Chapter 6

The following new characters appear in this chapter and others:

Christopher and Harriet

Alphas of the Mountain Lion clan, husband and wife also mates-for-life.

Christopher, 5’-9” tall, 160 pounds, 40 years old, brown hair, gray eyes

Harriet, 5’-6” tall, 140 pounds, 36C-24-37, 38 years old, light brown hair, gray eyes

Connard, (Warrior state)

Conrad in the third or Warrior-form, 9’-0” tall, 800 pounds, 6 inch claws on hands and feet, 3 inch long incisors

L & L, (Warrior state)

Lesia and Laura in the third or Warrior-form, 6’-11” tall, 360 pounds, 4inch claws on hands and feet, 2.5 inch long incisors

“We ... we haven’t been on a computer since before we were abducted!” Laura told me, sounding very sad.

“Okay! They haven’t really changed in four years, but give me a minute, and I’ll start my computer so you can look on the Internet for a recipe,” I told them to smiles.

The Sisters were on the computer for some time following that looking at various sites and recipes for scrapple.

“Yes, that one!” Lesia said after a time. “I think that one would be right for us.”

“We need to print it out then,” Laura told her, but looked confused. “Conrad, how do we get this to print?” she asked.

“I’ll need to turn on the printer,” I told her, but before turning it on I checked the paper and then the ink supply.

“Okay, it should be ready. Check how the printer is set up. It has been a while since I was here and someone could have changed the settings,” I told her, but Laura wasn’t familiar with how to do that. I checked everything, and then started the recipe printing.

“Did you see what I did?” I asked them.

“Yes, we saw what you did,” they answered.

“Do you think you will be able to do it now?” I asked.

“Yes, I think so,” Laura answered. They eventually printed out a number of recipes.

“Which one do you want to try first?” I asked when they had finished.

“This one!” Lesia insisted. I looked over the required ingredients, and wrote up an order for the meat needed and took it out to be filled.

“The meat will be ready when we leave,” I told them. “But we’ll need to stop at the grocery store to pick up some of the other items on the way home.”

“Can we help you with the paperwork?” Lesia asked with a big smile. I was doubtful about how much help they would be, but on the other hand, they would need something to do besides finish their education, which I hadn’t even brought up to them yet. Additionally, I would be better able to keep an eye on them if they were here with me while I worked, and I do so hate paperwork.

“All right!” I told them and showed them how to match up the orders and the receipts from vendors and how to check that everything had been received and that the prices and totals were correct. Orders from customers were kept separately, and I showed them how to take care of them also. I then showed them the filing system and explained how it was organized. They seemed to understand what was required and how the system worked. I had them practice on the paperwork that I had finished which they then filed. This could give me more time to work out in the plant or take care of customers at the counter in the store. The twins seemed to be genuinely happy to have something to do to help me.

I left them to work on the remainder of the paperwork while I went out to check operations on the cutting floor and to talk to my employees. Later, I went to check on things at the sales counter at the front of the building. It appeared that everyone knew that I now had girlfriends and was considering marriage to both of them. I took a lot of kidding about going hunting and returning with two live trophies.

I was back in the office as the end of the day approached, checking on the filing that the twins had done when Hans came in.

“Here is the meat that you ordered. Are you interested in any of the scraps today?” he asked.

“No, not really,” I told him.

“What scraps?” the twins asked.

“When the men prepare the various cuts of meat, there are always trimmings that are removed; fat, gristle, bones and other things that shouldn’t be included in high quality custom cuts of meat. Some of these scraps are used in the preparation of the sausages and wursts that we make, but most of it is waste. The majority of butchers and meat packers have a large and expensive disposal problem because of this. We don’t because I employ so many Weres. They take it home and eat it when they Transform, or use it in soups or other dishes,” I told them.

“Soups?” Laura asked.

“Yes, the bones especially. They are cracked and the marrow boiled out. They are also good to gnaw on when they are in their Were-form.,” I told her.

“Can we see what these scraps look like?” Lesia asked.

“Yes, but you will need to hurry. The men are ready to divide them up,” Hans told them. The women followed him out the door.

“We didn’t think there would be that much,” Laura said as she gazed at the scrap bin which was nearly full.

“It’s been a busy day,” Hans told her, “and a lot of meat was prepared. There are always a lot of scraps close to the weekends and holidays, because that’s when people do a lot of extra cooking and barbecuing.”

“Yes, we are going to make scrapple tonight,” Lesia told him.

“Scrapple?” Hans asked.

“Yes, you don’t make it here, and Conrad said that we could make some at home,” Laura told him.

“You might want to wait until Saturday to make it. It can take a long time to make properly,” he told them.

“Oh ... we aren’t going to boil a pig’s head or anything like that. The recipe that we are trying only requires four hours to make,” Lesia told him.

“Would you like to try some? We could bring in some if you do!” Laura volunteered.

“Perhaps on your next batch,” Hans told them with a grin before turning to the waiting men.

“Go ahead and divide it up. The boss doesn’t want any today,” he told them. The bin was soon empty and the men ready to depart, as it was closing time. The store in front would remain open for a time yet so customers could pick up their orders. Traffic was heavy on the way home, and we needed to stop at the grocery store on the way to pick up a number of things and not just the needed scrapple ingredients.

That evening, I cooked dinner while the Sisters worked on preparing their scrapple. The recipe they were trying wasn’t overly complicated, but it turned out to require more than the advertised four hours to complete the first time. As a result, it was quite late by the time that we all got to bed. The scrapple was in the refrigerator cooling however. Consequently, it was late when we awoke the next morning. The Sisters hurried through their morning preparations, as they were anxious to try the scrapple.

When I reached the kitchen, they already had the eggs and scrapple frying. The toaster popped as I entered, so I worked on the toast. The apple butter was already out, and I put more bread in the toaster before spreading apple butter on the finished pieces of toast ... Breakfast was soon ready, and we all took our places at the table. The Sisters added honey to their scrapple before tasting it. I also tried it and found it to be rather tasty, and had soon cleaned my plate of eggs and scrapple along with two pieces of toast with apple butter. I had washed all of this down with a large glass of orange juice.

The Sisters had also finished their breakfast, but they looked disappointed.

“What’s the matter?” I asked, as the meal had been quite good.

“It’s the scrapple! It doesn’t taste like the scrapple that our Parents served,” Laura told me in a disappointed voice.

“You will just need to try a different recipe the next time. It will require a little experimentation to obtain the taste that you remember,” I reminded them. “This scrapple was a bit bland. Try a recipe with more spices the next time.”

“Yes, we will need to go over the various recipes and find one that looks tastier,” Lesia agreed.

“You might also ask Hans about a recipe. I’m sure that he would have several, but they could be for large quantities and would need to be reworked,” I told them as we all rose from the table. The Sisters quickly did the dishes while I dressed for work. We were again late arriving at work.

That day the Sisters asked Hans about scrapple recipes, and he promised to look in his collection at home and bring some in for them to try. The next couple of weeks went by quickly. The Sisters tried several recipes and finally found one that tasted nearly the same as they remembered. It would take a little juggling of ingredients to reach the exact taste, but they seemed quite happy with the results.

It was just before the first of the month when Hans came into the office with a reminder for me.

“You do remember that the Council meeting is scheduled for tomorrow night, don’t you?” he asked with a grin.

“Yes, I remember!” I told him. I had been hoping that he and the rest of the Council had forgotten about it, but that was wishful thinking on my part.

“Will you be taking Laura and Lesia?”

“Yes, there is no need to put off the inevitable,” I told him in a gloomy voice.

“That’s good. There are rumors circulating in the Were community about you and them. There would surely be questions if they weren’t there,” he told me.

“Yes, I was sure that word of them would get around. Any number of people have seen me with them at various places in town, plus our employees are sure to have mentioned them to their spouses and friends,” I told him.

“Do the women know about the Council meeting?”

“They know that there is a meeting tomorrow, but I haven’t told them that they will need to be there ... yet. I didn’t want them worrying about it. I’ll need to tell them tonight, and I’m sure they’ll worry about it all day tomorrow,” I finished.

“It can’t be helped,” Hans reminded me before returning to work. That night, I sat the Sisters down and explained about the Council meeting and the need for them to be there. They reacted just as I knew they would, and they were apprehensive all of the next day. I had calmed their fears that night with some sex for each of them.

We left work early the day of the meeting to prepare for it. Following a dinner rich in meat, I presented the Sisters with the clothing that they would wear to the meeting before donning my own clothing. All of the Council members would appear in Sorcerers robes, especially the Were members.

We didn’t drive to the council building but transferred there instead. Ever since the enactment of the Paranormal Rights Act, all of the Magic Councils had a visible headquarters building. It was a part of our public relations effort. People could come in and get information on the Council and recommendations on the availability of the various types of Magic practitioners in the area. In our case, we covered quite a number of states, so additionally we had a website with this type of information on it. Some of our members had public media pages as well.

I had been purposely avoiding the Council’s building and its staff since returning from Wyoming, and hadn’t even answered their phone calls. My secretary there was quite anxious to speak to me when we appeared in my office.

“Where have you been? Why haven’t you...!” she started when we arrived, but stopped on seeing the twins with me.

“So, the rumors are true!” she said upon recovering.

“What rumors?”

“The ones that I have had to deny for the past couple of weeks,” she answered, testily.