Disclaimer: I do not own Lorien Legacies or Teen Wolf.

Chapter 3 – Omega, Part 1

.

Jackson Whittemore

The cold water of the stream feels refreshing against my skin. I surface, gasping for breath, and wade slowly ashore, climbing out onto a large rock beside the stream. I glance around, making sure no one is present. I look down, brushing aside my torn shirt, and smile faintly as I see the two semicircular puncture wounds on my side.

It's about damn time.

The bite still hurts, but it stopped bleeding shortly after I received it, and the pain has faded until it's just an ache. The cold water definitely helped; that was part of the reason why I decided to go swimming. Anyway, my feeling of triumph is strong enough that I'm able to ignore it. Finally, I have what I've wanted ever since I found out McCall's secret. And, despite the pain in my side, I've never felt better in my life.

I look away from the injury and glance up at the sky, where I see the moon shining high above me. My eyes lock on it as I feel an unmistakable thrill of victory.

I smile to myself.

I am a werewolf.

And I've never been happier.

.

Scott McCall

I'm running through the forest, bounding through the trees as fast as my arms and legs can take me. The night would be too dark to see clearly for most people, but I can see every detail of the forest around me.

Hurtling through the night, I realize that there's a ravine coming up ahead. I speed up, reaching the edge in a matter of seconds, and then hurl myself into the open air in an enormous leap. I seem to hang suspended in midair for a few seconds, and then I fall, dropping in a graceful arc until I land, hard, on the rocky wall on the other side of the ravine. I pause briefly to catch my breath, my mind involuntarily flashing back to what happened that fateful day; last Sunday, less than two days after the night of the Winter Formal, and the first time I'd seen Allison since that night;

Allison and I are in my car, parked in the preserve, just off the main road. I'm sitting in the driver's seat, and she's now on my lap, my lips pressing against hers.

It's wonderful, the most perfect thing I've ever felt; nothing compares with the feeling of kissing Allison, the feeling of her lips against mine. Allison. The name seems to fill my head, driving every other thought away. I don't think about Stiles, Derek, Peter, Lydia, or anything else that's been occupying my mind ever since that night, two days ago. There is just me, and Allison, and nothing else. And it's never felt more right. More perfect. Because she knows everything now. There are no secrets between us. She knows what I am, knows that I am a werewolf, and she still accepts me. Still loves me. That's all I could ever have hoped for.

This is one of the best moments of my life.

Of course, that's when everything goes straight to hell.

Just as I'm leaning back against the door, the window shatters, and an arm hooks around my neck and yanks me backwards through the broken window. I am whirled around and slammed down on the hood of the car, and my eyes widen in shock when I see Allison's father, Chris Argent, holding a pistol about half an inch away from my face.

"No! Dad, stop!" Allison jumps out of the car and hurls herself at her father, grabbing at his arm, trying to pull the gun away from me, but he doesn't budge. "Dad, please! He saved our lives, your life! Don't you remember that?! Please, let him go!"

Chris still doesn't move, his face as hard as granite, the pistol still centered on my face. I'm still frozen, in shock, unable to move so much as a finger, because I know if I try to do anything right now he's going to pull the trigger.

"Dad, please, don't do this! I'll do anything, okay?! Anything! I'll – I'll never see him again, I promise! Just please, please, don't do this!"

Finally, Chris seems to listen. He releases me and steps back, lowering his pistol as I slump to the ground. "Never again," he says. Then he turns his back on us and walks away without another word.

Allison drops to her knees beside me and throws her arms around me. She buries her face in my chest, her sobs muffled by my shirt. I hold her in my arms and try to comfort her, but I know nothing I can say will make it better.

So I just hold her. And she holds me, so tight it's clear she never wants to let go.

I snap out of the memory and glance around again. My thoughts are shifting into a different direction now; I'm thinking about that guy Carter, who Allison introduced us to at school. On the surface, he seemed totally normal; polite, easygoing, relaxed (if a bit tense). But every time I'd looked at him, I'd felt something searing hot, painfully hot, deep in my stomach, like I'd just swallowed a burning coal. And when I'd shaken his hand, and later his sister's… it had felt like I'd touched an open flame. It hadn't actually been painful, but my entire hand had felt a searing burst of heat, and then I'd gotten the same "pins and needles" feeling that I got sometimes when my foot fell asleep, but in my entire arm up to the elbow.

Whatever that was, I'd gotten the same feeling from both of them, although from the third one, Zach, I hadn't felt anything unusual. So it was just the brother and sister, Carter and Angela, who were out of the ordinary. But I'd managed to get a good whiff of their scent while I'd been near them; Carter's in the hall while we were walking to Harris' class, and Angela's in the cafeteria while the six of us were eating lunch. They definitely weren't werewolves; I'd know that scent anywhere. But they didn't smell like normal humans, either. There was something unusual about their scents; something I've never smelled before, but that was distinctly not human. But I have no idea what it could be.

Ah, well. Maybe I can set up a way for Derek to get near enough to one of them that he'll be able to tell me what they are.

Anyway, right now I have other things to think about.

For instance, I'm going to be late unless I get a move on.

I launch myself into the trees again, racing at top speed, even faster than before, exiting the trees and sprinting down the street. Before I know it, I'm there.

It only takes me a few seconds to get from the ground to the roof of the house; I've got it down to a science now, since I've already done it twice this week. I take one quick hop off the roof, and launch myself through the open window.

Allison's waiting, of course. I grin at her. "How much time do we have?"

"They'll be gone for an hour," she says, grinning. I smile back, and step forward, slipping my arms around her and pressing my lips against hers.

A few minutes later, a distinctive sound hits my ears; the sound of a car engine, then brakes. I freeze and sit bolt upright. Allison sits up as well.

"What?"

"Do the right-side brakes on your dad's car squeak a little bit?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Then we're dead," I say.

She curses.

.

Standing outside on the roof of Allison's house, I can still hear the conversation between her and her mom inside. Which is good, because it gives me enough time to get out of sight before her mom looks out of the window.

However, the fact that I'm standing outside, on a roof, in the middle of the night, in just my underwear? Yeah, that's a problem. Because although I did remember to get my clothes before I left the room (thank god), I'm not wearing most of them. And it's really cold out here.

Yikes.

A few seconds later, I suddenly hear a noise. It's faint, definitely coming from a long way away, but I can hear it well enough to tell what it is.

A scream. An instantly recognizable scream.

I freeze. "Lydia?"

.

After I manage to get off the roof and put my clothes back on, I'm running towards the hospital, when my phone goes off.

I look at the caller ID. Stiles. I slow to a fast walk and answer it.

"Hey, what's up?"

"Scott, I need you to get to the hospital right now. Right now. Got it?"

"Yeah, I'm already on my way. What happened to Lydia?" I ask.

"She's – wait, how the hell did you know something happened to her?"

"I heard a scream, coming from a long way away; it sounded like her voice. Long story. So what happened?"

"She's gone."

"Gone? What do you mean, gone?!"

"I mean gone, genius! She was taking a shower, I was out in the hallway getting a snack from the vending machine, and I heard her screaming. I ran in with your mom and her dad, but she was gone, and the window was open."

I slow down, then stop, a sharp pain forming in my head. "So you think…"

"Yeah, I do. I definitely hope not, but that has to be it."

I shake my head. "So you think she turned after all."

"It makes sense. Trust me, I'm not a fan of the idea, but it does make sense. And if she did, we need to find her before the Argents do."

"I'm on my way." I hang up, put the phone in my pocket, and then start running. After about a hundred yards, I switch from two legs to four, and speed up, racing down the street. Fortunately, it's pretty late, so not many people are out, and I'm able to avoid being seen on my way to the hospital.

.

A few minutes later, I'm waiting in Stiles' Jeep, in the hospital parking lot. He walks out carrying a bloodstained hospital gown; the one Lydia was wearing. He hops into the Jeep and hands it to me.

"This is the one that she was just wearing?" I ask. He nods, and I can see the note of worry in his eyes. I lock eyes with him reassuringly. "I'm not going to let anyone hurt her. Not again."

"All right, just shove the thing in your face and let's find her."

Stiles starts the Jeep and turns on the headlights – revealing Allison, who's standing directly in front of the car. Stiles jumps, letting out a surprised "Wow!"

Allison hurries over to the window on my side. I lean towards her. "What're you doing here? Someone's going to see us."

"I don't care," she replies. "She's my best friend, and we need to find her before they do."

"I can find her before the cops can."

"How about before my father does?"

"He knows?" Stiles asks.

"Yeah. I just saw him and three other guys leave my house in two SUVs."

I turn to look at Stiles. "Search party," I say worriedly.

"More like a hunting party," Allison says.

I turn back to her. My mind's made up; we're not leaving her out of this. "Get in." I open the door, she hops in between us, and Stiles drives out of the parking lot.

"All right, but if she's turning, will they actually kill her?" Stiles asks Allison.

"I don't know, they won't tell me anything, okay?" she replies. "All they've said is that we'll talk after Kate's funeral, when 'the others' get here."

"What others?"

"I don't know, they won't tell me that, either."

"Okay, your family's got some serious communication issues to work on." He turns to focus on me. "Scott, are we going the right way?" he yells.

I'm hanging partially out of the passenger's-side window, inhaling deeply to trace Lydia's scent. I catch a faint whiff of it, unmistakable. "Take the next right!" I yell.

The Jeep turns rapidly, and we're off again.

.

Isaac Lahey

I'm in the cemetery, working late. My father assigned me the job of finishing the work on this grave for Kate Argent's funeral tomorrow, so I get to stay out and run the backhoe in the middle of the night.

Just freaking perfect, I think sourly. I pause briefly and lean forward, checking my black eye in the rearview mirror. I touch it gently with my fingertips, and then turn back to the controls.

Suddenly, I hear an odd sound, like the snap of a branch or leaves crunching under someone's foot. I lean forward, scanning the graveyard quickly, but I don't see anything. I shift the backhoe, rotating it to give me a better view. I hear another crunch of leaves, coming from a different direction. I adjust a lever, rotating the backhoe the other direction, but again, nothing's there.

I turn the backhoe again, doing a full 180-degree pan of the area in front of the backhoe, and this time I see something; a hand, curling around the edge of a gravestone. But something seems wrong with it; the nails are extremely long and pointed, almost like claws. "What the hell?" I mutter, leaning forward to get a better view. But almost as soon as I see it, the hand withdraws behind the gravestone and disappears again.

As I crane my neck, trying to catch a glimpse of it, I see a sudden flicker of movement out of the corner of my eye. I turn just in time to see a blur as something charges straight at me. I jump back, and something slams into the backhoe, lifting it and toppling it over onto its side. I'm thrown out of it and down into the newly dug grave, landing with a thud on the dirt floor just before the backhoe slams down, mostly covering the entrance and raining down shattered glass on me.

I scrabble backwards against the wall and look up, just in time to see a dark shape leap onto the backhoe and then vanish from my line of sight in another jump. I shrink back, trying to hide, and hear a bizarre growling sound coming from outside, along with what sounds like digging. I cautiously stand up and lift myself up, glancing over the edge of the grave. All I can see is the back of a vaguely humanoid figure burrowing frantically into one of the recently dug graves a few yards away, throwing up a shower of dirt in the process.

I immediately flinch back, dropping back to the floor in an attempt to conceal myself. Suddenly, a loud roar interrupts the previous growling, and the growling abruptly vanishes. I glance up, fear encouraging me to look, but I can't see anything.

Then, impossibly, the backhoe begins to rise, lifting up off the ground and back to its upright position. I scramble towards the side of the grave, tucking myself into a corner, desperately trying to remain hidden. The backhoe thuds back onto its treads, and there's silence for a moment. Then I hear footsteps, walking around the backhoe towards me. I look up, terror filling me for a moment, until I see the person who was walking; a young man, probably only a few years older than me, in a black leather jacket and black pants. I slump to the ground in relief, as he looks down at me and smiles.

"Need a hand?"

.

Scott

Of all the places Lydia could have gone to, this one is probably the one I'd least expect.

The Hale house. Former residence of Derek and the rest of his family, and now a burnt-out ruin.

But my nose doesn't lie; this is where Lydia's trail leads.

Stiles turns to me as the three of us approach the house. "She came here? You're sure?"

I nod. "This is where the scent leads."

He turns back to face the house. "All right, but has Lydia ever been here?"

"Not with me," Allison says. Stiles nods, shrugs, and continues walking towards the house.

"Maybe she came here on instinct, like she was looking for Derek," Allison says.

"You mean looking for an Alpha," I reply.

"Well, wolves need a pack, right?" she asks.

"Not all of them."

"But would she have been drawn to an Alpha? Is it an instinct to be part of the pack?"

I nod. "Yeah, we're stronger in packs."

"Like strength in numbers."

"No, no, I mean like, literally stronger… faster… better in every way."

"Is it the same for an Alpha?" she asks.

I nod again. "Yeah. It'll make Derek stronger too."

Stiles is examining something on the ground. "Hey, guys, look at this." Allison walks over to him as he fiddles with a line attached to one of the trees. "I think it's a tripwire." He pulls on it, and instantly something whips around my ankle and I'm yanked into the air, upside down.

"Stiles?"

"Yeah, buddy?" He and Allison turn around, looks of surprise appearing on their faces when they see me.

"Next time you see a tripwire… don't trip it."

"Noted," he says.

They start towards me, but I hear something and quickly turn to them. "Someone's coming. Hide. Go!"

They walk quickly away, hiding behind a tree, and leaving me dangling in the middle of the clearing. Within seconds, three men enter the clearing. Chris Argent is in the lead. Hunters. Chris kneels in front of me, so we're at eye level.

"Scott."

"Mr. Argent," I reply.

"How are you doing?" he asks.

"Oh, you know. Just… hanging around." I indicate the tripwire with one hand. "Is this one of yours? It's good. Very… constricting."

Chris's face turns serious. "What're you doing out here, Scott?"

Time to stop joking. "Looking for my friend," I say.

He nods. "Ah, yes, that's right. Lydia's in your group now, isn't she? Part of your clique? Is that how you say it nowadays? Or is there another term… part of your pack?"

"No, clique sounds about right to me," I counter.

"Well, I hope so. Because I know she's a friend of Allison's, and one special circumstance such as yourself, I can deal with. Not two."

He appears to be thinking about something for a moment, and then his eyes refocus on mine. "Scott, do you know what a hemicorporectomy is?"

"No, and I have a feeling I don't want to."

"A medical term for amputating somebody at the waist," he continues. "Cutting them in half." He reaches up and runs a finger sideways in a line across my stomach. "Takes a lot of force to cut through tissue and bone like that." His eyes harden. "Let's hope a demonstration never becomes necessary."

Chris stands up, turns and walks away. The other two hunters follow him, leaving me hanging upside-down from the tripwire. As soon as they're gone, Stiles and Allison emerge from their hiding place and hurry over to me.

"Are you okay?" Allison asks.

I grin up at her. "Yeah, I'm fine. Just another life-threatening conversation with your dad."

She smiles faintly, turns and goes to inspect the mechanism controlling the tripwire. "Here, Stiles, help me with this." He nods and goes to help her. I consider for a moment, then decide that I'd rather not be dropped on my head when they disengage the tripwire.

Instead, I extend my claws. One quick movement, and the wire snaps. I flip in midair, landing lightly on my feet and smiling at Allison and Stiles as they turn to face me with surprised looks on their faces. "Thanks, but I think I got it."

"Okay," Stiles says. Allison laughs briefly.

I turn and start walking back towards the house, smiling, then turn back to face them, jerking my head towards the house. "Coming?"

.

AN: And that's it for this chapter. Don't worry, we'll get back to John in the next chapter, as well as continuing with Isaac and Scott. And remember, please review if you have any questions or comments! (No hate, please). See you next time!

Review Q&A for last chapter:

Q: Is Five an OC?

A: No, Five is not an OC; Five's human identity is a character that has actually appeared on Teen Wolf. Which character that is, however, remains to be seen…