WERECON 2012: DELEGATES TAKE TIME OUT FOR FUN

Exclusive Report for Werewolf Celebrity Watch by Angela Sapworthy

(Denver) After a day packed with seminars and political jockeying, delegates to WereCon2012 let loose with an old-fashioned romp in the snow, Were style! A plan hatched in the Stillman Lodge bar resulted in more than fifty delegates shape-shifting and making use of the lodge’s special wolf-friendly exits to hit the slopes, minus skis, of course.

This reporter couldn’t help but join in the rambunctious free-for-all! Without shirts or slogans, political bias no longer mattered as all enjoyed the freedom to run and slide in the fresh snow with equal abandon. Although this reporter had to call it an evening after only a few minutes of the biting cold, she suspects many Weres are still out there reveling in their freedom to simply be werewolves.

The playful episode provides a brief respite for Weres locked in a heated battle over whether to maintain our time-honored secrecy or risk revealing ourselves to the human community. That question will be the subject of tomorrow’s final session, a much-publicized debate between HOWL leader Kate Stillman and WOOF leader Duncan MacDowell. For up-to-the-minute coverage of that historic event, follow me on Sniffer @newshound. You’ll have a ringside seat!

Kate glanced around the suite as she evaluated the best way to set up their work environment. Her desk was big enough for them to share it and she had another chair she could bring in from the bedroom. But that would put them tantalizingly close to each other. Bad idea.

She turned to him. “How about if I work and eat at my desk, and you set your laptop up on the counter? There are outlets on the kitchen side of it so you can plug in.”

“That sounds fine.” Setting his plate down, he retrieved his briefcase and took out his laptop, along with a trade paperback book. “I brought you this. Don’t feel obliged to read it, but…I learned a lot from reading yours.”

She slid her plate back onto the counter and accepted the book with a pang of guilt. He’d been more open-minded than she had. And smarter, too. They had a debate coming up tomorrow afternoon and she needed to have read this.

She’d convinced herself she knew what was in it from following his blog, but that was lazy thinking. After spending time with him, she realized lazy thinking could get her annihilated in that debate. He’d done her a favor by bringing his book tonight.

“Thank you.” She gazed at the cover. Down with Dogma: Benefits of Were-Human Cooperation was splashed across the bottom in vivid red type on a black background. Duncan’s name was at the top, and in the middle a human profile faced a wolf profile, each outlined in red. Very eye-catching and dramatic.

“As I said, you don’t have to read it.”

“But I will.” She glanced up. “I should have read it before now, and not doing that shows some arrogance on my part. In fact, when we debate tomorrow, you could have dinged me for not knowing what’s in here.”

He shrugged. “I’m sure you’ve been busy running your dating site and helping your grandmother plan this conference. I didn’t read yours until I was faced with a long plane ride, so don’t beat yourself up too much.”

“All right, I won’t. But handing me this tells me that you fight fair.” She opened the cover to see if he’d signed it, and sure enough, he had. His inscription read To my worthy opponent Kate. Affectionately, Duncan.”

“I debated whether that was too incriminating.”

“Not if no one sees it but me.” She closed the cover and looked at him. “And no one will. I like what you wrote. I’ll treasure this. And I’ll definitely read it before our debate.”

“Hm.” He returned her gaze. “I may have made a tactical error. I’d hate for reading my book to cut into…uh…your free time.”

She smiled. “Diplomatically put.”

“I’m trying like hell not to come across as teasing and tempting.”

“You’re doing better, and I promise that given a choice between reading someone’s book or spending quality time with the author, I’ll take the one-on-one option every time.”

He chuckled. “Good.”

“But if we have any chance of finding quality time, we’d better get cracking.”

“Aye.”

Walking over to her desk, she laid the book on her desk. Then she hit the button to open the curtains. “Let’s see what’s happening outside.”

“Must we? With the lights on, anyone out there will be able to see in here better than we can see out there.”

“Exactly.” After reading that inscription, she was feeling way too mellow about Duncan MacDowell.

“You’re a determined lass, I’ll give you that.” With a sigh, he came over to gaze out into the darkness lit only by the lights on the ski slope. “Am I imagining things, or are there a bunch of wolves out there playing in the snow?”

“Are there?” She peered out toward the lighted slope. “That’s what it looks like to me.”

Duncan laughed. “Whoever’s out there, they’re having one hell of a good time running and sliding. Whoops! That big one just wiped out. I wish we could…but we can’t.”

“Not until we have something to give Howard.” But Kate watched the wolves with equal fascination.

“How long since you’ve shifted?” He was standing close enough for her to feel his warmth and breathe in his scent.

She should move away, but she liked standing here with him watching wolves romp. “Too long. Like you said, I’ve been busy with HOWL, my dating site, planning this conference, keeping up with your blog. I forget about shifting and the fun to be had.”

“I can imagine how you’d look as a wolf, all blonde and fluffy.”

“My best time to go out and be camouflaged is when the aspens are turning and dropping leaves. I blend right in.”

“I’d love to see that.”

“You might have, if this early snowstorm hadn’t hit. The leaves were beautiful, but now they’ll all be gone.” She glanced over at him. “Your coat is pure black, isn’t it?” The urge to see him like that overwhelmed her. He would be magnificent, and she might never have the chance to find out.

“Aye. Black as night. I’d stand out in the snow like a blot of ink on a white page.”

“But out here we’re so isolated that it wouldn’t matter. That’s why everyone’s having such a good time down there. It’s safe.”

He looked at her. “You want to go out there, don’t you?”

“Of course I do, but we have an assignment to finish, as I believe I’ve mentioned at least a thousand times.”

“Or more.” He put his arm around her shoulders and gave her a quick squeeze. He didn’t linger, as if he wanted to make sure he wouldn’t be accused of tempting her. “Let’s tackle the job and get it out of the way. Then we can shift and go.”

She caught his excitement. “Let’s do. I would love that.”

“So would I. I haven’t shifted in months. Stretching my muscles would feel good.”

“I’ll get my food and a cup of coffee, and we’ll dive in.” She headed back over to the counter, poured herself some coffee, and picked up her plate.

“Same here.” He followed her over, found a plug on the opposite side of the counter, and connected his laptop cord. “Did you come up with any wording during the day?”

“I did, as a matter of fact.” She walked back to her desk and turned on her computer. “How about you?”

“Me, too. I was a little bored in the session on Werewolves Through the Ages so I used the time to brainstorm.”

“Excellent.” Kate located the scrap of paper she’d tossed on her desk when she’d come back to her suite at the end of the day. “Let’s hear yours first.” She picked up one of the cheesy snacks and popped it in her mouth as she glanced at him over her shoulder.

“Maybe you should start.” He poured a cup of coffee. “Ladies first, and all that.”

She chewed her food and swallowed. “Okay.” She didn’t want to waste time discussing who went first. “Here it is, and remember, this is rough.”

“I understand.”

“Then here goes—WOW Mission Statement: To support the werewolf culture worldwide and protect its traditions, values, and unique benefits through networking and education.”

Duncan took a deep breath. “That sounds like you.”

She turned in her chair to study him. “How do you mean that? In a good way or a bad way?”

“I’m not going to assign good and bad designations at this point.”

“You’re being evasive, Duncan. You don’t like it, do you? I didn’t expect you to.”

“It’s not a matter of liking or not liking. You say some things in there that throw up a red flag for me, and I’m sure you know what they are.”

She did know. But she thought of Sally, and of Jake. They expected her to stand firm. “Let’s hear yours, then. We need to know how far apart we are.”

He cleared his throat and read from the screen of his laptop. “WOW Mission Statement: To support the interests of werewolves worldwide and expand their influence through networking and unfettered communication with the human population.” He stared at the screen and rubbed his chin. “Comments?”

“We’re pretty far apart.”

“Granted.”

“But we have a few words in common.”

He laughed and shook his head. “Damned few.”

She sipped her coffee. “We have Wi-Fi hooked up. I’m going to send you mine and you send me yours. Let’s look at them side-by-side and see how they might be blended.”

He blew out a breath. “It’s worth a try, I suppose.”

Within a few seconds, she had his statement pasted under hers.

“If we have Wi-Fi, then we could also go on Sniffer from our computers,” he said.

“Yes, but we’re not going to do that. Howard asked us to move beyond Howlers and Woofers and get creative so we could hash this out. So let’s go for it.”

Two hours later, they were still haggling and Duncan couldn’t see a solution. They’d eaten most of the food and what was left looked dodgy after sitting there for so long. They’d drained the carafe and the fire had burned down to a few glowing embers. Neither of them had attempted to build it up again, as if they both kept hoping they’d find a way through the maze and be done.

“Look, you have to give up that word protect, Kate. To Weres like Jake, it means some elaborate security system that hasn’t even been invented yet. You heard how he went on and on about the database being a tool of the devil.”

“And I’m not so sure it isn’t! What if the wrong people got their hands on that database? They could hunt down and kill every Were on the planet!”

“It would never come to that. We have numbers, we have economic strength, and we have physical abilities, like a superior sense of smell and hearing. We’re experts at surviving, and—”

“You want to put us back into survival mode? We’ve been there, Duncan, and it’s not pretty. You know the word I want you to get rid of? Unfettered. That implies dropping every safeguard, every precaution, and throwing ourselves on the mercy of the humans. That’s nuts. I can’t agree to anything that has the word unfettered in it.”

“So here’s what we have so far, that we absolutely agree on.”

She blinked. “We have something?”

“Of course. I’ve been keeping track. Here’s the mission statement with all the controversial parts taken out. WOW Mission Statement: To support werewolves worldwide through networking.”

“That’s a very short mission statement, Duncan.”

“Granted, but we agree on every bit of it.”

“Not hard when there’s nothing to it. And now that I think about it, the term networking is suspect because it could be interpreted as suggesting that damned database.”

“Networking was in your first rough draft!”

“And I’m rethinking the use of it.”

Duncan groaned and laid his forehead on the counter. “Now we’re backsliding.”

“I don’t see any more wolves out on the hillside.”

Lifting his head, he turned around on his stool and looked toward the window. She’d left her chair. Hands shoved in the back pockets of her jeans, she was staring at a landscape shrouded in darkness except for that pale row of lights on the ski slope.

“They might still be out there.” He climbed off the stool and went to join her. “There could be romance happening in the shadows.”

Her breath caught. “Duncan, you promised.”

“You’re right. Shouldn’t have said that.” But he’d been thinking about it ever since proposing that they take a run in the snow when they finished the damned mission statement. At this rate he didn’t think they ever would finish it.

But saying that a miracle happened, and they had a breakthrough, he’d love to take a run with her as wolves and then have a lusty bout of Were sex out there in the snow. Knowing the werewolf mentality as he did, others were doing that tonight, perhaps at this very minute.

He realized that craving Were sex contradicted everything he stood for. He’d spent countless blogs blathering on about how unimportant Were sex was in the grand scheme of things. In his book, which she might read soon, he’d labeled the practice a primitive holdover from the old days.

Yet he wanted to experience it with her. He longed to see her romping through snowdrifts, exotic in her blonde coloring with eyes bluer than the center of a flame. Then, when they’d run themselves until they were panting and pleasantly tired, he would take her as a male wolf takes a female. Warmth shot through his system and stiffened his cock.

And he wasn’t alone in thinking about sex. The scent of her arousal drifted toward him, exciting him even more.

She took a long, shaky breath. “Duncan, this isn’t good.”

“No, it isn’t. I’m sorry. My fault.” He forced himself to walk away from her, but like a restless wolf, he began to pace.

“It’s not all your fault. I was thinking about it, too.”

“Let’s change the subject.” He continued to pace. “Tell me why you’re so against the database. Even if we don’t have unlimited communication with humans as I envision, a central database would be a very unifying tool. Right now our information is incomplete, but if we had a database, we could send out global messages and coordinate our efforts in ways we’ve never been able to do before.”

“But it’s too much like a registration system. I don’t like it.”

“We could have safeguards, install warning systems. If we had the slightest hint that someone was accessing it in order to round up werewolves, our network, which is still a very good idea, by the way, would alert Weres to the potential danger.” The carpet felt good under his feet, the only sensual pleasure he was allowing himself right now.

“Assuming a Were was part of the network.”

“But why wouldn’t they be?”

She walked over to the counter, picked up the platters, and took them into the kitchen where she began scraping them into the sink. “A Were might be listed in the database because she’s the offspring of other Weres, but she might not be part of the network anymore, maybe by choice because of the risk of discovery.”

Then he understood. “Like Penny.” He stopped pacing and faced the kitchen area where she was working.

“It’s one thing when powerful Weres like Aidan and Roarke Wallace take human mates.” She scrubbed the platters vigorously, as if cleaning them would somehow help. “In that case, the Weres protect the humans, and the humans, surrounded by so many Weres, are less likely to betray the werewolf community. But Penny…” She stopped scrubbing and looked over at him. “Penny’s out there alone, Duncan. Instead of being surrounded by powerful Weres, she’s surrounded by humans.”

“You’re right. It’s different.”

“You bet it is.” Her expression was grim. “If they discovered her secret, I don’t know what would happen. Maybe Tom would try to protect her. I want to believe that he would. But he doesn’t know her secret, either, and he might feel betrayed and angry.” Kate swallowed. “I’ve had many nightmares about Penny.”

“I’m sure you have.” He liked to think he was an intelligent Were, but he’d been missing a key point. Were-human mating, if it became a common practice, wouldn’t be confined to powerful male Weres choosing human mates. And if Female Weres chose a human mate and went to live among humans as Penny had, would it be safe to reveal their Were nature?

Not in the current environment, that was for sure. The culture still contained too many movies and books that depicted Weres as dangerous beasts who could “turn” a human into a werewolf with one bite. That had never been true, but it made a good story, and the myth had been repeated so many times most people believed it.

Duncan realized that his utopian dream would take years of re-education before it had a chance of being realized. And thanks to Kate and her sister Penny, he had a perspective that hadn’t been part of his thinking until now. He’d had male myopia, and he felt a little foolish having to admit that.

“I suppose you’ve figured out by now that I founded HOWL because of Penny,” Kate said.

“Aye. I suspected that, at least on some level, but I hadn’t really thought it through. I assumed you were mostly upset because she’s no longer a part of your family.”

“That’s part of it. But I’m scared for her. And I don’t want other female Weres running the risks she does, so I created my Were-only dating site and founded HOWL for that reason. On the other side of the coin, if male Weres insist on hooking up with humans, then that reduces the number of eligible and safe mates for us.”

Duncan massaged the back of his neck where tension had taken up permanent residence. “I hate to admit that I read that in your book, but it didn’t really sink in.”

“You were focused on the sex tips.”

He nodded. “I fear so.”

“What about you?” She stacked the platters in a wire rack so they could drain. “What inspired you to found WOOF?”

The question startled him. He couldn’t remember being asked before. “The easy answer is that I want to help create more freedom for Weres in all areas of life.”

“But why?” She leaned her hips against the kitchen counter. “Did you lose the human love of your life because of Were prejudice?”

“No. At one time I told myself she was my soul mate, but when my brother Colin challenged me on that, I realized that she was only my way to make a statement.”

“And why—”

“I’m way ahead of you, lass. Why did I feel such a pressing need to make a statement? Because of the very thing you’ve accused me of—ego. My big brother is the laird with all sorts of responsibilities. Very important in the grand scheme of things.”

“I see.”

He was afraid she really did see, and he felt more exposed than ever in his life. But he trusted her in a way he didn’t trust most others, and it felt good to get this out in the open. “Plus he and my parents used to bitterly oppose Were-human mating, so of course I had to come out in favor of it.”

She smiled. “It takes a humble heart to admit such a motivation. I admire you for telling me, and I don’t think your ego is nearly the size I used to imagine it was.”

“Maybe you’ve helped me shrink it down to a reasonable size.” There was some truth in that. She was good for him. “Don’t get me wrong. I believe in the cause. Inevitably Weres and humans will fall in love, and then you have that Romeo and Juliet scenario. I think it’s past time that we figured out a way around that.”

“Does that mean you’re ready to tackle the mission statement again?”

He blew out a breath. “No.”

“You’re not giving up, are you?”

“I won’t do that unless we run out of time, and we still have some. I think we’ve been cooped up for too long and our brains are fried. If everyone else has gone inside, let’s go out and play in the snow.”

“Before we’ve finished?” She made it sound as if he’d suggested murder and mayhem.

“Howard told us to be creative, and I don’t know about you, but my creative well is bone dry. Some fresh air and exercise is exactly what I need, and then I’ll come back in ready to tackle that mission statement.”

“As usual, you are a very convincing Were.”

“Does that mean you’ll go with me? Because even if you won’t, I’m set on it. You can sit up here and beat your brains out trying to write that statement if you insist, but I’m heading for the slopes.”

“Well, Howard did say we were supposed to work together.”

“So let’s play together for a little while and then we’ll be refreshed and renewed, ready for the task.”

“Okay.” She still sounded reluctant, though.

He’d coax her out of that reluctance soon enough. His pulse quickened as he imagined them out there together. He might be rationalizing this decision to take a break because he wanted her so desperately. But they wouldn’t stay out long, just long enough to play and…have a different kind of fun.

Then he’d put his nose to the grindstone. He had no choice. The clock was ticking.