"Did you plant those bombs?" Sean growled, pressing with his power.

  "I..." Dawn hesitated; Sean could see she was struggling.

  'Allow me,' the First said.

  Sean 'backed off' and let the First take control.

  "You did it, didn't you?" he growled softly.

  "I…I…"

  The First smiled slowly. "This is going to be the last time you get to explain yourself, so you will do it now. You will tell us why you planted the bombs, why you wrecked the machine that will mean freedom for so many. Now, Talk!"

  "Yes I did it!" Dawn yelled.

  "Dawn! How could you?" Jonas said, shocked, and took a step away from her.

  "Because you're all such fools! Don't you see! The magic users only mean the best for us! They know what's right! They know what's best! We're just animals! We're not as smart as they are! They're the only thing that stands between us and the mundanes wiping us out! They're our masters, and we must abide by what they say! Not this demon! Not these fools!"

  'Mental domination spell?' Sean asked the First.

  'Years of conditioning, more likely. I wouldn't be surprised to find out her pack is weak, that the magic users helped her to get rid of anyone who challenged her. Also by doing this, they got an inside track on what the other packs were doing and would always be ready to counter it.'

  'I wonder why they didn't just wipe them out?'

  'Why waste the effort when you already have control of the problem?'

  The first turned to Oak. "Did Stewart live or die?"

  "Stewart survived," Oak said.

  The First nodded and turned back to Dawn. "You didn't kill anybody, well, not here at least, so I'm not going to kill you. However, your wolf is dead to you now. You will never shift again, never talk to her again. The others will all smell this and will drive you from their midst should you ever try to approach another lycan again."

  The First reached out and touched Dawn on the head as he said that, and Sean could feel it as he locked that part of her away from her forever.

  "Nooo!" Dawn screamed, and fell to the floor, sobbing.

  Sean took control back and turned to Granite. "Take her to the bus stop in town and dump her there. She's no longer our concern; she made her choice, she's no longer one of us."

  Granite nodded and grabbed one of her arms as Hoffen grabbed the other, and they dragged her, weeping, out of the room.

  "Why didn't you kill her?" Jonas demanded.

  "Because this was a more fitting punishment," Sean said, looking back at him. "Stewart was human, now he's a lycan; he had to be infected in order for him to survive. So I took from her the very thing I gave to him. "

  'Actually, I just wanted the bitch to suffer,' the First grumbled.

  'Sometimes I wonder how you managed to get this far,' Sean replied. 'Yeah, we want the bitch to suffer, but a just god is a lot more revered than a vengeful one!'

  Sean mentally pointed to Jonas, who looked both thoughtful and mollified.

  "Still," Jonas said, "I'm having trouble believing what I just saw, that you actually could do that to her."

  "I guess this means we're moving onto Eugene next." Sean sighed, and shifting back to his human form, he sat back down the chair he'd been in when they'd entered the room.

  "Why?" Jonas said, looking a little surprised at the change in topic.

  "Because whoever she was reporting to is in Eugene, which was in her territory, right?"

  "Oh, damn," Jonas swore, and looked worried.

  "Yeah, they're not gonna be happy they lost their pet wolf. I think we better send you home now before anybody finds out what happened, so you can tell all of your people their secrets aren't secret anymore."

  Jonas nodded. "It would be just like them to use them against us now before we could react. Do you have a phone I can borrow?"

  "It might be safer for you to call from somewhere else," Sean warned him. "Oak, do we have any vehicles we can use yet?"

  "Yes, Sean."

  "Get someone to take Jonas here over to the Reno-Stead airport. I'll call Terri and have her arrange a charter to fly him back to whatever airport he needs to go to." Sean turned back to Jonas. "I'll still need you to send me someone who knows what's going on in Eugene, and Portland as well. By tomorrow would be great."

  Jonas nodded, then paused a moment.

  "What do I call you, anyway?"

  "Sean works."

  "Yeah, but after what I just saw…"

  Sean shrugged. "It's complicated; trust me, just stick to Sean."

  Jonas nodded, and when Sean stuck out his hand, he shook it without hesitation.

  "Now, go with Oak."

  Sean watched as Jonas left the room.

  "Damn, what a morning. How about some lunch?" Sean said as his stomach growled.

  Roxy nodded. "Yeah, I like that idea."

  "Did somebody say lunch?" Jolene said, coming into the room with Peg and Philo.

  "Hungry?"

  "Very. Saving that guy's life drained all of us. Honestly, I still can't believe he lived."

  "Well, pumping all that liquefied food down his throat is probably what did it," Philo said. "Where in the world did you learn that trick from?"

  "Don't ask," Jolene said with a heavy sigh as both Sean and Roxy came over and gave her and Peg each a hug.

  "Food, then we can talk," Peg agreed.

  War Plans

  "Sean, what's going on that you had me come up here on a workday? And what in the hell happened to this place?" Chad said, coming into Sean's workshop.

  Sean looked up from the machine Daelyn was reassembling; watching her repair the broken parts had been both fascinating and impressive, he couldn't even tell where the welds were anymore, and he'd watched her weld it.

  "And what happened to Daelyn's leg?"

  "Jonas and Dawn came down last night, I don't know if anyone filled you in on that?"

  "Yeah, Ryan told me last night when he was giving me his status report."

  "Dawn's a Gradatim mole. She's responsible for the wounds on Daelyn's leg and the neat redecorating job. She also destroyed the tag machine I'd just finished."

  "Damaged," Daelyn corrected, "if she'd destroyed it, it would have been harder to fix."

  "Damn, isn't that the thing you've been working on for weeks?"

  Sean nodded. "Yeah, thankfully I'd finished it and gotten the final design committed. Fixing it won't be that hard."

  "And it won't be done until tomorrow," Daelyn warned. "I'm with Rox on this one, Hon. You spent too much energy today, you're getting a full night's sleep before you mess with this again."

  "So, where's the body?"

  "Whose body?" Claudia said, entering the shop with Max in tow. "And what happened here? I got a call from Oak asking me to come over. Told me you'd explain why you needed one of the helicopters this morning."

  "Dawn was a Gradatim mole," Sean said as Daelyn went back to work.

  "You shitting me?" Claudia looked around. "Where is the body."

  "I had the guys drop her off at the bus station."

  "WHAT?" Claudia, Max, and Chad said in almost perfect harmony.

  "After I took her wolf away."

  "You can do that?" Max asked.

  "Yeah, he's done it before," Claudia said to her daughter, then turned back to Sean. "When's she getting hers back? When she kills somebody?"

  "Never, I killed it. She's a human now with an extreme silver allergy. If she goes back to Eugene, I suspect her old pack will kill her if the Gradatim don't."

  "So, why are we here?" Chad asked.

  "Every secret that Dawn knew, the Grads know," Sean told them. "I sent Jonas back home immediately to warn everybody. I figure once Dawn warns the Grads, they'll probably take advantage of whatever they can."

  "Before anybody can make changes," Chad said with a nod.

  "Yup. I sent Sheila down to spy on her. Turns out she bought a bus ticket to Eugene; she'll get there tomorrow afternoon. She didn't call and warn them. Guess she's hoping if she tells them in person they'll be nice to her or something."

  "And you want to attack before then," Chad said with a heavy sigh.

  "I want to attack as soon as reasonably possible. Understand, right now, we're flying blind on this one. We don't know a damn thing about Eugene. How big a place they've got there, how many magic users, how many lycans. Hell, I don't even know how to get in touch with Dawn's second in command."

  "I know him," Claudia said. "I can get in contact."

  "Great!" Chad said. "But how do we know he's not a mole, too?"

  "We don't," Sean said. "I'm gonna have to vet all of her pack myself. Which will take time we don't have."

  "Claudia," Chad asked, "do we have a good place to refuel between here and there? Taking one of the helicopters would be helpful."

  "Check with your friend Terri," Claudia said, "she'd know."

  Chad nodded. "Do you know anyone we can trust who's been to Eugene?"

  "Terry, of the Oregon pack," Claudia said.

  "Oh, okay." Chad nodded. "Met him briefly when he was here. Guess I'll have to set up a meeting with him."

  "My brother lives up there," Daelyn said.

  Sean turned back to look at her. "He does?"

  Daelyn nodded. "There's a big community in the mountains between Eugene and Three Sisters. With all the volcanic activity, there's some worthwhile minerals to be mined there, but it takes a specialist, and well," Daelyn looked a little proud then, "my brother is one of those specialists. He lives up there with his wife and kids. Been looking for an excuse to go up and visit for a while now."

  "Do you think they know anything about the Gradatim in Eugene?" Chad asked.

  "Probably. I can call him up and ask him."

  "Great! Do you think the local dwarves might be willing to help us?"

  "Oh, I think I can arrange for that!" Daelyn grinned.

  Sean watched as Chad thought a moment and then turned back to him.

  "This is gonna complicate a few things, Sean. But if we're gonna hit Eugene, we might as well bring the resources and hit Portland next, then move up to Seattle. I wanted to talk with Art about San Francisco and helping him get dug-in in Sacramento, but that's gonna have to wait now, I guess."

  "How do we move our people up to Eugene?" Sean asked.

  "We'll use those two busses we've been renting and send along two of the tractor trailers with hardware and more troops in them. I really don't see that being too big of a difficulty. If Eugene is small, we can roll right over them pretty fast. It's Portland I'm worried about. We're gonna need local help to take them on."

  Sean nodded. "Okay, make it happen. I can give you a hundred and fifty of my troops. Tap everyone else for whatever you need. Hopefully we can send most of them back after Eugene and let the locals bear the brunt of taking Portland."

  Chad nodded. "Okay. I gotta get back to the shop and start calling people. Come on, Max, lots to do and not enough time to do it."

  "I think that's called 'Monday'." Max laughed.

  Chad laughed as well, and they left.

  "Damn, they make a good couple," Claudia said after they'd passed out of earshot.

  Sean nodded. "She really is good for him, way better than his last girlfriend."

  "So, why didn't you kill Dawn?"

  Sean shrugged. "It seemed to be a better example."

  Daelyn snorted. "It was the cruelest thing he could do, and one that will remind people what happens if you betray your own or piss of a lion. Rumors of this have probably already reached the other side of the planet."

  Claudia laughed at that. "Well, they haven't gotten to me yet, but I can promise you I'll do my part to spread 'em. Yeah, living without my wolf? I'd rather be dead."

  "Well, I'm done," Daelyn said to Sean. "Check it out, then I guess we can check on Stewart and see if he's regained consciousness or not."

  "Stewart?" Claudia asked.

  "He got caught in the blast," Sean said, motioning to the wrecked front of the building. "He almost didn't make it."

  "Ow. Where's he from?"

  "He came up from Sacramento to warn us about the attack. Sarah is his mom," Daelyn said.

  "Wait, isn't he a magic user?"

  "One of his girls bit him," Sean sighed, "it was the only chance he had."

  "His girls?" Claudia said looking down at him.

  Sean shrugged. "It's complicated, best I can explain it is he's treated them like regular people."

  "They're free, though, right?"

  Sean nodded.

  Daelyn snickered then. "He tells them they're still his slaves, and they threaten to make him their slave right back. He was actually trying to get them to stay here when he went off to apprentice to Gus Hampton up in Incline Village. I think he's afraid of what Gus might do to them.

  "I also get the impression they're afraid of what Gus might do to him as well."

  "Well, he won't be going anywhere, now." Sean chuckled.

  "Why's that?" Claudia asked.

  "'Cause now that he's a lycan, I'm going to make him my apprentice. I don't think Gus would teach a lycan, anyway."

  "I thought magic users couldn't be infected?"

  Sean shrugged. "Peg told me that if you're almost dead, you can be. It makes sense; both she and I were dying when we got infected. Seems to have worked for Stewart, too."

  Sean noticed that Claudia suddenly got a strange look in her eye.

  "No," Sean told her.

  "But I haven't even…"

  "Just 'no', okay?" Sean said, rolling his eyes.

  "Spoilsport. One of these days I'm going to find another lion and find out if in fact you really do speak for all of them, you know." Claudia checked her watch. "Well, I need to head back and start getting my people in order. I'm sure Chad's going to want to borrow some."

  "He does love overwhelming force," Sean agreed and waved to her as she left. Getting up, he went over to look at Daelyn's work.

  "Amazing, I don't know how you do it," Sean said, looking it over.

  "Of course not, you're not a craftsman!" Daelyn laughed.

  Sean pulled her close and gave her a kiss. "Thanks for fixing it, Hon. And I promise to wait until tomorrow before I enchant it."

  "Tomorrow morning," Daelyn warned. "After a night's rest. No running out here at midnight to get started on it!"

  Sean sighed dramatically. "Caught before I could even start!"

  "Uh huh. Let's go check on your new apprentice," Daelyn said and swatted him on the ass.

  "Yes, Ma'am!"

  "So is he awake yet?" Sean asked Sarah, who was taking with one of the girls who oversaw their small 'medical' area. Because lycans really didn't get sick or injured normally, Sean hadn't given much thought to any kind of real first aid or medical facilities. Obviously he'd have to change that.

  "Yes," Sarah said and smiled, "and thank you for saving him. April told me you risked yourself healing him. I'm in your debt, Sean."

  Sean smiled and gave an embarrassed shrug. "He helped us when he didn't have to. I figured I owed him whatever I could do."

  "Still, thank you! Art sends his thanks as well," she said and kissed him on the cheek.

  "You're both very welcome." Sean smiled and went inside to see Stewart himself.

  Entering the room, Stewart was lying in the middle of a bed with April on one side of him and Rachel on the other. Both were watching him like a hawk.

  "How are you feeling, Stewart?"

  "Please, Sean, call me Stew," Stewart said a little weakly.

  "So, how are you doing?"

  Stewart smiled tiredly. "I think I've finally won the 'who belongs to who' argument, well, at least for now, that is."

  Sean noticed both of the girls smiled happily at that.

  "Trust me, you never win that one!" Sean chuckled and put an arm around Daelyn.

  "Thanks for telling April to bite me. While I wasn't all that keen on becoming a lycan, well, not right now at least, it still beats being dead or crippled."

  "Oh, I know," Sean nodded, "I was infected as well."

  Stewart gave a slight nod. "My mom already told me about that. So I figure if you got through it, I can get through it too. Though I don't know if I'll still be able to apprentice for Gus; I'm not sure he'll teach a lycan, even if I pony up the money."

  "Don't worry about it," Sean smiled, "I found another enchanter who is more than happy to take you on as soon as you're feeling up to it."

  "Oh?" Stewart asked, looking hopeful. "Who?"

  "Me," Sean said, still smiling.

  Stewart looked confused a minute. "Everyone says you're a really accomplished enchanter, but they also tell me you're not any older than me. How is that?"

  "Oh, it's really simple," Sean said, looking serious for a moment. "You know what the most important rule of magic is?"

  Stewart looked at Sean carefully. "To always ground and center yourself before you start?"

  "Nope! The first rule of magic is to cheat outrageously. I suspect you're going to have to unlearn a few things over the next few years. I'm mostly self-taught, so cheating for me comes easy. I'll see if I can't get you something to study here in the next day or two to get started. I've really got a lot I want to show you, but right now, just take it easy and let these two teach you about your inner beast."

  Stewart gave a small nod. "Thanks for saving me, Sean. And thanks for taking me on as your apprentice and letting me stay here."

  "I'm just sorry you got hurt, Stew. After all you've done for us, and both of the girls there, it really wasn't fair to you."

  Stewart smiled at Sean. "I don't know, I still ended up with both of them, so I'm not gonna complain!"

  Sean grinned and, reaching over Rachel, he gave Stewart a pat on the shoulder. "Welcome aboard, Stew. I'll be around in a few days to talk about your training."

  Heading back outside, Sean turned to Daelyn. "I think we need a medical ward of some kind."

  "And some trained nurses, maybe even a doctor," Daelyn agreed.

  "Yeah, but where do you hire something like that?" Sean asked. "It's not like we can hire just anybody."

  "No, but you're family now and a member of my clan." Daelyn smiled. "I'll talk to my Uncle Samis about it."

  Sean smiled and hugged Daelyn again. "Thanks, Hon."