Chapter 8

Being a wolf was like being a different world. But for Scott McCall, it was almost a retreat. He didn't have to worry about school, relationships, the next supernatural threat that would always be coming to Beacon Hills. He was free.

There was also this sense of relief. He no longer had to suppress the wolf side of him. Scott had always stifled it in fear that he would hurt someone, especially on a full moon. But that fear had made him weak.

His paws treaded the forest familiarly as he ran. He knew that she was in trouble. His heart pounded in his ears as he traced her scent to Lydia's house. It mixed with the scent of blood and terror. He ran, finding a slumped silhouette on the pavement. It wasn't her. Scott ran after the blood trail, leading him to some grass near the woods.

He snarled, the sound rumbling deep in his core. The man crouched over her turned at the sound. The human hidden inside him stirred in surprise. Scott recognized him. No, it can't be him.

Scott leaped, jaws sinking into any flesh he could find. The man yelled out, baring lengthened teeth. He rolled off her, scrambling off into the woods.

His wolf instincts pushed him to chase after him, but his human side took over, making him still. He looked down at the girl who saved him. Diana Hunter.

Her chest weakly billowed in and out, her breaths wet and rattled. Dark blood pumped from the slashes on her chest. Scott listened to her weakening heartbeat. She was going to die.

"How come I knew you would be here?" Diana whispered, looking up through slitted eyes at him.

He whined, shuffling on his haunches. She reached out, stroking his fur.

"Thank you," she told him. Her eyes fluttered. Scott could see how close she was to death, the way that her eyes focused in and out.

The sounds of pounding feet made his ears stand alert. He whirled, snarling. But it was his friends, along with some girls. The unknown girls went to kneel beside Diana, but Scott blocked them, ears flattening, teeth bared. The blond girl along with what looked like Cora Hale, snarled back, eyes glowing. Cora backed off, eyes going to the ground. But the other girl, her eyes were the colour of another Alpha. She stood her ground.

"Scott, let me see her," the girl snarled. "She's my family, my responsibility."

He backed off slightly, keeping his teeth bared as she neared.

The Alpha girl grabbed Diana's hand, pressing her lips to it. Tears ran down her cheeks, dripping off her chin.

There was a way to save her, Scott knew it.

Eyes glowing bright red, Scott nosed Diana's bloodstained hand. It stirred, rising as if to pet him again. Before he really thought of the consequences, his teeth sank into her palm. Diana let out a little gasp of pain, but otherwise didn't react.

"No!" the girl cried out. Her eyes glowed a burning red. "Do you realize what you did?"

Saved her, no thanks to you, he thought.

….

The group carried Diana and Bryn quickly into the Animal Clinic, placing them on two separate examination tables. The overhead lights made the bloody girls look even worse, their skin bleaching white, the blood brightening. Deaton immediately went to Diana, while instructing Lydia on how to tend to Bryn. They both worked.

Deaton's eyes strayed to the pool of blood filling in Diana's palm. Wiping it away, he leaned closer. Someone had bit her.

"Did the one that attacked her bite her?" he asked as he stripped the rags of a dress off Diana.

"No. It was Scott," Melina spat.

On cue, they heard a terrible yowling outside the Clinic. Scott.

Kira watched in the corner, eyes unreadable. She knew he did it to save her life, but Kira felt uncertainty swell in her. The way that he had stood protectively over her, like he was guarding something important.

She cursed herself. It was her fault for all of this. She had told Scott to transform completely to heal himself. It was her fault that he was stuck as a full wolf. It was her fault that he had bitten her.

The yowling increased, making the animals housed inside the Clinic respond, a cacophony of hissing, spitting and whining.

"Someone let him in," Deaton said, looking around. Kira and Lydia looked to Stiles. Erika and Cora looked to Melina. With a sigh, Melina jerked her head. "Go let him in, Erika."

"But-"

"Now," she growled, her usually friendly eyes burning bloody red.

Clenching her jaw, Erika went to the front door. The stupid wolf sat there, head thrown back in another howl. She yanked it open.

"If you make one move towards her, you'll have two Sai knives in your brain, I don't care if you're a True Alpha or not," Erika threatened, hands on the hilts of her weapons.

The wolf grumbled as he walked in, nails clicking against the floor. It sat next to Kira. Scott looked up at her, eyes flashing red before settling back into a warm brown. He leaned against her leg. She tentatively stroked his ears. Scott the wolf rumbled in response.

Melina went in between the two tables, clasping the two girls' hands. The group watched as her veins became raised and dark. Her pupils dilated in pain. She let go. Both girls let out a pain-relieved sigh.

Scott padded over to Diana's side, pressing his ebony head into her limp hand. Melina and her group glared as he took some of her pain. Kira's jaw tightened, looking away.

Cora, Melina, Scott and Liam all took turns taking pain from the unconscious girls. Taking too much could actually mean death for them.

Bryn woke up with a gasp, her braids sticking to her sweaty face. Her slightly shaking hands traveled to the bandages around her head. With a slight groan, she pushed herself off the table, Lydia holding her elbow. She made her way slowly to Diana. She looked to the bite on her hand. Oh no.

She exchanged a look with the girls. Scott's friends prickled. They knew a conspiratorial look when they saw one. They exchanged them all the time, whenever something supernatural was going on.

"Stiles, I think you and the others can go. I have it handled here," Dr. Deaton said. The look in his eyes left no room for argument, not even a cleverly inserted quip to turn things around by Stiles.

Stiles ran a hand through his hair, but did as the vet said, Lydia, Kira and Liam following after. Liam cast a mournful look over his shoulder at Diana, still death-pale and covered in blood on the silver examination table. He paused.

A growl rumbled from Scott's chest. He looked down, meeting his glowing red eyes. Liam ducked his head in submission. Purely on instinct, he turned, leaving along with his friends. If he was a wolf, he imagined himself leaving with his tail tucked between his legs.

The black wolf curled up beside the examination table, dark eyes twinkling like stars as he watched the girls gather around the table. Cora and Dr. Deaton lifted the limp Diana onto her side. Bryn brushed her long hair off the back of her neck.

"Have you done this before Melina? Because if you don't do it right, it could kill her or paralyze her," the vet asked.

"I know how," she answered curtly.

The older girl shook golden hairs out of her face, her lips set in a straight line. Flicking a hand, her claws shot out. Sucking in a quick breath, she pressed her claws into the vulnerable skin of Diana's neck. Her eyes blazed red as she went through the memories.

A close up of Liam's face, the sensation of arms around her. A surging anger. Sudden darkness. A pounding heart, hot blood pulsing out of her by the second. Blood-caked claws. Lips pulling back to reveal lengthened canines.

The images flicked quickly in her mind, feeling the pull from Diana's mind release. She had them now. She flashed back to the memories of the attack, inserting a false memory.

She withdrew her claws. Diana's blood dripped down her fingers. The smell of it stoked the animal instincts Melina had worked so hard to smother. Swallowing thickly, she wiped off the blood, then the droplets beading from the small diamond-shaped incisions in her cousin's skin. The girls and the vet watched as they closed, like invisible stitches pulling the skin back together.

Diana wouldn't have any scars. Except the one that would be on her hand. She would remember it as a souvenir from the attack on her family.

"It wasn't a smart decision to bring her to Beacon Hills," Dr. Deaton said, narrowing his eyes slightly at the Alpha girl. "She will always be in danger here."

"It couldn't be helped," Melina replied, a slight growl fusing with her words.

"You are also putting the supernatural population in danger here," the vet added.

Someone snorted. They turned to see Erika leaning against the brick wall, arms crossed. Her knives were sheathed at her waist.

"The fact that it is a population is dangerous. It needs to be culled," she said.

"Well, unless there's proof Erika, you're not killing anyone. Just because you hate yourself and your heritage, doesn't mean that these other innocent people to suffer for it, just because of what they are," Melina said, her words sharp.

Erika narrowed her eyes. She looked to Bryn and Cora. The other girls' faces were stony. She snarled in disgust.

"I'll guard the exits," she spat, whipping out her knives. The metal flashed as she twirled them effortlessly in her fingers. The door slammed with an angry shudder.

Dr. Deaton raised an eyebrow. The three girls just sighed.

"Just don't ask," Cora said. "It's a long story."

They didn't notice when Scott slipped out of the clinic, disappearing into the darkness of the forest.

….

Diana groaned awake. She found herself in her pajamas, her skin smelling like sweat and alcohol. Her mouth tasted awful, and her head felt like someone stuffed cotton into it.

"Oh, our favourite little drunkard is up!" Melina said, grinning crookedly as she entered the room.

Diana pushed herself up, running a hand through its tangled length. "I didn't drink that much did I?"

"Enough to black out," Cora said smirking, leaning against the doorframe. Erika leaned on the other side of it, expressionless. Something was really off about her. She would have to ask later.

"I got some chicken noodle soup with your name on it!" Bryn trilled as she came by the doorway. Like she said, she clasped a big white bowl, steaming with the smell of chicken broth and herbs. Cora and Erika slid inside, allowing Bryn to enter. With a bright smile, she handed Diana the bowl, handing over a bowl.

"Thanks Bryn," she said, feeling her miserable mood improving. "Melina, where's Aunt Lia?"

"Oh, Mom just had to go to work. She works out of town, so it's a bit of a commute."

"Oh yeah, I forgot that she was a vet just like Mom."

"Well, your mom and mine were thick as thieves. They knew each other in vet school. She had actually introduced your dad and her, since she was already seeing my dad, who was his brother."

This was news to Diana. "Oh wow."

She took a slurp of her soup. Even though it was piping hot and nearly burned her tongue, it was really good. She was feeling better already.

"So how much of last night do you remember?" Erika asked, her hazel eyes glinting.

She thought about it. There was a hazy memory of a kiss with Liam, him regretting it and her walking away from him. Then hanging out with Bryn. Then nothing. Absolutely nothing.

"I remember getting angry with Liam. After leaving him, I hung out with Bryn. I guess after that, I was drinking a lot."

Bryn's giggle was a little high-pitched. "Yeah, you were angry drinking I guess."

"Don't worry about Liam," Erika said. "I gave him an earful." Her eyes twinkled with something dark. Diana pitied the boy. To have Erika as an enemy, Liam was in so much trouble. Then a surge of anger replaced the pity. He didn't deserve it after playing with her. Maybe she was over-reacting but she didn't care.

Diana rubbed at her palm, her thumb tracing the lumpy silvery scar there. A bite mark from the break in. The hazy memory overcame her, the man bent over her and a sudden pain in her hand. The walls of her home shuddered, breaking apart until it was night sky around her. Diana shook her head, slurping more soup. Some hangover.

The rest of the day, the girls curled up on the couch in the TV room, laughing at some comedy playing. Diana watched passively as texts lit up her cell screen. The majority of them were from Liam. There were a couple from Lydia and Kira, asking how she was feeling. She quickly texted the girls back, after deleting all of Liam's texts.

When night fell, Melina had to go out for a shift. Bryn and Cora went out for errands. And Erika, well she disappeared. Diana didn't worry though. The girl just did that.

Diana fell asleep in her room, an open book resting on her stomach. She tossed and turned, her bedsheets flying off her. She dreamed of the man again, bent over her as the walls of her house shuddered until they burst apart into night sky, a pair of red eyes glaring down at her. A howl shattered the stars above her as the weight of her attacker pressed down on her, blood pulsing out of her. Her bloodstained hand lay limp in the dew-wet grass, while the sounds of sobs echoed over her.

She jolted up out of bed, a scream in her throat. A rumble filled the dark room, like thunder. Her head snapped towards the source of the sound. The black wolf stood in her doorway, as lightning illuminated the room with a flash.

Diana sighed in relief. She didn't feel any fear towards the wolf, like a normal sane person would. For some reason, she found his presence comforting.

The wolf jumped up onto her bed, lying down beside her. His warmth pressed into her, chasing away the chill of her skin. The smell of night air, autumn and wolf filled her nose. She hesitantly laid back down. The wolf lifted his head, pressing his cold nose into her forehead, like a kiss. Huffing, the wolf closed its eyes. Diana followed his lead.

And for once, her dreams were empty of any horrors.

Hey everyone! Hope you're enjoying the new chapters of this ff! Comment, review, enjoy!