"...c..."

Being knocked out cold was only a half unpleasant experience. It's the actual knocking out that people tend to dislike. The 'out cold' part is actually pretty peaceful. It's like an instant, heavy sleep. Sometimes there are dreams, but most of the time it's just like floating through darkness.

"...I...ac..."

He would know. He's been knocked out plenty of times. Whether it be from a flying fist, or a stray piece of furniture, or even asphyxiation. It's comparable to being put to sleep with an anesthetic; at first, your body wants to fight it, to do anything to stay awake, but after a while, it decides that it's time to give in, that maybe sleeping would be better.

"...c...Is...ac!"

Until you wake up, that is.

The first thing Isaac felt was a raging pain in the side of his head that reverberated through what felt like his entire body. The first thing he heard was his name being called from far, far way. It got closer like a train coming towards you in a tunnel. And the first thing he saw when he opened his eyes was the blurry outline of five or six people crowded around him like spectators. Closest was Allison; she had been calling his name.

And the first thing he remembered was being jumped by the Alpha twins. And that made him remember his own twins.

Isaac sat up, trying frantically to get his bearings and see if he was healing. If they had hit him anywhere near the belt...

"Isaac!" Allison sounded relieved and panicked at the same time as she held back his shoulders, trying to get him to lean against the boulder he had been propped up against. "Isaac, Isaac, hey, hey, calm down, hey!"

Allison grabbed his wrist and held it in a vice grip. He could break her hold, sure, but what he saw frightened him and he immediately stopped fighting. His claws were out- he had transformed without meaning to.

"What... Wha-?" Isaac began, but the huntress already had all the answers.

"Scott heard it before he saw it. Somehow, he knew you were in trouble. He came here as fast as he could and chased off the twins. They didn't fight back, so that must mean they're planning something bigger." She pushed a piece of stray hair behind her ear and Isaac saw it- a streak of blood running down her arm from a sharp scratch. Recent, like, within the last thirty seconds recent.

"Did I do that?" asked Isaac, looking up at Allison. It was stupid to ask; of course he did. "I... I'm sorry, I'm so, so sorry..."

She looked down at her wrist, as if she hadn't yet noticed the cut herself. "Oh, no, it's nothing, it's okay." But Isaac caught the small wince that passed through her eyes and cringed inside. He'd hurt someone without meaning to. That hadn't happened since he first got turned.

Scott came running up and crouched beside the two of them.

"You guys alright?" he asked, looking them both over. He noticed Allison's arm and the blood underneath Isaac's fingernails, but did nothing but squinch his face. "They ran into the woods. Probably back to wherever they have the rest of their pack." He looked down at the other beta. "Are you okay?" Concern first, anger later. A concept Isaac had never known before, not even with Derek or the coach or any of his teachers.

"Did they get the-?" Isaac stopped his sentence short, afraid of the answer. Instead he just hugged his middle until he was sure Scott or Allison got the message. What if the alphas knew? What if they had smelled it on him?

But Scott shook his head. "No, they only got to your arms and face before I got to you," he replied. "And you were lucky I did! What were you doing, provoking something like that? At school? While you're like... this?"

And there was the discipline. Isaac knew he shouldn't be afraid of violent consequence, after all, Scott was asking fair questions; but he still couldn't help but cringe every time someone raised their voice. Isaac struggled to remember what he had done to cause the alphas to attack him. He looked around and saw the remnants of a small fight crowd, a teacher, racing out to see what the trouble was, and the bikes.

Allison tilted her head and touched Isaac's other hand, which was closed into a fist at his side. "What's this?" she asked, gently prying the beta's hand open to reveal two short, light brown hairs. Isaac grinned at Scott, who gave him a disapproving eyeroll, but took the hairs nonetheless.

"I'll take them to Deaton after school." He reached to help both Allison and Isaac, who was already healing, back to class.

It was raining later that day, and into the night. Isaac's wounds from earlier that day were shallow, so even though they were administered by an alpha, they didn't take more than two class periods to heal. The blood had long since been washed away, and his shirt was changed. An excuse had been made up to the teacher about the fight, something about them picking on Isaac and Scott acting as the knight in shining armor. Scott even managed to get one of them suspended. All that was left was to confront Derek.

Like bringing home the kill to share, bringing home news was customary in packs. It maintained a locus of trust if all the members knew what each other was doing. If everyone was on the same page, there was harmony in the pack. Isaac might feel a little guilty if Derek went off and tried to pry a sample from the twins knowing that he'd already gotten one.

Isaac just hoped that his alpha would react well to his daring endeavor.

"You idiot!" Derek roared. Nope. Not a good reaction at all. "You could've gotten yourself seriously injured, or worse, killed!"

"I saw an opportunity, so I thought-"

"No, you don't just think, not with an adversary like this. They aren't afraid to kill you, Isaac! They have no inhibition; they killed their own packs, what makes you think they'd have trouble killing you?"

Isaac shuffled his feet. This wasn't going like he'd hoped. "I didn't think they'd just show up like that."

"So you were off your guard, as well. Nice." Derek ran a hand that was on the verge of claws through his hair. Cora lingered in the nearest doorway and Peter sat placidly, as always, on the steps to up to the loft. An uncomfortable silence weighed heavily in the room. It was then that Isaac noticed the stench of blood rising up from the floorboards. Stale blood. Derek's blood.

"Was... was there a fight here?" Now that he looked closely, he could see claw marks littering the floor, a bandaged pipe where a bar was ripped out, bruises on Cora's jaw. "Guys...?" Still no answer out of any of three. Isaac let out a nervous chuckle. "I-I don't get it. Did something happen?"

Derek wouldn't look at him. He instead stared out the window at the torrent of rain as if it held all the answers to his problems, problems of which Isaac had next to no idea about. Eventually, his alpha sighed out a response.

"It's just... not going to work with both of you here." The thunder rumbled above them, accompanied by a flash of lightning. "I've got Cora now... It's too much. I need you out tonight." There was something about his voice, like he knew he was regretting every word he was saying, but he knew he had to keep saying them for someone's sake other than his own.

That didn't sit with Isaac. He laughed anxiously and waited to see if Derek was joking. He wasn't.

"Where am I supposed to go?" He looked back to Derek. Was this some kind of joke? Training exercise? He was hardly in any state to take any version of either.

"Somewhere else."

There was a pause. Maybe, Isaac thought with trepidation, maybe this is my fault. "...Did I do something wrong, Derek?" The words were poison in his mouth; he'd said them so many times.

His alpha finally faced him, angry. "You're doing something wrong right now by not leaving." He gestured to the waiting door with his water glass. "Just get out."

"No, please-" Isaac tried to plead.

"Get out," Derek insisted.

"C'mon-"

"Go!"

Isaac ducked down as soon as he saw Derek's arm twitch. It was an action so familiar to him it was like blinking. The arm goes up, duck and cover your vitals, or at least your face. Protect what you could. The glass smashed in perfect synchronization with a lightning strike, as if to punctuate it.

He slowly unfurled his body and mentally checked himself. None of the shards had hit him. He was lucky, or Derek hadn't really meant to hit him. Just to scare him. Isaac turned and glanced at his alpha one last pleading time before grabbing his bag- all he owned- and walking out the door.

It was a long walk to Scott's.