Daelyn blushed. The coverall was a bit tight over the chest and looser in the shoulders and waist.

  "Yes, Uncle."

  "Now, Trent has a bunch of sheet metal work for the new engine's cab that he needs help with, and I thought you might enjoy helping him."

  "I thought that was Duroth's job?"

  "Well, Duroth apparently wasn't paying enough attention to Trent's instructions. Mind you don't make the same mistake. Trent's not the most patient dwarf here in the shop; however, he is one of the most gifted."

  Daelyn nodded, eyes wide, and quickly ran off to Trent's bench on the other side of the workshop.

  "Ah, good, yer here. Samis tells me you know how to pay attention?"

  Daelyn nodded.

  "Good, because I hate to repeat myself. Now, go get a couple of five-pound hammers and some earplugs and meet me in the shed out back."

  Daelyn nodded again and ran off to the equipment cage, got the required equipment, then ran out to the small shed. There was a large piece of sheet metal sitting on the platform. The ends were curved, and there were a number of tabs sticking off the side. It took her a moment to realize it was the side cover to the engineer's open cab.

  "Now, put your earplugs in, and pay attention."

  "How can I hear you with my earplugs in?"

  "That'd be your problem," Trent said, scowling.

  Daelyn shrugged and put them both in, though she left one out just a little bit so she could still hear him.

  "Now," Trent continued in a voice that wasn't exactly loud, "we're starting with the easy side. See all those dents and dings?"

  Daelyn followed his finger with her eyes as he pointed to the divots in the metal. Some were fairly large, but most were small.

  "I'm going to pound one flat so you can see how it's done. Then you're going to do one as best you can, and I'll finish it. Got it?"

  Daelyn nodded.

  "Good, now check your earplugs, this is going to be noisy.

  Daelyn watched as Trent pounded out the large divot; it took him a minute to get almost all of it done with one of the five-pound hammers. Then he picked up a smaller one and carefully tapped around it for another minute or two.

  When he was done, Daelyn was impressed.

  "Okay, your turn!" Trent said and pointed to one of the smaller ones.

  Ten minutes later, and she'd definitely made it smaller. She was pretty sure about that, but hammering it down had led to some effects on the metal surrounding it, and as she tried to deal with that using the smaller hammer, things just got worse.

  "Okay, let me take care of it," Trent said and, motioning her to move back, he took the hammers. As she watched, he fixed it all, but it took him a lot longer than the first one since he had to clean up the mess she'd made.

  "I'm sorry I made a mess of it," Daelyn said with a heavy sigh.

  "Have you ever worked sheet metal before?" Trent demanded.

  "No, Sir!" Daelyn said in a worried voice.

  "Then don't go apologizing. I only stopped you because it looked like you were getting the hang of it, but I figured it'd take you another hour to get it right, and I'd rather you started on a fresh one. Teaching you to fix your mistakes is a whole 'nother lesson. Now, do this one," Trent said, pointing to another divot and handing her back the hammer.

  Trent let her work on it for ten minutes before he took over.

  "See? Not as bad as the last one, is it?"

  Daelyn shook her head. "No it's not, Sir."

  After he'd fixed that one, he let her do the next one.

  By the time they were finished with that piece of sheet metal, she was only working on them for a minute or two before he'd take over and finish smoothing them out. He'd shouted out a few tips while she was hammering, and only once did he have to tell her something twice.

  She was actually starting to enjoy the feeling of holding the hammer in her hand, and the way it felt when she struck the metal with it.

  "Well, let's call it a day," Trent said.

  Looking up from the work, Daelyn noticed it was past noon! Looking at her watch, she could see it was after three; they'd been working for almost seven hours straight.

  Trent laughed. "Yeah, working metal is like that, kind of makes you lose track o' the time. Drives the wife crazy. You did good, Daelyn. Come back tomorrow, and we'll start on the other side. That one's got a couple of rips in it, so after we smooth it out some, we'll need to weld in some extra material."

  Daelyn nodded. "Thank you, Trent! I really enjoyed that!"

  "'Course you did, you're a Gold. It's in the blood. Your father was just as good. Now, off with ya. I got things I need ta do."

  Daelyn was positively smiling when she caught up with her uncle. She accepted his offer to eat dinner with her aunt and cousins; Aunt Sarah was a wonderful cook, and Daelyn was starving after missing lunch.

  Neither Sarah nor Samis missed Daelyn's pleased expression as they ate dinner, and Samis wasn't at all surprised when she showed up early for work at the museum the following morning.

  Come Monday, Daelyn regretted that she had to go to school. She'd rather be at the museum continuing to learn about working metal with Trent. But everyone had to attend classes until they were eighteen, and there were no exceptions.

  School was more of a chore than it normally was; her friends all wanted to commiserate with her over the loss of Wermat; and Daelyn had suddenly found she didn't care.

  "What do you mean you don't care?" Duri said, surprised.

  Daelyn shrugged. "Just that, I don't care. If he's not dwarf enough to stand up to his parents, well, I don't want him."

  "It's not like you've got a lot of choices, Daelyn."

  "Here in school I don't," Daelyn agreed. "But once I get out of it…"

  "What's that supposed to mean?" Josephine asked.

  "It means I'm gonna knuckle down and learn me skills and get so good at them that after I graduate, the adults will start to look at the talented woman in their midst, and they won't be listening to their parents about who they should or shouldn't date!" Daelyn said forcibly.

  "What happened to you over the weekend?" Duri asked, surprised. "I know it was a long one with the holidays, but it wasn't that long!"

  "I discovered metal working," Daelyn said with a grin, "and I got my crafting challenge from me uncle."

  "Oh? What'd he get you? Jewelry to fix?"

  Daelyn snorted. "Something much better than that."

  "What could be better than that?" Josephine asked.

  "He got me an old classic car that had been totally wrecked, and I'm to restore it to brand new."

  "Eww!" Josephine said laughing.

  Duri, however, looked a bit more thoughtful. "I don't know, Jos, Daelyn's always been more talented with mechanical stuff than us." She laughed then. "She's more talented than half the boys!"

  "Part of why they hate her," Josephine grumbled.

  "What, that bothers you?" Daelyn asked, surprised. Josephine was really more Duri's friend than hers.

  Josephine nodded. "Of course it bothers me! They always snicker when I pick up a screwdriver to work on anything, but when you do it? Silence. That's why some of them are so mean to you; they know you're better than them, and they're embarrassed that a 'girl' is better than they are, and I sit there quietly cheering you on every time you show them up!"

  "Wow, I had no idea," Daelyn said as Josephine looked a little embarrassed. Josephine was very popular with the boys; they were always chasing her, and it was only now that it occurred to Daelyn that she hadn't ever seen Josephine date any of the boys in school. Suddenly she didn't feel so bad; apparently she wasn't the only one with boy problems.

  "So what are your plans for tonight?" Duri asked.

  "I'm going to work on my car," Daelyn said.

  "What? Don't you want to come over and watch a movie?"

  Daelyn shook her head, "I need to take it all apart so I can start to figure out exactly what I need to do to fix it."

  "Well don't get so caught up in it that you forget who your friends are!" Duri joked, and even Josephine giggled.

  "Well, you can always come and keep me company while I'm working!"

  Daelyn smiled and looked at the massive pile of old and bent parts arranged on the floor of the shop. It had taken her a month, but she'd gotten it all broken down into its base parts. Working for Trent had been a godsend she kept thanking her uncle for every chance she got. He'd introduced her to a dwarf who straightened frames on cars and was going to teach her all about it, using the 'Cuda's frame as the example.

  The guys at the shop had all agreed that she needed to fix the frame first, then rebuild the suspension. Once she had a rolling chassis, the rest would make sense as she slowly rebuilt the car one piece at a time. The guys at the shop had been so impressed with the project she'd take on; they'd even invited her to take place in their little hammer throwing contests out behind the museum on Sunday nights.

  Yeah, she still wasn't dating anybody and the guys in school wouldn't talk to her, but she didn't care. She had a social life, she had friends, and her Aunt Sarah was right, she was only sixteen! Somewhere out there there was a guy for her, and if she had to hit him upside the head a few times to get his attention, well then, that's just what she'd do.

  Discussion

  "Wow, the guys were worse to you than they were to me I think," Jolene said, and leaned over to give Daelyn a hug.

  Daelyn was both surprised and a bit happy that each of the girls gave her a hug in turn.

  "Yeah, well, it was rough, I admit, but," Daelyn grinned rather fiercely then, "I got Sean and I got my 'Cuda! So I can't complain too loudly!"

  "Way to go, sister!" Peg said and clinked her glass to Daelyn's mug.

  "And I believe that brings us to Rob," Peg said with a grin. "What's your tale of sorrow and woe?"

  "Screw that!" Roxy laughed, "I want to hear how she got Sampson! Sean always makes him out to be some larger-than-life and completely deadly man. Even his Mom seems to talk about him in hushed tones!"

  "Well, he was a lion," Roberta said, blushing.

  "Yeah, and so's our hubby! Come on girl, dish! Tell us how you did the deed!"

  Daelyn nodded and grinned. "I seem to recall something about a 'hold me beer moment'?"

  Roberta laughed, and then blushed again. "Well, you have to understand that I used to dress the way Cali dresses."

  "What's wrong with the way I dress?" Cali asked, looking down at her outfit, which consisted of skin-tight short-shorts and a tube top so thin and tight that you could see through it.

  "Well, nothing, if you want to attract lots of attention." Roberta grinned. "And trust me, at the age of sixteen, with all those male lycans running around the Sorceress Guild, I was not at all shy about attracting their attentions and had yet to discover the meaning of the word 'no'!"

  "But Sampson changed all that?" Cali asked.

  "Well, hasn't Sean?" Jolene asked.

  Cali blushed. "I like the way he looks at me."

  Roxy laughed. "I know he does as well!"

  "Anyway," Roberta said, leaning back in her seat and sipping her wine, "I was a pretty wild child and when I saw my first lion..."

  "You had to have him," Peg finished.

  "Yeah, but being a lion, he wasn't about to cooperate…"

  Roberta

  "Whoa, who's tall, broody, and sexy over there?" Roberta asked Joyce.

  "Huh?" Joyce asked, looking around.

  "The lion," Roberta said, giving a slight nod to the rather tall and buff-looking werelion in his hybrid form working over on one of the guild's trucks. Roberta had seen some buff lycans before, a lot of them either visited or stayed at the guild with their girlfriends here, but she'd never seen a lion before.

  "Oh, that's Sampson. Dean and a few of the other wolves know him. When they couldn't fix the truck, they asked him to come up and give them a hand."

  "Well, damn, is he sexy! Has he hooked up with anyone here yet?"

  Joyce shrugged. "I don't think so, but if you want him, you better strike fast!" Joyce giggled then. "'Cause there's definitely a lot of women giving him the eye."

  Roberta nodded and noticed that a couple of the older women were definitely looking him over as they walked by, while Sampson himself seemed unaware of the attention he was drawing.

  "Know anything about lions?" Roberta asked Joyce as she decided to go make a play for the big lycan.

  "Nope!"

  Smiling, Roberta ran her fingers through her hair, gave a quick check to the tight clothes she fancied, and walked over to the lion, who had his hands deep into the engine compartment of the truck.

  "Hi!"

  "I'm busy," Sampson grumbled, looking at something.

  "Hi, Busy! I'm Roberta!" she said with a laugh.

  Sampson turned and looked at her, his eyes suddenly going wide in shock as he straightened up abruptly, whacking his head with a very loud 'bang' into the heavy hood of the truck.

  Roberta's eyes widened in surprise at the reaction, and she put a hand on his arm. "Are you okay?"

  "What, what are you doing here?" Sampson mumbled at her, looking stunned.

  "I live here," Roberta said. "Are you sure you're okay? I think you dented that hood with your head."

  "Unn..."

  "Let me look at it."

  Roberta watched as Sampson shook his head, then suddenly he looked embarrassed and a little sad. "I'm sorry. You just surprised me is all. My name's Sampson. You are?"

  "Roberta," Roberta said, smiling up at him. He was probably seven feet tall; he was definitely a lot bigger than she was.

  "Oh, right," Sampson said with a slow nod.

  "How about we go get something to drink," Roberta asked with a smile, "while your head recovers?"

  "Umm, I'm okay. I umm, promised Dean I'd get this fixed, then I got to get back to work."

  "Well, maybe after you're done?" Roberta asked with a smile and started to slowly stroke the arm she still had her hand on. There was some serious muscle under that fur, but then he looked like he was built like a weightlifter.

  "I, I don't think so," Sampson said, and as she watched, he seemed to pull himself back together.

  Roberta pouted at him; she knew she looked sexy when she did that, and none of the lycans around here had ever resisted her advances before. She knew she was attractive, she could even see the flicker of interest in his eyes as he'd looked her over.

  "Why not?" she asked him, a little brazenly.

  "You're too young."

  Roberta snorted. "As if."

  "For me you are, I don't care what the local laws may say."

  Pouting some more, Roberta turned and walked away, slowly, letting her hips sway just a little. Glancing back over her shoulder, she could see he was watching her, but the look on his face wasn't one she was familiar with.

  "So, finally struck out?" Joyce asked, chuckling.

  "I'm not done with him yet, not by a long shot!" Roberta declared.

  "Well, as Jane is making a beeline for him, I suspect you are."

  Roberta grumbled and looked. Sure enough, Jane, one of the other sorceresses here, who was probably twice Roberta's age was now talking to Sampson.

  "Why would he want her when he could have me?" Roberta complained.

  "We're only sixteen, Rob. Some guys have issues with that."

  "But sixteen is legal in Nevada!" Roberta said as she turned away and headed for the main building. She had lessons anyway, and she doubted her teacher would have appreciated her skipping out, even if it was for a big, buff lion.

  "Oh, like you have any problems with finding a guy to sleep with!"

  "But I wanted that one!" Roberta said and pouted again.

  "Well, we can't always get what we want, now can we?"

  "Now you sound like my mother!"

  "No need to get cruel!" Joyce said, laughing.

  Roberta sighed heavily; she'd never been turned down before, never! Not once! She was going to get that lion, oh, she was going to get him if it was the last thing she did!

  Roberta looked at the string bikini in her closet. She suspected her mother would have a fit if she found out that Roberta had bought it, much less that she was about to put it on and walk around in public with it.

  But Sampson was up here again this weekend. She'd been watching him for six months now, waiting for the right time to ambush him once again. Unfortunately there hadn't been many opportunities, but she'd been learning what she could about him. He came up about twice a month, and after spending the day working and helping Dean out with maintenance on the guild's vehicles and other equipment, he'd end up in bed with one of the many women who lived here.

  But he'd never slept with the same one twice yet. He lived somewhere down in town; apparently he worked at one of the casinos as the head of their maintenance staff or something.

  He didn't talk about himself much, and with the way he was built, none of the women seemed to mind the lack of pillow talk. She'd found out that lions were rare, and as far as anybody knew, there'd never been one in Reno before. Also, while the other lycans wouldn't talk about him to her at all, she couldn't help but notice the obvious respect they had for him.

  Well, she'd just turned seventeen this week, so maybe she wouldn't be 'too young' for him this time. She was definitely going to pull out all the stops and downright flaunt her charms at him as blatantly as she could. She was young, she had a body that any man would kill for, and she knew how to use it.

  And damn it if she wasn't going to use it on him!

  Grabbing the bikini out of the closet, she put it on. Thank goodness it was warm outside today! Hopefully everyone would think the red of her skin was just the sun and not the fact that she was embarrassed by running around all but naked. But damn it all, no man, lycan or otherwise, had ever said no to her before.

  Steeling her nerves, she put on her sandals, grabbed a towel, and headed down to the pool, taking a more roundabout route, one that would take her past where he was working.