Harold Jenkins and his fiance Virginia McCoy were getting ready to eat dinner together when they heard footsteps coming down the stairs.
They turned and saw Harold's daughter Mel(issa) leading her boyfriend Trevor Tyson back down, holding hands like the two young people in love they were. Neither weretiger needed their special senses to know that the two were interested and aroused being so near each other, but the werecow and her bull didn't get too far into whatever they might have wanted to do besides homework.
"You ready to eat Mel?" father asked daughter.
"Sure. Smells good," she replied, looking at the spread on the table.
"Trevor, can you stay?" Harold asked.
"Afraid not sir. I need to get home between farm chores and my own dinner," he replied.
"Trevor, are you free this Saturday?" Virginia asked.
"Other than the early morning and this time of night, I think so. Why Miss McCoy?" the student asked.
"It's going to be just immediate family, but we'd like you to attend our wedding," Virginia said, taking Harold's hand in hers.
"Really?" Trevor asked in disbelief.
"Can you?" Mel asked, turning to look at him.
"You're almost family already, so you're welcome to be there," Harold said, noticing how close the two teenagers had grown in so short a time.
"I'll have to ask my folks, but I'd be honored," Trevor replied, which got him a happy squeal and hug from Mel before she kissed him.
ELSEWHERE...
Rob Van Direstag kissed Amy's check, even though her wereskunk fur tickled his human lips a little. "See you tomorrow?"
"Of course," Amy smiled and they parted ways.
With that, Rob went in his family home to find Rachel and Frank seated in the living room as another set of roars rose again from the area behind their house. He stood there with a bit of a dopey grin on his face and said to his older siblings, "She likes me."
"Well, that's good," Frank said, noncommittally.
"Yeah. I just hope we're still here tomorrow," added his sister.
"Why? What do you mean?" Rob asked. "And where's mom and dad?"
"Mom told me dad wants to sneak us all out of town in the morning to avoid honoring the Mandatory Were Law," Frank explained. "As to where they are now, I heard her tell him something about he needed more of an open mind about weres and they left to find one to talk to. I tried calling, but they accidentally left their cells upstairs."
"Should we go look for them?" Rob wondered, even as the roars coming from somewhere behind the house grew louder.
"Might be safer here, at least for the moment," Rachel pointed out. "Besides, what if we're out and they come back on their own in the meantime?"
"Okay. We eat first and if they're not back by then, we make plans from there. Agreed?" asked Frank, being the oldest, as he got up and headed to the kitchen to fix them something.
MEANWHILE...
"ROSE?" Richard Van Direstag said, watching his wife run out of the room.
"OW!" screamed Sheila Wiggleston, still underneath him. "As much as you want to go after her, you can't until that great werelion cock calms down enough to slip out of me without its barbs tearing my hungry pussy up in the process," the werelioness pointed out to him.
"Oh why did I do it?" Richard cried, torn between the woman that made him a werelion and the lady he loved.
"Look Richard," began Sheila, realizing how torn up he was emotionally. "You got overwhelmed with the change and all the new emotions and instincts running through you. Especially since you becoming a werelion was an unplanned accident and not part of an official induction*."
"I know," Richard said, almost to the point of tears. "I love Rose so much, and now..."
"It's okay," Sheila said, reaching up with one paw to run her fingers through his new leonine mane. "All's not lost. Your new life is not off to the most auspicious start it could have had, but in the long run remember: while there are times it will be quite fun to give into your instincts and enjoy your new fursona, you ARE still in charge," she added, tapping his skull to indicate his brain.
"Really?" Richard asked, seemingly uncertain of anything and everything at the moment.
"Yes, and as soon as we can separate, I'll help you look for her," promised Sheila. "Then the two of you can have a good long, heart to heart talk and work things out."
BUT AT THAT MOMENT...
Rose Van Direstag couldn't help herself.
Seeing her husband, the man she loved almost as much as life itself, give himself over to someone else so openly and freely, made her wonder Could Richard have been right? Maybe we should have escaped Moon Lake while we could without obeying that Mandatory Were Law. Why did I have to insist he needed to learn more about weres when I did? Sure, it WAS an accident, but I should have planned our fact finding mission better. Now I've probably lost him forever!
So upset over everything that happened since first encountering Sheila Wiggleston (and the werelioness was another matter that she didn't even want to think about right now), Rose just left the house in a blind fury.
Rose thought she was headed in the right direction after running out Sheila's back door, but in her emotional state never realized that she went the wrong way.
Now in a clearing that she didn't remember heading to Sheila's house, Rose stopped to catch her breath and attempt to calm down at least long enough to get her bearings.
Yet while doing that, Rose never realized she was being watched.
But by who?
Or what?
And why?
TO BE CONTINUED...
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*In our past episode: "Not the meeting that was expected."—tmw.