The wolf he was fighting had recovered at that point but looked at Demon, dumbfounded, as Demon smiled and attacked. The wolf tired to shoot around the now screaming magic user.

  "Surrender, you fool!" the magic user yelled. "Or I swear by god I'll pop your pellet!"

  The wolf blinked once and Demon could see for an instant he was thinking about killing the magic user, but then he just dropped his weapon, fell to his knees, and raised his hand.

  "Collar him!" Demon called to one of the wolves behind him and stepped quickly around the kneeling wolf to attack the next one, who suddenly looked as panicked as the mage Demon was using as a shield.

  Looking around, Maitland laughed; several of his men, and even one of his women, had seized on the idea the aptly named Demon had struck upon and were now using the surrendering or captured mages as shields. The tide of the battle started to turn quickly at that point, as without the magic users threatening to pop their pellets, more and more of the defending lycans were tossing their weapons and dropping to their knees.

  Several minutes later, all of the fighting had stopped.

  "How many did we lose?" Maitland asked, looking around.

  "Five," Hunter growled.

  "How many did we kill?"

  "Fourteen of their lycans, and there are another eight who are severely wounded, but we think they'll pull through."

  "Magic users?"

  "Four dead, three crippled, another dozen wounded enough to take them out of the fight."

  "Do we have all of them?"

  "Yeah, they had everyone here; I guess they were trying to send them away before we showed up."

  "Great, let's get out of here."

  "What about their wounded?"

  "That's their problem," Maitland said. "We're done, pull everyone out. I'll let the Sapientia people know to drop the barriers."

  Hunter nodded and started to give orders on his radio. Apparently Sean wasn't the only one who didn't give a damn about the enemy. Several of the wounded his people were caring for probably wouldn't live much longer once they left. If the Vestis didn't scramble, they were about to lose those people, as well.

  And he really didn't feel all that bad about it.

  Agents of Fortune

  Sean was in his shop putting the finishing touches on the first of his necklace machines. Compared to the machine used to make the silver tags, it was faster to enchant, but not all that much easier, interestingly enough. Most of the process of enchanting the machine was fairly standard, he'd realized, regardless of what he was going to make the machine to enchant. The only real difference was loading the program to be used in the enchanting process. It was faster for the lycan necklaces because the program was a fairly simple one for him, as proven by the fact that he could actually make them himself without any extra support. But the silver tags were something he couldn't make on his own, and in fact needed massive amounts of energy to do so, hence the silver spool, the batteries, and the rest of the gear. So putting that enchantment into the machine took a lot more time and effort.

  It also showed in just how fast the machines could enchant, as well as how much silver each one would consume during the process. In the time it took to create four tags, they'd be able to make ten necklaces, and those ten necklaces used less silver to create than a single tag.

  With the machine done, he started enchanting the watch he'd more or less promised Stewart he'd make. He'd sent one of the wolves out earlier to a jewelry store to pick one up for him.

  "Whatcha' doing, Lion-boy?" Daelyn grinned, coming into his shop with the zipper on her coveralls pulled down far enough that Sean couldn't help but notice.

  "Making a training aid for Stewart to get him started on his journey to become a better enchanter."

  "Yeah, about that. Roxy said it's going to take him a couple of years?"

  Sean nodded as he got the watch prepared for enchanting. He'd tarballed his, but he was going to have to go into it afterwards to lock out some of the features he'd added, like all the virtual test gear he'd created, until Stewart was ready to learn it.

  "But I thought you taught yourself how to do it in a couple of months?"

  Sean shook his head. "Not really. The knowledge I used took me years to learn, it just took me a while to figure out how to apply it."

  "Oh." Daelyn came over and parked herself in his lap.

  "Somebody want something?" Sean asked and, putting an arm around her, he gave her a hug and a kiss.

  Daelyn laughed. "I've been feeling a little randy lately. My aunt tells me it's just a part of being pregnant."

  "You've all been feeling a little randy lately," Sean snickered. "I think that's the real reason Roxy wants me back here instead of out with the armies."

  "Umm hmm," Daelyn said and leaned into him. "So Rox tells me you had one of the wolves infect that secret service guy?"

  Sean nodded. "If he's going to be the one the government has keeping an eye on us, well, he might as well be one of us. I figure it'll give him a better understanding, as well as giving him more cred with any lycan he has to talk to."

  "Who'd you have infect him, Oak?"

  "Travis."

  "Why Travis?"

  "I thought he'd look good with black fur." Sean grinned. "I mean, he wears that damn black suit when he's working, right?"

  Daelyn just rolled her eyes at that.

  "Hold on a moment, I need to dump the programming into this watch."

  "Shouldn't I get outta yer lap for that?"

  "If I burn your clothes off, then I don't have to peel you out of them later!" Sean laughed, and putting an arm around her, he pulled her close as he set his other hand on the watch and put his left foot up on the stack of batteries he kept in the shop now so he could tap them. They still had a pretty good charge in them from enchanting the necklace machine, so it only took him a minute.

  "Hey! That tingles!" Daelyn said in a husky voice and started to grind up against him.

  "Oh?"

  Daelyn giggled. "Sorta like when we make necklaces the 'old-fashioned way'."

  Sean slipped his hands inside Daelyn's coveralls and slowly ran them along her smooth skin. Reaching up, he cupped her full breasts and gave them a squeeze.

  "Umm, yeah, just like that, Lion-boy," Daelyn whispered as Sean's hands stroked her body. Shrugging her shoulders, she let the top of the coveralls slide down and pulled her arms out of the sleeves, leaving herself naked from the waist up.

  Leaning forward, Sean kissed her deeply and purred loudly as he put one hand behind her back, and with the other, he pulled at her coveralls. When he realized he wasn't going to be able to remove them easily while she was straddling his lap, he let his claws slip out and simply tore them off of her.

  "I'd complain, but the sound of ya' ripping my clothes off to get at me just made me so much hotter!" Daelyn laughed huskily.

  Putting both of his hands on her nice well-muscled ass, Sean pulled her close, then lifted her up. He was already naked of course; he rarely enchanted with clothing on anymore.

  Daelyn quickly got the hint and, reaching down between them, she guided Sean inside her as he slowly lowered her back down, a lusty growl escaping his mouth when she slowly wiggled as she settled down onto his lap.

  "Have I told you how much I love you, Dae?" Sean sighed happily as he hugged her tightly against his body.

  "Not since this morning, I think," she chuckled.

  "Well, I do," Sean said and, leaning his head down to meet her as she tipped hers back, they kissed once again.

  "Now, how about us seeing just how well they made that chair?" Daelyn said with a grin.

  "Yes," Sean said and, leaning back from Daelyn slightly as she leaned back as well, he began to rock back and forth slowly, moving in and out of her in short strokes.

  Daelyn sighed and held onto his shoulders as Sean moved against her. Something about him in his hybrid form always set her off, that huge mane, and of course the huge muscles on his body. Sean was well built in human form, but like this, he had muscles few dwarves could even come close to rivaling.

  When they finally reached the limits of what they could do on the chair, she wrapped her legs around him as he stood up. Spreading his legs and using his tail for balance, Sean took her hard and fast right there in the middle of his shop. He was growling a long, low and lusty sound as she looked up into his slightly glazed eyes and ground back against him.

  She loved these displays of sheer strength, they appealed to her dwarven instincts, and when he finally hit his peak deep inside her with a loud roar, she joined him with an almost equally loud cry of her own.

  Sinking slowly to his knees, Sean kissed her and held her tight as he felt another pair of hands sliding over his shoulders.

  "Oh! That looked like fun! Can I be next?" Cali giggled.

  "Of course you can," Sean purred.

  It was dark outside and all of his wives had joined him in the shop. Someone had had the foresight to fetch a bunch of blankets, though Sean had no idea who, as he'd been involved in far more enjoyable efforts. They were all curled up against him, Roxy being the only one still awake, and even she was yawning.

  "So you finished the necklace machine?"

  Sean nodded and yawned as well. "I think I'll make another one tomorrow so we can keep Sawyer well supplied. I haven't talked to Deidre lately, but I suspect money is getting tight."

  "You shouldn't have promised Chad those helicopters." Roxy snorted.

  Sean chuckled softly. "It was worth it."

  "What you really need to do is make more of those tag machines."

  "I know," Sean agreed. "I think I can do it in about two days now, but I'm going to be pretty tired at the end of it. Loading the program into it is the hard part."

  "Well, you're home now, so make the most of it," Roxy yawned and snuggled up under his chin.

  Sean nodded and yawned again; Roxy had already fallen asleep. It felt a little bit nostalgic sleeping on the floor of his shop, reminding him of some of the places they'd been forced to seek shelter months ago, when all of this started.

  Closing his eyes, Sean thought about visiting the other lions. It had been a while, and he'd be rather curious to hear their thoughts on what he'd done today.

  §

  Sean woke up in the middle of what looked like a war! All the lions were wearing armor that reminded him very much of faerie armor and wielding those big swords Maitland and his daughter used.

  As Sean got to his feet, he saw several lions, two of whom he recognized, fighting with the First, who, along with a lioness, seemed to be holding them off.

  "We'll get you this time, First!" One of the lions laughed, and as Sean watched, he lunged forward, all of the others thrusting in at the same time as well. As Sean watched in horror, one of the lions got past the First's guard and stabbed him in the shoulder as he parried the first and dodged the second.

  Sean didn't even think, he launched himself at the back of the one who'd spoken, knocking him to the ground, then rolling over, he lashed out with his feet to trip up the one next to him.

  "What the hell..." the one he'd tripped said, looking down in surprise.

  "Hey! No cheating!" the one on the ground called.

  "Stop!" the First roared out; those fighting with the First and the lioness beside him suddenly halted their attacks, and Sean found himself staring at the point of a sword just inches from his face.

  "What the hell is going on here?" Sean growled.

  "Practice, obviously," the one holding the sword in front of Sean's face said as he drew it back and looked at the First. "What is he doing here?"

  "You cheated!" the one Sean had tackled grumbled as he untangled himself from Sean.

  "I didn't call him," the First said, panting.

  "I came on my own," Sean said, looking around. "And practice for what?"

  "Oh, right," the one standing up said. "I forgot he can do that now."

  "Fighting practice," the lioness said, looking down at Sean. Everyone was in their hybrid form except for him, so he shifted and stood up.

  "Why do you need to practice?" Sean asked, confused, as the First and the lioness shared a look.

  "Because just laying around all day really doesn't do a thing for your skills," she told him.

  "Plus, it's boring," said one of the others.

  "So what brings you here, my Son?" the First asked.

  Sean shrugged. "I wanted to talk to everyone about what was going on, and well," Sean looked around at the other lions who were all still fighting, "visit."

  "Well, as long as you're here, you might as well join us," the lioness said.

  "Join you? But I don't have any…"

  The Lioness pointed at Sean, and suddenly he was armored like the rest, with a sword in his hand.

  "How'd you do that?" Sean asked, blinking.

  "Mystical shit," the lioness said with a grin.

  "Keairra, why don't you take Sean aside and teach him how to fight," the First said. "Without me guiding his strikes, I don't know that he'll last very long up against the rest of us."

  Keairra looked at Sean. "You don't know how to fight with a sword?"

  Sean shook his head. "We use guns now."

  Keairra snorted. "Guns have their place, but so do swords. Come, let's get you started."

  "But what about…"

  Keairra poked Sean in the stomach with her sword, and it hurt! "Talk is for later, you need to learn now!"

  "Better go with her, Son," the First laughed, "Keairra isn't the type to take no for an answer."

  "That's only because she can bully the rest of us!" One of the others laughed.

  "That's because I'm your mother, and none of you are so old that I can't still tan your bottoms!" Keairra mock growled.

  "You're everybody's mother!"

  Sean watched as Keairra's sword snaked out and smacked the lion on the hip, knocking him to the side. "Save your sass for your father." She turned to Sean then, "Come, over here, away from the others."

  Nodding as the other's laughed, Sean followed her over to an area behind where the First and the others were standing.

  "What did he mean, 'you're everybody's mother'?" Sean asked.

  "I was his first mate," she said, motioning towards the First, "back when we first attained awareness."

  "Wouldn't that make you the 'Second' then?" Sean asked, then grunted as she hit him on the side of the head with the flat of her blade.

  "No jokes. Now raise your sword and defend yourself. I'll yell at him later for leaving you so poorly trained!"

  And with that, she attacked him. Sean really had very little idea what to do and found himself getting stabbed and cut repeatedly. Getting stabbed hurt! It hurt just as much as in the real world! But it only bled for an instant, and then stopped.

  "How come it hurts so damn much?" he grunted as he finally managed to block one of her strikes.

  "Because without pain, you wouldn't learn!" she growled and stabbed him in the arm, causing him to drop his sword.

  Keairra stepped back and pointed to his sword. "Pick it up, and let me show you a few of the basics."

  Bending over but still keeping an eye on Keairra, Sean picked up the sword and then stood up straight as she came around to stand beside him.

  "Okay now, hold your sword like this, set your feet like mine. Good! Now, bend your knees slightly…"

  For the next several hours, Keairra showed Sean the basics of sword fighting, then ran him through a series of exercises. If he hesitated or screwed up, he got a love tap with the flat of her sword. Keairra was as no nonsense as the First was, but at least she was a lot nicer to look at.

  "Okay, that's enough for now," Keairra said after what felt like hours. Sean nodded as he caught his breath. He wasn't getting stabbed or cut as often as before, but it was still more than he liked.

  "I'll expect you back tomorrow night, and every night for the next few weeks," she said and pointed the sword at him, then smiled and lowered the point, "and I'm flattered that you find me attractive; you're not that bad yourself."

  Sean felt all the fur on his face stand straight up.

  "Ummm, sorry?"

  Keairra laughed. "Just remember to not let yourself get so distracted during a fight, and you'll get stabbed less."

  Sean nodded, and then all of his gear disappeared.

  "How'd you do that?"

  "We're gods here, Sean. Just concentrate on what you want, and it will appear."

  "Thanks," Sean said and looked around for the others. They were all lying around, currently engaging in the kinds of pursuits they'd probably not appreciate him interrupting.

  "Where's the First?"

  "Busy. And it is almost time for you to wake, so go back to sleep, Sean."

  And he did. Obviously Keairra had a lot more power here than he did. But if she was the First's original mate and one of the first to awaken, that at least was to be expected.

  Working Hard

  "Sean! We've been looking all over for ya'! What the hell are you all doing on the shop floor?" Oak asked, coming into Sean's shop.

  "Sleeping," Sean grumbled and sat up. Roxy was sitting up as well and stretching, Daelyn was trying to maintain some level of modesty under the blanket, Cali and Jolene were, well, up to something, Roberta was grumbling, and Peg had rolled over and gone right back to sleep.

  "What time is it?" Sean asked.

  "Seven," Oak said, obviously completely unfazed by all the naked flesh. Then again, lycans grew up seeing each other nude all the time, as without a lycan necklace, your clothing didn't shift when you did.

  "What the hell are you waking me up at seven in the morning for?" Sean grumbled.

  "There's a dwarf here with a bunch of swords and daggers for you."

  "Already!" Cali said and Sean noticed she'd bounced to her feet, leaving a slightly surprised looking Jolene, who shrugged and immediately began searching for another victim.

  "Oh right, the cold iron stuff we asked them to make," Sean sighed and got to his feet.