One Tree Hill Lycan Chronicles
Chapter 1
Lucas just sat in Rachel's truck quietly while she drove the streets of Tree Hill. He asked Rachel for a ride home after he saw Brooke when he exited the locker room. He honestly didn't want to see her, let alone talk to her. What she did was unforgiveable. Stringing him along, letting him think she was going to forgive him and making him jump through hoops in order to be "exclusive" only to walk in on Chris Keller and her in bed together naked. He thought about what he should do because he does need to talk to her at some point but that wasn't going to be tonight. Finally, Rachel broke the silence.
"Let me be the first to say, great game. I am the first right? I mean wow you guys really sucked," she said sarcastically. They lost their game tonight due to distractions outside the game and everyone was playing horrible.
"My head wasn't in it," he replied
"I know. It was in Brooke's bedroom watching her ride Chris Keller."
He sighed, "You heard about that?"
"I'm not one of those people who likes to say I told you so, Lucas."
"Yeah…" he said knowing full well she was.
"Who am I kidding? I love it. I told you. You need to move on, Lucas"
"To what, Rachel? You?"
Rachel rolled her eyes then slowed her car to a complete stop and turned to Lucas. "Do whatever makes you happy but do it now. Live life for the moment, because everything else is uncertain. Take advantage of what's right in front of you."
"I'm not hooking up with you tonight, Rachel," Lucas said slightly shaking his head.
"That is not even what I'm talking about, and its me who's not hooking up with you. It's also me who's not going to be used to make Brooke jealous anymore. I'm better than that and I know it, and you can figure it too on your long walk home."
"Rachel, come on."
"Out you go."
He gave a small laugh when he saw that she was serious and finally gave in and got out of the truck. "See you at school," she said through her open window and drove off. The sandy blonde boy chuckled to himself and threw his hands up in the air in disbelief that she is actually making him walk home. He turned the direction that they were heading and slowly made his way home.
About 10 minutes in to walking he finally realized he had forgotten his gym bag so he remembered to call Rachel tomorrow. Well at least walking home gave Lucas time to think about the past 48 hours and what to do about Brooke. Also, Rachel's words definitely stuck to the back of his mind, Do whatever makes you happy but do it now. Live life for the moment, because everything else is uncertain. Take advantage of what's right in front of you. She's right; Lucas really needed to find an outlet for himself except he wasn't sure what that was yet. Writing or basketball, maybe? He does enjoy both of them and all but his mind was so distracted he couldn't get a single word written down or been able to keep up with the team from his HCM hindering him. He had quite a walk so he just rolled things over in his mind over and over.
As he contemplated his next move until a blood curdling male scream startled him. "AAAHHHHHH"
Lucas legs moved before he was able to register what he was doing. He darted through the trees in front him desperate to help. The woods were dark with the only light coming from the moon. He ran forward losing track of where the road was. Immediately a deer run out the darkness head, almost colliding with him but he was able to dodge in time. How strange to see a deer be threatened to attack or afraid.
He run a for a minute longer, then saw a girl with dark hair running in the short distance among the trees, suddenly she stopped and turned around and aimed what appeared to be a handgun. Lucas looked to what she was aiming at it looked as if it were a giant black bear with hind legs and piercing red eyes sprinting on all fours coming at her. Lucas didn't hesitate and ran faster, as he saw the big bear like creature was not slowing down. He got closer and closer and finally pushed the mysterious girl with dark hair out of the path of the charging shadow as he got knocked down. It felt like a small car hitting him. He fell to the ground hard and felt sharp razors go into his lower right abdomen. The creature had bit him. Before he knew what was going on he felt dazed from the impact and heard two gunshots.
The girl was firing her firearm at the creature and hit it once. The massive creature made a howl like noise and ran off in retreat and managed to get away as the girl shot a few more shots in its direction. Lucas stayed horizontal in a daze until the girl finally spoke.
"WHAT THE HELL!" she screamed at the writhing body on the ground that was Lucas who is still trying to figure out was happening, "I HAD IT!"
"Is that your way of saying thank you?" Lucas finally spoke as he slowly managed to get up, still feeling the sharp pain of teeth marks on his lower abdomen.
"I didn't need your help."
"Really? Because from what I saw it was going to run you down," Lucas replied, as he looked this rude girl over.
She was wearing a leather jacket, a holster under, a white tank top beneath and jeans with black boots. Her dark brown hair cascaded down a little past her shoulders and her face was pretty with dark brown eyes but it was her attitude that was ruining it.
"So you decide to get run down instead?" she replied then had a shock expression as if she remembered something. "Oh my god! Travis…" she immediately sprinted the direction the bear thing had came from.
"Wait!" Lucas yelled as he ran after her taking shallow breaths from the pain. "What was that thing?" he asked as he finally caught up to where she stood.
There at her feet was a dead body of a man in his mid 20s by the look of it with three lethal scratches across his chest and three more across his face and holding a crossbow. "No!" she yelled. "Damn it."
"Geez" Lucas said turning away from the dead body and trying not to puke.
"Travis, I'm sorry," she said softly that Lucas could barely hear her.
"What was that...that…that…bear thing? And who is that?" he asked again.
"Shut up, let me think." She retorted.
Hundreds of question came into his head. What was that big black bear looking thing? Who was this girl? And why is there a dead body? And who is he? He clutched his side and started feeling the warm blood through his white shirt he was wearing. The pain started searing now that the adrenaline was wearing off so he leaned against the nearest tree. He looked at his right hand that was getting a lot of blood on it but the shirt was soaking up a whole lot more like a sponge.
She turned around; saw he had been bitten. Without another thought she grabbed the crossbow on the ground, aimed for the shoulder and shot the unsuspecting blonde haired boy with it.
"AH!" Lucas yelled in agony as the arrow pierced his shoulder, went through and pinned him to the tree. He turned to look at her and she was pointing her handgun at him.
"Hey! Woah! Woah! Woah!" he said with is hands up to try to protect himself.
"Shut up!"
"Why are you pointing that at me?"
"You were bitten! Better to take care of the problem now!"
"I don't know what the hell is going on!"
"I said shut up!"
"Just please explain what the hell is happening!" Lucas pleaded.
"That thing that bit you that was a Lycan, so now that means you're a Lycan now too."
"Wh-wh-what do you mean Lycan?" he managed to say as he felt the pain in his shoulder now.
"Lycan as in Lycanthropy."
"Lycanthropy?" Lucas said still confused.
"IT MEANS WEREWOLF!" she yelled back. "YOU'RE A WEREWOLF NOW! SHAPESHIFTER! A MUTT!"
"What? No. That's crazy. There's no such thing. I don't believe you."
"It doesn't really matter now if you believe me or not." She said while still had the gun trained on him ready to fire. Suddenly, she had an idea. What if she could use him? He was bitten by an Alpha so that means he's now connect to it. If anyone would be able to find it, it's him. It was a huge gamble, a big one but right now with her partner dead she was desperate. Now she had to find a way to convince him to help her.
"Tell you what, you help me then maybe I can help you," she said as she slowly lowered her gun. "But first who are you? Why are you here in these woods?"
"My name is Lucas, Lucas Scott." He replied trying to get the arrow out but it was stuck to the tree. "I heard screaming so I came to help but I didn't think I would have had a arrow shot at me when I did!"
"Well you've been bitten, so I had to think quickly to keep you from leaving."
"Ok I won't leave. But I still don't believe you about all this Lycan and werewolf nonsense."
This girl slowly walked over and snapped the arrow in half. "You ready?" He nodded his head knowing this was going to hurt. She pulled him hard towards her. He felt the arrow leave his body painfully with the arrow still in the tree.
"Who are you?" he managed to ask after sitting down to rest for a bit.
"My name is Clara, just Clara to you," she replied.
"What are you doing out here?" he asked after hearing more rudeness from her.
"I…well we," she said pointing to the dead person "have been hunting that Alpha."
"Alpha?"
"Yes Alpha, a pack leader of Lycans."
"Wait…a pack? As in more of those things?"
"I thought you didn't believe me."
"I don't" he replied but after getting run down by this "Alpha," bitten by it, finding a dead body and getting shot with a crossbow; he honestly he didn't know what to believe right now. " But you said I could help you. How?"
"Not here. It can still comeback and we've been exposed too long," she answered. "Come on help me we need to hide him."
"Wait, why don't we call the police?"
"See that is the first mistake right there. They can't handle this kind of situation."
"What situation? A werewolf?"
"Yes!" she raised her voice a bit in frustration. "Now help me move him. We can't leave him out in the open."
"You know can work on your attitude. You haven't exactly made a good impression you know after shooting me."
"Well get used to it and you'll live. Now help me mutt," she ordered.
Lucas finally gave in not wanting to argue with this obnoxious girl any more. They both went to the car that was just on the outside of the woods hidden from the road, to get something to wrap the body in. They carried it back to the vehicle and put him in the trunk. They came to an agreement to sit down and talk. Clara patched up his wounds, he still needed to get proper medical attention but she stopped the bleeding, gave him some new clothes that weren't all bloody from Travis's bag.
The drive was quiet; both being in their heads thinking of what happened these past few hours. Lucas still had a bunch of questions now. Lycans, werewolves, and shapeshifters, is this all real? And he was one of them!? No way! While Clara sat next to him thinking how to explain all this to him if he was going to help her. She drove a short distance to a small 24-hour diner with bright pink neon lights spelling Sally's Diner.
There was barely anyone there tonight because of how late it was. Both seated themselves towards the back, the most secluded set of seats in the establishment. Neither one of them was actually hungry after hiding a dead body but ended up ordering sodas and sat quietly for a bit, not awkward silence but not comfortable either.
"Who are you?" Lucas finally broke the silence.
"I already told you my name is Clara."
"I get that but who are you exactly? You said both you were hunting that Alpha. So what that makes you a werewolf hunter?"
She nodded. "Indeed I am,but we prefer Lycan hunter, more derivative." She explained. "I have a question. What were you doing out there? We weren't exactly near the city."
That was a long story he did not want to get into so he kept it simple. "I got a ride home from school and my ride kicked me out of her car."
"Her huh? Girlfriend?"
"No. She definitely is not," he said wanting to make that clear. "But anyway back to my question. It's just you and Travis? No other hunters in town?"
"No, him and I were just doing recon. We were looking for evidence that an actual threat was here."
"Well I'm pretty sure there's a threat if your partner died."
Lucas notice she looked down in sadness. "I'm sorry by the way about him," he said reaching over to hold her hand to comfort her. She maybe obnoxious and rude but she lost someone.
"Woah," she pulled her hand away immediately. "We're not friends so don't console me."
"Ok…" he said confused, trying to be kind and she was just being rude and it was getting annoying at this point.
"Besides I'm not sad. He was just here to babysit me but we were both supposed to watch each other's back and I failed. But enough about the past we need to figure out our next move."
"OUR next move?" he said emphasizing "our" in his sentence. "I never said that I believed you about any of this."
"If you don't believe me then why are you still here? Because you could have left when I patched you up and been on your way back home. But you're here with me which means you believe me and you want to help."
Lucas had to admit, as much as this girl annoyed him she was extremely smart; possibly too smart for her own good. He wouldn't say he believed everything but something abnormal was definitely go on. He then looked over and saw that the sun was starting to rise. He really has been out all night. Lucas was surprised mom hasn't called wondering where he was.
"Alright, fair enough. I've listened to you about this and I still don't know how we can help each other," he said finally.
"There's a cure that can turn you back to human."
"What is it?" Lucas asked turning his full attention to her after she said cure. It honestly sounded way to good to be true.
"My family has a way. We do it for innocent people who never wanted to turn. We just need the body of the Alpha who bit you."
"Ok that sounds like a challenge considering we have no idea where it is."
"We do have one thing he wants." she said.
"What?" he asked.
"An Alpha bit you so he'll be coming for you to join his pack."
"So an Alpha bit me so that will make me apart of his pack?"
"It doesn't exactly work that way, but yeah. You also have a choice to not join. Usually you can tell if you're a Beta or Omega by your eyes," She explained.
"Beta or Omega?" he asked.
"Let me explain it this way. An Alpha is the leader of the pack; its eyes are blood red. Those are the ones that can shift completely."
"Like the one that bit me."
"Exactly. That one was in its true form. And they're the only ones can sire other Betas through a bite. As for the Betas they can't shift, they have yellow eyes. They can only stay humanoid with enhanced abilities."
"Abilities? What kind of abilities?"
"Well enhanced strength, hearing, and claws."
"Claws?"
"Faster healing too. And you're much more durable than your average human. You can still die but you can take way more punishment than I can. Do you have any medical conditions or defects?"
"A heart condition," he stated not really thinking about it. Only a handful of people in Tree Hill actual knew about it.
"Not anymore, you're cured."
"Ok," he managed to say. His brain was on overload processing all this information. "So there's the Alpha, Beta and Omega?"
"Yes, Omegas don't usually last long. They're the lone wolf. No pack, just on their own."
"Why don't they last long?" he asked.
"When you're in a pack you're stronger together."
"Like strength in numbers?"
"No, well yes, but also they're faster, stronger, more agile. Bigger the pack the more enhanced you are."
"And you know all this just by being a hunter?"
"Lets just say hunting runs in the family. I grew up learning everything there is to know about the enemy."
Enemy. Lucas thought that was a specific word to use instead of Lycan or werewolf or even shapeshifter she said earlier. This family doesn't sound like they go on vacation during summer break or sit by fireplace during Christmas, more like combat training in the morning and hunting parties at night. Also to turn their daughter, who looks no older than 17 into a killer. What kind of family does that? Lucas now understood her attitude toward him it wasn't him she was rude to but what he was turning into.
"Is there anything else I need to know, because I don't know how much more information I can take." he said.
"Well we barely scratched the surface but we'll get in deeper later on."
"So what is our next move?"
"You're in?"
"Well I already helped you hide your friend so I'm already in. I'll help you but once we catch it, however I want the cure."
"Ok, deal. So our plan as of right now we need to go and bury Travis" she whispered. "And we'll go back to check out the area."
"But you said he's coming after me so why go back?"
"To see if it left anything behind. Geez, you're such a mutt," she rudely spat.
"Why do you have to be this way, I'm just trying to understand where your heads at so we can be ready for when we face it," Lucas said aggravated. Right when Lucas thinks she's dropping her guard she goes right back to being her rude self.
"Tell you what, when I want you to know something I'll tell you."
Lucas was about to say something but his phone rang. He pulled it out and it read 'Unknown Number.' That's weird he thought as he got up from the table for some privacy, which didn't go unnoticed by Clara. His finger hit the accept button.
"Hello?" Lucas spoke to the phone.
" Thank god! Its me Haley" Haley said very happy that he picked up.
"Haley? Why is your number unknown?"
"Well that's the thing, we are sort of in jail."
"What? Haley! How?" he said surprised but tried to be quiet. "Who exactly is we?"
"Long story short, Brooke and Peyton stole clothes from the mall and I was wearing the stolen property when the police came to the apartment. Now the mall wants their money. The police said if we pay them that they would drop the charges."
"How much do you owe?" Lucas asked. He turned around and saw Clara watching him suspiciously.
"A little over 300 dollars…"
"Haley!" he closed his eyes in disbelief and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Yeah, okay. I just have to go get some money really quick."
"Okay, thank you. Oh and Brooke keeps some extra cash under her bed in a drawer." she told him.
"I'm on my way"
"Okay, hurry please." She said before she hung up.
When things couldn't get any weirder now he need to go bail his friends out of jail.
"That didn't sound good." Clara said sarcastically as he turned around and walked back to the table.
"Its not. I need to go. My friends were arrested and I need to go bail them out."
"No. You can't leave we have serious work to do."
"Yeah, I get that but my friends are in trouble and they need my help."
"Mutt you can't go we need to go back to the woods." she harshly insisted.
"Okay first, enough with the mutt, its very degrading, you know my name and second it won't be all day just 2 hours tops please."
Totally ignoring his first point and seeing, as Lucas wasn't going to let this go; she also really need to get rid of Travis in the trunk she finally gave in. "You have one hour. No more no less, we clear?"
"Thank you," he said and started walking away.
"Wait," she quickly added. Lucas turned around a little disappointed that she stopped him. She went to the waitress behind the counter. "You have a pen a paper?"
The waitress gave her the writing utensil and parchment. Clara quickly wrote something down. "Here, call me the second you get your priorities straightened out," She, told him giving him her number.
Priorities? This girl was unbelievable Lucas thought. He snatched the paper, folded it up and put it in his pocket as he walked out.
Who did that mutt think he was Clara thought to herself as she dragged Travis's body to a spot on the outside of town where no one will find his grave. This was life and death and he's trying to get his friends out of jail. She didn't know what it was about him but he was so exasperating, constantly asking questions. He stopped her from killing it but he thinks he saved her life. She had the shot but looking back now she honestly didn't know if she did. Now she he was making her doubt herself. Why was he bugging her so much? He's a mutt, he shouldn't mean anything to her but why was she so bothered that he left? He needs to be here helping.
She huffed tiredly from dragging the corpse to the spot with a shallow man sized hole. She placed the body in it and started filling it with the shovel she got from the hardware store nearby. After she was done on cue her phone rang. Looking at the caller ID reading, "Father." Great she thought this being the last person she needs to give an update to on the situation. As soon as she caught her breath she pressed accept.
"Hi daddy!"
"Hello, sweetheart how's it going? I tried Travis but he's not picking up. You two find any proof of a pack in North Carolina?"
"Nope, not a pack at or at least not yet." she responded
"What do you mean not yet?" he asked in a serious questioning tone.
"I found one of its Betas."
"You didn't put it down?" he said. She could tell he was getting angry.
"No, because he said he could help."
"Clara you went to Tree Hill strictly for recon. What are you doing with a Beta? And do you actually believe he will help you kill his Alpha," he said in his angry tone.
"He's a newborn. He doesn't know what's happening yet."
"I'm coming down there. Where's Travis? Put him on. I can't believe he's actually going through with this."
"No dad, no I can do this. Please I am begging you. Let me prove myself to you and everyone back home." Clara pleaded over the phone. "Father, please. Do you trust me?"
"Of course I do," he answered. "However, don't make your need to prove yourself to us cloud your judgment."
"I'm not, I'm also trying to prove to myself that I can be a hunter who can do their duty and make the hard choices. I also managed to convince Travis to go through with this," she lied. "So please let me do this. Let me…us…" she corrected herself immediately "go after it and put it down."
Hearing his daughter's words softened his anger, her determination reminded him of her mother. But he didn't want her doing anything stupid and dangerous, especially dangerous such as trusting a Beta. Reluctantly he agreed. "Ok but put Travis on the phone. I want to talk to him."
Crap. Now what? She thought to herself because sooner or later she is going to have to tell him that Travis is dead. "He's not here. He left to go scout the woods a bit more," she lied again.
"Alright I'm trusting both of you with this assignment. And the second you think you can't handle yourself you call me and I'll bring a team," He ordered. "Understood?"
"Understood, father."
"One more thing, what did you tell the Beta to convince him to help?"
"I lied to him. I told him there is a cure," she replied.
"Clever. And you know what needs to be done after the Alpha is dead right?"
"I have to kill him."
