Jen watched as Tad jogged across the street. It was rather early in morning, but she did hope that he would have some time to talk with someone closer to his own age. He'd had some friends in Virginia, but all of them had been normals, which had limited what he could do with them. In that she knew that Moon Lake would be good for her son, as it was a bit of a homecoming for her.
Jen was a bisexual werecat who had been born and raised in Moon Lake and had been good friends with Samantha and Frances Twist when they had been in High School. In college, she met and fell in love with a werewolf named Jeff Decker. He was handsome and understanding, strong and protective. In many ways, he helped her with issues where she had felt insecure. They married during his Senior in College and had hoped for a long happily ever after. And for a while, it was, but events in their lives ultimately lead to sadness. Weres that had been born in Moon Lake didn't typically leave, but Jeff had a great deal of patriotism and routinely voiced that the country was worth serving and protecting as it was a place where if discovered, they stood a better shot of survival than they would other placed. He entered the Marine Corps shortly after college, and Jen went along with him.
She was lonely while Jeff was in training, but through hard work and dedication, he actually emerged from training as a Marine Corps Second Lieutenant and Jen followed him to his domestic postings. She kept Moon Lake's pharmacies in her address book, both paper and online and ordered her werecat birth control pills as needed through the mail. And while with her husband, she had Tad. Tad grew up well, and despite serving two tours of duty in Iraq and another in Afghanistan, the drive and training that Jeff had gone through had been enough teach Tad everything he needed to know about his transformations and when it was okay to transform, keeping his status as a were hidden, and having good self discipline. He never talked about what he'd seen abroad and when he was away, he always sent letters asking how Tad was doing. Many of them later changed from defending the US from threats, but from preventing those foreign threats from ever threatening his son. Jen loved him even more for that.
Then the world came crashing down. Jeff had recently been promoted to Major and had been assigned as an instructor at the Marine Corps Officer Cadet School at Quantico, Virginia. In that, Jen figured she'd never have to worry about her husband being in the line of fire again. Then one evening he went jogging, and never came back. Jen had woken up to find two FBI agents and a Marine MP at her door with the report that Jeff's body had been found shot and burned. Thankfully, when weres died, they returned to their human form (if they'd been transformed) and the fact that his body had been burned destroyed any hope of any sort of genetic equipment identifying him as a werewolf and the FBI agent and Marine MP were treating it very much like they would any other murder on the base. They promised to do all they could to find the killer, but the news had broken Jen and brought back many old insecurities. She was certain that some lunatic had figured out he was a werewolf and killed him because of it. She was initially caught between extreme anger and sorrow. She had commonly prepared herself for the bad news that Jeff would be killed on some foreign field, yet he had survived all that, and he came home, only to be killed where he should have been safe.
Tad was ALL she had left, and with the fear that her husband's killer might know about weres, she decided to return to Moon Lake. Despite her sorrow, she did her best to be strong for her son, and being in Moon Lake would be good for him. He would make new friends in a place where more of them would be like him and where even the normals knew about weres and not only tolerated them but even helped hide them. She knew that it was a homecoming for her, and that in time she'd best join one of the werecat prides in Moon Lake, or ask around if her old pride would accept her back, but for the moment, she could only smile as her son jogged across the street.
"You'd be so proud of him, Jeff," Jen whispered as a tear escaped from her eye.
++++++++++++++++++++
Tad jogged quietly to the the young girl walking across the street. She looked rather cute and was fairly curious as it looked like she was coming from a house that had another moving van at it. It left him curious about someone else moving to Moon Lake. His mother had told him that the town didn't commonly have a lot of people moving to it and continually assured him that he would be safe in Moon Lake. That made him curious as he jogged toward her.
"Hey!" Tad called to hey, "Hey!"
The girl stopped and turned to him as he approached. For a moment they looked to each other without saying anything to each other. Tad blinked and then she blinked, and both looked on with some level of surprise. Then the two of them practically spoke in unison...
"You're a werewolf," Tad and the girl said in surprise, and then backed up sheepishly with some embarrassed chuckles.
"You're a werewolf... did you just move here? Or did you have a welcome ceremony already?" the girl asked.
"I was born a werewolf," Tad spoke with some level of pride, "My mom's a werecat but my dad was a werewolf."
"Was?" the girl raised an eyebrow, "Did he stop?"
Her voice was slightly teasing, but Tad was sure that she didn't know what had happened to his father.
"He was murdered," Tad said slowly and while looking down.
"Sorry... I... I didn't mean anything by it," she apologized.
"It's okay," Tad said weakly, "you didn't know... but you're a werewolf too? Didn't you just move here? My mom says that this town doesn't have a lot of weres moving to it..."
"It's not super common, but it happens more than many would think," she commented, "but... I'm not moving to Moon Lake. I was born here. My family is just moving into a new home. My parents used to live in an apartment as that was where they were able to live when they got out of college... but they had their complaints about its pluming and that sort of thing. So... when they got promotions... they were able to rent a house and move from one part of Moon Lake to another."
"Interesting..." Tad commented, "What's your name?"
"Amy... Amy Howler..." she answered.
Tad laughed, "Howler... and you're a werewolf..."
"Yeah... ha... ha... that was as funny as it was the first thousand times I heard that joke," the female werewolf, Amy, spoke, "What's your name?"
"Tad... Tad Decker," Tad said slowly.
Amy shook his hand in a friendly way, "Welcome to Moon Lake, Tad. You'll fit in well... we have all kinds of weres and every normal knows and supports us. We ALL get along together."
That sounded good to Tad.
"So, are you part of a Pack, yet?" Amy asked.
"My mom and I only just arrived," Tad answered, "I don't think we're going to be doing much besides moving stuff in today."
"Okay," Amy gave a shrug, "Well... I gotta get to my bus stop... school day and all... are you registered at Moon Lake yet?"
"I think my mom did it over the internet," Tad answered, "She said I'd have my first day tomorrow... Senior Year..."
"My too," Amy smiled, "Guess that means I'll see you around school. And if you're looking for a pack... give Austin Perry a call. He's one of the Alpha of the pack in this area of Moon Lake. We recently got a new member... only sixteen, but rather cute... though...I'd think he finds Alex more attractive than me."
"Alexandra?" Tad wondered.
"Alexander," Amy answered, "They do look good together though."
Tad nodded, "Well... when we get time... my mom and I will be sure to give this Mr. Perry a call."
"Cool...," Amy smiled, "maybe after school I'll stop by and see if you need any help. Have fun."
She then waved to him and jogged off. Tad stood there quietly watching her backpack bounce up and down on her back. She was pretty, and he did his best not to look at her butt as she jogged off. He waved to her as she waved to him. The prospect of seeing her again made him smile.