Simple Things Read online

  Adam didn't leave his room until dinnertime. Ryla was everything he wanted in a woman: shallow, oversexed, kinky as hell, and possessed of a dubious morality.

  "Damn, that was nice," Ryla purred, leaning into him as they left the shower and headed for the dining room.

  "Mmm hmm," Adam agreed, putting his arm around her and hugging her.

  "Wanna come back to Vegas with me?"

  "Can't," Adam sighed, "I gotta do this thing until Sean gets back. Course after that…" He smiled down at her and gave her a kiss.

  "Aww," she pouted, "I gotta get back to run my bar."

  "Let somebody else run things for a while. You have folks you trust, right?"

  "It's my bar; it's what I do. They'll be lost without me."

  "Ryla," Adam growled and stopped to turn and look at her, "I just found you, and I am not letting you out of my sight for at least a week."

  Ryla's eyes got wide as she looked up at him. He was serious!

  "Umm."

  Adam sighed and snorted as he started walking again. "Yeah, I know. You're 'not commitment material'. Trust me, I've said that a million times myself. I'm not used to this, either."

  Ryla just nodded and leaned into him again. She'd call her brother Ted later and make sure he kept an eye on the bar until she got back. She'd never had a man growl at her before and tell her he wanted her to stay.

  Usually it was them growling and telling her to get out! She laughed.

  "This is gonna take some getting used too."

  "Well, if it isn't the happy couple," Roberta said with a smile.

  "You are?" Ryla asked.

  "One of Sean's wives."

  "Oh! Sorry! I don't think we've met."

  "So, where's Roxy, Cali, and the rest?" Adam asked, using his fork to take food off of the serving plates and stacking it on his own, as both he and Ryla sat down.

  "Roxy's reviewing the work on the helicopters, Daelyn's feeding her baby, and I just put mine down for a nap. Jo's doing the same with her twins, and Cali's off with Peg and Sheila, undoubtedly plotting something."

  "How many of you did Sean knock up?" Ryla asked.

  "All of us," Roberta said with a grin. "Lions like making babies!" She winked at Adam, who suddenly blushed.

  Ryla looked at him and opened her mouth to say something, then shut it. Then opened it again.

  "You're actually thinking of getting me pregnant?" Ryla said, shocked.

  "Umm, the thought hadn't even crossed my mind." Adam glared at Roberta, who laughed.

  "Until someone just mentioned it, right?" Roberta said, still laughing.

  "It's a lion thing," Louise said to Ryla as she came into the room. "I'm Sean's mother, Louise."

  Ryla nodded and introduced herself as she got her blushing face under control.

  "So," Louise continued, changing the subject, "what are your plans, Adam?"

  "I guess I should check on all the troops, if Roxy's checking the helicopters. They really don't know me; I haven't been here long enough. So I need to spend some time with them. After that," he looked back at Ryla and winked.

  Roxy and Cali both came in just as Adam was finishing up his dinner.

  "Roxy, did anyone manage to find any of that ammunition?" Adam asked, standing up.

  "Sawyer had a bunch; Hunter parceled it out to our troops so we can try it out when the next gate opens."

  "Good, good. I'm gonna go meet with Hunter and the other team leaders so they can tell me how they do things." He turned to Ryla then and gave her a warm kiss. "Wait here, I'll be back in an hour or two."

  Ryla smiled at him, then turned to growl at Roxy, who snickered after Adam left the room.

  "You got it bad, don't you?" Roxy said, still snickering.

  "I have no idea what you're talking about!"

  "Yeah, admit it. You want him," Roxy said and had the pleasure of watching Ryla squirm a little in her chair.

  "Don't worry, he wants you too."

  "As if you'd know!" Ryla grumbled.

  "Hey, I married one! I know the signs, I've seen them six times now," Roxy said with a laugh.

  Ryla huffed a bit and got up. "I hope you're not expecting me to thank you for introducing us," Ryla said and left, heading back to Adam's room.

  "I must say," Cali said after Ryla was gone, "I am a little surprised you did her this favor. I thought you didn't care for her."

  "I just can't wait to see her all big and fat with Adam's cubs," Roxy said with an evil grin. "You know, I wonder if I could talk him into putting twins in her?"

  Cali paused and thought a moment. "Why don't we just tell him if he doesn't put triplets in her, we'll geld him?"

  Roxy's eyes got wide and she burst out laughing, loudly.

  "Really now, Cali. Was that necessary?" Louise asked.

  "Yes, Mother, I do believe it was," Cali said with a smirk.

  "I bow to the master!" Roxy said, still laughing. "Oh, I am soooo going to enjoy this!"

  Adam sat up quickly as a loud alarm went off, moving Ryla off of him as she grumbled and rolled over. It took him a moment to realize it was the gateway alert. Climbing quickly out of bed, he stretched and yawned, then, giving Ryla a last look, he padded out of his room, naked, and ran for the armor room.

  He wasn't the only one who was nude, though the majority of folks were at least wearing pants. Those who had full armor had to strip to put it on, so there was no point in stopping to get dressed first. The soldiers who only wore breastplates had the lower halves of their BDUs on, as they would need them.

  Adam greeted them all by name. He had a knack for remembering names, and from the smiles and greetings he got back, they all appreciated it. He yawned again as he started to put his new armor on. He'd ended up spending five hours last night with the wolves he'd be leading instead of one. He was glad he'd done it, though Ryla had jumped his bones the moment he'd stepped into the bedroom.

  Not that he wasn't happy about that, too.

  "Damn, couldn't they at least have waited until lunchtime?" he grumbled at nobody in particular as he strapped on his sword.

  "I know, right?" Frank, one of the wolves, laughed in reply. "They've got like, no consideration at all!"

  "Guess we should do them for that, shouldn't we?" Adam said with a wink, and the rest of the team laughed and nodded as they jogged out the door and headed for their helicopter.

  Adam followed them out to the helicopter, still getting used to the feel of his new armor. The sword wasn't bad; he actually liked it. He hadn't fought with a sword in a very long time. In fact, the last time was when he'd dueled over some noble's honor after sleeping with his wife and two daughters.

  He still felt bad about that.

  Climbing in the back with the others, he turned on his radio. Hunter and Roxy had gone over the usual startup procedures with him. Of course, Roxy had made the usual threats should he screw up. She'd be coming in with the first relief about four hours from now. That right there told him she trusted him, at least a little.

  "Everybody loaded?" Adam asked.

  "We're good to go!" Hunter told him.

  "Pilot, let's go."

  "On our way, Sir. It's Trey by the way."

  "Thanks. I'm Adam, obviously," Adam said with a chuckle. "Listen up, everyone; don't get upset if I forget your name in the heat of combat. Yeah, this is my first time doing it your way, but we all know it isn't going to be my last. So if I screw something up from the way you normally do it, call me on it. Yell if you have to. I won't be upset. What you've got here works, and the last thing I want to do is screw it up."

  "Yeah," some anonymous voice on the radio said, "Sean would be un-happy."

  "Sean? Who's worried about Sean? Have you ever pissed off Roxy? Damn, that woman scares the hell out of me!" Adam commed back with a laugh, and from the smiles on the muzzles in the back of the helicopter with him, he knew he had them.

  Now just not to screw up, or Roxy really would have his ass.

  They swooped in low, the doors opened, and everyone tumbled out to the ground below. The faster Trey got out of there, the faster the next squad could come in. They had a lot of helicopters now; the Guard base was loaning them a dozen, and there were more coming in every day. The biggest problem was having enough pilots to fly them all. Thankfully there were some pilots among the influx of lycans still showing up to join the fight.

  Adam had a private line set up to Hunter, who was clueing him on what he had to do next, but Adam really didn't need it. He might not like fighting, but he'd done more than his fair share of it, even if he'd missed the last demon war because he'd been assigned to other things.

  "At a walk! Forward!" he called over the radio. Checking the lines, he made the next call.

  "Riflemen! Ready your arms!"

  He watched as they brought up their rifles. They didn't have many, mainly because they only had about six thousand rounds of ammunition. While that might sound like a lot, spread out among all the fighters today, it worked out to only two magazines each.

  "Riflemen!" he called. "Chose your targets, and fire at will!"

  They all watched what happened next. The bullets they had didn't have much steel in them, but they had enough that there should be some effect.

  Adam smiled as the front line of demons went down after several volleys. Apparently the wolves in Reno knew how to shoot!

  "Charge!" Adam yelled, and the entire line surged forward, the soldiers with guns being careful with their fire as they moved forward. Adam wanted to get to the ones who'd gone down before they had the chance to get back up. From the way they were moving, they weren't quite dead yet, and he didn't want to give the enemy the chance to heal them.

  Wading into the thick of it, Adam took his time. They were dealing with a small g
ate, so they'd only be out here for twelve hours, and he wanted to make sure he didn't wear himself out too soon. There was only a single ridder, and setting his sights on him, Adam started to work his way towards him.

  "Everyone! Pull back!" Chad suddenly called on the radio.

  "Why? We're winning!" Adam called.

  "We've got an air strike coming in!"

  "Who the hell ordered an air strike?" Claudia called out.

  "Pull back!" Adam yelled, striking down the demon before him, and waved his people back. He'd seen enough to know how much damage bombs could do, and he didn't want to be anywhere near them. Silver or not, they'd still do enough damage to lay him low, or worse yet, leave him stunned while some freaking bonde gutted him like a fish!

  "Down!" someone screamed, and Adam hit the ground as a silver streak went by. The ground shook, and both his eardrums burst from the explosion.

  Draffik saw the strange metal bird flying through the sky as it came at him and his fighters. He'd seen the even stranger ones that carried the annoying beastmen into the battle. He'd been told they were controlled by other beastmen, so not to waste any domination spells on them. This one looked different, however, and when the small objects fell from it, he had no idea what to expect.

  The explosions maimed many of his gnashers, and a few of his bonde were torn apart, though his råge didn't seem to be affected.

  He could see three more of the flying birds; they were all approaching in a line. He pointed at the first one and tried to rip out its soul, and was rewarded with exactly that! Smiling, he pointed at the second and did the same, and again he was rewarded with another fresh soul! Taking the power from them he pointed to the third one and dominated it, then using what power remained, he ordered it to go back to its home and kill as many of its brethren as possible, until it was dead.

  Of the two birds he'd ripped the souls from, both continued to fly straight down and into the ground. One before him, the other to his left. The explosions when they hit the ground were quite formidable, costing him half his bonde and one of his råge, but it was of little consequence; the one that had crashed before him had taken out many of the beastmen, and he still had many hundreds of troops coming through behind him. He was sure his leader would be most pleased with these results when he came through.

  "What do you mean we lost them?" Colonel Vance said to the sergeant working the radio.

  "Just that, Sir. Falcon one-five reports one-six and one-eight just augured in. They wouldn't respond to him on the radio, either."

  "What about Falcon one-seven?"

  "One-five reports they're returning to base, but he's unable to raise them on the radio.

  Colonel Vance swore. He'd been ready to show these boys the power of precision bombing, and now he'd lost two of his sixteen aircraft! If it had been just one, maybe he could have blamed it on maintenance. But two had to be enemy action.

  Just then the ground started to shake, and he was thrown to the floor as the sounds of explosions penetrated through to the command center.

  "What the hell's going on out there?" Colonel Vance demanded.

  "Your airplane is bombing us, asshole!" Colonel Tibbets, the local commander, yelled at him. "I told you not to send your people out without clearing it first!"

  "I'll be damned if I take orders from some civilian!" Colonel Vance replied.

  "Colonel Tibbets!" one of the local base's sergeants spoke up. "The enemy aircraft crashed into the center of the main runway."

  "Get someone out there to evaluate it immediately," Colonel Tibbets ordered, getting to his feet and looking around the room. "I'll be outside assessing the damage."

  Adam opened his eyes and immediately rolled to his left, more of out habit than anything else. Scrambling to his feet, he grabbed his sword and looked around him. All of his people were wounded, most of them severely. At least five of his team were dead, and he could see a lot more bodies from the other teams.

  "Pull back! Retreat!" Adam called over the radio. "Don't leave anyone alive behind!"

  "How bad were you hit?" Chad called.

  "I've got at least five, no make that six, dead on my team, at least ten more in the whole company. No one else is in any shape to fight."

  Adam picked up two of the worst wounded, one under each arm, or at least tried to. His left hand and his left foot were gone, and based on how slowly they were coming back, he'd obviously been injured a lot worse than he'd realized.

  Chad swore over the radio and ordered everyone back to the extraction point to set up a new skirmish line. Looking up, Adam could see at least the second squad was coming in.

  "Can you hold? Or do we need a full retreat?" Adam asked as he waved off any help and continued to carry the wolf he'd already picked up, while somebody else got the other one. The pain from stumbling forward on a regenerating stump wasn't putting him in a good mood, but at least he was mobile, more or less.

  "I'll dump all the incoming squads to the rear of your position. It won't be pretty, but I think we can hold the line back here," Chad told him.

  "Do it," Adam ordered.

  "What are you going to do?" Chad asked.

  "Find out what asshat ordered this and kill him," Adam growled angrily.

  "Adam, I don't think..."

  "Shut up!" Adam growled over the radio. "You do your job, I'll do mine!"

  "Yes, Sir!" Chad replied. He'd seen Sean angry; apparently Adam had just as bad a temper. Or, from the sounds of it, possibly even worse.

  Adam sighed as someone from the helicopters ran up and took the wounded wolf from him, another helping him hobble forward towards the waiting helicopter. Squeezing into the front seat, Adam looked down at what was left of his armor. The left arm and leg pieces were completely gone; the rest was full of more holes than he was comfortable seeing, making him wince.

  "Who ordered this shit?" he asked, looking over at Trey, still growling.

  "I don't know, but they came out of the Guard base at Stead, and from what I'm now hearing on the radio, they just got bombed as well. Looks like one of their pilots got taken over."

  "Of course they did!" Adam growled. "The pilots were human! There's no range on a demon's powers! It's line of sight! Once we're loaded, take me there."

  "Yes, Adam!" Trey replied nervously and took off almost immediately.

  Adam leaned back and sighed. He could feel the pins and needles as his foot finished regenerating; he then concentrated on his hand. Being able to walk was more important than grabbing right now.

  "Holy shit," Trey swore as they flew over the airport. There were destroyed aircraft everywhere, and six large smoking craters on the tarmac. There wasn't a single intact aircraft of any type on the ground.

  "Idiots," Adam growled. "Land us by that group over there; I think I spy a pair of eagles."

  "Eagles?"

  "Colonels wear eagles, and I know Tibbets isn't stupid enough to do this shit. Hopefully he can point me at who is."

  Trey just nodded and put them down quickly.

  "Wait here, I won't be long," Adam said, hopping out of the helicopter and marching over to Colonel Tibbets and the other one.

  "Okay, who's the asshole responsible for this?" Adam snarled.

  Colonel Tibbets looked at the lion. He'd met Adam, Sean's replacement, briefly and had thought him to be a very pleasant, friendly, and congenial man. Right now he was covered in blood, missing half his armor, which was scorched, and had murder in his eyes.

  "Colonel Vance, you are on your own," Tibbets said and pointed at him, then quickly backed away.

  "This isn't my fault!" Colonel Vance yelled back at the werelion standing before him. "The pilot in one of my aircraft turned traitor and bombed us!"

  "Listen to me, you little shit! I don't give a fuck about what happened here! I'm all out of fucks to give when it comes to you humans! But your aircraft first bombed us, then crashed into us! I've lost over two dozen of my wolves! The rest had to retreat because we were so heavily wounded! The demons now have a foothold, and we might not be able to pry them out of it!

  "You were told not to engage the demons because they can steal your souls and dominate your minds!"

  "I will not stand here and be lectured by some civvie! So a few of your 'wolves' died! I don't give a fuck about their freak asses! I lost sixteen fighters and six support aircraft!"

  Adam lost it. Grabbing Colonel Vance by the head, he picked him up and whipped the man's body back and forth, beating him on the ground as hard as he could. Colonel Vance was already dead, his neck having been wrung.