Chapter One – Saving Grace
"Deucalion," Kali ran into the room where we were all gathered, "We have a problem."
"Continue," He answered not flinching a bit.
"The boy," She said looking around the room, "He's gone."
Deucalion threw his cane onto the ground and stood up angrily, "What do you mean?"
"She means he's not t-" I stepped in but he put his hand out to me.
"I've caught the concept," He said and I backed away and took my seat back on the chair.
Deucalion rose his hand and Ethan and Aidan stood up and exiting the room laughing in their twin code I never quite understood.
"Who was the last to be in the room with him?" He asked angrily and Ennis stood up and exited the room. Kali turned her attention to me and I took a big gulp, "I can hear you're both in here now would one of you like to answer?"
I stood up slowly, "I-I was the last one with him."
He turned around to me with his cane in his hand and swung it at me leaving a mark on my left cheek, I winced at the pain and backed away quickly.
"Rhea, what did you do?" He said calmly but I didn't answer. "I. SAID. WHAT. DID. YOU. DO!?" He screamed in my face annunciating every word.
"I don't know, I guess I didn't lock the closet," I stuttered and he struck me again with the cane which caused me to fall backwards onto the ground. I looked up at him through the tears fogging my vision from the blows and he straightening up and Kali grabbed his arm.
"You were supposed to kill him, not let him out. Get out of here, leave, you can't stay here tonight."
"But, where am I supposed to go? I have nowhere here." He ignored me and they exited the room leaving me alone in there. I sat up and looked around the room before standing up and throwing my head back.
I grabbed my bag quickly and left the room, I walked around the town aimlessly. Sure, I've been here for the past four months but I haven't been out much. I didn't know my way around here, nor did I know anyone around here. I walked past Beacon Hills high school, my first day there is tomorrow.
There was a little café open so I walked into it and sat down on a booth by a window, I ordered a coffee and it came out quickly.
I reminisced over the past occurrences, yes; I may have been the one who let the boy escape. But it wasn't on purpose, okay, fine, maybe it was. But something about him, he seemed so lost, so sweet. I'm not really sure why I did it, I don't even know his name. But something about him made me feel so protective towards him.
That night came and went while I slept on a park bench, I woke up in the morning to a dog sniffing my leg. I shot awake and a guy was startled and pulled his dog away from me, I stood up and walked out of the park and into the first store I came in contact with. I changed in the bathroom and brushed my hair and teeth before exiting, I bought a coffee off of the cashier and left the shop. I walked to school and walked into the building and got my schedule and headed to my first class, Ms. Blake.
I sat down in class behind a boy, he had brown hair and was pale, and he was really cute. He was wearing a white, green, and gray plaid shirt and a green shirt underneath and was talking to a boy next to him. Two girls walked in and one sat in front of the other one and the one in front of me gave him a sarcastic-looking thumbs up. My phone started to ring and so did the entire class and the teacher walked in a few seconds later reading the text out loud.
"This is the last line of the first book we are going to read, this is also the last text you will receive in this class. Phones off everyone," I smirked and turned my phone off and placed it on my desk.
"We also have a new student this year, Rhea Mitchell will you raise your hand." I rose my hand and everyone looked at me. "Everyone, I'm putting it in your hands to make her feel at home."
We started our lesson on "Heart of Darkness" quietly and individually, a teacher walked in shortly after.
"Mr. McCall," Ms. Blake said to the boy who was sitting next to the one in front of me. He stood up and exited the room with her following him out. McCall, that name sounded familiar but I couldn't remember why.
"Hey Lydia," I heard the boy in front of me whisper to the strawberry blonde sitting next to him. "What is that? Is that from the accident?"
"No, Prada bit me." She answered.
"Your dog?"
"No, my designer handbag." She said quickly and seriously, "Yes, my dog."
"Has it ever bitten you before?" He asked seriously and I was confused, but I guess you would be confused if you were eavesdropping in someone's conversation you don't know.
She shook her head "no" and he sat up, "Okay, well what if it's the same thing as the deer. You know how like animals start acting weird right before an earthquake or something?"
"Meaning what, there's going to be an earthquake?" She said sarcastically.
"Or something, I just, maybe it means something's coming, something bad."
"It was a deer and a dog." She said not buying it, but then she turned to him seriously, "What's that thing you say about three's? Once, twice," Right before she went to say three, a crow came crashing into the window killing itself. I jumped out of my seat and stared at the window, outside was a flock of crows all coming towards the window. They started to hit through it and came flying into the classroom, we all jumped to the floor and tried hiding ourselves from the birds.
After a while, it stopped, birds were lying around the classroom dead. We all stood up slowly looking around the room.
The sheriff arrived shortly and came into the room questioning us. The cute boy walked over to me, "This is a great way to start off the new school year isn't it?" He joked and I smiled back awkwardly, "I'm Stiles, by the way, it's nice to meet you."
He put out his hand and I grabbed it, "I'm Rhea."
"Well trust me, school isn't usually like this, it's usually a lot more boring around here." He grinned at me.
"Stiles, get over here right now," The sheriff yelled at him.
Stiles looked at me once more, "Sorry, my dad," He pointed at the sheriff before walking over to him and sitting down on one of the desks.
We were dismissed from class and we went to our lockers, I saw Aiden and Ethan walking around and walked up to them.
"Hey, well if it isn't the traitor herself?" Aidan said and Ethan laughed along with him.
"Shut up, shouldn't you have something better to do?" I walked past them but they followed me.
"You know you really screwed up right?" Aidan asked and I turned around.
"I don't care," I screamed at them and people's eyes shifted towards us.
"You did it purposely, you let him go."
"I did not," I shifted uncomfortably in my shoes.
"You did," Ethan added in.
I turned away from them and walked away but I could hear them behind me so I picked up my speed, I turned a corner and ran right into someone. I looked up and saw a familiar face a sighed in relief, he looked down at me.
"Oh hey!" Stiles said steadying me.
"Hi," I said awkwardly back and looked behind me.
"Hey, are you okay? You look sorta freaked," He asked with a concerned face.
"Yeah, um, I'm great, I'm just hiding from someone actually, well two someone's, it's a long story."
"I have plenty of time," He said with a smile. "Want to get out of here? My dad said anyone can leave if they want to."
"I would, but I have nowhere to go," I bit my bottom lip.
"You can come with me, I'm going to my friends."
I nodded and he pulled me out of the building and walked to his baby blue jeep, I hopped into the passenger side. He turned the car on and pulled out his phone, "I just need to call someone," He put the phone to his ear. "We have a serious problem, in school Ms. Blake's class, well um, no I'm pretty sure this qualifies for immediate discussion. Derek's house? What, what the hell are you doing there." He hung up and groaned throwing his head against his seat.
"Everything okay?" I asked.
"Yeah, just peachy." He put the car into drive and started to leave the parking lot we passed the front of the school and Ethan and Aidan were standing there. They stared at me through the window and I flipped them both off.
"So are you going to tell me what you were running from earlier?" He asked breaking the silence after a while.
"Um, just these two guys, Ethan and Aidan."
"Oh yeah, aren't they the new guys, the uh, twins?" I nodded. "How do you know them?"
"It's complicated, I guess you could say I'm, uh, adopted and they're my adoptive brothers?" I said but it sounded more like a question.
"Oh, so you didn't want to be around them in school? Too much to handle at home," He looked over at me before focusing back on the road.
"Yeah," I looked back out the window then over at him, "So who is Derek?"
"Oh, this guy, that, uh, my friend, Scott, and I know. I don't really like him, he can sorta kinda, always be a douche."
We pulled into a driveway, which I've seen before, and then it finally clicked. I muttered, "Shit," quietly to myself, but it mustn't have been that quiet because Stiles looked over at me confused.
"What's wrong?"
I climbed out of the jeep and shut the door, "Nothing, everything's just peachy," I mocked him earlier.
"Ha ha, funny, looks like we've got a prankster." He walked up to the door of the house and didn't bother knocking and just walked in.
"Scott? Derek? Hello?" He said walking into the dark house, I followed him close behind.
"Why do I hear more than one person?" I heard someone say as they came into view.
I looked at them and they both stared me down, "That's what I smelled earlier." Scott said to me and Stiles turned to me.
"Well that's rude, you don't even know the girl and your commenting on her smell, I think she smells good in fact, I think she smells wonderful." I rolled my eyes at him.
"Not what he meant," Derek said walking over to me and I took a big gulp.
"Please, don't hurt me." I said quietly and Stiles went to walk over to me but Derek pushed him away.
"Who are you?"
"I'm Rhea, I'm new here, I just moved here."
He scanned my face, "Why are you here?"
"My parents shipped me here, I don't want trouble, I swear."
He nodded and Stiles looked at me confused but I shot him a look and he nodded, "Yeah, she had nowhere to go so I offered her a ride with me, I'm showing her around today."
"Are there any more of you?" Derek was interrogating me.
"No, just me, I swear." He turned away and Scott followed. Stiles stayed behind with me and I mouthed to him, "I'll explain everything, I swear." I mean I could tell him most things, his best friend is a werewolf as well, he would understand.
We went into another room and they started to talk about tattoos and how Scott wanted one, Derek agreed to give him it.
Scott woke up after everything and we decided to leave, but as we were walking out Scott stopped.
"You painted the door, why'd you paint the door?" He asked Derek suspiciously.
"Go home, Scott."
"Why only one side?" He brought out his claws on his right hand and skimmed his nail across the painted door and my eyes grew wide.
"Scott," Derek said running over to the door and Scott started to claw at the entire door until it revealed a sign.
"The birds at school and the deer last night, just like the night I got trampled by the deer when I got bit by the alpha. How many are there?" He asked Derek.
"A pack of them," Derek said looking at him. "An alpha pack," My heart started to race as I hid behind Stiles.
"All of them? How does that even work?"
"I heard that there's some kind of leader," He looked at me then back at Scott, "He's called Deucalion."
"We know they have Boyd and Erica; Peter, Isaac, and I have been looking for them the past four months."
Scott stepped forward, "So you find them, how do you deal with an alpha pack?"
"With all the help I can get."
I heard another voice from the other room, "Where is she?"
We all walked in and a boy was sitting there shirtless, "Where's the girl?"
Derek, Scott, and Stiles all looked at each other confused, "What girl?" Derek said before the boy fell back out of consciousness. I walked away from them and over to the boy, I looked at him closely.
"No," I mumbled, "It's you."
Flashbacks started to play in my head of me setting him free from the closet and getting him to the girl. The girl he was just asking about, who was supposed to help him and she did. She saved him.
"Who is he?" I turned around towards them and they all stared at me with blank expressions.
"Isaac." They all said in unison, I nodded and turned back around smiling.
"Isaac, the lost puppy."