Chapter 9 - Hear Me Roar


"So to begin with all I hear out of you is how terrible I am, not to mention I seem to recall you literally telling me I was sleeping with the enemy. And now you're calling and begging me to have Aiden meet us?" Lydia said, gesturing dramatically with one hand as she drove towards the building with Derek's loft.

Rolling her eyes Avery said, "Because you are terrible, and you are still currently sleeping with the enemy. And I'm Avery Dukate, I don't beg."

"Are you even sure this is going to work? He's not an alpha anymore…"

"Right now he and his brother are the best shot we've got. There's a teenage girl, Lydia… a girl our age trapped in the body of a coyote, if Scott can for her to turn back human, then she can finally go home." Avery reminded her.

Lydia glanced down to see Avery messing with the dials for the radio changing stations so fast it was impossible to even tell what song was playing with a sigh she smacked her best friend's hands away and asked, "And… where is your car?"

"Home, my dad called our mechanic to come take a look at it this morning, something with the battery… anyways it's supposed to be fixed now."

Recalling the earlier events of the day Lydia remembered out loud, "You were late to school today… who drove you?"

Avery looked down to her lap as a small smile spread over her lips at remembering the breakfast she'd shared with Deputy Parrish.

"What is that… is that a smile?" Lydia playfully teased, but Avery quickly hid the smile and said, "You don't know him."

"Him?"

"Yes, him."

"When did you meet him?" Lydia continued her questioning.

"Last night." Avery admitted with a laugh as she remembered embarrassing the young officer to the point that his face was turning red.

Lydia's formerly lighthearted expression fell as she looked over to her blonde friend and said, "Don't tell you're back to your old ways… not after everything, A."

Avery's jaw tensed in anger, not only at the fact that her friend was actually very wrong about the events of the prior night, but that for well over a month she had been back to her old ways; but she couldn't stand the thought of anyone knowing.

"We both know that I'm the last person on this earth who's going to get preachy on you, but as your best friend… I have to tell you that no one liked 'that Avery'. You didn't even like her. All the nights Jackson had to take off and try to find you, I literally spent every weekend scared that you were going to disappear for good… or that something worse was going to happen to you." Lydia reminded her with a concerned looked.

"And you have nothing to worry about, seriously. I'm fine." Avery said, but her friend knew it was a lie. She'd been noticing small things were different in the way she'd been acting, the way she was paying other students to do her homework. Things that she hadn't done in well over a year.

"We've had our differences, and our fights… but Avery, you don't have to lie to me. Don't forget those years Teagan was gone, I'm the one who saw you through your worst."

Feeling immediately defensive and attacked, Avery turned her head and unintentionally snapped, "I know, Lydia."

"I mean it was even my mom who took you to get you on birth control after that pregnancy scare." She reminded her.

"For god sakes, I remember… waiting for those test results was one of the worst nights of my life, I was only 14. Why are you even bringing all of this up?" She questioned, her eyebrows pushed together in confusion. A sick feeling rose in her stomach as she rubbed her hands together nervously.

"Because... I know everything you've been through and the way you're coming into school every day acting like you're fine, it scares me." She admitted, knowing her friend wasn't going to be happy.

"I am fine."

"With everything you mom and Deucalion put you though, how could you be fine? And then Derek leaving town on top of all that... Now our friends are losing their minds, and somehow you don't appear to be shaken by any of it, I'm just saying that's not humanly possible." She continued to argue as she pulled to a stop in front of the large, imposing building.

"Derek and I came to an agreement, this… thing we had between us, it wasn't healthy for either of us. And as for our friends, that's exactly why I can't break down… my mom is the reason all of them are in this mess. She tried to kill you, Lydia. If I can do this, if I can fix them… then maybe it's a start to making up for what she did." Avery admitted, true emotion flashing through her eyes before she blinked it away and covered with a steely, confident look and got out of the car before Lydia had a chance to respond.

~()~

It was early evening when everyone met up at the woods, they had a plan. To find Malia, and get her to shift out of her werecoyote form. Even though she didn't agree with the way Ethan and Aiden had beat Scott until he was forced to shift and roar she couldn't deny their methods; though barbaric worked.

As everyone exited their cars, and Scott got off his bike Lydia looked around as she asked, "Anyone else think we might be doing more harm than good?"

Scott shook his head as he argued, "We're trying to keep a father from killing his own daughter."

"Actually." Isaac spoke up, "We're trying to keep a guy from killing a coyote."

"A coyote who also happens to be his own daughter." Teagan pointed out as she looked down to the gun in her hand, knowing she couldn't afford to miss her shots, she only had two of the loaded tranquilizer darts, while Allison had the 3rd and final one.

"I'm going to find the den, looking around and see what I can pick up on. Maybe try following trails after that." Allison said as she pulled her tranquilizer gun from the trunk of her car.

Holding up her phone with her other hand she said, "We all keep in touch, phones on."

Every nodded and checked their own phones as Allison waved to the group and headed off into the woods.

"Isaac's going to try to pick up on a scent, and I'll be with him so I can tranq her if we find her. I've got 2 chances at it." She said her hands trembling a little as she recalled the terrifyingly real hallucination she'd had earlier.

But her attention was diverted when she heard a few laughs run through her group of friends.

"What?" Isaac asked, stepping closer to Teagan.

"I don't think any of us doubted you two weren't going to stick together." Lydia pointed out as she crossed her arms over her chest, causing Avery to smile as Isaac curled an arm around his girlfriend's waist.

"Alright, I guess it's me and you." Avery said as she took a step closer to Lydia, the red head nodded in agreement.

"Actually… Lydia's coming with me." Stiles said as he and Scott exchanged looks.

Seeing the best friend's expressions, she knew this had something to do with her earlier episode in the bathroom at the school.

"Okay… I'll just go catch up with Allison then…"

But her words were cut off when Scott pushed his extra helmet into her hands as he said, "You'll be with me."

"Why?" she asked with a jolt of attitude as she folder her arms over her chest and demanded an answer. The last thing she wanted was for anyone at all to bring up what had happened earlier.

"You know…" Stiles laughed nervously, knowing she was getting mad, "We just thought it would be fun to mix things up, you guys could make a good team."

When she shot him a look he rubbed his hand over his hair and his voice raised in pitch as he said, "Or, you know… not."

Teagan looked around not sure what was happening or why they were trying to get Avery to go with Scott, she was about to speak up and suggest Avery come with her and Isaac but Scott spoke before she did.

"It's the whole alpha and emissary thing."

Snapping her gaze back to him she spoke, making air quotes with her helmet free hand, "Scott, I swear to god if you bring up 'our connection' one more time…"

"Just put the helmet on, you're coming with me." Scott asserted, as he pulled his own helmet on and nodded for her to follow suit.

For a moment she forgot about the awful vision she'd had, as Teagan laughed at the expression on Avery's face and how Scott wasn't taking her crap anymore. He was getting better at handling her, which was good considering Avery was now a hundred percent part of his pack.

"Ready to go?" Isaac asking looking over to Teagan.

"Yeah, I just hope we can find her."

Raising her gun she looked through the scope and felt to make sure she had the tranquilizer canister on it properly, but as she started to lower the gun she realized she had the back of her blond best friend's head in the direct center of her focus.

A soft wind blew through the trees and she could hear her mother's voice in her head, "Tuer ou être tué."

Her hand trembled as her finger ever so lightly grazed against the trigger, almost as if she wasn't in control of her own body anymore, like it wasn't really her hand but someone else's.

Just then a loud gunshot rang out through the woods, she gasped and pinned her eyes shut immediately horrified and terrified to look and see what had happened.

"Avery!" Scott yelled.

And Teagan made a noise like all the air had been physically knocked out of her, as she lowered the gun and opened her eyes expecting to see her best friend wounded or possibly even worse.

But she looked just in time to see Scott speeding off with Avery on the back of his bike, appearing to be uninjured.

"What was that?" Lydia squeaked out, looking around them.

"Hopefully not Mr. Tate shooting the coyote…" Stiles breathed out as he nodded for Lydia to follow him into the woods. He'd tried to get Scott to wait on everyone else, so they could work out a new plan, but his friend didn't listen as he'd taken with Avery.

~()~

Teagan stood frozen for a moment, the strong urge to shoot her best friend weighing heavily on her mind. Hearing her breathing pick up, Isaac glanced over at her wondering if she saw something again or if it was just the gunshot that frightened her.

He opened his mouth to ask if she was okay, but before he could say a word they heard another gunshot, forcing him to run into woods, knowing they were running out of time to save Malia.

Teagan, hearing the second shot, jumped, then began to run after Isaac as he went further through the woods. She was a fast runner, but running after a werewolf was not an easy thing to do.

The two ran deeper into the woods, Isaac was still a little ahead of her, causing her to pant out his name as she asked him to wait for her. He glanced back for a moment, seeing how far behind she was. He didn't mean to take off and leave her but after hearing the gun shots, he just sprung into action.

While his head was turned trying to locate his girlfriend, he didn't see the bear trap laying out on the ground in front of him. He quickly went down, yelling out in pain, when the trap snapped on his foot, trapping him.

Teagan skid to a stop, her mouth dropped open in surprise when she saw Isaac on the ground in pain. Normally she would have dropped everything and fell down beside him, trying her hardest to get him out of the trap but she found herself unable to move.

She felt a slight breeze again almost like someone's breath on the back of her neck, before quietly hearing,"Tuer ou être tué."

"No." Teagan breathed out. Like earlier, she felt like someone else was trying to take over, like she had no control over her own body. She felt herself begin to raise the gun pointing it at Isaac, who had his head down trying to pull the trap off of his foot.

"Do it, do it." She heard echoing in her head, and felt her trigger finger twitching. She took several deep breaths, as she felt the gun continue to raise up to her face. She looked through the scoop, setting her sights on Isaac's back.

She quickly closed her eyes, forcing herself to lower the gun right as Isaac turned his head, looking at her from over his shoulder. He called out her name seeing her jump in surprise, before opening her eyes to look at him.

He opened his mouth to say something else, but before he could he heard a noise coming from his other side, causing him to snap his head to the side, seeing Mr. Tate; who was holding a gun on the coyote they were trying to save.

"Teagan." He hissed out, getting her attention, then nodded his head aside, where Tate was standing.

"I don't- I don't know if I can." Teagan whimpered out, afraid if she looked through the gun again she would have the urge to shoot him like before.

"You can do it." Isaac said. When he saw her shook her head and look away, he continued, "Hey, babe, look at me." When she turned her head back, he added, "You can do it. I believe in you, Teagan… I know you can do this."

"I can do this." Teagan mumbled, repeating his words, as she lifted the gun. She looked through the scoop, setting it on Tate. She took a deep breath, remembering everything Allison taught her when she trained her on guns then lightly pulled back the trigger.

"Damn it." She whispered, when she missed him and hit a tree instead.

"Teagan..." Isaac began to say, when he saw her lower the gun wanting to give up. When she looked over at him, he continued again, "You can do this, I would bet my life on it, okay? Do it, just do it."

She closed her eyes, feeling a breeze again, causing her to shiver, as she heard the whispery words of her mother again, "Do it, sweet girl. He's trapped and vulnerable. Do it, take out Isaac. Tuer ou être tué, Teagan."

Teagan shook her head, squeezing her eyes and tried her hardest to ignore the voice in her head. Instead she listened to Isaac, telling her she could do it that he trusted her. She took a shaky breath, then whispered out, "Nous protégeons ceux qui ne peuvent pas se protéger leurs-même."

Blowing out a calming breath she opened her eyes and raised the gun, setting her sights on Tate. She whispered the code to herself one more time, then squeezed the trigger, using her last tranquilizer dart.

She breathed out a sigh of relief when she saw it hit Tate in the back before he fell to the ground. She quickly turned her head to look at Isaac with a smile on her face, she did it. She actually did it.

To her it was a bigger victory, she was able to shut out her mother's voice. No matter what she said, she would never hurt her loved ones –she would never became a killer.

After seeing Malia run off, and knowing she was now safe from being killed by her father, Teagan carefully placed the gun on the ground and made her way over to Isaac. She fell down to her knees beside him, placing her hands on the trap and tried to pull it apart, just like he was trying to do.

Isaac pushed against the trap as hard as he could then groaned out in frustration and pain, once he realized it wasn't budging. "It's not coming off." He snarled, as he tried to pull it off of his foot, with no luck.

Teagan, hearing his breathing pick up as he tried to breathe through the pain, laid her hands on either side of his face, turning him to face him, as she said, "It's okay, baby, I know you're in pain but don't give up. We'll get it off, I promise. We can do this."

Isaac nodded his head at her words, then lowered his head feeling tears fill his eyes. He could feel his skin healing around the trap, but anytime either one of them moved it around it would cut the wounds open all over again. It was some of the worst pain he had ever felt before.

"We can do this." Teagan mumbled again, as she placed her hands back on the bear trap. She gripped it tight, planning to pull on it again until she felt a slight breeze on the back of her neck like before, then without even meaning to –she began push the trap closed, causing Isaac to yell out in agony as it went deeper into his skin, but she never heard a sound it was like she was in a daze.

"Ow! Damn it! Teagan, stop!" Isaac called out, but when she continued to push the trap closed, he roughly pushed her hands aside as he yelled out her name again.

Teagan snapped her head up in surprise, seeing the pained look on his face she tried to back away from him. As she tried to jump up to her feet, she tripped causing her to fall backwards on her butt.

"Oh, my God." She breathed out, as she raised her hands to cover her mouth, then froze when she saw there was blood on them, Isaac's blood. She shakingly tried to wipe the blood on to her pants as she wondered what the hell just happened. "I'm-I'm... Isaac, I'm so sorry. I-I thought... I was trying to pull it away. I prom-promise I was trying to pull." She cried.

Isaac took several deep breaths, the pain was worse now than it was earlier. He punched at the ground, trying to get his anger out, before he looked over at her and breathed, "It's-It's okay. I know you didn't mean-mean it."

Teagan sat up on her knees, then made her way over to him. She lifted the bottom of her shirt, wiping off the sweat and tears from the side of his face. She knew it wasn't much, but felt like she needed to do something.

Suddenly they heard a loud roar throughout the woods, it was so loud it felt like the ground and trees around them were shaking. Teagan saw Isaac's eyes glow yellow, then with a roar of his own he pulled on the trap, forcing it apart and breaking it in half.

Isaac fell back, laying on the ground, and threw his arm over his eyes, as he breathed out a sigh of relief. His foot was still hurting, but he could already feel it healing lessening the pain. He knew in a few more minutes, it would be completely healed and pain-free.

"Isaac?" Teagan quietly said, as she crawled over to him seeing him lay still. She hoped he was okay, but was expecting the worst the longer he laid there.

As he removed his arm and rolled his head to the side to look at her, he saw her playing with her fingers his blood still stained on them. It was almost like she was too scared and nervous to touch him, fearing she would hurt him again.

"Are you okay?" She questioned with a worried look on her face.

Isaac didn't say anything, as he reached up to grab her arm, pulling her toward him. She laid out beside him on the ground, resting her head on his chest and felt him wrap his arm around her.

Taking in a deep breath and then blowing it out as he kissed the top of her head, he whispered, "I'm okay. We're both okay."

Teagan closed her eyes at his words wishing they were true, but at the moment things didn't feel okay. She thought things were getting better –but now it felt like things were worse than ever.

~()~

With a groan of pain Avery sat up and pulled her helmet off as she looked down to her bleeding leg.

"Are you okay?" Scott asked rushing to her side.

With a slightly dazed look she breathed, "What…"

As her eyes moved from his concerned face to where his bike was on it's side on the ground, then back to her hurt leg as her mind slowly pieced the last few minutes back together.

"Oh my god… you're bleeding!" Scott yelled, then quickly apologized for losing control of his bike several moments before.

"What the hell happened?" She asked, finally coming out of the shock induced confusion. One minute they were racing through the woods and the next he'd lost control of the bike and both of them had violently flipped off of it.

He started to shake his head back and forth like he couldn't remember; then it hit him, "Isaac… he's hurt."

Avery's eyes widened as she urged, "Go, find him! He's got Teagan with him, they might be in trouble."

Scott looked over his shoulder towards the direction the pained howl had come from, and then back to Avery as she stared down to her wounded leg.

"I'll call Stiles, I'm not leaving you alone." He said, as he reached down placing his hand on her arm and lessening her pain as he absorbed it into himself.

Watching the veins darken and raise to the surface of his flesh, she breathed a sigh of relief when the painful flesh wound stopped throbbing.

"Thanks." She breathed, appreciating the small break from the pain.

He opened his mouth to apologize again but she cut him off, "It was an accident I'm fine. Just go find Isaac and Teagan."

He gave her an unconvinced look and she took her phone out, "I'll call for Stiles to come and get me… just please go save our friends."

"Stay here, I don't know how bad you're hurt. As soon as I find out what's happening, I'll come back for you." He promised as he stood up and took off running so fast he blurred into tree filled scenery.

"I have been trying to call both you and Scott, what the hell were you doing?" Stiles answered the phone still shaken up from what had happened with Lydia getting her foot caught in one of the traps.

"What is wrong with you?" Avery snapped, looking down to her leg and thinking she was the injured one, he had no right to be mad at her.

"I figured it out, the doll. It wasn't Malia's like we thought, it belonged to her sister. All she wants to do is put it back at the scene of the accident, like flowers on a grave." He explained barely taking a breath as he continued, "And Tate has put traps out, I'm talking bear traps all over the woods… I just got Lydia out of one."

"Is she…"

Already knowing her question before she could finish asking it he eased her nerves, "She's fine."

Avery breathed a sigh of relief and realized Scott had taken off on foot through the woods, he could get caught in one of the traps she quickly ended the call and stood up. Wincing in pain but she knew it was only a flesh wound, no broken bones or sprains.

Taking a deep breath she pushed the pain out of her mind as she took off running in the direction Scott had left in, amazingly enough the faster she ran the less her leg hurt, the endorphins kicked in and for a few brief seconds she felt on top of the world.

As she neared the wrecked car, she was brought to a stop by the earth shaking sound of Scott's roar which forced the werecoyote in front of him to shift back into a human.

With her injured leg throbbing worse than before she limped over to him as he stood up shocked and proud of himself as Malia raised her head and looked around, before staring down to her human fingers in shock.

"You did it…" Avery breathed out, smiling as she looked over to Scott whose face was slowly shifting back to human, taking her phone out she called the sheriff to let him know they'd found Malia.

~()~

Several minutes later, Teagan was sitting in the passenger seat of her car as Isaac drove them down the road. After meeting up with the others, making sure everyone was okay, Isaac couldn't keep his eyes off of Teagan.

Between her freak out earlier at Allison's and her behavior in the woods he was worried. They thought things were better for her, that she was back to normal but from the looks of it, the hallucinations were back and worse than before.

When it was time to leave the woods, he held out his hand wanting her keys and was relieved when she handed them over without a word. The last thing she needed to do now was drive.

Isaac turned on to the street she lived on, then glanced over at her from the corner of his eyes, seeing that she was messing with her hands again trying to wipe the dried blood off. He reached out, laying his hand on top of hers, planning to give her hands a squeeze but was surprised when she pulled her hands away.

He softly sighed, running his hand through his hair, as he pulled the car into her driveway. He turned the car off, then turned to face her to speak, but before he could say a word she opened the car door and stepped out.

Isaac jumped out of the car following along behind her, and walked into the house seconds after she did. He glanced around the empty space, wondering where she went, and noticed her father wasn't there; which in his opinion was a good thing. Paul was already against her being involved, and having her walk in with blood on her hands and clothes was not a way to win him over.

Hearing a noise coming from the kitchen, he made his way toward the room and stood in the door way to watch her. She was at the sink, her back toward him, as she tried to wash the blood from her hands. She took a deep, shaky breath, the hallucination and feeling she had in the woods still heavily on her mind.

As she scrubbed her hands, her mind began to wander as she tried to make sense of something that made no sense at all. Why was her mother still haunting her? What exactly did she want, was it to kill her friends, cause if so that was never happening. So did this mean her mother would be haunting her forever? She didn't think she could handle one more day like this, much less her whole life.

"Teagan?" Isaac softly said, as he continued to watch her. He could hear her breathing pick up and knew whatever she was thinking was upsetting her.

He saw her shut the water off, then looked down at her hands some of the blood had come off, but the rest was still therr causing her to let out a small whimper before she turned back and began to wash her hands again.

Isaac took a step into the room, as Aspen ran into the room to join them. The white dog walked over to Teagan, sitting down by her feet and looked up at her, waiting for her to pet him like she normal would, but she was too busy scrubbing her hands to notice him.

Isaac lowered his eyebrows in concern, knowing things had to be worse than he thought if she was ignoring her dog. He walked over to her and Aspen, giving the white dog a small pet, as he grabbed his collar, telling him to follow him, as he opened the back door, letting the dog out into the back yard to play.

He walked back over to Teagan, reaching out to turn the water off, then grabbed her hands, like he did earlier in the car, but this time when he felt her trying to pull them away, he held on to them, refusing her to pull away.

"Teagan..."

"It won't-It won't come off. The blood - your blood, it won't come off." Teagan breathed out, as she kept her head down, looking at their joined hands. "It won't come off." She mumbled a couple of times.

"Hey.." Isaac began to say, as he lightly grabbed her chin, forcing her to look up at him. "It's okay. It's going to be okay." He softly said, trying to calm her down.

"It's not." Teagan argued, as tears filled her eyes. "I hurt you. I actually hurt you, Isaac, and now your blood is on my hands. That is not okay."

Isaac shook his head, disagreeing with her, as he said, "It was an accident."

Teagan looked at him for a moment before lowering her head, as she wondered if it really was an accident. Isaac laid a hand on the side of her neck, as he curled his other arm around her waist, pulling her toward him.

He held her close, kissing the top if her head, then resting his head on top of hers, as he continued to hold her a few minutes later. With his arms still around her, he quietly asked, "What did you see?"

"What?" Teagan asked, as she pulled back to look at him.

"Earlier today, at Allison's, when you were in the basement..." He began to say, then continued, "What did you see?"

"Does it matter?" She asked with a shrug. In her opinion it didn't really matter what she saw, it was always something terrible, the real problem was it was happening again when they thought it was over.

"It does to me." Isaac said back. He lightly caressed her cheek, as he added, "Talk to me, babe."

Teagan shook her head, as she stepped back from him. She took a few steps away, running a hand through her head, then turned around to face him, as she said, "I can't. What I saw… was horrible, it was-it was a nightmare. One of my worst nightmares come to life, literally, cause it felt so freaking real. For a moment, I wasn't even sure if I was coming out of it." She wipe away a tear from her cheek, as she quietly added ,"What if I never do? What if I do get stuck in one of these terrible hallucinations, what if I don't come back?"

"Then I'll find you." Isaac said, as he walked over to her. He laid his hands on either side of her face, forcing her to look at him, as he added ,"I'll always find you, Teagan. No matter what."

Teagan nodded her head at his words, as more tears fell down her face. When she felt him pull her toward him again, she buried her face in his shirt and wrapped her arms around his middle, hoping his scent would calm her like it had in the past. She closed her eyes, squeezing them tight, as she faintly heard, 'tuer ou être tué', over and over in her head.

~()~

After sending Malia off with the sheriff and telling their friends bye, Scott and Avery walked back through the now darkened woods in search of where he'd left his bike.

They walked in silence for a while before he finally looked over at her and said, "I know that –you know there's a reason why I wanted you to come with me."

"You mean besides our connection?" She tried to joke, but he didn't laugh.

"What happened at school earlier?" He questioned, as they slowed their pace some.

"It's ridiculous, Stiles and Teagan both have panic attacks and we go on about our days… yet, I have one and you want to have some long talk about it?"

"I know what happened wasn't just some panic attack. I also know that day you helped me, I saw your eyes… they were black, only for a second but I still saw it." He admitted as he shined the light from his phone on the ground so she could make sure she wasn't going to walk into one of the many traps still spread through the woods.

Crossing her arms over her chest she refused to answer him.

"We may not always agree on how to handle things, in fact we but heads more than we agree, but we're still friends and I'm worried about you." He explained as he put an arm in front of her and stopped her from walking into a trap, since she hadn't been paying attention.

Sighing she breathed out, "What is it with you and Lydia today?"

"Huh?" He asked confused.

"It's not a big deal… but you know how you can take someone's pain? Like how you helped me earlier?" She questioned waiting for him to agree before she continued, "Well, I found out that I can kind of do the same thing… except with emotions."

It took him a few seconds to understand what she was saying before his eyes widened, "That's why you freaked out earlier? You took Stiles' anxiety."

"And the anger and rage that was making you shift that day. But it doesn't matter, because I was able to help you guys." She tried to shrug it off but he didn't let it go.

"You helped us, but at what cost to yourself. This… this isn't normal, the way you not only take emotions but force yourself to feel it…" He started to say but she cut him off.

"Scott, you're a werewolf… and you're going to stand here and tell me that I'm not normal?"

Rolling his eyes at her refusing to take anything seriously he said, "You can't keep doing this, you have to stop using your… abilities."

Seeing an angered expression fall over her face he knew she was pissed, but he was only trying to help her.

"You're not going to tell me what to do. Nobody on the face of this earth tells me what to do. You might be an alpha now and I may be in this pack, but that doesn't mean you control me. And if that's how you think this little alpha –emissary thing is going to work, than I don't want any part of it." Her words were strong and her tone tough.

Nobody could understand what she was going through, and not even Scott knew how much she blamed herself for everything that had happened. From the moment she was aware her friends we're suffering in their own ways from being surrogate sacrificed for their parents, she knew exactly what she had to do; she had to save them even if it cost her –her life.

Scott watched as she turned and walked away, he'd gotten better at handling social situations with her, sure. But trying to navigate around her anger was an entirely different story, he was pretty sure no one knew how to handle her when she was pissed off.

Each step she took ended with a heavy thud of her foot against the hard earth beneath her shoes, as her head spun with anger. It was the exact same angry feeling that raged through her whenever her dad tried to discipline her growing up, and just like then she wasn't about to stand by and let anyone tell her what to do.

"Avery, wait!" Scott called as he jogged after her when it became increasingly clear she wasn't going to come back to him.

He caught up with her, right as she stumbled upon his bike.

"Can we go please? I'm already late for my dinner plans." She sighed heavily as she sent Kira a quick text saying she'd be leaving soon and sorry for the delay.

"I don't know how… this…" He said motioning between them, "Works either. All that I know is you're my friend, now more than ever and I'm still not sure what happened at the distillery that night, but I trust you now a lot more than I did before."

She nodded knowing exactly what he was talking about.

"I've been spending so much time worried about how I'm supposed to be a freaking alpha with my own pack when I couldn't even shift because I felt so out of control and like I was turning into a monster. Stiles has had his own stuff going on, so has Teagan and you've been there for every single one of us." He said, his voice softer than it had been before.

Looking down she picked up the helmet he'd leant her off the ground and looked down to the moon's reflection on the shiny plastic as he continued.

"I don't know, I guess it really didn't occur to me until earlier at school today that you've really been putting your all into trying to fix things, and none of us have been there for you."

"I have to fix this, Scott." She breathed out, her voice so low he could barely hear her.

"Fix what?" He questioned stepping closer and picking up his own helmet.

Lowering her head as she felt tears burn her eyes, she angrily pinched her arm until it hurt bad enough that she was only able to feel the physical pain and not her emotions. Before opening her mouth to speak, "It wasn't some stranger who came and tried to kill Teagan's dad, Stiles' dad and your mom. Not some random, completely psychotic savage who was sacrificing people. It was my mom…"

"Exactly, it was your mom… not you. You didn't hurt anyone and not only do you not to have to fix the mess she made, you have more than done that already. You were actually going to leave town with Deucalion so all of us could stay here, so we could all live." He reminded her.

She nodded and pretended to believe him but he had no idea what was happening inside of her mind. He had no way of knowing that every night when she laid down to try and sleep all she could see when she closed her eyes were the memories of her mom being killed right in front of her; that every time it started to storm she had flashbacks of the storm that almost killed her friends and their parents.

No matter how hard she tried to push the thoughts down and forget about what happened, she just couldn't escape it. The only time she felt any relief was when she drank the feelings away.

"Okay?"

"What?" She asked, not sure what he'd been talking about. She'd been too lost in her own head.

Realizing she hadn't heard him he repeated, "I get that you don't like people pushing you when it comes to… anything really. But you know you can always come to me if something's wrong or you need help, right?"

Forcing a smile and a small laugh she gently pushed him as she said, "Yeah, golden boy… I got it. Now hurry up, Kira's whole family is waiting on me before they start dinner and I'm already late."

"Wait… why are you going to Kiras?" He asked surprised as he picked his bike up, deciding to let it go for the night. The last thing he wanted to do was push her farther away than the distance she already seemed to be keeping herself at.

"We're friends, why? Afraid I'm going to tell her something embarrassing about you?" She teased as she pulled the helmet on.

"No." Scott laughed, "You don't know anything embarrassing about me."

"I wouldn't be so sure, McCall… Stiles has told me somethings about you that are pretty embarrassing."

"What… like what?" He asked, seeming a little nervous at the idea of a life time of embarrassing moments Stiles could have told her.

"I don't have the time to list them all, I need to get back to my house to get my car! Come on!" she impatiently said motioning to the bike.


~ A Teen Wolf fanfiction collaboration between Miss E Charlotte and Sage Londyn.~


A/N- Thank you all so much for reading, I hope you're all still liking the story.

Miss E Charlotte and I would like to take a moment and thank everyone who has been reviewing and who has added this story to their favorites and/or subscribed for alerts. ^_^