Jensen and Kaylee were the last to arrive on the scene. Kaylee was nervous about the possibility that their wolf-hood would be taken away or they would have to relocate, and Jensen found himself trying to comfort his mate. He found it difficult, as he had no answers, which was why he had the plan to evacuate. He couldn't let anyone harm Jenny, Bart, Marcy, Kevin, Alice, Abbey, or Samantha. The fact that he was behaving the way any parent would by thinking of his pups first was not even a concern.
As they arrived outside, they found Mr. P swallowing the remains of what appeared to be a house cat. They also noticed that one of the trees had several branches either broken off or bent.
"What happened?" Jensen demanded immediately.
"I was showing Abbey and Samantha their rooms, when I returned to the study, Alice was introducing a house cat to the other pups," Mr. P explained slowly, "Do not blame her. I don't think she could have known..."
"WHAT HAPPENED?" Jensen repeated his question.
"The cat was a familiar who serves some "weird woman" as Abbey and Samantha put it," Mr. P spoke, "and it was they who pointed the cat out to me. He ran..."
Jensen then looked at the damaged tree and then up the manor. The window where all of the pups were watching with Martha was damaged. Even open all the way, it was too small for Mr. P's size.
"And you gave chase, I see," Jensen spoke.
"And he's killed the threat to the pups and the pack, master," Kaylee said, looking at the bloodstained ground.
"Possibly," Mr. P said nervously, "the familiar had an ally with him. I had treed the familiar when I was attacked by the other one. In all the confusion, I can not confirm which cat that I killed. Forgive me, master."
"So the familiar is possibly still out there," Jensen sighed, mostly to himself, "It isn't your fault, Mr. P. No one else was able to aide in the chase and we haven't told you about the gargoyles yet, so I guess it is only inevitable that one of two cats would escape."
Mr. P nodded. Kaylee, meanwhile looked up nervously to her mate.
"Master?" Kaylee asked nervously.
"We will evacuate," Jensen said in a depressed voice, "once Julie joins us, we will begin leaving."
"But..." Kaylee protested, "We're stronger then the police here. The gargoyles can disarm them without fear..."
"And for all we know, this "weird woman" is a witch who could return us to our weaker previous selves," Jensen answered, "If the familiar is the one who escaped, then she will be lead here. And if she is a witch, I would doubt a game created by her own magic would have any effect on her... and even if she isn't and we beat the police... we do not have the resources to fight a war with the United States of America... shoot, we'd have trouble fighting most third world countries since none of us have or use guns and are too large to be properly protected in combat conditions. I will not fight a war I know I can't win."
Kaylee looked down and gave a slight whimper.
"The shadows can maintain the estate," Jensen sighed, "This witch will likely be looking for wolves, not them. We can instruct them to say that they had found the estate and were looking into buying it. We'll also take a mirror. That way Alice, Abbey, or Samantha can lead pack members back to get any food we need and to check on the estate's affairs. Maybe... maybe in a few years, when all of this calms down we can return... maybe..."
+++++++
Julie was nervous as she drove to the address she was given. 3452 Hiss Street. It was one of a series of warehouse complexes in Glendale that bordered nearby pig farms. Most of them also served to provide those farms with feed they need to raise pigs. As a result, few people lived in the area. And while Julie didn't know it, the complex at 3452 Hiss Street was one of Bartholomew Smith's various investments. Which was why Fran and Darla picked it. It was a place where they would be able to give a legal reason for being there while there was no one else there, and because of the smell of the feed and the pig farms, it was extremely unlikely that anyone would see what was to become of Julie or her interactions with the wolves.
Parking her car, Julie grabbed the bat and put her earphones on. She wouldn't take them off until she was sure no one was going to use the game against her, or until she found Frank. She would find him and she would make Alice pay dearly for whatever she did to her babies.
No one was outside, so she approached one of the doors and found it unlocked from the inside. She opened it and slipped inside, and prayed that no security cameras were watching her, not knowing that all of them had already been turned off. She found the warehouse to be a large cavernous room stack with various pallets of items to be delivered to various locations, Julie didn't bother to see exactly where they were to be sent or what they were sending. That wasn't her mission.
There was only one real point of light, which was in the center of the warehouse. She made her way toward it as it was the only possible location where anyone would be. When she finally made it there, she found herself looking at a seven foot tall blond she-wolf. It felt like something punched her in the stomach when the realization set it. This she-wolf was Frank. Julie didn't know how she knew, she just knew.
"Great, some perverted male not only turns him into a harem female but has to make him at least twice as big as I am," Julie found herself thinking jealously as she eyed the she-wolf's easily noticeable bust line.
It was at this point that the she-wolf charged her, looking overjoyed about something. Julie found herself frozen in place as she wolf rushed and brought her into a firm hug, although the she-wolf didn't calculate their difference's in height. Julie felt her head be pushed into the she-wolf's cleavage, her breasts pushing the headphones off, allowing Julie to hear again.
"Oh Julie, you don't know how I've missed you and waited for this day," Fran said happily, "It's so good have you with me again."
Julie then heard another feminine voice speak.
"Careful, sister, before you smother her."
Fran then looked down to see Julie's head buried in her breasts.
"Sorry," Fran said and let go of his wife.
Julie, meanwhile gasped for breath.
"Frank?" Julie spoke in horror and shock to the she-wolf before her.
"I'm Fran now," Fran said simply, "For obvious reasons."
"What has that pervert done to you?" Julie asked.
"Nick? Nothing," Fran answered her.
"No, who has done this to you?" Julie corrected herself.
"Alpha Female did," Fran said slowly, "Daryl and I were called to the Perkins house about some strange animal noises coming from inside. Well, there were animal noises, and they were made by the Alpha Female and the Master... they had full legal right to be there, and most Daryl and I legally could have done was reprimand them for being too loud..."
Julie sensed a "but" coming.
"But we didn't believe Alpha Female and she used the game on us to protect herself," Fran finished.
Julie's head was swimming. The one who had transformed her husband was not some pervert male but a female. And the only reason her husband and Daryl had been there because of this "Alpha Female's" coupling with the "Master". It didn't entirely kill Madame Serenity's "harem" theory, but it likely changed on who had actually started it.
"And I'm sorry I had to say all those things to you on the phone," Fran spoke again, "It's just that I was under a "dare" as well to cut all previous ties, and it was the only thing I could really think of that would work... it's..."
"I know about The Game, Frank," Julie spoke, "I've met someone who's been trying to help me find you..."
"You needn't have," Fran told her, "I still love you and want you with me. We intended to come to you."
Julie felt that she wolf was being honest when she said she loved her, but Julie also shuddered at the prospect of ending up another harem wolf for this perverted "Master".
"The person I've met is trying to help you... us... to save us," Julie spoke carefully, "to save our family. To save you from the pervert that created the harem your in."
"Harem?" Fran lowered one ear in a puzzled look, having given no thought to what she had been participating in.
"When one male gathers hordes of women around him," Julie explained, "and has them please him unconditionally with no thought of love or responsibility for what commonly comes after."
"Then that is not the Master," Fran said, "I can feel it in my bones that he loves me and Alpha Female and Darla and his pups... although he loves them in a more parental way then the way he loves us. He actually has other males to attend to the others. We're all looking forward to becoming mothers the normal way..."
Julie shuddered. Frank had really changed. Something had to have changed his mind. The man she married had been very much a man's man, even if his prized pet was a little dog that occasionally seemed frightened of his own shadow. The she-wolf before him wanted to get pregnant.
"Help me, Frank," Julie tried to plead her case, "Come with me. I'll take you to Madame Serenity and she'll find a way to cure you. We'll get our daughters back from some monster named Alice and we'll leave this cursed town and its Game behind."
"Alice, a monster?" Fran asked back, "Hardly."
"She kidnapped our girls, Frank," Julie said firmly, "She could be doing who knows what to them."
"Alice would never hurt her cousins," Fran put her paws on Julie's shoulders.
"Cousins?" Julie asked, blinking.
"Hello, Aunt Julie," came a new voice.
Julie turned to see a second dirty blond she wolf, equally as well endowed as Fran holding the paws of what looked like a seven or eight year old humanoid wolf pup who appeared to be made entirely of glass. Julie felt an urge to cry when two more glass wolf pups emerged from behind the other blond she-wolf. They looked like they were only five, and while identical, Julie could guess that these were her daughters. She had come to fight off Alice and free her husband, but now, as her heart broke she dropped to the ground at the feet of the two identical blond wolves and the glass pups with them.
"Hello again, Aunt Julie," Alice said again as she approached, "I am terribly sorry for the way things have gone, but it appears to be the only way to bring you to your family, and Aunt Fran has been worried sick that you would never be with her again."
"And you thought the only only way to do that was to steal my daughters and take away their humanity?" Julie demanded of the glass pup, tempted to take a swing at her with the bat, but was unable. Fran or the other she-wolf would have stopped her... and her broken heart at seeing what had become of her daughters was breaking her will to fight.
"She was lonely, mama," Abbey spoke as she came up next to Alice, "she was the only one who was real in her world."
"We had to join her," Samantha added as she came up on the other side of Alice, "We couldn't let her be alone. We couldn't."
"But look what she's done to you!" Julie cried, knowing that an appeal to logic probably wouldn't work on a child.
"Everyone says we look cute," Abbey smiled.
"I think we look cute," Samantha added.
If she had been looking at a photograph of a statue in a catalog, Julie might have agreed. But this wasn't a picture. These were her daughters, who she had spent more then twenty hours of labor to push out of her.
"Please," Julie pleaded, "Let Madame Serenity help you. I'm sure there's a way..."
"No," Fran said firmly, "That witch is out to kill our pack. We aren't out to hurt Glendale or anyone. We wish merely to live. And that witch wants to destroy us."
"Serenity isn't a witch," Julie said, "She can sense when the Game is used, but she isn't a witch. She's a victim of the Game herself. Just as you are. She was once an Irish MAN, now she's an African American woman."
That gave Fran and Darla some pause for thought. If Serenity wasn't a witch, maybe she could be reasoned with and the pack wouldn't have to leave the manor.
"She still wants to destroy our family," Fran spoke.
"She's trying to save our family," Julie answered.
"What about Darla?" Fran asked, "If she turns me and our daughters back, what will happen to her? She'll be alone... separated from me... and that... that would be awful beyond all things. I do not want that. I do not want to be Frank again. I'm very happy as Fran."
"Having sex with someone that isn't me," Julie said.
"Yes."
"Then why are you wanting me, then?" Julie asked weakly, "You have each other, you've stolen my children, you have your master. What could you want me for?"
"To be complete," Fran answered, "I still love you Julie. I need you with me. So does Darla. We are incomplete without you."
"And you seek to turn me into another wolf," Julie summarized, looking for her headphones.
"Yes," Fran nodded, "You will be a triplet to me and Darla. And you'll be skilled medically for when we have puppies... literally."
That made Julie blink. That wasn't harem behavior. It was more the action of someone trying to provide for a family, which someone building a harem wouldn't take the time to care about. Maybe this "Master" and Frank were being drawn closer to the wolf's natural instinct to form packs and work together.
"Why are you telling me all this?" Julie asked, "Shouldn't you have simply transformed me the instant your breasts knocked off my headphones?"
Fran looked down at her generous chest, "Sorry. I didn't mean to smother you."
"Why are you telling me this?" Julie repeated.
"Because we love you," Darla spoke from where she was, "Fran and I are very closely connected. And she has missed you terribly, as a result, I have missed you terribly. But, because we love you, we'd hoped that you would accept the transformation rather then making us force it on you."
Julie looked between the two blond wolves. It seemed as if they were giving her a choice. From what Serenity had told her, that wasn't part of the Game. It was commonly FORCED on people. The problem was, she didn't know if she had the strength to fight it.