Chapter Text
An Alpha/Beta/omega Universe play based on the utterly fabulous modern Drunk Penelope aka Pen Le Pew by Leneq
and the Regency The Chestnut and The Custard Tart by Ceirdwyn24
You guys inspired me to write in the first place
Fever Dream
A warm peaceful Friday summer night at the Bridgertons' ancestral country estate of Aubrey Hall. A week of fantastic weather topped off with their Friday night BBQ, too much alcohol, and a drunk Penelope.
The week had started with so much potential for fun, to relax, to unwind.
To belong...
Penelope was away from her own careless family and surrounded by the family that had unofficially adopted her. She was happy.
The family that seemed to truly appreciate her. The Bridgertons. Not that they were actually her family, only in her dreams.
Half of them she loved to pieces. The girls: Eloise, Daphne, Francesca and Hyacinth, she loved them as sisters, as best friends and as confidantes. Each as different to each other as it was possible to get, yet still that Bridgerton gentle soul threaded through them.
All gentle Omegas, except for Eloise.
Eloise was an Alpha, a female Alpha.
Eloise her soulmate, her rock for more years than she cared to remember, Eloise was always here for her. Eloise was her Alpha in all senses but the mated one. Eloise was bossy, over protective and completely adorable.
The girls never made her feel any less than for being a Beta, meanwhile her own family...her own family abused her, ridiculed her, tormented her. An embarrassment to the Featherington name. Penelope knew that even if she had been an Omega, her parents still would not have wanted her. They were all Betas. An Omega would just embarrass them more, so she was lucky she was a Beta after all. She was just not slim enough, too bookish, not beautiful enough to satisfy them. She was a disappointment to Portia, no matter her designation.
The other half. Ah, the Bridgerton boys were the other half of the family, but she had never looked on any of them as brothers; except maybe Gregory, he was still a minor. But if his brothers were anything to go by, he would be as much if not more beautiful in looks and soul than the lot of them.
As for the elder ones: Anthony, Benedict and Colin, they were to her, unattainable, handsome, gentle souls that she worshipped from afar. They cared for her as they would have for their sisters, it was part of them being Alphas after all, but she was not their sister.
So, she assumed they just took pity on her for being a Beta.
She was safe.
She was meek, she was attached to their sisters so she needed protection anyway.
But this Friday night something had shifted.
And Eloise’s Alpha was the first to clock it.
Penelope was flirting. Penelope was flirting with all the Bridgerton’s, the girls and the boys. It was unheard of. Her behaviour was so out of sorts that it fired up Eloise’s protective instincts.
Eloise could sense something was wrong with her friend, and it’s not just the flirting that is so different with Penelope’s behaviour. Her friend for nearly twenty years, the friend who she thought was a Beta, is showing up to Eloise’s senses as Omega.
And to make matters even more confusing, she is showing up as something else as well.
Penelope is literally glowing, emitting a golden mist from her person, a light that is addictive and compelling.
A light that even a mate-bonded Alpha like Eloise is struggling to resist.
They have had countless other BBQ’s before, chilled yet still managing to mix in the obligatory Bridgerton chaos, all ranging from relatively sober affairs to being black out drunk with killer hangovers the next day...
But tonight was different.
Earlier today, Colin had returned home from one of his assignments with a shit load of stories (which his siblings claimed they needed alcohol to endure), and a shit load of this ’absolutely stunning wine that you all have to try, like right now’.
So, they had obliged, and as siblings are wont to do, vehemently disagreed with his opinion on the said wine.
The only person that seemed to like it was his best friend, Penelope.
But then she always seemed to like Colin’s stories as well.
So, while she drank the wine and listened intently to his stories, the rest of his siblings carried on annoying him and annoying each other. All in the good-natured way they always had.
They were a tight family pack; nothing seemed to change that, not even Colin’s dodgy wine.
Although one thing would drastically change tonight: the way the Bridgerton pack viewed Penelope, and that change could be blamed solely on Colin’s dodgy wine.
Earlier that afternoon, while they were changing after being in the pool for most of the morning, Penelope had looked terrified when Eloise caught her taking her medication. Eloise, being Eloise, purely out of concern had asked her all about it.
“Pen, what’s up with the pills? Are you ill? Oh god don’t tell me you’ve got an STD? You little minx”. Eloise joked
Penelope, completely mortified, had stumbled out ‘Course not, El. Jeese. As if I even had the opportunity”
"Sorry, babes, didn’t mean to upset you” Eloise said contritely
"Don’t want to be a nosy nell, well I do, but I was worried”
"It’s just the pills for my cycle and my new diet pills”
“New Diet Pills!? What the hell for?!”
"Mama had her doctor prescribe them, just so I can be ‘more acceptable to society’ -her words”
“Portia’s a Bitch, Pen” Eloise growled. “Don’t listen to her”
“No choice”
“Chuck them down the sink, you don’t need them. You’re perfect the way you are and if Portia’s got an issue with it she can...” Eloise continued.
Penelope could see she was getting into her rant mode, so decided to cut her off at the pass before it escalated.
“I can’t El, It’s okay, I don’t mind. I’m used to them by now.” Penelope put the bottle back into her toiletry bag. “They don’t seem to help anyway” she shrugged, and started heading for the bedroom door.
“Still, I don’t...” Eloise muttered behind her
“It’s fine, El, just drop it”
But Eloise couldn’t just let this drop.
She will bring this up again, maybe tomorrow. She needed to persuade Penelope to make a stand against her overbearing mother. OR she could just rip Portia’s throat out with her fangs herself. Eloise’s inner wolf smirked to herself, yes that sounded like a much better idea.
Eloise’s Alpha was still unsettled over the whole issue, so that could explain why she was becoming more aware of Pen’s increasingly erratic behaviour.
They had all gathered into The Chaos Pit. The Bridgertons BBQ and sunken chill-out area that they all gravitated to during any dry days in the summer.
To lounge, to socialise, to sleep and to recover from killer hangovers, The Chaos Pit had covered all their needs.
The huge circular outdoor comfy sofa capable of holding most of the family, Hya and Greg's waterproof bean bags scattered in front of the sofa, the reclaimed industrial wood block that they used for a table, all encompassed by a wooden overhead trellis strung with fairy lights and lanterns.
At the side on the raised decking area, Anthony’s pride and joy, the bespoke wilderness grill setup. His baby. His.
Specifically designed for easily feeding a horde of Bridgertons, it was a state-of-the-art rustic design BBQ factory that could cope with even Colin’s ravenous demands, and Anthony loved it.
Fiercely.
Territorially.
He had let Benedict use it one summer, only for Ben to spend most of his time yakking to Colin and forgetting about the grilling, leading to burnt bangers and a half-hour lecture on how to properly care for the BBQ.
The siblings left him in sole charge of his BBQ baby after that.
By the time Penelope and El arrived in the garden, all of the Bridgertons and their bonded mates were sitting around on the sunken sofa, enjoying the company, the warm summer night and the now free-flowing alcohol.
El ungainly plonked herself down on the sofa next to Phillip, her Omega mate, pulling Penelope by the wrist down between her and Colin.
As soon as Penelope sat down, the youngest siblings, Hyacinth and Gregory moved their bean bags to her feet.
Penelope should have known that the innocent wide-eyed look she was receiving from Hya meant trouble was brewing.
The puppy dog eyes she received from Gregory was nothing new, Gregory had always had a soft spot for Pen.
As soon as she sat down, Colin handed her a glass tumbler of deep ruby red wine that vibrantly glowed under the overhead fairy lights.
Penelope raised an eyebrow.
“Brought this back from a bijou vineyard, local wine brewed and fermented in the traditio....”
“It’s just wine, Col.” Benedict chimed in
“It’s his fruit wine, the one he was blethering on about earlier, Pen.” Hyacinth rolled her eyes. “Please just take a sip and then tell him it's awful. We already have”
Penelope laughed and took the glass from Colin. She could not deny him anything. She took a tentative sip.
A burst of juicy flavour hit her tongue first, and then the sweet aroma invaded her senses; it felt like her tastebuds had just woken up after a long sleep. It was incredible. It was delicious.
“It’s actually really, really nice, Col”
“Bullshit.” Simon and Benedict coughed at exactly the same time.
“I always knew Pen had good taste; this would just be wasted on the rest of you heathens “ he snarked back
Penelope laughed “No, seriously, I like it. I could easily drink too much of this, it is so nice”
Hyacinth grinned.
Colin grinned.
Eloise just shook her head. This does not bode well for hangovers tomorrow.
Several glasses later, and Penelope was squirming in her seat; her dainty feet, which were now tucked under her, were twitching.
The strap of her rose-coloured sundress was starting to slip off her right shoulder.
She leans back in the sofa, stretching out her arms behind her head and running her fingers through her loose red curls.
She feels hot.
Not just temperature-wise, that she kind of expected since it was a warm night and there are so very many Bridgerton bodies tucked around her.
No, she feels, like hot, hot. She actually feels bloody good for once and not ashamed of her body.
It is not a feeling she is familiar with, at all.
Eloise on her right-hand side had cuddled into her Omega boyfriend Phillip, with Hyacinth at her feet jiggling to the best of the music playing beside an equally bouncy Gregory.
Both of them trying to do some kind of weird hand dance to the beat and giggling madly when they mess up the ‘routine’.
Her best friend in the world, aside from Eloise, Colin, is shoulder to shoulder on her left; the touch of his arm against her bare arms is sending thrills through her more than usual.
On the other side of Colin, lounging with the skill of a reincarnated cat or, God forbid, Lord Byron on opiates, is Benedict.
Taking up most of the rest of the sofa on the left by slouching as nonchalantly as his lanky frame will allow him.
‘Honestly’ thinks Penelope as she glances over at him, ’ Does he actually have any hard bones in his body? The way he just melts into furniture should be scientifically studied'
Then she glances at the eldest brother, Anthony.
The most responsible one, the uptight one, the one who is looking, to Pen at least, unfairly hot right now.
The one from whom she cannot take her eyes from now.
He has (in her humble opinion) all the best physical traits of the family and none of their emotional baggage, or so he would like everyone to assume.
But Penelope has been watching this family all her life; she’s seen all their moods, their loves, their fears.
And Anthony, Anthony has the deepest of all of them, the fear of love.
He always appears uncrackable.
Suddenly she needs to know.
What is he like under that armour, and could she possibly reach him?
The heat is growing fiercer; she slowly stretches her arm out to reach behind her to push herself to her knees.
She has to move.
She can no longer sit still.
She feels the music sinking in her bones as if the rhythm is moving her muscles of their own accord.
Building momentum.
Something is building.
Colin glances at her as she moves, thinking she is moving to get more wine, certainly not expecting her to perch herself directly on his lap, straddling his hips with her bared thighs.
Her eyes seem hazy as he looks at her in surprise.
She has sat on his lap many times before, and sometimes he will admit, he’s had to get himself under control, as it has been entirely innocent on her end, although his reactions to it at times have not.
But straddling him like this...never...except...only in his dreams that he dare not revisit for his own sanity.
His hands automatically go to her hips to steady her, yes, he is drunk, but not as drunk as Pen seems to be, as she sways her hips and body slowly above him.
Undulating and moving to the music, completely oblivious to his burgeoning internal panic. She seems to be humming to herself as she moves rhythmically on top of him.
And, oh God, is his control beginning to fray.
It is hypnotic the way she is undulating her body on top of him.
As her hands roam over his biceps to his shoulders, to his neck, and then his scent gland, running her delicate fingers over it as she always has done.
It sends an intoxicating shiver up (and straight down) his spine.
It has never felt like this when she has innocently touched his gland in the past; there is heat behind this... It’s the alcohol, it must be.
As he is reasoning with himself and trying to control his burgeoning reaction to her proximity and her movements against certain areas he is trying not to think about.
He is so completely focused on not reacting, that he completely misses the moment Penelope bends her head down towards his neck and sniffs him.
A deep intake of her breath, which set his nerves alight with the wisp of breath, then in a lower octave than her normal voice.
‘Mmmm...My delicious soft and squishy Marshmallow man, all hot Burnt Sugar and delectable gooeyness all for me’ she murmurs so softly into his neck.
The triple whammy of her voice, her breath, and her words sending frissons of ecstasy from his jugular, which has decided to reroute all blood in the other direction and not to his brain, lighting up his body from his head right down his other head.
Just as he is inhaling a deep breath of his own to steady himself, he inadvertently inhales her own scent, sultry warm honey, she licks a stripe over his gland, and a feeling akin to wildfire burns red hot through his veins chasing the frissons and slamming them violently out of the way for a more urgent baser need.
His jetlagged Alpha kicks in with a loud feral moan, all thoughts of crossing time zones wiped from his mind.
This zone right here, with Penelope sitting directly on his timer that is about to go off, this is the only one that matters.
Just as his brain kicks into gear again from the static noise due to lack of blood, he feels her moving away from him, leaving behind the intoxicating scent of warm honey, a rabidly feral Alpha and a man who is now anything but marshmallow soft.
It does not even occur to Colin’s fizzed-out brain that Penelope should not smell of anything at all to his Alpha.
She should just be a background hum, not the all-encompassing, delicious smell of warm honey...
Penelope leaves a rock-hard, dazed Colin in her wake and slides her body over a reclining Benedict, starting at his neck, she nuzzles her nose into his scent gland before wrapping her body around him.
Benedict's right arm comes flying up from its position just resting next to his beer bottle on the decking, immediately to pin her in place next to him.
Pure instinct to stop her falling, he tells himself, before his hind brain kicks him and tells him, it is, in fact, to keep the source of the intoxicating sensation flowing through his veins as close as he possibly can.
It takes his pleasantly lightly inebriated human brain a moment more to realise he is tightly gripping on their friend Penelope, and that is only because his face is now buried in a delicious mass of red curls that smells of warm honey and the scent that is uniquely Penelope.
‘Mmmm... my Benny, Warm dripping Caramel and deep Dark Chocolate Truffle, so decadent...so delicious a concoction...I want to lick around inside you and let you melt so slowly, drip so sweetly on my tongue Ben, ’ she whispers sensuously into his neck as if she had just found dessert heaven.
Every single hair on his body stands to attention, including those nowhere near the site of contact, of her mouth anyway.
His scalp is singing from her stroking her fingers through his hair, and God help him, then tugging on his locks at the back of his head, pulling it back further and to the side, to expose more of his long muscular neck to her.
A small unbidden pathetic whimper escapes his lips.
He then hears her as she slowly licks her lips as if in anticipation of consuming a decadent dessert, giving Benedict but a second's warning before she licks, then nibbles gently at his scent gland.
His whole body flinches, not in pain, nor indeed in fright, but in pure unadulterated raging lust.
Unbidden and unexpected, but all-encompassing just the same.
It feels as if his very body is now burning from the inside out; his Alpha, who had been idling on the back burner for what seems like years, even with all his many dalliances, is now wide awake and very much raring to go.
Both Benedict and his Alpha are still working on instinct alone, and so far, it has not registered that Penelope’s behaviour and that of their instantaneously aroused reaction to her smell is, in fact, a highly unusual state to be in since she is a Beta.
The other Bridgertons are watching on in various stages of confusion and amusement.
For Eloise, Michaela and Phillip, they seem to be in a state of profound concentration.
The Bridgertons were used to Penelope being affectionate with them.
She loved receiving cuddles from them, although rarely did she initiate them, as it was one of the things they knew she had been denied in her own home.
Affection in her house (it was never a home) was non-existent, and even a watered-down fake-ass version of it always came with conditions.
She was only ever given a tiny compliment if it were wrapped in a derision so cruel it cut deeply. It was usually only publicly done, to allow Portia to show what a good mother she was and always resulted in some kind of reciprocal punishment on Penelope afterwards for the energy Portia had to expend to ‘perform’.
She never received cuddles, not even as a child; Portia was very much a ‘self-soothe’ parent but that extended so much that Penelope received no affection at all.
While her sisters were lavished with it.
Just as Benedict feels himself start to willingly give way entirely to his Alpha, who is more than happy to behave like a caveman and hoist her over his shoulder, or take her right there, his Alpha has no qualms about that, after all Benedict was known to be adventurous. She moves away from him, and he is left bereft and wanting.
Oh, so very wanting.
As she slowly withdraws her hands from his hair and drags them down his body, almost to where he so desperately needs them to be right now.
Adding to Benedict's lust-fuelled fracturing mind, she then torturously slowly slides her body off him to the decking, her breasts leaving his chest lonely, her hands just skimming over the last of his restraint, and starts to crawl towards the edge of the sunken area.
Benedict is left awestruck and hard, which is now not helped by the way she is moving towards their pack leader on her hands and knees like a languidly sensual heat-seeking missile.
Her hips are moving in a slow sensual way while the sundress she is wearing barely covers her thighs, as her knees slide slowly over the smooth decking.
Her tiny toes so perfectly manicured with sweet candy pink nail varnish that probably would match her...oh God, not helping the situation!!!
He is unashamedly groaning now.
Benedict hears an ‘oh fuck’ coming from several of his siblings, most notably Gregory, who has his eyes locked on Penelope’s delicious derriere, as has his and Colin’s.
As Benedict looks around the sofa, he sees Simon at the far end, looking suspiciously at Daphne and nowhere else, as if his head were locked in a vice and there was no way in hell he was going to turn it.
Simon had learned early on (with helpfully placed advice from all her Bridgerton siblings) not to provoke Daphne’s ire.
Although Daphne herself was staring in fascination and no little amount of lust at Pen, totally ignoring Simon and his now flaring Alpha scent of Rum and Spices over her own Omega Vanilla and Sugarcane scent spike.
Simon had seen in Penelope a little sister he never had, becoming highly protective of the little redhead.
He had seen in her a fellow soul who shared a home life that was nothing like the one the Bridgertons had experienced.
They had become fast friends since they first met, also united in surviving the chaos that was the Bridgertons.
But from the sheer determination in his eyes and posture, he was trying to force the protectiveness to the fore, and not how he was currently viewing Pen in the situation occurring opposite him.
Phillip looked just as uncomfortable, a natural state of affairs for the quiet man, his own Omega Lapsang Souchong and Mint flaring slightly before mellowing out again to background, as he focused his intellect on the task at hand.
Beside him, Eloise looks intense and distinctly concerned?
Why should Eloise look at Penelope with a worried frown?
Eloise’s own scent of Green Tea and Jasmine blended well with her mate to ground them both as they share a look of focused concern.
Benedict can see there is a silent conversation happening between them, but his own overeager Alpha is demanding he focus instead somewhere that is a lot more interesting, like the smoking-hot redhead who is down on all fours just an arm's length away.
Yes, Benedict thinks, when his brain finally reboots, Nel is acting out of character, but it’s just them.
Michaela is also looking rather concerned and staring very intensely at Penelope as if she had never seen her before, which strikes him as unusual as they’ve known each other for several years now.
Michaela with Phillip, Simon and Penelope are so close, they have their own little support group Benedict suspects.
Benedict thinks it would be called ‘Bridgertons Anonymous’ that would self-soothe with mantras recited from their manual ‘How to Survive the Bridgerton Apocalypse in 5 Easy Steps or Die Trying’
Penelope definitely would be their Chair with the most years under her belt.
Gregory is now openly drooling over the view he is accorded of Penelope's lush behind in all its glorious motion.
Gregory’s Pink Pepper and Ginger Salted caramel is spiking erratically.
Poor kid hasn’t been able to keep his newly fledged Alpha tame enough to enjoy anything so far, muses Benedict.
Although, if Benedict’s view from the side is good enough to appreciate even a tiny percentage of what is going through his raging hormonal youngest brother’s mind, he can’t blame him.
Benedict’s body and Alpha are pretty close to losing it now too, and he’s supposed to be the seasoned one.
Colin has come to his ‘elder brother’ senses a lot faster than Benedict and launches a cushion at his little brother.
‘Shut it, Greg, that’s Pen you’re ogling’
’Yeah bro, I'll stop if you two do’ Gregory fires back at Colin, his Alpha huffing in frustrated annoyance, while still keeping his eyes firmly glued to Pen’s retreating butt.
‘As if that’s bloody likely,’ sighs Hyacinth as she hits the back of Gregory’s head, hard, with her hand.
‘Hya!’ he growls back at her
‘At least put your tongue back in your mouth, brat. I shouldn’t have to deal with your horniness and your drool at the same time,’ she huffs, her own young Omega scent of Pink Bubblegum and Ginger, mixing with that of her sibling, consciously trying to calm him down.
Hyacinth loves nothing more than embarrassing her brother Gregory, but even she knows this is not the time to wind him up, and that poor Gregory is really struggling to contain his Alpha and appreciates her help in calming him.
‘Thanks Hya’ Gregory huffs as he gratefully squeezes her hand ‘He’s pushing me too much right now’
By this time Penelope had reached the edge of the sunken deck and was slowly rising to her bare feet and undulating her hips as she did so.
Anthony seemed to have registered what was happening enough with his brothers, that he had inadvertently dropped the burgers he had been flipping onto the deck at his side and was now standing with his mouth dropped open.
He had enough lingering self-awareness to flip off the gas on the burner before his brain decided to clock off its shift for the night.
Knowing that someone was going to get burned and rightly assuming it would be him.
As she rises up to her full 5ft impressive height, Anthony’s brain has stopped working completely.
Shutting up shop for the night.
Leaving the rest of his useless husk and his purring Alpha to be hypnotised by her, a snake to her charmer...