But he couldn't. Nadinc was having fun, she was making friends. His mother, as well as moms Peg and Daelyn, obviously liked Nadinc a lot, but Cali was literally showering her with attention, and Nadinc was just eating it up. He knew mom Cali had a lot of empathic abilities and other skills. She'd turned them on all of them at one point or another in their lives, mainly when they were dealing with something difficult. So he could tell she was obviously using them on Nadinc to help her settle down and relax.

  They'd hit a number of clothing stores, shoe stores, boot stores, stores that sold accessories like handbags and pocketbooks, a couple of places for hats and makeup, and even one for toiletries that had made him realize this trip really was necessary.

  They had him so bogged down with stuff at that point that he'd called Ted and asked him to send a couple of guys over to haul all of it down to Daelyn's Osprey before he collapsed under the weight of it.

  Or, to be more honest, he was just having trouble jockeying far too many bags, because the moms had also been buying stuff. Not that he'd had to pay for their things, at least!

  The guys Ted sent out caught up with him just as they got to one of those 'sexy underwear' stores, where Troy was sure they'd make sure Nadi bought some things for his benefit. So he passed everything over as quickly as possible, as this was the kind of shopping he very much wanted to help with.

  Sending them off to the heliport where Daelyn had parked her Osprey, he turned and walked into the store, and saw that it was only Peg with Nadinc, and they were browsing some sexy-looking items in the back of the store. Roxy, Cali, and Daelyn were nowhere in sight, so he figured they were probably in the changing rooms. So, just like clockwork, a group of guys drifted over, making comments.

  It took him two very large steps to come up behind the guys.

  "…can definitely show you two the kind of time you ain't gettin' at home!" one of them was saying just as he got there.

  "I suggest you leave, now," Troy said in a very deep voice—he was in his human form so as not to draw any extra attention, "or you won't be leaving ever again."

  "Hey, man, these are our women now," one of the four said, turning to face him. "Take a hike! Can't you do the math, man? There's four of us, and only one of you!"

  If there was one thing Troy was, it was fast. He grabbed the guy by the shoulder with one hand, and as he pulled him towards him, he grabbed the waistband of the guy's pants with his other hand, and with a heave and a twist, he threw the guy across the store, down the aisle, and back towards the front door.

  "You're only three now!" Troy said, glaring at the others. "Last warning…"

  Troy felt it then, they were lycans, some sort of badger. Most lycans couldn't spot another one all that easily, and rarely the species when they were in human form. But apparently, he'd inherited a few things from his father.

  "We're gonna fuck you up, Sonny," one of them growled as they started to shift, but Troy was already into his hybrid form, and he jammed his fingers into the eye-sockets of the one talking, and seizing a hold of him that way, he flung that one even harder than the previous one, sending them screaming into the chest of the one he'd already thrown, who was trying to stand back up, bowling the two of them over.

  "Sorry, I didn't hear that," Troy growled deep in his chest, and took a step to close the distance between him and the remaining two, who were both looking at him.

  "We ain't afraid of no cheetah," one said, and then the other one's eyes suddenly went wide, and he grabbed the other one, yanking him back.

  "Stop," Troy heard Cali growl in a soft voice from behind him, "or I will let my son kill you."

  Troy glanced behind him and saw that Cali was in her hybrid form.

  "Oh, fuck," the first one he'd thrown said.

  "What?" said the other one, who was still bleeding from his eye sockets.

  "It's a lioness. A black lioness!"

  "Oh…"

  Troy stepped around to Nadinc, put an arm around her, and pulled her close, as he looked at the two ratels who were standing there and growled softly.

  "I tried to warn you," Peg said with a grin.

  "Even without the warning," Cali continued looking at the two by Troy, who she motioned to join the other two, "you should not have behaved the way you did. My sister wife and my son's wife were obviously not interested, and when my son told you to leave, you should have left."

  "Look, ma'am, we had no idea—"

  "Be silent," Cali whispered, and Troy could only guess she'd done what his father referred to as 'mystical lion shit', because the guy suddenly shut up, his eyes going wide.

  "Turn into humans, all of you," she said next, and just like that, they were all human. The one he'd done the eye gouge on had stopped bleeding, and his eyes were slowly regenerating. He'd only taken as much damage as he had because Troy was also a lycan.

  "If my husband were here, I'm sure he'd just let you off with a warning. I, however, am not that kind. For the next ten days, none of you will be able to shift into your animal or hybrid forms.

  "You will spend those ten days meditating on what you've done wrong here, and learning how to behave in a civilized manner around others. After that, you are to find a lion and apologize for your behavior. If you are judged to be contrite and to have learned your lesson, you will get your abilities back."

  Troy smiled at the shocked expressions on all four faces.

  "Now, leave us, before I get angry," Cali said and made a shooing motion with her hand.

  The moment they were gone, Cali shifted back to her dark elf form and looked over at Peg, who was snickering as Roxy walked up behind her.

  "How'd I do?" Cali asked.

  "Sean couldn't have done better himself," Peg said, still snickering.

  Roxy nodded. "Yeah, sis. That was perfect. Are you okay, Nadi?" Roxy asked, turning to Nadinc, who was leaning into Troy.

  "I'm fine," Nadinc said, nodding and looking very happy. "I umm…" she looked up at Troy, who was now looking proud of himself, "didn't expect Troy to do that."

  "But you're happy he did, right?" Peg said, still snickering.

  Nadinc blushed, and Troy lowered his lips to hers and kissed her.

  "Us Valens boys are a bit possessive about our women," Troy said with a purr.

  "Ain't that a fact!" Peg replied as Troy felt Nadinc grab onto him tightly.

  "What did I do to deserve you?" she whispered, looking up into his eyes.

  "More like what did my brat of a son do to win a prize like you," Roxy said with a wink at him. "Now, how about we pay for this stuff, then get a couple of drinks to relax before heading back home?"

  Roxy watched as Troy nodded and smiled down at Nadinc. She was fairly certain he'd been planning on killing at least two of those guys, possibly all of them. While he might not have claimed Nadinc in his bed yet, it was obvious she was his now, and from the way she was looking at him and holding on to him, it was just as obvious the feelings were mutual.

  She wondered briefly if he'd end up with the other three as well? While cheetahs weren't usually into prides, his father was a lion, and that had been a rather leonine display if ever she'd seen one.

  "A drink sounds good, Mom," Troy said, keeping an arm around Nadinc as he straightened back up.

  "I think we just lost our porter," Daelyn said, coming over and rejoining them. "And right about now, a couple of beers does sound good."

  Nadinc was feeling quite content on the flight back to what was apparently her new home in the back of what Troy had told her was 'his mother Daelyn's personal Osprey'. The two of them were sitting near the back, and Troy was showing her exactly how he felt about her, which she was finally coming to realize was more than just lust after everything that had happened today.

  She was reciprocating quite happily. She knew she didn't deserve him, but as he'd made it quite clear that she belonged to him, she wasn't going to argue. He was everything a woman djinn could ask for: handsome, powerful, wealthy, strong, and very deadly. She was looking forward to getting him back to his room, and away from his mothers, so they could finally consummate their relationship.

  By the time they'd landed, he'd gotten her quite excited, and she all but dragged him back to his room.

  Troy was trying to keep from yawning as Nadinc grabbed his hand, told him to leave the packages there, and led him back to his room in the house. The drinks, which normally wouldn't have bothered him, had reminded him that he hadn't slept in days. While normally that wouldn't be too big a deal, he had been in two fights in that time.

  So he was understandably tired, but damn if it wasn't turning him on something fierce knowing that Nadinc couldn't wait to get him back to his room.

  Their room. It was their room now. That was right. It wasn't just his room anymore. He yawned again as she led him through the door, and he pushed it closed with a hand as he grabbed her and kissed her, and they tumbled down on to the bed.

  The nice, soft, warm, and welcoming bed.

  He yawned again, and reaching down, he pulled her blouse off, then helped her get his shirt off, having a little trouble with the sleeves as he yawned again…oh right…shoes, he had to get his shoes off…and…

  Nadinc hugged Troy and drew him down onto the bed with her. Snuggling up to him, she brushed her lips against his, and he kissed her, and then yawned yet again as he started to undress her. She'd been waiting all day for this! She was going to show him just how much she wanted him, how much she loved him! She was finally going to be his, and she couldn't wait! Helping him out of his clothes, she ran her hands up and down his strong flanks, as he yawned once again, and fell back against the bed beneath her.

  His sudden snoring, however, meant that she was going to be waiting a fair bit longer, she realized.

  Working Man's Blues

  Troy woke up to the sound of his alarm, but it took him a moment to realize that there was someone in his bed between him and the off button.

  "Whas tha?" Nadi asked sleepily as Troy silenced the alarm, sat up in bed, and stretched.

  "That's my alarm, and it means I gotta get up and go to work."

  "Do you have to?" she asked, rolling over and putting an arm around his waist.

  He couldn't help but notice that she wasn't wearing anything. Then again, he wasn't wearing anything, either. Obviously, she'd finished undressing him before he'd passed out on her last night.

  Looking at the clock, he saw that it was five-thirty, and he had a flight to catch down at the base at six. If he made a phone call and asked politely, they'd stop by here to pick him up, which based on how late it was, he'd have to do anyway.

  But that meant he'd only have time to shower, don his gear, and go.

  "I'm sorry, Nadi, but I don't have time. I have to leave now, or I'll be late."

  "But you're a prince," she grumbled as he slipped out of her grasp and out of bed.

  "A prince with an obligation," he said, and bending over the bed, he gave her a kiss. As she latched onto him, thoughts of blowing it all off and staying definitely went through his head…

  But…but he knew SJ was hard over on this one because it was all about the 'family business', and he couldn't let his brother down.

  "I'm sorry, Nadi," he said as he pulled away from her regretfully. "Go back to sleep. When I get home in a few days, I promise you no one is going to interrupt us again for a good long while. Okay?"

  "Okay…" she grumbled, and giving the side of his face a stroke, she closed her eyes and went back to sleep.

  Grabbing his go bag and his phone, Troy made a call to base ops and asked them to please have the flight out to Fort 105 stop by and pick him up along the way.

  Then he hit the shower, ran out to where his gear was stored in the all-together, donned his gear, and just made it to the helipad as the Goshawk was maneuvering to land. He was up the ramp before it'd even finished dropping, and the pilot was off before he'd made it to a seat.

  "Hot date?" one of the regular scouts, Tracy, asked with a laugh.

  "New wife," Troy said with a smile.

  "Wait, you got married?"

  "Hey, I can't let Mihalis outdo me on everything, now, can I?"

  That got a round of laughs from the other scouts in the back, while the cargo master and his helper shrugged and shook their heads.

  "So, did you hear what happened to JJ?"

  Troy shook his head. "I had other, more important things to worry about."

  "Oh, man, you're gonna love it! Him and your sister got caught goin' at it when the police showed up to bust everybody at that acrobats and trapeze act place! His dad won't bail him out, and Clyde's on his way down to deal with him!"

  Troy shook his head at that one. "What about the others?"

  "Ryan got popped; he was all tangled up with a lioness, I think? He covered for her, so she got away. But about a half dozen others were either too 'entwined'," he said, making finger quotes, "or just not fast enough."

  "I'm surprised the cops were called," Troy admitted, "and that they didn't let JJ go."

  "Eh, the people who ran the act were pissed that all their fancy gear was being used as sex toys. More than a few of them were getting a little kinky up there in the air!"

  Troy laughed at that.

  "We're all surprised you weren't there!"

  "Hey, I may be a cat, but this cat prefers his feet on the ground to that 'up in the trees' stuff so many of the others seem to crave!" Troy said with a chuckle. "Besides, like I said, I had more important family matters to take care of!"

  Troy spent the rest of the flight chatting with the other scouts about what they'd gotten up to since he'd seen them last. Scout tours were typically four days on, then four days back at the base, where you went over sat photos and whatever intel had come to light in your patrol zone.

  "So why are you here?" Tracy asked as the Goshawk lined up for landing.

  "Special project! SJ's got some stuff he wanted looked into, and Clyde asked me to deal with it."

  "Lucky you."

  "Eh, just gives me another chance to prove my brilliance to them!"

  "Masochism is more like it!" one of the other scouts joked. "You always end up working on one of Clyde, your brother, or your dad's special projects!"

  "Eh, they just don't want anyone to think I'm getting any favoritism because I'm the boss' son!" Troy said, grinning.

  "Yeah, well, better you than me!"

  They felt the plane shift motion as it went into hover mode, and then quickly set down on the ground. A moment later, the rear ramp started to drop. As he'd been the last one on, Troy was the first one off. Grabbing his gear bag, he made his way up the hill towards the barracks, where the scouts were quartered. About half of the ones who'd come in with him would be ferried out to camps further east and north over the next few hours.

  It only took a minute to claim a bunk, and after tossing his gear bag on it, Troy went off in search of Captain Curtis. He stopped in ops first, and didn't see him there, but someone had an idea, and two more ideas later, he found him sitting in the mess, having breakfast.

  "Captain Curtis!" Troy said, sitting down across from him with his own tray of food.

  "Morning, Troy. I thought all you scouts spent the morning reporting into Sally?"

  Troy shook his head. "I'm onna special project, so I won't talk to her until after she's gone over the individual assignments. I wanted to ask you about the alert I rode on last Friday."

  "What about it?"

  "It seemed kinda light for it to be a serious breach attempt, don't you think?"

  Captain Curtis shrugged. "We get all sorts of them, though lately they've been getting a little more common."

  "Do you keep records on them?"

  "Of course."

  "Well, that leads to my next question."

  "Which is?"

  "How may of those do you get a month, are they all in the same place, and how long have you been seeing these? Also, are they always small groups like that last one, or do you get big groups, too?"

  Troy chowed down on his food while Captain Curtis pondered that one.

  "You think they're up to something, don't you?"

  "Captain, they're always up to something. You know that. I'm just trying to figure out if what they're up to has anything to do with why I'm here."

  "Which you can't tell us about."

  Troy nodded his head as he went back to eating.

  "You know we have all that stuff on file. You could have looked it up back at Minden."

  "True," Troy said with a nod as he swallowed, "but it'd already been decided that I was coming here. Also, I want to talk to the alert crews about the ones they've been flying on for the last few months. Get their impressions."

  "Sure thing. Just make sure you give the colonel a heads-up so he's not blindsided by anything you end up doing."

  Troy nodded again.

  "Well, let's finish up here, and I'll get you set up with someone to help you out in ops so you can go through the records."

  "Great. I'd also like to go out on any alerts that come up, if no one has a problem with it."

  Captain Curtis snorted. "Your last name is 'Valens'; trust me, no one's going to have a problem with it."

  "Well, make sure they all understand that if they've got problems with it, or if my doing it causes problems for them, to tell me. Last thing I need is for my dad to hear people bitching that I'm keeping them from getting their jobs done."

  "I'll make sure they know, but your family isn't known for harboring any slackers, I don't think anyone's going to be having any issues."

  Finishing up breakfast, Troy followed Captain Curtis up to the operations building, where the captain was as good as his word and set him up with an assistant.

  "Troy, this is Sergeant Mira Head. Sergeant, this is Troy Valens; he's working a special project, so whatever you do with him is confidential."

  "Yes, Captain," Mira said with a smile.

  Troy looked Mira over while the captain was talking. She was a wolf, and like everyone else here, was in her hybrid form. She had a brownish brindle coat he'd never seen before. The effect was stunning and highlighted her already attractive looks.