Anchor Me
As the full moon approaches, tensions mount. It's Scott's first full moon since becoming a True Alpha and Isaac's first since Derek left. Matters only get worse when Aiden vanishes the night of the full moon, leaving Ethan without his anchor and Danny caught in his sights.
...
...
The sun was setting and a full moon rose over Beacon Hills. A motorcycle flew down the street, sending leaves jumping into the air around it. With no helmet, the rider's face was easy to see, but people would still have had a difficult time identifying which twin it was.
Tonight Aiden had offered to buy the greasiest takeout he could find. It was a sort of comfort food for Ethan and him, though neither would admit to it. Around Beacon Hills, the 'greasiest takeout' was apparently a Chinese place almost thirty minutes away that rarely changed their cooking oil. It was pretty gross, but it didn't matter much to werewolves anyway.
The comfort food was an apology on Aiden's part. Ethan had been excited to take Danny on a date the night before, but Aiden had known that the full moon was making his brother act a little boy-crazy and had forced Ethan to miss it. His brother had been ticked at him ever since.
His cell phone vibrated in his pocket. Aiden slowed the bike so he could pull it out and check the message, in case there was some emergency.
Ethan
Hurry back. Full moon remember?
Aiden had just enough time to grin at his phone, at the proof that his brother wasn't going to hold a grudge, before his front wheel caught on something and the whole bike flipped forward, sending Aiden crashing and skidding across the asphalt.
He groaned and tried to sit up, but something in his chest, and something else in his back, protested. He'd definitely broken some bones, and they felt kind of vital. It might be true that he would heal from this, but until then there wasn't much chance of him getting up off the road.
What had he hit?
Aiden turned his head and looked at what he could see of his bike and the road. His bike was wrecked, totaled, and the front tire looked like it had been cut open by whatever caused him to crash. Aiden didn't see anything in the road to hit though.
A smell, almost sickly sweet, spread over the road like a mist. Almost as soon as he caught whiff of it, Aiden's vision began to grow blurry. He growled, eyes turning red, but even shifting hurt at the moment. Instinct had him trying anyway. This hadn't been an accident. Someone was out there, hiding in the shadows of the falling dusk, and Aiden couldn't do anything but breathe in their trap.
Wolfsbane.
As his vision went dark, Aiden saw a figure walk out of the shadows. There was a mask over their face, hiding their features and keeping the scent of the wolfsbane out at the same time. He couldn't make them out well enough to even try to recognize them. They knelt down next to him and tilted their head, as if curious. That was the last thing Aiden saw before he lost consciousness.
...
...
It was amazing that the sheriff hadn't picked up on werewolves earlier. At least, that was Stiles' thought as he finished laying mountain ash in a circle around Isaac. After all, Stiles hadn't been home on a full moon in like, two years.
"Ok, the circle is laid. Can you get these off me now?"
Looking up from his handiwork, Stiles just watched as Isaac tugged at the heavy handcuffs chaining him to the subway car. "Sure thing," he agreed after a moment, motioning for Isaac to give him his hand.
As soon as Isaac's hand got anywhere near the mountain ash, there was a spark and he had to rip it back, yelping in pain. He glared when Stiles snickered.
"You did that on purpose," Isaac growled, eyes glowing yellow.
Stiles shrugged. "Had to make sure the ash was working, didn't I?" he asked, the picture of innocence.
This time, Stiles was the one to reach out. His hand crossed the mountain ash and took Isaac's hand, and his other came up with the key to the cuffs and popped them loose from Isaac's wrists. He dropped them next to the wall and then stood back to admire his work.
"And to think, I used to cuff Scott to a radiator."
Isaac knelt down inside the ring of ash and edged his fingers slowly, along the ground, toward it. A glow came from the ash and seemed to be pushing back against his hand, but gently this time as if it knew he wasn't actually trying to cross.
"Do you really think I'll go crazy?" Isaac asked, quietly.
Now Stiles examined his charge. Isaac's eyes were on the floor, on his normal human hand. The tone of his voice was almost downtrodden.
With a sigh, Stiles said, "Not really. But with everything happening with Scott and so many alphas around, we just can't take the chance, ya know?" He crossed his arms. "If in a couple hours, you seem alright, then I'll let you out. Deal?"
Isaac looked up at him with a grin. "Deal."
...
...
Across town, Scott watched as Allison secured the cuff around his own wrist. It wasn't a mountain ash circle, but Allison had plenty of defenses against a wild werewolf to protect herself with. Besides, she was Scott's anchor.
When Allison stepped back from him, Scott tugged at the chains. They seemed really strong, but Scott had pulled free from chains before. So had Isaac, Erica, and Boyd.
"If I lose it," he said, slowly lifting his gaze to his girlfriend, "then I want you to hit me with everything you've got."
"Scott-"
"I mean it, Allison," he interrupted. "If these chains don't hold me, and I'm not myself, I want you to protect yourself in any way you can."
He held her gaze sternly, even giving a flash of red like an alpha to a beta wolf, until she nodded. Then he let himself relax, as much as he could on the night of a full moon.
Allison frowned. "Do you really think you'll lose control, Scott?" she asked. "You've had no problems with it for months."
A nod, then a shake of the head. "I don't know," Scott admitted. "I've never been an alpha before, and I'm a True Alpha. There's no one around to explain to me what that means or how that will affect me on the full moon. I just…I don't want to take any chances."
That's why Isaac was with Stiles. Scott didn't want to risk getting into a fight with his beta. Heck, that's why the twins weren't with him. If his new alpha instincts might fight a beta wolf, what might they do to other alphas in his territory? No. Tonight it was just Scott and his anchor. That's what he needed to get through the night.
"Do you think Isaac will be alright?" Allison asked, slipping into the silence that had fallen around them.
Scott blinked a few times. "Isaac?" She was thinking about Isaac right now?
The hunter nodded. "He's never had a full moon without Derek around," she explained. "Derek was his alpha first. Isaac chose to follow you, but I'm worried that the wolf side of him won't respond as well as the human side."
It was possible. Scott hadn't seen any evidence that any part of Isaac rejected him as an alpha, though. They'd faced other supernatural creatures, including other wolves, since the Nemeton was awakened and made this city a beacon again, and Isaac had been at his side without question. If anything, Scott trusted Isaac's wolf to be loyal more than he trusted the human.
"He'll be fine," Scott assured her, reaching out to gently touch her cheek. "He's got Stiles with him. They'll both be fine."
Now she gave him a smile. "Well, if you're so sure about it, I'll just have to believe you," she teased, then leaned in for a kiss.
Scott's emotions were running high with the pull of the moon, every negative thought struggling to dominate his mind. Still, any thoughts that Allison wanted Isaac over him evaporated with that one kiss. Even with the tension of the full moon burning under his skin, Scott couldn't stop smiling.
...
...
Five steps to the left.
Five steps to the right.
Five steps to the left.
Five steps to the right.
There would be in a hole in the floor if Ethan didn't stop pacing soon, but he couldn't help it. He'd texted Aiden over an hour ago. There had been no response to the message, no brother at the door, no howl to signal location, nothing. He'd sent more texts, demanding a response, but still got none.
His skin was crawling, like a million tiny ants were under his skin. It made his teeth turn to fangs in his mouth and his ears sharpen into points. He kept forcing himself to regain his human looks, but couldn't make the transformation stop. Over and over again he half shifted, shifted back, half shifted again. Every time it was harder to rein his wolf in.
His attention was all over the place, like a child with terrible ADHD. One moment he was headed toward the fridge to make food, then he heard a noise outside and walked away, then the ice maker kicked on, then the electricity in the TV caught his attention, then he thought his phone had vibrated but as soon as he saw it hadn't his attention was on the moon outside. His muscles were tense, every part of him clenched to keep from flying apart in a million directions at once. He knew he couldn't fully transform without his brother there, but it definitely felt like he was well on his way there.
Where was Aiden?!
Ethan dropped to his hands and knees on the wood floor of the apartment he shared with his brother. His claws tore through it like paper when he curled his fingers in, looking for something to ground him.
He was drifting, a boat on a turbulent sea with no anchor to keep it in place. No anchor. Aiden was his anchor.
His brother had always been there. From the moment they were born with this gift, he'd been there. When Deucalion and Kali and Ennis approached them with the plan to become alphas, Aiden had been there with him. He'd worked with his brother toward every goal. Even when they pissed each other off, even when they ruined each other's other relationships, they were together. Aiden was there for him. He was always always always there.
So where was he?!
Wood splintered under his hands and a low growl of noise began to echo from deep in his chest.
Something must've happened to him. Aiden wouldn't leave. Aiden wouldn't be gone on the full moon under his own power. He was hurt. Ethan was certain that Aiden was hurt. His back and his chest ached with it. Something was wrong with his brother, and Ethan couldn't help him any more than Aiden could help Ethan.
The full moon was rising, and they were alone.
"Aiden!" Ethan cried out, hearing the panic in his own voice as his vision went red.
He'd never not had an anchor. He'd never lost control like this. What was he supposed to do?! Without his brother-
Alpha. He was an alpha with an alpha. The alpha would help him. Someone had to help him. Find his brother. Find an anchor. Find him.
...
...
Scott heard the desperate howl rip through the night air and the chains holding him down snapped like they were made of plastic. Allison jumped, no small amount of fear pulsing in her chest, and held up her crossbow, already loaded.
"Allison," Scott growled, fully shifted. "Call Stiles. Something's wrong with Ethan."
As if called by his thoughts, Allison's phone began to ring, Stiles' name on the caller ID. Allison lowered her crossbow to answer it and Scott didn't need to be next to her to hear both sides of the conversation.
"Did Scott hear it?" Stiles asked.
Allison nodded. "Yeah. He said it's Ethan."
"Isaac said that too. Is he going after him?"
She glanced at Scott, her mouth half open to ask, but Scott spoke before she could. "Yes. If Isaac is okay, then let him out. Ethan is an alpha. If there's something wrong that the twins can't handle, I'll need the backup."
He heard her relay the information to Stiles dutifully, but he was already rushing to get out of the armory and out into the clear night. His pack was in trouble and he could do nothing to stop himself from helping them.
...
...
It was freshly dark and Danny was on his way home from a run. He liked running at twilight, moving into night. The air still felt charged from the day and there weren't people around. If he chose not to listen to music, which he often did since Beacon Hills was infamous for strange occurrences at night, then Danny could hear the night life of animals waking up. He also liked to run in the morning, before his morning shower, to wake up, but about twice a week he also ran at night.
Today had been hotter than usual, and the heat had been an added obstacle in his run. Now, less than ten minutes from home, he could feel the sweat slicking his skin, hear his own heavy breaths and the pounding of his feet on the sidewalk. He glanced up at the full moon and pushed himself to go faster. Tonight was not the night to be out too late.
Something darted behind a house to his left, but Danny didn't stop to check it out. His side was hurting from the effort of the run on a recently healed injury, but not enough to make him take a break. He'd seen horror movies, okay? Quick, shadowy figures were not typically your friend.
Then suddenly something collided with him, sending him to his back in the road. Whatever it was landed on top of him, knocking the air from his lungs. Danny thought, Not fast enough, with his eyes squeezed shut and then a low growl made him open them.
Pointed ears. Glowing red eyes. A mouth full of fangs. Danny had never seen Ethan look like this, but there was no doubt in his mind it was him. If it weren't for the eyes, Danny could've thought Ethan was just wearing a costume.
His arms were squeezed painfully tight and Danny winced, looking away from Ethan's face just long enough to see the clawed hands holding him down. It hurt. Ethan's claws were breaking the skin.
Danny looked up at Ethan's glaring face again and saw nothing but rage. Something was wrong with Ethan. Something was terribly wrong. There was nothing human about him.
"Ethan?" Danny tried, and then cringed at the deep growl he received in reply.
One of his arms was released and, for a moment, Danny thought Ethan was going to let him go. Then Ethan lifted his free hand up, ready to slash Danny open like a pig for slaughter.
"Ethan!" he gasped out, heart pounding in his chest, unable to move even to defend himself.
"Ethan!"
The werewolf on top of him jerked back and snarled at the new arrival. Danny turned his head and saw…well based on body type and basic physical features, and the sound of his voice…Scott McCall. Standing behind him was Isaac Lahey, his eyes a medium gold, unlike the other two wolves. Their features had changed much more than Ethan's had, to the point that Danny had to look at them for a few seconds to recognize them under the fur and without the eyebrows.
Scott flashed his red eyes at Ethan. "Back off. He's not an enemy. That's Danny."
The pointed ears, claws, and fangs vanished almost immediately from Ethan's body, the red eyes dimming to normal brown a moment later. Panting, eyes wide, Ethan looked the picture of panic. His gaze shot down to the boy under him and, recognizing Danny, released Danny's other arm. His expression shifted to something more heartbroken, though still scared, and then Ethan jumped off him and backed up several steps.
"I-I don't-," Ethan stuttered, glancing between the other three in the street with him.
On an intake of breath, he froze. His eyes focused on Danny as the human pushed himself up. No, he was looking at the cuts and blood on Danny's exposed arm. His face took on a green color and then Ethan turned and took off down the street.
"Isaac," Scott ordered, and Isaac ran after Ethan.
By the time Danny pulled his eyes from where Ethan had vanished around the corner, Scott was next to him, looking as normal as he ever did. There was an embarrassed smile pulling at his lips.
"You-," Danny tried to say, but couldn't seem to make his mouth work beyond single words.
Scott nodded. "Come on. Let's get you to a doctor. My mom's not working tonight."
Danny let himself be hauled to his feet, and then Scott put a hand gently on his shoulder to steer him in the right direction. Danny kept turning and trying to find Ethan or Isaac among the houses.
...
...
The Jeep practically stalled to a stop outside the twins' apartment. Stiles barely paused to lock it before he was rushing through the apartment door. Ethan was curled up in the corner of the dining room and Isaac was against the opposite wall, watching him.
"What the hell happened?" Stiles demanded as soon as the door was shut behind him. His eyes quickly took stock of the room. "Where the hell's his brother?"
Isaac shrugged but it was Ethan who answered.
"I don't know. He wouldn't…Something's wrong," he rushed out in a huff of breath.
Judging by the claw marks on the floor and walls, yeah. Something was definitely wrong. But Stiles' definition of wrong and Ethan's might be slightly different at the moment.
Ethan looked up at him. "Is Danny okay?"
Stiles nodded. Scott had him at his house getting his arms tended to, but he'd been assured the wounds were minor and nothing to be worried about. They wouldn't turn him or kill him. Stiles was just glad that Scott was the one forced to explain werewolves to Danny and not him.
"You have to lock me up," Ethan stated logically. When he just got two blank stares in return, he growled, eyes red. "I attacked someone. If I can't control myself, I'm a danger to everyone. You have to keep me from going out there and hurting someone. I'm not safe. Lock. Me. Up."
It only took a few minutes to move the dinky little dining table out of the way so Stiles could make an ash circle around Ethan in the middle of the floor. Ethan seemed calmer just knowing he couldn't get away.
Stiles snapped his fingers in Isaac's direction. "Yo. Sense of Smell. Go find his brother."
Isaac glowered at him. "Why is that my job?"
"Because he obviously can't do it himself," Stiles said with a wave at Ethan, "and Scott's with Danny. So it's up to your super sniffer to figure out where Twin #2 is for us. Go. Go!" he repeated when Isaac hesitated.
With one last look, something that seemed to say 'You're not my alpha,' Isaac left.
This was the messiest full moon they'd had since Scott was first turned. Or maybe since Isaac, Erica, and Boyd were. Ethan had needed Scott to regain his senses earlier, and he was trusting the search for his brother to the entire pack minus Stiles, and he had to rely on Stiles' belief to keep himself from running off and hurting anyone else. And the entire pack would work until they found Aiden, one way or the other. They were pack and they'd take care of their own.
As always these days, that stupid Rudyard Kipling poem popped into Stiles' head. "As the creeper that girdles the tree trunk, the law runneth forward and back; For the strength of the pack is the wolf, and the strength of the wolf is the pack."
Stiles bent down until he was level with Ethan and then said "Hey" until he had to twin's attention.
"Thank you," Ethan said.
Stiles shrugged. "I'm getting really good at locking up wolves, and my ash circles are the best. Not a problem." He waved the gratitude away. "We'll find your brother, alright? Wherever he is. He's gonna be alright." Then he reached into the circle and flicked Ethan in the forehead, making the alpha wolf snarl at him. Stiles grinned. "You too."
…
…
School the next day was awkward for Danny.
Scott kept giving him smiles and waves that were meant to be reassuring, but just came off looking too forced to be natural. Danny waved and smiled back the first time, and the second, but then he just let out heavy sighs and tried to pretend it wasn't happening.
Stiles stared at him more than usual and never spoke a word, even when they were right next to each other in science class. It was like he was trying to read Danny's mind and, while the faces he made were humorous at first, it was pretty creepy. Mostly because Danny considered the fact that maybe, somehow, Stiles could actually do it.
Isaac gave him a wide berth. If they were passing each other in the hall, Isaac would give a little startle and then dart into a random classroom or suddenly be best friends with someone on the opposite side of the hallway from Danny. If Danny stood close to him for too long, he gave the human a 'don't test me' look, but other than that he was acting like someone's puppy after you step on their tail.
Scott had told him about Lydia and Allison being part of the 'pack' but not wolves, like Stiles – who, obviously, was mixed up in all this weirdness. No explanation needed for that particular disaster. Danny didn't know if the girls were completely human or what made them pack material, so he did his best to not speak to them, as usual, or to be extra nice if they had to talk to each other in a class.
Ethan made the day uncomfortable and aggravating. He was worse than Isaac in avoiding Danny. Danny would see him in the hall and then, in their shared class, he was absent. Then he'd be there at lunch, but sitting on the far side of the room. Danny left a note in his locker that he wanted to talk, and he watched Ethan find it, but Ethan just lowered his head and walked the opposite direction. Danny tried to pass him a note in class but Ethan pretended it didn't exist, even after it had gone through four other people to get to him because Ethan had changed his seat to get away from him.
Long story short, Danny was annoyed by all the weird behaviors around him, but mostly by Ethan. By the last period of the day, his and Ethan's second shared class, Danny was done. He made sure to squeeze out of the class right behind Ethan and then grabbed the werewolf's muscled bicep once they were in the hall.
Ethan startled, as if Danny had somehow snuck up on him, but didn't try to pull his arm away, though it looked like he wanted to.
"Come with me," Danny ordered, no room for argument.
He tugged Ethan along through throngs of students heading for the buses or parking lot or practice and didn't stop until they were in the music room. No one was in there today because there was no band practice today. Danny would know. He was in the band.
The door shut behind them and only then did Danny release Ethan's arm.
"I'm sorry," Ethan let out, as if the words had been forced out of him.
Danny frowned. "For what?"
Ethan gave him an incredulous look. "For wh-? For attacking you!" he nearly shouted. His whole body was a coiled spring ready to snap.
Danny shook his head. "Scott explained it to me. I mean, I already knew the full moon would mess with you, but he told me about anchors. Ethan," he stepped closer and made sure he had Ethan's eyes on his, "Aiden's your anchor, right?"
Now Ethan flinched back, a trapped look in his eyes.
"Scott told me they found his bike on the road, that he's missing," Danny continued almost gently, doing his best not to make Ethan panic. "So you didn't have an anchor. I get it. I understand. You may have attacked me, Ethan, but you didn't hurt me."
Ethan's eyes shifted to glare at Danny's covered arms, where he could probably smell the blood under the bandages and ointment Ms. McCall had given him for the wounds caused by Ethan's claws. Without a word, he was refuting Danny's statement.
With a roll of his eyes, Danny said, "Okay, yes. I got hurt. But it's nothing worse than if I got hurt during lacrosse. So could you stop being a big baby about this and talk to me? People are gonna think we broke up if you don't knock it off."
"Broke up?" Ethan met Danny's eyes again. There seemed to be a sort of fragile hope on his face, in the set of his shoulders. "You…still want to date me?"
"Why wouldn't I?" Danny asked, as if it were the dumbest question he'd ever heard.
He understood why Ethan was surprised, he really did. Ethan was a werewolf. Ethan could have killed him last night when he lost his mind to the moon. Or, if Scott was right, he could have turned Danny into a werewolf as well. But Danny really liked Ethan. Ethan had protected him multiple times in the past. Ethan was hurting from the loss of his brother as well as a perceived loss of Danny. If Danny wanted to keep this relationship – dates and cuddles and amazing sex and all – he had to make Ethan see that he was willing to accept every part of him. He couldn't be nervous or falter.
Ethan's eyes traveled the length of Danny's body, pausing on his chest for several long seconds. Then, voice tinted with surprise, Ethan said, "You're serious. You're not scared." He narrowed his eyes in confusion. "Why aren't you scared?"
Danny glanced around to make sure no one was peeking in through the window in the door before he answered.
"Scott and Stiles are in most of my classes, plus the lacrosse team, and they are some of the most unsubtle people I've ever met. They've been talking about werewolves and hunters and kanimas and alphas and things for years now." He shrugged. "I sort of figured it was some dumb code or a game they were playing or something. Even with you, there were strange things I couldn't quite explain," he admitted with a tilt of his head. "It wasn't until I got put in the hospital," for the third time, "that I really put it all together, but once I thought about it, everything made sense. Scott just confirmed it for me last night."
But really, it shouldn't have taken him three trips to the hospital to realize that all of this wasn't some crazy psycho killer, or an accident, or an animal attack. He'd been upset with himself for his own blindness for over a week before he decided it wasn't worth it to beat himself up.
"But," Ethan started haltingly, "why aren't you scared of us? We're killing machines. We're apex predators. We could kill you before you knew we were there."
Danny's heart jumped at the words as he imagined something hunting him in the dark, of not knowing he wasn't alone until the claws were in his back or across his neck. He quickly forced himself to be calm again, even before Ethan's shoulders drooped.
"Okay, that? That is terrifying," Danny admitted. "But none of you are like that. None that I know are like that. I've known Scott pretty much since elementary school, Stiles too. Lydia started dating Jackson in middle school, and Allison is her best friend. You and your brother are new, but if all of the people I know that are mixed up in this think you're okay, then so do I."
There was moisture gathering in Ethan's eyes, relief flashing over his face. He ran his hands over his face to keep from crying and Danny used the moment to make a confession.
"I'm glad I'm not afraid of you, because I'm in love with you and I can't be with someone I'm afraid of. That's just not happening."
The hands fell from Ethan's face abruptly, wide eyes taking in Danny's nonchalant stance. No doubt he could hear how Danny's heart was jack rabbiting in his chest, but hopefully he knew the difference between nervous and lying.
Then Danny was swept up in a tight hug, almost too tight for a human. When Ethan pulled back, it was just far enough that he could begin to pepper kisses along Danny's neck, chin, face, lips. Danny wasn't complaining.
"I love you too," Ethan murmured against Danny's Adam's apple before he kissed it. "I'm sorry I nearly killed you. It'll never happen again. I swear. I love you. I love you so much."
Danny laughed, his neck a long stretch of open skin, and made sure to hold Ethan extra close as they continued to kiss.
...
...
Danny was sitting on Scott's front porch when the alpha pulled in on his motorcycle that evening, his car parked along the road so that Scott's mom and Isaac would have space to park when they got home too.
"Hey," Scott asked after he'd pulled his helmet off. "Is…everything alright?"
Maybe Danny had more questions about werewolves. Except, he was dating one, and Ethan had been a werewolf longer than Scott had, so Danny could've asked Ethan if he had any questions. Maybe he wanted a second opinion. Or maybe Ethan was still avoiding him?
Danny gave a shrug and pushed himself to his feet. "I need to ask you a favor. A personal favor."
Eyes narrowed with curiosity, Scot stepped past Danny to unlock the front door and let them both in. Only once they were safely out of the eyes of the public and Scott had removed his jacket, thrown across the back of the couch, did they speak again.
"What's the favor?" Scott asked. "Cause, I mean, if it's personal – I don't know anything about dating guys, so I don't think I can be much help."
"No, no, God no. I'm not asking for dating advice," Danny countered with a flush that came equally from mortification as from irritation. He shook his head. "I think I can handle having a boyfriend on my own. Thanks."
Scott lifted an eyebrow and moved slowly to sit on the couch. Danny followed his lead, taking the chair instead so they could still face each other in conversation.
"Okay, then what?"
"You were out looking for Aiden, right?" Danny asked, glancing at the riding jacket on the couch and the helmet by the door. At Scott's nod, he continued, "Anything?"
Scott gave a heavy sigh and ran his hand through his hair. "No. His bike was a mess, but no more than any bike crash, so he should've been able to get up from it. His phone was there too, broken like the bike, and there was Chinese food all over the road."
A nod. "Ethan said Aiden had gone to get dinner."
"We couldn't follow his scent from the crash scene," Scott said, voice soft but serious. "There was a smell, one that hurt to breathe in. It's been a full day and we could still smell it. Stiles, Allison, and Lydia had to look around for us because we couldn't stand to be near it."
There was no answer, and Scott knew that Danny was waiting for the explanation of what the smell was.
He met Danny's eyes. "Wolfsbane. Aconite. It's poisonous to werewolves," he explained and watched the human's eyes grow wide. "Hunters put it in bullets, but even just breathing it in can suffocate us. Werewolves can come back from a lot, but not from wolfsbane." He sighed. "Aiden's crash wasn't an accident. Someone took him. We're checking for outside hunters in the area, but so far we've got nothing to go on."
Hunters. Scott realized he'd never explained that Allison was a hunter. He should probably do that, but he should also probably ask her permission first. Or her father's.
"And until Aiden is found, Ethan has no anchor," Danny surmised. "So if he gets too angry, he could lose control like last night?"
Scott nodded. "Anything that raises his heart rate too much. Anger, love, worry. All of it." He frowned. "But we'll keep an eye on him. We won't let him hurt anyone."
It seemed that Danny understood what Scott meant – that Danny wasn't going to get hurt again. However, Danny frowned at the statement instead of looking comforted.
"Ethan's worried he'll hurt me again, and obviously so are you," Danny began, his tone more somber than it had been a moment ago. "I still want to be with him, but he's hesitant because of last night. So, I thought, if I was like him, if I was a werewolf, then maybe he'd calm down."
Scott's heart jumped in his chest. Danny wanted to be a werewolf? Did he understand what that would mean for him? He must. Danny had always been one of the smartest people Scott knew, always gathered all the information he needed before making a decision. He was also one of the most patient people Scott had ever met. It's how he managed to stay friends with Jackson for so long.
He had to have done his research if he was so sure, like his heart rate suggested he was. So Danny had to know the level of control it took to be a wolf, the danger he would pose if he couldn't handle it, the possibility that he would die during the transformation. He had to have talked to Ethan about-
Wait. Ethan.
Scott took as deep but subtle a breath as he could. Danny's heart was relatively calm, but his scent…nervous, guilty.
"You asked Ethan to change you and he said no," Scott stated. Now Danny's heart wasn't so calm. Scott frowned. "Danny, it's true I'm Ethan's alpha, but that doesn't mean I can do things without his permission. I mean, I could, but that's just not right."
"But if I were like you, then I could help look for Aiden. I could be around Ethan without him worrying he's going to hurt me," Danny reasoned sensibly.
With a sigh, Scott shook his head. "You could also help look for Aiden without being a werewolf." He held his hands up. "I'm not gonna get into your boyfriend issues, but, I mean, dude, Allison doesn't need to be a wolf for me to want to be with her. You just gotta work through it."
For a long few moments, the boys simply sat in silence. Danny kept his head forward, looking at the coffee table while he thought, and Scott watched him from the corner of his eyes. The clock ticked through time on the wall, slowly waning away the day. Scott glanced at it and then out the window at the setting sun. He'd left Stiles and Isaac with Ethan for the night just in case Ethan had another episode. Stiles had grumbled but, last that Scott had seen, was prepared to make the night into a big sleepover. He remembered that Allison had wanted to help, but her father had put his foot down, not letting her spend the evening with an unanchored alpha wolf.
Scott totally understood where he was coming from and agreed wholeheartedly. Allison stayed home.
"So you won't turn me," Danny's voice pulled his attention. The older boy let out a heavy breath. "I still think it'd be easier if I was like you guys, but…okay. I understand your point as well."
"Hey, not all of us are wolves," Scott said, perking up. "In fact, almost half of the pack isn't. You could try asking them how they handle it. Get some pointers. It's like the next best thing, I promise. And you don't get hairy all the time."
Danny grinned, grateful for the suggestion. "You don't have to be a werewolf to get really hairy," he joked, and it was like half of his stress fell away with the words. "Seeing coach without a shirt on was probably more terrifying than being attacked by a werewolf."
Scott winced right along with Danny and then they both laughed. Not a pretty picture.
...
...
The forest was alive with the sound of animals skittering to and fro, calling out to one another without a care in the world. It was strange that this was a place where so many people got hurt, where werewolves ran in the moonlight, where hunters loosed their arrows, where an entire family had burned to death.
Allison shook her head and turned her attention toward her students. It was weird to think of two of the smartest kids in school as her students, but she supposed everyone had their talents.
"Okay," she started, placing her hands on her hips. "I guess the first question is: where do you want to start?"
Danny and Lydia looked around them. There were bows and arrows, knives, guns and ammo, all laid out in boxes and bags next to Lydia's car. They wore padding on their arms and chests to protect them from whatever weapons they chose to practice.
With barely a moment to consider, Lydia had already gone for the knives. She tossed one to Danny, who fumbled it trying not to cut himself and instead had to jump back to avoid a blade in the foot. Allison did her best not to sigh. She'd been untrained once too.
"Maybe I should've trained with Stiles first," Danny muttered with a frown, bending to pick up the knife.
Allison perked up. "Oh? What's he teaching you?" she asked. "Ash barriers?"
Danny shrugged. "I don't know. Deaton said 'defensive charms' but he seemed to think Stiles would know what that meant and didn't explain."
Definitely ash barriers.
"I can't do magic," Lydia sniffed, as if offended. Her banshee capabilities apparently cancelled out the spark necessary for emissary work.
Oh! "Lydia, I meant to ask. I just remembered," Allison said. "You're abilities. Have you tried using them to find Aiden?"
Lydia tossed her best friend a look that seemed to suggest she was being rather slow today. "No. I thought I'd just sit back and let everyone else do the work," she said sarcastically. "Of course I tried. But I've only ever found bodies after they're dead before, Allison. I've never tracked a living one before, and never on purpose."
"Well in that case, I'm glad you failed," Danny said. "That means Aiden's still alive, which is good news for Ethan."
Now Lydia looked mischievous. "Which is good news for you," she said suggestively. "The sooner he's found, the sooner you can get back to anchoring Ethan down in a way that's much more fun."
"Knives!" Allison blurted loudly, a light dusting of pink on her cheek, causing the other two to startle and look at her with wide eyes. "Knives are very sharp, so you have to be careful when you first start practicing with them. I set targets up on the trees yesterday, for practicing with the bows, but we can see about knife throwing instead."
Anything to stop the innuendos before they started, please. Lydia was bad enough when it came to Allison and Scott, Allison didn't want her to move in on Danny and Ethan. Especially not when things were so hard right now. Her mind flashed with other things that could be hard and her cheeks lit up.
Oh no, she was doing it to herself!
Allison quickly threw herself into training Lydia and Danny how to properly throw a knife, and then moved on to sparring with knives when that began to bore her redheaded friend. She might have pushed them a tad too much, but practice was better than her wandering thoughts and they'd be better prepared later anyhow.
At least she hadn't tied them to chairs and left them in abandoned houses like her father did.
...
...
It was dark.
That was the first thing he was aware of. Then it was the loud sound of his own breathing, the faint smell of what might've been pumpkin and potato, the hard ground beneath his body. He shifted and felt no pain from his earlier crash, but heard the rattle of heavy chains, felt them shift around his body.
Aiden's eyes snapped open. He remembered the wolfsbane at the crash site. Someone had captured him!
No one was with him in the dark, he could tell that much. The smell of humans was as faint as the potatoes and pumpkins in the room he'd been chained up in. However, though Aiden could barely see it in the dark, but he could smell it – mountain ash littered the floor around him.
He was trapped. Chained and boxed in.
"Ethan?" he said to the room at large, his voice traveling farther than he'd expected but dying in the still air. The room was large and he was alone. Had they captured his brother as well and were just keeping him somewhere else? "Ethan?!"
No response. Aiden's skin crawled. He wasn't in pain, so his brother had to be alright. But he also didn't feel the pull of the full moon, which meant he'd be unconscious long enough to miss it. Ethan would be looking for him, he knew. He could always count on his brother.
"Find me already," he muttered. Then, taking a deep breath of the musty air around him, Aiden let loose a long, loud howl, and hoped it traveled out of this place and brought his pack to save him.
...
...
Next Time: Give My Life Direction
With Aiden missing, Danny goes to Stiles for help. Stiles casts a spell he doesn't quite understand and ends up with a magic compass he can't undo. With his strange new tool, Stiles can lead Danny to Aiden - and to the one who took him. But without werewolf protection, are Stiles and Danny strong enough to take on this enemy alone?