Head Down

by Jan Stryvant

  "Are we going to need a room for him?" Hunter asked.

  Sean shook his head, "No. Once he's recovered and knows the basics he can go back home. I'll talk to Ryan about finding someone to introduce him to the others in the Western Pack."

  "We're not keeping him?" Oak asked, looking surprised.

  Sean snorted, "Ryan keeps whining at me that they need a new alpha," Sean motioned to Chad's unconscious body.

  Hunter shook his head, "I don't think someone who's been bitten, especially someone who's just been bitten, is going to become an Alpha. At least not anytime soon."

  "You're looking at the middleweight, light heavyweight, heavyweight, and super heavyweight judo champion for the state of Nevada, five years running in his own age group and the three above it, until he got shot in the knee."

  Hunter looked surprised. "He was competing above his class?"

  "Yup."

  "Why?"

  "Because he likes winning."

  Hunter looked at Silver who nodded and then at Oak who first shrugged and then with a grin nodded as well. "I think our leader has a point."

  §

  Waking up, Sean got up onto all fours and stretched, yawning widely he shook his massive head, feeling his heavy mane shaking out as he did so. Looking around he realized he was outside!

  "What the hell?" he mumbled looking around, he didn't recognize any of the area, even the trees and plants looked different. He was in the middle of a fairly large, and very green, clearing in a forest. There were other lions lying around, mostly lionesses, and there was a carcass of some kind of animal that he didn't recognize. Maybe because there wasn't all that much left.

  But he definitely wasn't in Nevada! It was too green, too moist, and way too many trees. The sky was gray with a lot of clouds, and he couldn't see or hear a single sign of civilization.

  "Where the hell am I?" he asked looking over at the other lions, some of whom were now looking in his direction.

  "Don't worry, it's just a dream," another lion walking up to him said.

  Sean recognized him immediately, in the way that dreams worked.

  "You're my lion!" Sean said and looking at him, he padded around the other lion, "Wow, I'm pretty damn big!" Sean stopped then and looked around, "Where are we, anyway?"

  "This is where it all began," his lion said to him.

  "Where what all began?"

  "Us, me, what you are now."

  "Lions?" Sean asked, looking around confused. It looked just like a typical pride scene that he'd seen on a nature show a hundred times, well except that this wasn't Africa.

  "Werelions," his other half corrected him. "All of the lions in this pride are lycanthropes, or shapeshifters if you prefer, though we only have one other shape, and that is the shape of a man."

  "Where are we?" Sean asked, sitting down and looking around some more.

  "Someplace in central Europe. The more apropos question is when are we?"

  Sean sighed, "It's bad enough I act that way towards other people, but do I have to act that way towards myself as well?"

  "Apparently," his lion self chuckled.

  "Okay, when are we?"

  The other lion shrugged, "Beats me, we didn't have calendars. Best guess, is about a hundred thousand years ago."

  "A hundred..." Sean stopped looking around and looked at his other self, his lion, "how do I even know this?"

  "Think of it as a 'racial' memory. All werelions have it, we all know it."

  "So, where are the other were-races? Are they around here too?"

  His lion shook his head, his mane fluffing out a little with the motion, "There aren't any others."

  "What?"

  "We were the first, we are the first, this is where it all started, right here, in this clearing with this pride."

  "Then where did the others come from?"

  "They caught it from us, obviously."

  "Where did we get it from?"

  His lion shrugged, "We don't know. This is our earliest memory, this clearing and waking up in it after a successful hunt the night before."

  "Is this why the others hold us to be special? Because we were first?"

  "That's part of it, though they don't really remember it, beyond some of the myths and legends that they pass down."

  "But we remember it?"

  His lion nodded, "Just so."

  "So does this mean I'm now going to learn how to do all that mystical shit that lions are supposed to be able to do?" Sean asked a little excitedly.

  His lion laughed, "No."

  "Awww," Sean sighed, "Then why are we here?" he asked, waving around at everything with a paw.

  "That is a good question, isn't it?"

  Sean groaned, "I hate riddles."

  "It's not a riddle; it's something for you to think about. You're a lion now, Sean. There are things you need to learn about just what that means."

  "Does this have to do with why I couldn't bite Chad?"

  "A little. Go back to sleep, we'll talk again."

  Much to Do...

  Sean groaned and opened his eyes. At least the ceiling looked the same as it had yesterday. Roxy, Jolene, and Daelyn were sprawled across the bed, sound asleep, a small pile of collars lay on the floor from where he'd been tossing them last night as he had made them. He'd complain about all the 'enchanting' they'd been doing lately, but he didn't feel like being a hypocrite.

  Getting up, he grabbed his pants and stumbled off to the bathroom, to relieve his protesting bladder. After that he headed downstairs to the main dining room to get some breakfast. It wasn't until the third wolf-whistle from one of the female werewolves that he realized that his pants were still in his hand on not on his body.

  It took him a full minute to realize that the reason he couldn't get them on was because he was in hybrid form and his pants were human sized. Growling he shifted and put them on, noticing at that point that the pants legs were both now rather well shredded from his foot claws.

  Sean still didn't do mornings well.

  Grumbling he went into the dining room and seeing Alex there, surprisingly, he went over and sat down next to him at the table.

  "Dude, what happened to your pants?" Alex said, and looking Sean's shirtless body added, "And wow, you've gotten ripped!"

  "I tried to put them on while I still had claws," Sean said and yawned, then looked around for someone serving breakfast, he'd gotten way too used to one of the girls always bringing him his food. Apparently Roxy had been sharing her knowledge of lions, not that Sean would ever complain about that of course.

  "Could somebody bring me some food, please?" Sean grumbled, and then looked over at Alex. "What are you doing here so early? I thought the shop didn't open until nine-thirty?" Looking over at Alex, Sean noticed Demon was sitting on the other side of him.

  "Morning, Demon," Sean said with a nod and yawned again.

  "Morning, Boss," Demon said with a smile and Sean noticed that Alex was suddenly looking a little red in the face. He was about to ask Alex what was up when two of the female werewolves, Shia, and Clowey, suddenly set several plates full of food in front of him, along with a couple glasses of water.

  "Ah food!" Sean smiled, and looked up at them, "Thanks, Shia, Clowey!"

  The girls both smiled and then quickly went back to work.

  "You're going to eat all that?" Alex asked, a little surprised.

  "Part of being a lion," Sean said, starting in on his breakfast with a will.

  "With three wives," Demon added with a wink, "all that activity definitely causes an appetite, right?"

  Sean glanced over at Demon, who was also going through a large plate of food, and snorted, "Yeah, right. What's your excuse?"

  Alex coughed a little then, still looking a little red.

  "So, how's the shop working out?" Sean asked, more to get someone else talking so he could concentrate on eating his breakfast. It wasn't just the sex; all that magic from the enchanting every night really took it out of him
.

  "Oh! Yeah, the shop!" Alex said happily. "The shop is going really well! Steve's been putting out the word on us, and because they're already used to seeing me around doing the detailing work at his shop, I think we're going to be signing up a couple of the local used car dealers for our service. I'm gonna start training a crew for that truck you bought as well, and...."

  Sean barely paid half a mind to Alex talking about the business, nodding whenever it seemed appropriate. Apparently Alex was getting on well with the werewolves, which took a huge weight off of Sean's mind. He knew that they were all about the pack and your position in it. He'd been worried that as an 'outsider' Alex would be having a difficult time with teaching and leading them.

  "I'm just glad they're listening to you, and following your instructions so well," Sean smiled as he finished up his food and starting looking around for someone to bring him some more.

  "Oh, well, Demon's helped a lot with that," Alex said, and then looked a little embarrassed for some reason.

  "Thanks, Demon," Sean said looking back over at the wolf for a moment.

  "Oh, it's been a pleasure, trust me!" Demon chuckled.

  "Oh! Look at the time!" Alex said standing up, "We really need to check on the shop before we open!"

  "But I'm still eating!" Demon said motioning towards his plate.

  "Now!" Alex said, lowering his voice.

  Sean was impressed, Demon just sighed and rolling his eyes he got up and followed Alex from the room.

  "Alex really has him toeing the line," Sean said to Shia as she put another plate of food as well as another glass of water in front of him.

  "Oh, you could say that!" Shia laughed.

  Sean blinked, looked in the direction where Alex and Demon had left the room, and then back at Shia.

  "I'm missing something, ain't I?"

  "Oh, from what I hear from your wives, you're not missing anything!" Shia laughed again and walked off; leaving Sean wondering just what was going on.

  "Whatever it is, no one's bitching at me, so it can wait," he muttered and went back to eating his breakfast.

  "Sean."

  Sean sighed and looked up; Sheila was standing there, wringing her hands and looking worried.

  "What?" he said, trying not to show anything but a pleasant face. Sheila he'd learned was completely submissive when it came to him. With other men she was something of a temptress, and in the bedroom he'd discovered that she was completely wild, due to all of the 'training' she'd received back in the kennel she'd been raised in back in England, that apparently specialized in that kind of thing.

  But when Sean was around, she became completely submissive to him. He wondered if it had something to do with the way the English seemed to venerate lions. They were in their heraldry pretty much everywhere.

  "Yes, Sheila?" he prompted her again as she stood there looking guilty.

  "It's Peggy, she's, well, she's having problems. Again"

  "Now what?" Sean growled and locked his laptop. He'd been working on the websites, something he'd put off way too long. The gofundme page needed updates and examples of the work, the stickers had to be uploaded, his own facebook page needed updating with more stories about this 'epic quest' he was 'playing.'

  Sean really needed to hire somebody else to do it.

  "She's just sitting on the bed in our room, and she won't move."

  "So?"

  "She's been like that since yesterday!" Sheila said pulling at her fingers and looking at her feet.

  "And?"

  "And well, you both have a lot in common, and I was hoping that maybe?" Sheila looked up at him, and he couldn't miss the pleading look in her eyes.

  Sighing again, Sean stood up, "Fine, I'll go talk with her."

  "Thank you, Sean." Sheila said and gave a little curtsey.

  Smiling Sean ruffled her hair as he walked by her. Shelia's and Peg's room was on the top floor, along with his and the girls. The second floor was pretty much wolf territory, the ground floor being mostly open space, except for the detailing shop that took up about a quarter of it. He'd have to see about putting another business down there soon, maybe Steve would have some more ideas?

  Walking into the room, sure enough, Peg was sitting on the bed, her knees drawn up and her arms wrapped around them.

  "What's wrong?" Sean asked, dropping down to sit next to her on the bed.

  "I don't want to talk about it," Peg grumbled.

  "Yeah, well, I don't either but Sheila is going to be really sad if I don't."

  "Sheila," Peg sighed and looked up at him, guiltily.

  "Nice to know I'm not the only one she has that effect on," Sean chuckled.

  "You should see her with the wolves, she's got half of them wrapped around her little finger, the things she does with them!"

  "Jealous?" Sean asked. He knew that Sheila had found her way into more than a few beds on the second floor. Considering what she'd been raised for, Sean hadn't been all that surprised by it. Not that the unmated female wolves were being at all chaste in their behavior either. Roxy had told him some time ago that lycans had a much more relaxed and open attitude towards sex.

  "Hardly, I could show those wolves a thing or two."

  "Then what's the problem?"

  "You wouldn't understand," Peg said dropping her head back down onto her knees.

  Sean sighed, "Try me."

  "Why? No one else does!"

  "Because we have two things in common," Sean grumbled, "We're both magic users, and we were both bit."

  "She wants me to do things!"

  "Who, Sheila?"

  "No, my beast my animal. She wants me to do things!"

  "Oh?" Sean raised an eyebrow, "What?"

  "She wants me to go downstairs and play with those animals," Peg gasped and put her arms over her head.

  "They're not animals, Peg," Sean sighed, rolling his eyes. He thought children were supposed to rebel against the teachings of their parents? "They're people."

  "They're animals. They just look human! They can turn into beasts, and they even act like animals when they're human!"

  "You're an animal then as well," Sean pointed out. "You're one of them now."

  "No I'm not!"

  "Okay, you're a fox."

  "Not if I don't change, I'm not! I don't want to go down there! I don't want to sleep with them!"

  "Why?" Sean leaned in really close and whispered in her ear, "Afraid you might like it?"

  "Arrgh!" Peg said and glared at him, and damn if she didn't cast a spell at him! "You're just like she is!"

  "Did you just cast a spell at me?" Sean growled as he shifted to his full lion form and pinned her flat to the bed with a very large paw.

  Peg's eyes got wide and he could actually smell her fear.

  "You will shift now," Sean growled, "or I'm going to hurt you. Very, very, much."

  "I, I...."

  "Your problem is, you refuse to accept that which you are," Sean growled. "I bet you didn't have any problems sleeping with the wolf boys before you became one of us, did you?"

  "I, I never!" Peg gasped.

  "Oh?" Sean growled.

  "well. maybe. just once," Peg said in a small voice while refusing to look at him.

  "Shift. Now. Or else."

  Suddenly there was a fox under his paw. Taking his paw off of her Sean sat back down.

  "Damn, she's such an uptight bitch," the vixen grumbled, taking the time to start grooming her fur.

  "She's been through a lot," Sean sighed.

  "Oh, like I haven't been?" The vixen said, looking up at him. "She hasn't let me out in almost a week."

  "That long?" Sean shook his massive head. That couldn't be healthy. "Don't let her back out until tomorrow."

  "I wasn't planning on it," the vixen laughed. "Oh, you should hear her; she's really quite mad at the both of us now."

  "I thought she was over all of this?" Sean grumbled, he had enough problems without trying to play psychologist.

/>   "She called her sister yesterday."

  Sean face-pawed. "I take it that it didn't go well?"

  "No, her sister disowned her, called her a filthy animal, and told her to never call her again."

  "Gee, what a nice family," Sean growled. "Her father was whipping both of them to death, to save his own skin, and her older sister turns on her just like that? Almost tempted to go bite her myself."

  "Only almost?" the vixen laughed.

  "I wouldn't want a bitch like that in the family; you are nice enough at least, once you get over yourself."

  "You mean once I get over her."

  "We're all one person, you know that."

  "Sure we are," Peg, the vixen winked.

  Sean sighed, "Don't make me feel sorry for her. I do understand what she's going through, now go play with the wolves or something."

  "Sure you wouldn't like to stick around and play with me yourself?" vixen Peg teased as she suddenly rubbed down along his side.

  Sean snorted, "I think that right now your other half could stand to be around people who understand loyalty and don't sell each other out over stupid shit."

  "What a wonderful idea," Peg, the vixen said.

  "She hates it, doesn't she?"

  "And that's what makes it so wonderful! I'll talk to you later, big boy!"

  Sean just sighed and went back up to his office.

  "Sean,"

  "What?" Sean sighed and looked up Roxy was standing there with a cell phone.

  "Your lawyer needs to talk to you."

  He held his hand out for the phone.

  "He's not on this line; he's downstairs having his car detailed."

  Sean sighed and getting up he went down to the shop.

  "Nice place you got here," Anthony, Sean's lawyer said looking around.

  "Well, I can't afford to have all these wolves sitting around on their butts all day," Sean grinned.

  "Also, it's a great cover for people to come over here and meet you, or bring you stuff," Anthony agreed. "People get their cars detailed in Reno all the time."

  "So, what brings you by?" Sean asked.

  "We found your mother's car, or rather, Sampson's."

  "What! Where was it?" Sean asked, excited.