"I may need to talk to mom," Alice thought to herself as she settled into a moment of quiet.
Typically the werefox's life/mate bond didn't form or become obvious until after the pair had had sex. She'd grown up listening to her parents talk about their dates and then describe in detail the moment their bond formed. The pleasure of being together with the one they loved and the seeming flash in their minds of their lives together. For most kids, hearing about the sexual exploits of one's parents could be embarrassing and to some degree "gross," but then were families weren't like most normal families. That issue with normal families largely generated by the fact that a twenty year difference in a lifespan that would be between sixty and one hundred, depending on what part of the world you lived in, was a huge difference. Thus when a normal child grew up to the point were their own sexuality came into play, their parents would have aged to a point where they thought sex didn't matter any more.
Were families were different. Weres lived longer and once a were turned eighteen, their aging slowed dramatically. Thus, a were could grow up and stand next to his or her parents, and to the untrained eye would be mistaken for a sibling of one of the parents and not as a child of the two parents. To some degree that made things easier when your parents look about as young as you do. Weres also had the added fact that their libidos ran higher than normal humans. Every being was sexual in nature, as that was the way species propagated. In that, sex was necessary to keep a species going, and Alice knew it to be a very pleasurable way to do it. Any were knew it, really, and to a great extent were society had been far more open regarding sex normal humans. Humans tried to hide it and often degraded what was obviously sexual or didn't fit social "norms." Some of it was understandable while some of it was at times silly. For weres, things remained relatively open and accepted, largely due to the higher libido and the knowledge of it, and this was especially true for werefoxes, the most sexually open of all weres.
The thing that complicated matters was that Alice hadn't had sex with Tom and yet, she could feel that bond starting to form. Alice supposed that similar interests and experiences and attractions that went beyond sex could play a role and weren't necessarily unheard of, but they were not something that was common. That bond usually only formed during sex, which made the fact that bond was starting to form for Alice without having sex raised many potential complications. The biggest of these being that Tom was a normal. He was a reasonably nice looking normal, but still a normal. And while he may actually jump at the idea of being a werefox to be with her as his "Maid Marion," Alice knew that his dedication to the truth might also mean that keeping the existence of weres a secret to be rather difficult.
And that was the biggest complication out there. Were society had always been secret and hidden, but technology was getting better and better with every year. Sanctuaries like Moon Lake might be safe in that they were secure and largely run by weres, but weres outside those sanctuaries would face a lot of trouble. Alice suspected that Lionel Ulysses was a were, but didn't dare admit that, as it would risk exposing herself as a were, and while she very much respected Tom's dedication to the truth, the fear that weres being revealed would lead to dangers to her remained. So far it looked as though Lionel Ulysses' capture and death were getting away from what the truth was and what Tom suspected in favor of what was more believable, which Alice took as a good sign. It'd give her time to find a way to show Tom that weres weren't monsters and that there was more to weres then their looks. By then, Tom might become willing to keep the secret and become her werefox. If not, Alice didn't know what she would or even could do. She could feel a bond starting to form with Tom, and that made things complicated.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Things in Moon Lake were no less tense than things were for Alice in Seattle. Tad's morning went fairly well and many of the obvious worries and fears of exposure seemed to be going away as the overall reaction to what had happened in Seattle began to drift towards what would be considered believable to normal humans. In a way that was good as it would let Tad help Amy with her brother's impending first transformation. That was good for Tad and he enjoyed that, though one thing he noticed in the morning was a security guard standing in the main entrance area to the high school. Tad wondered what that was about, but at the time he simply let that go as just about every school he'd been to had security of some kind.
That decision came back to bite him later that afternoon. The last class of the day had just finished and Tad was headed toward his locker when he overheard something in the hallway.
"Do you remember seeing that guard in the entryway?" Tad heard as walked along. He stopped and looked to see two students standing in the hallway. One was male and the other female and by their scents, Tad knew the male was a weredog while the female was a normal. That told him that someone else had noticed the security guard and made him curious. He paused long enough to go to a nearby water fountain and get a drink.
"This morning?" the girl answered, "Yeah, I remember... Odd that no one rang a bell for a drill or anything and no one came here."
"Yeah, it was weird," the boy answered, "and I called my dad during lunch to see if anything was up with regard to the security guard."
"What did he say?" the girl asked.
"Apparently there was a drive-by shooting this morning," the boy answered, "Dad wasn't one of the respondents, but apparently the officers that did respond had to chase the guy by the Middle School."
"By the Middle School..." the girl gasped, "My baby sis..."
By that point, Tad had gotten his drink and left. He didn't want to interrupt their conversation or spy on them. And what he had overheard already wouldn't get any more detailed. Police wouldn't give out the full details on an active investigation. Reports on the shooting happening may be shared, but until the investigation was completed, they wouldn't reveal any more. And without that there wasn't any purpose in listening in further, though it also raised concern and worry in Tad's mind. While he'd shed no tears for Lionel Ulysses death, given that Ulysses had been identified as the prime suspect in his father's murder by the FBI, there was still the concern that Ulysses capture could expose weres and that he was murdered shortly after. That situation had set the entire start of the threat of weres being exposed in motion and carried all sorts of potential complications.
Tad knew that if the Seattle PD investigated deep into Lionel Ulysses's murder they could potentially lead them to Moon Lake or onto something that would expose weres everywhere, not just in Moon Lake. That was where Ulysses death was potentially dangerous and where what Tad knew created things that could be complicated. Not knowing that the shooting that occurred had nothing to do with Lionel Ulysses or the existence of weres,* Tad had the obvious worry that whoever killed Lionel Ulysses knew about weres and had to have some sort of agenda against them.
"Hey there, big guy," came Amy's voice, startling Tad from his thoughts.
He jumped a little and turned to see Amy standing there. She gave something of a giggle at that, likely enjoying the ability to get the drop on him.
"Come on, you aren't scared of little ol' me, are you?" Amy teased with a giggle for good measure.
"I'm not scared," Tad answered, "I was just thinking on something."
"Oh?" Amy wondered, "What about?"
The two of them walked along the hallway and made it to Tad's locker. He then put all the books and things that he'd need to do his homework in his backpack and continued his conversation as he went.
"Did you notice anything odd today?" Tad asked her.
"Not really," Amy answered, "the Junior PE class was in the gym today, which might be odd, given that the weather's been so nice... but that doesn't mean that the PE teacher can't change his schedule on a whim."
"Ah..." Tad sighed and gave a shrug, "well, this morning I DID notice something odd in that there was a security guard standing as if on sentry duty in the main entryway. One hand on his holstered weapon and the other waiting for an attack."
"Sounds like the smart thing for a security guard to do," Amy commented.
"Yes, but how often is the school's security force so openly visible?" Tad pointed out.
"Okay, you have a point there," Amy admitted as Tad closed his locker and the two began to make their way out, "Though, I can't tell you why the security would be there..."
"Well, this is something I just happened to overhear, so I don't know everything," Tad admitted, "but there was apparently something of a shooting that took place near the Middle School..."
"The Middle School!" Amy gasped.
"Near it," Tad pointed out, "not at it. I'm sure your brothers are fine."
"They better be," Amy answered, "they may be annoying brothers at times, but I love them all the same."
"As any big sibling should," Tad told her, "anyway... the fact that this occurred... it has me fairly nervous that part of this could be related to what happened in Seattle."
"In Seattle?" Amy said slowly, "You don't mean that the guy who killed Lionel Ulysses was the same guy who committed this shooting?"
"It's possible," Tad pointed out, "which could mean many things... either a hunter that knows of weres... a truly violent rogue were... or something more complicated than that."
"That's all speculation, though," Amy countered.
"True," Tad admitted, "but still a possibility and relating to the issue of weres being kept a secret. Technology is growing and we only got lucky that the FBI and Seattle PD think that Lionel Ulysses's tail was a costume piece... but that doesn't change the overall situation and potential threat."
"If the shooter was the same guy who killed Ulysses, why would he be in Moon Lake?" Amy pointed out, "Rogue weres here are pretty rare and we do our best to make sure that rogue weres that do appear don't stay outside of a special prison for long. So why come to Moon Lake?"
That Tad couldn't answer, "So you think the incidents are unrelated?"
"Probably," Amy nodded, "Your point on were secrecy may still stand and we need to come out and say here we are, but we aren't as folklore would have you believe... but I don't think it relates to what happened this morning that got security all excited. The guy who killed Ulysses probably isn't anywhere near Moon Lake."
Little did either of them know that while Amy was right that morning's incident wasn't related Lionel Ulysses death, Lionel Ulysses killer WAS in Moon Lake.