by Jan Stryvant
"Chad remembers me as me, Mom. He's an old friend; he forgets just who I am now. I don't blame him, hell, I forget sometimes myself! He needed a reminder, that's all. I'm the boss; I'm a big bad lion with magic, an attitude, and even mystical powers when everything else fails."
"Really now, Sean. Mystical powers?" His mother Louise said with a smile.
"He's not kidding, Mom," Daelyn said from behind the wheel. "Lions ain't like any other lycan. Ask any dwarf, we'll tell you. Why do you think I was willing to take up with him?" Daelyn looked at Sean and smiled, "Besides the fact that he's, big, strong, sexy and good in bed?"
Sean grinned and patted Daelyn on the leg as she drove.
"What do dwarves know about lions, that makes them different from the other lycans?" Louise asked.
"They were the first, they're the oldest, they made all of the rest. They can break all of the rules, because they're the ones that made 'em."
"Mom," Sean sighed from the front seat, "lycans predate magic users. We were around tens of thousands of years before they existed. Lycans work for magic users because we lions asked for them to help civilize and train our lycans, in return for which we would serve and protect them.
"For many hundreds of years now, the magic users have been abusing their side of the bargain. Sampson's task was to find someone who could help us break the hold of the magic users over the lycans by finding a way of dealing with our weakness to silver. He found dad, and dad found the answer.
"Now it's up to me to actually start freeing them. The old pact is over, we don't need the magic users, and they don't need us."
"Us?"
"I'm a lycan now, Mom. Most of my children will probably by lycans."
"Not mine, I want dwarves!" Daelyn interjected.
"Of course, Dae, you all get whatever you want," Sean smiled at her and patted her leg again.
"But the point is, I'm one of them, and honestly? I'm pretty damn happy with it, it was meant to be."
"It only happened because Sampson bit you," Louise reminded him.
Sean snorted, "They'd been after him to bite me for years. If he hadn't bit me by the time I'd turned twenty-one, they would have sent another lion here to do it."
"Who's 'they?'"
"The other lions, Mom." Sean chuckled, "We have a council, of sorts. We meet, we talk, and we plan. Dad wasn't the first one they enlisted to try and find a way to deal with silver; he was just the first one to succeed." Sean shook his head and smiled, "Dad was a freaking genius, Mom, right up there with Einstein and the rest of them. Maybe if I'm lucky, one of my kids will pick up on his work."
Louise leaned back in the seat and decided not to say anything. Half of what her son was saying sounded crazy. But, she almost sighed, it was a pretty big 'but' there, he was accomplishing things that six months ago anyone would have claimed were a fantasy to even consider.
And Sapientia was on his side! That was even more of a shock than finding out her son had five wives. After she got over the fact that he was a lion lycan of course.
Maybe she'd have a little talk with her Uncle Maitland. He'd been around a lot longer than she'd been. And he'd claimed to have known lions in the past. Maybe he could shed a little light on just what had happened to her Sean.
Mountain Home
Sean was surprised to see a gate, along with a wire fence, as they returned to their new home.
"Looks like somebody's been busy," Daelyn said.
"Lots of somebody's," Sean agreed, as they rolled to a stop and someone stepped out from behind what looked like a small shed and opened the gate for them, then waving them on.
"I'm surprised they didn't ask who we were," Daelyn said as they started up the long driveway towards the house.
"How many 'Cuda's are there in Nevada?" Sean asked.
Daelyn smiled, "Yeah, there is that."
As Daelyn drove around the house to where the cars were parked, he could see that there were people busy everywhere, as well as several flatbed trucks with lumber and other materials on them.
Roxy came running up to him as soon as he got out of the car and gave him a big hug and a kiss that he happily returned.
"Miss me?" Sean asked.
"Of course I missed you, silly!"
Jolene and Peg came up next, and took their turns hugging him and kissing him as well.
"I can see things have been busy around here," Sean said motioning towards all of the activity going on.
Roxy nodded, "They got started on some of it late yesterday, but most of it's been going on since the sun came up this morning."
"I'm surprised that the neighbors haven't complained," Sean said as the sounds of hammers, drills, and saws filled the air.
"Well, Peg, Maitland, Ruth, and your Uncle have been helping a little with that. We've also passed out a few 'bribes' to the closer neighbors."
Sean scowled, "What kinds of bribes?"
"Oh, free landscaping, fence repair, driveway patching."
Jolene nodded, "A lot of the people around here are older and they're a lot more interested in getting some things around their property fixed than in getting any kind of cash handout."
"So," Roxy smiled, "we help them out, and endear ourselves to them. With all the people we got running around here, and the equipment we've had to rent, it's not like we don't have the resources."
Sean nodded, "Well, let's go inside and find a quiet place to sit down, and you can catch me up on the schedule."
"What did Chad want last night?"
"I'll tell you all about that too," Sean said and led them all back inside the house.
"So," Sean said once they'd gotten settled down in his new office. Besides the girls, his mom, Maitland, Ruth, Oak, and Deidre had joined them. Deidre was still sporting a t-shirt thin enough and stretched tight enough not to hide anything, which made Sean wonder if that was for his benefit, or just the way dark elves tended to dress? The yoga pants she was wearing could have been spray-painted on they were so tight. But then again, his girls were dressed just as bad, Roxy in track shorts and a half-shirt, Jolene in a tube top and what he guessed were capris pants, and while Peg was dressed in the same basic outfit as Deidre was, Peg had taken a razor blade to it and cut a lot of strategically placed slits in both the shirt as well as the pants.
Sean was probably spending more time staring at his girls than looking around the room, and he got the feeling that they liked it that way.
"So," Sean repeated himself with a grin, "we know that the attack was from the Sacramento chapter of the council of the Ascendants."
"What are you going to do to them?" Maitland asked.
"Nothing major," Sean said and noticed all of the looks he got, Roxy even growled a little.
"Look," Sean told them, this time making sure he made eye contact with everyone in the room in turn. "They don't know about the attack made by the Vesti's. Or rather they didn't, they sure do now. Chad arranged for that with the help of Arthur over at the council of Sapientia."
"My Uncle Troy helped?" Jolene said, looking a little surprised.
Sean nodded, "He made it clear it was in his best interest to help us, I suspect he's got his own plans for after the Vesti's get cut down a peg or two. But the biggest problem is that the Ascendants are going to be sending a lot of people here to attack us. So if we go and attack the folks in Sacramento, we're just backing up their first thought to attack us.
"This way, they'll either go after the Vesti's, or just leave us alone completely."
"Still, I can't believe you're not going to do anything to them," Roxy grumbled.
"He sicced Chad on 'em," Daelyn said with a big grin.
Sean shook his head, "I told him to go do something that wouldn't kill anybody, but would put their noses out of joint. It's Chad, he was pissed off because I pulled rank on him, so he'll take it out on them seeing as he can't take it out on me."
Sean looked around the room, "But this does mean that we need to get dug in here as deeply as we
can, and we need to start keeping our eyes open. This just isn't the Reno councils anymore, the Ascendants are sending people in and I don't know who else. This is going to get a lot bigger; I'm just hoping they fight amongst themselves more than they come after us. At least until we're ready for them."
"What about the Vestibulum?" Oak asked. "We are still going after them, right?"
Sean nodded, "Of course we are. They attacked us and that's not going to go unanswered, especially with their trying to make everyone think we slaughtered those people."
Sean turned back to Roxy, "How long until all the defenses are set up?"
Roxy smiled at him, "Oh, Maitland and I got that taken care of last night. Between him and Chad they came up with a good plan, so we just had to set it all up like they told us. By the end of today, I suspect the emplacements will all be fully hidden."
"What about the barracks and other buildings for everyone to live in?"
Oak spoke up then, "It'll take about a week to finish all the structures, another week to get the insides done. But we'll have most of the people out of their tents by Monday, even if the accommodations are a little rough."
"Jo," Sean said turning towards Jolene, "how many people are still left in the bunker?"
"Twenty-seven of the kids are there, and ten women to take care of them, along with Granite's team. We all agreed to leave the younger kids there until things are done here."
Sean nodded, "Okay, anyone know what's up with our detailing business?"
Peg raised her hand, "I've been talking to Alex, they actually started making the rounds this morning with one of the van's Dae bought them. They're using the other one set up in the parking lot at the building to do business there, outside. Samis's team cleared away a big enough space for them to work, and while they're not doing a lot of business, they are at least doing enough to keep things going."
Sean nodded, "I'm going to see about calling a fellowship meeting, I want everyone to know about the people who are coming to town, and to be on the lookout for it. I also want to set the date for our attack our on the Vesti's."
"When do you want to hit them?" Maitland asked.
"Soon, before they have the chance to bring in reinforcements."
"And once you do that, what next?"
"Go after the smaller councils and houses next I guess," Sean said and then shrugged, "I'm hoping that with the major players either on our side or put out of the business of keeping lycans as slaves by force, that the others will be willing to just roll over without a fight."
Sean looked around the room, "That's all I can think of for the moment, so unless anybody has any other questions, how about some lunch?"
Lunch was good, apparently the cooks had everything well in hand at least, and the girls were all happy. Sean gathered from Jolene that Peg and Sheila had been out rather late last night, undoubtedly looking for more trouble. Sean wasn't quite sure how he felt about that, on the one hand, they did know how to take care of themselves, but on the other he didn't like Peg taking risks.
"Master Sean?"
Sean sighed and looked up at Deidre, who was standing next to him, giving him a wonderful view of the underside of her well-stretched t-shirt, as well as the endowments that were doing the stretching.
"You don't have to call me 'Master,' Deidre, just Sean will do."
She smiled down at him, "Of course, Master Sean. If I could have some of your time?"
"Sure, what do you need?"
"Oh, lots of things," she winked, "but right now, I need you to fill out a bunch of forms and sign a bunch more. I've been dealing with your lawyer, Mr. Barton, and getting all the paperwork squared away on both your business, as well as getting the work started on the building downtown."
"Oh!" Sean said and got up out of the chair, "Well, girls, duty beckons."
"Riiight," Roxy winked, "Duty. Have fun! I need to get back to working on stuff with Oak."
"And I need to check the plans, and do an inspection on the construction crews' progress," Daelyn nodded.
"Jo and I are working on some of the wards," Peg said and Jolene nodded.
"Well, see you all at dinner then, if not before," Sean said and gave each of them a kiss, and then followed Deidre out of the dining room while noticing that yoga pants really didn't leave anything to the imagination.
"I don't have an office yet of course," Deidre said as they stepped into the bedroom she was sharing with the three other dark elves. Sean had thought it best to keep their living quarters separated from the others, until he knew how they might react to the sharing a room with one of the others. With the male to female ratio being what it was around here, Deidre was definitely drawing a lot of looks.
"Besides," Deidre said in a husky voice and pressed up against him, "maybe we can discuss other things?"
"Oh? What other things?" Sean asked as she started to run a hand seductively up and down along his side as she rubbed up against him.
"Oh, perhaps my showing you just how grateful I am for everything?" Deidre said in a very husky whisper.
Sean had no idea why Deidre was still so hot to get him into bed, but she had done him a pretty big favor by taking over all of the paperwork, and then there was the way her very attractive body was rubbing into his, yeah, there was no way he wasn't doing this.
"Shouldn't we do the paperwork first?" Sean said with a smile and bending over and lowering his head to hers, he moved a hand up behind her head and gave her a nice long kiss. He wasn't at all surprised at how good she tasted.
"It's not going anywhere," Deidre sighed and pulling his shirt out of his pants, she started to run her hands over his chest. "Umm, so nice and strong."
Sean slid his own hands up to cup her magnificent chest, starting to kneed it with his fingers, her chest was soft that he ended up ripping the t-shirt off of her body after a brief moment because he wanted to feel that soft flesh in his hands without any fabric in between.
"Somebody want something?" Deidre teased.
"Yes, you do," Sean chuckled and kissed her again, then started to walk her slowly backwards towards one of the beds, as her fingers moved down to the waistband on his slacks, deftly undoing his pants and pushing them down.
"Somebody's happy," she teased, taking him in her hand and stroking him.
Looking down at her dark skin, and the darker flesh around her nipples, he took them in his fingers and pinched them, making her shiver. She dropped back onto the bed then, as it hit her in the back of the knees, and after kicking off his pants, Sean quickly helped her peel out of the yoga pants.
He found the contrast between their skin colors to be interesting and exciting. While Sean's own skin wasn't very light to start with, Deidre's was darker than he'd ever seen on a human. With her hair, which was almost white in color, including the fine down like hair over her sex, it highlighted her exoticness, and it wasn't hard to understand why those Sean had rescued her from wanted to make her into a sex slave.
Taking one of her legs in his hand, Sean began to slowly kiss and lick his way up it, paying attention to the back of her knee, then working up her inner thigh, doing the things that he knew Jolene and the others loved and he found Deidre equally responsive.
When he got to her sex, she was clearly already quite excited and ready for him, but she let him take his time, and apparently enjoyed it rather vocally, holding onto his hair and calling out his name several times.
When he finally moved up to cover her, she guided him into her with a smile on her face that quickly became a pleased, and then very satisfied expression as he moved to seat himself fully. He started off slowly, and it wasn't long before those long legs of hers wrapped around him, her heels kicking at his rump as he nibbled on one of her pointed ears and discovered that they were just as sensitive as the round ones.
Eventually she was once again voicing her pleasure and goading him on, moving against him, grinding back onto him, and then even begging him to give her what she wanted, and being a gentlem
an, he complied quite happily.
Several hours later Sean was laying in bed, feeling very pleasantly spent. They had made love several more times, Deidre was apparently as full of lust as Jolene, and as starved for affection and sex as Daelyn had been. Jolene could definitely learn a few things from Deidre; obviously she'd learned a few tricks over the last hundred years and her insistence on calling him 'Master Sean' instead of just 'Sean' had definitely added a little spice to the whole wonderful affair.
"So, can I keep the position?" Deidre asked, looking down into his eyes as she lay on top of him.
"Of course," Sean chuckled. "You didn't have to sleep with me for that! Not that I'm complaining of course, you are a very beautiful and sexy woman."
"Dark elf," Deidre corrected with a grin.
"Woman," Sean chuckled and gave her naked butt a squeeze with his hand, "But I must admit I'm curious as to why you were so hot to get me in bed, when I'd already given you the job."
Deidre smiled and lowered her head back down on lay it on his chest.
"Well, originally I just wanted to endear myself to the lord of this estate, to guarantee myself your protections. You're a young man yet, Master Sean, and even with your wives, I know that you're a lion, and well, lions tend to treat their wives and lovers well."
"But you already had my protection," Sean protested, softly.
Deidre glanced up at him and chuckled, "You'll forgive me, Master Sean, but I've been raised in both this world and another one, and if there is one thing I've learned in my life, it's that while men may tell you a thing, they mean it a lot more if they consider you to be one of theirs."
"Lion," said with a wink.
"Which makes it even truer," she winked back. "But I think I've changed my reasons just a little bit now, from just wanting to be under your protection."
"Oh?"
Raising her head again, Deidre gave him the kind of lewd look that he'd seen and learned to love on Jolene's face.
"I wanted to be under the big strong male who doesn't treat the people around him like serfs. You could have just made me your property, made all of us your property, but you didn't. It's been a long time since I was the one in charge of rewarding my favors."