by Jan Stryvant
"We promised Oak we'd save his girlfriend," Jolene told her. "He's worried that they may kill her once the find out he's still alive and not with them anymore."
Roxy nodded, "Good point, and now that we're on our way to the Sorceress Guild, Jo, how about you telling us just how they treat lycans? Being as both Sean and I are ones? Oh, and Oak too."
"Umm," Jolene giggled and blushed, "While they don't allow men onto their property or in their homes or compounds, they do however allow male lycans. But you have to stay in either your hybrid form or beast form."
"And how do they enforce that?" Roxy asked.
"If you don't stay that way, you can't stay with them. It's very simple really."
"So, if you don't stay in those forms, what do they do with you?" Roxy asked again, slowly.
"They kick you out," Jolene said with a giggle.
"Wait, what? They kick you out? Nothing else? No punishment? No torture?"
"Well, kicking you out is considered punishment enough."
"And just why is that?" Roxy asked, looking confused.
"Because the women in the sorceresses' guild don't sleep with men. Well, not human men. They pretty much only sleep with lycans."
"Geez, why would any woman want to do that?" Daelyn giggled from behind the wheel.
"Yes, I can hardly imagine why!" Jolene chuckled.
"Well, I guess it cuts down on unwanted pregnancies," Sean sighed.
Jolene nodded, "That, and of course most sorceresses don't trust men who are magic users not to try and take over. This eliminates any conflicts over leadership. Lycans don't do magic," Jolene paused and patted Sean on the leg, "rather, most lycans don't do magic.
"Anyway, it's a very old tradition now among most of the sorceresses' guilds, and no one hears the lycans complaining about it."
"How do you know so much about it?" Daelyn asked.
"Oh, a couple of my girlfriends live there."
"Girl friend, girlfriends, or girlfriend girlfriends?" Daelyn grumbled.
"Why, Hon, are you jealous?" Jolene giggled.
Sean could see Daelyn blush from where he was sitting. Roxy wisely kept her mouth shut.
"Stop teasing your sister wife," Sean sighed.
"Aww, but I like it when you all feel possessive," Jolene chuckled. "It's nice to be wanted. But to answer the question, yes. I have a couple of friends and lovers there. Most sorceresses don't really have a problem with tantric witches."
"Well that's good," Daelyn said, "Because we're here."
"Well," Sean said and opening the door he got out and immediately shifted, "let's see if we're welcome or not. Oak, shift as soon as you can, please."
Oak nodded and shifted just before stepping out of the minivan, which Daelyn had parked a couple hundred yards away in front of another building on the road.
Sean led the way up to the gates, and when he got there, a woman stepped out of the shadows.
"Ah, you again," Roberta smiled, "come to take me up on my offer?"
"Actually, I was kind of hoping we could claim sanctuary here for a couple of days," Sean said with a smile.
"I don't know," Roberta hesitated a moment, "there are quite a few of you, and whose wolf is that?"
"He's my wolf," Sean said.
"Well, I supposed I could ask Deanna, but what's in it for me?" Roberta teased.
Jolene walked up to the gate then, standing besides Sean, "Hi, Roberta."
"Oh, hi, Jolene," Roberta said, not looking at all embarrassed Sean noticed.
"You know, I suppose we could be talked into letting him wear your collar for a couple of days. If you let us all inside of course."
"I thought you were all married or something?" Roberta asked, looking over Sean with an expression he'd seen on all three of his wives' faces more than once.
"Well yeah, but he's a lion. How else is he supposed to recruit?"
"Recruit?" Roberta said with a laugh, "For what?"
"Wife of course," Jolene smiled. "Understand, if he wears your collar, you may end up with more than you bargained for."
Roberta stopped looking at Sean and looked at Jolene.
"You're looking good, Jo."
"That's cause I'm feeling good, Roberta."
Roberta put a hand to her chin, and nodded slowly a few times in obvious thought. After a minute she unlocked the gate, having apparently come to a decision.
"Come on in, and wait right here. I'll be back in a few minutes."
"Aw great, now I won't get to have any fun for days," Daelyn grumbled.
"Oh, I'm sure I can think of something," Jolene whispered.
"I wasn't thinking that kind of fun," Daelyn blushed.
"Oh I'm sure that Roberta won't monopolize all of my time," Sean laughed.
"Not for lack of trying, I'm sure," Jolene giggled.
Sean rolled his eyes and looked at Roxy, "Now I know how you must have felt with all those guys staring at your ass all the time."
Roxy laughed, "Why do you think I was always wearing my track shorts? If you got it, flaunt it!"
Sean shook his head, he should have known better.
"So, Jo, what's the deal with 'wearing her collar' anyway?"
"It keeps the other sorceresses from hitting on your lover, however," Jolene giggled again, "a lot of the lycans here find themselves getting passed around quite a bit."
"No wonder why they don't want to get tossed out," Daelyn grumbled.
"I'm surprised you haven't heard of this," Sean said, looking at Roxy.
Roxy snorted, "You've seen my dad. My brothers are never lacking in female attention, to put it mildly. Plus I grew up in Vegas, this is pretty mild compared to the things I've seen going on there."
Roberta came back then, with Deanna, who stopped and smiled up at Sean.
"So, Roberta says you're all looking to hide out here for a few days?"
"Yes, Ma'am," Sean said and nodded.
"Problems then?"
"Our home was raided by a team from Gradatim. It's a bit of mess now, plus I'm not so sure it's safe to go back to. We're looking for a place to lay low while we figure out what we're going to do next."
"And who is that?" Deanna asked, pointing to Oak.
"He's the sole surviving lycan from the force, apparently they were sent on a suicide mission. He survived. He's mine now."
"Oh?" Deanna looked up at him, "Why didn't you kill him?"
Sean thought about that a moment, "Because he was no longer theirs. I mean, what would have been the point? My father wanted to free them, not kill them."
"There's going to be a war," Deanna sighed, "isn't there?"
Sean nodded slowly, looking down at her, "I'm afraid so."
"Well, it's not like people haven't been warning them for the last decade or so," Deanna said shaking her head. "Never let it be said that the Sorceress Guild didn't stand with the lycans. You're welcome here, Sean. Same for your wives and any who are sworn to you. Just understand that I would appreciate it if you didn't bring a war down upon my people."
Sean nodded and smiled, "Thank you, Ma'am."
"I think you'll soon learn that you have a lot more friends here than you suspected," Deanna yawned and turning she raised her right hand in a wave as she headed back the way she had come. "Good night."
Roberta smiled then and handed Sean a rather nice leather collar with a metal tag on it that said 'Roberta'.
"If you would put that on, please?" Roberta said with a rather big smile.
Sighing Sean called up his monitor program and checked the collar for enchantments. He found several, surprisingly.
"This is enchanted!" He said, surprised and looked down at Roberta.
Roberta blushed just a little, which surprised Sean, "Umm, yeah. I'll explain it to you later. Don't worry about it, it's not anything bad."
Sean looked at Jolene, who just winked at him, so with a sigh he put it on.
"Here's another one for your wolf," Roberta said and passed it over to Jolene who
handed it to Oak. "That should keep him out of any trouble.
"Now, allow me to show you to your rooms," Roberta said and then looking at Sean she almost purred, "except for you big boy, you're coming with me!"
"So," Sean asked after they'd set the girls and Oak up in two different rooms to stay in, "just exactly what doe the enchantments on this collar do?"
Sean was surprised to see Roberta actually blush again; she wasn't the kind of woman that Sean expected blushed very often.
"Well, it drains a little bit of power, everyday, off of the lycan who wears it, to power a umm, spell that I can, err, use, once it's full."
"And how long does that take?" Sean asked.
"Oh, months," Roberta smiled, "lots of months. As you'll only be here for a few days, I'm sure. It's nothing you have to worry about."
"Uh-huh," Sean grinned, whatever it was, talking about it was making Roberta rather uncomfortable, but according to his rather strong powers of smell, fairly excited as well. Examining it with his enchantment program, he could see that she was telling the truth, it was drawing off a miniscule amount of his power. It would take quite a while to fully charge. He could also see that it was storing energy to power some sort of spell that was tied directly to Roberta, he couldn't figure it out however.
As Roberta stopped at the door to her quarters, Sean slid up behind her and put his hands on her shoulders, then slowly ran them down her arms to her hands and turning her around he bent down and kissed her, as he pulled her close.
She didn't hesitate at all and put her arms over his shoulders and wrapped them around his thick neck, under his mane, kissing him back.
Sean took his time kissing her and let his hands do a little exploring. Roberta was definitely well put together under the robes she was wearing.
"Shall we go inside?" Sean whispered after a couple of minutes of kissing.
"Oh, yes. Let's go inside," Roberta said in a husky voice.
Turning back to the door, she opened it and Sean followed her inside.
"Mommy!"
Sean's eyebrows raised up as what looked like a six-year-old girl came running into the room, dressed in pajamas, making a beeline for Roberta.
"Mommy! You're home early!"
"Sarah, what have I told you about staying in bed!" Roberta said in obvious 'mother' mode.
"I had a dream that...."
Sean noticed that she saw him then and stopped in mid-sentence. He started to worry about the effects of seeing an eight-foot tall lion-were might have on a young child that was still half asleep when she suddenly changed her vector and literally grabbed him around his left leg.
"Daddy! Daddy's home!"
Sean noticed the pained look on Roberta's face, and then the guilty look she flashed him before looking back at her daughter.
"Sarah! You need to go back to bed," Roberta half pleaded with her daughter.
"But daddy's here!"
Sean settled down to his knees carefully.
"Hello, Sarah. I'm Sean. How are you?"
Sarah blinked and looked at him, "You're not Daddy?"
"No, Sarah, I'm sorry, I'm not your father."
"I'm, I'm sorry," Sarah looked rather sad suddenly, "you look so much like him, I was hoping he was coming by again. Mommy told me he had to go away, and won't be able to come back."
"I'm sorry to hear that, Sarah. But sometimes these things happen."
"He promised me a little sister, he told me he'd get me one, but now he's gone, but when I saw you I thought..." Sarah looked up at Sean, with all of innocence and the very transparent guile of six-year-olds everywhere.
"He promised you, did he?" Sean said and looked over at Roberta who pursed her lips and tried to look anywhere but at Sean as she wrung her hands in embarrassment.
"Yes," Sarah said, nodding, "he promised me."
"Well, us lions, we stick together," Sean purred rather loudly, eyes still on Roberta, "so I guess I'll just have to take care of that for him."
Sean noticed the effect on Roberta was rather educational, she turned even redder than he'd ever seen Daelyn turn, and started squirming like she had ants in her pants.
Sarah threw her arms around his neck and hugged him.
"Promise?" she squeaked happily.
"Oh yeah," Sean rumbled, Roberta's scent had just hit him, and it almost floored him, "I promise!"
Turning back to Sarah he peeled her arms from around her neck, "But you, Princess, need to go to bed now. Okay?"
"Yes, Daddy!" Sarah said and running over she gave Roberta a hug, "Night, Mommy!" and ran back to her bedroom.
"So," Sean said rising back up to his feet slowly, and advancing on Roberta, "her father is a lion?"
"Was," Roberta said, looking a little sad. "you know, you look just like him."
"Sampson?"
Roberta nodded, "Six years ago, when I was eighteen, we met, and well. Sarah happened."
"Saran isn't all that happened, was it?"
Roberta blushed, "No, but she was our only child."
Sean looked at the collar again, with his enchantment program as he put his arms around her and pulled her close. Filling it up would be easy, so he did so, as he started to tweak to just what the collars were used for.
"Just how do these collars work?" he asked.
Roberta blushed, "I don't see how that matters, you won't be here long enough."
Sweeping Roberta up in to a bridal carry, Sean headed for the door to what he guessed was her bedroom.
"Humor me."
"Well," Roberta blushed, "it lets the lycan who has powered it, ummm, make a child with the sorceress who owns it."
"You gals really do have a thing for lycans, don't you?" Sean chuckled and kicking the door closed behind him with a heel he came over to the bed and set Roberta down on it.
"We barely have time enough for our children, but lycan men tend to be used to strong independent women, they don't try to compete with us, besides," Roberta reached up and grabbing his mane she pulled him down to her, "you're a lot better in bed!"
Sean laughed at that and pulling his shirt off he started helping her undress, between kisses, licks, and the occasional nibble.
When they were finally both naked on the bed, with Sean kneeling between her legs he smiled down at her. She really was a beautiful young woman, and lying before him, panting and smiling back at him with desire, Sean reached up behind him and taking off the necklace he handed it to her.
"Why don't you put that on," he rumbled.
"There's no way that's charged enough to work," Roberta sighed, eying it wistfully.
"What, you don't think I'm not going to keep my promise?" Sean growled and grabbing her hips he pulled her closer as her legs wrapped around his hips. Leaning forwards a little he fitted himself into her, causing her to gasp, her shoulders laying back on the bed.
"Put it on," he growled.
Giving a sigh, Roberta put on the collar, and blinked. Then her eyes got wide.
"How?"
"I'm an enchanter," Sean smiled, "you think I can't deal with something as simple as that? Now, what do you say we make your daughter happy?"
Sean was lying on his side, panting, and purring rather happily. He had no idea what time it was, and honestly he didn't give a damn right now. He'd just done something he'd never done before, and damn if he wasn't thinking about doing it again. Roberta had her back to him right now, as he was spooned up against her, his arms wrapped around her, his chin on top of her head. They were both covered in sweat and the room stunk of sex.
"I'm gonna be a dad," Sean finally whispered.
"You said that each of the last eight times," Roberta said dreamily.
"Care to go for nine?" Sean teased.
"If you're anything like Sampson, I suspect it'll be more like fifteen!" she giggled.
"I can't believe that Sarah is his daughter."
"Why? What's so hard about it?"
"He never mentioned it."
"What, you feel
cheated?"
Sean gave a small nod, "Yeah, a little. I would have liked to known her sooner. Sampson was like a dad to me. Hell, I almost feel guilty sleeping with his woman."
"Almost," Roberta teased, "only, almost."
"Well, what kind of a step-son would I be if I didn't fulfill his promises?" Sean chuckled and bent his head down to kiss her on the top of her head.
"How did it happen, anyway?" he asked her.
Roberta laughed, "A lot like this one, you know, on a bed, after a lot of sex!"
Sean rolled his eyes and pinched a nipple, enjoying the way she wiggled back against him when he did. "That's not what I meant, and you know it. But really, I'm curious?"
"He'd been coming up here for years. Helping out, and yes, getting laid. He was a lion, he had needs, we took care of them."
"You know, I'd always wondered about him and my mom, why they never hooked up. I could see he loved her, and she loved him. I always wondered why they didn't."
"Because of who and what they were. Sampson loved your mother, he told me so more than once. He loved you too. But lycans only slept with lycans, where he came from. He broke that rule with us, because sorceresses and lycans have been doing this for centuries."
"I guess I can see that," Sean said with a nod. "So how did you end up having his child?"
Roberta sighed, "I'm only telling you this, because you're his son, his lycan son."
"Huh?"
"When a lycan infects someone, they become a parent of that person. Because they pass on a part of themselves to you. You look almost exactly like Sampson as a lion you know, part of why I guess I was attracted to you the moment I saw you."
"Oh," Sean nodded.
"Sampson lost his wife and his children back in Rhodesia, when the government collapsed. He never told me the details, but I look a lot like her, and well he kept avoiding me for the longest time.
"So on my eighteenth birthday, I corralled him through the use of a very contrived plot and a couple of favors I was owed."
"Oh, he must have loved that!" Sean laughed, thinking about Sampson. If there was one thing Sampson hated, it was being manipulated.
Roberta snickered, "Oh yeah, he was pissed. That was when I learned that lions can actually get a woman pregnant, collar or no collar, if they really want to."
"Wait, that doesn't sound like something he would have done," Sean said, a little concerned.
