2: "Hold still, Stiles..."

"...I just want to play with you."

Derek reached for me, but I pulled away from him. A part of me wanted to be touched by him, but my instincts were telling me he was a werewolf; a killer.

"Come to me. I won't hurt you," Derek held his hand out for me.

I took a step forward, but my instincts jerked me violently back. Derek chuckled and moved toward me, closing the gap between us and forcing my instincts to go into overdrive.

"I'll eat your tongue..." the threat Derek made last night echoed through my head.

"Fuck," I breathed, feeling my cock start to throb.

Derek pressed his lips to mine. His warning continued to echo in my mind as he reached down and pressed his palm firmly against the crotch of my jeans. A deep growl escaped the back of his throat, and I wondered what stimulated him more: my erection, or my instinct to run from him.

Without warning, Derek squeezed my crotch hard. I opened my mouth to cry out, but his lips were still against mine. My tongue moved forward and he grabbed it between his teeth. I felt his canines pierce my tongue and blood rushed out of it into both of our mouths.

My blood tasted like metal. It filled my mouth and poured into Derek's as he drank my blood down and groaned with intense pleasure. There was so much blood, I was afraid I would start choking on it, just like Derek had warned me last night.

"I'll eat your tongue..." his threat echoed once more.

Something told me he would do it.

My eyes shot open. I was lying on my side, and it took me a second to realize that I wasn't facing the familiar things in my room.

"Malia? What the hell are you doing in here?" I sat up, seeing her crouched form on the floor next to my bed.

She looked up at me with her wild little eyes and said, "I'm hiding from the monster."

I ran my hand over my face and made a heavy sigh. When I first came to the halfway house, I saw Malia and I thought she looked normal enough. I had learned that she was more feral than domesticated. Justin told me that her parents were crack addicts and had subjected her to years of torture and ritual abuse before she turned to crime to get away from them and ended up here. I kept my distance from Malia to avoid causing her more damage, but it wasn't easy when the other guys treated her fucked up conditioning as a means to play games with her when they were bored.

"Malia, I already told you that the noise you hear at night wasn't the sound of monsters. It's just Ethan rubbing one out for himself on the other side of the wall," I explained.

Shaking her head, Malia informed me, "No, I saw the monster this time."

I asked her more seriously, "Did one of the guys come into your room and whip their dick out?"

She shook her head and clarified, "No, it wasn't like that. It was a monster with sharp teeth and he looked like Derek."

My eyes widened with surprise and she continued, "It wasn't Derek, though. I've seen him and he's good, but this monster was evil and his eyes glowed blue and he told me to come to your room and hide so that I would be safe."

I couldn't understand why Derek would want to freak Malia out and send her to my room. Since I had no answers, I just tried to work on Malia, "You've got to go back to your room, sweetie. If Peter sees you in here, he'll get the wrong idea."

She started climbing into bed with me anyway, pleading with me, "Please, Stiles, please don't make me go back to my room! The monster might still be out there and Derek said I would only be safe with you!"

I grumbled in protest, but Malia was already snuggled firmly by my side. I settled in next to her and put my blanket over us.

"Just don't tell anyone about this, alright? If you do, I might get kicked out of here," I told her.

I knew she'd blab to everyone that she spent the night with me if I didn't give her a really good reason to keep her mouth shut. She nodded and closed her eyes to sleep, but I was already wide awake, so I played idly with her soft hair and stared at the ceiling.

I took great pains to be alone, but I couldn't help liking the feeling of a warm body lying next to me. Malia smelled good, too. As she struggled in her sleep and I whispered to her to calm her down, I became more and more curious as to why Derek would want to scare her.

Unless that wasn't the plan.

I started going over scenarios in my mind. Maybe he was wandering around in werewolf form, and Malia woke up and saw him. Or maybe he was coming back to talk to me and ran into her in the hallway so he just made up something to chase her off and he left as well.

Or maybe this was a test. Maybe Derek wondered if I could resist the temptation of a frightened woman climbing into my bed. He probably knew that I swung both ways.

If that was his plan, he didn't know me as well as he thought. I might be prone to mistakes, but I had enough sense not to take advantage of Malia. It could be that Derek just wanted to test my loyalty to him after he confessed that he wanted me last night, but no matter what his intentions were, I wasn't going to stick it to him by sticking it in Malia.

:-:

Malia woke up to the alarm and I sent her out before everyone else got up so no one saw her leave my room. She was waiting for me in the kitchen with Justin and we ate breakfast, together. Nick came in and flicked the back of Justin's ears, then grabbed the cereal box and left.

As we walked to school, Malia followed me like my own shadow. Justin bounced around and jumped off of things and screamed at the cars going by like a crazy person, but I ignored him because I was still trying to figure out what Derek was up to.

We got into the school building and Justin took off running down the hallway towards his locker. Malia continued to follow me all the way to mine. We passed Derek at his locker along the way, and Malia looked up for the first time since breakfast. Derek watched us without saying a word, like he found our pairing intriguing but nothing more specific than that.

I opened my locker and shuffled through it, telling Malia, "You should get to class."

"But what if the monster comes?" Malia said loud enough for Derek to overhear.

I scoffed and replied, "The monster would never come here, Malia."

"Why not?" she asked curiously.

"Because NO ONE ever willingly goes to high school. It blows and it always smells like puke and old gym socks," I told her.

She breathed an airy laugh and I told her, "Get to class or we'll both be in trouble."

Malia started to leave but stopped short. She chewed her nails and glanced around like she wasn't sure which way she should go.

I pointed past her and explained, "It's down that hallway in room 83. You've been there before. You know the way."

She nodded and slowly made her way to class. When she was out of sight, I turned back to my locker and found Derek standing beside it with his arms folded. I gave him an unimpressed look and asked, "So what's the deal with you freaking Malia out last night?"

"I believe I freaked you out as well, peeping Stiles," Derek pointed out dryly.

"I wasn't peeping. I was minding my own beeswax and walking through the forest when I stumbled upon a scene out of a hard core supernatural porn film, that's all," I retorted.

He lifted his brow with mock surprise and replied sarcastically, "Oh, right, 'cause that happens to everyone from time to time."

"You wouldn't know if it did because you don't know everyone," I refused to let him out-mock me.

"Well, sounds like you're a little disturbed by our conversation last night," Derek made it sound like we had simply had a debate about the differences between chicken and beef.

"I'm not disturbed about what you said to me, I'm mad because you practically traumatized Malia for no good reason," I stated.

"I needed her to think you were a trustworthy person," Derek said, still making it sound like his actions had no basis for argument.

"You could have just asked me to talk to her or hang out with her or something! Now she thinks there are monsters in our house!" I argued.

He frowned at me and explained, "I needed her to trust you more immediately. I think P.J. is trying to use her and I want her to tell you what he's after."

That caught me by surprise. I asked after a pause for consideration, "Well, why couldn't you just get her to tell you?"

Derek shook his head and replied, "I have a bit of a problem with girls."

"What? Do you flip out on them? Do you let them paint your nails or something? Do you think they can't resist your charms?" I joked.

He gave me a stern expression and said, "You wouldn't understand."

"Oh my God! You do let them paint your nails!" I shouted.

Derek let out a frustrated growl and told me, "I can't have Kate getting jealous. She has a habit of torturing those she thinks are taking my attention away from her."

I gave Derek a look of disbelief and said, "You have got to be messing with me. There's no way Kate is that medieval."

Derek half-smiled and replied, "I knew you wouldn't understand."

I slammed my locker shut and told him, "You must be one of those guys who says it's all your not-really-but-kind-of a girlfriend's fault you can't play the field."

"I don't need to play the field," he stated.

"Why? Because you get enough from Kate?" I countered dryly.

"She isn't my enough," Derek smiled a little like he was thinking of an inside joke..

I stopped and turned to face him. He seemed amused with himself but not willing to share what he was thinking of.

"Anyway, I've got to get to class," I told him.

"See you, later," Derek turned on his heel and walked away, leaving me wondering what the hell he was smiling about.

:-:

Derek seemed to have a way of making his motives totally unclear to me, and I spent most of the day wondering why he would want me to know what he meant by Kate not being enough for him. It sounded like he was seeing more than just Kate. This disturbed me more than I cared to admit. When it came time for our next class together, where I would see Lydia for the first time all day, I was deep in thought and filled with questions.

I walked into class and looked right over at Lydia's seat, fully expecting her to be there to give me her warm smile.

She was at her seat, but she didn't look up and smile at me. Instead, she was talking to Kate Argent in the seat ahead of her, and it looked like the conversation was not a pleasant one.

I noticed almost right away that something was up with Lydia. She looked sad and tired and she was wearing a giant blue knit sweater that was way too big for her and covered her arms entirely. It was like, eighty degrees outside.

I took my seat and focused on digging through my bag while Kate and Lydia talked just across from me. Kate asked in a tone dripping with contempt, "What did you say to him, Lydia?"

"Nothing, Kate!," Lydia answered seriously.

Kate remained ominously calm, asking, "Then why did he go to your locker last hour?"

"He was just asking to borrow notes for the quiz in Science. I gave it to him and he said thanks and I said bye," Lydia strained not to yell.

I gave Kate a sideways glance. She was obviously unconvinced by Lydia's story. Derek, Cameron and Liam walked in at that moment. I thought Kate would leave Lydia alone, but she persisted, asking, "Why did he blow me off after he talked to you, then?"

"I don't know!" Lydia argued.

Cameron and Liam took their seats. Derek remained standing and looked deliberately at Kate. She didn't return his hard stare, but her attitude shifted away from Lydia and she looked directly at me, asking, "Do you mind?"

I didn't skip a beat, but answered quickly, "Yes, I do mind. I want to talk to Lydia but I'm waiting for you to shut your mouth and move your ass."

Kate glared at me, but got up anyway. She tugged at Lydia's sweater and mentioned snidely before taking her assigned seat, "Nice look."

Lydia clenched her jaw and looked away.

Kate groaned and shifted loudly in her seat. Lydia started to look at Kate, but I brought her attention back by saying, "I think your sweater is nice. It looks soft, too."

Lydia's expression brightened as she said, "Thank you."

"Could I feel it?" Derek asked.

We both looked up and saw him standing there like he had been right next to us the whole time. He reached out for Lydia's sweater and touched the arm of it. She smiled and said, "This is my favorite one."

Kate shot up in her seat so fast, her desk flipped over and crashed violently against the floor. She shouted angrily as she stormed out of the classroom, "You are all a bunch of fucking morons!"

Lydia clenched her jaw, again. She looked like she wanted to scream, but Cameron nodded at her and said, "Don't let Kate get you down, Lydia."

Liam also added, "Yeah, she's just trying to be annoying."

Lydia smiled and Derek let go of her sweater to go back to his seat. Mrs. Chan came in moments, later. It was no surprised that Kate never came back. I was glad, because Lydia looked happier without her.

:-:

On our next break, I looked for Derek and found him outside by himself, leaning against the school like a cool kid straight out of the movies. I walked over to him and stated, "I need you to do something for me."

"Do I look like I do favors for people?" Derek lifted a brow.

"Consider it a favorable return for what I'm doing for you with Malia," I told him.

He half-smiled at me and asked, "Well, what is the favor?"

"Find the person who's beating on Lydia and kill them," I said point blank.

Derek nodded and replied sarcastically, "That shouldn't be too difficult."

I told him seriously, "I'm not kidding, Derek. Lydia doesn't deserve it. I know that sweater she was wearing was hiding bruises and if you don't kill the person responsible, I will."

Derek locked eyes with me and said, "You have a strange attachment to that girl."

I looked away and replied, "It's not right."

"Most things aren't," Derek gazed at me knowingly.

I asked him deliberately, "Do you know who's responsible?"

Derek nodded and explained, "Lydia's mother adopted a young girl from a violent family years, ago. Her name is Allison. She was being trained by her grandfather to kill people, or at least that's what the official record said. Only my kind knew that her grandfather was training her to kill werewolves. Anyway, the girl had some kind of breakdown. She couldn't handle what her grandfather told her about supernaturals roaming around posing as humans. She hallucinates and lashes out. Lydia tends to be the one who gets the brunt of it."

I sighed with frustration and asked, "Well, I guess she doesn't deserve to die. Is there anything you can do to keep Lydia safe?"

"What do you want me to do? You want me to scare an unstable teenager by showing her that what her grandfather taught her is real?" Derek retorted.

"I just want her to stop hurting Lydia," I said.

Derek gave me a sideways glance and asked teasingly, "If I help you, what do I get in return?"

"I already told you, I'm doing stuff with Malia for you, so this is payback," I informed him.

Derek shook his head and countered, "Not good enough."

"Alright, fine. What do you want?" I opened my arms like I could handle anything.

"You know what I want," Derek told me thickly.

I let my arms drop. He was obviously referring to his desire to fuck me. I told him half-jokingly, "What if I say I'm not interested?"

Derek chuckled and I asked him, "What's so funny?"

He told me deliberately, "I just think it's cute that you think you have a choice in the matter."

I snorted and replied, "Oh, so I should just squeeze my cheeks together and brace myself because you're coming for my ass, huh? Are you going to violate my butt flower with your fuck-stem, Derek Hale?"

He didn't laugh.

I regrouped and told him seriously, "I need you to help me stop Lydia from getting hurt, alright? If you do that for me, I'll consider letting you do something with me."

"Maybe we should go over my plans for you before you you let me do something," Derek replied.

I rolled my eyes and walked away.

:-:

I went home and spent time on homework before getting into bed. I waited for Malia for a while, but she never came into my room. I figured she was already asleep and I closed my eyes to drift off myself. I didn't remember falling asleep, but I was jerked awake by the sound of Derek's voice whispering, "Stiles."

I sat up and saw him standing at the side of my bed with Lydia in his arms. She was in a tank top and a pair of pink flannel pajama pants and I could make out the exposed deep bruises on her arms in the moonlight. I looked up at Derek and asked, "What are you doing?! I told you to stop her sister from hurting her, not to kidnap Lydia and bring her here!"

"She saw me, Stiles," Derek told me.

I knew well enough what Derek looked like in werewolf form. It didn't bother me, so I hadn't considered how it could traumatize someone who wasn't prepared for it. I swallowed hard and asked, "Is she alright?"

"I don't know," Derek answered, his voice distraught.