𝑒𝓋𝑒𝓇𝑔𝓇𝑒𝑒𝓃.

Will feels bad for Peyton. There is a special place in her heart for the girl, and for the wolf. She knows what it is to be all claws. She has felt the confusion the comes from being thrust unceremoniously back into her body, and the equal rage when it feels too soon. There is part of being a wolf that is akin to freedom. When Will says that she understands how Peyton feels, that is what she means. The brief, intolerability of being forced onto two legs. But that is all it is for Will: brief. She sympathizes with what Peyton clearly feels as an injustice done unto her constantly, but she does not understand. She can’t. That betrayal is a feeling that must be experienced to understand. Will smelled Peyton as soon as she came in, so it was her own fault that she didn’t hide the pancakes. She tried not to cringe at the dirt caked underneath the other girls fingernails, masking it by sliding the butter towards her. She thought better of it instantly, instead opting to butter a pancake and sliding towards Peyton herself. There were a lot of things that Will could handle, but imagining Peyton digging into her fresh tub of butter with her fingers was enough to push even her over the edge. “They’re for Grey, actually,” she admits. “To make them feel better about being back in this shit hole with all of us terrible people.” She cast Peyton a sideways smirk. “But they can be for you too.” Will skillfully flipped a pancake. “I didn’t expect to see you back, to be honest.”

Will quickly took the fun out of messing with her when she buttered her a damn pancake and slid it Peyton’s way, making it impossible for her to continue acting like a little shit. She realized it was most likely unfair to treat Will and anyone that wasn’t Elyas this way, but it was hard to be nice to people when she was fully consumed by anger. “I don’t remember anyone making me pancakes when I showed up here. Just as well, though, I probably would’ve thrown them back in your face,” she said with a shrug, breaking a piece of the pancake off and bringing it to her mouth. “Where else would I go? As long I can’t switch back, I’m pretty much stuck here.” She couldn’t go back to her parents’ after all this time and was jobless, which meant there was there would be no shitty apartment in her near future. This house was her own personal prison. The house and her body. “I’m not sure pancakes are what Grey really need. A strong drink would be more appropriate in times like these.”

It’d been a few days since Peyton was almost literally dragged to this shithole and her anger hadn’t subsided in the slightest. She was pissed about not being in the forest, pissed about the annoying people that were also in the house and pissed about her own damn limbs that she kept tripping on. She hadn’t forgotten how shitty being stuck in a human body was, but this served as a good reminder regardless. She had tried shifting back countless times, but nothing seemed to work, and since she couldn’t blow off steam her usual ways, it was only fair that Elyas be the one to deal with her outbursts. Pushing the door to his bedroom open without so much as a knock, she stomped inside and knocked over a few things off the nearest surface for good measure. “I have no clothes, asswipe,” she spat out. “Did you think of that when you decided to make this decision for me?”

It shouldn’t come as a surprise that she was back once more. Every attempt to get back to her wolf form had failed so far, what was one more? After stealing an oversized shirt from someone’s clothesline, she dragged her feet back to the pack house and was greeted by the smell of fresh pancakes. At least her day wasn’t completely ruined yet. She snuck up on Will, busy at work in the kitchen, and grabbed a cooked pancake with her dirty hands from the stack she was working on. “Those are for me, right? To make me feel a bit better about being back in this shit hole with all you terrible people?” 

theo shrugged. “I wouldn’t say I know a lot. I read a lot, but that’s not really the same thing.” she prattled on as the realization of what peyton had actually said sank in. “oh. uh-” she looked down at her hands awkwardly. “sorry. I guess I was talking a lot. I didn’t mean to bother you.”

“Well, you know a lot of random, useless facts that’s for sure,” Peyton said with a scoff, glancing at the other girl once more. “Whatever. Your random facts are probably the most interesting I’ll hear about tonight, so carry on. It’ll spare me from conversing with whatever idiot might think walking up to me tonight.”

Will wasn’t an idiot. She knew what Peyton was trying to do, that she was trying to force the change. She wanted Peyton to want to be here. To want to be apart of their pack. She’d tried explaining the benefits of having people on your side countless times, but her words, she knew, fell on deaf ears. She watched, unamused yet entirely unsurprised as Peyton grabbed at her food, barehanded. “Peyton,” she answered simply. It wasn’t angry, but it was tired. She is tired. Her patience is thinning and her nerves are frayed. “Please don’t push me today. Either help,” she stated, snatching the food out of Peyton’s hands and throwing it onto the floor. “Or go home.” It wasn’t threatening. It wasn’t angry. It was stern, yes, but she’s close to begging. She had the brief, terrifying thought that Peyton would drop down to all fours and eat the dirt-covered food anyway.

Peyton stared in disbelief as Will stole the food right from her hands, throwing it on the ground as if that would stop her from eating it. With a shrug, she bent down to grab it and shoved it right into her mouth. “Five seconds rules,” she told her with a grin, knowing it would both annoy the shit out of her and gross her out all at the same time. “You do realize I’ve had to eat out of people’s garbage for years to survive, right? As a wolf, I feel like you should know better than to think I’d be put off by a little dirt.” As much as she didn’t want to be here, the knowledge that Will wanted her there even less gave her incentive enough to do just the opposite. “I don’t really feel like helping or going home. I think you know what I actually feel like doing and that doesn’t seem to be an option, so... Looks like we’ll both be disappointed.”

where: the barn when: theo’s no longer sure with: @feralsoaked​

her throat had long since stopped burning from the heavy-handed drinks she’d been imbibing over the course of the evening. “hey. did you know that snakes can sense earthquakes up to five days before they happen?” she looked over to the person next to her. they didn’t look familiar at all to her. “oh, and horses have almost the same amount of bones as humans. humans only have one more on average. isn’t that crazy?”

Peyton was sipping on her whiskey, minding her own business when an overly hyper (at least by her standards) brunette started spewing random facts in her direction. At first, she looked straight ahead, hoping she would go away if she just ignored her, but after the second fact, it became clear that she had more animal trivia where the first one came from. The lone wolf sighed dramatically, turning to look at her with disinterest. “You seem to know a lot,” she said slowly, giving her a very obvious once over. “Do you also happen to know what I did to deserve this shitty conversation?”

TIMESTAMP: Saturday, December 7th, pre-party DIRECTED TO: Anyone!

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐨𝐧𝐥𝐲 𝐡𝐞𝐥𝐩 𝐖𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐛𝐮𝐭𝐞𝐬 𝐢𝐬 𝐟𝐨𝐨𝐝. For any party, or funeral, or event, she is the first to put her name down for the potluck. She does not plan, and she does not decorate. She does not volunteer to set up decorations, and she most certainly does not stay after to clean up. Frankly, she didn’t want to volunteer at all, but she ultimately decided that to not do so would look more suspicious than anything. Everyone was going to be here. She made her pack promise to wear triple layers and heartily encouraged them to go back home after the temperature dropped, but she couldn’t shake the fear in her gut that one of them would change tonight. 

Will parked her truck outside of the barn, noting and deciding to ignore the eyes the thundering of her engine received. Her truck was a piece of crap but she loved it and they would pry the keys out of her cold, dead hands. She hopped out, slid her keys into her pocket, and popped open the back. She stared at her equipment; food pans, chafing dishes, heat lamps, etc. She bit her lip, and glanced around. “Hey!” She called, waving her arm, a warm smile on her lips. “Can I borrow you? To help carry some of these stuff in?”

In typical Peyton fashion, she had listened to exactly zero percent of Will’s advice. She was wearing just one very thin layer to keep her comfortable and was planning on running right outside the second the temperature got cold enough. Will was scared that one of her wolves would turn, Peyton was scared that she personally wouldn’t. She had walked all the way to the venue, delaying her arrival as much as she possibly could, but still managed to make it on time. The smell was what hit her first. She was starving after all that walking and decided to investigate the smell. Sadly, the closer she got, the more another very annoying smell invaded her nostrils. “I should’ve known,” she groaned as Will and her ridiculous pans and kitchen paraphernalia. She stepped closer, lifting the aluminium up from one of the pans and grabbing some food with her bare hands. “I don’t particularly want to, no.”