The Wolf Within
Summary: Having a pack was nice, having her family together would be nicer but Sydney was well aware that things weren't going to be easy when it came to piecing her life together. This was Beacon Hills after all… Season 6: Peter Hale/OC
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters of Teen Wolf, Sydney however is all mine.
Chapter 12:
"You've missed a lot." Sydney murmured, nuzzling her head against Peter's shoulder while she sat next to him. Stiles had reluctantly left them alone for the time being but he was still well within seeing distance. Stiles had taken up a seat on the bench nearest them and every so often, she'd catch him peering over at them, most likely wondering when she was doing to try and do something instead of just sitting there next to Peter.
But Sydney wasn't entirely ready to jump into figuring things out, not just yet anyways. She wanted to bask in the feeling of Peter's hand gripping hers, his fingers intertwined between hers, and let his scent flood her entire system. He was okay, he was alive, but most importantly, he was right there with her.
"How long…how long have I been gone, really?" Peter pressed. "Stiles mentioned three months ago was when the blackout-"
"Yeah, but before that…if you claim that you were still in Eichen when the blackout happened, then you were there for a good nine or ten months." Sydney provided and immediately her mind flitted to Bruin.
Oh yes, Bruin, her daughter, Peter's daughter. He had no idea she even existed and Sydney wasn't entirely sure if the right time for her to tell him about Bruin would ever present itself. They were currently stuck in some random train station after being ripped away from Beacon Hills by the Ghost Riders, so yeah, she had ample opportunity, but she didn't want to scare him away.
She wanted to ease Peter into the fact that he had yet another daughter.
And boy oh boy was Sydney super anxious about how he'd respond to that news.
"I have a pack." Sydney announced softly, at least if she gave him that much information, she could start to lay it all out for him. She hadn't wanted to be a defenseless omega, she wanted to be strong and protected, she wanted to have people there to watch her back, and that's exactly what she had ended up with.
"A pack?" Peter turned his head and locked his eyes with hers. "You have a pack?"
"Yeah." She forced a smile onto her face and let out a nervous chuckle. "After you got yourself locked away, I took the liberty to head back to Colorado for a while, that's where I acquired Charlie."
Peter cocked his head sideways and she smiled even wider, her thoughts drifting to the young female that she had managed to land as part of her pack. Charlie had also come with her father, who had quite a bit of knowledge regarding the supernatural, and hell, he had even known Deaton.
"Charlie." Peter repeated the name and let it roll around on his tongue. "What's he like?"
"He?" Sydney scoffed and shook her head. While it had been obvious to her that Charlie was a girl, she could see where the misunderstanding might arise. "No, no Charlie's a girl. She's like Stiles' age, her dad's a doctor, but like a real doctor, a human doctor, not just a vet like Deaton."
"Charlie, the girl." Peter gave her a nod of understanding and Sydney let out a soft sigh, curling her body against his and trying desperately to get closer. She loved the feeling of his body against hers and if she had anything to say about it, she wasn't ever going to give it up again.
"She's pretty amazing. Like I've never really had many female friends but now that she's in my life, I cannot imagine it being any other way."
"She's a werewolf?" Peter pressed and pulled his hand out of Sydney's grasp before lifting his arm up and draping it over her shoulders instead. He leaned his head down and pressed a gentle kiss against the side of her head, loving the idea of her being right next to him just as much as she liked the idea of being next to him. "Or is she some other supernatural creature?"
"No, she's a werewolf." Sydney answered with a giggle. "She's living with me here now, I rebuilt my old house."
Peter gave her another nod, not entirely sure what he was supposed to say. It seemed that there was a lot more that Sydney wanted to get off her chest than he did, but then again, it wasn't like he had expected to see her, and he definitely hadn't expected to see her here. Of all the time that he had been gone, he had reserved himself to the fact that no one was looking for him, but that wasn't the case at all.
No one remembered him, yet part of him still harboured some little bit of resentment. He had missed out on so much, he had been stuck here for so long and before that he had been locked away, only to be driven to the brink of insanity.
Here Sydney was though, sitting right next to him, telling him about the things that he had missed while he had been gone. She had a pack, a pack that consisted of some teenaged girl named Charlie that he had never, ever heard of until that very moment. What did that mean for him?
Was he still going to be the most important person in her life? Could he convince her that she didn't need Charlie and that they'd be better off with just the two of them?
"I have the twins too." Sydney piped up and Peter stiffened at her admission. The twins, the very twins that had once been the enemy, the twins consisting of Ethan and Aidan…Aidan, who had kissed Sydney before…what was she thinking?
They weren't good people? Hell, they had been the worst of the worst at one point, what was she doing with them in her pack? Why had she sided with them?
Peter tried to gather his thoughts, he wanted to make sure he didn't just jump the gun. If the twins were part of Sydney's pack, that meant that they were loyal to her, and if they were loyal to her, what exactly had she done to earn that? Or were they just using her, were they sticking with her until they found something better?
"They're good to me." Sydney murmured, breaking the silence that had fallen over them. "They help me out a lot."
"Help you? You're an alpha, you're superior to them, what the hell do they need to help you with?"
Yes, here was the perfect opportunity to throw out that the twins looked after Bruin when she wasn't around, in fact, they were supposed to be looking after her at that very moment. She prayed that things were going smoothly back in Beacon Hills and that Bruin was safe, but she didn't know for sure what was going to happen the second that she had been taken by the Ghost Riders.
Should she tell him about Bruin now? Was this the best chance she was going to get to break the ice when it came to their daughter?
"They're strong and capable, they look out for me and I look out for them." Sydney explained with a small shrug. "I don't really know why you're so opposed to them being in my pack anyways, it's not like you were all that great to me before you wound up locked away in the nuthouse."
"I was-"
"You went behind my back and teamed up with Kate Argent." Sydney cut him off, leveling him with a glare. "We drove to Mexico where I witnessed you try to kill Scott McCall because you wanted to be the most powerful man in Beacon Hills."
"None of that meant that I didn't love you." Peter argued, Sydney shaking her head at him in response. "We all make mistakes."
"Yeah but still." Sydney countered. "You knew how much I hated Kate, you knew what she was capable of, what she did to your family was proof of that."
Peter opened his mouth to respond but she lifted her hand up, pressing her finger against his lips, silencing him with ease. He let out a breath and tipped his chin downwards, resting his forehead against hers and looking into her eyes. It wasn't hard for him to sense all of her pent up emotions pertaining to him.
She was furious with him for doing what he did, she was saddened by the fact that he had wound up in Eichen House while she had been forced to find her own way without him. Could he really blame her for finding a pack, for creating a group of her own that she happened to trust?
While Peter didn't really like the idea of having the twins hanging around Sydney, especially not that Aidan, he didn't really have a solid leg to stand on when it came to choosing allies. She was right, he had chosen Kate Argent over her.
"Syd!" Stiles' voice cut in, pulling Peter out of his thoughts and he felt her straighten up next to him, but she let his arm remain around her shoulders. He'd take it, it was just one of a hopeful few small victories that he had to look forward to. "Syd, we have to…we've got to try something to get out of here."
Sydney gave Stiles a nod of agreement and she slowly rose up to her feet. She extended her hand out towards Peter who grasped it with a sigh of his own. Surely he was happy to see her, she had no doubt about that, it was what happened when they finally managed to get the hell out of here that made her anxious.
She didn't know how Peter would react to her pack, or how he would fit in, if he would even want to be a part of her pack at all. Then there was the idea of him having to meet Bruin and how he'd react to that little tidbit of information.
"We have to find a way to get home." Sydney agreed and Peter rose up to his feet, falling in stride behind her as she followed Stiles around the end of the bench. She peered back at Peter, slowed her pace and walked along beside him as Stiles explored the walls of the train station, seemingly looking for any sort of trap door or way out.
Peter rolled his eyes at Stiles and tugged on Sydney's arm, drawing her closer to him and inhaling her scent. She couldn't contain the smile on her face as she relaxed against his side. For the time being, she'd worry about getting out of here, and until they actually made it out and got back to her pack, she'd put all her anxieties out of her mind. They had a bigger goal to focus on.
"Have we tried the doors?" Sydney posed and peered around the room, taking a look at the very doors in question. She had just arrived here but Stiles had been in the train station for a while, and Peter had been here even longer than that. Had the two of them tried to find a way out already?
Or had they not even really realized the trouble they were in until now?
"Have we tried…" Stiles scoffed at her suggestion but refused to meet her eyes. When he reluctantly looked in her direction, he shook his head no and she raised an eyebrow at him, silently questioning his lack of ideas. "Okay so we start by trying the doors."
Stiles walked across the room and stopped in front of a set of double doors, which were chained together. Sydney and Peter wandered along behind him but Peter took a seat on the chair against the wall mere feet away from Stiles, who grabbed at the thick metal pieces holding the door shut.
Sydney let Stiles have a go at the door on his own as she lowered her butt down and sat next to Peter, slipping her arm around his middle and leaning against him, pressing the tip of her nose against his shoulder. She let her eyes fall shut and listened to the steady beat of his heart, the sound soothing to her after such a long time without him.
"I missed you." Sydney whispered and slowly lifted her head, meeting Peter's eyes. He was looking right back at her and he raised his hand up, gingerly brushing a few strands of her hair behind her ear.
"You're constantly on my mind." Peter confessed in a soft tone and she took her bottom lip in between her teeth as she leaned in closer to him, eliminating the distance between them.
When her lips pressed against his, she felt her entire body relaxing at the kiss. This was what she wanted, this was what she needed and now that she had Peter in her sights, she wasn't going to let him go without a fight. He was her mate, he was the man she loved and she needed to get him back to Beacon Hills so that he could meet his daughter.
"Do you two really think now is a good time for that?" Stiles piped up and Sydney pulled away, glaring at him as she did so.
"What are you doing?" Peter quipped, turning his attention to the lanky teenager. Stiles gave a study pull on the chain and stared back at them.
"Oh, right, we should…be trying the doors." Sydney mumbled hesitantly and removed her arm from around him, then she ran her hands over her thighs and made her way to her feet.
"Little help, please?" Stiles demanded. "If we get out of here, you two can go off and make out all you want."
"I'm glad I have your permission." Sydney remarked sarcastically and took a step towards the door, but Peter beat her to the punch. He stood up from his own seat, hopped down to the floor and walked towards the door, grabbing the bottom part of the chain and giving it a rough yank.
She watched in awe and when the chain came a part, the links splintering under his strength, she ran her palm across his back. Peter was strong, just like her, and she knew that he'd be a valuable asset to her pack, if she could just get everyone to play nice.
Maybe knowing about Bruin would help him feel like he belonged, maybe he'd want to try to make things work for the sake of their daughter. Sydney could only hope that things would turn out okay for them all. She didn't want there to be any rifts between her betas, even if one of those betas was Peter.
Stiles shot her a look of determination before whipping the door open and walking through. She hung back, remaining by Peter's side and merely waiting for Stiles to make any sort of helpful discovery that he could. He disappeared into the darkness of the doorway and Sydney held her breath, hoping that they hadn't just made things worse.
She had been lucky to find him the first time, but if he had disappeared from the train station, she wouldn't even know where to begin trying to get to him again.
A noise from behind them caught her attention and at the same time as Peter, she turned around just in time to watch Stiles burst through another set of double doors further down the wall. She looked at Stiles, then back to Peter, with a confused expression etched on her face.
Was this place like a labyrinth, was it all an illusion of sorts? If Stiles had gone through the door in front of them, only to come out another set of doors behind them, what did that mean? There was no way that it would contain a hallway that would go around in a circle right, it had to go somewhere else?
Yet Stiles had come out behind them.
Stiles took a quick look around to get his bearings and when his eyes landed on Peter, she watched as the two males seemed to jerk backwards. Sydney cocked her head sideways and slowly turned her attention towards the doorway that they had just opened.
"What the hell?" Stiles murmured and began walking right back for the door. Sydney watched him go and when he disappeared into the darkness once again, she held her breath, hoping that wherever he was about to come out was somewhere safe.
She turned back just in time to catch Stiles surging through the door once again, apparently it came out the same spot every time. She let out a whimper and grabbed onto Peter's hand, giving it a rough squeeze as Stiles marched past them, determined to try it one more time. He broke out into a run and right as he was about to jog through the door, Peter held out his free hand, stopping Stiles in his tracks.
"No, no, no, keep going." Peter egged him on but Stiles rounded on him, leveling the former alpha with a glare that made Sydney flinch. She had rarely seen Stiles angry but this was him right out frustrated and furious. Here they had thought they had found a lead, a possible clue to getting out of here, but it was useless.
"I don't see you coming up with anything." Stiles retorted.
"Third time's a charm, right?" Sydney offered up with a nervous smile.
"Stiles." Peter cut in and turned his head to look over his shoulder the slightest little bit. "Left shoulder, against the pillar. Don't look."
Stiles, and Sydney, both made a move to turn but Peter gave her hand a rough squeeze, drawing her attention to him instead.
"I said don't look." Peter hissed. "He's watching us."
"Yeah, so?" Stiles shot back.
Sydney sucked in a breath, wiggled her fingers and forced Peter's grip on her hand to loosen just enough so that he wasn't hurting her anymore. She looked down at her feet and mentally counted to three before flipping her hair over her shoulder and stealing a look at the person that Peter was referring to.
There was a young man around Stiles' age, dark curly hair going every which way, and he was looking right at them. Well that was certainly a little off putting.
"So every person in this station is either comatose or catatonic, but that kid, he seems very interested in keeping an eye on us."
"Maybe he's with the Ghost Riders." Sydney offered up. "Maybe he's here to make sure no one leaves."
Stiles gave Sydney a shake of his head and pushed off, heading right for the kid. Sydney let out a groan and made a move to run after him but Peter held her hand tight and kept her in place, holding her back for a split second.
"No matter what, we stick together." Peter murmured and lifted his free hand up, ghosting his fingertips along her jaw. She leaned into his touch and gave him a silent nod, agreeing with him completely. No matter what was about to happen, she wasn't going to let Peter get too far away from her.
She followed Stiles lead, Peter moving with her, and the three of them approached the kid leaning casually against the pillar, his arms crossed over his chest as he watched them get closer.
"Hey!" Stiles called out to the kid but he turned on his heels, rounding the corner of the pillar. Sydney let go of Peter's hand and watched him move around to the other side, hoping to cut him off before he had a chance to get away.
She got in on the game too and stood at the corner where the kid had been standing originally, hoping that he'd eventually come back to where he had first noticed them. Stiles kept moving, as did the kid, but when the two of them came face to face with none other than Peter, she heard Stiles' heart skip a beat.
"Got you." Sydney mumbled, moseying on over towards the three boys and taking up a stance behind the strange kid so that he couldn't make a break away from them.
"Why are you watching us?" Peter demanded to know, his hands down at his sides but his fingers curled into fists.
"You tried the doors. Nobody ever tries the doors." The kid answered and Sydney let out a low growl, watching the kid in front of her tense from the sound. Good, apparently he hadn't noticed her behind him.
"Sounds like you have." Stiles pointed out.
"The ones that I could open, I've tried everything else."
"Not everything." Peter remarked. "You're still here."
"Yeah, it seems like you got some kind of a plan so why don't you tell us about it?" Stiles threw out. Sydney took a step closer to him and glared at the back of the kid's head. This, yes this was something she was familiar with. She could intimidate to get information, she could play the role of threatening werewolf in order to gain the upper hand, this was what she was good at.
"Unless you're one of them." Sydney piped up and caught sight of Peter staring at her, an unamused expression on his face. "You're not one of them, are you?"
"Tell us your plan." Peter cut in, not wanting Sydney to steer the conversation in the wrong direction. He widened his eyes at her and she raised her hands in defeat. Okay, maybe this wasn't her moment to shine, maybe she could take a backseat to Stiles and Peter; after all, they had been here a lot longer than she had, maybe they knew more about this place.
"I can tell you, doesn't mean you can do it."
"Oh, we, we can do it," Stiles paused, looking at Peter before looking back at the kid, "he can, he can…"
"So can she." Peter threw out, giving Sydney a slight nod of acknowledgement, the kid glancing over his shoulder to steal another look at her.
She snarled at the kid, challenging him without saying a word and hoping that whatever he was about to tell them would help them figure out how to get out of here. She wanted to get back to Bruin, she wanted Peter to meet his daughter, but she wanted to be somewhere where she felt safe and currently, safe was not what she felt, at all.
"Well, it's right in front of your face." The kid stated, turning to his left. Huh, well, she had noticed the big tunnel-like structure before, but it hadn't really crossed her mind that it was the way out. Maybe she was too concerned with Peter's presence, maybe she was distracted by everything that she was going to have to deal with when they did eventually get out of here…either way, there was a giant tunnel and none of them had suggested walking through it.
"That's not creepy at all." Sydney remarked and planted her hands on her hips. "No train tracks…"
"No trains." Stiles supplied and stole a glance back at the board where the times all still said 'delayed'.
"You didn't see it, did you?" The kid prompted, Sydney letting out a huff. Even if she wanted to walk through it, it was as sketchy as tunnels came. This was a phantom train station, there were no tracks but was what Stiles said true, were there really no trains? She didn't want to wander into the tunnel only to come face to face with a bright light belonging to a speeding train, it wasn't the way she wanted to die.
"My grandma always taught me to be cautious of strange places." Sydney added matter-of-factly. "Especially dark ones."
"I saw it." Stiles countered, but Sydney could tell there was very little conviction to his tone.
"Then why'd you waste so much time running through the doors? I'll tell you why, because it's all part of the illusion. You're afraid, and they want you to be afraid." The kid baited them and she could tell that Peter and Stiles were eating it up. She let out a huff and took a step forward, ready to defend her two male counterparts, but Peter spoke up before she had a chance to argue with this guy.
"I'm not afraid." Peter protested, his voice nearing a growl, and moved towards the tunnel quickly. She rolled her eyes at him but fell in stride behind him, ready to go with him if he managed to make it into the tunnel.
When he reached the edge of the shadows though, Peter paused and took in a deep breath. Sydney could hear his heart starting to hammer against his chest and she reached a hand out, resting her palm on the back of his shoulder for support, to remind him that she was right there. They were in this together.
"Can't do it, can you?" The kid spoke up smugly. Sydney let out a low growl and set a glare in the kid's direction. He didn't even budge though. "He can't do it."
"We really should kill him." Peter grumbled and Sydney bit down on her bottom lip. She sucked in a deep breath and passed him, making her way towards the tunnel, stepping into the edges of the shadows.
"Can we kill someone who's already been erased?" Sydney posed, bringing up a valid point. Stiles shot her a glare but settled his eyes on Peter, ignoring her question all together.
"Or you can just walk through it." Stiles egged Peter on, while Sydney set her foot down just inside the walls of the tunnel. She clenched her fists at her sides and peered back at Peter, hoping that he'd come and join her soon enough.
"We can do it." She murmured and forced a smile onto her face. "We've faced worse than a creepy tunnel, right?"
Peter gave her a nod and made an attempt to step forward but he didn't move. He remained frozen in place and Sydney continued to watch him, waiting for him to step forward and walk with her through the sketchy walkway.
"Push me." Peter instructed. Sydney bit back the urge to laugh. What part of 'we've faced worse' was he having trouble with?
There had been an alpha pack, a dead pool, berserkers and Kate Argent. Why was he so afraid of the dark all of a sudden?
"What did you say?" Stiles asked.
"Push me!" Peter repeated himself, this time a little louder and a little rougher. Sydney snorted at him and lunged forward at the same time that Stiles pushed Peter. As soon as he managed to catch up to her, Peter's arm came out and snaked around her waist, pulling her close to him. Her hip was against his as he took another step forward, moving deeper into the darkened tunnel.
"Together." Sydney murmured.
"Always." Peter whispered.
"Now you're getting it." The kid called from behind them and Sydney didn't even bother looking back at him. She was going to stick with Peter, she was going to stay by his side, and they'd face whatever was coming their way, together.
The kid moved past them and Sydney let out a breath, hoping that whatever was at the other end of the tunnel wasn't going to be anything worse than what she was used to facing.
"Stiles." Peter shouted but didn't look back. "Stiles, let's go."
She waited, hoping that Stiles would join them but he didn't seem to be moving. Sydney ran a nervous hand through her hair and let Peter pull her back towards the human teenager. When Peter grabbed the front of his shirt and hauled him forward, she couldn't help but smile.
This was definitely something that the three of them could handle, she just hoped that they all made it through in one piece.
XxxxxxXxxxxxXxxxxxX
Judit Hale: did this sort of help with the idea that he's going to maybe try treating her better?
BeccaSco: Heh, well...what do you think about this?
WalterTheFemaleDuck: Soon...I promise he'll find out about her soon...
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