Darcingtowne Wolves: The Misfits (Book 1)

Chapter Two: Three for Three

His baby girl was growing up, and her tempestuous growl and sharp glare had grown up with her. If his own alpha aura hadn’t been so strong, he might have taken a step back from her - but instead her look just made his smile grow wider. She was still growing, but now instead of growing from a girl into a young woman, his daughter was growing into the strong leader he’d always suspected she would be, Goddess bless her. She even had her own pack of sorts; The Misfits they called themselves. It had started as a joke, but the older they got the more serious they became about it. He’d have to see about getting them registered with the council when they got to Darcingtowne.

This was a truth that Mason Silvius had been avoiding for months, despite knowing that his only daughter's highschool graduation was soon approaching. When the mother of one of his daughter’s friends gave him a ring, he’d been surprised - then deeply enraged - to find that his Penelope had been planning to leave for the city he’d hoped to never set foot in again.

He’d been at the ranger station at the time he received the call, and it was a good thing too or he might have stormed right into his daughter’s room and said some things that he wouldn’t be able to take back.  Mason hadn’t done that in quite some time, and though Penelope had always forgiven him for his overbearing nature, he knew full well that she shouldn’t have to deal with that crap at all. 

Being an alpha was a s**t excuse for being a poor father, and he refused to let his naturally domineering temperament rule him. Mason had always been in the minority of alpha wolves who felt that the unequivocal acceptance of ‘alpha behavior’ ultimately made for a weaker pack. The council harped on and on about how they were wolves and not humans, but the truth is they were both, and the human side is what made them people instead of animals.

Mason’s good sense returned to him after Ryan’s mother gave him a verbal tongue lashing the likes of which he’d hadn’t anticipated from the usually sweet housewife, and by the time he’d gotten home the anger had dissipated entirely. Penelope wasn’t a child anymore, no matter how he felt about it, and Mrs. Pierce was right - she deserved to enjoy her University years like any other young adult.

...A young adult whose father had applied for, and gotten an offer for, a new job as a park enforcement officer for the city’s jewel, the only respite in an otherwise stinking cesspit, Darcingtowne Promenade.

Penelope might be a woman now, but that didn’t make Mason any less her father. Where she went, he would follow - even if it meant potentially having to face the demons he thought he’d left behind, or reveal the secrets he'd been keeping.

That was another reason he couldn't hold a grudge against her for being reticent to share her university applications with him. Her secrets were minor compared to his, and he still had no idea how he was going to broach them with her, but he knew that he couldn’t let his secrets become her burden.

Penelope watched him intently as he opened the third letter, but he already had a pretty good idea of what it was say. It would be like the previous two letters, and start with ‘Congratulations.’ Mason might not have been the best father, but Penelope made up for everything he lacked by being an amazing daughter. Of course, he was biased, but three acceptance letters seemed like pretty good evidence of this being the Goddess’s honest truth.

“Congratulations, Penelope Dawn.” Mason said, pulling his daughter into a tight bear hug. “You are three for three, my university girl!”

Penny squealed as her father spun around with her, only letting her down when she started grumbling about needing to breathe.

Things moved quickly once Penelope got her acceptance letters, and though it took her a full week to forgive her father for springing his own secret on her - that he’d already taken a job in the city to be close to her - she was grateful for it in the end. Much as she wanted to prove her independence, it was comforting to know that her father would be nearby just in case she needed him. Or, you know, in case he needed her. They were each other's only family, after all, and even if he was a big bad alpha he needed her didn’t he? She couldn’t help but worry that he’d be lonely without her.

Within the month, Penelope had responded to her acceptance letter from Promenade Collegiate, paid her matriculation fee, and packed up everything that made up her young life into plastic tubs. She was surprised how much she’d ended up throwing out, donating or leaving behind. In the end, both of their lives fit into the back of her father’s oversized pick-up truck with room to spare. Anything they didn’t have, they’d buy once they got to the city and settled into their new lives.

The young she-wolf had been surprised with how easily her father had agreed to her wanting to share a house with the rest of the Misfits. Apparently, the parents had been discussing it for the past few months while their kids were waiting on pins and needles for their letters to come in, and they’d come to an accord. Now that she was staring at the beautiful log cabin she’d lived in all her life, with its For Sale sign pegged deep into the grass by the driveway, she couldn’t help but feel like maybe this was a mistake. Couldn’t she just go on living her simple life, in her simple cabin, with the simple man she called Dad? Did she really need to grow up?

That, of course, was just the fear talking. Fear of change. Fear of not knowing what the hell she was doing; of not being as grown up as she seemed to think that she was. But, Penelope would never let the fear win. 

Of course she had to grow up. This whole thing was her idea, and she wasn’t going to leave her friends high and dry after convincing them to go along with her. Together, they were about to flip those fuddy duddy old Darcingtonian wolves expectations right side ‘round. The thought of her friends, who were set to arrive in Darcingtowne as soon as she found them a ‘packhouse’, warmed her heart, relieving some of the bitter sting.

The sound of the pickup truck’s tailgate slamming shut shook Penny from her melancholy thoughts. Nonetheless, her father seemed to understand what was going through her mind; it was probably going through his mind as well - though it was hard to tell as Mason’s expression was always rather flat. He put an arm around Penelope’s shoulder and gave her a squeeze.

“Come on, Princess. It’s time to go.” Mason rumbled, nuzzling the side of his daughter’s head a bit before planting a kiss in her silvery blonde hair.

Penelope and Mason got into the truck after that. Even though she desperately wanted to look back, she knew that if she did she would probably start crying, and that’s not how she wanted to start the first day of her new adventure. Instead, Penny kept her eyes focused on the road and the future ahead, and smiled.