow, she had never quite understood that Minor ears were sensitive, perhaps more than MAJOR’s when it came to loud sounds and felt the need to almost scream whenever she wanted to talk to him. It had been cute when she was a child. At twelve years old, it was really tiring.

“What do you mean, what I’m doing? I’m weight-lifting” answered the Minor with more than a little snark in his tone.

“I can see that ‘Rando, that’s the problem, you see” responded Lindsey, a little annoyed, which gave her the look of a little girl, something that Alejandro was quick to poke fun at usually. But not today. Today, even the use of her affective nickname for him was not enough to calm down his nerves.

“Why is that a problem exactly, lil’ sis?”

“You know exactly why, ‘Rando!” said his sister, stomping her feet in the process and making the whole bench-press shake dangerously.

“Hey! Careful with your stomp, you young whale!” exclaimed Alejandro, a little alarmed.

He had continued lifting while they talked, but now he was struggling with his bench. The contraption for his left arm had a problem, and his right arm was weakening by the second. If he did not put it in its place soon, the bar would fall on his ribs. He groaned, but just as he had almost managed to put himself out of trouble, his right arm gave up.

“Got it!” said very Lindsey, very loudly, catching the whole thing as if it weighted nothing. “There, it’s back at its place. Be more careful, bro!”

Alejandro shot her an angry stare, but his sister was very good at missing those sorts of things. Therefore, he gave her a good kick in the ankle, which made her scream. He packed a lot of strength in his legs, for a Minor.

“What was that for?” whined Lindsey.

“For bursting into my bedroom, stomping like a drunken elephant around and generally not telling me why you want me to prepare for tonight’s dinner so much.”

Alejandro watched his sister’s face. The soon-to-be teenager was clearly worried. Her ‘Rando was ready to let a lot of things she did fly, strangely enough, but some subjects were taboo. She was the only one allowed to call him by a nickname instead of his surname, and as he often pointed out, that was mostly because she had been unable to pronounce it when she was a small child; he even let her take him in her arms, and cuddle him a little, if she accepted to listen to his view of the world. Which she always did, because she liked his voice and she liked to cuddle him. Still, some subjects WERE taboo.

“Spill it, come on! If you want me to get ready for tonight’s, you better give me a proper reason. The sooner, the better, Little Lind”.

Lindsey smiled at her old nickname and finally managed to talk.

“The Matthewson are coming tonight. Mama told me you were friend with her older daughter Before.”

“Ah.”

Alejandro knew how much her sister liked stories from before the Incident. She had been too young to remember the trusting and happy Alejandro, she had always remembered the cynical and angry one. That’s why she loved so much to hear stories where he laughed, played outside with other MAJOR kids and lived all kind of adventures. She would love to hear him and the Matthewson’s daughter, Sharley, Sara, Something…  remembering the good old days. Alejandro wasn’t in the mood however. He opened his mouth to answer but Lindsey was quicker.

“Please, please, please, please!”

How was he supposed to say no to those big, grey, puppy eyes, seriously? He sighed with a hint of disgust.

“Fine! Fine… But I won’t get into a smoking or something, get it?”

“Yeah! It’s a deal, right!”

“Yep, it’s a deal. Now, get out, I’ve got to shower, I stink”

Lindsey bounced off, singing to herself. Her joy brought a smile to Alejandro’s face. It was so hard to remain cynical around his Little Lind.

With a grunt, he moved toward his shower. The double perks of being a Minor in a wealthy family meant that in his oversized room, he had access to everything he dreamed off: his bed, his library, his bench-press, his shower, his board, where he could draw whatever came to his mind, be it plans for a house or simply abstract art, his computer… Yeah, being a Minor had some advantages, you only had to know where to find them and how to make use of them.

Getting out of his clothes, Alejandro waited while the water got warmer.

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8.p.m.

Alejandro was pacing in his room, more nervous than ever. It would be the first time since Mac Ferlan that he would interact with a MAJOR outside of his family or the hospital's staff. Sure, the Matthewson weren’t supposed to be total strangers, but quite frankly, he did not remember them very much. If he recalled right, her daughter had been the last to give up and let Joseph claim him as “his”. But it wasn’t necessarily a plus. It could mean she was almost as bad as he had been.

“Calm down, Alejandro”, he said to himself. “You’ll just come by, say hi and sit at the opposite side of the table. Nobody expect you to be talkative. Sure, their children will probably try to get you to bond with them, but you’ve got Al, Lindsey and Mom and Dad there, you risk nothing.”

Still, repeating to himself that he would be safe did nothing to calm down his nervousness. Even his favorite clothes, a blue-jean, a black t-shirt and black snickers, which he had hoped would grant him a modicum of familiarity, did nothing to calm him down.

“I’ll go down, I’ll eat the first plate and then I’ll ask Al to bring me back here, lock the door and keep the key, that’s all” he said with an almost frantic voice. “No big deal.”

He knew he was lying to himself. His right arm shook like crazy, his left one had this cursed ghostly itch and his legs felt weak. Still, he refused to give in to his fear. If only the Matthewson could get here now, at least the waiting game would be over!

8.07 p.m.

As if on cue, a loud knock came from the entrance door.