Waverly stares right ahead, fixatedly, her throat hoarse from the scream she let out.
In an instant, Wynonna is by her side, Peacemaker in hand.
"Shit, I thought we got them all. Stay back"
"Don't shoot!" Waverly screams.
Wynonna looks at her in disbelief, Peacemaker aimed right ahead, the tip of the gun glowing.
"’Don't shoot?’ There's a demon wolf in your room!"
"That's Nicole"
"That thing ate Nicole?" Wynonna asks, horrified, her finger twitching on the trigger.
"That thing is Nicole"
"Oh. Oh, shit."
Waverly looks at the creature in front of her, standing in the middle of her room. It’s exposing huge, sharp teeth with a snarl, but it’s backing away, its tail between its legs. It looks cornered. Lost. Scared. It stares at Peacemaker, the yellow light reflecting in its eyes, and lets out a whimper that nearly breaks Waverly’s heart. Waverly turns to shoot her sister a glare, nodding towards the gun. Wynonna looks doubtful but lowers it to her side, keeping her finger on the trigger.
Waverly looks over at the animal again. There’s nothing human about that face anymore, nothing except these soft brown eyes, now looking right at Waverly. When she looks into them, Waverly knows her Nicole is still in there. She leans over, cautiously extending a hand towards the wolf’s face.
“Babygirl...” Wynonna mutters in warning.
“I know what I’m doing,” Waverly whispers. Well, at least, she hopes she knows.
The wolf draws its head away from her hand as she gets closer.
“Baby, it’s me... Waverly...”
Waverly speaks softly, leaning closer still. At the sound of her voice, the wolf’s expression seems to change, and it stops trying to pull away, leaving Waverly free to gently lay her hand on soft red fur.
“Nicole, I know you’re in there. You have to fight it, baby. I know it’s hard, but you’re strong. You can do this.”
She tries to keep the tone of her voice even, but it’s getting harder as her throat gets tight. What if she can’t turn back? She tries to push those thoughts away, but she gets choked up nonetheless. “You have to fight it,” she repeats, over and over again, like a mantra.
She rests both hands on either side of the wolf’s head, her face as close as she could possibly get, and she looks deep into familiar brown eyes, trying to catch a glimpse of the woman she loves.
“Fight it,” she repeats once again. “I know the demon is strong, but you’re stronger. You can take over.”
Her heart heavy with despair, Waverly throws all caution out the window and wraps her arms around the wolf’s neck, pulling its head against her.
She strokes the soft fur, still repeating the encouragements, pouring in everything she wishes someone could’ve told her when she was the one struggling with a demon. She loses track of time, those few minutes feeling like hours.
She’s pulled from her dazed state when she feels a shift from the creature in her arms. She hears a soft groan. A human groan.
“Not again...” The words come out, muffled by Waverly’s shirt. “Why do I always wake up naked when there’s people around?”
Waverly’s heart stops at the sound of Nicole’s voice. She looks down at the woman in her arms, laughing and crying with relief all at once.
The next day, every flat surface of the Black Badge office is covered with open encyclopedias, ancient texts, centuries-old spell books, and Waverly’s laptop, whirring in protest as she opens yet another tab. Her focus on the translation of an ancient plant-based remedy for what the text refers to as the “Curse of the Full Moon” is broken when she feels a hand on her shoulder.
“You’ve been at it for hours, you need a break. Let’s go out for lunch,” Nicole offers. Her sleeve is still scrunched up, exposing the white bandage square from where Jeremy has taken a blood sample. She has dark circles under her eyes, but a warm, content smile on her face.
“I can’t stop now- I mean- aren’t you worried?,” she protests, hanging on to the parchment in her hand.
“No,” Nicole says softly. “Not when I have the best researcher of all things paranormal on my case. You need to take a break once in a while, Waverly. I won’t let you work yourself to death. We’ve got time.”
Waverly puts down the parchment with a sigh and closes her laptop. That’s so Nicole. Worrying about her while she’s the one getting possessed by a demon wolf.
“Just for lunch,” she concedes.
Nicole grins and pulls down her sleeve, ready to go out. As she brings it down, she accidentally rips her bandage off. She pushes her sleeve back up. No mark from the needle in sight, not even a tiny red dot.
“Guess there are perks to this whole werewolf thing. Just gotta watch out for silver bullets,” she jokes, and Waverly can’t stop her lips from curling into a smile. She grabs Nicole’s hand, which still feels unusually warm, and they walk out together.
They almost reach the car when Waverly notices something’s missing.
“Shoot, I left my cellphone. I’ll be right back,” she says as she walks back towards the station, leaving Nicole to wait in the car.
Right as she’s about to open the door of the Black Badge Office, she hears murmurs from inside. She was sure everyone had gone out for lunch after them, but she recognizes Doc’s voice. She resolves to wait outside, not wanting to interrupt what seems to be an important conversation. She doesn’t mean to eavesdrop- really, she doesn’t- but she can’t help it.
“Remember when I told you about that dog I loved? My best hound?”
“The one you had to shoot cause it had rabies or something, yeah?”
She hears Wynonna reply, her tone a bit impatient.
“That’s right. It wouldn’t come back to me anymore.”
There’s a pause, and she hears Doc let out a long sigh before he continues.
“Wynonna, there’s something I didn’t tell you about that. Didn’t seem relevant at the time. Didn’t want to dwell on the past...”
“Okay...” Wynonna says, and Waverly can picture her face. brows furrowed in confusion and frustration without even seeing it. Her tone clearly indicates she’s not really in the mood for Doc’s dramatic dog story.
“That dog, that... It wasn’t a dog”
There’s a silence. Then, based on the surprised noise of acknowledgement she makes in reply, Wynonna understands. Waverly doesn’t.
“You mean...” Wynonna starts.
“One of my best mates Jim.” Doc says, so softly Waverly barely hears him. “He was alright at first. Transformation only lasted a couple minutes, an hour, maybe, the first time. It lasted longer the second time around, and...” he interrupts himself.
Another heavy silence falls between them.
“We’ll find a way,” Wynonna says, with a firm tone that fails to hide some uncertainty. “We always have.”
“Then we better do it fast,” Doc replies. “Or it’s only a matter of time ‘til she won’t come back to us anymore.”
I love Nicoles puppy face so much and now I just saw theories of wereworlf Nicole and now I’m hooked on that AU, do you have any recommendations on werewolf!Nicole fics?
I totally do anon! My favorite Nicole Werewolf fic is Fur and Fangs by Mistyheartrbs. And conveniently I did read one yesterday that I also enjoyed which is Her Secret by Shadowknight429.
Since its halloween time there might be a lot of vampire and werewolf fics but like instead of big scary werewolf Nicole, imagine just wolf Nicole, being her actual puppy self and cuddling with Waverly by the fire place with blankets because Nicoles really warm
A soft Halloween prompt for you spooky writers out there.
