A loud noise from downstairs jolted Kim Hamilton wide awake. At first she assumed that it was just Beck or Renata looking for a midnight snack, but then she began to wonder if it was whatever had caused the strange changes in Beck coming back to wreak more havoc in the Hamilton household. What if it was here to do something to Renata?! After all, Renata was beginning to stay out later than normal recently.
Kim glanced at her husband Nathan, who was still sleeping soundly. It was just as well, Kim decided. It was her who understood the ways of the supernatural thanks to growing up as the daughter of a monster hunter. Kim may not have taken up the family vocation the way her brother and niece had, but she'd still learned a thing or two.
Kim crept over to the wall safe, entered in the combination to open it, and took out one of the two handguns that she kept for supernatural emergencies like this. It was loaded with silver bullets for use against werebeasts and vampires. The other gun had cold iron bullets meant for killing unseelie faeries, but Tori's input had Kim convinced that werebeasts were to blame for the attacks on her children. The bullets of both guns had also been blessed by numerous clergy, just in case they had to be used on a demon.
Gun firmly in hand, Kim silently opened the bedroom door and descended the stairs. She crept over to the kitchen and peeked inside.
Instantly, her worst fears were confirmed.
Inside the kitchen, a pair of naked fox humanoids, one male and one female, were rummaging through the drawers of the kitchen counter. They gleefully stuffed Kim's heirloom silverware into a sack. (Naturally, they were wearing protective gloves to stave off silver burns.) Their bushy tails wagged happily as they robbed the Hamiltons blind. Werefoxes!
"What an awesome haul, Scarlett!" the male said to the female. "All this silver crap'll net us a small fortune once we've pawned it!"
The one named Scarlett held a clawed finger to her vulpine muzzle. "Shhh! Keep your damn voice down, Rex! It's bad enough that your paw got caught on that chair and made such a racket knocking it over."
Kim Hamilton aimed her handgun at the paw of the male, Rex.
Rex shrugged cheerfully. "Hey, at least the noise didn't wake anybody—AAAAAAAGGGGHHHHHHHHH!!!" Rex sank to the ground and clutched at his bleeding foot. "Shit, I've been shot!"
"What in Lady Moon's name?!" gasped Scarlett as she inspected her friend's wound. "That looks like silver burns around the bullet hole!"
"Yes," Kim said, stepping into the room. "That chair did wake someone up... someone who knows what you bestial freaks are." She trained her gun on Scarlett.
"How?!" Scarlett gasped. "What kind of human actually expects to be burglarized be werebeasts?! You aren't supposed to know we're real! You're cheating!"
"My father was a monster hunter," Kim responded, glaring at the werefoxes. "I'm from the Vordenburg family. Perhaps you've heard of me?"
"Vordenburg?!" gasped Rex. "You're related to those assholes?!"
"That's right, and I have some questions for you," Kim said, keeping the gun trained on the werefoxes. "And don't you dare even think about lying to me! We Vordenburgs have ways of detecting falsehoods." She was bluffing, but it was hopefully enough to intimidate these monsters into telling the truth.
"Okay," sighed Scarlett. "What do you wanna know?"
"Before we begin, can you two please cover up?" asked Kim. "You think I enjoy looking at your tits or your friend's dick?! Try to make this a smidge less awkward! Also, I'd appreciate it if you shifted into your human forms. It's just plain weird to be talking to a mashup of human and wildlife."
The werefoxes hastily covered up with their hands before shifting. Their fox features melted away, leaving a pair of redheaded human teenagers with fair, freckly skin. "There you go, Mrs. Prudish McRacist," Scarlett said with a roll of her eyes. "Now what?"
"Now comes the real questions," said Kim. "What are your names."
"I'm Scarlett Bush, and this is my friend Rex Reynard," said Scarlett.
"What are you doing in my house?" Kim snarled.
"What werefoxes do," Rex said. "Helping ourselves to the finer things. Hey, anyone who can't defend their crap doesn't deserve to have it. Turns out that you can defend yours."
"Why my house in particular?" Kim asked, an accusing tone in her voice.
"No reason at all," Scarlett scoffed. "Rex and I were out for some of our nightly mischief, and he picked your place at random. I mean, this is a nice, big two-story house, so we assumed you were pretty well-off. Do we really need a reason beyond that?"
"And you're sure this has nothing to do with my kids?" Kim asked, her voice still dripping with accusation. "And that you have absolutely no sinister plans for my kids?"
"Depends on who your kids are," Scarlett shrugged. "I flirt and fuck with a lot of humans. Which ones are under your protection?"
"My oldest child is Beck Hamilton," said Kim. "They used to be called Rebecca before they came out as non-binary. They have light brown hair in a fade cut with frosted platinum tips and freckled skin. They have a pierced belly button and a bulge in their jeans from the packer they wear to combat their gender dysphoria. They're usually dressed in ripped jeans, a denim jacket with a midriff-baring spaghetti-strap top underneath, and converse shoes. Oh, and they've been putting on a lot of muscle mass lately."
Scarlett shrugged nonchalantly. "Never met them."
"Me either," Rex added, nursing his bleeding foot as he talked. "What about your younger kid?"
"That'd be Renata Hamilton," said Kim. "She has waist-length red hair (not unlike yours, Scarlett), a curvy feminine figure, a large bosom, and blue eyes. She's usually dressed in revealing designer clothes that cost Nathan and me more money in a month than we spend on Beck's clothes in two years. She's very flirtatious and can usually be seen hanging out with a girl called Jezebel du Charme (who I strongly suspect of being a succubus). Also, Beck and Renata are seventeen-year-old fraternal twins. Does that sound like anyone you've been screwing around with?"
"Renata Hamilton?" Rex repeated. "My sister Ruby's been hanging out with her."
"You do realize your sister'll be furious with you when she finds out you told this woman about that, right?" Scarlett said dryly.
"Hey, this lady shot me in the foot!" Rex protested. "Forgive me if not pissing her off further is my most pressing concern right now!" He made eye contact with Kim. "So, why do you wanna know this?"
"Weird things having been going on around here," Kim answered. "It started with Beck. They came home from school one day, and they were suddenly twice as muscular as they were that morning! Then I walked into their room, and their mirror was covered in what looked like semen, even though there was zero evidence of a boy. It was almost like they had a penis and masturbated all over the mirror, even though they were assigned female at birth! And they're getting so damn hairy lately!"
"That semen thing doesn't sound like anything werefoxes could do to Beck," Scarlett commented. "The hairiness, sure, but not the semen. Even the muscle growth sounds more in line with the bigger werebeast breeds like werewolves or werelions or werebears."
"And now Renata's acting strangely," Kim went on. "She's been staying out much later than usual, and she doesn't even text me to tell me where she is. Then she comes home like nothing's happened and laughs it off when I ask her where she's been. I'm so worried that something's turning my kids into monsters!"
"Whoa, watch it with the M-word, bitch!" Scarlet barked indignantly.
"Scarlett didn't mean that," Rex said nervously. "You know, you're quite the MILF. Maybe we can meet again under... happier circumstances and... have some fun." He winked roguishly.
Kim wasn't familiar with the term 'MILF,' but she certainly understood the suggestive wink. "Don't kid yourself, Rex!" she sneered. "I'm a married woman, you're a teenager, and I'd never let a werefox between my legs. How many STDs do you have? Ten? Twenty? Just tell me if this Ruby person you mentioned is doing anything to Renata, and I'll let you walk off of my property without any more silver-singed bullet holes in your furry pelt!"
"I'm honestly not sure," said Rex. "She hasn't told me a lot about her relationship with Renata, but they've definitely fucked."
"Alright, now get your bushy tails out of this house!" Kim shouted, brandishing her gun at the vulpine intruders.
Scarlett gingerly helped Rex to his feet. "Come on, Rex, let's get you to the skulk's shaman and have those silver burns treated." The two werefoxes stumbled out of the open window they'd entered through, shifting into their fox-person forms as they disappeared into the blackness of the night.
Kim frowned as she closed the window. It was troubling to learn that a werefox skulk was in town, but it was even worse to hear that a werevixen was trying to seduce Renata. And then there was Beck. From what Rex and Scarlett had told Kim, Beck's strange transformation sounded unrelated to the werefoxes. So much was going wrong at once! Kim was relieved that her niece Tori was arriving tomorrow. Stokerville needed a monster hunter. It needed a Vordenburg.