He tried to call up his workshop, then swore as he remembered his father's watch was sitting on the dresser back home. He didn't like to wear it into combat for fear of it getting damaged or lost. Oh, he could easily create another one; all he needed was a watch and a couple of batteries, or some other power source.

  None of which he had with him right now.

  "Damn, guess I'm doing this the hard way." He sighed. Taking a moment to tar what was there, he looked around for something to write with and something to write on. Then he set about organizing his thoughts to figure out how the destroyed parts should have functioned.

  It was going to be a very long day. At some point he was going to have to ask Estrella what kinds of raw materials were available in this strange grey and black world.

  Estrella came back into her rooms and was surprised to find Sean sound asleep, his head down on her desk as he snored softly. He had her necklace sitting on the desk to his left, and was holding a writing stick in his right hand. Walking around behind the desk, she noticed the small stack of what passed for paper here. Thankfully it was easy to make, because he'd gone through ten pieces of it.

  Looking at them, she really couldn't make heads or tails of the small, neat printing on it. She didn't recognize the language at all, even if some of the words had meaning. The small sketches meant even less to her.

  Shaking her head, she gave him a light shake, and he mumbled something in what sounded like English, but he didn't wake up. Apparently everything had caught up with him, and he'd crashed hard.

  Picking him up, she carried him over to her bed and carefully laid him down on it.

  "First time in over a thousand years I lay my hands on a man, and he's out cold," Estrella said with a snort.

  Slipping out of her own clothes, she laid down on the bed next to him. At least her bed was big enough for two, though she'd ever shared it before. There were still a lot of questions she wanted to ask him, but they could wait until morning, after they were underway. She and her lieutenants had picked a hellige a day and a half away. That would give them a good two days to spend on setting up their defenses to hold the place against Ansigt when he came back.

  If he came back. She was starting to suspect there might be a bit more to Sean than most of the lions she'd known.

  Sean yawned and stretched slowly, enjoying the feeling of one of his wives pressed up against his back, her arm wrapped around him as her face laid against his neck. He was considering rolling over and having a little fun when his nose suddenly told him he wasn't back home in bed.

  And it definitely wasn't one of the girls pressed up against him.

  Opening his eyes, he remembered where he was, though last he recalled he'd been working on the spells in the broken necklace. He must have fallen asleep, and Estrella had obviously put him to bed.

  And now she was curled up against his back, one arm draped over his side as she cuddled up against him.

  He laid there and stared at the wall for an indeterminate amount of time, trying to decide if he should risk it and roll over—he was horny as hell—or if he should carefully extract himself from the situation. After all, she had put him to bed, in her bed, instead of just leaving him there, or putting him on the floor or something.

  So obviously she didn't hate him. But rolling over at this point might be pushing it. While he had to admit she was attractive, hot even, she was a lioness, and he'd never ever really met a lioness before, beyond a few minutes with Lark, there was still the fact that they were stuck with each other, and she was probably still a bit unhappy about it.

  Even with all of that, he had to admit lying there with her pressed up against him felt nice. If she blew up on him when she woke, it might be worth it. But discretion being the better part of valor and all that, rolling over probably wouldn't be a good move right now.

  No, right now he'd probably be better off just lying here and waiting for her to wake up on her own and enjoy the moment.

  "What's got you purring?" a sleepy voice asked him.

  "I'm in bed with a beautiful woman pressed up against me and nobody's trying to kill me," Sean said, yawning, and stretched again.

  "I'm surprised you didn't roll over."

  "Would you have appreciated it if I did?"

  "Probably not," she grumbled softly.

  "Exactly. I'm just happy you put me to bed and didn't leave me there slumped over your desk," Sean said and rolled over onto his back.

  Estrella sighed. "It's... I've been stuck in this, this place, by myself, and it's..." she shook her head, "... been a fight, a constant fight. At first I just kept running, trying to stay alive. Then one day I decided to stand my ground."

  She snorted. "That worked for a little while, until I was forced off of it by a larger group. When I was finally forced to face down lord Rothskar and surprised both myself and everyone else by killing him, things started to get better. When he didn't come back, my status changed, because only lords can take another lord's soul."

  "Lords and lions." Sean chuckled wickedly.

  Estrella smiled. "Exactly. I'd been forced to move on after I killed him—the other lords took exception to that—but eventually I found this place, and there were no powerful lords here yet. So I settled in and built my defenses. It still wasn't easy; I've killed a lot of demons since I settled here.

  "But I guess what I'm trying to say is I've been alone for so long, I don't know if I can be with anyone else anymore."

  Now it was Sean's turn to snort. "You're just afraid to lower your guard because there hasn't been anyone you could trust."

  "And your next words are going to be that I should trust you, right?" Estrella said, giving him the eye.

  "Oh, hell no!" Sean laughed. "I'm gonna knock you up and make you one of my wives! I'm all sorts of filled with ulterior motives!"

  "Knock me up?" Estrella growled. "What the hell does that mean?"

  "Oh, right, modern slang," Sean said and rolled over to face her. "It means I'm going to put my cubs in you."

  Sean watched as Estrella's mouth opened in astonishment, and all the fur on her face bushed out in embarrassment.

  "You, you can't be serious!" she finally managed to growl.

  "Yeah, I mean, just because I have six wives already, why would I want a seventh, right?" Wrapping his arms around her, he pulled her close, tucking her head under his chin as she growled, grabbed his arms, and sank her claws in.

  "You males!" she snarled, but she didn't push him away.

  "Hey, after fighting off my advances for the next few weeks, or however long it takes us to get home, you should be perfectly fine with everyone else," Sean joked.

  She gave him a nip on the side of his neck, then relaxed her claws.

  "Do you really have six wives?"

  "And two concubines," Sean said with a nod.

  "And they haven't killed you?" she asked wryly.

  "Actually," now it was his turn to sigh heavily, "we all love each other very much, and I'm sure they're going to punish the hell out of me when I get home for coming here and scaring the hell out of them."

  She sighed and relaxed, leaning into him.

  "Must be nice."

  "Does that mean you're interested in being number seven?" Sean asked with a chuckle.

  "In your dreams, perhaps."

  Sean was about to respond when someone knocked on the door.

  "Brune Dame!" a voice called out. "We're almost ready to travel!"

  "Oh, right," Sean said. "Time to go to war."

  "Put on your armor; don't leave anything behind. It'll be a long time before we come back here, if ever," she told him.

  Sean kissed the top of her head, and they untangled themselves, got out of bed, and got ready for the trip.

  Mistreated

  "We got trouble," Tisha said, entering the office with Steve and Terri.

  "What's wrong now?" Terri said with a sigh. "Do our congressmen want chew toys?"

  "Worse," Tisha growled.

  "What could be worse than dealing with that bunch of prima donnas?" Terri grumbled. For all that they had to do as Tisha told them, the politicians Sean had turned into werewolves were still the biggest pains in the ass she'd ever had to deal with.

  "You know the lion we brought in to cover for Sean while he's in the Onderwereld?"

  Steve nodded. "Adam. What about him?"

  "He just killed an Air Force colonel. In front of witnesses. Ripped his head off."

  "Oh, shit." Steve shook his head and sighed. "There goes my golf date. Again. How long ago did this happen?"

  "About fifteen minutes. Adam told the First. The First told me. I just got off the phone with Roxy to confirm the details."

  "Has Roxy killed him yet?" Terri asked.

  "Apparently Roxy is coming around to his point of view. In fact, Adam's heading back out to the front as we speak. She thinks he's hoping for a heroic death or something. He was pretty pissed. I called down for a car; I guess we need to go to the Pentagon and do some damage control."

  Steve shook his head. "We need to go to the Whitehouse. Lions are heads of state, or foreign diplomats, or whatever the hell we can come up with."

  "What?" Tisha said, blinking at him.

  "Sean, the First, and I have had conversations about this. The lycans may be citizens and fall under the law, but the First wanted to cut out an exemption for you lions because you're effectively gods.

  "Now let's grab the car, and you can fill me in on all the details while we head over there." Getting up, Steve walked over to Terri, who was still sitting at her desk, and gave her a kiss.

  "Hold the fort, Hon. Anyone calls, I'm off to see the president. Oh, and call Martha back at the shop, find out Colonel Tibbets' personal number, and text it to me."

  "Why would she have that?" Terri asked.

  "He's a customer," Steve smiled, "so it's on file."

  "Got it!"

  Steve grabbed Tisha's arm and dragged her along as he left the office.

  "I hate when you do that," Tisha grumbled as she freed herself from Steve's grasp, moving up to walk next to him.

  "No you don't." Steve chuckled. "You like it when I put my hands on you. You just don't like that Terri's cock-blocking you."

  Tisha snorted. "You know I'm older than both of you by like nine thousand, nine hundred and forty years?"

  "And yet we still rule you," Steve said with a grin.

  Tisha grumbled loudly as they got to the car, "Would you at least talk to her about it?"

  "About what?" Steve teased.

  "You know," Tisha said, giving him a look. "About me."

  Steve shook his head as he followed her into the back of the limousine. "Sorry, Tish, but that's between you and her."

  "No, it's between the three of us! That's how these things work, and she's not going to even consider it if you don't talk to her about it."

  "And why would I talk to her about it?"

  Tisha looked at him, and Steve was surprised to see she was blushing.

  "Because I want you," she said in a whispered growl.

  "But I'm already taken," Steve pointed out.

  "You've only got one wife!" Tisha said with a hiss.

  Steve was brought up short by that. Lions were big on polygamy; Sean was living proof of that. If the lions were all doing it, it only stood to reason the lionesses would have to be down with it as well.

  "You're serious, aren't you?" Steve said, looking at her. "You really do want to be my second wife."

  "Do you know how long it's been since I've been with a male whose sole goal in life was to conquer everything he could get his hands on?" Tisha said, still keeping her voice low. "Of course I friggin want you! I don't mind sharing, it's not like I haven't done it a dozen times before!"

  Steve leaned back in the seat, eyebrows rising. He looked up at the driver, who was obviously trying not to follow the conversation, but even in human form, werewolves had excellent hearing.

  "Whitehouse, Wally"

  "Yes, Steve!"

  "I promise I'll talk to Terri when we get back, Tish. Now tell me what happened."

  Steve was surprised to suddenly have Tisha, very hot and appearing to be no more than eighteen years old, in his lap as she gave him a hug. "Thanks, Steve! I can't ask for anything more than that…Well, I could, but I'm sure Terri's got that cattle-prod handy."

  "Right, now Adam?" Steve prompted as she settled back into her own seat.

  While Tisha quickly went over everything Adam had told them, his phone beeped. Looking at it, he saw Terri had texted him Colonel Tibbets' number. Once Tisha started winding down, Steve called him.

  He had to call it three times before it was finally answered by something other than voice mail.

  "Who is this and what is this? I'm busy."

  "Sean's man in Washington, Colonel. I'm about to meet the president and I need the low-down."

  "Ah, shit. That means they're gonna want to conference me in, too. I ain't got time for this."

  "How bad is it?"

  "Real bad, lost a runway, though my engineers think they can have it up and running in a few days. Thank god my helos were out with your folks, or I probably would have lost them too. Lost my C-130s though, and the worst part is, I've got over forty wounded and twenty-three dead."

  "What about the other colonel?"

  "Vance? He lost even more, a lot more. I warned that asshole, but damned if he didn't think he walked on fucking water."

  "And what happened between him and Adam?"

  "I can't speak to that," Colonel Tibbets growled into the phone.

  Steve blinked; that was a bit of a change in tone.

  "Why not?"

  "Because, like it or not, it was a fellow officer. But I'll tell you one thing."

  "What's that?"

  "Several of my people cheered. That asshole said some things he shouldn't have said, and the only reason he won't be facing a court martial is because he's dead. I gotta go; this shit's not gonna fix itself."

  The line went dead, and Steve looked over at Tisha.

  "You get all that?"

  She nodded.

  "This might not be as bad as we thought it would be," Steve mused.

  "How can you say that?"

  "Because the good colonel is obviously taking Adam's side."

  Steve's phone pinged again; Terri had sent another text message. This one said the president was waiting for them.

  "Ah, good, looks like we won't have to wait."

  "You almost make it sound like you're looking forward to this," Tisha said.

  "I'm looking forward to being done with it," Steve admitted with a sigh. "This isn't going to be fun. In fact, I'm sure it's going to completely suck. Just remember to keep a straight face, a serious demeanor, and keep telling yourself Adam did nothing wrong.

  Twenty minutes later they were ushered into the Oval Office. Sean noticed General Baker was already there, as well as the head of Homeland Security, and Director Kensington from the Secret Service.

  "Mr. President," Steve said, shaking hands, "General, Director, Director. I'm sorry to have to be here under these circumstances."

  "Mr. Bryson, one of your lions murdered one of my colonels! This can not stand! I want him brought in, and I want him punished!" General Baker said loudly.

  Steve took a deep breath and sighed heavily, then looked around the room.

  "Okay, has anyone here heard an eyewitness account from Colonel Tibbets?"

  "What does that have to do with anything? We know this new lion, the one who's taken over for Sean, ripped the head off one of my people! There's no excusing that!"

  Frowning, Steve shook his head. "I'll admit it was perhaps a bit extreme, but you don't mouth off to a head of state while he's standing there in front of you, covered in blood because you damn near killed him."

  "What?!"

  "Colonel Vance violated the rules of engagement. His actions led to the deaths of over twenty of our people, and put our forces in a precarious position. They're now losing a fight they were winning two hours ago." Steve looked around the room, keeping his voice calm. "His actions also led to the complete loss of all of his aircraft, and probably a hundred of your troops! We've told you time and time again humans cannot engage the demons. There's no range on their abilities; it's all line of sight.

  "It was bad enough those airplanes dropped bombs on our forces without warning, without any kind of ground control. But for Colonel Vance to insult Adam when…" Steve shook his head. "Get Colonel Tibbets on the line. He was there; let's hear what he has to say."

  "We've already heard from Colonel Vance's second in command," General Baker said.

  "I would hardly consider him to be a neutral party," Steve pointed out.

  "What is there to be neutral about? He murdered an officer!"

  "He saved you from convening a court martial for a man who disobeyed orders and got a lot of people killed," Steve said, staring down at the general. "He insulted a man, hot off the battlefield and wounded by his own negligence. I daresay, General, if it had been you instead of Adam, you probably would have shot the bastard yourself! He was aiding and abetting the enemy!"

  "Those are pretty harsh words, Mr. Bryson," the president said.

  "Sir, this is a war for survival, for your survival. For the survival of this country, for all humanity! The lions know what's on the line here. And if they have to remove a few obstacles along the way, they will not hesitate.

  "The stakes are just too great."

  "Get Colonel Tibbets on the phone," the president said to the Secret Service agent standing by his desk.

  "One moment, Sir," the agent said, and did just that.

  Steve looked around a moment and then took a seat, motioning for Tisha to sit beside him.