I watched from my brother's doorway as his two hands threaded the laces on the head of a lacrosse stick. He worked fast and precisely, fingers pulling each lace into a diamond mesh pattern. Knotting the last loop, Scott stood with the re-threaded stick.

"Oh yeah, because a properly threaded stick is going to help your game play not suck," I said, cackling at the idea of my brother running.

"It might."

"Right. That's so going to help. You're going to kick ass out there."

Dressed in only a pair of athletic shorts, his lithe frame still had some filling out to do, compared to the others on the team. He was a late bloomer.

I had to admit, it was easy to see that he'd soon grow into himself. He just looked like an awkward and lanky teenager at the moment.

"Watch," he said, scooping a ball up from his bedroom floor, he gave the lacrosse stick a spin, testing his handiwork, only to stumble on a pair of socks.

"I'm watching and I'm not exactly impressed."

He scratched the back of his neck, a faint blush crept up his neck. "There's no obstacles like that on the field," he rushed to explain. "Nothing will trip me."

"Except moving figures, lunging at you from every direction," I remarked sarcastically with a scoff. "Seriously, if you can't hop over a pair of socks, you won't make the team this year either. End of story."

His dark eyes looked up, hopeful. After a lengthy pause, he said, "Teach me."

"Sorry?" I said, biting my lip.

"Teach me," he repeated.

"What was that I heard? Brother of mine asking for help in relation to physical activities? My, my, how the tables have turned."

He shrugged. "I want to learn, okay?"

"That's when you choose to speak to me?" I asked, fighting the urge to throw a fit. "To use me?"

"Embry." He groaned and turned away from me. "Never mind. You have to make everything so hard."

"No, no," I said, feeling bad. I sat on the bed beside him, taking the stick from his hand. I looked at his handiwork before I gave it back. "Look, let me say this without you interrupting for once, okay?"

He nodded his head, agreeing. "Okay."

"You're not cut out for lacrosse," I said, then added, "or sports in general, to be honest."

"What the hell?"

He opened his mouth to continue but I quickly cut him off. "That's okay. Tell me, when you're out playing with Stiles, once in a blue moon, do you have a passion for it? Do you feel the thrill? Do you see yourself ever not playing it?"

"Yeah—"

"Think. During the summer who was the one meeting up with people to improve? To play the game? That's right. Not you. Me."

I cringed when he threw his stick beside his school bag. So, careless. So, dispassionate. He only proved my point.

He stepped on the stool by the doorway. He smirked at me, teasing me by showing off his strength by doing chin ups.

If only he knew.

That was his answer. His little brute strength. "I haven't done nothing though. I've been working out when you go play those amateur games. Tell me, do you have," he said, looking down to his stomach, clenching and unclenching it his abs, "these bad boys?"

"Tell me," I mocked. "Does push ups, chin ups and sitting around on the computer for the rest of the day improve your stamina? Your clumsiness?" It was my turn to smirk. "Good luck with that. You're hoping to join the team for the wrong reasons. You and I both know that."

Scott ignored me and continued to pump up and down. He dropped down and cocked his head to the side. "Did you hear that?"

I shook my head, deciding not to say I did in fact hear the shuffling and grunting outside our house. I knew perfectly well what is was and I figured he could find out for himself.

I watched on, amused, as Scott rolled his eyes at me and left the room to check it out.

I heard his footsteps as they trailed down the hallway. He opened mom's bedroom and closed it again a second later. He continued his journey until he reached the porch downstairs. He slid the patio door open and walked out into the garden.

"You're going to get the fright of your life," I muttered, peering out from Scott's window. "A deserved one at that."

Scott's heartbeat raced yet he held his breath as he moved cautiously forward. I pursed my lips at the side wall with vines.

They rattled back and forth before the figure broke free and hurdled toward the oblivious Scott until it swung mere inches from his face.

"Man!" Scott lurched backwards, away from the dangling figure. He breathed out another, "Oh. Man! Stiles! What the hell are you doing?"

Stiles, still upside down, frowned. "You weren't answering your phone." He glanced up at his feet caught in the vines and sighed. "Yes, I know it's late, but you gotta hear this."

"What?" Scott grumbled.

"I saw my dad leave twenty minutes ago," Stiles informed him. "Dispatch called. They're bringing in every officer from the Beacon department and even state police."

This caught Scott's attention, he seemed to forget his friend hung upside down. "For what?"

"Well," Stiles dragged out. "Two joggers found a body in the woods."

My eyes widened at the news. I whipped out my phone and zoned out of their conversation for a few seconds.

There were no new messages on my home screen. Frustrated, I shoved the phone back into my pocket and listened again to hear more details.

"So, hold on, if they found the body what are they looking for now?"

"That's the best part." Stiles grinned, like he expected the question and could not wait to answer. He finally managed to untangle his feet from the vines. Somehow, he managed to land on the ground without hurting himself. "They only found half."

From a distance, I could hear dogs barking. A low growl rumbled within my chest. I shoved my hands into my pockets and took a step forward, only to reel back after I saw flashing red and blue lights.

The trees opposite me, had flash lights pointed in its direction.

Stiles managed to untangle himself from the vines and hopped into his truck with Stiles, before I made it down the stairs. Somehow, them clumsy idiots were faster than me!

"Idiots," I muttered. "Absolute idiots. What were they thinking?"

"Stay right there!" a man called out.

Instantly I held my breath and froze. I rolled my eyes at myself. It wasn't me that they saw. That was impossible.

It was probably dumb or dumber. As suspected, a figure ran toward the search party with their hands up in the air, covering his eyes as a flashlight beamed at his face.

"Hold on," Deputy Stilinski said, walking forward.

"Sir?" someone asked, patiently.

"Hold on, this little delinquent belongs to me." He walked by the dogs, held back by leashes, until Stiles could see his face as clear as day.

He shrunk back at the glare he was on the receiving end of.

Stiles grimaced. "Hi dad."

"Do you listen in on all my phone calls?"

"No..." Stiles denied, smiling sheepishly. "Not the boring ones."

Deputy Stilinski pinched the bridge of his nose. "Right. Where's your usual partner in crime?"

"Who?" Stiles' eyes widened innocently. "Oh, you mean Scott. Scott's at home. He said he wanted a good night's sleep for the first day back at school."

Deputy Stilinski shook his head. "Scott!" he called out. "Scott, you out there?" He turned to Stiles and eyed him suspiciously.

"He's not there, dad," Stiles placated.

"All right, young man, I'm taking you back to your car and we're going to discuss a little something called Invasion of Privacy."

Stiles rolled his eyes. "What about you?"

"What about me?"

"You invade people's privacy every day," Stiles accused, grinning.

His dad blinked. "That's my job, son. Just—get in the damn car."

As Stiles got escorted away, I made my way around to the sound of footsteps that crunched against twigs. The area was dark, even for me.

I blinked and suddenly the trees and the surrounding area became that much brighter and easier to see.

I had no idea how Scott and Stiles made their way around.

I paused for a second. Off in the distance, there were more than one pair of footsteps. It was a stampede of footsteps.

I ran forward, as the rumbling vibrations became louder and more ferocious.

"Scott?" I yelled, hoping he wasn't in the firing line. "Scott? Answer me! Where are you?"

Hearing a shout, I quickened my pace, still not wanting to do something that would change my family life forever. I couldn't reveal myself.

The choice was taken away from me. I heard of a splash of water then a low growl. All it took was a split second of seeing the colour red, before my clothes ripped to shreds and a large black panther took my place.

I was seconds too late. Scott twisted his body to the side and sharp teeth tugged roughly at his skin, making him cry out.

I managed to disentangle the large wolf from his body, with a snarl. I blocked Scott with my own body before he scrambled backwards and ran off without a look in our direction.

My teeth clamped down on the paw of the attacker. A flash of razor sharp teeth sunk into my neck. With a hiss, I backtracked, allowing for the wolf to run into the trees.

I ignored the throb of my neck and ran off in the opposite direction. The fight was over, for now.

I sprinted and then jumped over a barbed wire fence, finding myself able to watch as my brother nearly killed himself again by nearly getting clipped by a car. The keyword, nearly.

I watched from the shadows as he lifted his shirt to reveal an oozing bite mark, stretched lengthily across his skin. He promptly passed out at the sight.

A howl echoed across the forest.

My own whimper at the turn events followed.

It was safe to say, I did not sleep a wink that fateful night.

I brought back Scott to his room then stood outside of Scott's window and stayed there until the sun came up.

In the morning, I watched Scott like a hawk. Beside from his eyes flickering from one spot to another, he did not seem too affected from the events of the previous night.

He did not voice if he felt weird or not. He ate his breakfast and stayed mostly quiet. Of course, he would not say anything. He'd sound crazy.

At school, I did not venture too far from him either. Stiles and Scott walked toward our Chemistry class together. I stalked after them.

"—I'm pretty sure it was a wolf," Scott confided to Stiles in a whisper, sounding afraid of admitting it out loud.

"A wolf bit you?" Stiles asked, his lip twitched in response. "Not a chance, dude."

Scott countered, "I heard a wolf howling."

"No, you didn't," Stiles reassured and went into the classroom, leaving a gaping mouthed Scott behind.

He huffed before he followed his friend. "You weren't there, dude. I did. It howled."

Stiles waved at me as I took a seat beside him. I nodded my acknowledgement but did not say anything.

I wanted to hear their conversation for once. Maybe if Stiles did not believe Scott, he'd come to me for help. Maybe. I hoped.

I crossed my fingers and rested my elbows on the desk.

Scott roughly sat into the chair behind Stiles, giving me a death glare.

"What do you mean, 'No I didn't'?" he asked, glancing toward me again. He lowered his voice. "How do you know what I heard?"

Stiles didn't have the same hesitancy as Scott did. He said casually, "California doesn't have wolves, Scott." He turned in his seat. "Not for the last sixty years."

"Really?"

"Really really." Stiles smiled goofily. "There's no wolves in California."

"Then what—" Scott's eyebrows furrowed.

Stiles looked at him. "Minds go wild in foreign places. Especially if you consider the place a threat. There was a body, Scott."

Scott leaned back in his chair and looked lost.

I looked away before he looked at me again.

The classroom began to fill up with students, mostly students who did not look half-awake yet.

I sat up in the chair when Danny, a friend of mine came in.

Danny smiled at me and took a seat to my left. "Hey, Em," he greeted. "How was your summer? Do anything fun?"

Ah, that question. The question that was always asked. The question that always led to the same old small talk over our activities and probable lies to make ourselves look better than we actually were.

To impress.

My lips curled up into a smile. "Good, good," I answered. "Just dressed up as a clown and was accused of stealing some bikes. Good thing Father Michael wrote me up some character references. The CCTV footage didn't stand a chance against his word, of course."

"Of course." Danny grinned at me, knowing I was joking. "The usual stuff then."

"F-father Michael?" Scott stared at me, his jaw hung open. "How did I not know about this?"

"Doesn't he hate you?" Stiles popped up, leaning his cheek against his palm, squishing up his face. "Like, really hate you. As in 'the power of Christ compels you', hates you?"

"More like repels you," Scott scoffed out.

"Dude." Danny shook his head. "Not funny."

"Seriously, don't listen to her," Scott warned. "She's just lying. Anything to get attention, right Em?"

Arching an eyebrow at Scott's tone, more than what he said, I replied, "The one and the same. It's amazing what saying fifty Hail Mary's will get you. Apparently, it prayed away the gay."

Scott spluttered out a cough and turned away, embarrassed by how loud I had been.

Stiles on the other hand could not contain his laughter, even the smack he got to the back of his head did not stop it. It kept on coming out. With a final snort, he fully turned to Scott, getting lost in conversation with him.

"He still hasn't gotten over it yet?" Danny asked, furrowing his eyebrow.

I sighed. "No, not yet."

He glared in Scott's direction and clenched his fists by his sides. I silently shook my head. "What a jerk. No improvement in three months? That's just..."

"Just forget about it."

He shook his head. "How was your summer, really?"

"Fine." I rolled my shoulders, shrugging off the subject. Danny continued to stare at me expectantly. "He's speaking to me now," I offered with a tired smile. "It's progress. I think Stiles smacked some sense into him."

"I think he needs more than a smack, Embry."

I hummed my agreement but made no move to comment further.

In all my days on earth, I learned a lesson. I could only control my own thoughts and actions. I had to respect that others had a different viewpoint and their reactions were their responsibility and not mine.

I had to let it go, even if I did disagree or if it did make me sad.

Scott and I did not speak for two months when I revealed my sexuality to him. Our mom encouraged me to get it out of the way, to deal with it during the summer months and concentrate on our relationship then, rather than doing it during school months.

Mom did not foresee that on the last night of the summer holidays, we'd have to face more than petty disagreements and resentment.

It was a life changing alteration.

Scott leaned across his table. "Well if you don't believe me about the wolf, then you're definitely not going to believe me when I tell you I saw a body."

"You what?" Stiles' hands flailed as he struggled to keep his balance on his chair. "Are you kidding me? You're kidding, right? My plan got hijacked and you managed to get the glory? Not fair."

"I wish," Scott mumbled, shivering. "I'm going to have nightmares about it for a month."

Danny continued to rave on about karma.

I smirked at Danny. "No worries, Danny boy. I think that has been covered enough."

Even if I would have nightmares about it for the rest of my life.