cat scratch fever

“You know I couldn’t let it go to waste, Almeida.” He laughed, brushing his sweaty hair back out of his face. These were the kind of interactions he lived for, the kind he wouldn’t have been able to find as easily in a big city. Wolfie loved the sense of community that came with establishing himself in a small town - especially one chock full of the supernatural. Despite being so small, it was easy to find people like himself, people who could relate to and share the world from the eyes of a werecat. 

“Me? Never. You know what they say - ‘ain’t no rest for the wicked.’” Wolfgang joked right back, used to people teasing him about his tendency to take on a lot at once. As long as it made them smile and he finished what he needed to, he was happy.

“Speaking of - what’s got you out and about so early? I don’t usually see you on my morning runs.”

“Becca had a fight with a friend at a sleepover last night. Called me at four in the morning to come get her. An angsty young werefox pouting about her friend being, and I quote, ‘such an extra bitch’, is not conducive to catching more sleep.” Not that she minded heading out to get Becca if she really wanted to come home. From day one her goal had been to make the girl feel loved, welcomed. She had been lucky- she had been adopted as a baby. But her foster daughter had been in the system for a while and she wanted the girl to feel like she belonged, like she actually had a family.

“So, I figured since the weather is finally nice? Might as well take advantage of it.” Besides, if she was being honest? The cat in her needed to wander from time to time. Her mother used to compare her to a housecat, never able to sit still for long.

“And please, you’re about as wicked as a bunny rabbit, Wolfie. You’re too good for this world, too pure,” she teased. “Just saying.”

Maybe it was due to his weretiger genetics or perhaps it was just a personal thing, but he’d always enjoyed exercise and the satisfying rush of endorphins that came with it. As a rule of thumb, he put his own wants and needs behind those of others, but his morning run was something he let himself have. It was the quickest way to wake up and get going, especially when he’d had only a few hours of sleep, and it never failed to put him in a good mood - so he considered it a win-win.

Jogging his normal route, earbuds in place and his steady rhythm set, Wolfgang let the familiar scenery fly by with mind appreciation. He’d never gotten over how beautiful East Stroudsburg was, not even after five years of living there, and probably never would even if he took the same path every day. There was always something new to see, something interesting to contemplate as he moved past, and someone pleasant to talk to whenever he’d run into them.

Even when he’d fallen into the perfect pace, his muscles burning pleasantly and the adrenaline heightening his senses, he’d break the whole thing to say hi to a friend. It was no different that morning, Wolfie had spotted a familiar face and gradually came to a stop to exchange pleasantries, sure to catch their eye before he did so in case they were otherwise occupied.

“Hey! Long time no see, how are you?” The weretiger asked, taking a moment to catch his breath.

“Taking advantage of the good weather, Falkowski?” Nova teased the fellow werecat. They may not have been the same breed of were but cats were more rare than their wolf counterparts so every time she met another feline? She was always happy to know them, found some kind of comradery in them. The town itself was comforting in itself as they knew that they could mostly be themselves but it was nice to be able to know others like themselves.

“I don’t often see you outside of your restaurant. Don’t tell me the workaholic himself is slacking?” she teased.

“Tea it is,” Lorenzo parroted back as he went to get the boxes of tea he had stashed in the cabinets. “Got an entire selection and some so help yourself.” Was the entirety of his collection a bit excessive? Probably, but he’s always been an avid fan of tea; both herbal, black, green and everything in between. 

“Duly noted. You can still have one later if you change your mind- night’s still young after all.”

Arching an eyebrow Nova made her way over to the impressive tea collection- who knew there were that many kinds?- and starting looking through it. “Don’t tempt me too much- I have a teenager at home now. If there was ever a good reason to drink it’s a teenage werefox who is just coming up on her first heat. Mom life is much harder than my own made it out to be.” So much harder. She would have to thank her lovely siren mother for putting up with a were child going through all that.

Deciding to stick with simple green tea the panther removed it from the collection and turned towards Lorenzo. “How are things going on your end, Doc? Any interesting stories to tell?”

With Spring finding it’s way through East Stroudsburg, Hal’s business was in full bloom. It was harder, in the snowy months of Winter, to keep a flower shop going. He couldn’t get his flowers from in the state, which upped the cost for him, and the regularity of business went down. Spring, though- spring brought an ease and happiness to his business that reminded him of why he kept his family’s business going. Fresh flowers, from as local as he could find vendors, lined his shop, bursting to the seams with colors.

Today, Hal was sat at a counter top in the shop- he had a few employees, but was constantly in the shop himself as well- playing with some freesia and a vase and deciding what to do with them. The doors to his shop were wide open, letting fresh air wind its way through. He didn’t hear anyone approaching until he saw their feet, blinking out of his state of concentration and looking up.

“Uh, shit. Hi. You haven’t been waiting long, have you?”

“Not at all.”

The reason Nova was there would probably seem silly to some people. But Becca was going to be going through her first heat and Nova’s foster daughter was absolutely beside herself over it, stressing herself out to the max despite Nova’s assurances that it was perfectly normal and everything would be fine. It was the disadvantage to being both a female and a were- first you dealt with the whole menstrual cycle starting- torture in and of itself- but then you had to deal with head coming up for the first time. Every girl’s worse nightmare. Especially since they usually came in short succession.

Poor, poor Becca.

Making her way towards the man the were gave him a slight smile. “I’m just looking to pick up something for my daughter- foster daughter technically. She’s going through a rough patch and I thought I’d try to cheer her up a bit.”

“You want any?” He raised his voice so the other could hear from a room over. The patter of rain against the window panes made it that much harder to hear so he shuffled over towards the doorway. “Have a shit ton of tea and I can get a pot of joe going if that’s more of your thing.” Lorenzo poked his head out from around the corner to look at the other while he spoke. “If not then I have some booze you’re more than welcome to.”

“Well, aren’t you Mr. Prepared?” the werepanther teased, turning her attention away from the rain outside. Smiling at him Nova shook her head slightly. “As tempting as the alcohol is these days, I’ll stick with the tea.” And shit, the alcohol was more than tempting now that she had her foster daughter to take care of. She loved the girl dearly but there were times when Becca gave her a real run for her money. “But congrats on being prepared that way. Next time I might just take you up on the offer for a stiff drink.”

He almost inhaled a portion of his beer when an influx of noise happened. All of the squabbling drew his eyes over to the source. “Couldn’t agree more,” Casey noted after he cleared his throat. A part of him wanted to step in, but the last time he did that he ended up causing evenmore trouble. Still, he thought about it, and maybe it showed by the way he leaned towards the fights instead of away from it.

“Tempted to jump in?” Nova teased, smiling at the man across from her. She supposed that was a real possibility. She had see it happen plenty of times before, fights breaking out at bars and then people who weren’t involved to begin with tended to end up in the fray. It could definitely get interesting- and sometimes even entertaining depending on the circumstances. But with all weres on edge lately- it seemed heat was coming for them all- it could definitely erupt into chaos.

Since Yun Hee had set up her little bookstore she had the pleasure of meeting some rather enthusiastic youngsters who liked to read. It was so nice to have children interested in reading and actually want to spend money in her shop. But with them also came little trouble makers who like to come into the store and switch all the books around. Some of the history books were scattered in the horror sections and the romance novels were hidden under one of the tables she set up with the more popular young adult type books. Basically, everything was scattered everywhere all in its wrong places in the middle of the day and she can’t believe she had allowed this to happen.

Her bookstore had become a part-time playground. But she took it all in good humor. Some of the hiding places were both funny and clever.

Carrying about ten or so books behind the register and placing them on a cart so she could sort them out later she turned to the customer who she had noticed walked up as she was searching the shelves for misplaced books and gave them a tired nervous smile. She took a deep breath to even her breathing out and smiled brightly, “Hi, Hello um-” She swears she doesn’t remember books ever being so heavy before. “W-will that be all? Is there something else I can help you with?”

“Rough day?” It was difficult not to notice the disorder in the store- or perhaps it was more accurate to say it was difficult not to notice the disorder that someone had obviously caused. It didn’t seem likely that the store was kept that way intentionally. Even without the obvious efforts to organize everything- she had noticed the other woman moving about to put things in their proper place- logic told Nova that no one would purposely keep their book store set up that way, books not in their proper sections. All it would succeed in doing is confusing customers and making them find what they were looking for just that much more difficult.

“No, that’ll be all,” the werepanther finally answered while sending the owner a slight smile. In truth she wasn’t that big of a reader- and for no in particular reason that she could actually name. She had never hated it but it was a hobby that had never endeared itself to her. Becca, however? Oh, that girl loved reading. And if she could encourage her foster daughter’s habit by bringing her home some new reading material? Well, she had every intention of doing just that.

lucas had parked his car a bit back, and was just walking around main street on his day off for no reason other than he hated to be at home alone. he saw some kids throwing water balloons at people, and really it wasn’t his job to tell them to stop, but they were about to wind up and throw them at someone walking by and he opened his mouth anyway, “hey! don’t throw those at people!” he called, clearly surprising their target, and causing the boys to scatter. luca shook his head, then looked back at their initial target, “sorry for yelling like that, but i didn’t think you wanted to get soaked.” he offered with a charming smile.

“Well, aren’t you just the killer of joy, Officer Granger?” No cop in town was unknown to the Almeida sisters even if they wanted to. The girls ended up at the precinct more often than either of them liked to admit- though thankfully it was usually not for anything they did wrong. Sometimes in their line of work they just encountered things it seemed prudent to report to the local authorities- or at least that’s what Nova always told herself. “Do me a favor- if you ever see my foster daughter Becca terrorizing the town one water balloon at a time give me a call. I’ll straighten her out.” She was pretty sure that wouldn’t happen but hey, who knew with kids?

Brayden cringed inwardly. He always felt off kilter facing people who knew when things had been Brayden and Alice Reed instead of just Brayden Reed. It was always a little uncomfortable when Almeida came around the PD whenever her cases led the woman there. Or maybe it was just uncomfortable for him. “Hardly an abuse when we’re talkin’ about paying my dues.” He forced a smile. “And if they don’t well…Guess they can file a complaint.” Brayden cleared his throat. “How’s life treating you, Nova?”

“Can’t complain- even with a pre-teen foster kid at home.” Becca was going to hit that age where she was going to be impossible soon but for the time being? Becca was pretty easy to manage, thankfully. Give it another year or so and she’d probably want to rip her hair out. “Maybe I should be asking you that, Brayden.” People may talk a lot in that town but she had learned long ago that not everyone knew a damn thing about what was actually happening. They just liked to pretend they did. “People talk a lot of shit around this town but always better to hear it from the source. So, how are you Brayden?”

“Christ, this is more embarrassing than that time Justice got drunk enough to karaoke.” Reed groaned to himself walking over to the bar, trying to get the bartender’s attention.  “Listen, do I have to flash my badge to get the waitress to bring me the check here or what?“

“Do they appreciate an abuse of power like that around here, Reed?” Nova teased, turning in her seat to glance at the werebear. She knew his wife- ex-wife?- better than Brayden himself but had met him a few times over the years since she had gotten to know Alice. “Color me surprised.”

As a rule, Alice didn’t like bars. Too many men eager to sidled up next to her – it was the age, she knew. A woman alone in a bar after the age of forty? Spoke of desperation. Which shewasn’t.

She was married, dammit. Sure, he’d sent her papers and was being a stubborn jackass, but …

Alice refused to take off her ring.

It was the stubborn indignation in her.

“So, do they just play shitty millennial music here, or what?” she asked, chancing a glance to her right, at whatever poor schmuck had just earned her company.

“Music rub you that wrong, Alice?”

From her spot at the bar the werepanther shot the redhead a small smile, amusement lacing every word. The music wasn’t bad really, but to each their own. Who could really judge that sort of thing?

“It’s been a hot minute since I’ve seen you out at a bar,” Nova mused, head cocking slightly to the side as she watched her. The woman was looking worse for the wear lately but who was Nova to judge? It was well-known in the small community that it wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows in the Reed family so who could blame her.

“What are you drinking today? I’ll spring for a round or two.”

╳   have you seen NOVA ALMEIDA, the 33 year-old WEREPANTHER in the pocono mountains? they work as a PRIVATE INVESTIGATOR. they’re known to be SELF-DEPRECIATING & SNEAKY, but also PROTECTIVE & FAMILY ORIENTED . their soulmate looks like TBA, but who knows what will happen between them?