"Deep thoughts?" she asked and kissed him on the nose.

  "I think I could get used to this," he purred and kissed her back.

  "Good, you're supposed to. Now, as to why I needed your attention, Tredje came back with one of his scouts. It looks like King Sladd is dealing with a small gateway that opened up about a half day's walk from here."

  "That means we'll have at least a day before we need to worry about him, doesn't it?"

  Estrella nodded. "At least, and probably longer. There are other groups at a couple of the other lille helliges, but none of them are as strong as ours. So I expect him to deal with those first and save us for last."

  "Any idea how long that will be?"

  "Could be a couple of weeks, could be a couple of months."

  Sean smiled and, wrapping his arms around her neck, he kissed her back.

  "And all we need is for one of those gateways to open here, and we're home free."

  "Exactly!"

  "You know, I'm not feeling at all sore anymore. You?"

  She gave him a soft nip on the nose. "I thought you'd never ask."

  Nobody Asked Me...

  "Where the hell did this come from?" Oak yelled at the lycans gathered around a large number of pallets sitting in the middle of the parking lot out front, all but blocking anyone from using any of the cars unless they drove over the lawn.

  "Beats me," said Henry, one of the wolves from Sten's old team. "It was here when we came out this morning."

  "And no one saw who left it?" Oak said, looking around and shaking his head.

  "Nope."

  "What is it?"

  "Looks like ammunition, Oak. 5.56 by the markings."

  "What the hell are," Oak took a moment to count, "thirty-two pallets of ammunition doing in the driveway?" Pulling out his radio, Oak called Roxy.

  "What is it Oak? It's six a.m.!"

  "Did you order any ammo?"

  "No, why?"

  "There's a ton of it sitting out front here."

  "What? I'll be right out."

  "Hey, Oak!" Shia, Henry's girlfriend, called out. "What does 'AP' mean?"

  "What! Let me see that!" Oak said and, walking up to one of the pallets, he looked at the box on top. Sure enough, it was all marked as AP.

  Shifting, Oak ripped through the wrap holding the boxes to the pallet with his claws. Digging them into the top of one of the wooden boxes, he ripped the top off, grabbed the large green ammunition can inside and pulled that out, then opened it up and looked at it, gaping.

  "Is that what I think it is?" Roxy asked, looking over his shoulder.

  "What is it?" Shia asked.

  "Steel-tipped armor-piercing ammo," Oak said.

  "I thought we needed iron?"

  "It's not iron," Roxy said, looking around at all the pallets, "but it's the next best thing. Look at the size of the steel heads on those things!"

  "But where did it come from? And how the hell did it get here?" Oak said, looking around.

  "Who the hell cares!" Roxy laughed. "Get that up to the landing pad and have the teams start loading it into magazines. Call Chad and Claudia, have them send a helicopter over, and give each of them a couple of pallets."

  Oak nodded. "I'm on it, Rox! Henry! Wake the teams, we got work to do!"

  "You got it, Boss!"

  Smiling, Roxy headed back into the house.

  "What's going on outside?" Peg asked, yawning, "and where did all those boxes come from?"

  "Seems somebody dealt with our little ammunition problem," Roxy said with a grin.

  "Wasn't me!" Peg said holding her hands up.

  "I know that, you've been here all night, and so has Sheila."

  "Jack maybe?"

  Roxy shrugged. "I never got the chance to talk to him about it; he's been over at the Guard base the last few days dealing with some Army stuff or something."

  "Well, at least we got it. How much do you think is out there?"

  "Hopefully more than enough to carry us through until Dae's folks can start supplying us with the good stuff. If nothing else, I think our lives just got a hell of a lot easier."

  Heading back to the bedroom, Roxy hit the shower and got dressed. Waking the others up, she went in search of Maitland. Now that they had ammunition they knew would work, they'd have to re-assess their tactics. She'd call Chad and Claudia as well, and let them know.

  Ten minutes later Chad came running into the conference room, where she and Maitland were reviewing their supplies. They had a little over three hundred rifles; they were definitely going to need more, a lot more.

  "I just got the message!" Chad said, coming in. "Where'd you get it from?"

  "Tooth fairy," Roxy said with a shrug.

  "Markey did it?"

  Roxy shook her head. "I don't think so. In fact, I haven't seen him in a while. Any idea where he is?" She asked looking over at Maitland.

  "Not a clue," Maitland told her. "You'd have to ask Philo. Markey and I don't exactly get along."

  "How much is mine?" Chad asked.

  "I'd say about a third of it. How are you set for rifles?"

  "I've been buying them up or making them since I heard about the ammo."

  "Making them?"

  Chad nodded. "Doesn't take much to make an AR-15. The plans are all over the internet, and it's a pretty simple rifle. One of my guys owns a machine shop, and I've got him turning them out night and day. I think we've got about five hundred total. I've got them making magazines now, as well."

  "I'm gonna have Oak send a team to scour all the stores in Reno and buy up every magazine they can get their hands on," Maitland told them.

  "Don't bother with Cabela's," Chad said with a grin, "I had Ryan go down there and clean them out on Monday."

  Adam stumbled into the room, yawning.

  "What are you doing out of bed?" Roxy asked, surprised.

  "I needed to get away from Ryla for a while. She's a cross between excited and pissed, and keeps switching every thirty seconds."

  "Why's that?"

  Adam looked at Roxy and grinned evilly. "Why do you think?"

  Roxy started laughing. "You didn't!" she managed to choke out after a moment.

  "Course I did."

  "Did what?" Chad asked, looking between the two of them. Maitland looked on, curious as well.

  "How many?" Roxy asked, still laughing.

  "Three, like you asked."

  "Three what?" Chad asked.

  "Cubs. I put three cubs in Ryla."

  Chad looked at Roxy. "You told him to knock Ryla up? What the hell, Rox? And with triplets?"

  "I didn't think he'd actually do it!" Roxy said, reduced to giggling at this point.

  "Hey!" Adam said. "I did it because I wanted to do it. True, Roxy over there may have put the bug in my ear, but honestly, I like Ryla. A lot. When this is all over, I'm gonna stick around and do the family thing with her."

  "But triplets? Isn't that a bit much?" Chad said, looking at Adam in disbelief.

  "Nah, she needs the challenge. One wouldn't have been enough, and two might not even keep her busy. I already told her we're going to have a large family," Adam said with a laugh.

  "How'd she take it?" Roxy asked between fits of giggling.

  "She calmed down eventually," Adam said with a smile. "Well, at least she stopped trying to kill me. She wants kids; she's just been afraid to admit it."

  "And you know that how?" Chad asked, giving Adam the eye.

  "Because the sex afterwards was awesome." Adam laughed and winked. "I think she's just upset that I gave her three, not just one. So what are you all doing in here so early?"

  Roxy told him about the crates of ammunition out front.

  "I think I better get down to the armory and start loading magazines with the rest of them."

  "Still trying to fit in?" Maitland asked.

  Adam snorted. "Hardly. I just want to make sure I've got more than enough bullets, so I don't have to use the damn sword."

  "But the sword is such an elegant weapon!" Maitland retorted, looking offended.

  "In case you haven't noticed, elegant I ain't! If you need me, you know where I'll be!"

  Leaving the room, Adam made a beeline for the armory. There were already a couple dozen people sitting on the ground with boxes of ammunition on stripper clips, using little metal tabs to feed them into the magazines that were in another pile.

  Grabbing one of the large green cans, Adam scooped up a handful of magazines. Finding a clear spot on the ground, he sat down and started loading like everyone else.

  "Surprised to see you here."

  Adam looked over; that lieutenant from the Army had dropped down next to him with his own can and magazines.

  "What, think I can't load my own?"

  "No," Jack looked over at him and grinned, "I could hear you and your gal halfway across the compound."

  "Oh, that," Adam said and rolled his eyes. "We were just having a little fun."

  "Uh huh, and World War Two was just a minor disagreement."

  "Do you have a point?" Adam asked.

  "Actually," Jack sighed, "this attractive sergeant I've been making my own noise with down at the Guard base wants me to bite her."

  "Isn't it against the rules for officers to sleep with enlisted?" Adam asked as he went back to loading magazines.

  "Well, yeah, but I had my reasons. Not like I'm not breaking other rules when it suits me anyway. So what do I do?"

  "About what?"

  "Biting her. She wants to be infected. Says she likes the idea of being a cougar lycan a lot more than a wolf."

  "She knows about you?"

  "We haven't exactly been hiding it for a while now."

  "She tell you why?"

  "Because she wants to be able to fight the demons. She's not the only one down at the base who wants it. She told me there're a lot of them. They're pissed about what's going on and not being able to do anything about it, and after what that jackass from the Air Force did to them, they're even more pissed."

  "So why haven't you?"

  "Because we're supposed to ask. Since Sean's not here, and you're the only lion who is…"

  Adam sighed. "Do you want to?"

  Jack nodded slowly and started loading the magazine in his hand using the little tab tool. Adam was impressed; Jack had obviously done this before, and he made it look easy.

  "Yeah, I want to. She's older than me, but damn if I'm not thinking about hooking up seriously with her."

  "Then do it."

  "What?" Jack said, looking up at him. "What about all the rules and shit?"

  Adam shrugged. "Look," he said, lowering his voice, "I'm not much for rules either, never was. The rules say you need to ask a lion for permission? Well, you just got it. Knock yourself out. You think it's okay? Fine. Do it. Anyone bitches, tell them Adam told you to."

  "What about the others?"

  "You mean the other soldiers down at the base?"

  Jack nodded.

  "Check 'em out. If you think they'll do okay, send 'em up. Hell, see if you can get any of their pilots to agree. I know we're really short on experienced ones."

  "Well, that was easier than I expected it to be," Jack said with a laugh.

  "Like I said, I'm not much for rules. Yeah, I agree we need to be careful, but I'd hope, being an officer and all that, you'd know enough not to pick the bad ones. Now how about showing me the right way to do this with that little tab thing, because you're doing like four to my one."

  "Oh! It's just a matter of practice. Here, watch."

  #

  Adam checked his bandolier as they came in to drop him and the first team off. It was a large gate, and it had just opened about thirty minutes ago. As gates went, this one was fairly close to them, only about a ten-minute flight. As everyone was still sitting around the pads and loading magazines, they'd been geared up and ready in record time.

  But this time everyone had full combat loads, as Jack, the lieutenant, had called them. All Adam knew was, he was looking forward to this fight. Because today he was going to kick ass, take names, and push these bastards back through the damn gateway. They'd loaded up the four helicopters with externally mounted machineguns, and they were going to hose the area down, while the ones Adam and the others were riding in dropped them off at the landing zone.

  "Remember!" Jack was calling out on the radio. "Make every shot count! We don't want to waste ammo! It's real easy to burn through it fast; trust me, I know! This is going to be a long day. And save your empties! We need to send those back to be reloaded!

  "Adam, you got anything to add?"

  "Listen to the lieutenant!" Adam replied. "That's your tax dollars at work right there! Man's got more experience than any of us here using these rifles. If they're down and not moving, or moving slowly, use your sword to finish them off, don't waste bullets. Got it?"

  "Yes, Sir!" they all called back.

  "Great! Now let's pay them back for Tuesday!"

  They touched down, everyone piled out almost instantly, and Trey took off to get the next squad. About half the people in the group today were new; they'd taken such heavy casualties last time. When Jack had offered to join his team, Adam had taken him up on it immediately. Jack was an Army Ranger and had done two tours in the Middle East. There was no way Adam wasn't going to take advantage of that experience.

  They formed up quickly and approached at a walk, the last helicopter making one more pass on the demons by the gate and tearing them up with its machineguns.

  "Damn, can't say I've ever gotten here to find dead demons waiting for us," said Hunter, one of the team alphas.

  "I can sure get used to this," another wolf Adam didn't know yet remarked.

  "Lock and load!" Adam called out. Pulling out a magazine, he loaded it into his rifle and pulled back the charging lever. Checking the safety, he brought the rifle up to his shoulder and continued leading the others.

  "Volley fire on my command!"

  The demons were getting themselves organized and drawing swords.

  "Fire!"

  A hundred rifles went off as one, and the effect was everything Adam and the others had hoped it would be, as all the demons staggered back. Chad's group took the next shot off to his left, then Claudia's people to his right. Half the demons were down by now.

  "Fire!" Adam called again, and everyone fired another round. Maitland and Chad had both done everything they could to drill it home that, in the beginning, everyone would fire a single shot at the same time, so they could get an idea of how well they were doing. Also, it would conserve ammunition.

  After the other two groups had taken their volleys, it was clear that all the demons were wounded, and more than half were down. But more were coming through the gateway, and quickly.

  "Even numbers, fire on the front line at will! Odd numbers, fire on those coming out of the gateway! Go!" Adam ordered, and he could hear Chad and Jon, who was Claudia's lead, calling out similar orders to their own troops.

  Things got very loud for the next few minutes as everyone poured fire into the gateway and the area before it, but suddenly those shooting at the demons already there had run out of targets and stopped firing. Those shooting at the ones coming out of the gateway were still busy, but they'd found a rhythm, and were keeping up with the tide.

  Several ridders came through then, with a biskop, and those took a lot more bullets to put down, which allowed a large number of bonde to come through also, so the first group got involved again, but a minute later things were back under control.

  "Even numbers, start digging us in!" Adam called out after he'd stopped the slow advance. They had a good position now, and it was time to hold it. Sooner or later the enemy would figure out what was going on, and they'd adapt to it. Chad and Maitland had driven that lesson home as well. Dig in, get ready, and see what happens. They were going to be here for the next two and a half days, might as well get comfortable for a change.

  "Hey, they stopped!"

  Adam yawned and stood up, looking towards the gateway. Sure enough, nobody was coming out of it.

  "What time is it?" he called over the radio

  "Two a.m.," Chad replied. "I guess they're getting wise to something. That or someone finally got back through and told them what's going on here."

  "Took them long enough," Jon replied. "What do you think is going to happen next?"

  "Something different, that's for sure. Put the second team on the line, pull the first team back, feed 'em, check their supplies, and let 'em rest for a while. It's been over ten hours. When they start up again, we'll need fresh troops on the line, I'm sure."

  "Got it!" Adam said, turning to his own people. He relayed the orders and, after bringing the fresh troops up, he sent the others back. Someone had set up a kitchen or something back behind one of the rises.

  "Someone bring me back a bunch of food!" Adam called and sat back down.

  "Why don't you take a break, Adam?" Chad called.

  "Eh, I'm good. I want to see what they try next. I can eat and rest here just as well as back there, but the view's better up here."

  "Suit yourself."

  "I always do." Adam chuckled and settled down to wait.

  Two hours later the next assault started. The demons were coming through the gateway now with shields held before them, large ones that looked to be made out of wood or something similar. Each shield had a team of ten or so behind it.

  "Well, that's different," Adam remarked over the radio.

  "Yeah, it's not a bad idea, except for one thing."

  "What's that?"

  "We can shoot at them from behind!"

  As Adam watched, half of Chad's troops, and half of Claudia's, broke off and ran until they were behind the gateway, then started taking shots at the people behind the shields. It was harder to take them down, but they also couldn't come through in the numbers they'd been using before.

  They did have some success; they got a small camp set up, and it was coming along well, if slowly, until the helicopters came along and shot the hell out of it, then another one flew overhead, dropped a large bomb on the structure, and blew it apart.

  "I think we need to get some mortars," Jack called over the radio.