Unlike her brother, when Willa stayed the night at a friend's house, she wasn't necessarily staying at Stiles'. For once, she was actually having a normal sleep-over. Well, as normal as it could be, though, as it was Lydia Martin, human and queen bee extraordinaire, it was very normal. Lydia had straightened her normally wavy-but-sometimes-curly-because-her-hair-couldn't-decide hair, and when she learned that the McCall twin hadn't ever had a real girls-only sleepover, facial masks and nail polish had also become necessary. She would never admit it, but Willa's favorite thing was the actual 'girl-talk' she got to have with Lydia.
Although Willa was a hundred percent sure she would not have told her mom any of what she told Lydia Martin. At first, she hadn't been that thrilled to spend the night with the queen bee. It wasn't that she didn't like her, surprisingly, Willa liked Lydia quite a bit, she was nothing like Willa had thought she would be, well not completely at least. She hadn't been looking forward to the sleep over because it meant she didn't get to help Derek track the Alpha.
Derek didn't let her do anything that involved being near the Alpha, it was one of the things that irritated her. It was sweet how protective he was, but his refusal to include her in the search for Laura's killer was pushing it. She had as much a score to settle with the bastard as he did. But Derek was stubborn, and his main reason, or at least what he told her, was that the Alpha had tired to kill her, and he wouldn't give it a chance to try again.
So, when Derek had tracked the Alpha to the industrial neighborhoods, she had been dropped off at Lydia's. He didn't want her alone, and when she asked why Lydia, he pointed out she was the only human in her little social circle that didn't have have a supernatural connection. Scott could be called by the Alpha at any time, Stiles was aware of werewolves and smelled enough like her and Scott that the Alpha could mistake the ADHD teen to be another lycan, and Allison was an Argent. And Derek refused to willingly take her near hunters.
Which was why, at three am, Willa was perched on the window seat in Lydia's bedroom, staring out at the moon. Something was wrong, at least, that was how she felt. Maybe she was just being paranoid, but her wolf was upset and something just felt…. off. She was trying to tell herself it was the Alpha's call earlier, the one she had no doubt Scott had answered without realizing. It hadn't affected her at all, no pull to follow. And she hadn't understood it, either, though that could have been because she was no longer apart of his pack.
Rolling her shoulders, the blond leant against the wall behind her. Her legs were pulled up close to her chest, arms hugging them too her, her right hand twisting the bronze charm around her neck. It wasn't that the herbs' smell was was off or that it was irritating her, nothing like that. Messing with it was just a habit she had developed when Derek was away from her.
It irritated her, sometimes, how clingy she felt she sometimes was. It was a kind of side effect to the claim bond. But, when she mentioned it to Derek, and that it wasn't like her, he had just told her the need to be near each other constantly would fade with time. It had something to do with strength of scent, and then that was paired with heat. But the pendant did help significantly, she had to admit that. She could still remember the first day of heat while she hadn't had it. The discomfort had been completely brutal, and she was glad she wouldn't have to deal with it.
Willa looked over as she heard the swish of fabric, seeing Lydia sitting up, still half asleep. The red-head yawned as she asked tiredly, "What's the matter?" The older girl's heart rate rose to accommodate her state of consciousness and before the blonde could reply, Lydia was out of bed and came to sit across from the younger female. As she settled into place, Lydia tacked on, "And don't you dare say nothing."
Giving a small smile, she answered, though not with the 'nothing' she had intended to, "It's just something stupid, Lydia. Go back to sleep."
Shaking her head, Lydia crossed her arms slightly and insisted, "Even if it is, it's obviously bothering you. Otherwise you would be asleep. So, come on, out with it." The persistence of Lydia Martin was admirable, when you weren't the receiving end of it.
She sighed as she realized there was no way to win. Lydia wouldn't drop it, she cared far too much about friends, despite the act she held at school. Running a hand through her hair, she tried to figure out what to say. Because she couldn't actually tell Lydia the truth of what had her up. She had to pick her words carefully, which she did, and replied, "It's hard having friends. Not that I don't like it, I do. But last year, all I ever had to worry about was homework, my brother and Stiles. That's it, simple. Now, I have that, and you and Allison, plus Derek. And I don't want to get rid of any of it. It's just, it's difficult, trying to balance it all. I want to be able to spend time with you and Allison, but I don't want to abandon Stiles or Scott. But I want to be with Derek, too."
Even without adding in the supernatural bit of her problem, Lydia seemed to sympathize. Willa just needed someone to tell her how to juggle everything. She couldn't neglect her twin and Stiles, not like she had, especially with everything that was happening. But, she liked spending time with Allison, and with Lydia. They were funny and interesting and nice, they were her friends.
And then there was Derek. While she didn't have to completely hide she spent time with him from her brother, she did have to make sure Scott wasn't always aware of how much time she spent with him. And stupid heat made it hard to not see him as often as she could. Even with the pendant, it was difficult.
Lydia patted Willa's leg and reassured her, "You're going to figure it out, I promise. Anytime you bring someone new into your life, you have to reconfigure your schedule to fit that new person in, and when you add multiples, it's just harder. And high school doesn't help much either. But it all works out, eventually. I promise. Now, come on, we have to get some sleep."
—0—0—0—
The feeling that something was wrong refused to escape Willa, even in sleep. She wondered if it was something to do with heat, or the claim. Whatever it was, it made her want to research. So, after arriving at school with Lydia, she quickly visited each of her teachers. Using the excuse that she had a headache but didn't want to miss any school, they all gave her permission to spend their class in the library, giving her the work she wouldn't be sitting in for. That was the benefit of being a good student; her teachers were much more willing to allow her liberties that the not-so-good students would never get.
Honestly, she loved the school library. Very few people even knew the school had one, which was kind of surprising to her. The Whittemore's had 'donated' the remodel of it a few years before, making sure that it was brand-spaking-new for their precious and wonderful son, who Willa maintained was a complete and utter jackass. Who probably had never even read a book of his own free will.
What was funny, though, was that it didn't feel new. It felt old, warm and comforting, like some of the greatest minds had walked among the shelves of books. There were hundreds of books that probably hadn't been meant to be in a high school, but they were incredibly handy. She wondered if maybe whoever designed it had just bought old books and hadn't paid attention to what they were about, just to give it the intellectual look.
After handing the notes from her teachers to the librarian to prove that, yes, she did have permission to be there all day, she wove through the shelves, getting deeper and deeper into the building. She found a plush chair in a corner somewhere, setting her things down before going off in search of the old tombs she knew were there.
Last year, when one of her classes had spent the period there working on a research paper, she had found a stash of old books on the supernatural, witches and werewolves. And she was wanting those werewolf ones at the moment. While they weren't what was left of the Hale books, and she didn't know if they were all accurate, they were all she could get her hands on at the moment.
They were exactly where she last saw them, gathering dust in a forgotten aisle. Willa sorted through them, placing the non-lycan ones off to the side, and ended up with fourteen that did in fact cover at least some part of lycanthropy. If she was still human, she would have had to make several trips back to the comfy chair she had claimed. Instead, she was trying to dampen her sense of smell, and not have a sneezing fit from all the dust.
She set them in front of her chosen seat in two piles of seven, settling into her chair, then grabbing one on the top of a pile. 'A Complete History and Study of True Lycanthropy' was embossed in dulling gold on the faded maroon cover. While she had some hope with the 'True Lycanthropy' bit, she would take all of it with a grain of salt until she could cross reference it with Derek later that day. Thinking of Derek made her wolf stir, and she smiled at just the thought of her mate. As much as she wanted to call him, she couldn't. He had tracked the Alpha last night, and could still be doing so. Which mean no calls, no texts.
Pulling herself away from thoughts of her mate, she opened the book, the spine creaking in protest at the action. Obviously, she was the only one in the library that either cared about lycanthropy or knew of the books. The first couple of yellowed pages were just the titles and dedications. She flipping through them quickly before scanning the table of contents, finding the specific topic she was looking into and leafed through the pages until she reached 124 'Heat and Mating Season'.
'Much like their lupin counterpart, lycans experience heat. Though, quite unlike wolves, a lycan mating season is once a year for approximately six weeks during the fall. It tends to begin during the first days of September, and end somewhere in the middle of October.
Another difference between werewolves and wolves is the effect of it. Because werewolves are monogamous creatures, mating for life once they've made a claim, they've developed a kind of fail safe in their biology.
While some adolescent werewolves might become slightly agitated and more sensitive to pheromone and other scents, heat only truly affects lycans in a defined and true relationship. The effects are at full capacity when a claim-bond is in place. Another factor is the race of each partner.
When both are lycan, both male and female will feel the effects of heat equally. In the rare case that only one be lycan, though do have a claim, the human will feel elevated arousal, while the lycan will feel the full effect of heat. The claim seems to be the only thing that will allow a human to show some kind of equivalent to heat.
Males and females show mostly similar symptoms, though there are several behaviors that are unique to gender during mating season. During the latter half of the season, she-wolves will start to develop nests, or dens. The location will vary and depend on the wolf, but it's most common that the females will create their dens somewhere in their home or their pack territory.
If the pack is in a state of threat or danger, she-wolves will try to make their nests in secluded, defendable, hidden areas, and not necessarily in a home or indoors. This behavior is attributed to the female's need to prove they are capable of creating a home for their future offspring and mate as well as claiming possession of her mate and their lives together.
Most males will find themselves more inclines to hunt for their mate, and searching for bigger and bigger game. Because of a strong urge to catch their targeted prey at all costs, it's not unheard of for a lycan to chase a deer or buck and take it down on another pack's territory. Most often, that pack's Alpha will alert the other Alpha to inform them of it, but will not be inclined to see it as a threat.
Because of this, mating season is considered to be a time of peace, as well as most wolves fall under the effects of the season. The need to hunt and bring back the best hunt is believed to be the male showing his ability to care for his mate and any children they produce.
During mating season, most couples will take great strides and efforts to make sure they are as close to their mate as they can be and as often as they can be. Though it is not always possible, and the severity of the distance and time apart can vary. Because of this, it's become common that one of the first courting gifts between mates is some kind of charm, pendant, or small object meant to be carried easily.
These items will normally spend the non-mating season stored in a mixture of dried dragon fruit seeds, oak leaves, dried poinsettia leaves, and arcanimium borestaliea- a kind of poison oak and poison ivy hybrid.'
Willa read some more, but she didn't find any of it that relevant, it seemed to be more on dated rituals that very few wolves took part in anymore. She flipped back to the table of contents and glanced over the other chapters, reading a couple of them that simply reiterated things she already knew. After a few more minutes, she set it aside and picked up another book. It didn't have a title, just the first page of it had a rough ink sketch of a wolf facing a man, and the table of contents listed different topics that were definitely lycan-related, though they were more on etiquette.
She actually read most of that one. It was surprising how many rules their were when it came to pack interactions, courting or mating, it was like there was etiquette for every aspect of life. One chapter mentioned that the only exceptions for claim-bonds before a community or cultures recognized age of adulthood were imminent death, or the physical and mental wellbeing of the lycan were at risk.
In the chapter about how to properly interact with any Omega wolves, she found a few paragraphs that spoke about removal from packs and acceptance to another. Like she though, Derek's claim on her would have brought her into the Hale pack, especially since the claim had been used to save her life. Because he was from a different pack and he had saved her, it was viewed as that pack had saved her while her own hadn't been able to protect her. Granted, her Alpha was the one that nearly killed her, but that was beside the point.
The next few hours, Willa read through the books, switching between them all to cross reference and compare the information. It was kind of surprising to Willa just how accurate most of it seemed, and she wondered if the books had once belonged to a werewolf, or maybe even hunters. Or some other creature she didn't know about.
One of the things she had managed to find quite a bit of information on was nesting, and considering what she had read, she was probably going to need to know whatever she could on that particular topic. What she gleaned from everything was that the instinct to create a 'nest' or 'den' would be strongest if she were pregnant. Which nearly made her have a heart attack. But it was also simply instinct for a female wolf, and werewolf, with child or no. Probably starting about the beginning of October or end of September, either her room or somewhere in Derek's house, she'd be stockpiling blankets, pillows, anything comfy. That was going to be interesting to say the least.
When the bell rang for lunch, Willa remembered that annoying thing in life that required eating. It meant actually getting up from her chair, and moving. A shuffling from the other side of the bookshelf in front of her made her sit up, forgetting about her mental debate. It moved closer and a girl about her age, with kind of frizzy blond hair and very pretty hazel eyes poked her head around the shelf. After a moment, Willa recognized her, Erica. She was in her PE class, she seemed like a really nice girl.
Her shoulders relaxed and Willa gave her a friendly smile as Erica spoke up, "U-uhm, Mrs. Mickle just wanted me to make sure that you were okay. S-she hadn't seen you since you, uh, got here." Damn, the poor thing was terrified of her. Probably because it was now common knowledge that she was friends with Lydia.
Putting her book down, she nodded and replied cheerfully, "Yup, I'm fine. Actually I was going to go get lunch, do you want to come with me?"
The look of absolute shock on Erica's face made Willa feel a little guilty for some reason. She had to have had at least one other class with the girl, before this year, and Willa had never said a thing to her, and she should have. But, the other blonde smiled shyly and stammered out, "S-sure."
—0—0—0—
Willa liked Erica, quite a bit. She was a really nice girl, despite being terribly shy. But, Erica had a pretty good reason for it. She had epilepsy, and the medications she was taking to prevent seizures caused terrible breakouts and made it impossible for her to get rid of the baby fat in her mid-section and thighs, which in turn made Erica think of herself as ugly.
She was incredibly intelligent, she read quite a bit when she would have to stay in the hospital. They both had that in common, as well as an interests in drawing, video games, and several of the same favorite comedians. They both liked the color purple, preferred warm weather over chilly, disliked the texture of broccoli or broccoli-like things, and weren't fans of spicy food.
It was probably the most relaxed she had been all day, eating lunch in the library with Erica. She had to suppress her sense of smell and hearing, but that wasn't a bother. It was just the scent that Erica's medications left on her was a bit off putting, and her heart rate was a bit erratic. Nothing too different from anything else, and nothing she would even think of mentioning to Erica.
She'd been disappointed that Erica couldn't stay further, but was well aware that she still had more research to do before the school day ended. Willa had insisted on trading numbers, though, and promised that they would see each other again soon. The lycan teen planned to keep that promise, no matter what anyone thought.
As she returned to her books, Willa wrinkled her nose, before suppressing her senses again. The books were coughing up dust and the musty smell was incredibly strong, apparently the books hadn't been opened in a while, and the protests of the spines were grating.
Her remaining couple of hours in the library didn't yield too much. One book did mention that a mate bond could allow one to sense when the other was in trouble, but it had been mentioned in passing and no other text said anything about it. Several books had mentioned the herb mixture and charms, and that even though they could weaken the behaviors and symptoms of heat very well, that some werewolves would start to feel uncomfortable the longer it was used, especially during a first heat. That had to have been it.
As the final bell rang, Willa grabbed two of the books that had given the best information and took them up to the front desk. Mrs. Mickle, the librarian, hadn't recognized them, and simply wrote it down before waving her off, not caring much about the two books she considered to be fantasy and malarky. And that was fine with Willa, she quickly put them in her bag before hurrying off to find Stiles for a ride home.
She managed to find him by the front doors of the school, quickly speaking with Scott about seeing him later and to try and get some studying done, before heading to the beat up blue jeep Stiles refused to replace. He maintained the fact that he didn't discard his loyal friends. And Willa maintained the joke that he needed more friends if he considered his care one of them. They had their usual banter, and Willa had forgotten that she had dampened her senses.
Up until her mate wandered into the road and Stiles slammed on the brakes, Willa shrieking. Instantly, she stopped suppressing her elevated senses and could smell the acrid smell mixed with Derek's, hearing his erratic heart rate. No, no, no! Willa was out of the car before Stiles could even figure it out, and asking, "What's wrong? I can't tell, oh my God, I'm sorry!" He managed to give her a confused look in between one of pain.
Willa gripped his upper body as she helped him sit up, Scott and Stiles appearing. The feeling that something was off had intensified, and she swallowed thickly, Scott asking, "What the hell are you doing here?" If she wasn't so concerned about Derek, Willa would have said something about his manners.
Derek's breathing was heavy, and it was taking incredibly effort from him to just sit up, even with Willa's help. His eyes closing for a few seconds, he answered, "I was shot." Her heart hammered in her chest. She didn't hear anything else, just the blood rushing in her ears. He had been shot, her mate was shot, and he wasn't healing.
Wolfsbane, it was some kind of wolfsbane. He had been shot with wolfsbane and she hadn't known, hadn't smelled it or sensed it because she had been too preoccupied with research and keeping her guard down. She should have known or something, should have called him when he didn't this morning to tell her.
"That's what she meant when she said 48 hours."
Willa's head snapped up and she asked her brother, fear and anger twisted in her words, "What o you mean? Who said 48 hours?!"
Scott seemed surprised just how worried his sister was, but answered quickly, "T-the woman, who shot Derek." No, no, no, no! Willa felt her eyes glowing, and as she looked to her mate, she saw his eyes flash blue, then green, then blue again. He couldn't control himself, he was trying, but he couldn't help the small shifts. Scott looked around and hissed at them both, "What are you doing?! Both of you, stop that!"
A growl, weaker than a normal one, came from Derek as he replied, "I'm trying to tell you, I can't." Willa didn't bother with a reason, she gripped tighter onto her mate, feeling utterly helpless as she watched him suffer. She wanted to take his pain, but he wasn't letting her, and she was trying really hard.
People were honking, and Scott just ordered, "Derek, get up." A groan came from Derek as his eyes flashed again, and Willa whimpered. The honking increased and she could hear car doors opening. Scott and her exchanged a look, and the twins pulled the elder wolf up, Scott telling Stiles, "I'm gonna put him in your car."
Willa whimpered as she heard Derek hiss at the movement, but she kept going, her and Scott practically having to drag him to the Jeep. She hopped in first, then helped Scott get Derek into the passenger seat. As the door closed, Derek told Scott, "I need you to find out what kind of bullet they used."
She had to make a great effort to not wince at the continual honking, as Scott asked, "How the hell am I supposed to do that?!" Normally, she would have agreed with her brother, it seemed kind of impossible, but her mate was hurt, dying from wolfsbane, and his obstinance pulled a possessive growl from her, eyes glowing brighter.
The blond hadn't let go of Derek, and he leaned slightly against her as he answered Scott, "She's an Argent. She's with them." The growl became a whimper. More Argents, more hunters, and with bullets that could kill painfully.
Scott glanced around and argued more, "Why should I help you?"
"For me." Scott looked up at his sister, who's eyes were back to blue, and she pleaded with him, desperation and pain creeping to her voice, "Don't let them take him from me. Please Scott, I can't loose him." Tears were starting to well up and her voice cracked as she told him, "I can't loose him, Scott. Do this, for me."
Her brother didn't understand, why Derek meant so much, but he couldn't stand to see his sister in so much pain, even over this guy, so he agreed, "Fine, I'll try." Stiles finally got into the driver's seat and Scott sighed, "Get them out of here."
Stiles glanced at his best friend and just answered, "I hate you so much for this." And then he his the gas, moving away from the horns, to Willa's relief. Resting her forehead against the back of the headrest, she held onto Derek's upper arm, too afraid to let go.
-0-0-0-
Authors Note: Hello everyone! Alright, not as long as the last chapter, but come on, the last chapter was freaking long. Anyway, I nearly lost this because Evernote is stupid. Thank god it didn't sync, I still had it on my phone *phew*.
Yay, Willa and Erica (: I like Erica, I'm bringing her in a little early, deal with it. Some Lydia and Willa bonding~ And you get some information about heat/mating season in this 'verse. I made up that plant with the fancy name by the way. Too lazy to research anything really...
Okay, look, I love you all, so much, and I want to know what you think. I didn't get five reviews, which kind of bums me out to be frank. But I'm posting this anyway. So, even just two this time? Come on guys, help a sista out!