Alice was quite in awe by what had been happening. She'd always had a closet interest in werewolves. She'd seen "the Howling" and many of its sequels, had commented on several forums on how bad the sequels were. She'd seen "American Werewolf in London" and its "sequel" and posted an online rant about how the sequel sucked. And this trend continued with just about every werewolf movie out there. She'd never thought she'd actually get to meet REAL werewolves, and in a way she was glad she had. They were far better than anything Hollywood had come up with. They were more anthropomorphic, sort of like the werewolves in "the Howling" and "Cursed," but weren't half fur and flesh as in the former, and their fur seemed to actually make sense with how it lay on their bodies instead looking shaggy in the later.
The nudity was a bit of a surprise, but May, Jeanie, and Margaret were nearly seven foot tall and had enough muscle to to make most men jealous of them. Margaret even looked rather young, given that she was supposed to be Hunter and Mikey's grandmother and was pushing sixty, but looked more like she was closer to forty. And on their present frames, their muscles didn't decrease from their femininity. They all sported large and firm breasts which had their nipples largely covered up by their fur. They had wide hips that would have marked them as female if one didn't look above their belly buttons, which Alice couldn't really see through their fur. In a way they were like good artwork of what a female werewolf should look like rather than rushed images done in movies designed to either look scary or at least not look half-furry and half-flesh. The pack's males looked like a good artist's rendition of a male werewolf. Alice was in awe of it and to a great degree wished she could share in it. That was why she made the comment to Hunter about being his she-wolf.
To her surprise, she felt a paw-like hand gently touch the back of hand, and when she looked, she found that the fur was a silver-gray rather than blond like Hunter's.
"You don't NEED to become a werewolf to be with Hunter, dearie," Margaret said softly and sounding very much like a grandmother, "love doesn't know species."
"But you all became werewolves to be with the men you love," Alice pointed out.
"Nate accidentally bit me, I didn't actually ask to be a werewolf," Jeanie informed her, "I got used to it, and if I knew now what I knew then I would have asked for it... but that's all hindsight..."
"James clawed me in his first transformation because he was in pain and didn't mean to claw me," May added, "this... this may not be as bad as many might think... but the fact still remains that James didn't claw me on purpose... and I was rather terrified as I watched him and my sons change..."
"You were slightly aroused by the end of my transformation," James said softly.
"Hush, you," May said to James, not wanting to admit that that she had been aroused by the sight of the size of James' massive erection in wolf form to a sixteen year old girl.
"And for much of our marriage after George became a werewolf, I didn't become a werewolf," Margaret finished the line, "I didn't become one until saving my life became necessary."
"Mom...?" James gasped.
"Do you remember a few years ago when I had to go into the hospital?" Margaret asked to James.
"They said it was ovarian cancer, wasn't it?" James responded.
"Yes, they told me at that time that the cancer was terminal... that I would not have survived it regardless of what medicine could do," Margaret told him, "After being dismissed from the hospital to "die at home," George took me into the woods outside of town... crying all the way... said, "I can't live without you," transformed, and bit me..."
"And lycanthropy saved your life," James and May said together in awe.
"Told you we were immune to human sickness," Jeanie smirked.
"All the more reason why I'd LIKE to join you," Alice spoke up, making Hunter's ears perk up, "Why I'd like to be a werewolf with all of you."
"You want to be a werewolf, dear?" Margaret said to her.
Alice then nodded.
"Then provided you can schedule and train, your father's fears shouldn't be an issue, BUT by law, you will have to wait until you and Hunter are both eighteen at leas, and preferably legally married if I know your mother well enough, Hunter," Margaret then spoke.
"Why?" came twin choruses.
"Hunter and Alice mating under a tree!" Mikey began.
"MICHAEL HARRIS!" May practically roared.
Mickey whimpered and lowered his head, ears, and tail (if he could while sitting in a chair that May and James had bought years ago that surprisingly was built to allow for the tails that all the werewolves present had) in submission to his mother. With that accomplished, May turned to her other son and his girlfriend.
"The big thing as that you're both sixteen," May then spoke, "You won't be legal adults for another two years when you turn eighteen. By law, Alice, Hunter, neither of you can give consent to such things... though the law normally sees this with regard to sex. But, I'd suppose if the government knew werewolves were real they'd probably add it in."
"That's not fair," Alice said weakly.
"It is the law, and it is also what I will demand of Hunter, and so long as he lives under my roof, he will follow my rules," May said firmly.
"Besides, it's more than just the law," James added, "You're both young. And you say you love each other now... but you never know what happens. High School sweethearts rarely live happily ever after... More often then not, they break up before getting married or end up in a messy divorce."
"We'd hope you do live happily ever after," May continued, "because you both have looked well together... but we want you to take your time and make absolutely sure you'll be together forever and rush into anything and end up making a mistake."
"Okay," Alice and Hunter agreed. Alice agreed because she was sure trying to get her father to be OK with wolves would take time and Hunter because it was his mother and father speaking.
After this there came a soft but firm "ahem." This turned all heads to George who was seated quietly next to Nate and Mikey at the other end of the table. "My story isn't finished yet, if we are through with the interruptions on the Pack's family future..."
Alice watched as ALL of the werewolves responded as they were talking to an Alpha. She wondered if werewolves lived with the same sort of pack structure that mundane wolves lived under, where the Alpha Male and Alpha Female were the parents of the pack members.
"You'd said that this "gene" got into our system thanks to Abraham Harris and a barmaid in the Middle Ages?" Mikey asked.
"Yes," George nodded.
"Would that wizard still be out there?" Mikey asked.
"A descendant might be," George commented, "but that sorcerer wasn't immortal."
"Nate said that our "werewolf gene" went dormant in our family... up until you and Nate found a way to awaken in the two of you," James commented.
"It did," George nodded, "by the fifteen hundreds, Joseph Harris had witnessed every member of his family... his pack slaughtered by hunters for no reason other than that they were werewolves. He hadn't been with them and escaped only because the hunters didn't know he wasn't there. He then went in search of a cure, going wherever he could. He eventually found a young sorceress who had been practicing various healing arts and had been praised as having gained her powers from God's favor on her."
"She wasn't bad, was she?" Alice asked curiously.
"No, she was quite good, she would ultimately marry Joseph Harris and did find a spell that worked," George explained, "but to Joseph's disappointment her spell didn't cure him of his lycanthropy, just made his condition dormant. It then passed down through the generations until it came down to us... though the spell had be recast every blood moon, or the condition would reactivate..."
"As it did tonight for us," James said slowly.
George nodded and continued his explanation, "Joseph Harris and his wife kept a journal that they passed through every generation of the Harris family with explanation on how to renew the spell to keep our family's lycanthropic abilities dormant and when it was to be cast... as well as the story of how lycanthropy entered our family line. I found the journal among a stack of old belongings that had been kept a safe deposit box in our attack one day while cleaning it and thus learned of our family's heritage."
"Why did you go to reactivate it?" May asked.
George then gave a heavy sigh and looked down, "You all know my interest in hunting right?"
James and May both nodded. James remembered George taking him and Nat out hunting once, and remember the bruise on his shoulder after firing his father's hunting rifle at a deer. Hunting now was likely different as they wouldn't need rifles with their claws and fangs.
"Well... while Nate and I were double checking some things online with regard to what we found in the journal and we came across a website of a group called "Monster Hunters," and out of curiosity we looked at it," George said slowly.
"They actually hunt werewolves, I take it?" James said slowly.
"They do... and it isn't in a protective way," George answered, "based on what we found on the website... they have a great hatred of werewolves... almost like it's personal for them. And they've somehow found a way to identify werewolves... and I feared they may find some other record of our family line... and come after us. It would take too long to wait for tonight's blood moon... so we began looking for a way to reactivate our abilities so that way we could protect our family and loved ones from these hunters should they come with their racist ideas..."
"You've been protecting us?" James blinked.
"Your my brother, James," Nate spoke, "you helped protect me from bullies growing up... and these "Monster Hunters" are far worse than those bullies ever were. Dad and I agreed to find a way gain the strength and speed and senses to be able to either fight them off or help you and mom escape."
"So far, they haven't found us, but they could still be out there," George commented.
"Here's hoping they never show up," May spoke and raised her glass before drinking the water out of it through a straw. Everyone nodded to that. Alice especially. This was a surprising turn of events, but it didn't turn her away from wanting to become a werewolf eventually.
"So, how did you reactivate your lycanthropic abilities?" James asked, "Did you go looking for a wizard or something?"
"Actually she came to us," George answered, "I think she was a gypsy and said something that my "pack" would be needed for something. I asked about these "Monster Hunters" but she didn't say anything more than that my pack would be needed. She gave us some Wolfsbane... and told us to eat it and that that was all we needed outside of the blood moon to reactivate our abilities... and then she left... we never saw her."
"Odd," May said slowly.
"Maybe, but she helped us out and enabled us to protect our loved ones," George commented, "and now we are able to protect not only each other... but all we care about... make sure these Monster Hunters don't come being jerks... and to make sure that no other werewolf comes in thinking their powers given them the right to be bullies."
"But... for the near future... with tomorrow being Saturday and the second day of this month's full moon cycle, James, May, Hunter, Michael... you'll have some training to make sure you can control yourself and make sure that stress or other activities don't trigger an unintended change," Jeanie commented.
"And we'll help," Nate said with a smile.
"Can I help?" Alice asked, "Even if I'm not a wolf... I... I want to be part of your Pack..."
"I'm sure we could find something you can do to help with the training," Margaret assured her.
"And we can brainstorm some idea on how to help your dad... though keep in mind that we're not going to go around turning people into werewolves," Nate added.
Alice nodded, and despite how things looked to anyone who might see her situation from the outside, she was eager for what would come next.