'Alex, would you stop pouting about your damn car,' Stiles said, shooting me a look in the review mirror. My foul mood was in fact less about my totalled car and more about the fact I was stuck in the backseat with the young beta whilst Scott road shotgun. Of course, if I hadn't been driven off the road and rammed into a tree, I would've been able to drive myself on our late-night excursion. Either way, I was pissed, and I sent Stiles a glare to prove it. I loved that car.

'How'd you feel if you smashed your jeep into a tree?' I snapped back harshly. The teen narrowed his eyes at me in the reflection.

'I wouldn't feel anything. I'd be dead.' Right. I forgot. The fact that I'd survived the car accident was supposed to be a silver lining. I'd never really been one of those people who, when faced by darkness, look for the light.

'Shut up.'

'He's headed to the school,' Scott cut in as he received a text message on his phone. Stiles took the next right so that we were driving in the direction of the place in question.

'Why's Parrish headed to the school?' Liam asked.

'It's not Parrish,' Scott replied. 'At least not right now.' The young deputy had requested that at night, when the hellhound took over him, we should follow him to see where he was going.

'Okay, why's a Hellhound going to the school?' Liam rephrased. I rolled my eyes.

''Cause he's got a yearning for higher education,' Stiles replied sarcastically. 'Liam, Hellhound's at the school, so, we're going to the school.'

Not before long, we'd reached Beacon Hills High School and I inwardly groaned, recalling the last time (and all the times before that) that I'd been there. None of them had been a good experience. I pulled my Glock from the back of my jeans and braced it in front of me with both hands. I could tell that Scott in particular was weary of me carrying the weapon, but there was a killer beast on the loose that could rip any one of us to shreds at any moment. I was certain bullets wouldn't be able to stop it anyway.

We walked across the parking lot, catching sight of Argent who was approaching in the other direction. He had his gun out too.

'Where's Parrish?' I questioned.

'I lost him,' Argent replied. 'He's moving too fast.'

'Scott,' Liam said. We all looked to the beta to see that he was staring ahead of us at something on the ground. 'That guy's not moving at all.' As we approached the figure I could almost feel the fear radiating off of every single person. Being werewolves, I was sure Scott and Liam could feel it. The body had been ripped open, deep gashes along the man's chest as he lay dead on the ground.

As we carried on we noticed more and more bodies littering the ground. The most gruesome site of all was the yellow school bus that was stacked full of bodies. At first, I thought they were all dead, but then a boy slowly turned over and stretched a bloody hand out towards us.

'Help me,' he breathed as the life drained out of him. Scott took a step forward but I grabbed his shoulder and pulled him gently back as the Hellhound emerged from the shadows.

'It's a trap,' he said, his voice deeper than when he was in his human form. Flames crackled on his skin, causing the night around him to glow.

'Please...' the boy begged. I took a slight step forward so I was flanking Scott, Liam and Stiles behind us.

'You can't help him,' the Hellhound replied. Suddenly, the boy fell from the truck, exposing when his torso had been separated from the rest of the body. I'd seen a lot of nasty things in my life, but the site of half the boy's body on the ground as his guts spilled out was a hard one to look at.

I saw the glowing eyes before I saw the rest of it. The beast growled from inside the school bus and, identifying him as the most vulnerable in our group, pushed Stiles further behind me.

'That's big,' he pointed out as we stared at the huge monster. 'No one said it was that big.' The thing growled again and the Hellhound's body suddenly lit up in flames as he chased after it.

'What the hell's happening?' I asked as we watched them run away.

'It's getting smarter.'

I carefully lined the door to the McCall house with mountain ash, sealing myself and the were-coyote inside.

'Do we really need to do this?' Malia asked, folding her arms across her chest. For the rest of the night, Melissa and I decided it was best for the teen to be under a kind of house arrest, meaning her psychotic mother couldn't harm her whilst no one else was around. 'Deaton said the Desert Wolf can't get her power back unless she comes for me on a full moon.'

'I know,' I replied, standing from where I'd been kneeling and grabbing the shotgun from the table. 'Just because there are rules to taking power doesn't mean she plans to follow them.'

'I don't need a body guard,' she told me defiantly. I scoffed.

'Good, because I'm not a babysitter,' I shot back. 'Look, this is only until morning.' She held my gaze for a long time before she finally nodded in agreement.

At first, I wondered if she would try and get some rest. It went without saying that I wouldn't be sleeping at all, but that didn't mean she couldn't. Maybe she felt awkward leaving me alone downstairs. I doubted it. We'd both had periods in our lives where we'd been alone and I didn't think either of us minded it all that much.

'Where's Derek?' They coyote's question came without any inhibition and its suddenness flawed me for a second. For a brief moment, I wondered why she would care, and then I remembered that she was a Hale. It'd surprised me that the rest of them had refrained from asking me about my green-eyes wolf.

'He was going to come back to Beacon Hills, but just before we let Oregon, he got a message that Cora was being tracked by hunters,' I told her truthfully. 'He went to South America to help her.'

'Did he find her?'

'She's been on the run. Last I heard, he'd tracked her to the Mexican border.' She nodded in acknowledgement of all I'd told her.

'When did you hear from him last?' she questioned.

'A few days ago,' I replied.

'Do you miss him?' The matter-of-fact way she asked her questions sometimes made me a little uncomfortable, but that was what made her, her. My jaw tightened a little as I fidgeted with my fingers in my lap.

'Yeah.' I did. I did so much. Without him, I felt like a was reverting back to my older self, but in the same way, I was becoming something new. What would he think when I told him about what I was? Would he still care about me? I knew it had been less than I year since I'd met him, but I felt that because of him, no matter what occurred in the coming weeks, I'd never be the same again.

The next evening, we'd gathered back at the school before the lacrosse game. The transmission of frequencies was apparently what caused the beast the shift from its human form, and each time this happened, it was getting stronger. The charity game that night was being broadcasted, meaning that there was a very high chance that the beast would show up. If this happened, we were going to try and figure out who it could be. Our only evidence was a pair of size 10 shoes covered in blood.

'Mason, you know what to do?' Scott asked.

'Corey and I break into the Devenford Bus and search their shoes,' the teen replied.

'I take out the TV vans,' Malia said.

'Right before the whistle, Coach forfeits the game,' Stiles said. Scott nodded.

'Alex, you be on guard in case the dread doctors show up,' the alpha instructed. I nodded. 'The rest of us are looking for a size 10 with a bloody sole.'

'Just out of curiosity, what if it doesn't work?' Malia asked. Always the optimist, but I guess I couldn't really talk. 'What if we have to go up against this thing? I mean, I hate to bring up bad memories but Scott's still healing from what Theo did to him.'

'No, he's not,' Kira said.

'She's right,' Scott said, lifting up his lacrosse jersey to reveal that the wound had completely healed. 'It happened the night we got Lydia out of Eichen House. I healed. When were all together again, when we were a pack.'

'The Beast doesn't have a pack,' Liam pointed out.

'Not like us,' Scott said. 'We can do this, guys. No one dies tonight.'

We dispersed to get to our positions. I decided I'd have the best view from the bleachers and headed over straight away. The crowds were already swarming around the field with players in place. I spotted one in a green uniform that I recognised. Brett Talbot. It was the kid I'd helped save from Violet all those months ago after the first lacrosse game I'd been to. Although it seemed good to have another able-bodied werewolf on the premises, I couldn't help but feel a sense of dread. I hoped the evening would go better than the last.

I placed myself midway up the bleachers, my eyes scouting the outskirts of the field for anything suspicious. I caught site of Stiles as he approached the coach, about to get him to forfeit the game. For a moment, I thought the plan might actually work, but then the piercing sound of a whistle sounded to signal that the game was going ahead. I tightened my jaw. This couldn't be good.

The opposition players swarmed the field as I exited the stands and caught up with Scott.

'I thought he was supposed to be forfeiting the game,' I said in a hushed voice.

'It's fine,' he replied. 'Malia's still going to take out the wiring on the TV vans. And we have an hour and a half to try to find someone with blood on their shoes.'

'One person out of 400,' I reminded him.

'We can do this,' he encouraged, though I wasn't sure I believed him. I nodded anyway as he turned to take his spot on the field.

'Hey Scott?' I called after him. He turned around to look at me through his helmet. 'Be careful, okay?' I could see a smile tug at his lips at my slight show of concern for him. It was true. I had come far from the girl I was when I'd first come to Beacon Hills, and I knew Scott knew it too.

'You too,' he called back before we parted to take out positions. I resumed my spot on the bleachers just as the whistle to start the game sounded.

I watched as the players threw the ball to each other and tried to dodge the opposite team. When I saw Kira intercept the ball I found myself having the supress a cheer that was about to erupt from my mouth. I may have changed a lot, but I was certainly not back to being a cheerleader. I frowned, however, when she knocked three players from the opposite team to the ground before scoring a goal. I knew lacrosse was an aggressive game but I didn't expect something like that from the kitsune.

I brushed it off as a onetime thing, only to watch her do a similar thing a second time. When play started again, I wasn't surprised when Brett took her out. It looked like it had been planned. I was surprised though when she got back up and struck him across the head with her lacrosse stick. She was sent off the field straight away and I followed her with my eyes until she disappeared from sight.

As the game continued, Beacon Hills started to gain a few more goals, though I think that was the least of everyone else's problems. After a few more minutes of watching the game, I realised that I couldn't see Scott anywhere. I didn't want to abandon my post, but when I was Stiles exit the pitch, I had to follow him.

I found him underneath the bleachers as he pulled at some girl's shoe.

'What the hell are you doing?' I asked, causing him to jump. At the same time, the girl kicked her foot back, causing the teen to smack his head against the metal frame. He groaned, his face contorting comically into an expression of pain. I rolled my eyes at him as he rubbed his forehead with his palm.

'Owe,' he grumbled with a frown. I grabbed a water bottle from a cool box on the ground and shoved it against his head. He winced at the sudden coldness but replaced my hand with his nonetheless.

'Where's Scott?' I hissed at him.

'He went after Kira,' he replied, pressing the cold-water bottle to the sore spot on his head.

'Did Malia manage to take out all the TV vans?' I asked.

'I dunno,' he replied as I spotted Liam jogging over to us. 'Alex, I have a really bad fe-.' He was cut off by an excruciating noise that had us all with our hands covering our ears. It was high pitched and made my head spin. When it was over, we all knew exactly what had just happened. We'd failed. The beast had shifted.

'Liam!' Stiles and I called when we saw him walking away from the bleachers, his eyes starting to glow amber. He was going after the beast. We jogged after him as he picked up his pace. 'Liam, wait!' We got there just in time to see him launch himself at a large looming figure.

The beast struck him down instantly, its huge claw ripping through the young beta's lacrosse uniform and tearing his flesh underneath. I ran to him, Stiles following me close behind. He gasped in pain as he shook on the ground, his hands pressed to the gaping wound in his stomach.

'Oh my god,' Stiles muttered, grimacing at the sight of all the blood. Screams echoed from all around us as people worried and panicked. In the distance, I could hear the low growl of the beast.

'Liam!' I heard from behind. I recognised the voice as Hayden's and soon she was by the boy's side. I turned to Stiles.

'You and Hayden need to get Liam inside,' I instructed him in a loud voice so he could hear me over the chaos.

'Alex…'

'Now, Stiles!' I yelled, giving him no opportunity to protest. He nodded quickly and helped Hayden carry Liam towards the school.

I ran back to the lacrosse field to see if anyone was still there. It was deserted apart from a few people who were fleeing the bleachers to get somewhere safer. I pulled out my phone and dialled Scott's number, cursing when he didn't pick up.

'Dammit!' I shouted, running a stressed hand through my hair. We needed Parrish. We needed Argent. Actually, we needed a miracle, but I doubted we would get that lucky.

As I headed back towards the school, I felt my phone vibrating in my pocket. I picked it up straight away, relieved to hear Malia's voice on the other end.

'Where are you?' I asked worriedly.

'I'm in the school. Is Stiles with you?' she asked.

'No, he went inside with Liam and Hayden,' I told her. 'What's it like in there.'

'It's chaos. Everyone is panicking,' she replied. 'We need you in here. Did you bring a shot gun?'

'I have my Glock,' I told her. 'But the rest of the weapons are in Stiles' jeep.'

'Get them,' she instructed. 'I'll meet you inside.' We hung up and I sprinted towards the parking lot. I was glad to find that Stiles' jeep was unlocked. Although I easily could've smashed a window if need be, I was grateful I didn't have to. Maybe Stiles' silver lining crap was rubbing off on me.

A grabbed the kitbag of guns from the back seat and headed towards the school. As I crossed the parking lot, I felt the hairs on the back of my neck prick up. Something was here. I crouched behind a car and slowly unzipped the bag, pulling out a sawed-off shotgun. I held it close to my chest as I tried to quieten my breaths. My jaw clenched at the sound of another's breath. It was ragged and came out in grunts and growls. I knew it was here.

I back away slowly from the car, keeping the shotgun ready to fire at all times. If I was quiet enough, maybe I could get back to the school without getting my intestines ripped out. I moved quickly but silently as the thing tried to sniff me out. This thing was a werewolf after all, and werewolves had bad instincts when it came to me. I wondered if it could smell me at all. I was nearly at the other end of the lot when a piece of broken class crunched under the heal of my boot. I had about half a second to prepare myself before there was an almighty roar and the beast was in front of me. I shot at it as many times as I could before I ran out of ammunition. The bullets barely slowed it down. Argent was right. This thing really was the perfect killing machine. But I was the master of survival.

I sprinted for the school, dodging the creature's claws as they swiped at me. I fired at it a few more times with my Glock before it managed to scratch my shoulder, causing a deep gash to appear. It was painful for a second before I felt the wound mend itself.

I knew it was gaining on me. I turned to my left, a sudden idea popping into my head. I shot at it a few more times before throwing myself under the school bus, the beast jumping over it and getting off my tail. My hands burned as they scraped against the tarmac and once I was sure it wasn't following me anymore, I ran out from my hiding spot and into the school.

Once inside, I had a proper chance to have a proper look through the bag of firearms. I chose a much heavier duty weapon, satisfied it would be more powerful and hopefully do more damage than the shotgun. I met up with Malia who was with a recovered Liam and we headed in the direction of the library.

Liam flung open the doors and ran at the beast who was towering over the alpha. He landed a solid punch to its face and I stepped forward, unloading a round of bullets into it as Malia bared her fangs. It growled ferociously with every gunshot and finally smashed through the large library window as it headed out into the night.

Malia and I stepped forward to help a bloody and beaten looking Scott to his feet. The site of him brought back memories from the last time I was in the library and he had almost been killed by Theo.

'What were you thinking?' I chastised him. 'You didn't seriously think you could take that thing out by yourself, did you?' Scott shook his head, a laugh almost escaping his lips.

'No,' he said. 'But I got its scent.' The alpha sprinted out of the library and I followed after him along with Liam.

'Scott!' I called after him. 'Scott, you're bleeding.' He wouldn't listen as he followed the scent of the beast.

'You gotta slow down,' Liam protested alongside me. Finally, he stopped outside a car and pulled open the trunk, revealing a pair of shoes. I grabbed one in my hand and turned it over, revealing a sole covered in blood.

'Size 10,' I muttered, reading the small number on the bottom of the shoe. I looked to Scott who stared back at me, an unreadable expression on his face. He slammed the boot shut and we all jumped when we spotted Mason standing a few feet away from us.

'Scott?' he said with a frown. 'What are you doing to my car?' My stomach dropped to the floor. Mason was the beast? Mason?

'It's you,' Scott muttered in bewilderment. My hand hovered over my Glock in the back of my jeans but I couldn't find it in me to pull the gun on him. He was a kid. I wasn't entirely convinced he knew what he was.

'What?' Mason asked as he took a step forward. My fingers closed around the handle of the gun. 'Liam, what's he talking about?' Liam didn't reply. None of us did. What could we say? 'Liam?'

Suddenly, a figure materialised out of nowhere right next to Mason and put his hands on his shoulders.

'Corey, wait!' Scott yelled and I then recognised the teen as one of the chimeras. 'Wait!' Scott yelled again. Corey turned invisible again, taking Mason with him. Scott lurched forward as he tried to grab on to them, but his hands only cut through the air. They were gone.

AN: That was chapter 20! Only 2 more episodes of season 5 to go now! What do you think might happen?

Don't forget to check out the poll on my profile :)

Let me know what you thought, much love x