LIGHTNOVELONLINE 159. Looking For Trouble
Jade's meeting with Melanie and Cerys went pretty much like the wolfgirls expected. Our human neighbour wanted to be turned because she thought being a werewolf would be cool, and as the only mundane human in her polycule and our friend group she felt left out of all the supernatural stuff.
On the other hand Melanie and Cerys shared a bunch of information that made being a werewolf seem much less cool, particularly for the first six to twelve months. And beyond that there were reasons why it wasn't such a great idea for Jade in particular.
The main concern was it could alienate her from her two girlfriends, since werewolfs tended to want to hang out with their packmates a lot. Especially at first, when they had so much to learn and needed a lot of extra support. And that meant Jade would naturally want to spend most of her time with Melanie and Cerys, instead of with Violet and Sage.
That cut both ways too, like our two wolfgirls were girlfriends before they became packmates. Neither of them knew Jade that well though, so even if she wasn't already in other relationships they probably wouldn't be comfortable inviting her into theirs. Not without getting to know her first anyways.
So the final answer was no, Melanie and Cerys wouldn't turn Jade into a werewolf. She was disappointed, even if she understood all the reasoning and explanations and stuff behind the decision.
Before she left, me and Cassandra gave her a plushie like we promised. Even if it sort of felt like a consolation prize. The one we picked out for her was an arctic wolf, and my other self did some custom enchanting on it just for Jade. It wouldn't make her into a werewolf, but it would grant her some supernatural strength and speed, and enhance her senses a little more. We didn't mention any of that though, we wanted it to be a surprise when she used it.
She thanked us for it, but she didn't use it right away. She was still a bit leery about the fact that she'd become a full-time wolfgirl with the permanent ears and tail. She might have been reluctant to give up her green hair too, since she figured the arctic plushie would turn her hair white the same way Sage's cat plushie turned the catgirl's hair grey.
The rest of our weekend was fairly quiet after that. Me and Cassandra used scrying to keep an eye on Alison's and Ms. Hughes' house, but there was no sign of any council thugs over there. And we talked a bit more about safety strategies and stuff like that.
Sunday morning I was woken up by another cave-related nightmare, but I managed to keep quiet so Kaylee didn't get startled awake a second day in a row. Cassandra and I were both a little worried though, since it really felt like whoever sent that message was getting impatient and wanted us to respond.
So my other self and I decided we should probably make plans to go back there, and tentatively agreed to do it the following Saturday. Unless something else came up and we had to go sooner, or if we were busy dealing with the council's thugs again.
Now it was Monday morning and we were all getting ready to head out for school. Instead of teleporting directly out of our bedroom Kaylee joined the rest of us in the living-room for a brief pre-school conversation. Nina was there too, she'd teleported over this morning so she could walk with the others.
"I'm sure I don't need to remind everyone," Cassandra stated while most of us were still eating our breakfast, "Be careful and keep an eye out for anything unusual. The council team hasn't visited Alison's house, so neither Cass or I have seen them by scrying."
"We don't know how many there are or what they look like," she added, "But we can assume they're going to be watching us. We do know they're specifically interested in Nina, Kaylee, Sasha and myself. And we know from last time that these people play dirty. They might go after any of us if they get the chance."
"Me and Cerys will be looking for strange scents around the high school," Melanie responded. "And we can hear a lot better than most humans even in when we're in human form. So we'll be watching and listening for anything suspicious."
Nina gulped down the rest of her juice then commented, "I told our parents everything Alison told us. Mom and mum don't have any ideas on how to find the council people, but they said that the council's big thing is still going to be about keeping the supernatural secret. Mom says they probably won't try anything in public or where there's witnesses around."
Cerys nodded, "So our best strategy is to stick together where there's other people around. And if we have to go somewhere private, maybe pair up or something? So nobody's alone and out of public view."
That just left Kaylee, and both Cassandra and I looked to our girlfriend.
The little kitsune shrugged as her tails twitched around, "The only time I have to be out of sight is when I teleport to or from university. I do that in a bathroom when nobody's looking. But the rest of the day I'm either in classes with loads of students, or in the halls going from one place to another. Or at the food court, where I usually hang out with Mallory."
"I was going to mention some of this to her by the way," she added. "So she'll know to watch out for strange scents and stuff too."
Cassandra nodded, "All right. If anything happens though let me know."
"I'll be checking in through the day on all of you," she added as she looked around at the rest of our friends. "I don't like spying, but given the circumstances I'd like to take a quick look to make sure everyone's ok now and then just in case."
Nobody objected to that, and no-one had any other comments or suggestions. So as soon as we'd all finished breakfast and stuff everyone set out to get to class. Kaylee teleported away like usual, Nina and Willow and the two werewolfs walked together to high school, while me and Sasha started out for college.
Part-way there we caught up with our neighbours again, and I saw that Jade still hadn't used her plushie yet. I didn't say anything about it though, I didn't want her to feel pressured. As the five of us walked we also passed on some of the information and warnings about the council stuff, since there was a chance they'd be under scrutiny too just from hanging out with us.
The three of them were a little uneasy hearing all that, although Violet was sort of under the protection of Artemis so odds were she'd be fine no matter what. Sage and Jade didn't have the goddess of the hunt watching over them, but they did have the goddess of chaos on their side which was almost as good.
Fortunately it turned out to be a fairly quiet day at school. Despite all our concerns we didn't encounter any strange or suspicious people, and I didn't see any magic or enchantments. Cassandra didn't sense anything out of the ordinary either. And she let me know she'd been checking in on the others throughout the day, but everything appeared fine at the high school and Kaylee's university as well.
At the end of the day we walked back home with our neighbours again, then the three of them headed for their place while me and Sasha continued on back to the clubhouse. When we entered we found the others were already home as well.
We grabbed some drinks and stuff then got comfy, as usual me and Kaylee ended up cuddling together on one of the recliners, while Sasha sat with Nina and Willow on one of the sofas. And the two wolfgirls were cuddling on the other sofa.
"So I guess it was a quiet day today for everyone?" I commented.
"Yeah pretty much," our girlfriend responded with a shrug.
After a moment she added, "I talked to Mallory at lunch, she said her mom knew about the council but apart from vague warnings to keep their ears and tails hidden in public she didn't know much about them. She said she'd let me know if she saw anything strange though, or picked up any unusual or supernatural scents."
Willow went next, "It was more or less the same at the high school too, just another typical Monday."
"That's not true!" our club leader insisted. "There was a very suspicious new arrival at school today."
Melanie rolled her eyes, "We already talked about this at lunch Cerys. He's a substitute teacher, of course he's a stranger. Y'all shouldn't be surprised, considering we knew Ms. Hughes would be away for a month. Obviously they'd send someone to cover her classes while she's gone."
The blonde werewolf shook her head, "Except this guy isn't a normal substitute! He might be one of the council spies."
"He calls himself Mr. Mason, which I'm sure is a made-up name?" Cerys continued as she looked over at me and Kaylee. "Plus he gives me some serious creepy vibes. And he's definitely not from around here, he's got a really strong English accent."
Nina pointed out, "Sasha speaks with an English accent and she's not from around here, but that doesn't mean she's evil. And considering Canada's a former British colony and still has close ties to the UK there's lots of people around with English accents."
Our club leader rolled her eyes, "Sure, but Sasha doesn't give off creepy vibes the way Mr. Mason does. Anyways I kept an eye on him after school, I followed him out to the parking lot? The guy was driving a rental car."
"I'm positive if we look into this guy's background we'll find out that just arrived in Canada on Saturday. Along with a bunch of his council friends," she stated confidently. "That explains the accent, and it explains the rental car. I'll bet if we take the Lunamobile tomorrow then tail the guy after class we'll find he's staying in one of the local hotels? Maybe he'll even lead us to the rest of them."
From the expressions on a few of the other faces around the room it seemed like neither Melanie Willow or Nina agreed with Cerys about the whole 'evil substitute teacher' idea. On the other hand I was inclined to give her the benefit of the doubt, since she'd been mostly right about a lot of those things.
Even her theory about Ms. Hughes being a spy sent to keep an eye on Club Luna turned out to have a grain of truth in the end. Except instead of Ms. Hughes the spy was her partner Alison. I was about to say as much too, but Kaylee spoke up before I had a chance.
Her ears folded back and her tails were all twitching around as she frowned, "Now I'm worried about my dad. If the council sent a spy to substitute for Ms. Hughes, Maybe they sent an agent to act as a replacement EMT for Alison. After all, they'd know she worked with my father. They might try and get to me through him."
Willow frowned, "When they attacked us back in July two of them were dressed up in EMT uniforms, so it wouldn't be the first time they did that."
At that point my other half spoke up, "May I take over please Cass?"
"Sure," I nodded. Then I told the others, "Cassandra wants to say something."
A moment later I felt myself slip into the background, and that sense of calm flowed over me as she took control.
"Kaylee perhaps you can try and talk with your dad?" Cassandra asked our girlfriend. "Ideally without alerting him to our concerns, but maybe try and find out if he's working with someone familiar or if he's been assigned a brand-new partner while Alison's away."
She continued, "In the meantime I've been thinking about Sasha's suggestion to be more proactive about this, rather than waiting for them to strike first. Even if we don't yet know who they are or where to find them, perhaps we could try and lure the council agents out into the open? Since one of their only opportunities to observe us is when we're at school, that would be the ideal place to discuss some 'sensitive' subjects. Perhaps during lunch?"
"Specifically," she added, "I thought we could plant the idea that Cass plans to revisit that mysterious cave this Saturday afternoon. We know that they know about it, and it's an isolated location. They might see it as an ideal opportunity to make their move."
Our club leader frowned, "Is that just a story, or are you actually planning to go back there?"
"Cass and I have decided that we've put it off long enough," my other self replied. "The two of us are indeed planning to go there on Saturday. If the council spies wish to join us then we'll take the opportunity to deal with them at the same time."
Melanie was frowning too as she asked, "Y'all aren't planning on going out there alone, are you? Me and Cerys are supposed to work over the weekend, but we could probably call in sick..."
"We'd rather not involve the rest of you," Cassandra replied. "Although we do appreciate the offer. You're probably safer being in a visible public location like work, or here in the clubhouse since it's warded."
Our girlfriend gave us a look as she stated firmly, "I'll be going with you."
"I can come too if you want?" Nina offered.
Then Sasha grimaced, "In that case perhaps I should go as well? Since we know the council are interested in the four of us specifically."
"That might actually work," Willow commented with a thoughtful look on her face. "Alison said they suspected Kaylee and Sasha were 'corrupted' or something right? And they know Nina's a demon. So if we sort of hint that the four of you are going out there to do some sort of ritual, they might buy it? Like they might think you're working on corrupting the two 'victims' a little more, right?"
After the recent nightmares I couldn't help feel anxious about having my sister, girlfriend, and cousin all there at the cave with us. Cassandra seemed hesitant about the idea as well, but Willow had a point. Plus both Nina and Kaylee could teleport, so it's not like we could force them to stay away regardless.
We still ended up having a little internal debate about the idea though. Not with words, but thoughts and images and emotions flew back and forth between us. In the end we agreed to let the others accompany us. Nina could protect Sasha, and we'd be looking out for Kaylee. And none of them had to enter the cave, mostly it was about having them with us when we confronted the council people. Assuming the agents took the bait.
"Very well," Cassandra stated a few moments later. "Without being too obvious about it, let's all try and leak some details about our plans for Saturday afternoon. Kaylee, Nina, Sasha, and I will be visiting that mysterious cave."
