While William Anderson cleaned gutters, Samantha Twist was talking to Akane no Tachibana, and Ben was with Nate in his bedroom; Eric Anderson went to his room. He paused only long enough to empty his travel bag and toss his wet swim trunks and towel into his hamper, before going to his computer to start a serious data search on mer-people.
Unfortunately, it quickly got to the point where Eric couldn't tell fact from fiction, let alone truth from myth. Expanding his search to such things as sirens and naiads didn't help either. Even the multitude of listings concerning Atlantis only added to his confusion.
Eric turned away from his computer in frustration, and recalled some of the things he saw growing up, mostly due to Nate's influence.
In that cartoon, Ariel gave up being a mermaid to be with her prince, but in that other movie, Tom Hanks gave up his humanity to be with his mermaid, although Julie doesn't have to be wet to change.
"This is all so confusing," he said aloud, before muttering under his breath about Julie being right concerning how well weres covered their tracks.
Then Eric decided to look up the meaning of love. While the information that search yielded was a lot more factual, it didn't bring him any closer to wondering what kind of a relationship, if any, to have with Julie Stovall.
Sometimes being more intellectual than emotional can be a royal pain, realized Eric, as he kept reading until his mother called him down for supper.
MEANWHILE...
William realized he was running out of daylight. His (werefox) improved vision could have allowed him to work longer, but he had to clean up for dinner, especially since they had company and Nate's ceremony later.
Peering in a kitchen window, he saw his wife Martha talking to Frances Twist. With the window part way open, William caught a brief whiff of both women starting to go into heat around each other, which began to stir the werefox within him. I wonder if the Twists would ever be interested in a group scene with Martha and me?
Shaking that stray thought out of his head, William decided to go around to the front and wash up in the downstairs bathroom. It was as he stepped foot on his front porch that William saw Samantha Twist approaching.
"Good evening Mrs. Twist," he said politely.
"Hello. We need to talk," replied Samantha.
"Agreed. I'd like to go first though, if you don't mind."
When Samantha nodded, William said, "I know I've done this already, but I would like once more to formally apologize to both you and your wife for my behavior the last day or so. Even if I wasn't in possession of my full mental faculties at the time, that still doesn't excuse how I treated either of you or my wife. I know it will take time, but I'm sincere in my wish to make amends to all of you and put this behind us. Who knows, maybe in time we might actually become friends."
"Anything is possible," said Samantha, "but right now we have something even more important to discuss," before she told him about the Skulk leader's warning concerning Yvette versus the Anderson family.
Despite the feline stirrings being within proximity to each other, Martha and Frances were able to control their interests in the kitchen, especially when Mrs. Anderson told Mrs. Twist what Tachibana no Akane said concerning a certain werevixen.
"That might be what she's over at our house talking to Samantha about now," realized Frances.
"The Skulk leader is at your place?" asked Martha in disbelief.
"Yes. Said she was in the neighborhood and was being polite stopping by. Then again, it's just like Samantha to try to keep me from worrying," Frances said with a smile. "But even if you weren't a member of our pride, you know we're friends and on your side," she added, while putting a hand around Martha.
"Thanks," said Martha, giving Frances a quick peck on the cheek. "After tonight, Eric will be the most physically vulnerable, although I've seen plenty of crime drama episodes where one woman tried to kill the other woman to get the man they were both interested in."
"Well, with three werecats, two werewolves and a werefox allied in a common cause, there is no way Yvette would be stupid enough to try anything."
UNFORTUNATELY, Frances was about to be proven wrong.
In the town jail, Yvette Smith was pacing back and forth in her cell, because both the human and werevixen side of her personalities hated to be confined in small spaces.
When she heard the guard coming, Yvette thought he was finally bringing her some dinner.
Instead, she was shocked to see him ushering another female in. She was dressed in an orange jump suit like Yvette, but looked like she spent all her free time in a gym, for she looked twice the size of the werevixen despite being about the same height.
"Okay you, get inside," the guard told the new prisoner, while unlocking Yvette's cell door.
"Are you kidding me?" asked the new prisoner. "Putting a werecoyote in with a werefox is asking for trouble. Besides, my jerk of an ex-boyfriend had it coming to him."
"He didn't deserve to be thrown out of a third floor apartment building window. Thankfully he'll live," said the guard. "But since we're a small town, Moon Lake has limited jail space as it is, and I can't put you in with the male prisoners."
"Who knows? It might be fun," said the werecoyote with a smile.
"Never mind that. Get in there," said the guard.
The new prisoner acted like she was going to cooperate, but as the guard started to close the cell door, the werecoyote rushed against the bars, throwing all her weight into it as she transformed.
Although momentarily caught off guard, the man transformed into his weredog form and fought with all his might to keep the werecoyote from escaping.
Sadly, Yvette took full advantage of the opportunity and started to slip out the opening before a victor was decided in the door battle.
The guard knew that trying to stop the werevixen might give the werecoyote her chance to escape as well, so concentrated on winning the fight in progress.
Just as the guard slammed the cell door, trapping the werecoyote inside, he heard a fire alarm go off.
Running back down the corridor, he arrived just in time to see the fire exit between the prisoner detention cell block and the public part of the jail start to swing shut.
He ran out the door, almost tripping on the torn shreds of an orange jumpsuit, as he spied a furry werevixen running off into the night.
William Anderson WILL be my mate, no matter what or who tries to stand in our way! vowed Yvette, even as she heard alarms clanging from the town jail and men starting to pursue her.