The Wolf Amoung Us
Summary: After having lost Peter to his obsession with power, Sydney was sure of one thing and one thing only: she needed to pull her life back together. With unexpected news that will change everything, will she become the strong alpha that she desires so much or will she struggle to keep it together until it's too late? Season 5: Peter Hale/OC
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters of Teen Wolf, Sydney however is all mine.
Chapter 6:
Steve had lifted his hands up in surrender, hoping that the alpha in front of him would give him time to explain. Charlie looked from Sydney to her father, a worried expression etched on her face, but once her dad shook his head no, implying there was nothing to worry about, she relaxed on the couch, hoping that everything would be explained to her soon enough.
"You had my mom bite Charlie." Sydney pointed out, her tone soft, almost disbelieving of the information she had just gained.
"I uh, I wasn't aware she was your mother, honestly." Steve countered and cautiously lowered his hands. "I really had no idea"
The atmosphere in the room had gotten rather tense and he was fully prepared to try to loosen the tension, especially when he was outnumbered, three werewolves to one, against a human. There was no way he and Charlie would make it out of a fight unscathed, which was exactly what he was trying to avoid.
"Oh yeah, no I got that when you told her you didn't even know her name." Sydney spat out, sarcasm lacing her tone.
Aidan's hand came down and rested on her shoulder, giving it a rough squeeze as if to remind her that she wasn't alone in the room. She shook her head in response and let out a sigh, hoping to pull herself together before she lost all hopes of finding out more about her mother, the alpha who had turned Charlie.
"I was desperate." Steve pointed out in a low tone, Sydney looking over at him and studying the sadness that had seeped into his eyes. She peeled her eyes off the man and glanced at Charlie, who had a hand on the back of her neck, her fingers rubbing over her punctured skin.
"You let an alpha you didn't even know bite your daughter?" Ethan piped up, bringing all eyes to him. "I mean, I get that you were desperate but even I know that could've been way worse-"
"I knew enough." Steve cut in. "I asked a friend about the possibility of finding an alpha willing to turn Charlie, she was the one who showed up to do the job. Trust me, I thought it was a little sketchy myself but I was told she could be trusted and she didn't want anything in return."
"Now that you know she had a daughter of her own, it kind of makes sense." Charlie pointed out with a smile. "She'd know how desperate a parent could be, especially if a child was near death."
Sydney took her bottom lip in between her teeth and dropped her gaze down to her knee, where her hand was resting, claws still out. She watched carefully as her sharp talons retracted and were replaced by blunt human finger nails in front of her very eyes. As soon as her claws had disappeared, there seemed to be a collective sigh that sounded out in the room, which brought her eyes back up to the people surrounding her.
Aidan's hand moved away from her shoulder and he took a step around the couch, dropping down to sit on the cushion behind her. Sydney leaned her back against him and let out a sigh, her entire body relaxing the tiniest little bit now that she was aware there was a reason why her mother had done the man the favour in the first place. She couldn't even begin to imagine how easy it would've been for her mother to relate to a desperate parent.
"If I had known who she was, I would've told you sooner." Steve offered up and shifted seats, taking up a position behind Charlie, similar to that of Aidan and Sydney. "I figured I didn't want to ask too much in case she somehow managed to gain leverage over me, if I owed her, then I wanted her to have to work to find me again. Not having a connection, or her name, made it easier to protect my daughter."
Sydney gave one firm nod of her head, signaling that she understood why. It still made her heart ache though, the sight of her very own mother in someone else's head, helping out a child in distress. Seeing Brynn Vance in all of her glory had showed Sydney something she hadn't seen in a while and now she fought against the urge to lunge at Steve, to sink her claws into his neck and seek out the memories he had of her mom.
"I miss her." Sydney murmured, sucking in a shaky breath. Aidan slipped an arm around her shoulders and pulled her tighter against him, sensing that his alpha was about to break.
As if she hadn't been dealing with enough without the added stress of now knowing her mother had played a part in her new beta's lifestyle.
"Your mother saved my daughter's life, she gave me back my world." Steve stated in a low tone, reaching out and offering Sydney his hand. She reached her own hand out and gently took hold of his, feeling the warmth from his palm against her cool skin.
He smiled at her and leaned forward, pushing Charlie closer to Sydney as he moved in. Aidan's grip on Sydney loosened and he quickly made his way to his feet, taking up residence on the edge of the coffee table before waving his brother over, who followed suit and dropped down beside him.
"I'd be honoured to be part of your pack, especially if your mother was the one that saved my life." Charlie broke in and reached out, taking Sydney's other hand. "I owe her my life and if she can't be here to thank personally, then what better person than her very own daughter."
Sydney felt her cheeks flushing at the girl's words. Yes, who better than her to take in a stray werewolf created from her mother's bite? She could think of a few better options but part of her knew that this girl, this young werewolf in front of her very eyes, was possibly the last living connection she had to her mother. There wasn't anything that was going to stop her from keeping Charlie in her pack, especially if she came with a father who had information on her mother, even if it wasn't much at all.
"I'd love to have you in my pack." Sydney said and caught the twins both nodding along with her. A smile spread out over her face and she gave Charlie's hand a gentle squeeze before pulling her hands out of Steve and Charlie's grips.
"And if you want, I'd love to know more about your mom." Charlie pressed, watching Sydney's face carefully, searching for any hesitations in her expression.
"I don't remember all that much about her." Sydney confessed with a saddened sigh. "But I can try."
Charlie smiled at her new alpha and slapped her palms against her thighs. Quickly standing up, she gave her dad a gentle shove forward, forcing him closer to Sydney and into the spot she had just vacated.
"Let's move on before we all start to cry, yeah?" Charlie suggested and stepped around to the back of the couch, leaning over so that her head was just a few inches away from Steve's. "Let's get into my dad's head, see what secrets he's got hidden in his noggin."
Sydney snorted in amusement and straightened up on the couch. She forced her claws out and met Steve's eyes, silently asking him if he still wanted to do this. When his head nodded yes in response, she gingerly set the tips of her claws along his spine at the back of his neck before sucking in a nervous breath.
"Remember, focus on what you want me to see." Sydney reminded him, echoing the instructions she had given to Charlie earlier. "As much as I want to go poking around in your head, I'll save that for another time."
"I'd gladly let you." Steve smiled back at her and held his own breath, his eyes falling shut as she pressed her claws harder against his skin, but not hard enough to pierce into his flesh.
With a mental count to three, Sydney forced the tips of her claws into his skin, breaking the outer layer and feeling the warm blood trickling over her fingertips. She shut her eyes and let him take her into his head, a place that was full of memories, pictures blurring and coming into focus before disappearing once again.
After a few more memories had come into focus before fading away, she finally felt herself being pulled towards one specific picture in his head. Sydney let herself be drawn to it and before she knew it, the image in front of her was crisp and clear.
A younger version of Steve, who looked almost exactly the same as he did currently, was standing in the doorway of a dimly lit room. She caught sight of the walls, which were painted a light beige colour, wooden letters were mounted on the wall above an elaborately carved crib. She read the name there and felt a smile tugging at her lips. Apparently Steve's memory contained a darling little version of his daughter, even younger than the broken Charlie she had seen in the hospital.
There was a rocking chair in the corner of the room and when the person sitting in it finally caught Sydney's attention, it was easy to see that this woman was Charlie's mother, an unmistakable resemblance between the two.
The baby version of Charlie was tucked in the woman's protective hold, a bottle clutched in the woman's hand as Charlie sucked back the milk. Steve tiptoed closer to them, light on his feet so as not to startle the tiny little baby in the woman's arms.
"You're going to have to let go of her eventually." Steve teased and closed in on the woman. A wedding band sparkled on the woman's finger and Sydney made the assumption that this woman was not only Charlie's mother but Steve's wife as well.
"Never." The woman teased right back and began to gently rock the baby back and forth. "I don't want to ever let her go."
Steve dropped down into a crouch in front of the chair, his hands falling gently onto the woman's knees, his thumbs brushing across the denim of her jeans. He peered up at the two females, mother holding child, and smiled proudly. Leaning in towards his daughter, he pressed a gentle kiss against the side of the baby's head before retreating away from her, settling in to a kneeling position in front of his wife.
"She's beautiful." Steve whispered, tearing his eyes off the baby only to glance up at his wife.
"She's perfect." His wife countered.
"She looks like you Marianne." Steve pointed out.
"Thank god for that." The woman laughed but quickly tightened her grip on the baby, hoping that she hadn't been too loud for the newborn's ears. "I don't know what I'd do if she looked like you."
"You'd still love her." Steve nodded with a grin.
"I would, just like I love you."
Steve stood up and took a step around to the side of the chair, leaning over the woman's shoulder to get a better look at their child. His hand gently fell against her shoulder and she looked up at him, a smile permanently etched on her face. When he went in for a kiss, the room began to swirl and Sydney felt the picture around her fading away.
She sucked in a breath of air as her eyes opened, Steve letting out a grunt in response to her claws being forced out of his neck. Sydney pulled her hand away and studied her finger nails, which had reverted back to her human ones by this point. Blood was underneath the nails, staining the usual white tips to a gritty red, but she wasn't concerned, blood was expected when she went ahead and shoved her claws into human flesh.
"Uh oh." Steve muttered and caught Sydney's eyes.
"What?" Sydney was trying to keep herself calm, there was no need to panic, not yet anyways. Maybe his 'uh oh' was in regards to her having seen the wrong memory, or a memory that he hadn't intended for her to see.
"Well, uh, not to alarm you or anything but I can't…I can't move." As if to emphasize his concern, his face contorted and he let out a hiss.
She felt her stomach drop and her eyes widened at the sight. No, no she couldn't have possibly paralyzed Steve, could she?
Every other time she had tried to see into someone else's memory, she had one of the twins check her finger position but she hadn't this time, no, she had just gone ahead and done it. Had that mistake come back around to bite her?
"What are you talking about?" Charlie narrowed her eyes in on her dad before shooting a glare in Sydney's direction.
She certainly deserved the look, she had somehow managed to paralyze the girl's only living parent.
"Ha, I'm just kidding." Steve announced with a harsh laugh before relaxing his entire body. He lifted his arms into the air and waved them around to demonstrate that he was, indeed, joking about being paralyzed.
Sydney's heart was still pounding in her chest but she felt sweet relief flood her body, especially when the twins broke out into a fit of laughter, the two of them watching as the man who had tricked their alpha continued to wave his arms around. When Charlie's hand swung out and smacked the man on his shoulder, which put a stop to his flailing, Sydney jerked her body back, thankful that the impact was meant for her dad and not Sydney.
"Dad, you can't just do stuff like that, especially when she doesn't really know you." Charlie scolded and smacked Steve on the shoulder for a second time. "You scared the shit out of us."
"Right." Steve nodded his understanding but the smile never left his face, he was clearly too amused by his own joke to let anyone really rain on his parade. "You're absolutely right, I shouldn't do stuff like that but come on, it was a little bit funny."
Charlie shook her head no and stole a look at Sydney, who seemed to be frozen in fear. Clearly the alpha was scared, seconds ago she had honestly believed that she had managed to paralyze the man sitting in front of her, which would have made convincing Charlie that she was a decent alpha all the more difficult.
"She's pregnant too dad, remember? I cannot believe you thought that was a good idea." Charlie groaned but Steve grabbed at her, pulling her forward and giving her a rough hug. When he let go, she huffed at him and crossed her arms over her chest.
"My bad. Sorry Sydney, I totally forgot that I probably shouldn't stress you out in your condition." Steve apologized and Sydney managed a half-assed nod of her head in response.
If she was honest, she had forgotten that she was pregnant, or what Steve had called her 'condition', there for a little while anyways. It had been a nice feeling to get her head away from the situation at hand, and while his joke had been cruel, it had definitely been effective and maybe it wasn't all bad after all. It had gotten her out of her own head and having a good time with other people.
"It's fine. Just don't do it again." Sydney replied but there was very little conviction in her voice.
"I'll try not to." Steve nodded his head.
"Good. Now, what did you see?" Charlie asked, turning from upset with her father to overly excited to hear about what he had shown her new alpha. Still leaning forward on the back of the couch, a grin present on her face which looked eerily similar to the grin Steve produced in the memory, she caught both Sydney and Steve's attention.
"You were a baby." Sydney answered hesitantly and held her hand out towards Aidan, who pulled a Kleenex out of the nearby box before making quick work of wiping the blood off her fingers. "You were in your room, in your mother's arms."
"You saw my mom?" Charlie stared at Sydney, a sparkle of wonder in her eyes. "Lucky."
"You look a lot like her." Sydney commented and forced a smile at the younger girl, memories of her own mother flooding her head. They clearly had way more in common than Sydney originally thought, both of them had lost their mothers, both of them were currently struggling to find a place to fit in, what other things did they share? Sydney didn't know yet but she was willing to find out.
"Do I?"
"Yeah." Sydney nodded and let out a laugh. "For that your mom would be very thankful."
Steve smirked at her too, knowing that she was referring to the teasing banter in his memory.
"You remind me of your mom every day." Steve added in quickly.
"You have your dad's grin though." Sydney pointed out, stifling the urge to burst out into a fit of laughter.
"I know that." Charlie added with an amused snort of her own. "You going to go into anyone else's memories tonight?"
Sydney took in a deep breath and held it before looking around the room at the people there. She shook her head no and pulled her fingers away from Aidan, who had cleaned them off as best as he could with just a Kleenex.
"I think maybe I've seen enough for one night." Sydney said softly. "But another time, maybe I'll even come up with something that I can show you, something from my own collection."
She motioned to her head and Charlie gave her a nod of understanding. Aidan let out a snicker and balled the blood covered Kleenex up into his palm before making his way into a standing position, Ethan following suit.
"We'll have to do this again sometime." Ethan remarked and gave Sydney a firm pat on the shoulder as he took off, walking out of the living room. Aidan mirrored his brother's actions but instead of merely patting her shoulder, he gave her arm a gentle, reassuring squeeze, then he too made his exit.
"I've been thinking about heading back to Beacon Hills, just to check in." Sydney stated and paused, taking her bottom lip in between her teeth. "I have a lot there and I was hoping to get some ideas for the property I have there, if you'd like, I'd love to take Charlie to California for a week or two and show her around?"
Charlie looked from her dad to Sydney and then back to her dad, a pleading look in her eye. Steve cocked his head to the side and raised his eyebrow as he took in Sydney's offer.
"So long as it's only for a week or two, I think that might be a good idea." Steve replied but raised his hand as though he wasn't finished speaking. "However, I'd like to spend a little more time getting to know you."
Sydney nodded her head; that was certainly a reasonable condition. She wanted to get to know the two of them better too, she wanted to get back inside their heads, see if she couldn't lay her eyes on her mother again. She also wanted to show Charlie and Steve some things in her own head, but that would take some time to get used to.
"Come back for dinner next Friday, I can make whatever you want." Sydney offered.
"Oh yes please!" Charlie retorted, her eyes lighting up like a Christmas tree. "How are you at beef wellington?"
"Charlie." Steve shook his head with a chuckle.
"What, I've always wanted to try it." Charlie mumbled but Sydney's hand came to rest on her forearm.
"I'll certainly try to make beef wellington, but if it doesn't work out, how does stir fry sound?"
"Hey man, free food is good food." Charlie shrugged but the smile on her face said it all, the girl was excited for another home cooked meal.
"Okay." Sydney dropped her head down.
"But I'll see you before Friday." Steve pointed out and Sydney moved her eyes up, a confused stare on her face. "You have an ultrasound early next week and I'm supposed to see you in my office the same day."
Right, the ultrasound, how could she have forgotten about that? She held her breath and forced a smile at him, trying her hardest to keep herself composed. She was scared to death of the whole ordeal, finding out she was legitimately pregnant had her freaked out enough but now she was scheduled to go in and actually see, as well as hear, the baby growing inside of her.
"I'll be there." Sydney stated, trying to sound confident.
"Good. I'm sure everything will be fine." Steve commented, as though he could pick up on her reservations. Hell, she figured anyone could pick up on the fact that she was feeling pretty anxious about having a baby, it wasn't like she was very good at hiding it.
"Will I get to find out what it is?" She asked in a hushed tone.
"Doubtful, unless you're way farther along than I think." Steve answered and Charlie nodded along with him. "But we can always do another ultrasound later to find out."
"Right." Sydney sniffled and tried to keep herself calm, cool and collected. She could feel the tears welling up in her eyes but was determined not to let them fall. "What if it's not a werewolf though, how does-"
"Whatever your baby is, werewolf, human, dragon or something else, I can promise you that I won't let you go through this alone. You seem to have good friends in the twins, now you've got my daughter to back you up, and I'm not going to just disappear. Whatever happens, we'll figure it out." Steve explained to her, his tone gentle and soothing.
Sydney swallowed the lump forming in her throat and dared to look up at him, her vision blurring slightly from the unshed tears.
"I'm scared." She admitted, her voice shaky.
"We're all scared of something." Charlie threw in and gently took hold of her hand. "We can only beat our fears by facing them."
Steve beamed proudly at his daughter's words and watched as the young wolf continued to hold Sydney's hand in an attempt to comfort her. The young alpha sitting in front of him had been nothing but good to him and Charlie since they had walked into her house and when she had stated that her mother had been the person to bring Charlie back from the brink of death, that had easily solidified his stance on Sydney's leadership.
Charlie belonged in her pack, she'd be safe with Sydney, and so long as the girl had everyone backing her up, she'd be the best alpha she could.
"We should get going." Steve broke the silent with a low, soothing tone.
Sydney let go of Charlie's hand and swiped at the tears that erupted from her eyes. She looked down at her lap, her ears tuned in to their retreating footsteps as Charlie and Steve disappeared out of the living room.
She heard the twins intercepting their guests in the front hall and she continued to listen carefully as Ethan and Aidan said their goodbyes, with promises to see them again soon, which was when Charlie brought up the next Friday and her hopes of trying beef wellington.
It wasn't until Sydney finally felt a strong pair of arms wrap around her shoulders that she gave in and let the sobs sound out in the house, her heart breaking once again.
XxxxxxXxxxxxXxxxxxX
Hey guys! Just to let you know that if I get enough reviews, I'll post the next chapter earlier!
Steve playing a prank on Sydney, cruel or funny?
Thank you for the reviews, the follows and the favourites!
sarahmichellegellarfan1: I'm glad you liked the last chapter!
poorxbrokexcollegexkid: Charlie being bitten by Syd's mom just ties everything together :)
WickedlyMinx: It's coming! She'll get there soon and when she does, things will definitely get crazy!
Millenia-the-wings-of-valmar: You're right, how embarrassing on my end, Derek definitely made the kanima! Oh well, ha, yeah, both parents are wolves so that's the most logical choice. Yes! Sydney versus Theo showdown haha! Peter won't be forgotten and thank you so much for the lovely reviews!
94jbd1: Well thanks :) I hope you like this story too and thank you again for reading the other 2 stories, in 2 days (if I could give you a medal, I totally would)