PECTORAL FITNESS
DEL SOL VALLEY
PENNY
Penny kept at her training even though it was miserable and did nothing to reduce her fury. Anastasia had gone from scolding her for getting upset to trying to convince Penny to drop it altogether.
“You hate it, and it doesn’t seem to help. You’re already strong; there’s no reason to continue. We’ll find someone else.”
Honestly, Ana could have saved her a lot of headaches by just flat-out saying she was a failure as a werewolf.
Speaking of headaches, Penny had one constantly. It had grown worse as the full moon crept closer. Matilda was supposed to be giving her insight into being a wolf, but the only thing she’d discuss besides running the fury out was “fated mates.”
“It’s a soul-mate for our kind,” she said, “Your one, true werewolf love chosen by destiny. They will be suited to you and you to them. You haven’t spent much time with werewolves, but when you do, you’ll start to feel fate tugging you in the right direction.”
“You know I’m dating Anastasia, right?”
Matilda’s eyes narrowed. “That’s because you were a mortal who didn’t understand what she truly is.”
It wasn’t true, but Penny learned it was best to just play along. “And what’s that?”
“A blood-thirsty monster without feeling or heart. Ask her,” Matilda said, her smile barely reaching her eyes, “Ask her how she feels about anything. And then you’ll know.”
But Penny already knew the answer to that question. Anastasia Barrister didn’t feel fuck about shit.
When she got a text from Bella, it was a relief to leave the gym. Ana made a big deal about hunkering down for the full moon, but Matilda hadn’t mentioned it, merely telling Penny to work on her training and quell her rage. Penny didn’t know what to believe, but she knew she would scream if she spent another second thinking about being a wolf.
DAWSON’S BAR
MAGNOLIA PROMENADE
“Penny Pizzazz here, reporting for duty to solve someone else’s fucking problems!” The bar wasn’t super crowded, but a sign taped on the window announced it was “Bear Week.” Whatever that meant.
Bella laughed and waved Penny over. “I’ve got plenty of fucking problems, so take a seat.”
The bartender set down a Wutaheftabir, “She ordered for you.”
Penny took the glass gratefully. She was thirsty…actually insanely thirsty. Downing the drink in one gulp, she immediately ordered another. “Alright,” she said to Bella, “Lay it on me.”
“Are you okay? Are you sure you don’t want a glass of water?”
“I said, lay it on me!” Penny clenched her fist and willed the fury building in her to settle. “I’m fine, seriously. What’s going on?”
“Besides Bear Week?” Bella joked, gesturing at the man in costume sitting next to Penny.
“Yeah,” Penny snorted, “Besides this town and its weird fucking events.”
Whatever friction was between them melted. Bella launched into an explanation of her case. Most of it, Penny had heard before. She let the words wash over her until a name jolted her out of her reverie.
“—It wasn’t a lie exactly,” Bella said, “I’m pretty sure Salim killed Johnny, and Alice is the only reasonable culprit for Eliza’s murder. Still, my evidence is way more circumstantial than it should be and—”
“Salim. As in Salim Benali?” Penny jumped to her feet. She remembered reading about the case in the paper months ago, but after a bunch of hubbub, it all went quiet. Alice was long gone, and Penny was distracted, so she never mentioned it.
That’s not true.
Penny closed her eyes and tried to ignore the voice, but she couldn’t. She wasn’t distracted; she was doing that awful thing where she held onto a piece of information until it benefited her to deploy it. In this case: when Alice inevitably announced her engagement to that weirdo billionaire, and Penny needed to bring her back down to earth.
Liar.
The voice was there, and it was loud. So loud that Penny admitted to herself that she was saving the information for when it hurt the most because that’s what Pizzazzes did, and she was so fucked up she couldn’t stop herself.
“Answer me!” she shouted, pointing angrily at Bella.
“Y-yes. I really shouldn’t have said anyone’s name,” her friend clambered off of her stool, “This is an active investigation.”
“Salim is a liar. And a cheat,” Penny bit out. Heat flared in her chest. “And the Alice you’re talking about, you mean Alice Martin?”
“I…yes?” Bella put her hand on Penny’s shoulder, but Penny shoved her back so hard she flew into the table behind her.
The bartender started over, but Bella put her hand up. “It’s fine,” she wheezed, “Just a misunderstanding.” She focused on Penny, “You need to calm down. I don’t know your relationship to either of these suspects, but—”
“Alice is not a suspect!” Penny roared, “She is my friend, and you don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“She fled the country,” Bella argued as she clutched her side.
“She took her daughter away from Salim, who still tries to control her by dangling child support and screaming at her. But you don’t know anything about that, do you? Because you never talked to her. You never asked.”
“Penny, please, I—”
But Penny didn’t hear her. She stormed out of the bar and dialed Alice. When the call when to voicemail, she left a frantic message, all while guilt was scouring her from the inside out.
She should have gotten Alice to break up with Salim.
She should have told her about the cheating back in college.
She should have said something about the articles.
A piercing pain split through her.
Werewolves build up fury inside them. A rage we can’t control because it’s unnatural. And to combat that, we have to wear ourselves out.
Stomach curling and heat licking at her bones, Penny took off on a run.
The Paragon of assistants : P
Honestly I love how much depth there is to every single premade in this story. Makes me wish I’d paid more attention to some of them.
LMAO I never thought I’d ever see Vlad as a sub, love it. Though I do like that even with Vlad’s playful responses and even though he has vampiric strength Alice still makes sure she’s not doing anything he’s not cool with. Love them both. I honestly love the way you write NSFW stuff so much because sometimes people don’t know what the fuck they’re doing and it’s just perfect. AND ALSO THE ‘trying stuff out and realising it’s not for them’ and the ‘that’s cool, well if you’re not into this then I’ll do something I know you like’ and dDA:SGLL the ‘dirty’ talk XD
OHHHH MY FUCKING GOD I laughed my ass off when Lil saw him in that XD AND THE COMMENT ON ETHREN LMAOOOO. Vlad, give Lil a little time of day, will you? I love those pics for Bella’s explanation off her looking absolutely batshit, but really, the case really IS that batshit crazy. But try explaining that to this guy. XD I WANT ALICE’S WOLF JUMPER IRL
‘It was difficult to break the cycle of doing everything the hard way just to feel like she earned it.’ GOD I FUCKING LOVE this line sm. I’m not sure if I am in the mindset of ‘these are the last people I want as babysitters’ or ‘these are the ONLY people I’d hire as babysitters’!
WELP I’m not sure ‘just calm down and do your jogging’ is advice for a werewolf, Matilda. Penny’s gonna have to find a way to work through all this and come to terms with it, not just hope to run off the fury. I laughed so hard at Bear Week because I actually forgot about in-game Bear Week and thought it was a night purely for a certain type of gay man XD
HOLY SHIT PENNNY GO FERAL! To be honest, she might blame herself for that, not speaking up when it felt right, but there’s a few things: I remember I once called out to a friend that his girlfriend was being super emotionally abusive and controlling of him, and everyone acted like I was wrong to have done that for…some reason? And ancient history back when my friends at the time said they had doubts about my ex, I wouldn’t have believed them if they told me back then. It’s hard to know what to say or not say, but alas, being AFAB, every decision you end up making is apparently the incorrect one XuX I don’t think Penny should blame herself. It isn’t her fault for not saying anything, it’s Salim’s fault for being a bellend.
HOLY SHIIIIIT Lilith’s overcharge is amazing, esp when she’s floating above all the red energy all zombie like. .YRE THERE SHDFDJADF THERE THEY ARE! The demon teeth! I already love Vlad’s dark form. Overcharged spellcaster VS dark form vamp, what more could you want? I thought the end to that scenario was heartwarming…in the Vlad sense of the word.
♥️♥️ ok I know I already blabbed about this chapter with you so I won’t make you suffer through me repeating everything 🤣 but I’m so glad you enjoyed it!
Oh man, I love the empathy you still have for Penny. She needs it, even if she is in a hard spot.
Omfg the cas for the werewolves pack was TOP NOTCH