Jen Decker stood in the kitchen of her Moon Lake home, fixing dinner for herself, her son Tad, and her fiance Claire Jacobs, who was sleeping quietly upstairs after a rough day at work.*
Although still in her human form at the moment, the werecat couldn't help purring in contentment over how good her life had become recently.
Tad was growing up to be a fine, adult werewolf just like his deceased father. He had found himself a lupine girlfriend and, barring anything unforeseen, both would be graduating high school at the end of the Spring semester next year.
Then college and beyond that, who knew what might be in store for Tad and Amy Howler?
Jen certainly wasn't expecting to find a new romantic interest, let alone a fiance, but when she met the ordinary human with an interest in felines who wanted to become a werecat, something made her go ahead and initiate Claire into were society.
The fact that Claire turned full lesbian in the process(*2), let alone that the two of them fell in love and are now engaged to be married, was certainly a surprise to both of them.
Not that either lady was complaining, but still...
Yet that did leave Jen with some unanswered questions.
She thought about it long and hard while preparing dinner, but when no answers were forthcoming on their own, Jen decided to reach out and contact one of her sister werecat pride members for help.
She looked at her cellphone's Caller ID notification.
While the lady had no problem talking to a dear friend, it had been a VERY long day, so Doctor Frances Twist answered with a cautious "Hello?"
"Hi Frances. It's Jen. How are you?"
"Okay, I guess," admitted Frances. "I've been fielding questions all day on both a professional and personal level about the possible consequences of the Town Council's recent decision(*3), so if you're calling about that..."
"That's not why I called today, although sometime if you and Samantha would like to address the issue from the werecat perspective, we can round up the others and..."
"Something Samantha and I need to do, but not tonight. What's up?"
"I have some questions about wedding planning in regards to both parties being the same gender. Do you have time to answer them?" wondered Jen.
"Sure," Frances said happily, her mood changing. "Have you and Claire set a date yet?"
"No, but I need to know a few things. Like, who takes who's name? Does one of us wait for the other at the altar? What—"
"Whoa. Slow down. One question at a time, please," begged Frances.
"Excited, ain't I?" asked Jen.
"A little," kidded Frances, pausing before saying, "Now then, if there are any set rules in regards to two people of the same gender marrying, I'm afraid I don't know them. When our time came, Samantha and I just got married before a Justice of the Peace in front of her mothers as our only witnesses, since my family totally disowned me upon my first transformation because they wanted me to be a weredog like the rest of them. You can imagine their shock when I started meowing, let alone needed Samantha to complete me because until that moment they had no idea about my true sexual orientation."
"I remember you telling me something about that before," recalled Jen. "But what about..."
"I took the Twist name because I wanted to show Samantha how much I love her and that none of what happened between me and my blood kin was her fault, although she thinks she still bears some responsibility about not giving me a choice, which is why Samantha went into public service to begin with, long before earning her current position as Town Chancellor."
"But you two make such a cute couple," commented Jen.
"Oh. We do, and Samantha will be the first to agree with you on that. There is no doubt in either of our hearts about the love we have for our partner. But because even they didn't know, her mothers never told Samantha that just because she hadn't had her first transformation yet, that the werevirus or whatever you want to call it wasn't already active in her, let alone transmutable. I've explained it all to her before, but I still would have chosen to be with Samantha, regardless of what kind of were she was."
"I see, but getting back to me and Claire..."
"Like I said, there are no set rules. My son Ben told us recently that two of his fellow werewolves(*4), when they get married, are planning to hyphenate together to take each other's name, although they're both males."
"Something to think about. I could be Mrs. Decker-Jacobs and she could be Mrs. Jacobs-Decker, so in a way we both honor the memory of Tad's father," realized Jen, as she wiped a tear away from her eye. "But what about..."
"Samantha and I just wore white shirts and blue jeans to our wedding. We did enter the courtroom together, holding hands while the judge played a recording of the wedding march as we walked toward him. The proceedings may not have been all that formal, but the love was and certainly is still there."
"Well, you've certainly given me some things to think about Frances. Thank you."
"Any time Jen. Samantha and I will definitely be there, if you want us."
"Of course! Even if it's just in front of a Justice of the Peace, I couldn't think of getting married again without you two present."
"And the bachelorette party?" wondered Frances. "We could get the ladies of our pride together and..." since Samantha and her headed a local group of werecats/werewildcats in Moon Lake.
"Details that still need to be worked out. But right now, I better get back to finishing dinner before we wind up having to order take out again," said Jen, looking over everything on the stove.
"Okay. Well if you need anything..." began Frances.
"You too, especially since it sounds like you two are having a rough time at the moment dealing with the fallout from the Town Council decision."
"We're not the only ones. Just at the forefront of it."
"Don't I know it," replied Jen, thinking about Claire's recent experience.*
Then the two ladies said their goodbyes and ended the call.
TO BE CONTINUED...
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*As seen in the past episode: "Emergency!"
*2.) For some reason were scientists have yet to figure out, all werecats are at least bi if not outright lesbian, while their male counterparts are either bi or homosexual.
*3.) To come up with a plan to intentionally reveal were existence to the world before they are exposed accidentally.
*4.) Next door neighbor Nate Anderson and his boyfriend Alex Ramsey.—tmw.