Tutela Custodiatur
DISCLAIMER: I don't own anything.
It's a warm night. He's just taking out the trash when he hears the voice.
"You must be Isaac."
Isaac's shoulders prickle. He doesn't need to turn around to know who's standing behind him.
He turns around anyway.
xxx
The roar pulls him out of a dreamless sleep; he stares at the blackened ceiling, heart hammering in his chest. It's a sound of fierce triumph and deadly intent and it reverberates through Isaac's body like thunder.
It's a long time before he falls asleep again. But he's thankful to be in his bed tonight, and not lying on a cold metal floor.
When he slinks downstairs to breakfast, he finds his father sitting at the table.
"There's a new Alpha in town." Mr Lahey doesn't even look up at his son; he just turns another page of the paper.
"What happened to the other one?"
"Dead."
xxx
Isaac knows there are only two ways to become an Alpha werewolf: you're either born with it or you kill for it. Apart from the Alpha - the dead Alpha - there are five other werewolves in Beacon Hills, and they all go to Isaac's school.
Laura Hale was a born Alpha. When she returned to Beacon Hills, the first person she approached was Erica Reyes, a girl who suffered from epilepsy. The transformation was immediate and incredible: Erica lost her fragile shell and moved with the confidence and grace of a jaguar.
Then Erica took a liking to Vernon Boyd - at least, Isaac thinks Vernon's his first name. He's never actually heard Boyd speak. Boyd was lonely and was forced to keep to himself. Erica asked her Alpha to make Boyd her second Beta; the next day, Erica and Boyd walked side by side down the school corridors.
Then they found Laura's body. Or rather, two of Isaac's schoolmates found half of it.
The next day, the new Alpha makes his presence known to his new kingdom and Beacon Hills trembles.
Peter Hale gets down to business by forcing both of Laura's Betas to join him and by going after both of the boys who found Laura. It's obvious why Hale would go after one of the boys; if you want to make it obvious who's in charge in the area, who better to target than the Sheriff's only child?
Except something goes wrong. Only Scott becomes a werewolf.
Three days after being bitten, Stiles limps determindly into school, jaw clenched and face white with pain. He stays beside his best friend, as always, but Scott's anxious eyes and the way Erica and Boyd watch him warily make it clear that he isn't one of them.
Then there's the red wolf, Lydia, and her boyfriend Jackson.
The story soon spread: how Peter Hale had torn Jackson out of his car and slashed open his chest. How he'd stood over him, blood dripping from his claws, and promised Lydia that he would let Jackson live if Lydia accepted Peter's bite. How, while Lydia's bite was starting to heal, the Alpha had decided he might try 'two for the price of one' again.
Five Betas. Five suspects.
xxx
There was a precarious truce in Beacon Hills, a line that both the werewolves and hunters trod very carefully. When Laura was the Alpha, the line was thin but remained still nonetheless due to precarious negotiations between herself and Chris Argent, leader of the hunters.
But when she died, all bets were off. Isaac's amazed the Betas are still alive; perhaps he shouldn't be, considering Scott is dating Argent's daughter and Lydia is her best friend. He wonders if that's why Peter went after them in the first place.
The new Alpha is another Hale: Laura's younger brother, which makes him Peter's nephew.
A truce with hunters is unpleasant but necessary, as it maintains peace and stops bloodshed. Everyone in Beacon Hills is waiting for the outcome of the negotiations.
xxx
When the Betas finally show up to school, they don't have a hunted expression in their eyes anymore. They've lost that restless anger they carried around with them. None of them seems to stand out as the leader, but they're calmer somehow. They're no longer afraid.
All five of them still have yellow eyes.
xxx
Isaac plays lacrosse and every lacrosse player gets bruised. In fact, they're lucky if a bruise is all they get. Isaac used to shrink into a corner to get changed before and after practice, but then realised that some of the other players were hurt almost as badly as he was and nobody looked twice at him. All right, Jackson does give him funny looks, but he doesn't think anything of it. Isaac knows he's quite skinny for a lacrosse player.
Then he notices Scott looking at him with a worried expression. Stiles is doing it as well. Before long, he's feeling the eyes of all five Betas on him when he passes them in corridors, sitting in front of them in class and even when they're eating lunch. There's always at least one of them at a table close to the one he's chosen.
xxx
He's locked in the freezer for four nights in a row.
On Saturday, his father forgets he's there and leaves him for the entire day. At least, Isaac thinks he forgets.
xxx
The next Monday, just after school finishes, he sees Jackson standing beside an expensive-looking car. It's not his silver Porsche; it's a sleek black car Isaac's never seen before. Jackson bends down and starts to talk to the person behind the wheel.
Isaac's not the only one curious about the car. Most of the other students are giving it wary but intrigued glances. They've probably all jumped to the same conclusion Isaac has: this is the new Alpha's vehicle.
He raises a hand to touch a bruise that's still healing on his face. It's a good thing he managed to cover this one right; this time, he wouldn't have been able to tell people that he fell.
He looks around for his dad's car, but there's no sign of it. He's just about to head into the actual car park to see if he can spot it when he notices Jackson is looking directly at him. The Beta jerks his head slightly in Isaac's direction.
That's him.
Isaac can't hear the words, but he knows that's what Jackson's saying.
The car door opens.
Isaac runs.
He should have known better. Everyone in Beacon Hills knows the number one rule about dealing with werewolves is to never run from them. If you act like prey, their instinct will be to act like a predator.
xxx
Isaac doesn't want to take out the trash. He really, really doesn't, but his father hurls a mug at him and he barely ducks it, shards of pottery falling all around him. So he gathers up the bags and takes them out to the bin. He's just put the lid on when he hears the voice.
"You must be Isaac."
Isaac's shoulders prickle. He doesn't need to turn around to know who's standing behind him, but he turns around anyway.
The Alpha is standing a short distance away from him. Everything he's wearing is black: black jacket, black T-shirt, black jeans. "My name's Derek Hale."
Isaac nods. He can't seem to find his voice.
"That's a nasty bruise you've got, Isaac. Where'd you get it?"
He opens his mouth to say I got it playing lacrosse, the same way he always does. But then he remembers that werewolves are walking lie detectors, and lying to the Alpha is about as good an idea as lying to his father.
The expression on Derek's face says he expected Isaac to react like this. "Thought so. The Betas told me about you, Isaac. The bruises. The way you act around people in authority. The way you always smell of fear and pain."
"Nothing's going on - "
"Jackson told us, Isaac. He lives on your street; he knows what your dad's been doing to you." The Alpha's voice is as firm as a rock and his eyes are like ice. "And it's going to stop now." He takes a step forwards and Isaac can't help himself - he takes a step backwards. "You're coming with me, one way or the other. What's it gonna be, Isaac?"
To be continued…