#but this eventually culminates in char killing her brother to protect her daughter

[riverspat]

info dump while i reassemble :

while it can be passed to anyone bitten, werewolfism is a recessive genetic condition heavily prevalent in the harrison bloodline, making them one of the oldest packs in their region. due to the intensive labor of keeping those newly bitten alive, they rarely take in those who are not born into it. subsequently, this is kept a secret from the wider majority of the harrison family, capitalizing on cultural and familial norms within sweetwater to maintain some semblance of privacy.

the harrisons make for an incredibly dysfunctional pack, lacking the basic structures of other packs, and instead often devolving into infighting, gatekeeping, and violent territorial disputes, very rarely growing beyond two to three at a time. as a result, while the harrison pack is well known and even infamous in local hunting communities, they're often left to their own devices as a self-contained issue.

most members of the harrison pack view their werewolfism through a somewhat spiritual lens, believing it to be the result of a pact their predecessors made with an entity dwelling within the sweetwater river. as a result, the river itself is revered by both the pack and the harrison family as a whole to some extent.

there are various rumors and urban legends surrounding both the sweetwater river and the monsters that hunt within the surrounding woods. some are attributed to the harrisons, but the wider majority have since become a general "boogeyman" with which to scare one another.

sweetwater was, at its start, a bootlegging town that dabbled in tourism with the help of the river boasting of its healing properties. as northern florida developed further and main roads led away rather than through the town, it fell off most maps.

making their fortune in bootlegging, the harrisons have come to employ about a third of the town in their more legitimate distilleries by the turn of the fifties. they remain a significant source of the town's income.

charlene "char" harrison has been, for the last decade or so, almost entirely estranged from the wider majority of her family, only maintaining some semblance of contact with her brother, carter but feels forced to return home after the sudden death of their father. a newly single mother grappling with the aftermath of her divorce and questions of her sexuality, char finds it difficult not to get swept up in the whirlwind of her family once more. she is attacked, by her brother unbeknownst to her, one evening while investigating strange noises coming from the old barn at the edge of their property and, in the ensuing weeks, narrowly survives her change.

there has been a recent string of violent animal attacks and disappearances as of late, and although law enforcement has widely dismissed superstition, eyes have begun to turn to char's brother, carter harrison.