"Sheriff Cooper, what's your 20? Over," came the dispatcher's voice over the radio.
"On my way home. What's up?" asked the Sheriff, hoping for nothing more peaceful than a late dinner before being able to curl up in his wife's arms for the night.
"We've just got a call about possible trespassers at the Knight estate."
OH GREAT! "Okay, considering the size of that place, send me back up. I'm on my way."
MOMENTS EARLIER...
Benton and Amanda Knight were downstairs in their luxury kitchen, trying to figure out what to have for dinner, let alone how to prepare it since all the staff resigned when Benton (in a fit of anger) hit Jeffery the butler; when they heard a strange beeping noise.
"Did I do something wrong?" a confused Benton asked his wife.
"Not unless you looked at one of the appliances the wrong way," replied Amanda.
"Don't be silly woman. It sounds like it's coming from over there."
Although both were still in their human forms, they used their acute werepanther senses and found the noise coming from a closed door past the kitchen.
Not knowing what they would find and not having a great day to begin with, Benton quickly stripped off his outer attire and assumed his fursona before opening the door.
Inside the room was no potential threat. Just a whole lot of monitors, all displaying various areas of the estate grounds and the public areas inside the manor.
"It's the security room, but where are the guards?" wondered Benton.
"They resigned too, remember? I told you we should of hired an outside service instead of employing our own people. At least then they would still be on duty right now because they would of been under a separate contract," pointed out Amanda.
"If I'm reading this display right, someone unauthorized just pulled onto the grounds, because all our cars have transponders in them that's connected to the security system that lets it know they're authorized and that one doesn't. That's why the system is making that beeping noise."
"Does that mean we're in danger?"
"Not if I can help it. I hate being vulnerable, and I won't show weakness or back down to anybody! You call the police. I'll deal with the trespassers!" growled an angry werepanther, as Benton Knight made his way to the front of the house.
With it being the week after Thanksgiving, the sun had already set by the time Mike Lawson's car neared the Knight estate.
His passengers were Eric Anderson, his granddaughter Spencer, and their friend Frieda Knight were sitting in the back seat. Frieda was in the middle, flanked by Eric on the passenger side and Spencer on the driver's side.
The kids were trying to console their friend, after Frieda probably saw all her friends among the household staff that used to work for her parents for the last time at the party she threw at the diner.
While he didn't have the whole story, Mike was beginning to feel sorry for the girl. It's lonely at the top, no matter how rich you are. At least Frieda has Eric and Spencer, he thought.
"Well, here we are," announced Mike, pulling up parallel to the front door of the main house. Putting the car in park, he turned and said, "It was nice meeting you Miss Frieda."
"Likewise," she agreed, holding out her hand to shake his.
Considering the way they were arranged in the back, Eric was getting out first to hold the door open for Frieda, when he was suddenly grabbed by the front of his shirt and lifted high into the air by an angry werepanther.
"Who the hell are you and why are you trespassing on my property?" Benton Knight growled angrily, demanding an answer.
"HEY! PUT ME DOWN!" shouted Eric, even as his intelligence argued with his new were instincts whether or not to shift into his fursona.
Frieda and Spencer started scrambling, hastily trying to undo their seat belts so they could get out of the back seat, especially since Frieda knew who the werepanther had to be, but Mike was already out of the car and moving around to Eric's aid.
"Hey you big bully! Put the kid down and pick on somebody your own size!" said Spencer's grandfather, even as he started to change into his werewolf form.
In his haste to do so, Mike forgot he was still in his civilian clothes and wound up destroying everything he had on except his underwear, which he bought at Awareness, a Moon Lake store that made clothing especially for weres.
"What did you say?" the werepanther asked, dropping Eric to face the new challenger.
Eric landed on his feet, but whether that was because of the short distance involved or his new abilities as a werepanther himself, he wasn't sure.
Sensing a new and potentially more dangerous enemy before him, the werepanther started circling around the werewolf, neither letting their guard down.
Just then, Frieda managed to get out of the car right behind Spencer and yelled, "STOP IT FATHER! YOU'RE EMBARRASSING ME! AGAIN!"
"WHAT?" said Benton Knight in disbelief, even as the werewolf took advantage of the werepanther's distraction and grabbed his paws, pinning them behind his furry back while Mike Lawson pushed Frieda's father against his car in hope that he would calm down.
It was at that point that Spencer rushed around the car to check on her boyfriend and saw that the front of Eric's shirt was ripped open, and the werepanther scratches on his somewhat hairy chest were beginning to bleed.
If Eric wasn't already a werepanther himself (thanks to Frieda) he soon would be.
Hearing all the noise, Amanda Knight came out to see what was going on.
A strange werewolf was restraining her werepanther husband against the trespassing car even as her daughter started crying and leaning against some girl she didn't recognize, standing next to some unknown boy.
"What's all the commotion about?" Amanda Knight demanded to know, even as Spencer put herself between Eric and Frieda, but like Frieda and her mother, hadn't started transforming yet.
"Father just attacked Eric Anderson!" sobbed Frieda between tears.
"ANDERSON?" said Benton Knight, realizing the potential trouble he might be in even as sirens announced the approach of two cars belonging to the Sheriff's department.