CHAPTER 12

The rest of the weekend passed without incident. Dad called to let me know he wouldn't be home until Sunday afternoon, something about a tractor-trailer brake failure causing a major pile up and Alec wanted to see how Ripley handled so we went off-roading for most of the day. Since I get to drive Ripley all the time and he hasn't since before I fixed it up, I let him drive. There was a bit of awkwardness on the way home and I asked him what was up and he looked at me with that expression he used when he was trying not to judge someone.

"What's your deal?" I ask finally, after waiting for him to elaborate.

"I'm just trying to figure what happened to you between April and now." He says lightly. "Back home you were never interested in guys and here it seems like you can't seem to get enough."

"I don't know what you're talking about." I say, looking out the window. I do not want to have this conversation just yet. "That statement was completely uncalled for."

"No, it wasn't." He says dryly.

"I don't want to talk about it." I say, clearly dismissing the subject. But Alec has other ideas.

"Well, you need to. And seeing how your mom's not here, I'm your next best person."

"Oh, come on. You know that even if my mom was here I'd still be coming to you."

He gives me a good natured, but exasperated look. "I'm serious, Faye. That guy's in his mid twenties."

I sigh. "I don't know, Alec, it's not like I'm doing it on purpose. Derek just sneaks up on me and every time he looks at me I just get this really intense feeling, and the next thing I know I've completely forgotten about Liam and am 30 seconds away from ripping his clothes off. It's never happened to me before. And don't tell me that I'm stringing them both along because Lydia's already gone down that road and I told her it's not like that."

"I wasn't going to say that." Alec says warily. "What I was going to say is just to be careful. You've never seen Liam's temper flare up and Derek's had a real hard time the past ten years. Just, keep that in mind."

"How do you know so much about Derek? He wasn't around when you were here." I accuse.

He ignores me. "Liam doesn't know you're macking with Derek whenever he shows up, so I don't know what that would be considered. I mean, have you and Liam talked about being exclusive?" I'm still waiting for him to address my question, but I shake my head 'no'. "But I think you need to decide pretty quick on who you want. Because neither of them is going to tolerate sharing you. And to be completely honest, I didn't think you were that type of girl."

I feel a flash of indignation. 'I'm not!' I want to shout. But Alec is right. With Derek gone for a while, maybe it'll give me time to think. "I know. Derek said that he'd be going out of town for a while so maybe with him gone I'll be able to think clearly."

"What is it about Liam that makes you like him?" He asks quietly.

"I don't really know, it's... He's a really warm guy to be around. Sweet and gentle and good. I feel safe with him." I pause, knowing what's coming next and not wanting to say it. "But with Derek it's..." I close my eyes as that same heat from last night fills me again. "I don't know how to describe it."

He says quietly, "Like a sort of electric heat, warming you from the inside out and you're aware of every place your bodies are touching. You feel anything but safe, and you don't want it to stop?"

"Yeah, exactly like that." I breathe. I look at him, slightly perplexed. "You sound like you're speaking from experience."

He stares out the windshield. "I am."

"Oh, really?" I ask suddenly interested in the conversation. Alec never showed any interest to the girls back home.

"It doesn't matter anymore. She was never mine to begin with." He says moodily. "It doesn't matter."

"Alexander Clearwater, you're lying to me!" I exclaim incredulously.

"Alright, alright!" He says with a slight grin. "When I came here last fall, I had one goal in mind. And I was willing to throw it all away just for this one girl, and that's never happened to me before."

"Who?" I exclaim.

And he says quietly, "Malia. Malia Tate."

"Malia?!" My voice jumps an octave. "You like Legs?!" Well, that slipped through the filter! Nice going, Faye.

He looks at me and raises an eyebrow. "Legs?"

"When I first met her she was wearing shorts." I say indignantly, wanting to shrink back into the seat.

Alec grinned slightly. "And you think this about every girl you meet who wears shorts?"

I smack Alec's arm with frustrated good humor. "No, but you can't tell me that you haven't noticed how nice her legs are."

He looks sideways at me. "I'm a guy. Of course I notice. She was with Stiles when I came here and Stiles felt threatened because she trusted me and when I tried to help her find her mother, he sort of, flipped. And after what I did... things havn't been the same since. And I know that since I left she's gotten back together with him, but whenever I think of her and I not being together, it feels like some sort of big, cosmic joke." And he stares moodily out of the windshield.

"I'm sorry, Alec." A big cosmic joke. A big cosmic joke. Cosmisjokecosmicjokebigcosmicjoke. The words bounce around my head. But I can't pinpoint the reason. We arrive home relatively soon after that. As I'm seeing him off, I say "Alec, Scott said that Malia and Stiles were fighting again. Erica told me what it was about. I think you should go talk to her."

"No, no... she loves him." He shuts the drivers back door after dropping his duffle bag on the seat and leans against it.

"But you love her."

He sighs and rolls his eyes skyward, head shaking slightly. "I always thought that that kind of love made you weak. And then I come here and everything changes."

"How does she feel?" I ask quietly.

"It doesn't matter!" He almost shouts, and a fist hits the steering wheel. He sees my raised eyebrows and says, "Sorry." And then he goes on to explain. "I helped her find her mother, knowing that her mother wanted to kill her, because that's what she wanted. She wanted to kill her mother, because of what she is - a were-coyote. And me being half were-coyote, I wanted to help her. Well, her mother caught up to us while we were tracking her in the woods and I... I let her mother find her and she went after Malia. I debated for a full fifteen minutes with myself about letting Malia try and kill her mother alone or if I should just forget everything about the Dread Doctor's plans and help her. I chose the latter, and I ran in their direction. When I found her, she was almost beaten to death on the cave floor, The Desert Wolf no where to be found. I took her to the Animal Clinic and Deaton fixed her up, but Stiles never forgave me. And with all the stuff that happened between him and I before all that, I'm very surprised that he's able to be in the same room as me. And I don't blame him. After everything, he's entitled to hate me."

"But what about Malia?" I ask. "How does she feel about you?" I know he's avoiding the question on purpose.

"At first, I thought she liked me, too, but after her mother, I couldn't face her. I left not long after that."

"Did she tell you to leave?"

"No, but I can't imagine her wanting me to stick around after her mother almost killed her. That would never have happened if I hadn't helped her."

"Alec." I say sternly. "How do you know that without talking to her?"

He just shrugs. This is bad, I think. He really does like her. And he hates how he left things. But he doesn't know how to go about fixing it.

"You need to talk to her."

"I don't need to do anything. If I want to, I will." And he's actually giving me lip about it!

"Alec, if you like her, and she likes you, just talk to her. She'll understand."

"I don't know if she does like me. She may have at one point... but after tearing the pack apart-"

"You won't know until you talk to her. And if you havn't noticed, it looks like they're all back together." I'm not going to let this go without a fight. If he's actually found a girl he's interested in, he needs to act on it. He was never interested in any of the girls back home.

"You can be irritatingly stubborn, you know that?" He's giving me that look he gives when he thinks I'm doing something stupid. And all I can do in response is giggle.

"Frequently," I agree. "And you wouldn't want it any other way."

"Yeah, yeah. Alright, I'll talk to her."

"Good man." I say. "I'm going to head in. I'm dying for a nap. Let me know how it goes. My number's the same."

He grins slightly. "Yeah. Thanks."

"Anytime. Who else is going to keep you in line?" It was a light hearted comment, but as soon as I said it I wish I hadn't. His expression darkened and he said,

"See you later." And got into his Tundra and drove away. I sighed. I hadn't meant to bring up any bad memories. Times like this, I wish I had some tact.


Theo Raeken stared moodily out of the windshield of his big blue Tundra. When he got to the end of Faye's street, he sat there for a full five minutes deciding whether to turn right, and head out of town, or turn left, to the other side of town where Malia lived with her father. He found his hands turning the wheel left and his heart began to hammer. He'd tried so hard these past few months to forget how he felt when he was alone with her. He liked to think himself immune to a particular emotion that started with the letter 'L' associated with any type of romantic relationship. He'd thought that Faye was too, but then she comes here and things are turned upside down. She no longer belonged to him alone. And even though he'd never once thought of her as that type of friend, he still felt a little hurt about the whole thing. And Liam Dunbar, of all people. His upper lip curled in distaste. And then Derek Hale all but whisks her off her feet, and she was all too willing to let him. He'd never met Derek Hale during his time here, but he knew of him. Had heard a lot about him. Enough that, despite his dislike of the situation, he respected Derek enough to think that he deserved a break. And Theo knew Faye well enough that he knew she could be the break he needed, and-

Suddenly, the vehicle came to a stop. Theo realized that he was already at Malia's house. He sighed, not wanting to be here at all, yet not wanting to be anywhere else, and his heart pounded uncomfortably. He stalled, fiddling with the radio for a minute or two, still debating whether to leave or get out and walk to the door. Faye's voice rang through his head,

Man up, Alec. Quit pussyfooting around!

Alright fine. He squared his shoulders and started towards her front steps. He opened the screen and knocked lightly on the door. It took several moments before he heard the door unlocking, and swing open. There she stood. In her normal jeans shorts and loose green tank top with the open shoulder blades. Her hair had grown longer in the last six months and now rested just below her shoulders. Her lovely brown eyes didn't waver from his. For the life of him, he couldn't read what her expression was saying to him. After staring at each other for a full minute, he managed to say,

"Malia, I-" But she interrupted him.

"What are you doing here, Theo?" But she didn't sound accusatory, but now her eyes were angry.

"I... crap, I didn't think this through. I came here because... God, I'm not good at this. I want to talk, Malia." Had he actually managed to make sense with that sentence?

"Okay, so talk." She folded her arms in front of her and shifted her legs shoulder width apart. Theo cringed to himself. Definitely angry.

"Can I come in? It would be easier to-"

"No. We can talk out here." She shuts the door behind her and resumes the defensive stance.

"Alright..." He deserved this from her. He didn't know why he'd expected her to react otherwise. "I'm not really sure where to start. Uh-"

"How about you leaving without saying a word?"

"That's what you're mad about?" Theo asked, surprised. This, he could handle.

"That, and what you did to Scott, and you handing me over to my mother."

Oh. That he couldn't handle.

"After everything... settled, all I could think of was how you must hate me for all of that, and letting your mother almost kill you. I couldn't... face... you... knowing that you probably hated me."

"I do hate you." He inhaled sharply. He hadn't been expecting that phrase to hurt, but it did. Like a blow to the gut. "But," His eyes locked on hers, and he cursed himself for wanting her to tell him what he wanted her to tell him. "as much as I hate you, there's a part of me that hates it when you're gone." She looked up at him, her beautiful dark eyes unreadable.

"I'm sorry, Malia. I'm not sure if I can do anything to make what I've done right, or apologize for it enough, but I'd like to try."

Malia just stared at him. "I can't commit to anything right now, but I'm sure I'll see you around. I hear you know that new girl."

Theo grinned briefly, relieved with her answer. Not right now, was better than, Get the hell off my porch and don't ever come near me again, you complete sociopath!

"Huh. Small world, I guess. See you around." She said and slipped into the house, locking the door behind her.

Well, that could've gone a lot worse. Theo though, putting his hands in his pockets and walking back to his truck, flashes of when he let her beat him bloody in Deaton's office before they'd found her mother. As he headed back across town towards Faye's place, he was actually in a good mood.

He was almost there when a large dark shape darted in front of his truck. But it was not on the ground. It was in the air. And Theo had a good enough look at it to register the fact that it had wings. Very large bat-like wings. He tried to brake, but hit the thing hard, knocking it back onto the pavement 20 yards in front of him. It hit the ground hard and rolled over and over, bones cracking. Whatever it was, it was BIG. Smoke began swirling from under the Tundra's hood. Glancing back onto the road, his blood chilled when he did not see the dark shape. His foot floored the gas, but there was no response from his pick up. The hair on the back of his neck raised and he had just enough time to look out of his side window to register sharp, pointed ears sitting on the top of a large bald head with black skin and black eyes slam through the glass and sink it's very large and very decayed teeth into his neck.

He struggled, pushing at the thing, clawing at it, howling for help - surely one of the pack had to have heard him - but no help responded. Would they? He hoped in vain. As the thing drank deeper, his vision blurred, the shredded flesh at his neck sending jagged bolts of pain through his body. His last thought was of Faye. How cruel life was, she finally realizing that he'd never died, only to take him from her not even forty eight hours later.

I should've never come back.


Hey guys! Sorry it's taken so long for this update... This was a hard chapter to write, for several reasons! Stay tuned for Chapter 13! It's going to be really good.