AUTOMATIC RESPONSE
Several days later, Scott had managed to avoid the Argents completely. He hadn't informed Stiles or Lydia of his visit to their home, either, and had expected the hunters to show up at the Stilinski home, seeking retribution. When they hadn't come he'd been curious, but not enough to go asking. Distance is better, he thought. Maybe all that 'keeping the peace' bullshit can work that way. And not seeing Allison had the added bonus of helping Scott maintain his sanity; he'd blocked out pretty much everything that had happened from the time he'd left Stiles' house to go to the Argents' up until he'd showed up back at the Stilinski house and he'd managed to keep them from noticing the bullet holes in his shirt.
Lydia had surprised him with a phone call that morning, asking him to meet her at a spot out in the woods. When he'd asked what for, she'd said, "Instruction," and had hung up, sounding every bit the typical Lydia.
She was already there when Scott arrived, standing awkwardly next to a tree. Scott had traveled the werewolf way, loping through the forest, and had approached the last hundred meters in the trees. As such he dropped silently out of the tree right in front of Lydia, who gasped and started at his sudden appearance. "Hey, Lydia," he said. He tried to grin at her reaction, but it didn't feel like it came out right.
She affected a tight smile for him. "Hey, Scott," she said, shortly. "Nice entrance."
"I try," he said, dryly. "Your message was brief. I mean, any more than that and I'd have thought you were getting wordy and gushy on me, but it was appropriate. Appropriate for not explaining anything about what you want. Why are we here?"
"Like I said, instruction," Lydia said, pursing her lips. She'd brought a purse with her and, Scott noticed for the first time, worn a track suit, something he was pretty sure he'd never seen Lydia wear before. "I've been a werewolf for about three weeks now. I'd like to start learning what it means to be a werewolf. You know, what we can do, all that. The internet can only go so far."
Scott nodded. "True enough," he said. "Stiles and I came to that same conclusion pretty quick. Well," he said, sighing, stepping away from Lydia, "we've already gone over some of the basics. Anger makes you change. Pain makes you change back. The full moon makes you crazy. Wolfsbane makes you sick; getting it inside you makes you dead. Silver's bad for us too." He scratched his head as she fell into step beside him. "Let's see...when you change, you're stronger, but you'll have a blood lust to contend with too. And you get...claws?"
Lydia regarded him with an open mouth. "That was the most pathetic description I've ever heard," she said.
"You know, figuring some of that stuff out took time and work and not a small amount of pain on my part," Scott said.
"Yeah, I'm sure the first time you changed and looked down and saw your hands, it took a lot of hard work to figure out that you'd grown claws."
Scott scowled. "Fine, here's something you don't know," he said. "I can force you to shift."
Lydia stopped. "I knew you could control me if you wanted," she said. "I didn't realize you could force me to change."
Scott nodded. "Peter did it to me once," he said. "Tried to get me to kill someone. I didn't," he added, seeing Lydia's fearful look. "Peter is the only person I've ever killed. Not that he qualifies as a person, according to the Argents."
Scott's face darkened. Lydia jumped in quickly. "Maybe they have a point, at least where Peter was concerned," she said. "I mean, I'm not saying that all werewolves are monsters, but I think we can pretty much agree that he was one."
The dark look mostly faded, but a little edge remained in Scott's demeanor. "Yeah, I guess," he said. "Anyway, yeah, if I wanted to I could make you shift. Right now, even."
"How?" Lydia asked.
"Uh," Scott said. He scratched his head again. "I don't know, actually." When Lydia gave him another exasperated look, he spread his hands out in front of her. "If there's a user manual to this whole thing, feel free to direct me toward it."
"If there was a user manual I wouldn't have to be asking you all these questions," Lydia replied. They began walking again. "What do you know?"
"Enough," Scott replied. "So long as we keep strong feelings in check, we won't shift. It's harder at first, but you get used to it over time. And so long as we take all the necessary precautions on the full moon, we'll be able to lead otherwise normal lives."
"With a group of murderous hunters looking over our shoulders," Lydia finished. "Yeah. Normal lives. Maybe I can get back to dating."
"You're not going back to Jackson, are you?" Scott asked, bypassing the reference to the Argents for Lydia's sake.
"Maybe," she said. "I talked him down after Stiles' promise fell through the other day."
"Was he angry?" Scott asked.
"He was Jackson," she replied. "You know, 'I'll do this, I'll do that.' I managed to placate him in the end though."
"How?"
Lydia shot Scott a sour look. "I have my methods. He likes my methods very much."
Scott blushed. "Oh," he said. I really don't want to ask the next question. "Uh...how'd that go?"
Lydia raised her eyebrows. "Did you want me to draw you a picture?" she asked. "I didn't know you were a pervert."
Scott blushed even deeper. "I'm not," he said. "Look, it's just – getting turned on is one of the things that causes you to shift. I was just worried."
"Don't worry, I was in no danger of shifting, unless boredom and neck cramping are also causes," Lydia said, again with a sardonic note.
Scott glanced at Lydia sideways. "You know, you don't have to do things like that," he said.
Lydia laughed, plucking a twig from a low branch as they walked by, snapping it, and tossing it to the ground. "Is this the, 'you're powerful now and don't have to put up with that anymore,' speech? I'm pretty sure I've heard it enough times on Nickelodeon."
"No, it doesn't have anything to do with being a werewolf," Scott said. "No one should have to put up with that kind of thing."
Lydia gave Scott another genuine smile. "Thanks," she said. She tossed her hair. "I appreciate it. But it was my choice to do what I did, and I might choose to do it again if the situation calls for it. You never know."
Scott shook his head. "Whatever," he said. "Like you said, it's your choice."
Lydia was about to respond when they both heard a rustling in the bushes. Scott's hackles raised immediately and he sniffed at the wind, a reflex he'd developed since he'd started getting used to his enhanced senses. Have to remember to tell Lydia to start using her nose first, he thought. That's probably the kind of thing she brought me out here for in the first place.
A tall, lanky form straggled out of the woods. He was clearly older than them, in his mid-twenties maybe, wearing a ratty Megadeth t-shirt and a pair of torn jeans, with no shoes. His hair was long and greasy, but he had a friendly look in his eyes. "Hey there," he said.
"Hello," Scott said, trying to relax. Almost shifted in front of his guy, he thought. Better control. Better control. "What's up?"
"Not much," the man replied, nodding his head. "Just looking for the Alpha in these parts. That's you, right?"
Scott's gaze tightened into a laser focus immediately. Lydia gasped at the question. Scott felt his claws sprout immediately. No sense in holding it back if he already knows, he thought. "Who wants to know?" Scott asked.
"My name's Jason," the man said, extending a hand. "I'm a Beta, like her. I'm looking for a pack."
Scott regarded the hand with a not small bit of consternation. He took another whiff – the man smelled a little like he remembered Derek smelling, but there were sweet notes to his scent as well which, after a confused second, Scott identified as marijuana. Werewolf pothead, Scott thought, accepting Jason's offered handshake. Wonders will never cease. "Scott," he said. "This is Lydia."
"Excellent," the man said.
"Your timing is great," Lydia said, forcing a smile for Jason's benefit. "Scott's an Alpha and I'm a Beta, but we're both still pretty new to this and don't really know a ton about being werewolves. Maybe you can help us."
"Dude, totally!" Jason said. "I know loads about being a werewolf. Like, you know, we have claws and stuff, right?"
Scott nodded, turned to look at Lydia. "And you thought my explanation was pathetic," he said.
Jason frowned. "Don't sweat it, I know lots of other stuff," he said. He raised a hand to his head, scratched at his hair for a second. "Did you know that you can live off food as a wolf or as a human?"
"No," Scott said. He glanced at Lydia, who shrugged. "We've never tried eating in our wolf forms."
"Dude, you must be really new," Jason replied. "I've eaten a half dozen and I was full for like a week afterward."
"I'm sorry," Lydia said. "A half dozen what?"
"People, dude." Both Scott and Lydia had their claws out this time, practically before he was done speaking. "Whoa, hey, chill. It's not like I had much of a choice, right man? Full moon, drives you bonkers. You know about the full moon, right? You're not that new?"
"No, we're not that new," Scott replied. His entire body was tense. He could feel his Alpha form bubbling under the surface but didn't want to have to take it that far; he wasn't sure he could issue a command to this Beta and he felt somehow that if he shifted all the way to Alpha that Jason would attack. "But we don't kill humans. Frankly, you're going to be a problem for us if you do."
"Why's that?" Jason asked.
"Because there are hunters in this town," Lydia responded, her speech slurring around her fangs. "Hunters who know our names and keep very close tabs on us."
"Hunters who only have neglected to kill us because we've never harmed humans," Scott finished. "They'll kill you if they find you here. I'll tell you what – you turn around, get out of town now, and even if they ask later, neither of us saw you. We didn't even get a good look at your face."
"Dude, we have enhanced senses. You can probably count my pores from over there."
"I'm trying to forget, then," Scott said, scathingly. "Look, point is, you can't be here. You need to leave."
"Aw, man – do you know how hard it is to find a pack that doesn't make you fight a current member to the death to get in or something?"
This is completely surreal. I'm just going to pretend that this guy doesn't actually know anything about werewolves.. "I don't care. I'm an Alpha and I'm ordering you to go."
Scott had never used the ability to influence Betas on Lydia. Truth be told, like the ability to make Beta's shift, he wasn't completely sure how to activate the power. Now, though, he felt a strange, echo-like weight attached to the words, and he could feel something in Jason acknowledge the command. "Well, I guess I have to go, then," Jason said, matter-of-factly. "I'd say it was nice meeting you all, but it feels like it was actually pretty pointless."
Scott watched him turn and walk back into the trees. As soon as he was sure Jason was out of earshot – which took some time – he turned to Lydia. She's shifted back to her regular form, but she looked worried. "I wonder how often that's going to happen," Scott wondered out loud.
"We should have asked him how he knew to find us here," Lydia said. "You know, not just here like in the woods, but here like in Beacon Falls. Want to catch up to him and ask?"
"No," Scott said, glancing around. "The sooner he's out of town the better. I really doubt that we'd run into the Argents out here, but I don't want to tempt fate."
A gunshot rang out through the woods. Lydia and Scott both paled. "You were saying?"
***/\***
Allison ducked just a little too slow and the wooden bo staff her aunt was swinging at her connected with the side of her face. The staff was hollow, which served two purposes – it made the bo staff lighter so that a solid hit wouldn't knock her out, but it also made it faster so that getting hit would sting more. Allison staggered a step back as the pain from the slap resonated through her face.
"Ouch!" she said, holding a hand up to rub at what she was sure was a growing red spot on her cheek.
Her aunt leered at her. "I won't pull my punches," she said. She nodded at Chris Argent, who was leaning against a tree not far away, watching. "That's why Papa Bear wanted me to be the one to put you through these exercises."
Allison leered right back. "Thanks," she said.
Kate's face turned serious, or as serious as it ever did. "You should be thanking me," she said. "If you don't learn right, you wind up dead. And you don't learn right without a few scratches and bruises."
Before Allison could reply Kate had whirled, using the bo to sweep Allison's feet out from under her. Allison pitched backward and landed heavily on the forest floor, hearing several twigs and leaves crunch under her on impact. Probably something else snapped, too, she thought. She turned to her father. "What's the point of this, again?"
Chris didn't respond, simply standing and watching, his expression unchanged despite Allison's direct address. Great, now he's going to play mute, she thought. She climbed to her feet to find her aunt circling her like a hungry predator. She wasn't armed at all herself. Okay. So, clearly this is some kind of test.
Kate thrust one end of the staff at Allison, aiming to drive it into her gut. Allison sidestepped the blow, slapping the bo wide with a wrist strike, and brought her forearm up to blow the resulting parry from the other end of the staff from Kate. The blow shook the bones in her arm and smarted like crazy, but she pushed it down and made sure it didn't show.
Kate stepped back, arching an eyebrow at Chris. Chris pushed off the tree he'd been leaning on and walked over, still not saying anything. Expecting a congratulations, or a critique, from her father, Allison was completely caught off guard when he grabbed her bodily by the shoulders, spun her off her feet and onto her knees, and wrapped an arm around her neck, practically before she could figure out what was happening.
He didn't apply enough pressure to choke her, but it definitely made breathing hard. "We hunt shapeshifters," Chris said, still holding Allison by the throat. "While werewolves can't make themselves look like a loved one, werewolves are far from everything that's out there. The point to this lesson is to teach you to react instantly to a threat, no matter where it comes from. From here on out, both your aunt and I will attack you at random times, when you least it expect it."
"Great," Allison said, sputtering. "Let me up?" she asked. Chris relaxed his grip and took a step back, but when Allison pitched forward onto all fours he stepped back up, concerned, bending over to make sure he hadn't actually caused any damage. Allison caught him off guard this time, shifting her weight onto her right leg, extending her left leg and sweeping a kick into Chris' knees, making them buckle and causing him to tumble over.
Kate laughed as Chris started to fall, but Allison had planned to get her aunt too. Kate was far out of reach, but as she completed the sweeping motion Allison reached down, picked up a small rock, and letting her momentum add strength she hurled it at her aunt. Despite Allison being unquestionably better with a bow and arrow, she could still throw pretty well, and the rock would have connected with Kate's face squarely between the eyes if her aunt hadn't whirled the bo staff in a short arc to knock the rock harmlessly away. Allison's face registered both surprise and disappointment; her aunt grinned. "My guard is always up," she bragged. She looked down at her fallen brother. "Looks like you could still use some training, though, big brother."
Chris was looking with respect at Allison. "I suppose so," he said. Allison tried to smile at the affectionate, fatherly smile he was giving her – while her father had never been abusive or mean, he'd always been a little distant, and learning to be a hunter was letting her get closer to him than she'd ever really thought she would – but she'd been having trouble getting smiles to come out right since the night Scott had showed up in her bedroom and Kate had driven him out with a torrent of bullets.
Before any of them could say anything further, Chris' beeper went off. He has a beeper? He yanked it quickly from his belt, read the readout, and looked up at Kate. "Trap in grid nineteen."
Kate yawned . "It's probably another stray cat," she said.
"What's going on?" Allison asked.
"We've set traps around the forest," Chris replied. "It's standard with werewolves around. If something triggers one of the traps, my beeper goes off. Come on, that trap is less than a mile." Allison and Chris pulled themselves up off the ground and the three began to hurry through the trees, Chris leading the way. Both Chris and Kate pulled out guns Allison hadn't realized they'd brought. Are they going to expect me to start carrying around a gun, too?
As they got closer it became quickly apparent that the trap hadn't caught a stray cat. Whatever was stuck in it was thrashing and growling in at a much deeper pitch than a house cat could manage. What if it's Scott? Allison thought, her stomach twisting. She'd managed to convince her father not to run off and kill Scott immediately after the incident several nights' previous, mostly by saying that Scott had just come to talk and Kate was the one who'd initiated the violence. When she'd explained it that way Kate had rolled her eyes and Chris had grimaced in acknowledgment that yes, it made sense that it happened that way, but it'd still taken a solid hour of begging before he'd relented and told her that if Scott crossed the line one more time then he'd have to go.
And she'd offered to pay to get her window fixed, absurd as it was to think that might convince her father not to kill Scott. She wasn't sure how she'd dredge up the money but she wasn't sure her father would hold her to it since he hadn't even responded to that attempt anyway.
As they got closer to the snared werewolf Allison could see immediately that it was neither Scott nor Lydia. Phew, she thought. Then she checked herself. The creature hanging upside down from the tree was clearly a werewolf, but it wasn't either of the two werewolves they knew were in town. More of them? she thought. Great. Just what we need.
Whoever he was he was still thrashing, having shifted completely to Beta form. The trap not only caught his leg and hung him upside down; it also bound his arms to his sides. Allison made a mental note to ask her father later how the trap worked. "Calm down," Chris said to the werewolf. The wolf didn't reply, continuing to try to break his bonds in futility. "I said calm down!" Chris bellowed, pointing his gun straight up in the air and firing two shots.
The thrashing Beta finally froze, the gunshots pacifying it. It melted back into human form and didn't say anything as Chris moved forward and cut him down. Once it was down and rubbing its wrists, and Chris had rejoined Allison and Kate, the Beta smirked at him. "Thanks, man," he said, his voice a little slow. Great, a retarded werewolf, Allison thought. Just what we needed. "All I can figure on this is that the bears are getting too slippery for the classic traps. Say, wait a minute," he said, sniffing at the air. "You're carrying silver bullets?" The werewolf looked down to see Chris and Kate both pointing their guns at him. "Oh, shit, you're the hunters, aren't you?"
"Smart one," Kate said. "He'll make an excellent throw rug."
"Wait!"
This time it was Scott who came bounding into view, Lydia close behind. Allison's stomach knotted again, but Scott was staring fixedly at Chris' gun and wasn't looking at her. "Wait," he said. "There's no need for violence. He's leaving. Right, Jason?"
Jason nodded vigorously.
Chris gave Scott a sardonic grin. "Hello, Scott," he said. "I'm surprised you'd just come charging into view after the remodeling job you gave my daughter's bedroom window."
The casual greeting clearly threw Scott. "Uh," he said. "Yeah, I, uh, guess I'm sorry about that. I didn't mean to."
"Seems the last time we'd seen each other you'd said you weren't going to see Allison again. That it was better for her health that way."
Scott grimaced. "I was confused," he said.
"When? When you said you wouldn't see her again, or when you decided to show up at our house anyway?"
"Uh," Scott said, actual pain registering in his eyes at the casual verbal assault.
"Relax, Scott," Chris said, smiling in a way that Allison was sure wouldn't make Scott relax at all. "Allison managed to talk me down afterward. You didn't come to hurt her, apparently. Rest assured that if you had you' already be dead, but for now our little peace treaty remains. This one, though," Chris said, scratching his chin. "Leaving, huh?" he asked. "Why'd he come?"
Scott growled low, but it didn't come across a a threat, just stress. His gaze wandered back to Chris' gun. "What does it matter? He's going."
Chris smiled an angry smile at Scott. "It matters because he's here to join your pack," he said. "And you said no, didn't you? So I'm left having to ask, why would the great protector Scott McHall say no to a Beta who clearly needs help?"
"I'm not anyone's 'great protector,'" Scott replied, looking Chris in the eye. "I'm looking out for Lydia because we're all each other have."
"And this one, who does he have?" Chris asked, waving the gun at Jason, who looked completely terrified. "Doesn't seem to be drowning in friends at the moment. Be honest, Scott. He's killed and you could tell. If it makes this any easier on you, I can tell, too."
Scott frowned. "How can you tell? You're not one of us."
Chris grinned triumphantly. "I couldn't, actually," he admitted. "But you just confirmed it for me."
"Thanks, man," Jason muttered.
Chris cocked his gun. Scott stepped between Chris and Jason and settled back on the balls of his feet. Chris and Kate both stiffened immediately. What was that? Allison thought. "Can we just talk about this?" Scott asked, his eyes wider. "He can stay with us. We'll keep an eye on him. He won't ever touch another human again. Right, Jason?"
Jason, staring at Scott, nodded, then nodded even more at Chris. Chris shook his head. "That's not how this works and you know it. Once he's harmed a human he can't come back from that. He has to die." Chris went to step around Scott but he shifted to continue blocking Jason. Out of the corner of her eye, Allison saw Kate begin slowly, almost nonchalantly sidestepping. Scott's gaze seemed about to follow Kate but Chris interrupted that by snarling at him. "Get out of the way, Scott!"
"Please," Scott begged. Tears were forming in his eyes. Allison wanted to run and throw her arms around him but her feet were rooted to the spot. Anyway I doubt that'd really help. "You can take me instead."
Allison, Kate, and Chris all stopped moving, their mouths hanging open. Even Jason and Lydia looked shocked. "That's not how it works, Scott," Chris repeated, keeping his eyes trained on Scott's. "You haven't hurt anyone. He has. He has to die." He went again to sidestep Scott but Scott moved again to block his path.
"No!" he said, now crying freely. "Listen, it's better for you to take me instead. If you kill me the Alpha status doesn't pass to anyone. Then all you have to worry about is a pair of Betas. Lydia can look after Jason. You can keep people with them twenty-four seven to make sure they're behaving. It works out better for you that way." Chris just shook his head. Scott started shaking from how hard he was crying. "Come on! I'm dealing with you straight and serious, like you wanted. Isn't that what you wanted?"
"You still don't get it, Scott," Chris said, the gun in his hand not wavering. "Everything we've said to you – it's not about you dealing with us as equals, it was about you understanding the peril you face if you break our rules. The truth is that we're not equals. We're above you; you're animals. And we'll put you and Lydia down just like this if we wind up having to."
He nodded, a barely perceptible motion, but Kate reacted instantly. She'd sidestepped far enough to be at an angle that gave her a clear shot at Jason; she'd kept her gun down while she'd been sidestepping to keep from attracting Scott's attention. At Chris' nod she swung the gun up quickly and fired a single shot. It hit Jason in the middle of the right side of his forehead. A small hole appeared – so quick its almost like magic, Allison thought, transfixed in horror – and then the back of Jason's head blew out, showering shattered bone and brain matter into the forest behind them.
On the gunshot Scott's gaze had torn from Chris to Kate, but he didn't attack. He turned instead, to watch Jason fall backward, a far-off look in the already-dead Beta's eyes. As he fell Scott fell to his knees. He stayed like that for a moment, just staring, and then the crying returned, wracking his entire body with sobs. Chris closed the distance between them quickly and knelt by the sobbing young werewolf. "You need to start getting used to this," he hissed in Scott's ear.
Lydia was standing, panting heavily, clearly trying to keep from hyperventilating. Chris straightened up and he and Kate began walking away, back through the woods towards where they'd left their car. He glanced at Allison, who remained rooted to the spot. A moment of unspoken conversation passed between them. Chris clearly wanted Allison to come away with them, but Allison shook her head. Not yet, she said. I can't just leave him like this. Chris nodded, seeming to understand her meaning, but he and Kate both stopped walking, turning to wait a respectable distance away.
Slowly, making sure to appear as non-threatening as possible, Allison made her way over to Scott, who continued to sob. Gradually, she knelt by his side, reaching out a hand to press softly against his heaving back. He didn't shy away or move on the contact, which Allison took to be an encouraging sign. Hoping to sound soothing, she murmured his name. "Scott..."
Scott's reaction was instantaneous. He heaved sideways, throwing her off of him to the ground. His gaze followed her, her eyes widening, his eyes turning deep red. He roared mightily as he shifted instantly to his Alpha form, his clothes bursting off of himself. At the roar, Lydia scattered in fear into the woods. Chris and Kate both came up shooting at Scott, who took several bullets to the chest. Alphas won't go down to just a couple regular silver bullets, though, Allison thought. Scott roared again at Kate and Chris, who seemed completely nonplussed by it, and then he turned and loped into the woods, disappearing instantly.
Chris crossed to Allison and crouched down next to her. "Are you okay?" he asked.
"No," Allison said, her eyes even wider than the last time Scott had bodily pushed her aside.
Chris grimaced. "Are you physically injured?" he asked.
"No," Allison replied. She found herself capable of matter-of-factly taking stock of her injuries. "I mean, a couple of bruises probably, but nothing serious."
Chris nodded. He turned to Kate. "Call the guys in," he said. "We need to get everyone in the field now. Tell them we have an enraged Alpha and a terrified Beta running the woods."
Kate nodded. "Already got a plan, bro," she said, pulling her cell phone out of her pocket.
Chris turned back to Allison. "Let's get you home," he said, offering her a hand up.
Allison looked at him like she was seeing him for the first time. "You shot him," Allison said.
"He was threatening you," Chris replied, seeming to consider whether his daughter's puppy-love attraction to the Alpha had actually addled her brain.
"Not Scott," she said. She jerked her head back toward the corpse behind them, unwilling or unable to make herself look at it. "Him. Jason. You told Kate to shoot him, didn't you?"
Chris lowered the hand that he was offering to Allison. "That's how it works, honey," he said, sighing. "Once they've hurt humans, it's over. I'm starting to think it's over for Scott, too. That's the second time in a week he's attacked you. I'm not standing for it anymore."
"You can't kill him!" Allison yelled.
"He's out of control, Allison!" Chris snapped back. "You heard him tonight. You saw him. He's coming unraveled and its only a matter of time before he does more than just push you into the dirt. Think of it this way – if Scott runs into a person, a normal, average person, right now, what do you suppose is going to happen?"
Allison bit her lip. "I don't know," she said.
"I think you do," Chris replied, hard, a note of condescension entering his voice. He softened, seeing the torn and confused and above all else hurt expression on Allison's face. "I know it's hard, honey. But we have to do this. The Scott you cared about never wanted to hurt anyone, but he's lost the ability to keep himself from doing so. This has to happen."
Allison shook her head, unable to respond. A large part of her brain was agreeing with what her father was saying – looking at it detached, calculating, understanding that the Alpha who'd never harmed a human had become dangerously unbalanced. Another large part of her brain, though, was screaming, Not Scott! Please note Scott! Through the cacophony she wasn't able to get words out.
Kate was able to get words out. "Knew you'd come around in the end," she said to her brother. "The guys are all heading out. They'll be in the woods in five minutes. We'll bring him down." She looked down at her half-emotionally-destroyed niece. "It'll be, you know, quick. I guess."
Allison shook her head with even more vigor, words spilling out before she could even figure out why she was speaking. "No," she said. "It won't be."
***/\***
Scott wasn't keeping track of time. When thinking of how long he'd been running, just flat out running, since the confrontation with the Argents, he could only come up with a while as the length of time it'd been. For the first stretch he'd just barreled as fast he could – which was pretty fast – through the trees, completely uncaring about branches and rocks. The cuts and bruises all healed instantly anyway. After a while his vision, and mind, had cleared, but he'd kept running. If anything he'd increased his pace, aware then of every slight twinge as a branch whipped him in the face or a rock stuck in his hairy, clawed foot. Maybe if I run fast enough I'll get away from it.
As an Alpha, Scott was possessed of far greater-than-average strength and stamina, but even his had to run out eventually. Pushing himself as hard as he was that happened sooner than if he'd been pacing himself. He eventually collapsed, tripping over an exposed root – something an emotionally non-disturbed Alpha never would have done – and came to a crashing, sliding halt on the forest floor, curled again a tree trunk.
I'll be watching Jason fall like that for the rest of my life, he thought, curling in on himself and feeling his Alpha form melt away. Some giant rage monster I am. Derek would never have let the Argents kill him. Why didn't they fucking listen? Why does there still have to be so much killing?
He wrapped his arms around himself, suddenly freezing cold. Looking down he realized that shifting into his Alpha form so suddenly had actually burst his clothes; he was now naked, having left behind their tattered remnants. And, he realized for the first time, it was now also raining. His skin was almost completely covered in beads of icy water. Scott pressed his back into the tree trunk he was hunched against and shivered.
I should have let Jason join the group, Scott thought. I should have bluffed better. I should have done something better because now he's dead, now Mom's dead, now Allison wants me dead, now Lydia -
His head snapped up. Lydia! She'd run when he'd shifted to Alpha and roared. Reflecting back on that roar of anger and pain, Scott realized it'd carried a note similar to the command he'd given Jason to leave Beacon Falls. Where that, though, had been a conscious, direct command, this had been more primal. He'd projected a single feeling into her mind: fear.
"Oh, God," he muttered. Slowly, painfully, he pulled himself up off the forest floor. "She's running around terrified. She can't not be terrified." He clenched a fist. "Have to find her. Before this gets worse."
He shook himself once, violently, spraying the water that had collected on his body off it. Glancing around he selected the highest tree, ran toward it, leaped and dug his newly-sprouted claws in. He climbed in rapid succession and in only a second was at the very top. Digging one clawed hand in further, he left go with the other so he could swing around and gauge where he was.
God damn, he thought. Enhanced vision or not he couldn't adequately judge the distance he'd traveled, but guessing he'd have said that the center of town was twenty miles away. Instantly, he released his grip on the tree, dropping back down to the forest floor, shifting back to his Alpha form on the way, so that when he landed he was already running.
Scott began to lose track of time again as he ran back toward town. The wolf was a better runner than him and it had no need for considerations of time; its influence made him focus more on trees, rocks, and roots, and how each of those things could be turned from impediment into advantage in the race to get back to Beacon Falls. Scott's conscious brain fell into a kind of fugue state while he left his wolf side guide him back to town, only one word repeating consciously in his head. Lydia.
He was able to follow his own scent trail – which, he realized, was pretty potent – back to the area of the woods where the Argents had executed Jason. Unsurprisingly, nobody was there; they'd even dragged Jason's body off. Scott stopped, took a deep breath and blew it out, then closed his eyes and inhaled, tasting the air. He was instantly barraged by the scent profiles of everyone who'd been there recently. His own scent, again, was particularly strong, and said Alpha to his brain – must be how Jason found us in the first place, he reasoned, and Peter must have known how to shut it off, gotta look into that later. He could detect the faintly musky scents that identified Chris and Kate Argent, the oddly sweet scent which – his face twitched – said Allison to his mind, and, finally, the distinctly werewolf scent left behind by Lydia. It was different from how she usually smelled, he realized; she was letting off fear pheromones.
He took a moment to study the scent and get it firmly planted in his mind, and then took off, following its trail into the woods. As he ran, a question danced into his mind. What the hell am I going to do when I find her? He wondered. She's probably still going to be in terror mode. Ugh. I'm probably going to have to give her another command. And I told her I'd never do that to her. Whatever. Apologize once our lives aren't in danger.
Lydia's scent trail led Scott on an erratic, hectic pattern through the woods. All things considered he wouldn't have needed his nose to follow her; she'd left a crashing path of broken branches and overturned rocks that even a junior Boy Scout would have been able to follow. Which means the Argents could follow her, too. Scott increased his pace.
That proved futile, as it turned out. After another twenty feet, Lydia's scent was joined by the scent of three men, and all four scent trails thereafter merged and headed in one direction. His own fear increasing, Scott followed the new trail, only to break the treeline in time to see Lydia, slumped and unconscious in her Beta form, being shoved into an SUV. He growled and charged, but the SUV peeled out and sped off before he could get there. He made a lunge for the bumper and missed, just scraping the metal with his claws. The lunge carried him into the street, where a large sedan plowed directly into him, smashing both the front of the car and Scott's bones, sending him tumbling end over end as the SUV sped away. Shakily, he climbed to his feet, having maintained his Alpha form despite the pain. The car's hood had come up in the crash, obscuring the driver's vision, which is probably why he felt it was a good idea to get out of the car, yelling at Scott until he saw the giant brown werewolf hunched, its bones already healing. The man ran. Scott threw back his head and howled at the moon, and then his gaze returned to the road, his eyes burning red in the direction the SUV had driven off.
