PJ narrative thingy thingy Who: PJ and some Peripheral NPCs Where: Repose, then Nebraska When: Recent past to present - during and after this What: A series of things that happen as a result of being flashy thinged by an amateur. Warnings/Rating: Eh, language, some super mild mentions of wolfy face biting.
Okay so maybe she was standing there like she didn't know her name or where she was. But PJ definitely knew her name. She was a little unclear on the where she was thing until she stepped outside into the chilly night air of her hometown. Then, she knew exactly where she was. She looked North and saw the Fill-Up Station, the lights weren't on (it was late) but she saw the street lamps outside and saw the familiar outline of the buildings her family had owned since before she was born. She looked at the house behind her. She was standing on the front porch of the Carriage House out behind the old B&B, which was weird.
Okay - the whole damn thing was weird. She wasn't supposed to be in her hometown at all. Her eyes scanned the scenery in front of her a bit more. Her Hemicuda was parked outside the Carriage House, her dad's flatbed tow truck was parked up behind it with a 1953 Caribbean on the back of it. It had pretty good bones from the look of it, but she refused to let herself be distracted. What was she doing here? Not just in the carriage house behind the old B&B, but in Repose at all?
She reached into her pocket, phone, keys, package of m&ms. Her keys didn't look entirely familiar, as she tossed them around her hand, and that was definitely a new phone. But her screen was a picture of the very same Hemicuda that was parked in front of the tow truck, so she knew it was hers. Her keys had some weird unknown keys on it, she recognized the keys to the tow truck so she hustled over to it and climbed up into the beast, Lucille - this one was called - and saw a purse on the passenger seat and it smelled more like her than it did her dad almost immediately upon getting up into it. Which...Wasn't right.
She opened up her phone and looked through her contacts to actually call her dad, but - he wasn't in her phone. Which, was also weird. But as luck would have it the only phone numbers she still had memorized was the number to the fill-up station and the number to the house she'd grown up in. The fill-up station was closed, so she dialed the number to the house...It didn't even ring before she got the 'we're sorry the number you have dialed has either been disconnected or is no longer in service.'
Her dad would never disconnect the house phone. He was old school like that.
She sat in the cab of the truck for another long moment. Trying not to panic and failing miserably.
Shit. Shit. Shit.
What was she doing here? She wasn't supposed to be here, she wasn't supposed to leave the pack and she definitely didn't remember getting permission. She couldn't even smell them on her anymore. She didn't even...Miss them.
Something had happened. Something weird had happened, and she didn't know what, but she needed to get back or else they were going to show up here.
The tow truck was here for a reason, the car on the back wasn't hers, but the car in front of it was. She started up the engine to the tow truck and backed it up onto the street, like a pro (because she was, lets be real). She parked the truck and its payload on the street out front of the Carriage House and made her way up to her own car. She didn't even think about if she had stuff, she just needed to get back to Nebraska, and figure things out from there. Before they came to this town and figured things out for her.
There were weird smells all over her, and all over the interior of her car. One familiar. Atticus. Okay. She'd figure that out too. Everything would just have to wait though. Everything. She started the engine, it rumbled just like it was supposed to, and she was off. She couldn't help herself though, it was like she was barely in control of her muscles as she drove the familiar streets through town and toward the house she had lived in most of her life. There was a new fence up in front of it. It was painted a different color. New cars parked in the driveway. And her mother's rose bushes had been yanked out entirely.
Tires squealed as she sped down the street and ran every stop sign between her old house and the interstate.
***
Her arrival had, apparently, been a shock to everyone. She had, it seemed, been gone for quite some time. Just over two years. She'd gone home to bury her father, and decided not to go back. Needless to say she wasn't exactly welcomed back with open arms. But they were curious enough about what was going on with her to let her stay. Well guarded of course. And the alpha? Well, he seemed genuinely pleased to have her home. Like he'd actually missed her. Which surprised her. She was being treated much better than she ever really had been before, and she wondered what exactly had gone on.
In the days since she'd returned there had been one glaring difference that she did notice, aside from the way the pack reacted to her when she was permitted to interact with them - but it was the way she felt around them. And the way she felt inside. The way her wolf felt inside of her. Two years away, without the pack, she assumed she'd go crazy. She'd been told she would be lost without them. But she didn't. When she'd first found herself at the carriage house, she hadn't even missed them, even though her instinct had been to get back to them. But as the days blended into nights she wondered if it had been instinct at all.
Even day to day she felt no connection or desire to serve this alpha and his whims. She felt no need to force his hand, so she stayed and interacted and watched this pack. She watched as its members cowered in fear and watched as the alpha barked out orders and kept close to his inner circle of idiots who did as he commanded to stay in his good graces. He'd only become the alpha of this pack because he'd taken it. He feared power in others, he was weak. And he surrounded himself with weak minded followers who refused to challenge his decisions even if they were idiotic decisions.
She remembered now, not the two years she'd spent away, but the time she'd spent watching and waiting. He was afraid of being challenged, and only cared about expanding his reach further, he absorbed other packs when he could, and weeded out new wolves that presented a challenge to him. But apparently her time away had accomplished something, because she felt nothing for him anymore. She didn't revere him, and she certainly didn't fear him. She pitied him. She was repulsed by him.
And that's what she told him the night she challenged him, in front of everyone, all of his closest allies and friends who bared their teeth at her and laughed. And she stood there unfazed and unblinking staring him down where he sat as she told him he wasn't fit to lead, and just because he was feared didn't mean he was strong. And just because he was cruel didn't mean he was brave. She called him weak and she called him stupid and watched as he continued grow angrier and angrier, she kept her calm about her, she'd never felt so calm and sure in her life. She wasn't phased even when he'd exposed the truth that he'd been the one to change her, that he should have known she was trouble, she didn't care. Her life may have been a lie, but something - whatever it had been - had changed inside of her. And this man - if she could call him that - wasn't going to control her any longer. Or the rest of this pack.
When he stood and turned his body changing from human to wolf it was violent and angry, bones cracking and muscles tearing, there was screaming and roaring as those around him backed away hurriedly. When she immediately did the same she'd never really felt more at one with herself before. It was calm and graceful, a give and take between two halves of a whole and she was soon on all fours, hackles raised and teeth bared staring down the wolf who had brought her into this life. She didn't know how she hadn't seen it before, because here and now she recognized the eyes, the teeth, all of it. But perhaps she just hadn't been ready. But now she was.
The fight was violent. And it was difficult. And while she could feel all the eyes of the pack on her, she knew they wouldn't intercede to help either one of them. She kept her eyes trained on the alpha and after what felt like hours, though it really hadn't been, she had him pinned and she felt her jaw clamp with all the strength it had and her teeth sink in around his throat. It was ending now. She didn't want to kill anyone, but she knew he was going to kill her one way or another. And he was going to keep turning people. And he was going to keep hurting people who posed a threat to him.
She stayed there, holding him down, long after he was gone, when she felt a presence behind her, another wolf, she released her teeth from the neck of the dead alpha then and bared her teeth growling at the wolf who was approaching. They backed off, whining slightly, ears back, submissive. She calmed then. Meaning no harm. She looked around the group who had stayed to witness, some had changed, others had remained human, none of them looked anything but shocked. None were angry. None looked ready to take her on.
***
The days that followed were a whirlwind of shock and surprise from the pack. She'd beat the alpha. That put her in charge. She knew that, but she hadn't done it to be put in charge. She done it to free them all. There were a few outliers who weren't overly thrilled, still thinking they'd had some clout with the boss in charge. They left. Some encouraged her to go after them, but she wasn't there to start fights. Or continue fights. If they came back with the intention of fighting, they would deal with it then. But most were pleased. Some were even over the moon. Many asked for permission to go back to their old packs. His sister, PJ's closest friend, and the pack beta, was happiest of all. Strangely. She helped most of all. PJ surrounded herself with people who could help, could update her, could guide her. She told them all she wasn't ready to actually lead. She didn't want to lead. This wasn't what she needed, or what she desired. Part of her felt she needed to go back to Repose. If she'd been there for two years, then maybe she had a life there.
She knew this was how it worked, but it was time to try and change things, but then again, she didn't know what the life she was supposed to go back to entailed. So she plugged along for a few more days, and she asked her beta to take over and they worked out a system. And they worked out a plan, because really - that's how it should be. Freedom. And gentleness. Less kidnapping and random wolfmaking for the power play of it all. PJ would stay and help them get on their feet. And then she would try and find out what the world had to offer, because despite it all - there was one thing she was sure of - this still wasn't her pack.