Theodore and Marci Green spent the night asleep, cuddled in each others arms, before he had to wake up that morning to catch his flight to the west coast.
There was no doubt in their minds that they loved each other, despite the fact she was a werecat and he still a "normal" as regular humans were referred to by weres.
Their relationship had grown until Marci realized that he had won her heart, and they both longed for a day when they could finally consummate their love physically and truly be together. But she had explained to him the night he proposed, after revealing her fursona, that if they had sex before he became a were, Theodore would become either a bi or outright gay werecat, because that species gender preferences was genetically transferable during a normal's first transformation and induction into were society, and Marci was selfish enough to want her husband all to herself.
Yet she dearly loved him and he truly loved her, so that was enough.
For now.
Theodore Green loved feeling his wife's furry body against his bare human skin, and wondered how it would feel when they both had fur to caress.
If you had asked him before Marci had revealed her true self the night he proposed, he would have told you there was no such thing as were creatures and anyone who said otherwise belonged in a psyche ward.
Now he was deeply in love with and married to one.
Besides needing to find another were to transform him, for they seemed to be extremely rare on the east coast for some unknown reason, there were only two sticking points that bothered him about taking the plunge and being able to fully be with Marci.
First, would doing so constitute a breach of their marriage vows? Marci seemed to be okay with that, but he still had reservations. Even without the possibility of sex until he became a were too, Theodore had been completely faithful to his wife, even to the point of not seeking outside physical relief for the lack of intimacy. There were a few instances where he had "taken matters into his own hands," so to speak; but he had never been so much as tempted to cheat on Marci. Yet would he have to now to be completely with her?
The second point was that while Marci thought he would make a great weretiger, for some reason; Theodore couldn't rule out the possibility of becoming a werelion, werepanther, a wereleopard, or some other mighty feline based were.
Yet that brought him back to his concern of cheating on Marci to do so.
With nothing resolved on the personal front, after reluctantly saying goodbye to Marci; a long and loney flight to Seattle, followed by checking in with the local FBI office before signing out a car from their motor pool for the drive to his final destination; the next afternoon Pacific Coast time found Agent Theodore Green in the office of Moon Lake Police Chief Michael O'hara.
Unknown to Agent Green, Moon Lake was a were sanctuary, established long ago and thriving. A relatively small community of just over 6,000; the town guarded its secrets well.
Chief O'hara, who's fursona as a weredog happened to be an Irish Setter, could smell the strong presence of a female werecat on the FBI agent, yet the man before him was quite obviously a normal human. Not knowing if Green was actually a private were ally or something else, O'hara decided to remain silent and stick directly to the matter at hand.
"After you gave me the courtesy of calling, I pulled Lionel Ulysses police record, but I'm afraid it doesn't tell us much," admitted the police chief, while handing Green the file. He had already redacted the info about the Ulysses' were family history. "Juvie record starting at 15, all petty stuff up to and including his last arrest in Moon Lake at age 20. If he was already using or working his way up to drugs, we have no record of it. So as far as we know, his involvement in them didn't start until after he left Moon Lake."
"I see," replied Green, sitting in a chair in front of O'hara's desk while looking over the file. "Parents? Family?"
"Lionel is an only child. His folks still live in Moon Lake, but he disappeared before his last court date and hasn't been seen since," reported Chief O'hara.
"Well, I had serious doubt of Ulysses being here. In truth, we're not sure where he is at the moment," admitted Green, while handing O'hara the file back. He had already made note that Mister and Mrs. Ulysses were in unit 2B of a local apartment complex. "This is more along the line of a fact finding mission. Try to find out more about our suspect. Any information can help, so I'll talk to the parents. Maybe that will lead me to any friends and associates he might still have in Moon Lake that Ulysses has somehow kept in touch with over the years. If all goes well, I should be heading back to the East Coast by sundown," explained the Federal agent, doubting Marci would still be up by the time he got home, but looking forward to being with his wife again.
"No problem. Always happy to cooperate," said O'hara. In his opinion, Agent Green seemed like a nice enough man, but the Police Chief had already notified the Town Chancellor and the Mayor's office that he would be in town, just in case. "By the way, you told me that among other charges, Ulysses has graduated to murder now, but if it's any of my business, you never said who the deceased was."
"Career military man named Jeff Decker. As far as we know, he just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time and stumbled across Ulysses' meth lab. You can imagine the rest."
"Yeah, poor soul," replied O'hara, not mentioning that his widow Jen Decker and their son Tad had just recently moved back to Moon Lake. Coincidence, or something else? wondered the police chief, as he walked Green back to his car.