It Ain't Easy Read online

  It Ain't Easy

  Published by Jan Stryvant

  Copyright 2018 Jan Stryvant

  Copyright Jan Stryvant 2018

  Cover Credits: eBook Launch (http://ebooklaunch.com/)

  No part of this eBook may be reproduced in any form without expressed, written consent from the author. The material in this story may feature graphic depictions of a sexual or adult nature and is intended for a mature audience only. All characters in this story are fictional and of the legal age of consent for any activities they engage in. Any resemblance between characters, places, or things in this story, and people living or dead, actual places, or events, is purely coincidental. It's fiction; I made it up.

  License Notes

  This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be copied and given away, or copied and sold, to other people. Got that? No copying, please! If you would like to share this book with another person, it would be really nice if you purchased an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use, please consider purchasing your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  #57821

  Jan Stryvant Books:

  The Valens Legacy:

  Black Friday Book 1

  Perfect Strangers Book 2

  Over Our Heads Book 3

  Head Down Book 4

  When It Falls Book 5

  Stand On It Book 6

  Vegas Rules Book 7

  Desperate Measures Book 8

  Secret Treaties Book 9

  It Ain't Easy Book 10

  Shadow

  Speak to Me

  Carl looked out the windshield of the car as he drove up the dirt road. It was after two pm; a number of people, including his boss, had wanted him to get up early and be here at the crack of dawn, they just couldn't understand it when he then laughed at them.

  The only reason he'd flown here on a government jet, rather than flying commercial, was he'd brought a small team with him whose job was to investigate reports of a counterfeiting operation as a cover for his trip. The meeting with the president had been educational, to say the least. The president had had a lot of questions and seemed worried about the consequences of being seen as supporting a possible terrorist, should the news of what happened in LA be linked to someone who wanted to meet with him.

  But on the other hand, the president thought the 'Thank You' card was the height of practical jokes and showed that Sean Valens had a sense of humor.

  When all was said and done, the president was very interested in meeting with Sean, but he wanted Sean to come to him, not the other way around. Again, the president was worried about appearances, as well as bargaining position.

  "You're going to be my lead man on this, Carl," the president had told him, "I need you to determine if it's actually worthwhile for us to give into his demands for a meeting and if so, to convince him to come here. Be sure to let him know that the president of the United States of America just can't pick up and fly wherever he wants without everyone noticing. It would be weeks, if not months, before we could work something out. Got that?"

  Carl had nodded and agreed, then gone back to the office to prepare.

  "You know he's not going to come here," Carl had told Kensington.

  "Then I suggest you figure out just how to explain that to the president when you get back," Kensington had warned him.

  Carl stopped at the gate; there was a little shack that obviously functioned as a guardhouse there, and a young man came out and looked at him.

  "What do you want?"

  "I'm here to talk to Sean."

  "And you would be?"

  "Carl Mince, United States Secret Service," Carl said, flashing his badge. "I told Sean I wanted to come by and have a beer or two. Could you call him, please?"

  "A beer?" the young man said, looking at him a little confused.

  "What, don't lycans drink?" Carl asked with a grin.

  "Umm, don't move..." the young man said slowly, and pulling out a radio, he stepped back out of earshot and said something into it. After a moment he went over to the gate and opened it.

  "Go on up," he said.

  "Thanks!" Carl smiled and drove up to the house. There was a large parking area with a big garage behind it that looked fairly new. Parking out of the way of the other cars, Carl got out and looked at the house. There were a lot of buildings behind it, and from the pictures he'd pulled from one of the imaging birds last night, there were also a couple of helicopter pads and a number of spots that looked suspiciously like weapons emplacements.

  Right now there were three people walking towards him, a big-ass lionman, a catgirl of some type, and a rather attractive —and very scantily clad —red-haired young woman with the darkest skin he'd ever seen in his life.

  "Sean?" Carl called as the lionman got closer.

  "Do you know any other werelions?"

  "I don't know any werelions!" Carl said with a grin. "But maybe if you introduce yourself, I'll at least know one!"

  Sean smiled. "Well then, Carl, I'm Sean Valens, as I'm sure you already know. This is my wife, Roxy Valens. She's a werecheetah. This is my wife, Cali Valens. She's a dark elf."

  Carl smiled and shook hands with each of them. "This is truly a pleasure, Sean, Roxy, Cali. Up until now I've only met a couple of lycans—well, at least as far as I know!"

  "Oh? Where was that?" Roxy asked.

  "At the Sapientia headquarters in Washington. I met two of their employees during dinner."

  Sean nodded. "Well, let's go inside and get out of the sun. I'm surprised you didn't show up at the crack of dawn."

  Carl snorted. "Someone told me that lions don't appreciate being woken up early in the morning."

  "Ah, somebody who actually listens!" Roxy snickered.

  Carl grinned back at her. "We do things a bit differently in the Secret Service. You have to remember, guarding government officials is our number one job, the rest of it is just our hobby."

  "Did you ever do that?" Sean asked as they walked up the steps to the front door.

  Carl nodded. "I was on the presidential detail for four years until I worked my way up into investigations for the Treasury department." Carl stopped and looked up at Sean. "So I gotta warn ya', if you try to do anything to the president, I'm gonna fall on you like a ton of bricks, okay?"

  Sean grinned down at Carl, showing more than a bit of fang, and was impressed that Carl didn't even flinch. "I'll do my best not to piss you off then."

  Carl smiled back. "Thanks! You gotta understand, we don't scare easily. Taking a bullet is part of the job, you know, and once you've reached that level of commitment, certain things just don't bother you as much anymore."

  Sean nodded and led Carl into the dining room, then motioned for him to take a chair.

  Carl grabbed a seat and looked up in surprise as another dark elf came out and set a bunch of beers down on the table, then went back into the kitchen.

  "How many dark elves do you have?" Carl said, appreciating the rather fine ass that was walking away from him.

  "Several," Sean said with a shrug, "we rescued them from a bad situation and, well, one thing led to another..."

  Carl couldn't miss the warm smile Sean gave his wife Cali, who returned it.

  "So," Sean picked back up, "just what can we do for the Secret Service, Carl?"

  "As I've told you before, I'm the head of the new 'Lycan Affairs' group at the Secret Service."

  "Why is that part of the Secret Service?" Roxy asked.

  Carl shrugged. "I'm not fully up on the political maneuvering that took place back when the Secret Service was founded. I suspect it was because the Treasury Department was worried about the magic users engaging in counterfeiting, and because we were the only group involved in tracking and investigating people, that the job to watch and deal with them was given to us.

  "I also gather that the U.S. Marshals were never really keen on dealing with it, and of course the FBI hadn't been founded yet."

  "So because you had the magic users, you got us?"

  Carl took a sip of his beer and nodded. "Exactly. As for why I'm here? Well, first, there's the never been any official contact between the lycans and the government. Probably because we never knew they had any leaders or rulers." Carl took another drink from his beer.

  "Then there's the whole war thing, which has started to go beyond the magic users and their 'silence'. We have citizens being killed now, and while we've always suspected that the mages have done that in the past, this is the first time we've had proof."

  Carl took another drink. "And then of course, there's LA."

  "Why are they so upset about LA, Carl?" Sean asked, sincerely curious. "Yeah, I blew up a building and killed a lot of people, but hell, we did that on I-80 just the other week."

  "Because it was a nuclear bomb," Carl said with a sigh. "Everyone in the government is really paranoid about nuclear weapons. We have all sorts of devices to find them, track them, tell us when one has gone off, and examine the site afterwards. We know who all the nuclear powers are, Sean. Finding out that we need to add 'Lions' to that list when we don't know a damn thing about you? Yeah, people are just a little concerned."

  Sean considered that a moment while Carl took another drink.

  "It wasn't really a nuclear bomb," Sean told him.

  "Sean, I had a roomful of military experts tell me differently."

  "Oh? Was there any fallout?"

&nbsp
; Carl stopped a moment and remembered the conversation in the room that day.

  "Come to think of it, nobody mentioned any fallout at all."

  Sean nodded. "That's because it wasn't actually an atomic bomb. Oh, I know it gave off radiation, alpha particles, and probably some beta particles as well, but it wasn't a fission bomb or a fusion bomb."

  "So just what was it then?" Carl asked, curious.

  "Godly wrath," Sean said, grinning at him.

  "You trying to get me fired? After you just got me a nice promotion? I can't tell 'em that!"

  Sean grinned at him. "Oh, I don't think they'll fire you over that. So when's the president coming to visit?"

  Carl sighed again. "That's why I'm here. He wants you to come to DC, he doesn't want to come here."

  "Oh? Why's that?"

  "Well, he is the president of the United States, Sean."

  "Yes, but for all intents and purposes, I'm a god, Carl. So I think I might just outrank him a little bit."

  Carl sat up and looked at Sean. "Now, you see, that's the part I really can't get my hands around, Sean. Just how are you a god? Four months ago, I suspect you were probably just as human as I was, then suddenly you're a werelion, and that makes you a god?" Carl shook his head. "Help me out here, I'm really not getting it, and I suspect no one else is getting it either."

  Sean paused a moment to consider.

  'May I?' the First asked.

  'Just don't confuse him like you do the magic users. Somehow I don't think he'll appreciate it.'

  "The lions are ancient," the First said, taking over for Sean, "they've been around for tens of thousands of years, and have powers that in many ways are best described as 'godlike', which is one reason why they often refer to themselves as gods.

  "That, and of course their creation of all the lycan races."

  "What do you mean, they?" Carl asked. "I thought you were one?"

  "I'm getting to that," the First said with a smile, "the lions decided to recruit me, Sean Valens, many years ago. They decided that I would be the best to help with their cause, not the least of which because of who my father was.

  "Now, being infected by a lion is neither easy nor safe, and the outcome is by no means guaranteed. Part of why it is incredibly rare for a lion to infect someone with their type lycanthropy. There is a period of adjustment, assuming you survive the infection, of course. Now some who are bitten only become werelions for the rest of their lives."

  "And the others?"

  "They become true lions. I, Sean Valens, surprised both the leader of the lions, as well as all the rest, by fully becoming one of them."

  "And how is that different?"

  "Because I now have the same powers they do. Oh, I'm not quite as strong as the others yet, I've only been one for a few months, after all. But eventually I will be.

  "There's one other thing as well that makes it more important."

  "And that would be?"

  "I'm the official voice of the leader of the lions—the First, as we all call him."

  "Why doesn't he just show up himself?" Carl asked, taking another drink.

  Sean took back over and smiled. "He's currently spending the year dead for tax purposes."

  Carl tried not to laugh at that; unfortunately, he failed, and ended up spraying beer out his nose.

  "Dammit! That was a waste of good beer!" Carl complained as he looked around for something to clean up the mess with.

  The dark elf who had given him the beer came out and handed him a towel. Thanking her, Carl started to clean himself up.

  "So, you're saying he's dead?"

  "No, I'm saying he's not on the planet. That reality I took those Marshals to? He's there right now."

  "So he can't come here?"

  "Oh no, he can, and does quite often."

  "I'm not so sure I understand," Carl admitted.

  Sean shrugged. "It's a god thing. Or maybe I should say a 'lion god' thing. Yeah, it's confusing, as I understand it; we created it when most of us withdrew from the world around us."

  "Why'd you withdraw?"

  "I'm told we had our reasons; I never really asked." Sean smiled as he deflected the question. "Personally, I think everyone just wanted a vacation or something. It really is a nice place."

  "Does that mean they're coming back?" Carl asked a little cautiously.

  "Oh, we come back all the time; we just don't come back in large enough numbers that anyone really notices. Someone has to keep an eye on our 'children', after all."

  "I meant in greater numbers, like maybe all of them?"

  Sean just grinned.

  "Well, that was reassuring," Carl grumbled, while Roxy and Cali snickered.

  "So, when's the president coming to visit?"

  "Right now, he's not," Carl said with a shake of his head. "He's too worried about the possible ramifications."

  "Of meeting with the lions?"

  "Of meeting with a possible nuclear terrorist," Carl admitted. "Also, it's not like he can just pick up and come to Reno without the entire world noticing."

  Sean considered that a moment.

  "Actually," Sean said, still thinking about it, "nobody has any proof that I actually bombed the Gradatim council, other than what I said to one person, and that hardly constitutes proof.

  "And as for the entire world noticing," Sean smiled, "well that is sorta the idea."

  "You'd break the silence?" Carl said, staring at Sean over his beer bottle, which had stopped just inches from his lips.

  "The silence protects the magic users, Carl, not us lycans. Now I'm not asking for the president to have a press conference with me looking like this to announce to the world that lycan's exist and he's on our side.

  "However, if the world's leaders find out he's treating with us, and meeting with us, as equals, perhaps they may just follow his lead?"

  Carl set his beer down and leaned back in his chair as he considered that.

  "Does this mean you're going to want to sign a treaty like the magic users did?"

  'Dad?'

  'No, we're not looking for any special treatment. We just want to be like everyone else.'

  'Including us lions?' Sean teased.

  The First snorted in his head. 'Except for us lions, but for the most part, we'll follow the laws as well, though it might be for the best if they work out special rules for us.'

  "Why would we want a treaty?" Sean asked, looking at him. "That would just separate us from everybody else. We don't want special treatment for the lycans; we just want the same treatment. That's all."

  Carl blinked. "You know, I don't think anyone is expecting that."

  "When you consider how many of us are already living like that, I don't see why you'd be surprised."

  "How many?" Carl asked, looking a little surprised.

  "Over half a million," Sean shrugged, "closer to a million if you include Canada and Mexico."

  Sean watched as Carl digested that for a full minute.

  "You know, I think I'm going to have to ask for a raise and a bigger office," Carl said, and then grinned. "Half a million? And I'm supposed to be watching all of them! Ha!"

  "That reminds me." Sean smiled. "Just what kind of lycan do you want to be?" he asked, and then he winked at Carl.

  Carl blinked. "Huh?"

  "Well, like you said, you're the head of the government's Lycan Affairs group. I'd think a lycan would be better suited to that job, don't you?"

  "Umm," Carl stopped and looked at Sean, "are you serious? I thought you didn't bite people?"

  "If Sean tells someone to bite somebody," Roxy purred.

  "They bite him," Cali finished with a giggle.

  Sean laughed at the slightly panicked expression on Carl's face.

  "I though you said you guys don't spook all that easily?"

  "It's not that, it's just, I've pretty much sworn an oath to protect the Constitution and the country. I'm not sure I'm allowed to become a lycan."

  "Those commitments wouldn't change, Carl. Like I said, we want the lycans to become part of the countries they live in. Not to be held separate or apart."

  "Yeah, but wouldn't I have to answer to you?"

  "As long as you weren't betraying the other lycans, no."

  "So you're serious then?" Carl asked.

  Sean nodded. "But only if you're interested, of course."