{{Work's kept me from here WAY too long!—tmw.}}
Around 11 pm that night, Harold Jenkins gave up all pretense of trying to sleep.
Something was telling him he should be doing something else.
After taking a quick peek to check on his daughter, and finding her sound asleep in her own bed, Harold quietly walked to the kitchen.
There, he quickly disrobed before releasing his new fursona.
The euphoric rush was fantastic as Harold felt the fur spreading as his body changed.
Soon, a tall weretiger stood where the naked man was.
Happier now than he was moments ago, Harold Jenkins quietly left out the back door of his house and looked around his unfenced backyard.
It was nowhere near a full moon, but that didn't bother his new and improved vision. The weretiger could see just as easily in the night as he could during the day.
Harold stood still. His new senses ever alert.
The scents in the air.
His ears listening to everything from the slight breeze gently brushing individual blades of grass...
...to the sobs of someone nearby crying.
Harold turned toward the noise and saw the lady he loved sitting in a heavy oak wooden lawn chair next door. That Virginia McCoy was currently in her weretigress form turned him on even more than seeing the woman herself did.
The fact that she was crying made Harold's heart ache as he rushed to her side.
Upon hearing someone approach, Virginia turned and, the moment she realized who it was, her emotions were mixed.
On one hand, her heart soared at seeing her next door neighbor and the man she was developing some very strong feelings for.
On the other paw, between the police warnings and the fact she was being investigated for possibly violating Statute 1A and turning Harold into a weretiger against his will made Virginia fearful how the police would react if they discovered she had contact with him after being warned not to.
"Harold," she said, standing up and prepared to run back into her house. "I just needed to get out of the house for a bit, but didn't feel like leaving the property, just in case. It's great to see you, but we shouldn't—"
"Screw that," growled Harold, barely keeping his new weretiger needs in check, for a part of him just wanted to pounce upon the lady and claim the sexy weretigress as his. "If the police ask, I violated their warning. How are you doing?"
"As you can imagine, not well," she replied. "My lawyer has me out on bail. I start restricted administrative duty at the school district office Monday for nowhere near my regular salary. The police are still trying to figure out what happened, which could go against me," added Virginia, pointing out the obvious that Harold Jenkins was now a were TIGER instead of a were RACCOON like Alice Decroux hoped he would be. "If I'm charged, prosecuted, and found guilty, I'm looking at a minimum sentence of 50 years."
"I'm not pressing charges," replied Harold. "In fact, I'll testify on your behalf if it does go to trial. I was developing feelings for you even before..." and then Harold briefly waved his furry arms in front of him before continuing. "I've even dreamed of you, and us, BEFORE I became a weretiger. My only regret is that what is developing between us should have happened under much more pleasant circumstances."
If she wasn't in her fursona, Virginia McCoy would have been blushing at that moment.
Instead, a small smile crossed her feline muzzle as she said, "I have strong feelings for you too, and would have loved to usher you into were society when the time was right and you were willing, but not like this."
"I know," said Harold in a gentle voice, while taking a step closer to her.
"But it's not just what I'm feeling in here that's at risk," said Virginia, while putting her paws across her heart. "All the Moon Lake educators' contracts have morality causes. At least, the public school ones do. Just being charged and put on trial alone could seriously damage my teaching career, and I figured I had a couple of centuries left in that easily before..."
"It's okay honey," said Harold, remaining silent about Melissa's news about the scuttlebutt at the high school concerning the recent incident, while closing the distance between them.
Before Virginia could react, the new weretiger wrapped his furry arms lovingly around her.
The two of them just stood there for a long time. The weretigress laying her head upon his furry chest, returning the hug while fighting not to give into her tears once more.
Then, realizing the risk, Virginia abruptly broke away from Harold. "I better go inside. We can't be seen together. At least not until..."
"I don't care," said Harold, trying to reach out for her paw, which Virginia reluctantly moved out of his grasp. "There's so much I want to ask you. Not just about my new life as a weretiger, but about us as well."
"Like who John Sebastian is?" asked Virginia.
"Actually, it's John Sebastian Jenkins," politely corrected Harold, staring at the weretigress with more than lust and need in his eyes.
"Harold..." began Virginia, wondering how she should say what she wanted to. "John Sebastian Jenkins is the one ray of hope I have at the moment that all of this will turn out right in the end and that we'll be together afterwards like we want to be. Without you having to wait until I get out of prison. I don't... I can't say any more right now without putting it all at any more risk than it already is."
"I'd be lying if I said I understood, but I'll abide by your wishes. Just know that me and Melissa are in your corner," said Harold, as she turned to go back in her house.
"That means a lot to me Harold. It really does," replied Virginia, before reentering her house and locking the backdoor behind her.
It wasn't until long after staring at the closed door that Harold Jenkins finally found the courage to say out loud, "I love you Virginia McCoy," before turning to leave.
Unknown to either were, a third were was watching the entire proceedings.
The werewolf, on duty with the Moon Lake Police Department, stood covertly at the far corner of the Jenkins residence and had observed everything with his acute senses.
The fact that Harold Jenkins was too new at being a weretiger and Virginia McCoy was too distraught to sense his presence were the only reasons he hadn't been discovered.
Technically I have to report this, but as a happily married man myself, I don't want to, he thought, watching the "victim" walk off into the woods to go do whatever he was going to do after the "suspect" went back into her residence. She's no more guilty of intentionally violating Statute 1A than I'm a were poodle! I just hope it all works out for these two, as he walked back to his unmarked vehicle.