There’s Strength in Pain | Jo & Eli
Whichever deity had come up with this concept of soulmates had a real twisted sense of humor. So many of the people Jo knew had a cute story about how they met their "one". A skinned knee on the playground at recess, an injury during a high school football game, or a cut finger while at work. Jo, however, had been feeling pain since she was a child. It started before she could even really remember. It would wake her up at night, burning and cutting, making it hard to eat, hard to focus, hard to think.
The pain became so frequent, so constant that Jo began to worry when it faded. She always feared that days with no pain meant he, whoever he was, had died. But it seemed like just a matter of time until the pain was back, her ever present friend. It made her tough, strong. She learned how to ignore it, how to not let pain phase her. It came in handy as she started hunting, and she definitely felt less guilty about any pain she caused her soulmate in the process. If she could handle it, so could he.
One such hunt had brought her to the tiny town of Harmony, West Virginia. It was straight out of a story book. Quaint, cute, friendly. And the whole thing had a weird sense of familiarity, which was entirely unwelcome, as she'd never actually been to this particular town before. She wasn't entirely sure why Peter had called her out here, but when a friend called for help, Jo went where she was needed. She checked the directions on her note one more time before making a turn, spotting his truck in front of an old house just outside of town.
Climbing out, Jo checked the pistol at her hip before making her way to the building, pausing for a moment at the open door, listening carefully before slowly stepping in. "Peter?" she called out quietly, immediately on edge when she heard a thud inside the house. The thud was quickly followed by the scuffle of broken furniture and crashing bodies. Clearly, there was a fight going on somewhere.
Pulling her weapon, she made her way deeper into the building, spotting her friend Peter in the middle of a brawl with an unknown man. A flash of silver glinted through the dimly lit room, a knife in Peter's hand that quickly sliced into the man's flesh.
Jo gasped at a matching flash of pain in her side. Eyes wide, Jo acted without thinking, rushing into the room. "Peter, stop!" the blonde shouted, grabbing Peter by the arm, ripping him off the other man. "He's a werewolf!" the man shouted back, clearly angry with the tiny woman who had now firmly placed herself between the two men. "I don't give a shit, Peter! I said STOP." She shifted her grip on the gun in her hand, tenser than she'd been in a long time. "Stand the fuck down, dammit!" The fury in her eyes, her sheer intensity, caused the hunter to step back, surprised at the man's reaction.
Jo took a deep breath, turning to look at the man, the werewolf, her soulmate. She locked eyes with him for a moment, completely unsure of where to go from here.