Chapter Eight: Truth
Kate had heard them circling her for a little over a half hour now, she was surprised that they were even taking so long to finally make a move on her, but she knew deep down that something was wrong. They wouldn't be making a sound if they hadn't chosen to be loud and obnoxious in their stalking, they could have been completely silent if they wanted, which meant they wanted something.
"You can come out any minute now, I'm getting tired of waiting around for you." Kate called out, making her agitation clear in her voice.
One by one, people started stepping out from behind the trees not to far from Kate out there in the forest, but they weren't people. Every single one that stepped out of the shadows had glowing red eyes and low growls that were vibrating through the otherwise quite forest. There was one man that came out from behind a tree that walked towards Kate with a smile on his face, it took Kate a moment to realize who he was with the sunglasses on, but for the first time in a long time, Kate was a bit afraid when she realized she was now facing Deucalion.
"Well, if it isn't little Kate Argent. I recognize that necklace anywhere." Deucalion said as he stopped just a few feet away from Kate.
"You're blind, how can you see me?" Kate asked, her voice slightly shaky but she quickly got it under control.
"I have my ways, surely you've heard at least a few of the stories from your family." Deucalion said. "However, I didn't come here to catch up with you or you're little family."
"You didn't come here to kill me?" Kate asked, slowly putting her hand on her gun, trying not to provoke the others standing in the distance.
"If I wanted to kill you Kate, I wouldn't have waited to talk to you first." Deucalion laughed. "Besides, it would be the waste of an Argent. I still think to this day if you had your heads in the right place, you'd make wonderful wolves, fierce Alphas. In fact, I believe there is one of you right now in this very town that fits that description if I'm not mistaken." Deucalion said.
Kate tensed when he clearly mentioned Allison. She hadn't figured that the Alpha Pack would continue tracking Allison down, she was foolish to believe they would leave her be. They weren't going to kill her, even if Allison had killed Kali. If anything, her killing her former Alpha only encouraged them to go after Allison, she was everything Deucalion had wanted for quite some time now: vicious, powerful, and of Argent blood.
"I'll kill her before you find her." Kate grasped her gun now.
"I don't think that will be necessary Kate." Deucalion sighed. In a flash, one of his wolves ran past her, taking her gun along with them and holding it up in the air proudly with a smirk. "You won't hurt Allison, she means too much to you."
"Why would I waste time hunting her down if I wasn't going to kill her?" Kate asked.
"Because, she's like the precious daughter you never had but always wanted." Deucalion smirked. "She's got the same grit as you, the same survival instincts, the same killing instincts for that matter. I don't need to look inside your head to know that you were heartbroken when she was bit, you wanted to put her down to spare yourself the pain of seeing her turn I'm guessing. Now you hunt her down, claiming to want to end it, but really…if that gun was against her head, would you pull the trigger? Would you watch sweet little Allison die in your arms knowing you're the one who killed her? You've got nerves of steal like any other Argent, but like the rest, you all have your weaknesses. You and your brother just happen to have the same one: Allison."
"You're lying!" Kate snarled.
"Sounds like I've just backed a poor little animal into a corner. You can lash out all you want, but you know it's true. You also know every move Allison has made since she set foot in this place, she never eluded you, you know exactly where she is right now, don't you?" Deucalion asked, his hand now grasping her wrist tightly, seconds away from breaking it.
"I'm not going to tell you." Kate said through gritted teeth. "I'm not going to watch Allison become like you, it's bad enough she is what she is, I'd sooner die than see her be in your pack."
"That can always be arranged later." Deucalion said nonchalantly as he gripped tighter and Kate could feel something in her wrist starting to give way. "Though I think you'd be great for this pack as well, you've killed enough of our kind to meet the qualifications, you and Allison could be together, always. You'd make a strong Alpha." Deucalion smiled.
"Go ahead," Kate dared him. "Kill me, bite me, whichever you want. Either way I'll end up dead and you won't get Allison."
"You dead would just be one less problem." Deucalion said. "But, as I said, you would make a fine wolf. I could have someone around her bite you, you kill them and then you and Allison could be Alphas together. Everyone wins." He let go of her wrist and Kate could now feel pain shooting up her arm, but it wasn't the worst injury she ever had to deal with and dealt with the pain. "I suppose I'll just find Allison on my own then, shouldn't be too hard."
Before Kate could say another word, Deucalion and his pack was gone. She heard her gun drop to the forest floor with a thud and went to grab it off the ground. He didn't break her wrist, at the most he might have caused a small fracture, but she knew he could have done a lot worse if he had no need for her. Kate had met Deucalion once, very briefly with her father many years ago when she had first started hunting, they almost didn't make it out alive. Clearly his fascination with the Argents had endured the test of time and now that one had finally turned, he was going to get exactly what he wanted.
Allison was nervous as she stood outside Lydia's door, she hadn't spoken to her father since the night she turned, she had seen brief glimpses of him from time to time while she was with Kali, but she never had the chance to talk to him since. Allison was about to knock on the door when Lydia opened it up quickly, startling Allison, Scott, and Stiles.
"How long have you been standing there?" Lydia asked and fixated her glare on Stiles. "And you are suppose to be resting, how did you dad even let you out of the house?"
"He got called in and I'm fine, I can rest later." Stiles said.
Lydia opened her mouth to protest, but instead rolled her eyes and stepped aside. "Whatever, it's been a long day. Don't look at me when you drop dead from head trauma."
They all piled into Lydia's home and there in the dinning room, Allison stopped in her tracks at the sight of her father sitting there at the table. It had been so long and suddenly the night of when she last saw him was flashing right in front of her eyes. Her mother dying, her losing control and almost killing her father, her grandfather and Kate shooting at her, Kali crashing in and nearly killing the both of them.
"Allison," Her father's voice tore her out of her horrible memories and she had to stare at him just a few seconds more to realize that he was real and he was there, right in front of her just across the room.
"Dad," She said, her voice cracking a bit before she took off across the room, a little to quickly, and hugged her dad tightly, burying her face into his neck.
She felt her father's arms slowly close around her and suddenly; Allison felt the safest she had felt in a long time. Her father was there, he wasn't in some far off place and he wasn't running around with Kate, he was right here with her and holding her just like when she was a child, still scared of the monsters under her bed.
"Where's Kate?" Allison asked immediately as soon as she pulled away from her father's embrace.
"Out there somewhere, I lost track of her a while back. I left her out there." Chris sighed.
"You…left her? Why?" Allison asked, puzzled.
"She's going too far now. Kate doesn't know when to stop or when it's enough, she's never been able to tell the difference really." Chris said. "She's still out there, still tracking you down and who knows what else has crossed her path. Not to mention the Alphas out there now."
"Alphas?" Scott asked. "As in more than just Allison and Derek?"
"There's a whole pack of them." Chris said. "That's what the symbol means, the one your friend found. It means they're here and looking for someone. They're looking for Allison."
"Why would they want me? I killed Kali." Allison stated.
"It's because you killed Kali that they want you. Their leader, Deucalion, he's always wanted an Argent in his pack, even before he was an Alpha of Alphas. Now, here you are, not only an Argent and Alpha, but the strongest female Alpha he's seen since Kali." Chris said.
"Wait, so you mean to tell me that the pack of Alphas has an Alpha?" Stiles piped up finally.
Chris fixated his gaze now on Scott and Stiles both. "Who are you two exactly?"
"Uh, well, that's Scott and I'm Stiles." Stiles said, suddenly a bit intimidated by the sudden tone of authority Chris took on in his voice.
"Stiles?" Chris asked. "That's actually your name?"
"It's not his real name," Scott jumped to Stiles' defense. "It's just…what everyone calls him."
"Right," Chris said and looked back to Allison. "Either way, not only is Kate still hunting you down, but Deucalion is looking to add you to his little collection, not to mention whoever that other woman was out there in the woods, but she seemed harmless enough."
"Woman in the woods?" Allison asked.
"Some kind of witch could even be druid for all I know, I didn't really get a good look at her." Chris said.
"So we've got a huntress, a pack of Alphas, and possibly a witch or a druid…which one's worse?" Stiles asked.
"At the moment? My sister. The Alphas don't want to hurt Allison or anyone yet, they haven't even officially invited her to join, and the woman in the woods seemed more afraid of the Alphas than anything else, she'd probably hiding from them. People who are in hiding generally don't make a scene." Chris said. "Kate on the other hand, she's dangerous. She is currently the biggest threat out there; she's lethal and will kill anything with glowing eyes."
"She must be a real hit at black light parties then." Stiles said, causing everyone in the room to glare at him, except for Allison who was trying to hide a smirk. "You know because everyone's eyes kinda glow." He added nervously.
Chris simply glared at Stiles, Lydia rolled her eyes, a smile grew on Scott's face as he grasped what Stiles was saying, and Allison had to cover her smile with her hands to hide it from her father before she regained her composure.
"As long as you don't have a pack," Chris moved on. "Kate is the only thing we have to worry about."
"…About that," Allison started hesitantly.
"Please tell me you haven't bitten anyone." Chris sighed.
"No, I was already bit a while ago." Scott said. "I just…joined, I guess? I don't really know how it happened."
Chris closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Alright, well, Kate is still the main problem at the time. We'll worry about you and Scott later when the Alphas make themselves more known. We need to lure Kate out of hiding and handle her quickly. The sooner we get her out of town, the sooner we can handle the Alphas."
"The only thing that would draw her out is me." Allison said.
"I'm not sending you out there to be bait, Allison." Chris said.
"It's the only way she'll come out here and you know it." Allison protested. "All I have to do is be out in the woods tonight, that's where she'll be looking. I could track her down, lure her into a trap where you guys grab her."
"She's got a gun. I know you can run fast now, but not even a wolf can outrun a bullet." Chris said.
"Either we take that risk now, or we end up with two big problems on our hands coming at us at the same time." Allison said. "You know as well as I do that-"
"When multiple problems present themselves, the most predominant problem must be eliminated first." Chris finished her sentence. "I know."
"Then we can take care of Kate tonight." Allison said.
"Fine." Chris nodded in agreement. "But for now, I think you need to get some rest, your friend Lydia here told me you've had a long day. There's the family house on the edge of town, Kate hasn't been there and she won't be there anytime soon. I don't think she's even been sleeping since we came out here."
"As good as that sounds, do you think I could meet you there?" Allison asked hesitantly and as soon as her fathers glare landed on her, she felt a bit nervous. "I forgot my phone…at Stiles' house when they found me. I just wanted to grab it and then I'd meet you there. I know where the house is." Allison said.
"Just be at the house before dark, alright?" He asked. Allison nodded and gave her father a tight hug before walking over to Stiles.
Lydia could barely keep the knowing smile off of her face and for once, Scott seemed to catch on that Allison clearly liked Stiles. Allison hopped into Stiles' Jeep that he followed her and Scott here in, Scott had said something about warning Derek and the others about both Kate and the Alphas as he hopped on his motorcycle, and Lydia had agreed to take Chris over to the Argent house on the other side of town.
"Did you really your phone over at my house?" Stiles asked once he started up the Jeep.
"I don't think so, but then again I haven't been able to find it so, who knows." Allison shrugged.
"So…" Stiles started, breaking the silence that had formed in the Jeep. "You're dad seems…nice?" He meant for it to actually sound genuine but it came out more like a question.
"He's a bit rough around the edges. He doesn't trust a lot of people, its kinda part of being a hunter." Allison said.
"Oh." Stiles said. "You don't seem like that."
"I was only one for three years, they told me when I was fourteen." Allison said. "I was still learning when I was bit, apparently I didn't learn enough."
"You can't blame yourself for being bit by a werewolf." Stiles said. "It just happens sometimes, at least it seems that way."
"I don't blame myself for that part, it does happen a lot more than you think with hunters. I blame myself for not being stronger." Allison said.
"Being stronger for what? To run faster?" Stiles asked.
"To end all of this before I turned." Allison said quietly.
It took Stiles a moment to process what she was saying, and when he finally did, he slowly pulled the Jeep over on the side of the road and looked at Allison who kept her gaze on her hands in her lap.
"Wait, are you telling me that when one of you guys gets bit, you're supposed to kill yourselves?" Stiles asked, Allison slowly nodded and quickly wiped away her stray tears before Stiles could see them fall, but he knew when someone was trying to hide tears, he had done it enough times after his mom died to know. "That's not right. That's not strength at all. Being strong is facing whatever gets thrown at you, not checking out."
"Well, it's the hunters code, we all live by it. Almost everyone that's ever been bit has done it; sometimes they've had others do it for them. Whenever someone in my family was bit, there was no questioning it they just…reacted. I'm the only one that I know of that's ever done this, just run off and join a wolf pack, become an Alpha, cause all this pain to my family-"
"Hey," Stiles cut her off. "Whatever kind of code you guys live by is clearly messed up. Not all werewolves are monsters; you shouldn't have to kill yourselves over it. I'm glad you were stronger than that code, because if you weren't I would have never met you." Stiles grabbed one of her hands without a second thought and Allison looked up at him bleary eyed.
Allison squeezed his hand back before giving him a small smile in thanks. When Stiles could see that she was all right, he started driving again but kept holding on to one of Allison's hands with his one free hand.
"Thanks Stiles." Allison said after a few minutes.
Stiles smiled and after a few more minutes pulled into the driveway of his house. As soon as the car stopped, Allison leaned over and kissed Stiles quickly on the cheek before hopping out of the Jeep, leaving Stiles a bit stunned and frozen in place long after she was out of the car.
"Are you coming?" Allison asked after a few minutes of standing by his front door.
"Yeah." Stiles snapped out of his haze and hopped out of the car, a smile now plastered on Allison's face as he walked towards her. And for the first time in his life, Stiles couldn't believe that a beautiful girl like Allison actually liked him.
A/N: Hey guys! So I was going to wait until tomorrow to post this chapter, but something tells me that tonights episode of Teen Wolf is going to be really painful, so I figured everyone could use something slightly happy to read before then. As I promised, there are more Stallison moments in this chapter and there probably will be in the next chapter as well which I plan on posting anytime between next Monday to Wednesday. I love reading your reviews and I love seeing all those follows and favorites, they keep me writing! xoxo
