In the Decker home, Jen half smiled and sighed as a chorus of howls rose from the woods. She knew what that meant and gave a small smile at that. She dearly missed Jeff and had been quite determined to be strong for her son, as Tad was her living reminder her husband, and that had made her feel a bit more protective of her son than most other mothers would be. She'd noticed it when she found the note that Amy had left her son, and even wondered to herself where SHE had become such a fuddy-duddy on the whole issue. After all, she thought she'd been fairly forward with Jeff when they were dating, and as both of them had been born weres in Moon Lake, once they were in a serious relationship, the two of them enjoyed each other's company in every sense of the word. Tad would now get that as he joined a pack, as while werewolf packs weren't as large or even as "clannish" as the Skulk was in Moon Lake for the werefoxes, they did tend to look out for each other. Her protective side simply hoped that Amy Howler didn't take advantage of that to hurt her son in anyway... as there were many things about were sexuality that he didn't fully know about yet. He was only learning as while Tad had been born a werewolf, he hadn't been born in Moon Lake.
After letting a solitary tear go down her cheek, she turned from the back window in the living room to head into the kitchen to make herself some dinner. She could talk with Tad on his night the next morning. As she entered, as if on cue, her cellphone rang. It surprised her, as she had only just moved back to Moon Lake and hadn't really reestablished contact beyond some grocery shopping and her meetings with Samantha Twist and Amy's mother, and while the FBI did have her number so they could update her on any developments on their investigation of Jeff's murder, but she hadn't heard much from them on that issue, and since they were on the East Coast, she figured they'd finished their work for the day.
She quickly moved to the kitchen table and pulled her phone out of her purse. The caller-ID screen quickly identified it as a very familiar number.
"Just can't avoid me, can you, Sam?" Jen teased as she answered the phone.
"Well... even though we were in different prides... we WERE good friends before you and Jeff left Moon Lake," came Samantha Twist's answer over the phone, "and what kind of friend would I be if I didn't do all that I could to help..."
"You'd be a bad friend if you didn't," Jen commented, "what's up?"
"You said this morning that you'd join my pride... me and Frances'... this morning, remember?" Samantha asked.
"Yes," Jen nodded.
"Well... I did manage to pull some strings today... busy, busy, busy," Samantha began, "and the pride is MORE than willing to welcome you. We're small and for the most part much of our correspondence is through email, but Frances and I did arrange a sort of special welcome."
"You didn't need to do that for me..." Jen spoke, "and... and well... while you and Frances are quite delicious... I'm not sure I'm really ready to be truly "active" again, with guys or girls."
"And I understand," Samantha answered, "this isn't planned to be anything sexual... and in fact, the pride's four male "werecats" are 100 percent gay, so they wouldn't have any interest in things of that nature. And while Martha Anderson, our pride's other new member is bi and with an agreement with her husband is in a fairly open marriage concerning any girl on girl action... she does understand your wishes, and would like to meet you."
"So... this is an invitation to come by and meet everyone?" Jen wondered.
"Pretty much... it'll be in Founders Park, you remember where that is?" Samantha asked.
"Yes," Jen answered.
"Well... feel free to come down and meet everyone," Samantha answered, "We'll have a real picnic set up with sandwiches, coleslaw, chips, soda, and snacks and a welcome to your new pride."
"Will I need to bring anything?" Jen asked after a moment.
"Nothing more than you," Samantha answered, "If you want to bring some more sandwiches or something that's perfectly fine."
Jen looked over at an oven clock and checked the time. Given this invitation, it looked as though they were supposed to meet soon. She figured there wouldn't be time to make sandwiches or anything.
"I'll probably just come by myself," Jen said softly, "Thank you for the invitation."
"Hey... you're an old friend and you're joining a new pride," Samantha answered, "You deserve the invitation. It doesn't matter how much work went into making sure everyone could come."
Jen felt herself smile. She had made friends with other Marine wives while she and Jeff moved from post to post while he was stationed in the US, but because of either unit transfers or new duty posts, other officers retiring, or the inevitable of a Marine being killed in action in Iraq or Afghanistan over the years she didn't get to associate with all of them for as long as many of the prides and packs in Moon Lake did with each other. That sort of thing just wasn't possible in military families, though there were plenty of times when Jen had felt just as close to the other Marine wives as she had felt with her old pride before she left Moon Lake. The only thing she couldn't share with the Marine wives was that she was that she could turn into a Persian cat based werecat. Now, she would get the opportunity to join a new pride where that issue wouldn't matter and she'd hopefully become just as close with her new pride as she had been with her old pride.
"And... since it is night... feel free to be as catty as you want," Samantha then teased over the line.
"Still as humorous as ever," Jen smiled in her reply, knowing that the request was more to urge her to show up in her werecat form.
"Hey it works," Samantha answered, "and that'd give you something to chuckle at."
Again Jen smiled, "We may have been in different prides before, Sam, but you were always a good friend. I'll see you and everyone soon."