The next Saturday evening started off well enough, Karl considered. He and Alice had collected Sally from the house where Karl’s aunt had lived – before they drove over to the rendezvous point, a bar that was located about halfway between Carly’s house and their own town. Karl and Alice had been there before since Sally’s exposure – and they considered it as a place where the locals wouldn’t have been too put out at seeing anyone wearing government-issued werewolf tags.
Carly, Kevin, and Maria were standing close to the front door – but Danielle wasn’t present. “She’s busy with work,” Kevin explained. He and his two fellow werewolves stepped forward to embrace the nervous-looking Sally.
As agreed between the two of them and Sally, Karl and Alice made no mention of their status as just-bittens. Alice wanted them to actually experience the change, before they could officially tell the world – rather than, in her view, ‘tempting fate’. She was still apprehensive that she would turn out to be immune to the werewolf trait. Karl, though, was thinking this was unlikely. There was over another fortnight to go before the next full moon, but he was finding the bar to be noisier, and smellier, than on his previous visits – making him suspect that his animal senses were forming, and he was glad that he and Alice had taken baths before coming out.
Karl sat back in his seat as he let the women to the talking. Between them, Carly and Maria were talking warmly to Sally, and gradually helping her to relax – whilst Kevin answered Sally’s and Alice’s questions about himself, stating that he had lost his job as a technician due to being exposed as a werewolf, and that he was drifting around the country in search of suitable work. In recent months, he had moved to Carly’s town, and made their acquaintance at a government-sponsored werewolf support group in the area. Not long after that, Danielle too had joined up to complete their present pack. Kevin admitted to Karl that he liked being the lone, strong male lycanthrope in the company of three she-werewolves.
“And I know who you favor out of us girls, Kevin.” Maria smirked. “Though you try to hide it.”
Kevin shot her an icy glare that made Karl recall his initial misgivings about the burly man. Then he realized that Kevin was now looking further, beyond Maria – at some people who seemed out of place amongst the usual crowd that Karl was used to here. A group of three, dubious-looking men were close by - staring in their direction.
“See their armbands, guys? I’m telling yur. Most of ‘em are wolves,” sneered one man, who was wearing a baseball cap.
“Shame…,” sighed one of the others. “That blondie looks hot, man. But I ain’t having her scratching me.”
“She’s that one who…changed…on that TV footage! The first one to be unmasked,” snarled the third. “How dare they mix with us humans! Animals!”
As one, Carly, Marie, and Sally stopped talking and all turned to face the mutterers. With their enhanced senses, even in their human skins, they had picked out the conversation amidst the background of music and other talking. Alice and Karl also heard enough. Alice reached out and placed a hand on Sally’s, feeling her quiver. Kevin rose to his near six-foot height as he stood and confronted the unkempt-looking men – his fists tense.
“Got a problem with us?” He curled his lip.
Karl tensed himself and stood up besides Kevin, giving the potential troublemakers a frosty stare. He wasn’t a macho man, but he was protective of his friends - and Alice and Sally were the closest, dearest people to him. And if Sally accepted this pack, then he and Alice might end up joining it too.
The trio of men twitched nervously. Baseball cap man finished his beer and slammed it on the table before him. “C’mon boys! Let’s go somewhere else – someplace where there ain’t no animals!”
His two pals shot a final, unfriendly glare back at Karl, Alice, and the werewolves – then left. The busy crowd, not hearing the exchange, just carried on as before.
Kevin and Karl sat back down, and the ladies all breathed a sigh of relief.
“Thanks guys… Maybe…we should go to your place in a few minutes, Carly,” Sally ventured. “We’ll be able to speak openly about…shared interests…there.”
“Sure thing!” Carly beamed. “Any objections, anyone?”
Kevin and Maria were happy with that. Karl and Alice looked at each other – then nodded.
“Okay. You lot lead in your car – and we’ll follow,” Alice answered for them.
But what Karl and Alice didn’t know was that danger was about to descend on them…