The Ancient One and his companions stopped off to do their nightly email check.  There was only one message.
"Greetings, old friend!"  it said, "This is the leader of the south Arizona colony.  We are having a problem.  We need two or three good breeding stock.  Our genetic line is getting too interbred.  If you could assist it would be appreciated.   We don't like sending the young too far afield."
The Ancient One's companions looked at the message and stared at him questioningly.  "You'll find out!"  he muttered, deleting the email.
"Hmmm!"  he remarked, "Two or three good breeding stock.  I think I know of a possibility; a group we have been planning on dealing with on the west coast.  This might be the perfect solution.  Come on!"
In a very short time they were hovering above a west coast city.  The Ancient One gave a call, and in moments another Spirit joined him.  "Are the four sisters on the prowl?"  he asked.
"Yes," the Spirit answered.  "We were about to arrange it that a police officer stumble into their next operation and deal with them."
"Call it off!" The Ancient One snapped.  "Send him someplace else.  I'll deal with it personally."
"Yes!"  the Spirit answered.  "Good hunting, Lord!"
He hurried off and The Ancient One motioned to his companions, and they quickly followed. They landed on the roof of a house in a dilapidated neighborhood.   A Cadillac sat in front of a house across the way.  "Relax!"  The Ancient One instructed.  "May be a little while."
A couple of hours went by and four young women emerged from the house, got into the Cadillac and drove off.
"Here we go!"  The Ancient One snapped, and quickly took flight.
The four young women went to a convenience store, filled the Cadillac with gas, then went inside and began to gather a considerable amount of merchandise.  One of the women went to the counter with her purchases, took out a hundred dollar bill, and gave it to the clerk.  The clerk smiled and opened the cash register.  With incredible speed the young woman drew a gun from her purse, brought it up, and shot the clerk in the head.  He collapsed behind the counter.  She put the gun away, came around the counter, and began emptying the cash register.
The Ancient One materialized behind her, grabbed her head, and with a quick snap, broke her neck.  The other three girls witnessing this, gave a shriek and ran from the store.  But they didn't get far before The Ancient One and his companions overtook them and escorted them back to the Cadillac.
"We're going for a ride!" The Ancient One snapped, taking on his human form. .
His companions shed their armor.  His female companion got in the back seat with two of the girls, and The Ancient One and his male companion took the front seat with the last girl between them.  They drove for some time in silence.  Then, his female companion asked from the back, "Why did you let the other bitch kill the clerk?"
"He was dying," The Ancient One answered, "brain tumor.  The insurance company will pay his family twice as much where he suffered a violent death.  She did him a favor!"
"Why did you kill her?" his male companion asked.
"She was contaminated.  AIDS.  Too many dirty needles.  These three like booze and sex.  But they're more choosy about their partners.  They're clean."
"What about the video?"  his female companion asked.
"Only our human forms will show on it," The Ancient One answered.  "And they'll never be able to identify us.  They'll just think some good samaritan happened by and dealt with our cold blooded killer but didn't want to get involved with the police."
"Are you going to kill us, too?" the girl in the front asked.
"That will depend," The Ancient One answered, "on how well you cooperate."
They drove on for some time in silence, then one of the girls in the back asked "Are you guys aliens?"
"Yes," The Ancient One answered, "very old ones.  But if you cooperate you may get to meet some very new ones.  Now let me explain what's going to happen.  We can't get you where we're going tonight.  So, in a little while we're going to leave you at a motel.  You'll be able to eat breakfast, lunch and dinner at the restaurant...anything you want.  There's a convince store on the corner where you can get anything else you need.  Just tell them you're Mr. Starr's guests at the motel, and to put it on his account.  There's also a video place where you can rent movies.  Stay there.  If you do things will be all right. . If you don't, if you run away, you've been marked.  Tomorrow night, no matter where you are, no matter who you're with, we'll come and we'll kill you.  Do you understand?"
All three young women answered "Yes sir!"  and the silence again returned, then The Ancient One and his companions dropped the women off at the motel and went about some other business.
"Will they be there tomorrow night?"  his female companion asked.
"They certainly will!"  The Ancient One answered.  They know I meant what I said. "
"I don't doubt that!"  his male companion remarked.  "I don't doubt that at all!"
The next evening The Ancient One and his companions returned to the motel.  The Cadillac parked outside the room looked different, and The Ancient One's male companion commented on it.
"It's been washed and cleaned out," The Ancient One remarked.  "More presentable for where it's going."
He knocked on the door and one of the young women opened it.  But she looked far different than she did the night before.  She was wearing a lovely, clinging dress, that revealed her full femininity, and her hair had been done.  The other two women had been equally transformed.
"These clothes," the woman at the door remarked, "were delivered this morning.  And a lady came by and did our hair."
The Ancient One nodded.  "Let's go!" he snapped.
They took up the same seating positions as the night before, except this time The Ancient One's female companion sat in the middle with the two women in the back.  Again there was a long period of awkward silence.  Then, the woman in the front spoke up.
"Look, if you intend for us to be whores, kill us right now.  We've all agreed we won't do that.  We'll fight."
"Don't doubt you would!" The Ancient One answered.  "But that's not what I've got in mind for you.  Now listen!  Because this is important.  You've got to make a choice.  I'm taking you to some friends of mine.  They need wives.  But they can't go out and look for them like other people do.  There's a reason why they can't.  So, every once and a while I bring people to them, or some of my associates do.
If you agree to my proposal, and take up association with them, you will eventually marry one of them.  They are all quite well to do.  They either make their money by writing or producing art, or have considerable inheritances that make it unnecessary for them to work much.  So you will not want for anything.  A moderate amount of alcohol consumption is permitted, but no drugs.  Drugs have a very adverse effect in their society.
If you agree, I'll take you to meet these people.  And you can live very nice lives.  If you don't, I'll drop you off and within a few minutes you'll be picked up by the police, tried for your crimes, and spend the rest of your lives in prison.  Don't have any doubts that what I say won't come to pass!  And you know what's going to happen to you in prison, what the older ladies there will insist upon you doing!  The choice is yours.  But there is just one other thing.  Once you know my associates' secret you may never leave their circle of influence and never reveal their secret to anyone.  If you try you will be killed.  They have every right to protect themselves and, their children.  And as long as they obey the rules we'll see to it that they are protected.  Do you understand what I have said? You've got to make the choice, you've got to make it now!"
"We have a little bit of choice?" one of the girls in the back asked. "I mean, we won't just be given to somebody?"
"There's six or seven males," The Ancient One answered.  "There will be a certain period of courtship.  A bit of choice.  But you will be expected to choose within a few months."
"Hell!" the other girl in the back said, "I don't like that prison idea.  Any man's better than a lezzie bitch!  And if these people got money, it might not be all that bad!  I don't really like the booze and the drugs that much anyway."
"Me too, I guess!"  her companion agreed.
The girl in the front nodded too.
"I need a verbal response!" The Ancient One snapped.
"O.k.!" she said "O.k.!  I agree!  It does sound a lot better than prison or dead!"
Again silence returned until The Ancient One pulled off the main road onto a dirt one, and a few moments later turned again and stopped.
"Everybody out!" he snapped.
The moon was full and even with the car lights off it was rather bright.  The Ancient One made a howling sound, and a few minutes later seven creatures bounded from the brush and surrounded them.  They were slightly stooped, extremely muscular and covered with shaggy fur.  Their nostrils were pronounced and dark, and their jaws slightly protruded.  One of the women shrieked.  "Don't be afraid!"  The Ancient One told her.  "These are my associates."
"Oh, my God!"  one of the other women cried.  "They're werewolves!"
The Ancient One laughed.  "A common misconception," he remarked.  "They suffer from a genetic disease called lycanthropy. This causes them, under certain atmospheric conditions, optic conditions, and sometimes under extreme stress, to revert to a primitive state.  It would be more appropriate to call them cromagons, or crohumans, rather than werewolves.  In this state they are driven to hunt, but they do not hunt humans.  The few that do are quickly dealt with."
"Will we become like that?"  one of the women asked.  "Will our children become like that?"
"You won't," The Ancient One assured.  "You do not have the lycanthropic gene.  Some of your children will, but that cannot be avoided."
"No," the woman stammered, shaking her head. "Kill me now, please!  I can't let my children be like that.  I can't!  Just kill me, just be quick about it, like you did Kate.  Please!"
One of the creatures came over to her, obviously female.  "Please!" she said, "Please!  Don't choose now!  Meet some of our children, both normal, and like us, and learn how happy they are to be what they are.  There is no need to die.  You are young and vital.  You could give us much.  We need you!  Give us time to show you that our way of life isn't really that bad."
One of the males came over.  "Do listen!"  he asked.  "You have a  nice smell.  I'd like to get to know you better.  You will find that we are not unkind.  Like all creatures we kill when we have to kill.  But we do not like to see life destroyed when it does not have to be. The Bright One brought you here.  He does not bring anyone unless they have promise, unless there is a spark of good in them that can be saved.  Do not let that spark pass away!"
The young woman looked totally bewildered.  "They sound so rational!"  she finally managed.
"Come on, Patty!"  the other woman from the back put in.  "Give it a chance!"  she turned to The Ancient One.  "Do they, er, you know, when they're like that?"
One of the males bounded over, looking at her.  "We most certainly do!"  he half growled.
The woman looked startled, then burst into laughter, which everybody else joined in.
"Well," The Ancient One managed, when it died down, "I guess it's decided.  Good luck, ladies!  My friends will tell you how to reach their community.  You'll be welcomed."
"Just one thing," the woman from the front asked.  "Did anybody ever tell you you're a miserable, rotten damned son of a bitch?"
The Ancient One laughed.  "Many, many times!"  he answered.  "Many, many times!  Come on, people!" he told his companions.  "Time to go.  Things to do yet, tonight!"
He changed into his true form and his companions followed suit, then they leapt skyward, and soared away.
"What in the hell are they?"  the hesitant woman asked, "Gods?
"No," the leader of their new friends answered, "but pretty close to it, pretty damned close to it!"
They all looked to the sky one more time.  The women climbed back in the car, were told the directions to their new home, and drove off into the future.