She had taken control of that aspect of her life, but there was another over which she had no control. And that had taken a long time to… improve.

Megan had not been a virgin when she was brought to Paul’s harem but the subsequent rapes, and there was no other term, were not pleasant. But, over time, she had grown not only to accept them philosophically, but even to fall in love with her captor, horrible as that made her feel.

Paul could be a very charming man and he was the only source of news of the outside available to them. Once Megan had, slowly, gotten over her initial revulsion she had grown, however much she hated it, to first liking Paul and then, strangely, haltingly, loving him. She was a strong-willed young lady, educated beyond ninety percent of her generation. She was the daughter of one of the few remaining police in the pre-Fall period. Under her father’s pressure, and later her own, she had used advanced technology training methods to become more educated than most human beings in history. She was an expert forensic chemist, was highly trained in self-defense, spoke three dead languages, could cookÑanother almost lost artÑand could do calculus in her head.

Being a harem girl had not been on her list of avocations. So it nearly drove her insane that she was “falling” for her captor.

Eventually Paul, who had done research before setting up what he considered nothing more than a “breeding pool,” had explained that her reaction was anticipated. Captives who depended for their survival purely on the will of captors, who kept close and intimate contact, tended to bond to them. Not all; there was one girl, Amber, who had fought the captivity until she was eventually brain drained and left as a willing semivegetable to Paul’s desires. But Megan, like most of the rest of the “girls” had come to know Paul, to bond to him and through that bonding to love him.