Hayden jumped as Liam slammed his locker shut suddenly. She shot him a worried look.

"What?" Liam said when he caught sight of Hayden's face.

"Nothing," she replied sarcastically. She shook her head and pulled her bag onto her shoulder.

To Liam's right Corey kissed Mason swiftly as he left for class. Mason retrieved his books from his locker with a smirk and shoved them into his bag. He spun around to follow Liam and Hayden to their next class but paused mid step when he saw them engaging in some kind of staring contest.

"Did I miss something?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.

Hayden replied only by rolling her eyes and sauntering away. Liam and Mason exchanged a look of confusion and shrugged their shoulders simultaneously.

"What's her problem?" Mason pried as he fell into step beside Liam.

Liam shrugged again. "I have no idea. She's been like this all week. It's like everything I do annoys her."

"Well, hey, girls are like that, right?" Mason clapped his hands onto Liam's shoulders. "You guys have full moons and the girls have-"

"Not like this," Liam interjected. "She's not even this bad on a full moon and anyway it's not just her. It's like somethings wrong with the whole school. It wreaks of anxiety in here."

Mason, not ready to let go of his usual optimism, offered the first explanation he could think of. "Maybe there's a test we don't know about."

Liam ran his hand through his hair. "I already checked. No tests today. No tests tomorrow. No tests any days this week."

Mason grabbed hold of Liam's sleeve and pulled him to one side.

Liam glanced around and confirmed his own fears. "And the worst part is, I think it's me. At lacrosse practice this morning I didn't get a single pass and I've already got detention twice this week. Look around, and tell me that nobody's looking right at me."

Mason turned around slowly and felt his stomach drop. He counted each student as they hurried passed, eyeing Liam suspiciously. Some of them averted their gaze whilst other stared openly as if they were studying something dangerous in a zoo that might escape at any moment.

Without saying a word, Mason dragged Liam into an empty classroom and locked the door behind them.

"Okay, so you think we have a supernatural problem?" said Mason.

Liam dropped his bag onto one of the desks.

"It might not be supernatural," he offered hopefully.

Mason dropped his bag next to Liam's and sank into a chair after checking it for gum.

"Well, what are your alpha instincts telling you?"

Liam huffed and crossed his arms as he leant back against the teacher's desk.

"I'm not an alpha," he sighed. Liam wiped his hands on his jeans as they began to sweat. Recently it had felt like the pack expected him to step into Scott's place when he went to college but Liam wasn't sure if he was ready yet.

Mason considered Liam's reply for a moment before pulling his phone out. Meanwhile the young beta was still lost in thought.

"Right, we should probably call one then," Mason suggested as he began to search for Scott's number.

Liam shook his head as he tried to focus on what Mason was telling him.

"A what?" said Liam, distracted as he picked at a loose thread on his jeans.

Mason leaned forward and waved his hands incredulously. For a moment Liam thought he reminded him of Stiles. It was ironic really, given the position they were in.

"An alpha!" exclaimed Mason.

"Oh yeah." Liam nodded. "Right."

Mason picked up his phone again but froze as it began to ring in his hand. Liam winced as the shrill ringing hit his ears.

"Erm, it's Scott," Mason muttered in confusion as he stared at the screen for a moment. Had he called him already? He didn't think so.

Mason accepted the call and put Scott through to speaker.

"Hey," said Mason as Liam leaped forwards and interrupted him.

"Scott, we have a problem. We think something might be happening at the school."

Mason rolled his eyes. He had always thought that Liam had a flair for the dramatic.

"That's why I called," Scott said through the phone. His voice crackled as the signal faded in and out. "We're calling a pack meeting tonight. I'll text you the-"

Scott was cut off by the sound of hurried footsteps and a scream that seemed to reverberate off of the walls around them. Through the door's window Mason and Liam could see students running. They crashed into each other in their attempts to pass each other. Liam took a long breath in and smelt blood in the air.

Liam and Mason exchanged a quick look before Mason said, "Scott, we're going to have to call you back."

Mason ended the call and shoved his phone into his pocket as he burst into the corridor after Liam. He collided with a girl from his homeroom as Liam stood frozen in the middle of the hall.

As Mason swung around to face the now empty hallway, Liam held out an arm.

"Stay behind me," he said slowly as Mason peered over his shoulder.

His eyes widened. In front of the door to coach's office, covered in blood from ear to paw, was a dark grey wolf. The wolf didn't move towards them but snarled as Liam took a step forward. He lowered his arm and held it out in front of him instead as a sign of submission.

"Liam," Mason began but Liam cut him off.

"Don't say anything," he warned as he took another step.

The wolf's growls began to intensify and it stalked towards Liam. Its teeth were bared. Liam knew that if Scott was here he would have subdued the wolf by now. He was the Alpha. But Liam wasn't sure if showing the wolf his eyes would work in the same way it did for Scott. He decided it was the only choice he had and closed his eyes. When he opened them again they glowed yellow.

The wolf howled and Liam's claws emerged, ready to stave off an attack at any moment. He hunched low, ready to shift if he needed to. The wolfs howl faded to a low whine and instead of pouncing as Liam expected it to, it gave him what he felt was a remorseful look and padded down the corridor towards the Lacrosse field.

Liam gestured for Mason to wait as he tracked the wolf through the school until they emerged from between the bleachers onto the Lacrosse field. Liam was half way across the field, heading towards the woods when he heard Mason panting to catch up behind him.

He sensed that the wolf no longer posed a threat and in contrast seemed to want them to follow it.

"You were supposed to stay in the school," Liam said disapprovingly.

Mason raised an eyebrow as they reached the tree line. "Would Stiles has stayed in the school? I'm supposed to save your ass remember?"

Liam looked down at Mason's hands as they tramped their way through the woods. "Stiles would have bought the bat."

They picked up their pace as the wolf began to move faster now, slipping between the trees into the shadows.

The scent of blood was becoming stronger and Liam could smell something else mixed with the metallic odour. Rotting flesh.

"We're close," Liam predicted as they pulled each other up a muddy slope after the wolf. The stench of death was so powerful now that Mason could smell it too. He held a hand up to cover his mouth and nose and Liam swallowed bile in the back of his throat.

As they crested the hill the wolf stopped and Liam sprinted the last few feet as the wolf keeled over into the dirt. Liam placed a hand on the wolf's fur as it took three shallow breaths before fading away.

"It's dead," he told Mason.

Mason strode forwards until he was on the very edge of the clearing that they had stumbled into. He stood in stunned silence as he gently lowered his hand back to his side. He swung around in a slow circle.

He was surrounded by wolves. Some of them were still only pups. Their fur was stained with blood as if they'd ripped each other apart and their mouths frothed with white foam. As Liam stepped over one of the smallest wolves to join Mason, he turned back to the wolf that had led them to the woods.

"They all are," he said as Liam's eyes began to water. "They're all dead."