11. The Mermaid and the Kitsune
After a couple nights together, Leah and Fen did what seemed to be their now usual routine in the shower before they eventually got dressed and sat at the table for breakfast. Leah had noticed that she had put on a significant about of weight in the past couple of days. Her clothes were very tight, and her bra was no longer containing her bust. She was partly alarmed with how sudden this occurred, but she was very pleased with how feminine she was looking now. Fen was in his usual in between human and werewolf form not caring to be shirtless or not at least he remembered to wear shorts on.
Sue came out of her office where she slid pictures onto the table, which they were of the house that she and his parents agreed upon. She noticed the spillage of flesh under her daughter's shirt, but she did not pay much mind to it at the moment.
"I've spoken to your parents about living arrangements, since you two have imprinted on each other. I'm planning on selling this house and downsize. I was going to use some of the money for your down payment" she said simply before Leah gasped.
"What? Why would you do that!? We don't need a huge house!" She shouted.
"No…your father would have wanted it this way" Sue reiterated.
"Psh, I don't trust banks" Fen muttered crossing his arms over his chest with protest.
Sue rolled her eyes and glanced over at Fen critically. "I don't see why you're complaining. After all we're using your immaculate credit score for the loan. 800 or a little more…got an estimate for like 3.22 APR" Sue argued. Leah's jaw dropped, and she stared at him in disbelief.
Fen stared at her in shock. "How would you know a thing like that?" he asked.
"Your mother told me…" She explained.
"Oh wow…honey, are you rich?" Leah probed.
"I couch surf Leah…I'm pretty sure that's the opposite of being rich" he quickly dismissed her.
"Still, I know that you help your parents with your sister's medical bills. You deserve something nice" Sue mentioned.
Fen went quiet although he growled faintly as he stared into the table. Leah glanced over at him eyeing his solemn expression. "Fen…" she murmured. She was not sure what she was supposed to say to him or do but she just let her instincts take over and she reached over and grabbed his hand tenderly. "Are you okay?" she asked.
Fen snapped out of his internal monologue and turned towards her looking at her lost. "Huh?" he asked.
"Are you okay?" she repeated herself.
He nodded slowly, which Sue frowned and pulled the pictures off the table recalling the argument his parents had a couple nights earlier. "They get into arguments a lot over this, huh?"
Fen nodded and sighed heavily. "Well, this has made them argue a lot more often, but they have always argued about one thing or another. They are just two strong opinionated personalities" he said lowly.
Leah started to get a good idea about how his family was like, but there was one thing that was bothering her. "Uh, so, about this werewolf and tamer thing…was your mom supposed to be your father's tamer?" she asked.
"Before you ask…yes she was, and no I was not the result of an experiment…my dad isn't that smart" He grumbled.
"Oh no, that's not what I was trying to get at. I was just going to ask if it was common for tamers to get involved with their…what do they even call you?" she asked.
"Beasts of burden" He remarked.
"Oh Fen! Really" Sue scolded him.
"That's what dad calls it anyway…" He said.
"So are you a tamer?" Leah asked.
"Uh, I think so" He answered awkwardly.
"Can you control a werewolf?" Leah asked again.
He looked at them her funny. "I know how to, but…I can't control two or more at once like people. If I'm already controlling one like myself, who is controlling me when I leave to go possess another werewolf?" he asked.
Sue let out a huge sigh of relief. "Well I'm beginning to see why you think your father is an idiot" she muttered under her breath.
Fen sighed heavily and nodded. "Yeah, He really doesn't like it when I use his tactics against him. He taught me everything I know about being a werewolf after all" he said smugly.
"Fen? Do you know what your father has planned?" Sue asked.
"Kinda, I told him it was half baked. I think he's probably going to get desperate and start doing exposure by proxy next" he said.
"What's that?" Leah asked.
"You mean he can order another werewolf to bite someone on their behalf?" Sue asked.
"Something like that" He said before he shook his head. "I'm not doing it…probably why he lured that Josh guy over here…he's weak sauce. He can do exactly what my father will ask of him" he said while he munched on a strip of bacon loudly.
"Is that why you threatened to kill him?" Sue asked.
Fen started to laugh then he smirked at her. "He told ya did he?"
"Charlie told me…and he told me about the Jelly beans" She said.
"Jelly beans?" Leah asked. Fen began to laugh even harder, and Sue was not impressed.
"Fen, this isn't funny. Why didn't you tell Charlie? Josh is staying at his place right now!" Sue raised her voice.
Leah panicked and Fen shrugged. "I'm sure he's fine" he said.
"Why do you say that?" Leah asked.
"Because he wouldn't be my father's first choice, he knows nothing about the supernatural. There would be no advantage in biting him" he said simply.
"I hope you're right Fen" Sue muttered lowly.
Fen kept eating savagely like a wolf would, but Sue pulled Leah off into the living room and pulled a sack out of the closet. She pulled out a box of early detection pregnancy tests and quietly handed it to her. Leah looked at the box, and her heart fluttered. She quietly went into the bathroom and took the test. She waited and waited for the strip to indicate her fate, and two big fat lines appeared.
Leah stared at it in disbelief, while her mother pushed the door open slowly, and Leah showed her the strip. Sue grew excited and instantly latched onto her hugging her tightly. "Do another one later and see if it stays the same" she advised her, but she plucked at Leah's bra strap noticing it was digging into her skin. "How about I take you shopping for clothes? You're going to need some bigger bras"
Leah blushed and rubbed her arm lost in thought about how her life with her future husband and father to her children would play out. "We still have training to do"
"You deserve a break…okay?" Her mother tried to convince her. She caressed the back of her daughter's head.
"I guess we can go after lunch" Leah muttered before she walked back out into the dining room. She unconsciously placed a hand over her abdomen accepting her fate, which Fen caught her doing this. "Will we be able to afford living there, mom?"
Sue started to clean off the kitchen counter top after tossing the pans into the sink. "He is technically a shapeshifter and he's Taha Aki's grandson. I will see that he will have stipends just like You, Seth, Jacob, and rest of you. In exchange he shall provide us a service on top of protecting our lands" Sue suggested.
Fen cocked his head to the side. "Service? What type of service?"
"Well, we will give out commissions for community service jobs…You can put your strength to good use and help out the elderly, build houses…" She clarified before he interrupted.
"Oh, I was kind of doing that already back home"
"Wow, I thought I was going to have a lot more push back than this" She commented as she sat the rag over the faucet.
Fen closed his eyes and took a deep breath. "Well, Leah may have convinced me to stay" he muttered modestly.
"Psh, Yea. It didn't take much to convince you" Leah teased giving him a light nudge.
Later that day, Leah and her newly formed pack had their first meeting with a few of the spirit warriors. That was what they thought they were, but Fen kept his distance behaving rather awkwardly around the two women.
Leah glanced over at him annoyed crossing her arms over her chest. "What's going on, Fen? Why are you acting so weird?" she asked.
The two women laughed and snickered amongst themselves. One was a fair skinned drop dead gorgeous Japanese woman that could be a model, and the other was an athletic one the smelled of the sea who looked like she could be on the swim team.
"You could say that he's given us company a few times in the past" The Japanese woman said while glancing at him with amusement.
"Quite a few times…a lot of times" the athletic one said.
"Did you come here just to tell us this!" Fen growled at them loudly.
"You know us so well, Fen…of course we did" the athletic one responded.
"Oh! Is she that Kitsune you were talking about!?" Seth asked gesturing towards the Japanese woman.
"Hmph! You told him!?" The Japanese woman asked.
"Well then I guess that makes her the Mermaid then" Leah added before a sly grin crept upon her lips. "Off course he told us!" she told them with great satisfaction. They did not seem annoyed or disappointed, but they were rather amused with it all.
"Darn…you know, you are very well in being able to keep your anger in check. I'm impressed" The Japanese woman said before she introduced themselves. "My name is Zenko, and her name is Cora. It's true that she is a mermaid and I a Kitsune. We both wanted to join this battle to overthrow those rodents"
"We have some experience with using Spiritual Powers. We thought we could teach you something different than the spirit warrior discipline. I heard that Fen used it on Sam the other day" Zenko said before she shot Fen a glare. "You know you could have killed him hitting his Ki point like that!" she spoke to him sternly.
Fen rolled his eyes. "Different Physiology…Of course he would be dead…if he was human. Then again I don't need that technique to make a human's heart explode like a water balloon" he muttered under his breath.
Zenko growled to herself lowly with deep regret. "It was my mistake to teach him this. I did not think he would be so callus" she apologized to them.
"I know that Fen knew exactly what he was doing" Seth spoke up.
"I'm worried what teachings he used of mine for his brutal fighting style" Cora said nervously.
Fen grinned evilly and Leah elbowed him in the ribs. "Knock it off" she grumbled into his ear.
"What I can teach you is how to feel aura" Cora explained.
"Feel aura? Don't you use echolocation or something like that?" Seth asked.
"We do…some of us…but this is better and faster than detecting threats. Echolocation has its limitations in telling us how much power a being possesses and its slower" She explained before she giggled to herself. I think some of you can pick it up quickly. For my kind even a child can feel this guy's aura" she added.
"You mean the tingly feeling?" Leah asked.
"Yeah that's it…you all can feel it can't you?"
Everyone nodded and Fen crossed his arms over his chest feeling treated like he had passed gas in the area. "What? I'm at 30%! I can't help it…" he shouted in offense.
"Is that why you're bandaged up like a Mummy?" Zenko asked.
"So what If I am!?" Fen grumbled.
"Jez, We're only teasing. You don't need to bite our heads off" Cora said.
"You know what you'll get yourself into! So quit while you're ahead!" Fen growled.
"Okay, as I was saying. You should be able to learn this really quick. I mean really quick if you already know that feeling" Cora said with utmost confidence.
"Okay, have fun" Fen told said as he got up.
"Where do you think you're going?" Leah asked firmly while shooting him an intense leer.
"I'm going to play with more White Phosphorous" He told her before she stomped up to him grabbing him by the bandaging exposing some of his fur underneath.
"You are going to burn the whole forest down with that stuff! Haven't you made enough of those things?" Leah scolded him.
"That was Potassium and magnesium I used last night" Fen said.
"I know what White Phosphorous is Fen!" She raised her voice. He gave her a look and she relented. "You're going to get hurt!" she spoke softly before she placed her hand over her lower abdomen. "That stuff doesn't stop burning…even when you put water on it"
He closed his eyes and sighed. "I know what I'm doing…I'll be alright" he assured her.
"Man, he must have played with a lot of matches when he was a kid" Seth joked.
Fen stared him down. "No, I practiced making fire whirls and choking fires in the living room when I was a kid…" he said simply before he walked off.
Once he was gone, Cora laughed to herself. "He's as cuddly as a cactus sometimes…am I right?"
"Sometimes…but I know his deep dark past. I am grateful to have been with him long enough understand why he acts the way he does" Zenko said with arrogance. She frowned looking over at Leah with jealousy and slight contempt. "It's a pity he imprinted…I will always cherish my years with him" she said.
Cora laughed nervously. "Come on, you weren't planning on marrying the guy. He was just good meal for you. You can always find some other werewolf" she said simply.
Zenko sat down on her knees and but her hands into her lap taking in a deep breath. "He is my friend…he's not a meal, and I will not find another werewolf like him. I've heard legends of a great wolf who became so big and powerful that even gods tremble before him" she said before looked at the others. "I can tell by your faces that you all have felt it haven't you?"
"Felt it? We've seen it!" Seth called out.
She closed her eyes then began to meditate before nine long gorgeous golden fox tails sprouted from her backside. They gasped as her hair turned from black to golden along with fox ears sprouting a top her head. She opened her eyes again fixating her yellow eyed stare onto Leah. "I wish you have many many healthy children with him and have easy childbirth" she said before she made some kind of a hand gesture bringing her fingers to her face like she was making a prayer before she made a motion towards Leah.
Rachel looked between them feeling very unsettled. "What did you do?"
"You didn't put some curse on Leah did you?" Paul added.
A faint smile crept upon her lips, and she snickered quietly. "I blessed her. I did not curse her"
"You're also a fox…aren't foxes supposed to be tricksters?" Paul asked.
Zenko glared at him very offended lifting a finger and generating a blue flame. "I am a messenger of Inari the god foxes, fertility, rice, tea, sake, agriculture and industry, and of prosperity and success! Tricking people is beneath me. You should be bowing before me and worship me, for I'm as close to a god you can ever get!" she spoke harshly.
"Jez, conceited much?" Cora muttered towards Leah.
"You're one to talk, Princess!" Zenko said mockingly.
"Hehe, I'm not the one demanding them all to bow and worship me now am I" Cora said cheerfully. She stuck her tongue out at Zenko before she shot the fire ball at her and Cora countered with a sphere of water. Steam rose up into the air and droplets of water hit the forest floor.
"Hmph!" Zenko pouted.
"Thank you for helping us with this fight and for helping my sister get pregnant" Seth told them.
"Seth! I'm already pregnant!" Leah informed them with a deep low growl.
"Yikes! Well, she was trying to help" He said nervously.
Zenko looked at Seth oddly before she shook her head at him. "I wish for your wife to have the same blessing"
"But I'm too young to have kids!" Seth said in a panic.