Lila's day had generally been a quiet one, and one that wasn't out of the ordinary for her. The fact that most of the people in Moon Lake could turn into an anthropomorphic animal when they wanted to and that she was a weretiger didn't mean that her life was spent covering some secret society that focused on weres around the world. She could guess that there were some weres that didn't live in Moon Lake, but before she met Marci Green, she hadn't met any of them, and that didn't mean that a normal day for her was intensely were focused. In fact, a normal day for Lila could have the potential to be rather boring as she looked over the city's finances and what they could afford to do and what they couldn't afford to do.
Nothing in Lila's job had anything to do with being a were or related to either the were secret or Moon Lake's mandatory were law. In fact she often spent far more time with a calculator than anything else when it came to her job. And under Martin Stovall, it actually hadn't been a bad job. He'd done a lot to balance the city's budgets and keep things in order, which made Lila's job easier, and that she enjoyed. But it had often meant that she didn't get much in the way of attention. News media, be it the newspapers, the radio, or the television didn't talk to her, they talked to the mayor, which meant Martin Stovall. At times it did leave her with a sense of boredom, but she did have a healthy respect for public service and Martin Stovall did acknowledge her when she could.
"Heading out for the night Lila?" one of the custodians at City Hall asked as Lila made her way out of her office.
"Yeah... things continue to look good, and I think I'm ready for a good nap," Lila answered with a slight grin.
The custodian shook her head with some knowledge that Lila was joking. A lot of her free time was spent babysitting her brother's children who could be both active and destructive if unsupervised. They weren't malicious or anything, but they put a lot of toys beyond the stresses that the plastic they were made with was designed to take. Lila had lost track of the number of model airplanes, plastic "big wheels," and other toys that had either needed repairs or replacement after her niece and nephew got through with them. It wasn't bad, and in its own way was rather normal, but there where the times where that actually irritated Lila a bit. It wasn't that she didn't like her niece and nephew. She loved them dearly and if anything ever threatened them, she'd join her brother and his wife to fight to defend them.
What Lila wanted... was some excitement. Something more than the same day to day to day run of events and actions. She wasn't looking for the fantasy worlds that people wrote about when they thought of weres or vampires living in secret where everything was so hyper organized where everyone knew who was or was not one of "them" around the world and they all worked for some super secret society. That sort of thing wasn't real, and really wouldn't work. Not with all the gains in technology and the fact that governments and organizations have nasty habits of keeping detailed records of the things they did. If the world like that, weres would have been exposed years ago as a result of some clerical error or dumb luck on the internet. But that didn't mean there wasn't excitement in the world that she knew, and as Lila came out of the doors to City Hall, she soon saw and heard it.
"I still think it's interesting they put their city hall and their main court facilities all in one building," said a female voice, attracting Lila's attention, "I'm had my fair share of court cases, but they've generally been separate from other buildings for the government... regardless of its level."
"Maybe they're economizing land area," a male voice answered, "after all... they seem to have done a lot to allow the weres here to have direct access to forest lands behind their homes in places... and those that don't have that have parks that are close by... Which means they can't afford to spread things out."
"That makes sense," was the reply.
Lila turned her head to see them, Teddy and Marci Green. The two were walking hand in hand and looking about the town as they did so. In a way it was something that made it pretty obvious that they weren't from Moon Lake and were only visiting. However, what made them different from others that had visited Moon Lake in the past was that Marci was already a were. She was a werecat, with her fursona being a beautiful white coat based on the Turkish Angora. However, as a werecat, that meant that her strain of the werevirus would kill her husband, Teddy, were they to mate while he'd still been human, and that was why they'd come to Moon Lake. Teddy needed to become a were to be with the woman he loved in every way, and from what Lila had been told by Samantha Twist, the two of them had talked it out with regard to what were to be, and that greatly intrigued Lila, who found both of them to be quite delicious. Marci was beautiful and elegant, like a grand noblewoman. Teddy, now that she had turned him into a weretiger, was tall and athletic and well muscled, but he also seemed to have a sense of honor about him that Lila couldn't help but respect.
In this, she actually found herself falling for both of them. Which was a complicated issue. In Moon Lake, while an outright polygamous marriage wasn't "legal," because Moon Lake had accepted homosexuals, bisexuals, and transgendered people, which the rest of the country was only just starting to accept, Moon Lake had allowed and to a great degree welcomed "open marriages." This usually related to werecats and male werecats, or werewildcats, as while most of them were fully homosexual, there were some that were bisexual and Moon Lake bent over backwards to make sure everyone was happy. And since Marci was a werecat and was married to Teddy, that meant she was bisexual, just like Lila, which got her mind fantasizing on the issue, though even if it worked, it might still mean waiting. Teddy was a licensed FBI agent who was assigned to the region around Washington DC and into northern Virginia. Marci worked for a law firm that handled a fair number of potential constitutional law cases, and it was unlikely that either could drop what they were doing to come to Moon Lake full time. But Lila knew it couldn't hurt to ask and with them just happening to be on the street in front of her, there was no time like the present.
"Hey guys!" Lila called to them, like an old friend and waving one hand from side to side so as to attract their attention as she walked forward. Lila happily smiled when she saw them smile.
"Hello, Ms. Carpenter," Teddy spoke respectfully.
"Call me Lila," Lila insisted, "after all... we HAVE been intimate with each other..."
Lila almost giggled when both Marci and Teddy looked down with a blush forming in their cheeks. Lila's involvement had been to transform Teddy into a were, and he became a magnificent and powerfully built white furred weretiger, with ice blue eyes and brownish-black stripes, though for short term, she had also had the pleasure of enjoying some fun with Marci as well and it was in that that let her learn about them and some of the things they'd had to deal with, namely the hunt for Lionel Ulysses who Teddy had been hunting for Ulysses' murder of a Marine Corps officer, which had apparently been quite an adventure that had lead to Teddy's discovering of Moon Lake's secret and the chain of events that then lead to his transformation. However, the most fun had been enjoying both of the Greens between the sheets, though a lot of Lila's comfort with that was due to her having grown up in Moon Lake while neither Marci nor Teddy had ever been in Moon Lake before in a way that really mattered, and Teddy was likely still in the process of adapting to his newly heightened senses.
"It's okay," Lila insisted, "Moon Lake is very open with regard to same sex marriage and open marriage... particularly to let bisexuals enjoy a bit of everything."
"I'm sure," Teddy said simply, his cheeks still looking rather red as he scratched the back of his head with one hand.
"And a lot of that is growing nationwide," Marci nodded, "but real acceptance isn't there yet... and thus it's probably going to be quite awhile before gays, bisexuals, and the transgendered are uniformly welcomed for who they are they way they seem to be here."
"Well they say progress is a slow thing," Lila shrugged, "but it still happens. What have you been up to?"
"Mostly just exploring and getting used to things," Teddy commented, "it's both amazing and disconcerting on how powerful things smell..."
"Yeah," Lila chuckled to him, "a lot of new weres get a bit overwhelmed on how much stronger their senses become... but they do adapt in time. Focus more on the important scents and so on. It may also help to use things with more natural scents..."
"We do a lot of that already," Marci spoke up, tilting her head toward Teddy and tapping her nose with one finger, making Lila chuckle and shake her head.
"Of course," Lila laughed, "Silly me... so... what do you think of Moon Lake?"
"Interesting... and friendly," Teddy commented with amazement obvious in his voice, "amazing on how similar normal humans and weres smell... and the difference is in the traces of the scent of the animal that their were form is based on..."
"Well... we ARE still human," Lila smiled and laughed again, "Just special..."
"Still... we've been enjoying the sights and smells," Teddy held Marci to him.
"It could be quite a nice to "retire" to," Marci nodded in agreement, "though that might still be five years away... at least, and that's assuming that neither I nor Teddy get promoted."
"Though that might not necessarily prevent moving," Teddy commented slowly, "promotion for me could mean taking over a regional office rather than being one of the lead murder investigators... if they decide to promote me in five years, maybe I could ask for a transfer to the Seattle Field Office... and we could still come here."
Marci smiled at that, and Lila couldn't help but smile too. She liked both of them, and if their life planning was to come to Moon Lake to live in the future, Lila was happy for that. Though, with what she wanted, she'd still need to be careful how she asked the question. After all, they might have only seen her as a casual fling in connection to Teddy becoming a were. That was fine if that was in fact the case, but Lila would like to still be friends, which meant being careful.
"That'll be great," Lila said to them with a smile, "Moon Lake is a wonderful place to live... and not just for weres... it's a wonderful place to live in general."
Both of the Greens nodded, but then stepped back after a moment. It surprised Lila, as their conversation had been friendly and she didn't hear anything odd going on that would be something to put anyone on alert.
"Oh... we've been delaying you from going home," Marci spoke as she looked behind Lila to Moon Lake's City Hall. She remembered Marci explaining some things about her job for Moon Lake that essentially related to handling the town's budget. It was nice seeing her again, but they didn't want to interrupt the woman's life.
"It's okay," Lila answered with a smile and a feeling of relief, "I was actually hoping I could meet with you again before your vacation ends..."
Marci and Teddy traded glances and looked a bit puzzled. They turned back to Lila, and Lila noticed that both of them had at least one raised eyebrow. It betrayed some puzzlement that reminded Lila of the point that Teddy was still new to were society and Marci wasn't from Moon Lake. Lila swallowed hard and then prepared to handle her question.
"You see," Lila said slowly, "I know that my official role was only to induct Teddy into were society, as you both wanted him to be a weretiger..."
"And for that we are VERY thankful," Marci smiled.
Lila happily smiled and continued on, "I know... but it's raised certain interests on my part that are more personal... and with both of you..."
"You're wanting a more open arrangement?" Teddy asked.
"On a more permanent basis than just an occasional fling," Lila spoke, "It's odd... I know... but something just feels oddly right with both of you. It's not like a werefox's bond in that I can't say anything with the same certainty that they can... but in a way... there is a lot about both of you that I'm attracted to, and it's more than just sex."
"I..." Marci said slowly and looked to Teddy, as what Lila had offered while it was attractive, it was also a surprise.