AN: Adult warning for mention of what would be seen if someone was naked. No actual nudity is present...
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The howls from Austin's pack carried through the night, and even in their home, William and Martha could faintly hear them. Nate had to be one of them and enjoying what he had become. Both of them knew that for Nate this had to be something special. Both of them had come to enjoy their own were-forms greatly and were rapidly assimilating into Moon Lake's were culture, but for them it was a growing appreciation of what was new and in a way surprising. When they first moved to Moon Lake and Samantha had told them, the argument that Martha and William had was not about whether or not to become were-beasts but soon could they move. Now, they both knew that they'd never leave their new home, as it had become a new start that with all its twists and turns, was doing a lot for them.
William's bond to Martha as a werefox was rapidly beginning to heal the prime issues that had strained their marriage and both felt confident that in time, it would be as if William had never had an affair, or affairs, in the first place. Martha's embracing of her "bi-side" as a werecat had actually made her comfortable with herself. She had repressed that for so long, due to rather overbearing parents, the fact that her older sister flaunted her family before Martha and William got married, and the fear that William wouldn't like her if he knew that she was bisexual, that it had probably created its own strains on their marriage as Martha wrestled with it. Now as she embraced it, all that mental stress was gone as William was okay with her sexuality and she had found two caring lovers in Samantha and Frances Twist. She got the best of both worlds. If her parents or her sister came to Moon Lake and tried to flaunt how good only a heterosexual relationship was or their anti-gay views, Martha felt half tempted to think that she'd call the Twists over and engage them in lesbian sex in front of them, just to show that she didn't care about her parent's or her sister's old opinions anymore.
The only thing that was really left in that department was to really find a way to share William, Samantha, and Frances. The two werecats were complete lesbians, not bisexual like Martha. And while a part of her mind had thought of an idea that would pretty much be group sex between the four of them, she knew that wouldn't work. Samantha and William were probably going to be healing a basic platonic friendship style relationship for the foreseeable future thanks to William's lack of control when he first transformed, and even if they weren't, he didn't have breasts or a pussy. He didn't have anything that Samantha or Frances would want, and even if there was a way that they could be positioned so that Samantha and Frances would have nothing to worry about William mating with them, she figured that four people together at once wouldn't allow them to truly pleasure each other. The best idea she could really figure was to have an alternating schedule, with one night she would be with William and the next she could be with Samantha and Frances. But finalizing that could wait for later.
Tonight was Nate's night, and likely one he'd long waited for. He'd always had a thing for werewolves, and while Martha and William had never understood it until now, they had let him enjoy the werewolf movies, stories, and even supposed "guidebooks" that had been published on the subject. Everyone needed their hobbies from time to time, and for Nate, Moon Lake was like a fantasy come true. And even with the outside stress that was presently overshadowing everything, Martha found herself smiling at the prospect of Nate out in the woods chasing after a deer with the wind blowing through a thick coat of fur with his Pack beside him. Her smile could only be brief as the howls died down for a moment and the main issue came back to the front of Martha's mind.
"I'm not sure it'll be quite that bad, William," Frances commented from the sofa after responding to a comment about Yvette possibly assaulting the Anderson home, "The police will likely monitor both your home and her residence... be it a college dorm or an apartment... depending on which. Simply charging in would only mean a confrontation with forces she can't beat..."
"But that vixen is obsessed!" William argued, "and stupid about it besides... she couldn't understand that I love Martha, NOT her!"
"If what the Skulk's lawyer assigned to defender thinks... that she has some sort of hormone imbalance," Samantha answered, "that could explain it. It doesn't happen a lot, but it is possible and when combined that we all have a far higher libido than most normal humans, it could be a problem, particularly if the hormone she is either lacking or over producing is related hormones that relate our sexuality and secondary sexual characteristics. It doesn't change her guilt in the least... as we do have medications that can help were-beasts that may have that condition, and even without them, she SHOULD be able to control herself better than she has to at least realize that raping you was wrong and that continuing to pursue you was not the right thing to do."
Martha watched William sigh and continue to pace in the living room, periodically looking up toward the upstairs, as if he could look to Eric, the last human member of the Anderson family. And he was the primary concern about the meeting and the threat that Yvette Elizabeth Smith posed. Martha felt no real threat to herself, as while William in his werefox form was bigger than she was in her werecat form, it wasn't by much and there was the fact that in nature foxes were very much like many species of mammal where the male was larger than the female. That would put Martha on relatively even footing with Yvette if the two of them ever came to a head to head conversion. And on some level she didn't have that much fear for William. A part of her was nervous that he could slip back into old habits with Yvette, since she was a werefox as William was, but based on what she had seen of William's bond in action and his responses to even the mention of Yvette's name that fear was nearly non-existent now. The biggest fear that she had was that William's over-protective streak when it came to Nate and Eric would kick in and he'd kill Yvette over whatever perceived threat she posed to his sons.
Nate was no longer in danger, as being a werewolf, he could probably easily overpower Yvette if she attacked him. But Eric was still vulnerable. He was still human and a human would be physically weaker than any of Moon Lake's were-beasts. She could grab him outside of the school and carry him off before anyone could do anything. That was why they were having the present meeting and why she and William had transformed in front of Eric to show him their were-forms. It was to assure him that he was loved and was in no danger from his parents and set things up to move forward. And that part had worked rather well. She and William had decided to make their introduction of their new forms simple and to the point. They new that Eric knew of their condition, as he was there and had been talking to Nate when William's transformation began in earnest. Martha had sent him to bed when Samantha returned with him, so Eric had to know of William's initial transformation. Martha also figured that the topic came up at some point during the sleep over when Martha went next door to begin her journey to become a werecat, so Eric was probably aware from that point, and that she had made mention of being a werecat several times to Eric since his return home for dinner. So, Eric had to be aware of her status as a werecat and probably that she was bisexual. But the more simple introduction seemed to make the transformation in front of him work well, and Eric seemed to respond well. Now, there was only to find a way to make sure that Yvette didn't or couldn't come after him.
"We have to do something more," William spoke in his pacing, "I'm not afraid of her coming after you, me, or Martha... WE can fight her off. But what if she goes after Eric? He can't fight her off and she could threaten to force him to change if I don't go with her... that isn't fair to him and will frighten him."
"As I said," Frances told him, "the police will probably be watching the house and the college to make sure she doesn't come after you. It wouldn't surprise me if they ultimately station an officer near the school to make sure she doesn't go after Eric there. So... in the most obvious places he should be safe."
"And even if they don't, Ben and Nate can easily protect him at school," Samantha assured him, "She wouldn't dare come after him with two werewolf bodyguards... as they could more likely hear her coming or pick up her scent..."
"Depending on the wind," William answered, "Inside... our scents stick to places we touch and have walked through as no wind or water blows it away. If scent is to be a warning... the wind needs to be blowing from Yvette to Nate and Ben so they could catch her scent."
"It'd be better than leaving Eric on his own," Martha commented, "He doesn't have our sense of smell, so the wind would be irrelevant to him. Having Nate and Ben protect him going to and from school wouldn't be a bad idea. And we can keep him with us with regard to getting clothes that will better fit us and with any other social events we'd go to as a family. We'd then protect him, and if she doesn't know about my transformation and comes after me, first... then I will give her the surprise of her life."
"There's got to be something else we can do, can't we?" William asked, again looking up toward where Eric's bedroom was, worry obvious in his face, "Set traps or something?"
"Like in the Home Alone movies?" Samantha asked, "I'm afraid even the country's "castle laws" wouldn't allow for that as the traps would be sprung without knowledge of the threat... or might not even catch the right target. Suppose we set a trap and then catch one of the police officers or ourselves by accident? That's why setting booby traps is generally illegal. It's funny in the Home Alone movies, but they are just movies."
William only looked down.
"And hunting her down... while in theory Nate and Ben could do that with the Pack and with the fact that Austin might consider it since Samantha and I are Ben's parents... albeit adopted parents," Frances commented, "It's not like Moon Lake condones vigilantism anymore than a city like New York or Minneapolis would."
Samantha nodded, "We can defend ourselves if she somehow eludes the police... but we can't actively go looking for her. I may be the Town Chancellor... but I'm not Law Enforcement, and thinking on it with a slightly more level head than I had when you initially changed... it wouldn't surprise me if I get a lecture from the Mayor or from the Police Commissioner for Moon Lake over my going after you when your transformation began in earnest."
William's eyes didn't leave the floor, and all three werecats could see and sense his feelings.
"I'm... I'm... I'm afraid," he managed weakly," William said weakly.
Martha set her coffee down and got up and slowly moved to hug him, and even in her human form began to purr, if only to try and comfort him, "So am I... so am I."
And the fear and worry over what Yvette might do was there for all of them and was very real.
"I know," Frances spoke with a concern in her voice that William's greatest issue going forward might not be his loyalty to Martha but his drive to protect his sons and family from his mistakes and the threats to them. She had a couple of cases at her clinic that had similar natures, some were with weres who had had their transformations interrupted, the way William's had been and some had been with humans who had lived all their lives in Moon Lake, "But we've really done about all we can do... make sure that we are with Eric when he's here or on social events, make sure that Ben and Nate are with him two and from school... or possibly to and from the Mayor's house..."
"The mayor's house?" Martha and William asked.
"You did hear what the mayor said at the end of his phone call to me, right?" Samantha asked.
"Yes..." William and Martha both nodded.
"Well, remember that he asked me to protect him for Julie," Samantha finished, "Julie is HIS daughter. Your son has at least struck up a friendship with the weremermaid daughter of Moon Lake's weremerman Mayor..."
"But he's still human..." William commented.
"I don't think she's gotten far enough to change him," Samantha answered, "and from the very few times I've had the pleasure of meeting her, she's a very sweet girl and would NEVER force anything on your son. More than likely if she has fallen in love with your son, she'd wait rather patiently for him to actually want to change. The mayor waited nearly ten years for his wife to agree to change... and I think if I remember correctly, SHE made the first move with regard to her transformation. So, if Julie Stovall is anything like her father, she won't force the change on Eric."
"That's a relief," Martha commented, "I have no problem with him becoming a weremerman, but he should have the right to make the choice to be one... though don't mermaids/merman have shape-shifting powers in folklore anyway? Why the use of the word "were" as well?"
"With the Stovalls... if you want, I'd suppose you could consider the word "were" to be a prefix for a human that is more than human," Samantha answered, "Though, I'm not good enough with science to be able to say if they're truly that genetically different from us..."
"That that it'd matter if Julie gets Eric out of the shell of shyness that you've told me he he has, dear," Frances added.
Brief images of Eric opening up flashed through Martha's mind and she nodded to that.
"And anyway," Samantha brought matters bake to the issue of protecting against Yvette, "There isn't that much more that we can do. Make sure that we stay close to him and keep an eye out. Hopefully Frances's brother and police can catch Yvette quickly and she goes back to jail for a very long time... if not forever."
"Couldn't you get the city to get all the leaders together and catch her?" William asked, still sounding desperate for some way to keep Eric safe from losing his choices. Martha only hugged him and let a low purr reverberate in her throat as she didn't know what else to do. She was just as scared for Eric's safety as he was.
"I can offer suggestions," Samantha answered, "but not much more than that... and even there, getting a complete consensus from all the were-groups should be difficult. The werefox community in the Skulk is the one one that would have a singular leader... and and Akane would probably be more than willing to provide help... but the rest of us are in many smaller groups and while your wife, Frances, and I will protect Eric with our lives, our Pride lacks the sort of power structure that exists in the various canid werePacks or the werefox's Skulk. And we have no power over the other werecat Prides if they don't want to join in such an agreement."
Samantha felt Frances grip her hand as if to assure her. She knew her own voice sounded a bit shaky, as she new she wanted to protect Eric just as much as Martha did and the fact that there as so little that they could realistically do still hung over them. It made her just as nervous as the boys parents were. So much so that Martha and Frances' heat driven scents had no effect on her. And while she had detected slight signs of arousal in William, he too was too worried over his son to focus on it and scent of male arousal didn't last long before they died down again.
"We're going to have to be brave," Samantha said with a sigh.