Sebastian Fox wasn't his real name, his real name was Drazen Gabric. Feeling amongst his producers, however, was that Drazen needed a more Americanised name with roots in Anglo-Europe to go with his handsome American looks to boost the flagging ratings. Ever since the show's much-loved starlet, Emily McLean, had gotten herself married and left the show after the first series, the producers were looking for a different image. They had bought Drazen in to front the damn thing and what do you know? It was a hit. Mostly popular with women between the ages of 14 and 48. This then posed the problem of how to get the male viewers back.
And voilà, hey presto a blonde, busty and totally brainless assistant who wore tight shorts and no bra under her tight vest tops. Not that Drazen was complaining, he liked to look as much as the next guy. But this was a family show and most episodes featured Wendy O'Neill - not her real name of course - stripping down to her bikini, getting soaking wet in a fresh water stream while she read explanations about plant life and fish from the autocue. It was great jerking off material for the home alone types but all in all she was useless. The producers had tried to get him to do a few shirtless shots but Drazen had flat out refused, knowing his sisters back home would rib him mercilessly over it.
Drazen paused by the cameraman and scanned the area, they had been told this was a hot spot for bears which they had come to Alaska to film.
"Anything doing, Phil?" Drazen asked, the team had been sitting around in the snow for a few hours and Drazen was now suffering from a severe case of frost bitten balls.
"Not a thing," Phil replied and said nothing more. Polite but taciturn, Phil didn't go for all the showbiz crap of fawning over the stars of the show and that was why Drazen hung out with him when they weren't shooting.
"I think we may have to pack up for the day," Drazen mused, knowing the producers wouldn't be happy.
"Think you're right," Phil muttered and spat on the ground, Drazen was about to turn away when he spotted something that froze him faster then the snow he was ass deep in.
"Holy shit," he whispered in awe, Phil squinted into the distance and without asking what was so amazing he switched on his camera and narrowed his lens.
"Cat," Phil commented without much enthusiasm, Drazen cut him a glare that the cameraman didn't see and resisted the urge to slap the back of his head.
"It is not just a cat," Drazen explained in a whisper, "it's a ocelot."
Phil still looked unimpressed.
"Just keep rolling, Phil," Drazen ordered impatiently, then added to himself in an excited mutter, "a damn ocelot. Holy shit … in Alaska, good God damn."
"It looks like a cat to me," Phil commented dryly and Drazen growled in his throat.
Phil hid the twitching of his lips as he ducked behind his camera again. He liked the kid and it was why he could take orders from him. The kid wasn't stupid, he knew what he was talking about when he came on set and he did his job well. And though he had a pretty face, he wasn't a sissy, in fact the kid had a six inch scar running down his left shoulder blade - he said he'd gotten from a bear which Phil believed. Above all he didn't act like Mr. Show Biz, Drazen knew how to talk to people and treated them with respect and kindness without licking ass and being a pushover, and that went a long way with Phil.
"Its an ocelot, okay! It looks like a domestic cat but if you look closer at its fur you'll see that it's a bit like a leopard or a jaguar. See, cream fur with blackish rosettes on it … Damn! Its even got ocelli on its ears."
"What?" Phil asked, becoming interested because Drazen was interested and Drazen, as far as Phil was concerned, was no fool.
"The single white spots on the back of its ears are called ocelli. What the hell is it doing this far north?"
Phil knew Drazen was talking to himself but frowned too, he peered at the ocelot that looked like any other cat in his neighbourhood to him.
"Where do they come from then?"
"South America and Mexico … sometimes they can venture to the most southern point of Texas, even been seen in Trinidad -"
"The Caribbean?"
"That would be the one … even some rare sightings in Arizona once or twice."
"So they like hot places?"
"Think Angelina Jolie then get hotter," Drazen murmured, shaking his head and laughing to himself.
"Damn that's hot …" Phil grunted, "so what -"
"The hell is it doing in Alaska?" Drazen finished his sentence for him, "no idea. Ocelot's have the lowest resting body temperature of any feline … what the hell is it doing here?"
The ocelot padded quietly back and forth and then simply sat down in the snow with its back to them. Suddenly a spine tailed swift dropped out of the sky, it circled the ocelot and presently landed beside it. The ocelot got up and walked over to it, Drazen's eyebrows flew up on his forehead, what was he seeing?
"What the hell …" he mumbled to himself.
The ocelot had not tried to attack which was mind boggling, but the swift had not taken flight at the ocelot's approach which was unbelievable. Drazen blinked his eyes a couple of times to make sure he was seeing clearly … nope a bird and a cat were definitely sitting side by side. Drazen had a weird thought that the animals were in some way communicating, as if they were friends. But that was impossible …
In the distant trees beyond there was a movement that had both the ocelot and the swift going still. Prowling out of the darkness was a cougar, Drazen frowned, baffled by the presence of all three animals.
Could they be what he thought they were?
Without any type of warning the swift and the cougar disappeared and in their place were two women. Drazen simply watched in a stunned silence that quickly turned to dread, suddenly a delayed shout of alarm and shock sounded from Phil. Drazen turned to look at the cameraman who was backing away from the camera as if it were cursed.
"What - the - fuck!" he shouted, his alarm bringing the attention of the rest of the crew. Drazen whipped his head back to the two women who were now looking in their direction with expressions of horror on their faces. As one the two women and the ocelot ran in different directions, disappearing into the trees and behind the hills of snow. Drazen bit his lip and looked back at the crew that had started to rewind and study the footage, they had just caught two, possibly three, Were-Hunters on film …
His family were going to be seriously pissed at him.
"And now for the final story in our programme," the newsreader looked into the camera and allowed his usually sombre face to smile.
"Producers from the Discovery Channels hit wildlife show Nature and Home have said to be 'raving' about their discovery while filming bears in Alaska. While in Alaska the rolling camera captured footage of a cougar and a swift allegedly transforming into humans."
The newsreader smiled wider and his picture was replaced by the footage of the animals changing into humans. The footage was shown again in slow motion, the newsreader appeared and raised his eyebrows to the camera.
"The shows front man, Sebastian Fox has strongly denied the rumours of these women being a new breed of Yeti and insists the whole thing is a publicity stunt from local students in the area. Despite Fox's claims of the incidents being nonsense, crowds have started to flock to the area in hopes of getting a glimpse of the 'Feral Females' as they being named. An inside source has confirmed that the footage is one hundred percent genuine … Very mysterious. We knew Alaskan women were wild but not that wild … So is it a hoax? Or have we just seen evidence of a new species? Are tales of witches changing into animals true? E-mail us your thoughts, some of which will be read out on our later programme at ten."
While the newsreader closed the programme Were-Hunter households all over the country were in turmoil.
"How can this have happened?" Aimee Peltier whispered in shock, looking around her at her mate and her brothers.
"Fuck knows," replied Etienne, his eyes not leaving the screen, "someone is gonna catch some serious shit for this though."
"Did you see what they were though?" Dev demanded, his normally jovial face stern and serious.
"A cougar and a swift," Cherif supplied, "who the fuck ever heard of a cougar breed of Were? Or swift for that matter? Hawks are the only bird were ... jackal, wolf -"
"Damn it, Cher, we know!" Remi snapped, "there has never been a cougar Were … and ten to one odds that that cat thing was one too."
"Shit," muttered Fang under his breath, he leant his jaw against Aimee's hair as his mind ticked over what he saw. "We need to do something."
"Like what?" Aimee asked.
"Find these bitches before the humans do," Remi groused, Aimee flicked a worried glance up to Fang who was nodding in agreement.
"Alain, you better get ready," Quinn said quietly, Alain looked at him quizzically, "the Omegrion are bound to call everyone in."
Everyone nodded their agreement but no one moved, each wondering what this incident might mean for them and the Were-Hunter world.
"Wren!"
Wren snapped his head up at the sound of Maggie shouting for him, her voice riddled with worry. Without wasting another moment he flashed himself to her side and laid his hand on her rounded stomach.
"What is it?" he demanded anxiously, "is it the baby?"
"No," Maggie said urgently and pointed to the TV, "look what's happened!"
Wren frowned but did as she asked and cursed aloud when he saw the footage of two Were females transforming before the camera. Wren could feel Maggie's fearful eyes watching him but he did not look back at her, he was focused on the terrified expressions upon the faces of the two women. As damaging as this footage was to the Were-Hunters as a whole, Wren could not help but feel a pang of pity for the unknown women.
"Has this ever happened before?" Maggie asked, Wren responded immediately to the frightened quiver in her voice and placed a soothing hand over her belly, he rubbed gently.
"Yeah, quite a few times," replied Wren casually, himself having been caught on tape jumping into a tigers pen to save a young human boy. "But never as bad as this. Hopefully someone will be able to pass it off as a hoax … its all happened since that damn video camera was invented."
Maggie was quiet and Wren pulled her under his arm.
"Don't worry, we'll sort this all out," he consoled her, "no ones in danger yet."
The lie tasted bitter on his tongue but he couldn't have her too worried when she was so near her delivery date.
Vane Kattalakis looked over at his wife Bride who was watching the TV with an open mouth.
"I can't believe it …" she whispered then looked up at her husband, worry written plainly on her beautiful face, "what does this mean, Vane?"
"It means that we could very likely be exposed if we don't shut it down," Vane answered grimly, staring at the TV with dislike.
"And how are you going to do that?"
Vane didn't answer but within the hour a summons had come from the Omegrion.