Almost a week had passed since the incident and Stiles finally felt confident in his answer.

Once he knew what he was looking for, Stiles dedicated most of his time to researching werewolf and wolf packs. Finding out why they formed and how they usually behaved.

Drawing parallels between the two hadn't been easy. Although he thought that wolves and werewolves would behave similarly, he found that werewolves' human tendencies often came into play. This made understanding their packs more difficult than he anticipated.

And, although he was loath to admit it, he was still avoiding Scott.

He'd only seen his friend at the second track tryout they had during the week. Scott had wisely maintained his distance, allowing Stiles the space he needed to come to terms with what happened.

Stiles suspected that what happened was a one-time occurrence. But he still couldn't purge the image of Scott, covered with blood and gore, from his memory and it was seriously freaking him out. He needed a little more time before he could face his friend.

But Stiles had finally exhausted his delay tactics. He thought he figured out what was going on and was eager to share his theory with Scott. He just wasn't sure he'd be able to do so without cowering like a baby.

He sucked it up and went over to the McCall's.

The front door was unlocked and he jogged straight up the stairs to Scott's room. When he opened the door, he saw Scott sitting on his bed, legs crossed Indian style, eyes closed.

"What the hell are you doing?" Stiles asked. Yet again, he'd barged into Scott's bedroom to a scene he failed to predict.

"What? Whoa!"

Scott toppled over onto the floor. Stiles noted that he managed to land in a perfect crouch. That was new. Before he could comment, Scott had returned to a seated position on the bed.

"Stiles? What are you doing here?"

"What am I doing? What the hell are you doing?"

"I'm meditating."

"Meditating? Why would you be meditating?"

"I've been having these dreams," Scott admitted. Stiles ran a hand through his hair, concern flickered across his face.

"You have? That's worrisome."

"Yeah. I'm not sure what they mean," Scott said. He furrowed his brows. "What are you doing here?"

"I think I know what's going on."

"You do? Thank god! What's going on?"

Scott breathed a sigh of relief. Another thought struck him. Shyly, he asked a question he'd was afraid to have answered.

"Are we ok?"

"Um, yeah." Stiles kicked his foot awkwardly on the floor. "We're ok."

Naturally, Scott's smelled the lie. And the fear behind it.

"You're still afraid of me."

Crestfallen, Scott hugged his knees to his chest, as if he was attempting to make himself seem smaller. Stiles sighed.

"Back to my theory about what happened. So, you and Isaac decided to go into the woods together."

"So?"

Stiles began pacing the length of Scott's bedroom, careful to avoid meeting Scott's eyes.

"And you have no idea why you..."

Scott frowned, annoyed by his own lack of insight into the cause of the other night's gruesome act. No matter how much he puzzled over it, he still had no idea why it happened.

"No. I mean, it just happened. It was late, we were outside. I don't know why we did it."

"You and Isaac are forming a pack."

Scott was dumbstruck. Then he laughed.

"Stiles, that's nuts. Isaac's part of Derek's pack. I think that's been pretty clear."

"He was. Until you both decided to...you know."

"No. No way."

Scott shook his head. He had enough of werewolf packs be it Peter's pack or Derek's pack, thank you very much.

"I think you two killed the deer as part of an instinctual drive to create a new pack. It doesn't mean one of you is an alpha. Yet. But it does mean that you've decided to align yourselves. At least, as werewolves."

"But…I don't want to be part of a pack. I'm an omega."

"First of all, do you really believe that Scott? You may be a lot of things, but a loner you are not. Also, it doesn't matter what you say you want. Subconsciously, you made the decision. Remember when Peter tried to get you to kill the bus driver?"

"Yeah, but Peter's psychotic. Remember when he tried to kill, oh, everyone?"

"Well, it's the same principle. You killed together and this binds you together, cementing both of you as a pack."

"But…we're not a pack!" Scott said. Stiles noticed Scott clenched his fists and narrowed his eyes, a time-honored sign he was refusing to budge on his position.

Stiles rolled his eyes. Honestly, Scott could be so stubborn sometimes. But this was familiar ground and Stiles knew all he had to do was plough ahead. Eventually, he could make his friend see reason.

"All the research I've done points to the opposite conclusion. Whether you like it or not.

"Fact: Isaac went with you into the preserve, without Derek's knowledge. This shows that Derek's position as Isaac's Alpha isn't as strong as he thought it was."

"Wait, how did you know Isaac went out without Derek's permission?" Scott asked.

"Because obviously if Derek knew what you were up to, he'd never have let Isaac out of his sight," Stiles responded. "Anyway, I've got more in my list so stop interrupting, Scott.

"Fact: Peter tried to get you to kill with him in order to bring you into his pack permanently. Although he was able to make you shift against your will, he couldn't make you kill with him. Which meant you never really became part of his pack.

"Fact: You and Isaac have been hanging out an awful lot and last week you killed a deer together. And I'm willing to bet you weren't human when you did it. Do the math Scott. What else could it mean?"

They sat in silence for a few minutes, the magnitude of Stiles's theory sinking in.

"So, what now?" asked Scott.

"Well, I guess you need to talk to Isaac," Stiles replied. "By the way, can I just say...you two ate a deer. Raw. I saw the pictures."

"There are pictures?!" Scott sank back against the wall, mortified.

"Oh yeah, from animal control. Very graphic. So, which one of you ate the heart?"

Scott raised his hand, face burning bright red from embarrassment. Stiles did a double-take. Not the answer he expected.

"And the liver?"

Scott raised his hand again, averting his eyes from Stiles's shocked face.

"The worst part is..." the teen mumbled something Stiles couldn't catch.

"What was that?"

"It tasted good." Stiles gawked at Scott. Scott continued and Stiles swore he saw him salivating at the memory. "Like, really, really, good. Delicious."

"Oh, my god. That is disturbing on so many levels," Stiles felt his skin crawl and he fought the urge to run. But if he could overlook potential human organ consumption by his childhood crush, Lydia, he figured he should overlook actual animal organ consumption by Scott.

"Tell me about it," Scott said. The werewolf looked slightly green, his human half clearly grossed out by the other half's dining proclivities. "I liked it better when I didn't remember these things."

"What were you doing in the woods that night anyway?" Stiles ventured awkwardly. He still saw the monster lurking in the back of his mind. Getting back to normal was not going to be as easy as he'd hoped.

"We were trying to find out if there is an alpha pack here, after all."

Scott winced at Stiles's sharp intake of breath.

"I know, I know. It was a dumb idea."

"Yeah, like, epic dumb! What if you two had actually found this pack of alphas? Then what? Pretty sure it would have ended in death! They could have filleted you! I mean, look at how unfriendly Derek is and he's not even your enemy!"

"You're starting to sound like my mom."

"I doubt your mom nags you about traipsing through the woods in search of hostile werewolves."

"You'd be surprised," Scott sulked. "Anyway, we didn't find anything. No tracks, no strange scents, nada."

"Well, that's some good news."

"I'm still not convinced they aren't there. Maybe they're just good at covering up their tracks."

"We'll have to do some research and see if there's anything on alphas forming packs. Also, we should check the police reports for strange activity. With Isaac, we can increase our manpower, so that's a plus."

"You're going to help?"

"Of course I'm going to help," Stiles rolled his eyes. "You're my best friend."

Scott could tell there was still some fear underneath Stiles's bravado.

"Thanks."

"And Isaac is part of your pack."

"We're not a pack."

"Keep telling yourself that."

Scott's phone buzzed and a text from Isaac flashed up on the screen. Before he could hide the phone, Stiles looked at the screen.

"Oh, look who it is," said Stiles. "Don't wanna keep your pack waiting."

The werewolf scowled as he typed a response to Isaac's message.

"He's on his way."

"Of course he is."


"You're joking," Isaac looked from Scott to Stiles and back to Scott. "We kill a deer and now suddenly we're a pack? That doesn't even make any sense."

"Thank you," Scott said. He waved his arm, as if Isaac's statement proved his point. "But Stiles claims he has research to back it up."

"Believe me, I don't like the idea any more than you do," said Stiles. "Actually, less probably. Mostly, because I don't trust Lahey. Seeing as he leapt at the chance to attack Lydia."

Stiles glared at Isaac. Isaac shrugged. This was an argument he knew he'd lose.

"And apparently, you can't even stay loyal to your own pack. What's to stop you from turning on Scott?"

"Someone's jealous," Isaac smirked. "I can smell it. Poor Stiles, always left out."

"You wish."

"What makes you the expert, anyway? You're not even one of us."

"Unlike you, I actually crack a book every now and then. Which helps when you want to learn things. You should try it."

"Knock it off, guys!" said Scott. "Can we focus. Please."

"Fine!" The other two boys responded in unison. Scott tried not to laugh. They really were more alike than they'd admit.

"Ok, so say Stiles is right. And I'm not saying he is," Isaac said. He looked at Scott pointedly. "What next?"

Stiles bristled at the snub.

"I don't know." Scott put an arm in front of Stiles, holding him back. "We need to keep it quiet, if we can. Dig around for more information."

Stiles stopped thrashing in his vain attempt to beat the crap out of Isaac.

"You're gonna have to be a lot more careful." Stiles now tapped his foot, thinking out loud. "Because you can bet that your little midnight snack will piss off Derek when he finds out. And if there is a pack of alphas, this will put you on their radar, that's for sure."