The room reeked of her—maybe not to those who didn't have a supernatural sense of smell but to him the smell of her permeated the air. Her shampoo sank itself into his pillow, her perfume embedded itself in his sheets and her—everything, just her. A confusing mix of confidence, shyness, regret, innocence, and guilt among other things rolled tightly into one person—all Malia.

He gently picked up the bottle and looked to see the faint glint of her lip gloss on the rim of the bottle—he sighed heavily and threw it back into his bag and kicked it under the bed.

Sitting on his bed he fingered his phone and looked at the list of contacts, he scrolled and stopped on her name. His finger hovered over it but with a sigh he scrolled down a little more, found who he should be calling and pressed down on her name.

It rang twice before she picked up "Hello?"

"Hey, so—" he sighed "can you come over?"

x

Stiles pushed his key into the door and let the door swing open, he walked in, closed it behind him and sighed heavily—he was hungover, he wanted to puke for more than one reason, and he really just wanted to sleep for the rest of his life if it meant avoiding the mess that he had created.

Trudging up the steps he threw his door open and was taken aback by his girlfriend who was sitting on his bed, playing with the edges of her shirt.

"Malia?"

She looked up and swallowed—her guilt hadn't gone away, in fact, it had only grown. It weighed on her chest, took up every inch of her mind making it impossible to think.

She was desperate to alleviate her heart and mind.

Pushing herself up from the bed, she wordlessly walked over and pulled Stiles to her, hugging him tightly doing her best to wipe Scott's scent off her—no matter how wrong that felt and how confusing it was for that to even feel wrong to her.

"hey" he cooed out, gently cradling her head as she buried her nose in his neck "What's wrong? I thought you had to help your dad pack"

She pulled back and willed any tears away "Nah, I decided that spending time with my boyfriend would be a little more fun"

He smiled a dopey little smile and Malia felt a tug on her heart, so she smashed her mouth against his, slamming her eyes shut—anything to stop looking at him.

And when he pushed her back till her knees hit the mattress and he hovered over her gently kissing down her neck, it took everything in her to not think of Scott, to focus on who was in front of her.

When it was over, though, when she was lying there naked, and coming down from a high.

She could only think of him.

x

Lydia slowly pushed the door open to Scott's room open "Hey" she greeted softly, dropping her purse on the chair near the door.

"hey"

She sat down next to him and grabbed his hand "are you okay? You seem off" she nuzzled her nose against his cheek and his stomach twisted—he loves Lydia. There is no doubt about that, he loves this girl and until last night there was no reason to ever think about breaking off what they have.

"yeah" he mumbled softly, moving his face so that they were face-to-face "just needed to see you" that wasn't a lie but he's not sure if it's the guilt he wants to lessen or just wanting to see the girl he loves.

Softly pressing his mouth to hers, he sighed at her quick response to move her mouth against his. It was soft and breathy and Lydia quickly shed her jacket and threw it in the direction of the chair where her purse was.

It was no time before she was straddling him, sucking his lower lip into her mouth. He willed away the thought of Malia and how similar the whole thing was—he needed to touch his girlfriend, not Malia. So with the will power of an alpha, he focused solely on Lydia and was even able to forget what had happened for a moment.

But then they stopped and laid there only the heavy breathing of them both to be heard. He smiled sweetly at the girl who lay in his arms and sucked in a deep breath of air and that's when he noticed.

Malia's scent was replaced by Lydia's.

And suddenly even the will power of an alpha couldn't take his mind away from that.

x

It was late.

It was nearly midnight, she had crawled out of her boyfriend's bed right after he fell asleep, slipped into her clothes and was out of the house with only the creaking of the floorboards telling on her as she walked to the door.

She started her car and let out a deep sigh, ready to go home and sleep in her own bed but then she looked down the street to see the house she had spent last night at. The upstairs window was illuminated shining like a beacon to her, sparing a look to the driveway to see Melissa's car gone she sighed—she needed to drop this. Drop him.

But for some reason their night stayed with her, stuck on her mind like gum stuck on a shoe.

She let out a deep breath and pulled out of Stiles' driveway, she prayed to whoever was listening to her to give her all the strength they could because she was already feeling weak.

Quickly and almost dangerously she sped past his house, letting the roar of her engine edge her on all the way till she was home. She looked to see her own driveway empty and sighed, her dad was gone and she really didn't know where.

Blocking out any thoughts that would cause her to get back in her car and drive back to that house, she went inside, dressed down, and crawled into bed letting the warm scent of home comfort her.

But she didn't want this scent to comfort her.

She rolled on her side and felt tears prick her eyes—she didn't want to be a bad person, she wanted to be a person that her pack could be proud of, not this.

Not a cheater.

But she couldn't help it.

She never meant to sleep with Scott—he was her alpha, he would listen to her woes, let her cry and maybe then she could sort out her feelings for herself. That was the damn plan, not get drunk and screw her boyfriend's best friend's brains out. Yeah, sure somewhere halfway through the bottle she had decided she didn't want to cry over a shit-boyfriend. She wanted to get drunk, get a little angry and, hell, maybe even key the bastard's jeep.

But then she was drunk and so was he and she was hurt and she just looked at him and—and the next thing she knows she's kissing him and it's nice and—and she's suddenly no better than Stiles.

Sure, she loves the asshole but they were being shitty to each other but she could also smell the regret coming off of him in waves, hitting her each one making her guilt grow because she didn't feel regret.

She was conflicted in ways she didn't think possible.

She liked having sex with Scott, they was the very core of it—Scott and figured out her body within seconds, making sure everything he did was for her pleasure but there was definitely something else there, it was how he held her and kissed her and cared for her. It was Scott.

And when all was said and done and she laid there wrapped up in Scott's arms, naked and aching and feeling her heart swelling—she felt like shit. Yeah, she cried because the guy she loves fucking went and cheated on her with the girl he had loved for half his life but—but she mostly cried cause she felt like she was a bad person.

She cursed Stiles because she wanted someone to blame, she didn't want this on her.

But it was and now?

Now Malia feels like the worst person on the planet, now she feels like the pack would never forgive her and always look at her like a bad person, now all she could think was how she could lose the family she had built for herself.

Just cause she liked screwing Scott.

She rolled on her side and blindly searched her phone—if this was going to end in flames, and she knows it's going to, might as well make it fucking worth it.

x

Scott felt weird. Lydia had left hours ago after a call from her mom; she kissed Scott sweetly and was on her way with her bounce back in her step.

He was lying on his side with all the lights on, trying to get some last minute work done when his phone dinged next to him. With a furrowed brow, he picked up the phone and looked to see a text glaring up at him

Lia: PLz come over.

His heart skipped a beat—he didn't know what the hell it meant but he couldn't help it—all day the coyote had plagued his mind.

It hurt him in every way, he loved Lydia but this thing with Malia—whatever it was, hell, it might not even be a thing—it just embedded itself into his skin. It was an itch and maybe it was just the sex, if that was the case, he could kick that. He wasn't going to lose a relationship over just sex but this doesn't feel like just sex. This feels like something more, maybe just to him, maybe not.

Whatever—fact was he already had a response for her.

On my way.

x

He was there within minutes of his response.

Crawling through the window, he looked at her for a second with a questioning look on her face and they stayed like that for a second.

Her wondering if it was a mistake to invite him over and him wondering it was a bad idea accepting the offer.

But the she slowly peeled the covers off her and stood up, slowly getting up and standing till she was face to face with him. Only their breathing could be heard, and after just a second of letting his presence comfort her she reached out and wrapped her arms around his neck and buried her nose against his cheek.

He was quick to wrap his arms around her waist and let out a deep breath; she was breathing raggedly and shaking in his arms. This was all she craved—she thought it was his mouth, his body but just having him here holding her—this made everything else feel irrelevant.

Without a word he nudged her up so that she wrapped her legs around his waist, then walked over to the bed and lay down careful not to hurt her. She never let her arms loosen their hold but as soon as they both hit the mattress she undid her legs from his waist and let them tangle their legs together instead.

A silence hung over them, weighing down on them both but they didn't pay any mind to it—right now nothing else mattered too much, right now the silence could kiss their ass.

For what seemed like hours, they laid there clothed and tangled together until Malia broke the silence speaking softly agasint the skin of Scott's neck "Scott" it was a breath more than anything else.

"hmm" he rested his cheek on her head

"I don't know" she took her face out of his neck and separated them only a few inches so she could look him in the eye "I don't know what this is—I feel like shit because of them'" she sighed "but I don't want to let go"

"me either" he held on a little tighter to her waist.

She leaned in only slightly and let her lips press against his lightly, testing the waters. This time neither of them were hurt or angry or had alcohol flowing through their veins, they were just here and seeing what this was.

He kissed back and she won't lie—she let out a little breath of relief against his mouth.

The innocence of the kiss didn't last though; they became desperate and needy—hungry for each other's mouths, bodies, minds.

His hand massaged the skin of her hip and her hand played with the ends of his hair, there was no sign that this was going to become anything more, though. Sure, his hands wandered aching to touch her but their kisses had become lazy and slow—they were savoring each other because they both know this isn't going to end well and maybe to some making it 'worth it' meant fucking as long and as hard as they could but for them?

Lazy kisses, wandering hands, the feeling that ballooned in Scott's chest and rested in Malia's stomach—this is what made it worth it. They aren't sure how but they know that it does.

No matter the regret that always seem to accompany those things.