Chapter 5-

This One's Mine

Penelope had spent the afternoon with her mom, but now she was working the night shift, so Penelope was bored. She drove herself to the local video store, planning on finding a movie to rent. She'd pop some popcorn, relax in bed, and just enjoy herself before going to bed.

When she pulled up, she saw another car in the lot and parked several spots down from it so that it wasn't awkward, not even glancing at it as she walked inside. When she did she noticed a familiar face, well back. "Hello? Is anybody working here?"

Not wanting to deal with his douchey attitude, she ducked to the right, behind the aisle, knowing she'd be covered. She started perusing the shelves, trying to decide what movie to get. She hears a crash and all the lights go out, leaving the store in the pitch dark. She puts down the copy of Lord of the Rings she was holding, looking around cautiously. Then she sees the most terrifying thing of all. This must be the Alpha. It's huge and black, hard to make out exactly in the dark store. It's standing in the center aisle facing away from her while she's frozen, staring at Jackson she assumes. Then its head snaps to her, barings its teeth.

Penelope snaps into action, scrambling to get behind the shelf. But it's no use. The Alpha jumps to the top of the shelf, standing over her as she lets out a shrill scream. She tries to crawl away, but the thing jumps down, standing over her, baring its canines. It rears back and clamps its jaw around her upper thigh, and immediately everything goes bright white in her mind and everything is silent, except for the voice. Not the Alpha's voice that she heard on the school bus, but a new one.

"This one's mine." She sees an image of a man, with the head of a goat and large curved horns, and large white eyes, before it all disappears and she's back in the video store.

Almost like it was burned, the thing yelped and let her go, backing away from her and whimpering as she cried and backed up as well. It then seemed to find its confidence again, turning and beginning to stalk Jackson. Penelope cursed herself and her cowardice, but she pulled herself up off the ground and limped along the side wall until she found a back hallway with an exit door. She pushed it open, stepping into the cold night air, and checking her leg she saw that it was still oozing blood. She limped around the building, rushing to her car. As soon as she threw herself into the driver's seat and locked the door, the beast burst through the front glass windows of the store, causing her to shout. Penelope starts her car, peeling off as soon as the thing is out of sight. Her vision is blurry, and she swerves as she gets control of the car, straightening it onto the road. She checks her mirrors nervously, worried that it may follow her. She drives straight home and goes to her room.

She whimpers in pain, limping to the bathroom, sitting herself on the closed toilet seat. Peeling out of her jeans, she checks the wound, noticing right away how much nastier it looks than Scott's did. Penelope cleans the blood, wiping the bite with alcohol, finishing it with a bandage. Her phone rings and she bends down, fishing it out of her pants pocket where they lay on the ground. Stiles' name and photo lights up the screen, and after a few moments of hesitation, she hits decline. He calls again immediately, and this time she lets it go to voicemail. Now she starts to think about the events of the night.

Not only was she bitten by a freaking werewolf, but she heard that voice in her head. And saw a goat man with red eyes. So now they had werewolves and were...goats to worry about? Everything was so overwhelming, and she was exhausted. Her phone beeped several times, and she saw that Stiles was texting her.

Stiles: nelly call me back

Stiles: why are u ignoring me

Stiles: penelope marigold alcot- pick up the phone i know ur awake

Stiles: fine, youve left me no choice

She sighs, knowing he was probably already on his way over. She collects her bloody pants, throwing her clothes into her hamper before putting on sweatpants and a long sleeve shirt, sitting in bed. Five minutes pass and she hears a car pull into her driveway and soon enough, her window is being pulled open, and a body falls through and onto her floor.

"Fuck that hurt," Stiles groans. "Hey," he smiles, standing up.

"What do you want?" she asked, trying to keep her voice even, but just wanting to be left alone.

"There was a guy murdered at the video store tonight, I tried calling you. Lydia and Jackson were there," he says, sitting next to her on the bed.

She shifts away from him, turning slightly, not meeting his eyes, "That's interesting."

"Interesting? What's up with you?" he prods, analyzing her body language.

"I-I just don't feel well," she admits, her voice slightly wobbling now.

"Nelly, if something's the matter, please tell me. Scott and I can help," he begs her, rubbing her back comfortingly. This causes the floodgates to break, and she turns to him, clutching him as she sobs.

"Woah- okay, okay, shh, it's okay, just calm down," he cooed as he caressed her hair. He let her cry for several minutes before asking again, "You ready to talk about it?"

She sniffles, pulling away from him, "I don't know how to say it, Stiles… I don't want you to hate me."

"I could never hate you, how could you even think that?"

Penelope cringes, wondering how to word this. "Igotbitbythealphaatthevideostore," she rushes out in one breath, watching his face closely for his reaction.

"What? You got what at where? Slow down, breath," he tells her.

"Stiles, I was at the video store tonight. The Alpha was there," she stops, unable to say it again for a moment, a lump in her throat. "He-he bit me."

Stiles stares at her, mouth open and gaping like a fish, eyes wide. "Nelly…" he whispers brokenly. "I'm so, so sorry."

He pulls her into another hug, and nothing else is said between the two as he pulls her down, allowing her to sleep as he holds her like him and Scott used to do so often when they would all cuddle together during their childhood sleepovers.

She wakes the next morning to Stiles shaking her gently, and blinks awake. "Hey, I'm gonna run home to get changed, I accidentally slept here all night, do you feel okay to go to school today?"

"I need to, it's the parent teacher conferences today," she whispers, sitting up.

"Okay, then just stay put and I'll drive right back to bring you, okay?" he tells her, pulling his sneakers on.

"Stiles, you don't have to keep an eye on me all day, I promise I'm fine now after my breakdown last night," she smiles slightly, standing and wincing at the pain in her leg.

"That right there is why I'm keeping an eye on you," he sighs, "Have you talked to Scott?"

"No, I honestly wouldn't have even told you last night if you hadn't broken into my room," she told him, chuckling.

"We have to tell him, he'll probably figure it out anyway, plus he can help you now," Stiles walks to her, placing his hands on her shoulders.

"I just don't want him to think any differently of me," she admits, "Either of you."

"Do we think any differently of Scotty?" he asks and she shakes her head in response. "Exactly, so why would this be any different? You're our best friend." He kisses her forehead, "Now get ready, I'll be back in like twenty minutes," he calls on his way down the hall.

Penelope sat next to Stiles in Mr. Harris' class as he reminded them about the parent-teacher conferences after school today. She wasn't failing any classes, so she wouldn't have to attend, but she didn't want to stand out by not showing up to class. Like Scott.

"Just a friendly reminder: parent-teacher conferences are tonight. Students below a C-average are required to attend. I won't name you since the shame and self disgust should be more than enough punishment. Has anyone seen Scott McCall?" he asks, hands on his hips as he stops at Stiles' and Penelope's table, she shook her head and Stiles just looked around cluelessly as he highlighted his textbook.

The door opens and in comes Jackson, something slightly off about him. Everyone watches as he makes his way to his seat. Harris crosses to him and puts a hand on the boys back, "Jackson, if you need to leave early for any reason... You let me know." Jackson swallows and nods, clearly shaken up.

"Everyone, start reading Chapter Nine. Mr. Stilinski, try putting the highlighter down between paragraphs. It's Chemistry. Not a coloring book," Mr. Harris calls out Stiles, causing Penelope to giggle at his shocked expression. "Traitor," he whispers to her.

Capping his highlighter, Stiles leans toward Danny who is sitting in front of him.

"Danny? Can I ask you a question?"

"No," Danny answers shortly.

"I'm going to anyway. Um, did Lydia show up in your homeroom today?"

"No."

"Can I ask you another question?" Stiles whispered.

"Answer's still no," Danny sighed, annoyed.

"Does anyone know what happened to her and Jackson last night?" Penelope asked for him, causing Danny to glance at the girl.

"He wouldn't... tell me," was all the explanation Danny gave.

"But you're his best friend," Stiles says to which Danny shrugs, "One more question?"

"What?" Danny said, exasperated.

"Do you find me attractive?"

Penelope laughs in shock, not expecting him to ask that, Danny doesn't answer, and Stiles leans forward in his stool, falling out of it. He looks around as people stare, getting back in his seat quickly, looking to Penelope.

"Shut up."

The two of them exit class together, Stiles dialing Scott again, holding the phone between their heads as they walked down the hallway together.

"What?" Scott finally picks up.

"Finally!" Stiles sighs, "Have you been getting any of my texts?

"Yeah, like all nine million of them," she hears through the phone.

"Do you have any idea what's going on? We need to talk about Penelope, Lydia's totally M-I-A, Jackson looks like he had a time bomb inserted into his face, another random guy is dead and you need to do something about it.

"Well you never said anything about Penelope. What am I supposed to do?" he whispers, like he's with someone.

"Something!" Stiles yells.

"I'll deal with it later," is all he says before the call disconnects.

"You didn't tell him, did you?" she sighed, as Stiles cursed out their friend through the now dead line.

"No, I thought you would want to, and that we should do it in person, and now he's decided to disappear, so we're gonna have to figure this out together," he decides, wrapping an arm around her shoulder and directing her in the opposite direction from their next class.

"What? Where are we going?" she asks, turning around to look back down the hallway as the bell rings.

"Lydia's house," he says, pushing past the front doors.

"Why?" Penelope stops, causing him to turn around to look at her.

"To find out what the hell she saw last night," Stiles says, gesturing to the Jeep, "Now let's go before we get caught."

"Why am I going, though?" she relents, walking with him to the car.

"Because if Scott's going MIA, then we don't need him. You're our newly designated werewolf. Plus I said I was keeping an eye on you today, remember?"

Penelope bursts out laughing, faltering and almost tripping as she goes to step into the passenger seat, "You're so dumb."

"You love me," he grins at her, starting the engine.

"Yeah… yeah I do," Penelope smiles wistfully.

Getting into Lydia's house was a lot easier than she expected it to be. Her mother didn't know either of them, but when they introduced themselves, Ms. Martin seemed to know Penelope.

"Oh, Lydia's talked about you! Come in, come in, she's in her room," she escorted them through the house.

"Honey, there's a Stiles here to see you," her mom announces to Lydia.

"What the hell, is a 'Stiles'?" Lydia asks, turned away from them.

"Penelope is here too," her mom adds.

"Penny!" Lydia grins, her eyes unfocused as they snapped to the door.

"She took a little something to ease her nerves," her mom explains, "you guys can go on in."

Stiles approaches the bed as Lydia turns over, hand on her hip. Penelope sits gently on the corner of the bed behind her.

"What are you doing here?" Lydia asks the boy, seeming to forget about her.

"Just wanted to make sure you're okay," Stiles stutters.

"Hmm… Why?" the strawberry blonde asks, spitting out some of the hair that had gotten in her mouth.

"Because we were kind of worried about you today. How are you feeling?" he tells her, and she reaches out, feeling up his bicep. Penelope narrows her eyes at the contact, and Stiles sputters, glancing at her momentarily.

"I feel faaaaaaantastic," Lydia responds, leaning into him, getting close to his face. Stiles laughs nervously again. Penelope groans quietly, although Stiles hears her, and he quickly changes the subject.

"Oh, wow," Stiles glances at the prescription bottle on the nightstand, reading the label, "Bet you can't say 'I saw Susie sitting in a shoeshine shop' ten times fast."

"I saw Shusie... I shaw... I saw…" Lydia's gaze drifts on the last words, staring into space. Stiles sits on the bed next to her, noticing both her look and change in demeanor.

"What did you see, Lydia?" Penelope speaks up.

"I saw something…" she trails off.

"What?" Stiles presses.

"Something."

"Was it a mountain lion?" Stiles tries.

Lydia seems to like that answer and agrees, "Yeah. A mountain lion."

"You definitely saw a mountain lion? Or the cops told you it was a mountain lion?"

"A mountain lion," she repeats. Penelope grabs a teddy bear from beside her on the bed, handing it to Stiles, and he gets the idea, showing it to Lydia.

"What's this?"

"A mountain lion," Lydia replies with a dreamy far-off look.

"Okay, you're so drunk," Stiles says as Lydia bends over, resting her head against his thigh, making him lean back and shudder in shock. Penelope glares at him, feeling very uncomfortable, "This is so weird."

She stands from the bed in a huff, making him look at her in surprise. Lydia sits up, laying back in her original position. She goes out into the hallway, waiting for him, as he looks through her phone. Stiles joins her by the door, "Well, we're gonna go, let you get back to the whole post traumatic stress thing," he says as he closes the door.

"Mm, stay," Lydia sighs from inside, and Stiles opens the door again in shock. "Uh, I-I can't, I'm sorry, Lydia, we gotta go," he closes the door again, finding Penelope standing beside him.

"I figured you'd jump all over that," she comments dryly after they say goodbye to Lydia's mother and exit the house.

"Well, you're wrong, today's about you, plus I don't think she knows what she's talking about," he sighed.

"Those pills have her out of it," she sighed, feeling bad now about how upset she had gotten earlier. "What were you looking through her phone for?"

"Oh my god!" he yelled, "I can't believe I almost forgot, she had a video of the Alpha on her phone! I deleted it, and sent it to myself. The last thing we need is the whole world knowing werewolves exist."

"How'd she even manage that and not remember what she saw?" Penelope's eyes widened, thinking back to how terrifying the beast was.

"I don't know and I don't want to know."

"Hey, it's me. Again. I found something and I don't know what to do and if you don't turn your phone back on I'm going to kill you, no I'm going to get Penelope to kill you. I'm too pissed off to come up with a witty description of exactly how we'll be killing you. We're just going to kill you."

Stiles clicks off the phone, pacing around his room. Penelope sits on his bed and says, "Can I tell you something?"

But a knock on his bedroom door makes them jump. The door clicks open.

Stiles' dad stands on the other side, "Please tell me I'm going to hear good news at the parent teacher thing tonight," then noticing the girl on his bed, "Oh, hey, Penelope, I didn't know you were here."

"Hey, Sheriff Stilinski," she smiles, waving.

"That depends on how you define good news," Stiles answers his father.

"I define it as you getting straight A's with no behavioral issues," his dad says sternly.

"You might wanna rethink that definition," Stiles says and Penelope laughs, covering it with a cough.

"Enough said," his dad nods, leaving the room.

Stiles sits next to her on the bed, pulling up the video on his phone, pausing it at the moment when the Alpha's face was the clearest. They sighed, staring at the screen.

"Come on, Scott, where the hell are you?"

"I think we should delete it," she whispers, unable to tear her eyes from the screen.

"Really?"

"I know what it looks like, Scott knows, and now you. Why do we need proof? This can only end badly if it gets into the wrong hands," she explains.

"You're right," he agrees, before hovering over the delete button, clicking it and confirming after a moment.

They end up looking through paperwork about the Hale fire before he drives her home. "Hey, what did you want to talk about earlier?" he asks when he parks the car in her driveway behind her moms car.

"Promise you won't think I'm crazy?" she squeezes her eyes shut, clenching her fists.

"I think after everything that's happened to us, nothing could be considered crazy anymore," he laughs, trying to lighten the mood.

"You haven't heard the crazy I'm about to tell you," she sighs. "When the Alpha bit me, I heard something."

"Like when you heard the Alpha on the bus?" he questioned curiously, leaning closer.

"Kind of, except… it was a different voice, and I-I saw something too. It's like everything went white, and then I saw a man, well kind of a man, I think," she shakes, still unable to make sense of it.

"Kind of a man? What do you mean? What did he say?"

"He had the body of a man, and the head of a goat, with blank white eyes. H-he said, 'This one's mine', and it's like the Alpha was in pain. It literally yelped like a kicked dog, and backed away from me like it was scared, and that's when it turned on Jackson. I felt so bad for leaving him there, but I was so scared," she explained, tears finally dripping from her eyes.

"That asshole would've left you," he said firmly, trying to figure out how to respond to the rest of it. "Okay, maybe, maybe uh, okay yeah I have no idea what that could mean. But we'll figure it out."

"What if I'm going to turn into a goat?" she cries out, sobbing now.

"Hey, hey, hey," he shushes, pulling her into the best hug they could get over the center console. "You'd be the prettiest weregoat there ever was. And honestly, wouldn't that be better? Goats are far less aggressive than wolves."

Penelope laughed, the vibrations rumbling through his chest, "Thank you, Stiles. For always making me feel better. I'm sorry our sophomore year couldn't have gone a little smoother."

He nods, wiping a thumb across her cheek, "Don't worry about it, what are best friends for, huh? Plus, I've got to pull the slack for Scott apparently."

She laughed again, wiping the rest of her face, sniffling.

"Now get some rest, want me to pick you up in the morning?" he asks her.

"Thanks, but I'll drive. I have my own car yet I rarely ever use it, I think mom's getting ready to sell it," she tells him, opening the door.

"Alright, goodnight, Nelly, love you."

She stops, hand on the door, getting ready to push it closed. The three of them were extremely close, but 'love you' hadn't been something they'd said to each other in what felt like years.

"Goodnight, love you too, pretty boy," she replies as he scoffs at her.

When she checks her bite mark that night, she's surprised to see that it hasn't healed yet. In fact, it looks just as bad as when she had first received it. With Scott it had only taken a day, but hers hadn't changed. This worried her but she just replaced the bandage and got ready for bed.

The trees loomed above her as she walked through the woods. It was pitch black but as she followed the man in front of her, she wasn't worried. His naked back was facing her, and she could see the curve of his horns as they wrapped over his head. Penelope felt like she was gliding, and looked down to see that she was barefoot, wearing a lace black nightgown that clung to her body as the wind gently lapped at her exposed skin.

They happened upon a clearing, where the man stopped, turning to her finally. She gasped, taking in his face, more specifically his eyes. Up close she could see just how piercing they were.

"Are you blind?" she asked, raising a hand to his face.

"No, and soon you will learn to see, too," he spoke, his voice gruff and deep as she curiously ran a finger along the furry plane of his cheek.

"What do you mean? I can already see, you're not even real are you? This is just a mental breakdown caused by stress, isn't it?" she said breathlessly, looking around them.

He grasped her wrists, holding but not squeezing, "I am realer than anything you've ever experienced. And you will be my host, you will learn, you will help people. We will help people."

He raised one of his hands, placing two fingers to her forehead as she closed her eyes. She feels a piercing pain through her mind before she sees everything, knows everything. And it's all just too much. She screams and screams, but the memories keep coming. Penelope sees the man, changing from the form she's used to into several different shapes. First a large horse, then a small hare, a sleek cat, and a large German Shepherd. All of the animals had pitch black fur, eyes bright white.

"Concentrate on the shape you wish to take, draw on my power, call to me, only then can you shift," he explained, removing his hands, cradling her face gently.

"How do I call you? I don't even know your name?" she stares.

"Phouka."