Disclaimer: Sadly I did not write Teen Wolf.
I hope you guys like this chapter!
"Really?" She turns to him suddenly. For the first time since all of this has happened someone has finally told her she's not crazy and nothing has ever felt better in the whole world.
"Yeah." That's it that's all he says, no description of how he knows she's right just 'yeah'.
"Ok, I know you're not used to talking much but can you explain yourself please."
He sighs and rolls his eyes before talking. "Isn't it obvious? If your sister was a werewolf then she would've healed from the cuts before it killed her. My guess is that she was killed somewhere else and that probably isn't even her blood." She focuses on every word that leaves his mouth and processes it slowly. "So if we're done here you can go now."
"I have a couple of questions for you actually." She grabs the binder out of his hands and slides out a paper from the back and as she does it almost falls to the floor. She fumbles around with a couple of papers that came out as well until she is finally organized and sits up straight. She feels awkwardly and vulnerable like she's completely naked. "What's the difference between an alpha and a regular werewolf?" She looks up from the paper with searching eyes. For a second the look on Derek's face makes her think he'll throw her out without helping her at all but then it changes… it softens.
"It's mostly power and control. An alpha can turn people and they're stronger then the average werewolf they also have power over those they turn."
"So you're an alpha?"
"No." He sighs.
"I thought you turned Scott though."
"It wasn't me."
"Then who was it?"
"Do you want to talk about Scott or your little problem?"
"You're right, sorry. Well my next question is how do you kill an alpha?" Derek looks at her like she's crazy.
"You can't. It's hard enough to kill them as a werewolf it's basically impossible to do it being just a normal human. The only humans with a chance are trained hunters." That's when the idea starts to creep into her mind and before she knows it its coming out of her mouth.
"So train me then." She shuts her mouth quickly and waits for a sarcastic retort that never comes.
"What's in it for me?"
"Social interaction, a healthy hobby, maybe a friend… maybe, I'm not quite sure yet so lets not get ahead of ourselves." She rambles this all out and still Derek sits there with an angry scowl on his face. "How about I talk you up to Scott and try and get him to accept you more? That and I'll owe you big… It never hurts to have people in debt to you."
"Be here tomorrow at four." And just like that he just gets up and walks away. She tries to follow him out the door but by time she makes it out he's gone.
"Nice to see you again too." She says to herself as she walks to her car.
She doesn't remember getting in the car, arriving home, or even taking a shower and getting ready for the dinner party that she cooked all night for. But voila here she is answering the doorbell and coming face to face with Stiles.
"Hey… Please come in." She shakes her head trying to release the fog from her mind
"Hey. Sorry my dad couldn't make it. He had to go on patrol."
"No problem that means more food for us." She shrugs and gestures for Stiles to come inside.
"Sounds good." He gives her a questionable look but covers it quickly when her parents enter the room. "Mr. and Mrs. Mason, it's so nice to meet you." He shakes their hands while wearing one of his big dorky smiles.
"Pleasure." Her mom replies back with a gentle smile.
"Nice to meet you too. Now how about we move this little greeting into the dining room I'm starving." Her dad rubs his hands together and skips away lightly as her mom tries to gently tap him for being impolite.
"I'll get the food served. Avery, please help me." They show Stiles where to sit and then head to the kitchen.
"Hey I forgot to mention it but Stiles mom passed so please don't bring up any awkward parent stuff… thanks. Oh, and if you could do that weird silent conversation thing with dad and tell him not to mention anything either that would be great."
"Of course honey. Grab the salads." Both the girls walk back into the dining room with two plates of salads and place them in front of the boys.
"So Stiles was telling me that he's on the lacrosse team at school." Her dad fills them in on the conversation they missed while shoveling the Caesar salad into his mouth.
"Yeah he's really good… Well I've never really seen him play but I assume he's really good." She smiles at Stiles who looks like a squirrel with his cheeks filled with bread.
"That's nice. Oh did you kids know about parent teacher conferences tomorrow?"
"Uh, yeah." Stiles says finally swallowing.
"Now is that the one where you guys come with or is that the open house one? I'm never sure."
"We only have to go if we have a C or below." Stiles offers up the information, that was lost to Avery, with ease.
"So, Avery will you be joining us tomorrow?" Avery's dad turns to her with comical seriousness.
"No dad, I won't be. My worst grade is a B."
"What about you Stiles? Will the Mrs.'s and I get the pleasure of seeing you again tomorrow?" Again Avery's mom taps her husband lightly on the arm for his impoliteness.
"Why, no sir you won't." Stiles responds back with a nervous laugh.
"Good." Her dad nods with a smile. "Enough salad, when can we have real food?" Her dad moans.
"I'm with dad, I need meat." Avery agrees with a nod.
"Ugh. Avery, I swear." Her mom rolls her eyes and starts to get up.
"It's ok mom. Stiles and I can get this round." She offers seeing how Stiles can't get that 'talk to me' look off his face. "What do you want?" She says turning to Stiles when they enter the kitchen.
"I want you to tell me what happened with Derek and why you're being so spacey."
"Well, you'll just have wait. Now grab the roast and lets get back out there." She gives him a hip bump and walks back out.
"Oh honey that roast looks beautiful." Her mom praises her on her hard work, making Avery blush slightly.
"I thought you cooked dinner Mrs. Mason." Stiles says confused.
"Nope dinner was all Avery. I did however make dessert. Chocolate fudge lava cake." Avery swears she can see Stiles practically drooling as she serves out the roast and cooked potatoes.
The rest of the dinner went as well as it could have. It was sufficiently awkward at times, her parents embarrassed her, and Stiles and her father stuffed their faces fully. So when dessert came Avery was pretty sure that no one could eat too much.
"Would you like thirds Stiles?" Avery's mom asks politely.
"Yes… Please. Yes please." He replies back pulling his fork from his mouth.
"Me too." Avery adds in pushing her plate towards her mother. Causing Avery to get a dissatisfied shake of the head form her mother, Avery just shrugs it off though. It's chocolate fudge lava cake; no head shake is going to get between her and chocolate.
"So Stiles, would you like to see pictures of Avery as a baby? Or have we embarrassed her enough for one night?" Her dad asks with a big smile on his face.
"Dad!" She's knows he's joking because they don't have any baby pictures of her but still she likes to play along.
"You know what, I would love to see those pictures." Stiles laughs along.
"Stiles," she slaps his arm lightly and rolls her eyes.
"Next time we'll break out the photo album, but for now I think it's time for us old folk to go to bed." Her mom laughs but Avery knows that she was stung by the lack of pictures.
"I have to agree with the Mrs.' on this one." Her dad adds pulling out her mothers chair for her.
"Oh, well it was really nice to meet you Mr. and Mrs. Mason." Stiles says standing and shaking her parents hands once more.
"Don't feel like you have to leave though, you can stay as long as you like." Her mom adds before heading upstairs.
"That wasn't too bad." Avery says turning to Stiles once her parents are gone.
"Yeah your parents are really cool."
"Thanks."
"So what's wrong with you?" He asks suddenly throwing her off.
"Nothing. The talk with Derek went well and I'm going back tomorrow."
"That's not what I meant. I do want full details on that later though. What I meant was what's wrong with you? You can cook, you can dance ok, you're pretty smart, you're funny. What's wrong with you?" He gives her a skeptical look like she might confess to having a basement full of drugs or a collection of body parts in a freezer downstairs.
"Lots of things…" She says back but he just gives her the 'go on' look. "I don't like tomato sauce on pizza, whenever I pour myself a drink I put an odd number of ice cubes, I don't like being around people for too long, I have ADD and zone out way too much for my own good, I hate when people burp and don't say excuse me, I only like aquafresh toothpaste, I make weird faces to express my emotions, I have panic attacks, and anxiety attacks, I've never really done anything to crazy or exciting, I talk to myself a lot, and I hate peas, the list is endless really." She takes a deep breath after talking so much.
"So nothing really." Stiles laughs lightly.
"Basically I'm perfect, yeah. What can I say, I'm a cyborg," She nods. They both eat some cake in silence for a bit until Stiles remembers something.
"What did happen with Derek anyways?" He tries to sound casual bit it ends up coming out more eager.
"As I said before he gave me some answers and told me to come back tomorrow." She shrugs trying to slip it all past Stiles.
"Tomorrow? Why are you going back tomorrow?" Of course it didn't work.
"He's going to train me, so I can hunt the Alpha."
"Avery! You can't trust this guy. Especially in a situation where he could seriously hurt you."
"Stiles, I appreciate you worrying about me but it's not necessary. I can take care of myself."
"I know I don't have to but that's not going to stop me from doing it."
"Stiles I'm serious. Don't worry about me. I'm not a kid."
"I know that Avery. I'm not trying to be your mom. But you are my friend and I don't want you getting hurt."
"Thanks." She says it simply because she doesn't know how to feel about someone just plain worrying about her.
"You're welcome… Shit. I have to go." He says looking at his watch and seeing the time.
"Ok I'll walk you out." She gets up and quickly kicks off her heels making Stiles give her a funny look. "You try going a whole dinner party with shoes eating your feet four inches off the ground… it hurts." She puts her hands up and walks past him to the door bare foot.
"I'll take your word for it… Thanks for dinner." He adds in at the end as they reach the car.
"Anytime." For some reason it gets a little awkward. She's not really sure how to say goodbye. So she just does it. She throws her arms around him and whispers in his ear. "Thanks for worrying." Then pulls away all before Stiles has time to react.
"You're welcome." He adds slowly and watches her walk back to her door.
The rest of the night is basically chemistry homework. She has so much she decides it would just be best to turn her phone off so she can focus. But when she turns it on the next morning she sees she has about twenty texts from Stiles all describing some murder that took place at the video store that Lydia and Jackson witnessed. If any part of her was still tired it sure isn't anymore. She's up in seconds and throws on a sweater jeans and converse. She spends less then a minute on her makeup and grabs an apple for breakfast, the lunch her mom packed for her the night before and the present she got Allison for her birthday. She speeds to school but of course Lydia and Jackson are both missing. So she decides to say happy birthday to Allison.
"Hey, birthday girl!" She says trying to fake her happiness as she walks up to Allison. Who seems to be struggling shoving some balloons in her locker.
"Avery, shhh. I don't want anyone knowing."
"Oh. Yeah that's what I thought. I guess it's a good thing I talked Lydia out of that birthday bash she was planning on having."
"Thanks. How'd you know anyways?"
"Lydia…So is this secret the kind that I should ask about or the kind I should leave alone?"
"Ask me tomorrow. Maybe I'll be a little more willing to tell then." She says back focusing on the balloons that refuse to go back inside her locker. Avery turns around and sees Scott coming before Allison does and decides the best birthday present she could giver her was some alone time with Scott.
"Fine. But before I go." She digs through her backpack a bit and pulls out a small box holding in it a skinny silver bracelet with Allison's name carved into it on the outside and a quote on the inside that reads 'You never know how strong you are until being strong is the only choice you have.' She slips the small box into her hand and gives her a quick hug before the bell rings.
She has no choice but to go to her homeroom, but when chemistry finally rolls around she's sprinting there hoping that Jackson might have shown up late or Stiles was just going to pop up and say 'Just kidding'. She takes her usual seat by Danny and waits for people to file in. When Stiles finally walks in he takes a seat at the table behind Avery's and just opens his book and starts to drown it in highlighter. He literally didn't even notice her at all. Waitta build a girl's confidence. The class starts off with the teacher going over some mean way of telling them about teacher conferences
"What's wrong with you?" Danny asks glancing at her as they continue to be lectured at.
"Nothing. Why do you ask? Do I look like something's wrong with me?"
"Wow, calm down. What's up?" He can see something's wrong with her so he closes his binder and gives her all of his attention.
"Nothing. I'm just worried about Lydia and Jackson," she shrugs. Its true she is worried about them but that's not the only thing that bugs her. She doesn't know what but something is off today.
"Avery don't worry about Lydia I seriously doubt anything on earth can hurt her. And don't worry about Jackson either."
"Why not?"
"Because he's right there." He says pointing at Jackson walk in late for class. Some pressure releases off Avery's chest but not much. Actually so little it kinda feels like nothings changed at all.
"Danny, can I ask you a question?" Stiles asks leaning over to Danny.
"No." Danny replies simply making Avery smile.
"Well I'm going to anyway. Um, did Lydia show up in your homeroom today?" Danny takes a minute to think about.
"No."
"Can I ask you another question?"
"Answers still no."
"Does anyone know what happened to her and Jackson last night?" Danny looks hurt by this question and she guessed it's because he didn't know the answer.
"He wouldn't tell me." He says finally.
"But he's your best friend." Danny just shakes his head slowly in response. " One more question."
"What?!"
"Do you find me attractive?" Danny looks at Avery finally and gives her the 'what the hell is wrong with this kid' look making her laugh and shrug. Stiles just slowly leans forward waiting for Danny's response and ends up falling off his chair making Avery laugh even harder. "Hey Avery." Stiles says finally noticing her but she only gives him a head nod and turns around. Once lunch comes she sits down completely alone since Allison decided to ditch with Scott, Lydia is MIA, and Danny is trying to talk to Jackson. Or she was alone until Jake shows up and slides into the seat next to her.
"Hey babe." He says leaning in and kissing her on the cheek.
"Hey." She says back looking down at her plate.
"Wow, you look like shit. What happened?" He glances at her then shoves a mouthful of food into his mouth.
"I didn't have a lot of time this morning." She says suddenly super self-conscious.
"Well, you need to find more time in the morning. I can't keep being seen with you if you look like this babe."
"Then maybe you should go sit with Jackson and Danny. I'm not in the mood for you any of your crap today babe." She says getting up. She's not even sure where she's going until she sees Stiles sitting alone at his lunch table and joins him. "Hey." She doesn't mean to sound frustrated or angry but she knows it comes out that way.
"Uh hi. Are you mad at me or did I do something? Because you didn't answer any of my texts and this morning you didn't look too happy to see me."
"Oh my god no. I'm sorry Stiles I just turned off my phone and I'm just so worried about Lydia. I didn't mean to go all ice queen on you."
"What was with the evil hi two seconds ago then?" He asks skeptically.
"I just got in another fight with Jake. But I'm not supposed to talk about Jake with you so what's up?"
"Um nothing much." He says hesitantly like he's scared he might say something that might make her blow up again. "Well, I was thinking we could go to Lydia's house after school and see if she's ok."
"That's the best thing I've heard all day." She's excited to see Lydia for all of two seconds until she remembers Derek. "I can't go though. I have to go to Derek's."
"Right."
"But you can still go. Yeah, I'll text Lydia to give her a heads up then you can go over and see if she's ok."
"I'm not sure Avery."
"Come on Stiles lets not pretend this isn't your dream to go to Lydia's house and be her night in shining armor."
"Well when you put it like that then, sure."
"Great."
When the bell finally rings she couldn't be more ready to get out of there. She runs to her car throws her stuff in the back and races home. She races upstairs changes from her jeans into some leggings, her converse into some sneakers and her sweater into a shirt that's three times too big then she's off to Derek's. She drives up at exactly four and walks up to door and knocks. Of course the door does that creepy slow open thing. She walks into the dark house and every part of her body screams at her to not be that dumb girl in the scary movies and to just turn around. She continues on though, for some random reason she keeps going. Two seconds later someone tackles her to the floor pinning her arms down. Of course it's none other then shirtless Derek. She has to admit that shirtless Derek pinning her down definitely makes her stomach do a somersault.
"If I was an alpha you would already be dead."
"Uh… fair point but that's why I'm here so I don't have to die an extremely painful death by alpha." He gets up and offers her his hand, which she gratefully accepts. "So what's first?" She asks wiping the dirt off of herself.
"Conditioning, you have to be strong to fight an alpha. Pull-ups there." He gestures to a door frame.
"Pull-ups?" She asks him raising her eyebrows. "Yeah, I don't think I can do those."
"Then try." He responds back obviously annoyed. Being the show off that he is though he jumps onto the door frame and starts to do pro skill pull-ups.
"… sure…" she responds slowly. She walks over to the door frame and tries to jump up to grab it. It takes her two tries to just grab onto the frame finally and when she tries to pull herself up her arms literally bend two inches. She keeps trying buts it's the same result.
"Stop this is painful to watch." He responds continuing to do pull-ups
"Your painful to watch." She says back as she keeps trying. "Sorry that was a bad come back… I'm just trying to focus." She finally decides to give up and jumps down. "Your right." He jumps down with her but then goes down into push-ups and starts to bust some of those out.
"Just try and keep up." He huffs out as he switches from two hands to one. She jumps down to the floor and starts to do push-ups on her already exhausted arms. Luckily she can actually do these though. A couple of seconds in though Derek stops suddenly.
"What is it? I thought I was doing pretty well. I mean I'm not one handed yet bu-" She starts to say but Derek rudely cuts her off.
"Shut up." She opens her mouth about to talk but Derek pulls her to her feet painfully by the arm. She's about to tell him to stop but he covers her mouth with his hand. She widens her eyes and gives him the dirtiest look she could muster up. He shoves her down the hall around a corner and into the closet. She just decides to lick his hand making him pull it away from her mouth. "What the hell was that?" He growls back.
"What the hell was that?!" She says yanking her arm away from his iron tight grip and gesturing wildly.
"Someone's here." As if it was coordinated to what Derek was saying there's a crash that Avery assumes is the door being busted open. Then people start to talk.
"No one home." A man says.
"Oh he's here." This one's a girl or at least Avery thinks she is. It's kinda hard to tell since she has a raspy voice. "He's just not feeling particularly hospitable."
"Maybe he's out burying a bone in the back yard." A different man is talking this time. He sounds younger then the first man but just as wanna be cool.
"Really? A dog joke?" The girl starts to talk. Avery assumes it's only the three of them since no one else has started to talk and she can't hear any more footsteps. " We're going there and that's the best you've got? If you want to provoke him say something like, too bad your sister bite it before she could have her first litter. To bad she howled like a bitch when we cut her in half!" As the girl start to bring up Derek's sister he starts to shake with rage. Avery doesn't know what to do, there's nothing she can do.
"Just keep quiet and stay here no matter what happens until I come back. Ok?" He turns to her quickly and waits for her to nod back before bursting out of the closet. She slowly closes the door behind him and sits on the floor bringing her knees to her chest. She can hear the younger one scream and Derek roar. There's some more crashing and roars for a moment and then she can hear Derek fall to the floor and moan.
"Wow this one grew up in all the right places." Avery can hear the girl begin to talk. "I don't know whether to kill it or lick it." EW! Avery can hear the sounds of electricity and assumes Derek's the one being shocked. She wants to help. She wants to jump up and run out there to help the guy she's barely knows but she promised. So she just shuts her eyes as tight as she can and digs her nails into her palm.
"This is 900,000 volts. You never were good with electricity were you or fire? Which is why I'm going to let you in on a little secret. And well, maybe we can help each other out. Yes your sister was severed into peaces and used as bait to try to catch you, unpleasant, and frankly a little too Texas Chainsaw Massacre for my taste, but quiet true. Now here's the part that might really kick you in the balls, we didn't kill her. You think I'm lying?"
"Wouldn't be the first time." Derek responds shakily.
"Sweetie." Avery starts to shake with rage herself. She's not sure she's ever hated anyone she hasn't seen so much in her life. "Well why don't you just listen to my heart and tell me if I am. Okay? We didn't…" Avery can't hear the rest but she gets the main picture. "Do you hear that? There's no blip or up ticks, just the steady beat of the cold hard truth. Found bite marks on your sister body Derek. What do you think did that a mountain lion? Why aren't we helping each other out? You might as well admit to what you've been guessing which is the alpha killed your sister. And all you have to do is tell us who he is and we'll take care of it for you. Problem solved, everybody goes home happy, unless you don't know who he is either. Well guess who just became totally useless?"
That's all Avery heard and then bam! Gunshots and the sound of running feet that she assumes is Derek. She lies to the floor rolled up in a ball and covers her neck and ears with her arms. It takes every ounce of strength for her not to scream or run out of the house. She can't help it though some tears finally leave her eyes. She doesn't know why though. It's not like she's sad or anything. She just cracks. She finally breaks from everything that's happened. It's only a couple of tears probably three total, and she wipes them away quickly after the shots end. No one ever has to know those tears slid down her face and no one ever will if she has anything to say about it. No one ever has to know she was weak or human for just a moment.
She feels like she's in that closet for an hour when really it was probably just thirty minutes for the hunters to clear out and Derek to come back. She's still on the floor with her hands over her ears and neck when he opens the door.
"Are you ok?" He asks actually sounding a bit worried for her. For a second all she feels is relief for him being alive, so much that she jumps up and throws her arms around him pulling him into a tight unexpected hug. It takes Derek a second but he very slowly hugs back. And then her anger hits.
"You ass!" She says pulling away form him. "You left me in a closet for an hour to get shot at!" She shoves him away and runs out to her car with him following her close behind.
"There was nothing I could do." He sounds tough again like nothing happened.
"You could have stayed with me!" She yells back rounding on him. "You could have kept your mouth shut."
"Avery, if I did that they would have found us. Then you would have been a liability and they would have killed you." She knows he's right so all of her anger melts away and she's just left with sadness.
"I'm… I'm sorry I yelled at you… and about your sister."
"Yeah." He says back coldly not really looking at her. She just rolls her eyes and decides it's a lost cause.
"I'll see you around." She says back before jumping in her car.
"Come back tomorrow at four. We can keep training then."
"Are you kidding me? There's no way in hell I'm coming back here and getting shot at some more."
"You felt helpless and weak when you were in that closet. You would never have to feel that way again if you continue training with me."
"What's in it for you?"
"I don't know yet, but I'm sure I can think of something." For some reason this makes her laugh.
"You're starting to not hate me." She declares with a smile.
"No, I still hate you."
"But it's decreasing, isn't it?"
"You know what, maybe you shouldn't come back."
"I'll be here tomorrow." She says finally reaching for the door handle of the car. When she touches it though she feels like her palms are on fire. "Ow," She quickly pulls her hand back and looks down at them. Derek grabs both of her hands and looks down at them. It seems like she dug her nails into her palm so much that it broke skin and started to bleed. She didn't feel the pain until now or even notice the small streams of blood coming from each nail mark.
"How'd this happen?" He asks looking down at her.
"Bad habit I get when I'm nervous or worried or scared." He brushes his fingers over her palms and flinches. He then grabs onto both of her hands with his. She's confused for a second but then her pain starts to flow up into him. It looks like black blood flowing up his veins. "That's a cool trick… thanks."
"… Sorry you got shot at." He says simply before turning around and heading inside.
She can't help thinking about Derek the whole drive home. She thinks about what she heard in that closet, and for once she sees him as a human, not just some tough rude werewolf, but as someone who was made to be cold from all of the hardships and pain he's been put through. She admires his strength she has to admit. Only when she pulls into her driveway does she actually hear her phone and answer.
"Hello?" Avery asks picking it up too quick to read the caller ID.
"Finally you answer!"
"Stiles?"
"Of course it's Stiles! Who did you think it was the magical phone fairy?! Where the hell have you been I've been calling you for hours?"
"I got a little caught up at Derek's. What's wrong?"
"What caught you up at der- you know what that doesn't even matter. You heard about the mountain lion attack right?"
"Mountain lion attack?! At the school on teachers night where my parents were at?"
"I'm going to take that as a no… Just go check if your parents are ok and call me later." She loves that no matter how important something is Stiles will put on the back burner for her.
"Thanks I'll call you back." She replies hastily and hangs up.
She runs inside and yells for her parents who answer her from the kitchen. She can't get there fast enough to assess the damage.
"Are you two alright? I heard about the mountain lion attack and thought something was wrong." She runs up to her dad and gives him a hug then her mom.
"We're fine." Her mom responds back softly. She knows instantly that something is off when they don't hug her back so she pulls away and looks at their faces. That's when she's sure something's wrong.
"What is it then?" Avery asks confused.
"It's your father Avery, he died last night of a heart attack."
I hope you guys liked it! Please tell me what you think about where the story's heading. I would love to hear your guy's ideas or inputs. Sorry, about the grammar mistakes. I'll try to get another chapter up soon.
