"Did I miss anything?" Carly asked slowly as she returned to her living room.
She had been watching quietly, but had to answer the call of nature and the sound of her home's plumbing working was still audible as she returned from the bathroom.
"Nothing much," Danielle answered as she looked over her shoulder, "their guest that hates us thinks we're Cobra and the werewolf they have had to repeat the same information werewolves have told before when the media decided to grill them."
Carly gave a sigh as she moved to sit down on the couch next to Danielle. She grabbed a piece of jerky that Danielle had brought back from the refrigerator earlier and had placed on a small platter that Carly had set out earlier in the evening for them all to share from. She glanced to the others and watched Maria stretch her arms out while Kevin was absentmindedly scratching his side. When he finished he looked over to Danielle with a raised furry eyebrow.
"That Walter guy thinks we're what?" Kevin asked.
"Cobra," Danielle answered, "You know that terrorist organization that hides out in various places to take over the world and takes on the GI Joes... you, know... that we have a "plan" of some kind."
Kevin did agree to that. A lot of those that hated werewolves thought that they had some sort of complex plan to either take over the world and enslave humanity or transform every human into werewolves. They also tended to think that werewolves had some sort of hyper organized secret society. None of this was true. Werewolves could run in packs, but they were usually small and localized to a specific area. In some cases werewolf packs mirrored mundane wolf packs in that the pack was only the nuclear family, the parents and their children. None of this really gave werewolf packs the coordination necessary to be part of a global conspiracy against humanity or even as part of some secret society. But that didn't stop people like Walter Moxie from making the claim and making it repeatedly.
Some had tried to explain that werewolf packs were no where near that well organized and rarely had contact with each other. Werewolves could identify each other by scent when they were in towns they weren't familiar with, but that was about the only way a werewolf in one town might meet another. They didn't have the sort of networks that would be remotely conducive to the sort of planning that plotting that many haters thought werewolves engaged in.
"Of course... on a level... he might be right," Maria commented slowly, "Perhaps if werewolves came out at a time when human knowledge of science was growing and their superstitions were dying away... there may not have been much trouble..."
"People believed in werewolves at one point," Kevin commented, "They killed them in large numbers then."
"Yes, but their superstitions were higher," Maria replied, "and I'm just trying to play devils advocate here... but maybe if the werewolves in the age of enlightenment openly came out and cooperated with humanity... things might have gone better than they are now..."
"I'm not sure an earlier revelation would removed the problems we're facing," Danielle commented, "things might be better for us now, but those of us alive then would have gone through it... and even if it might be better for them then, we can't really say how much better or what the treatment would be... that'd all be speculative."
"And it still doesn't make it right for people to continually think we're involved in some sort of plot to either kill off the humans or turn them," Carly commented, "we're neither organized plotters nor are we wanting to turn everyone."
The others nodded in agreement. Before "the incident" werewolves generally didn't turn humans all that often. Not to be mean or prejudiced, but to maintain a balance in nature. Because wolven instincts were there with their human minds, werewolves over years had actually developed a natural connection with the "wild." They weren't by nature "guardians" of nature and the wild, they were, in their own way, PART of it. They accepted that they were predators and didn't hide from it. Those that hated them made the claim that they were dangerous hunters, but while werewolves were hunters, they could honestly choose what to hunt, just as humans could. And werewolves chose to hunt the same things that humans and mundane wolves hunted. It feed their calorie needs well and in becoming part of the wild, they'd also knew what affect their presence had on local wildlife far more than humans did. And as such, they didn't often turn humans for the fact that the local area might not be able to support another werewolf and the local pack wasn't going to demand someone leave his/her home, friends, and job just to turn someone.
There were cases where humans were turned, though they weren't very simple. Either, the werewolf had felt threatened and attacked in self-defense and the attacker survived the encounter, or the werewolf had come across a human that was injured and near fatally so and turned the human in the hopes of healing the wound. There was the odd case of a werewolf deciding to hunt people, but these were extremely rare. In reality about one in a thousand, though since "the incident" no honest statistics could be kept in that regard. The rarity of these attacks, however, didn't change the fact that they did occur.
The most common cases, though were from two other cases. Either the person being turned was romantically involved with the werewolf in question, and the turning was part of the mating process, or the werewolf didn't have a pack. Werewolves were every bit the social creature that humans were. Their minds were sharper and stronger when in the company of others, particularly other werewolves, so that there were no secrets. Danielle always felt better around Carly, Maria, and Kevin. Even when they disagreed on something, there was a strong friendship with them that made her feel stronger. But not all werewolves got that benefit, especially those that had been turned by surviving an attack. They would keep their condition secret, out of fear, and would adapt to what they were and became, but didn't get the same support that a werewolf in a pack, like Danielle, got from the rest of the pack. This often leading to that werewolf turning those that were the most trusted in the hopes of establishing a pack.
The "incident" had changed many things. Danielle, Carly, Maria, and Kevin had all heard about the supposed "bite-ins" that had gone on in some places. That had been entirely the actions of those trying to show they weren't going away and to try and show that there were humans that supported werewolves. These were political reasons where their human mind trumped their instincts to try generate a favorable response. And they didn't always work. Many local laws didn't allow for werewolves to transform or turn anyone in public, and were written in such ways that the act was to be treated as a "violent crime" rather than "civil disobedience." The four of them watching the People's Talk at present had seen plenty of news reports where "Bite-Ins" had been broken up under a hail of gunfire, usually killing the werewolf turning those that had willingly come to him or her and most of the newly turned.
The "incident" had also hurt opportunities for werewolves to hunt, as every state had passed laws making it illegal for werewolves to hunt under the the line that "werewolves wantonly kill off deer." In reality, it was normal humans with their guns that were killing most of the deer when they could. It was part of the same arguments that humans had used to justify wiping out the Grizzly and the Gray Wolf in most of its range in the lower forty eight states. Humans couldn't tolerate predators other than themselves. Now, this wasn't unnatural for predators to kill their competition, but mundane animals didn't have the capacity to hunt their rivals into extinction while humans did. The laws had then forced werewolves to find new sources of food. Those that had owned ranches managed to turn them into their own preserves and they hunted cattle and those that could maintain jobs bought as much meat as they could, though a lot of that would only be a short term solution. And that was why Danielle and her small pack of friends followed the news as close as they could. If they got protection under the Civil Rights Act, the laws that prohibited them from hunting could be challenged and removed. They might have to wait for hunting season to hunt, but that was better than not being allowed to hunt at all.
"What really saddens me is how that guy treated Mr. Hurtz's actions," Maria commented, "being exposed has been rough for us... but... you all notice that looks like he's about to eat his own heart with guilt. That Moxie treating it like a good thing seemed to eat him up."
"He SHOULD feel guilty," Kevin grumbled, referring to Karl Hurtz.
"In all fairness... he didn't know," Danielle commented, "he even said that he and his girlfriend only had their friend's best interests at heart and wanted to help her. The only way she could have gotten out of that situation would have been to tell them in private what she was."
"And she's not allowed to change her mind?" Kevin asked.
"She is, and pushing her to take the risk," Danielle nodded, "but they didn't know the risk and likely thought she was only jittery about the interview."
"I suppose," Kevin admitted, "and I will admit that he has seemed to apologize and is supportive."
"And the apology is enough," Carly commented, "nothing can be done about the "incident." If the werewolf he exposed can forgive him, so can we."
The others nodded. They didn't like being exposed, and initially after the "incident" there had been some anger among them, mostly aimed at the werewolf in question thinking she had been stupid, but what they had seen so far was enough to change that. The "incident" was an accident, and while they still didn't like being exposed, they did get some sense that Karl Hurtz was honest when he said he and his girlfriend had no intention of exposing their friend as a werewolf. Their biggest concern was Walter Moxie, as he represented many of the sorts of people who out of hatred or fear, or both.
And while they didn't say it, all four more than agreed with Sharon's opinion. Maria even remembered seeing a rather liberal and werewolf-supporting news report that had struck her as rather surprising and more accurate. A lot of people, when trying to go after something that was clearly evil in its behavior likened the actions to those of the Third Reich or Stalin's Soviet Union. The two regimes were lead by dictators and responsible for the murder of millions, and there were certainly parts where the comparison was accurate, but much of that related to government action, and while the immediate responses had not been favorable and allowed local police units to use force that would be deemed unnecessary in other cases, these actions were still taken in very legalistic terms and couldn't condone simply killing the werewolves off without good reason, and many of these laws faced being either repealed or declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court if the Federal Government gave werewolves full and equal rights.
The worst actions, however, had been committed by individuals and private groups, sometimes with the support of local churches. In this there was little that was really in common with the state commanded machines of mass murder from the twentieth century. The commentator even mentioned this that the actions were more in common with the witch hunts of the 1500 and 1600s in Europe and Colonial America. The attacks were based more on paranoia and fear than hatred and several had a heavily religious tone to them. Walter Moxie's comments about them staying secret to protect some plan would only fuel more such actions.