Peter Talbot walked Karen Yuletide back to her dorm building. Both were highly enjoying each other's company and were afraid to speak, less the moment be spoiled and reality return to intrude upon their pleasure. Unfortunately, the fledgling couple soon found themselves at the front steps of Karen's dorm.
Karen looked up at her date. The differences in their respective heights wasn't staggering, yet was enough to make it necessary for Karen to turn her head upward to look at Peter face to face.
"I've had a wonderful time tonight Peter, and I definitely want to do see you again," she said, moving closer to lean against him. And again, and again, and again...
"So do I," admitted Peter, as he kissed the top of her head.
"I must admit that there is one aspect of our budding relationship that surprises me though."
"Oh? What?"
"I still feel the... yearnings, for lack of a better word, of my fur fetish. Yet for the first time I can ever remember, I'm more in charge than it is. I find myself highly attractive to the man as well as the lion, and want to get to know both of them better," admitted Karen, staring at him.
"I appreciate that, deeply, but there's something I must confess to as well."
"What?" asked Karen, looking at her new boyfriend with concern.
"Out in the woods, when it was just the two of us..." Then Peter paused, trying to find the right words before continuing. "A part of me just wanted to claim you and make you mine, regardless of the consequences."
"Really?" said Karen, looking at him more closely. "Well..."
Peter Talbot felt himself actually on the verge of sweating, afraid of what she might say, when Karen smiled. "I'll admit that I have absolutely no idea what kind of a huntress I'd make, and the possibility of having to share you with other werelionesses is something I still have to come to terms with, because you're too precious. Any lady would want to keep you all to themselves. Especially me. But otherwise..."
Then Karen stood on tiptoe and put her arms around Peter as she started kissing him as passionately as she could.
Eventually they did have to call it a night. Karen stood inside the front door of her dorm, peering out into the night through the window panes long after the night had swallowed any trace of Peter's presence.
With a deep sigh of longing that surprised her, Karen then went up to her dorm room, only to find another surprise. A werefox and a werevixen were asleep in her roommate's bed. From the strewn clothes and the heavy scent of sex in the air, it was obvious what Harry Jenkins and Jenny Harper had been doing. The fact that the engaged couple were curled up in each other's furry arms with smiles on their muzzles warmed Karen's heart.
Despite everything that's happened to her, Jenny's still found love and happiness. I hope they're still like this in married life, when they're both old and gray, with a ton of great-grandkids, or whatever foxes have, surrounding them, thought Karen, as she quietly got ready for bed herself.
Seeing no reason why the happy couple would need a blanket with all that fur to keep them warm, Karen Yuletide crawled under the covers of her own bed and fell asleep, thinking about her lion king and being his queen.
MEANWHILE...
Tachibana no Akane was sound asleep, remembering more pleasant times when it was just she and her husband in a simple Japanese fishing village raising their kits, long before the dawn of the twentieth century and the deadly storm known as World War 2 that would change their lives forever; when the cellphone on her nightstand began to ring.
Still in her werevixen form, she reached out a paw to answer it, knowing this late it would only be someone with vital news that would dare disturb her sleep.
"Grandma-san, there have been new developments," announced Daisuke without any preamble.
"What?" asked the leader of the Skulk, instantly sitting up and alert.
"Airline tickets have just been bought from Alabama to Seattle, with a rental car reservation as well."
"The Harper family?"
"In part. Tickets have been reserved for James Senior, Elizabeth, James Junior, John, and Janice Harper. All will be flying the red eye to Seattle, arriving before dawn October 31. However, they are being accompanied by someone name Dieter Wilhelm, who is financing the trip, according to the copies of the credit card statements I have been given. The rental car, actually, a large van, is reserved in his name as well."
"Who is—" began Akane, only to have her grandson answer.
"Unknown, but we are investigating him now," was the reply.
"Have the results ready for me by breakfast in the morning," requested the Skulk leader, knowing the task would be accomplished long before then.
However, there was no response from Daisuke.
"Is there something else?" Akane asked.
"Yes, grandma-san," was the quick response. "Seven flight reservations have been made for the return trip to Alabama that Saturday night. The extra ticket is assigned to Jennifer Harper Wilhelm."
Akane Tachibana felt the anger grow within her, but she remained calm as she replied to this revelation.
"Alert our own team and campus security at once. I want a 24 hour guard around Jennifer Harper immediately, with only us aware of their presence until I can talk to Jenny myself. I will notify both Samantha and Doctor Twist personally in the morning, and the town can initiate their side of our plans then. But I want everyone involved to be clear of one thing right now. Whether they are aware of it or not, the Harper family and this stranger allied with them have declared war against both the Skulk AND the town of Moon Lake, and this is one battle we can NOT lose!"