Blood of My Blood, Flesh of My Flesh (Bughead)

1. Monster Mash

FP wasn't joking when he said that. The world literally opened up for Sweet Pea after that. It was like this entire time, there had been another world right under everyone's noses. A world that was just hidden beneath a thin sheet, just dusting over the drab reality that Sweet Pea had once existed in. It was almost touchable, but not quite, not until you knew where to tug to reveal the magic that glittered on every street corner.

And did Sweet Pea ever learn.

In all, Sweet Pea would say that turning to a werewolf at a very young age had done more good than not. First off, it was like he'd been born into the magical world. He didn't recall a whole much before the age of nine, not really fine details, so in a lot of ways it was like he'd always had magic. Even FP hadn't turned until 26, and hadn't taken over the Pack until nearly 30. Sweet Pea's most formative years were spent fully enveloped in the magical world and he'll say that made a huge difference.

Because he changed so young, FP more or less took him under his wings. He kept Sweet Pea close, taught him things that other young wolves would not have been privy to. And, if FP was unavaliable, it was usually that Sweet Pea was tagging along with another high ranking wolf, like Tall Boy. He learned magic as he learned everything else in life, and he was deeply imbedded in the workings of what it meant to be a wolf.

There where whispers he was being groomed to take over as Alpha one day, despite the fact that FP had two children himself. However, Jellybean was off in Arizona, and unless she came back, it was doubtful she'd return for the mantle. And Jughead? Well, when someone had once outright asked FP, the alpha had snorted.

"Jughead? My Jughead? You know he has to kill someone to activate the curse, right? Can you imagine him doing that?" FP had laughed. As it was, no one thought Jughead had the stuff to take over anyway. He was so much like his mother, FP often said, which was a good thing if you were a human, but a bad thing if you were otherwise.

"Bore someone to death with his writing, maybe," Sweet Pea had replied, rolling his eyes. Jughead was always so maudlin, so moody. If he were a werewolf, he'd have major problems, that is if he couldn't get his emotions under control. A teensy part of Sweet Pea wondered if Jughead liked being so gloomy all the time, and probably could have been happier if he wanted to.

Besides, he didn't even know about his father's- his family's- heritage. Unless you were a wolf, magical other being, or an elder, you didn't get to know. I mean, it was for the safety of everyone, really. FP's persistence that there was a secret he could not tell his son had just driven Jughead away from the Serpents of late, and that was probably for the best.

No matter, Sweet Pea was the obvious choice to take over one day, even if Sweet Pea wasn't going to say it outloud. He cared deeply about his fellow wolves, he was smart enough to be the leader, and despite being so young he was more knowledgeable about the general magic community than possibly anyone else, discounting FP and Tall Boy.

Magic was just normal to Sweet Pea. He knew how to contact the fae if they were ever in a last ditch scenario where they'd need to make a deal, he knew where herbs grow for witches to make their potions, he knew how to do all the rituals of his kind. He knew what sort of species existed in Riverdale, and that's to say, a lot.

He'd been surprised at the numbers when FP had sat him down to explain it all. Some species he hadn't heard of until he'd met them. Maybe he's misrepresenting it; there's still a lot of humans. Riverdale and Greendale is mostly human. But, even having a handful of magic people surprised him.

And there was a lot.

FP isn't sure why Riverdale is such a hotspot for supernatural activity. He thinks that it started with the witches, and once they laid down their roots and made their casting circles, it just embuded the entire area with an aura of magic, and thus other girls started showing up.