Martha Anderson and her husband William were fixing Sunday dinner together.
After helping Martha with her teaching recertification studies the two had gotten cozy, which led to some quiet intimacy before that morphed into an outright wonderful helping of "Afternoon Delight" for the married couple.
Now, between being in the privacy of their own home and the fact that it was now after dark, they decided to stay within their respective fursonas and cook.
Werecat Martha purred contently as her werefox husband snuggled up behind her.
"Need any help beautiful?" he whispered seductively in her ear.
"Purr-haps," she quipped, rubbing her furry body against his. "But if we do, we'll never get dinner ready in time for the boys," she added, referring to their sons.
"The roast is almost done. You've just about got the veggies ready. What else is there?" William asked, before kissing her neck.
"Dessert?" she asked.
"Working on it," William replied, before his kisses started traveling down her back toward the base of Martha's feline tail.
His wife didn't need to turn around and look to see his vulpine tail wagging happily. She could hear it indicate his pleasure.
Yet whatever Martha was about to say was lost as the back door opened and their oldest son Nate entered.
"Don't let me interrupt," Nate said, once he realized what his folks were doing.
"It's almost time to eat. Dinner" Martha announced, reluctantly side-stepping away from her husband. "Have you seen Eric?"
"Not since Friday at school. He isn't home from Julie's yet?"
"No. Nate, do you mind..."
"No mom. Just let me change first," said Nate.
And while it was a teenage boy who left the Anderson family's kitchen, the trail of clothes on the way to the front door indicated it was a werewolf proud of his fursona who left the house.
At that moment Eric was walking directly home from the Stovall residence, but was in no true hurry to do so after spending a wonderful weekend with his fiance Julie.
Never in his entire life did Eric believe he would ever find true love. Yet now not only did his heart beat faster every time he thought of her, but Eric was now a were-merman too, although you couldn't immediately tell just by looking at him since it was only in water that were-mers took on most of their other characteristics.
Eric was approaching the corner where he had to turn from Julie's street on to his own when he saw them.
A were-raccoon was having an argument with a weredog, and he didn't need a were's augmented hearing to know what the argument was about.
"We should reveal ourselves. I'm tired of hiding," complained the dog.
"But hiding has kept us safe for generations. Why change?" asked the raccoon.
"Wouldn't you like to be your true furry self day in and day out, no matter where you are?" the dog asked.
"Yeah, but not in some regular human's cage, lab, or zoo," countered the raccoon.
Eric hoped he could walk around them unnoticed, but fate had other ideas.
"Hey kid!" the were-raccoon shouted.
"Who? Me?" Eric asked innocently, still trying to get past the duo.
"Yeah. You. For or against?" the raccoon wanted to know.
"Well, I..." began Eric, still trying to work his way around them.
"Say, wait a minute. I recognize you," said the weredog.
"Can't say I recognize you," admitted Eric, for while most of the high school student body was weres, he didn't know them all by individual fursonas.
"You're Eric Anderson. Julie Stovall's boyfriend," realized the dog.
Eric wisely remained silent as the raccoon said, "The Mayor's daughter? He's the ring leader of the whole reveal scheme, ain't he?"
"No. That's strictly the Town Council's doing. The Mayor's office has no say over their day to day activities," Eric pointed out.
"But he could still tell them to drop the whole reveal scheme and forget about it. Right?" the raccoon wanted to know.
Eric just shrugged his shoulders, for he truly didn't know.
"I think you could deliver a message to them for me on behalf of everybody who doesn't want our secret to become public knowledge," said the were-raccoon, while taking a step closer to Eric.
"Hey. Leave him alone. You heard him say the Mayor has nothing to do with it," protested the weredog, even as he stepped in between Eric and the raccoon.
"So? Doesn't mean he can't help the right side," replied the raccoon, even as he tried to reach out to grab Eric.
That was when the weredog slugged the were-raccoon in the jaw, which started the fighting.
TO BE CONTINUED...