The Wolf You Feed

Summary: Sequel to The Last of Us: Sydney should have known from the start that her war wasn't going to end with the demise of the nogitsune, especially not since she fell in love with Peter Hale. Today was a painful reminder that the wounds would heal but the scars would always remain. Season 4: Peter Hale/OC

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters of Teen Wolf, Sydney however is all mine.

Chapter 25:

Peter hadn't been terribly concerned when Sydney had said that she wanted to go thank Deaton for the drugs, if he was honest, which he rarely was and more often than not only with Sydney, he was thankful that Deaton had been so helpful when he had shown up and requested tranquilizers. That had been hours ago though and while Peter was well aware that Sydney could take care of herself, he also knew that she had a tendency to make rash decisions, which often ended in her getting injured, especially when it came to helping Stiles.

He knew that she wasn't exactly thrilled with the idea of Malia being a part of his life and she was clearly irritated that he was seeking out the Desert Wolf, who was potentially the mother of his child, but what other choice did he have?

Yes Sydney had said that he could just leave the girl alone and live out his life without having anything to do with the werecoyote but that wasn't something he was comfortable with. He wasn't seeking out a relationship, not in the fuzzy family feelings sense but he definitely wanted the young girl on his side, or at least to the point where it wouldn't take much for her to join him if he found himself needing all the power and control he could get.

Sydney was an alpha, his alpha, and he was lucky enough to be mated to her, but she was also stubborn and she quite often refused to relinquish control. Peter figured he had it coming though. Most of their relationship up until the point where they became mated had been him trying to pull off some elaborate plan; he hadn't intended to fall in love with Sydney Vance.

Yet that's exactly what had happened. She had put up with him, she had taken him for what he was and she never once tried to change him. She spoke her mind, she wasn't gentle and to get her to submit, well that was a chore in itself. Maybe he liked that about her, maybe in his eyes, she was his perfect match.

Peter understood why she was angry at him now, especially when it came to Malia and her mother. Sydney never had to share with anyone, she had always been her own person and now she was mated to him, which meant that she had to consider another person's feelings and Peter was that other person.

She had made a few good arguments though. Why did he really need to get involved in Malia's life when he had Sydney? For one it was about control, control over someone else. Peter wasn't stupid, he wasn't blind, he could see that Sydney wasn't exactly following him willingly like she once had and, not that it was a bad thing, she definitely wasn't treating him like the man who called the shots. She was young still, curious and her alpha status had yet to really be tested.

Sometimes he longed for the days, like in the beginning, where she'd merely curl up against him and provide him with a warmth that he hadn't felt since Eden had passed away. Watching Batman and the Looney Toons had been quite enjoyable and as juvenile as the cartoons seemed, he wouldn't give up that time spent with her for anything.

So maybe he was giving her a little leeway now, maybe he was letting her get away with spending more time away from him but after the whole nogitsune possession, maybe she deserved time to herself. At the very least he could commend her for having the decency to check in with him, like when she had called him from Mexico, or more recently the call he had received not too long ago where she had explained that she had saved someone who had been lit on fire. Now that was something he definitely wanted to know more about.

Peter strode across the apartment and cautiously dropped down onto one of the stools at the island. He glanced at the book residing there and pulled the cover open, scanning the index for ideas. He knew he was going to have to figure out what the hell this Deputy Parrish really was, he had been suspicions the second he had laid eyes on the man in question at the scene of the crime, the day after Sydney's house and gone up in flames.

Without much to go on though, Peter could only theorize what he might be.

When the door to the apartment swung open, he tore his eyes away from the book and glanced at Sydney, who was walking with an air of confidence that he had only seen a few times since she showed up at his door, soaking wet. Now there was another good memory, he wouldn't say anything out loud but when she had shown up on his doorstep sopping wet, he knew that he had to have her.

"What are you doing?" Her voice was soft and laced with curiosity. Sydney flipped her boots off, leaving them at the front door, and tossed her leather jacket, which had been draped over her arm, at the couch. She flipped the dead bolt on the door and made her way towards him, taking a seat at the vacant stool next to his.

He smiled at her and watched as her elbow came to rest on the surface of the island. She dropped her chin into her palm and leaned forward, stretching her back out slightly. Peter chuckled at the sound of cracking bones and she let out a soft sigh.

"I'm researching." Peter answered with a knowing smirk. She scrunched her eyebrows together in confusion and straightened up, removing her hand from her chin and her elbow from the island.

"What are you researching?" She pressed, turning towards him and extending her leg out, running her toes up his shin.

"I'm trying to find out what kind of supernatural creature can survive being lit on fire." Peter replied and she scoffed at him.

"He's probably some phoenix or something."

"What makes you say that?"

"I read Harry Potter okay, I know all about those stupid bird things and plus I saw the movies too, stupid phoenix combusted and was 'born again from the ashes' or something like that." She explained. "I'm not completely ignorant when it comes to the supernatural."

"I never said you were."

"Sure. To be fair though, there weren't any werecoyotes or werejaguars in Harry Potter."

"So you're basing all of your knowledge of the supernatural on a fictional book about wizards?" Peter cocked his head to the side and she let out a grunt of frustration.

"We didn't all get to grow up with our werewolf family members, which reminds me; Deaton told me some interesting things about my parents."

"You're deflecting the conversation away from the deputy who was lit on fire."

"Parrish, Jordan Parrish, he's on the dead pool." Sydney explained and reached into her pocket, pulling out the list in question. She set the dead pool on the island in between them and let out a sigh.

"You've got yourself a hit list." Peter remarked with a smirk.

"Yes and Parrish is apparently worth five million." Sydney droned on, as though the information was nothing too important.

"Intriguing."

"What's intriguing is that your name is not on the list."

"Neither is yours." Peter pointed out.

"Should I be thanking you or is there some higher power-"

"Don't worry about it Sydney, the important thing is that your name is not on the list and therefore you don't have a price on your head." Peter cut her off and explained why she shouldn't really be concerned. If she was completely honest, she was thankful that her name wasn't on the list but she more curious as to why that was. What was so special about her and Peter that their names weren't on the dead pool?

Sydney noticed the fierce look in his eyes and pushed the questions to the back of her mind. She wasn't about to push her luck, not when she still had to inform Peter that she was going back out and the reason for her going back out was to help out her new buddy Deputy Jordan Parrish, who was young, attractive and clearly interested in Sydney.

"I have to go to the loft." Sydney sighed, better to just get it over with, to treat it like a Band-Aid and rip it off quickly.

"When?"

"Um, like, tonight." She shrugged.

"What for?"

"I told Parrish that I'd meet him there. We're going to see if Derek knows what he is, or at the very least, maybe Derek can help him." Sydney answered, leaving out the part about Lydia being there, not to mention, before she had left the sheriff's station, Stiles had called Scott and told the true alpha to meet them at the loft too. Yes, there were a few things that Peter didn't need to know.

"Maybe he can help us." Peter purred and leaned forward, slipping his hand over her shoulder and tangling his fingers in her hair. He gave a gentle tug and she tilted her head back, a moan escaping her throat as he closed the distance between them and pressed a kiss to the delicate skin on her neck. She shivered as he grazed his teeth over her skin and Peter slowly backed away, his hand remaining in her hair.

"I know that I wouldn't mind having a guy who can survive being set on fire on my team." Sydney countered but she had deliberately used the term 'my team', not 'our team'. She didn't trust Peter, not when he was working with Kate and it didn't take much for Sydney to realize that he had been near the former hunter while she had been off on her own. There was a lingering scent of sewer in the apartment, which was fresh, not to mention she could just barely smell Kate when she sat down next to him.

"Just make sure you don't wind up getting yourself hurt."

"I won't." She smiled and set her palms on his thighs, running her fingers over the material of his jeans. "Not until I get back home anyways. You know I like it rough."

"I certainly do." Peter nodded and reluctantly untangled his fingers from her hair, moving his palm so that it was on her hip. She stepped down off the stool and closed the distance between them, standing between his knees now. His forehead gently fell against hers and his gaze lingered on her luscious lips.

"I want you." She murmured and wrapped her arms around his neck, holding him against her. Peter simply smirked at her but didn't move a muscle. He didn't make a move to kiss her, his hands didn't graze her body, he just remained still, staring into her eyes.

"Don't come home smelling like anyone and we won't have any issues." Peter purred, tensing slightly as she pressed her chest against his.

"I only want you." She whispered, tilting her head to the side and moving her chin forward, pressing her lips against his. Seconds later, she pulled away and looked into his glowing blue eyes.

Even if she didn't trust him, she still loved him; she knew that he wasn't going to hurt her, not on purpose. It wasn't really herself that she was worried about though, she knew that Peter had other plans, plans even she didn't know about, why else did he need Kate? Sydney knew it was because she didn't mind getting blood on her hands, Kate was ruthless, she'd do whatever she could in order to get ahead, which is why Sydney needed her dead, well that and the hunter had burned down her house, attacked her friends and threatened her relationship. Yes, there were many reasons why Kate Argent needed to die.

"And you're the only one for me." Peter whispered back, his fingers biting into her hips now.

"Good." Sydney cooed. "I'd hate to have to stake my claim on you, again."

"You say that like I wouldn't enjoy it."

"When I get back, I want you to come to bed with me and I want you to bite me in the most intimate place you can think of." Sydney stated, confidence in her tone.

"Are you demanding that as my alpha or suggesting that as my mate?"

Sydney cocked her head to the side and smirked at him, "I'm saying that as a woman who wants to experience her lover in the best way possible."

"That, I can accept." Peter smirked right back at her.

Sydney's eyes flitted down to his lips but Peter quickly moved away from her, turning his attention back to the book. She didn't grumble, she didn't put up a fuss; instead, Sydney pressed a kiss to his shoulder and stepped away from him, disappearing into the bedroom.

Minutes later she sauntered back out with a clean pair of jeans adorning her legs and one of his t-shirts covering her top half. The sleeves were rolled up and the hem was tucked into the front of her jeans, Peter's eyes racked her body as she moved towards the front door.

As soon as she was out of the apartment, he let out a breath he hadn't intended to hold and shook his head. He was absolutely smitten, there wasn't too many things in the world that he would put in front of Sydney, now all he had to do was prove it to her.

XxxxxxXxxxxxXxxxxxX

Sydney was the last one to show up at the loft and when she wandered in through the oversized door, she was met with silence, absolute silence. It was as though the people inside didn't have any idea what to say or even where to start.

Without putting it off any longer, she closed the door behind her and walked further into the loft, her boots thudding against the hard floor was the only noise in the room. She looked at Derek, who gave her a nod of acknowledgement but nothing more. She wasn't going to complain, she'd take what she could get, especially from Derek, the nephew of the uncle she was currently working with and she knew that Derek wasn't particularly happy with Peter's current position.

Sydney took her stance next to Parrish, who was decked out in a fresh t-shirt and a form fitting pair of jeans. She wasn't about to comment out loud but boy did the deputy know how to clean up. In addition to his clothes, she also noticed that his skin, which had been blackened and charred the last time she saw him, was smooth, flawless and clean. Whatever he was, he certainly recovered quickly from being set on fire and left for dead.

"What's going on here?" Parrish asked, his voice a hushed whisper and it was directed only to Sydney. She knew that the wolves in the room could easily hear him, something that he didn't know. Sydney gave him a gentle pat on the shoulder and looked around at the occupants of the room. Lydia gave her a barely noticeable stink eye, Scott just stared at her without any hint of emotion and Derek was waiting for everything to come out.

"Do you trust me?" Sydney countered.

"Do I have a choice?" Parrish shot back and Sydney snorted at his response. Yes, that was the perfect response to her question. He not only implied that he didn't really trust her but he suggested that maybe he was starting to realize that she was one of the only people who could potentially help him.

Derek took this as his cue and stepped forward, nodding at Deputy Jordan Parrish. Sydney reached down and grabbed his hands, lifting them up and handing them to Derek, who took them in his hold and studied them.

"He covered you in gasoline?" Derek questioned, Lydia now standing between Derek and Parrish while Sydney hovered around behind the deputy.

"It's the hair and nails, isn't it? The parts of the body that are essentially dead." Lydia pointed out matter-of-factly and Sydney bit back a growl. She vowed that she was going to remain civil with Lydia Martin, so long as the strawberry blonde didn't try anything funny.

"Well, they should be gone." Derek replied and Jordan lifted his hands up, pressing his fingers against his chest.

"I was set on fire; all of me should be gone." Jordan cut in and Sydney leaned against him, moving her hand down to take hold of his. She intertwined her fingers with his and held on, attempting to draw out any residual pain. When her veins refused to turn black, she loosened her grip on him and studied the side of his face. He was clearly in wonder of what had really happened and Sydney couldn't exactly blame him. He had essentially been burned to death, except, well, he hadn't actually died.

"Not if you're like us." Scott offered up in a vague attempt to answer some of Jordan's questions.

"Like you?" Parrish directed his attention towards Scott but Sydney dropped her forehead down, resting in on his shoulder.

"All of us." Sydney murmured and she didn't have to look up to know that his gaze was locked on her form now.

"I don't think he's like us." Derek shook his head. No there was clearly something different about Jordan Parrish. Sydney had already concluded that he wasn't a werewolf and now she was finding herself wondering if she should share her theory on what she thought he was. Did phoenixes exist? If so, was it really possible that the man standing next to her had the potential to be one?

"Then what is he?" Lydia questioned.

"Sorry, but I have no idea." Derek answered and settled his gaze on Sydney, as though he was silently accusing her of knowing more than she let on. Okay, she had to give it to Derek though, if he was smart enough to give Sydney a questioning glance, it was clearly because she was mated to his uncle, who most definitely seemed to know more than he let on, always.

"But you knew about Jackson and Kira." Scott pointed out in a desperate attempt to get Derek to think harder, maybe there was some long forgotten information that he had hidden in the deep recesses of his mind.

"Someone who can survive being set on fire is slightly more advanced than what Derek knows." Sydney piped up. She knew that he was familiar with a lot of supernatural creatures, of course he was, he had grown up with Talia to guide him. There was a point though where all of his knowledge was based on actual evidence and if Peter didn't know what Parrish was, well there was no way that Derek would know either.

"This is a little out of my experience." Derek stated, agreeing with Sydney. "There might be something in the bestiary, did you try Argent?"

"I don't know where he is." Scott replied nonchalantly. Okay well that was a valuable piece of information. Scott didn't know where his hunter ally was, did that mean that Chris was keeping secrets, or maybe it meant that he was out searching for Kate in a dire attempt to capture her. Sydney didn't figure that he'd be able to kill his own sister, even if she was a murdering supernatural psychopath.

If he found Kate though, and did somehow manage to wrangle her into some place where he could keep her, did that mean that Sydney would lose her chance at ending the bitch's life? Making a mental note to look into Chris Argent's secure supernatural holding places, Sydney focused her attention back on the conversation at hand.

"Don't you have a bestiary of your own?" Sydney muttered and felt Parrish's grip on her hand tighten. He was clearly out of his element and she didn't entirely blame him. She'd be extremely nervous if she was in his position, especially after someone had tried to light her on fire.

"Peter." Derek mumbled back in Sydney's direction and she nodded her understanding. Right, yes, of course, if anyone had access to the Hale bestiary, it would be Peter and Peter alone. Well hey, maybe he'd be willing to share his own knowledge with her, then again, he hadn't really said much about Parrish when she had stopped in at the apartment, maybe he didn't know much about what the deputy could possibly be either.

"Okay, hold on. What's a bestiary? Actually, that's not even my first question, just…just tell me one thing, are all of you like Lydia? Are you all psychic?" Parrish questioned and glanced around the room at each and every person.

Sydney let out a snort at his summary of Lydia. Psychic, it wasn't a total shot in the dark, she could predict some things but from her limited understanding of banshees, it wasn't much more than who was going to die. Parrish settled his gaze on Sydney, who peeled herself away from his body but left her hand holding his.

"Sorry." Sydney mumbled and pressed her lips together, trying to keep herself together. It was adorable really, Jordan was clueless and she couldn't help but look at him with awe. Oh how nice it would be to know nothing, to remain innocent, yes Jordan Parrish was almost lucky in that sense.

"Psychic?" Derek baited and raised his eyebrows. This was clearly new to him. Apparently he figured that every supernatural creature was supposed to know that Lydia wasn't just psychic but that she was a banshee.

"Yeah."

"Not exactly." Scott rocked his head from side to side.

"Okay, then what are you?" Parrish continued to look directly at Scott and Sydney felt the excitement taking over her body. She loved when Scott shifted, hell she loved it when anyone shifted and she had fully expected him to bring out his wolf. When she looked at him a few seconds later, the only werewolfy thing that Scott had done was to bring out his alpha eyes, his vibrant red alpha eyes.

It had been a long time since Sydney had seen a pair of red eyes, aside from her own. Peter's had been the last and even then she hadn't had the chance to witness the colour change of his irises as he sacrificed his alpha spark to save her from certain death. No, she hadn't seen Peter's red eyes in a long time, not that his vibrant blue ones made him any less of a man, not in the slightest. She still loved him, it didn't matter to her what colour his eyes were.

"Red eyes?" Parrish cocked his head to the side and Scott nodded his head yes. "What's that mean?"

"He's an alpha." Sydney blurted out before anyone could stop her. She wasn't entirely sure if they had wanted to keep that type of information a secret but it was too late now. She had said what they were all thinking and now Parrish was looking at her like she was a god. The sparkle in his eye was unmistakable and suddenly she knew that he was aware of how deep everything really went.

She wasn't just a girl; the fire that had taken her house didn't happen by accident, no, he knew that she was involved in the supernatural side of things. He continued to stare at her, waiting for her to go on.

"Werewolf." Derek broke in and Jordan's gaze flitted away from Sydney, but not for too long. Seconds passed and he slowly turned to face her once again.

"Scott's a werewolf?" He asked, a skeptical tone to his voice.

"And me." Derek lifted his hand like he was volunteering a simple, understandable fact.

"And you?" Parrish inquired, leaning slightly forward and studying Sydney's face. She seized her opportunity and brought out her vibrant blue werewolf eyes, staring at him and watching as he cautiously lifted his palm up, moving it towards her face. Lydia cleared her throat and Parrish dropped his hand back down to his side, Sydney jerking her head to the side to glare at Lydia.

"Blue eyes." Lydia remarked. "You remind me so much of Jackson."

"Who's Jackson?" Jordan looked between the two girls.

"I think the better question is 'what's Jackson'." Sydney replied. "He was a Kanima."

Jordan shook his head at the wealth of new, and essentially useless, information before ducking his head down. Sydney twisted her body and motioned towards the couch in the corner of the loft and soon enough, everyone was making their way towards it. Jordan took a seat in the middle of the cushions and Sydney stepped up onto the piece of furniture before crossing her legs and dropping down next to him, careful to leave a bit of space between their bodies.

She took in a deep inhale and fought off the smile tugging at her lips. Yes, she could faintly smell Peter on the couch and it made her happy to know that even if he wasn't with her, she still had something of him to hang on to, something to remind her to play it cool and not to give too much away.

"What's a Kanima?" Jordan seemed to have an endless supply of questions and Sydney couldn't exactly blame him. He clearly had a rough night and there were a lot of things that he didn't know about, not until he had escaped the fiery coffin that was his cruiser.

"We'll get back to that. Just know that everyone like us, everyone with some kind of supernatural ability is on the dead pool." Scott answered as moved towards the end of the couch and took up a perch on the side of it. Derek remained standing, as did Lydia, and Sydney couldn't help but notice how anxious the Martin girl was in a room full of werewolves, or maybe it was just because Sydney was present.

"But I don't even know what I am." Jordan argued.

"I'm pretty sure they don't care." Derek pointed out, almost as though he was amused by the deputy's predicament. Sydney glared at him but he just widened his eyes at her move, almost challenging her. She rolled her shoulders back and took a deep breath, calming herself down.

"That's not important okay, we can't just send him back out there to get killed by crazy, psycho professional assassins." Sydney pointed out and Scott nodded along with her. Good, at least she had someone backing her up.

"How many professional assassins are we talking about?" Jordan seemed to be focused on Derek and Derek alone. Sydney couldn't help but think that maybe if they had all met under different circumstances that the three of them could have made a really good trio of friends. Yes, that would have been perfect. The idea of having the two guys as her best friends greatly appealed to Sydney, it was just too bad that they were currently all in Derek's loft discussing the fundamentals of the dead pool.

"We're starting to lose count." Lydia replied.

"But is it still just professionals?" Scott broke in.

"I don't think Haigh's ever tried anything like this. I think he was taking a chance." Jordan stated and Sydney sucked in a breath.

"I don't think it was ever 'just' professional killers." Sydney added. "I mean, those two kids, now this Deputy Haigh, I don't know that Mouthless was all that professional, he carried an ax for god's sake, what kind of professional assassin uses an ax."

"Tomahawk." Derek and Parrish shot back at the same time.

"Tomahawk, what the fuck ever. I don't know about you but when I think of professional assassins I picture top of their class government killers with rifles that have scopes on them that can see people across the Atlantic."

"Syd, really?" Derek glowered at her and she raised her hands in surrender.

"Okay, that was an exaggeration, but you get my point, it's not 'just' professionals anymore, if it was ever 'just' professionals to start with."

"That means anyone with the dead pool could take a chance." Derek seemed slightly less hostile now but Sydney wasn't about to press her luck. She was glad that Derek had been nice to her as long as he had.

"But if Haigh had it, then who else does?" Jordan had brought up yet another decent point. Haigh, a mere deputy, a guy low on the totem pole when it came to killing supernatural creatures, had managed to get a hold of the dead pool. How had that happened? "How easy is it to get this thing now?"

"That's what I want to know." Sydney quickly added. She knew that Scott and his pack had managed to get a copy of the dead pool; hell Lydia had been the one to break the code with the cipher key. If a bunch of teenagers could get their hands on it, how easily could a 'professional assassin' nab the list?

"Meredith knew something." Lydia said softly and Sydney cocked her head to the side. It wasn't too often that Lydia Martin gave up information willingly when Sydney was around, hell this was almost foreign to her. Usually it took a lot of convincing and maybe even constituted a bit of manipulation.

"What are you talking about?" Sydney groaned and stared at the banshee.

Lydia cocked her head to the side and turned away from everyone in the room. She focused her attention on the giant window in the middle of the loft but cautiously made her way towards the bed, gently lowering herself down on to the end of it.

"Meredith was only at my grandmother's lake house once but I think once was enough." Lydia started.

Derek turned his body around to face Lydia, bringing his back against the nearby wooden column, "how did your grandmother know her?"

"She didn't, she found her because of another woman named Maddy; the woman she loved." Lydia let out a soft sigh and stood up, walking towards Scott and offering him an old, worn out photograph. "I never met her, but I saw her name everywhere. She used to be part of a yacht racing team; there were plaques and trophies in the lake house from all the regattas she'd won."

"How did she die?" Parrish broke in; bring Lydia's attention to him now. He moved away from the couch and took up a stance in the middle of the room. Sydney fought off the urge to growl and laid down on the couch instead, watching them all listen to Lydia's story.

"How's not the story, it's what happened right before. My grandmother, Lorraine, used to work in San Francisco for IBM. She was there on a weekend, catching up on work, she started hearing this sound," Lydia paused and made her way towards the window, staring out at the dark night sky, "like rain, but when she looked out the windows, all she saw was blue sky."

"But she kept hearing the rain?" Scott pondered out loud.

"And it just kept getting louder." Lydia turned away from the window but didn't miss a beat. "Rain and thunder cracking like gunshots in her head…so loud. She finally just screamed."

"Like a Banshee." Derek said softly and Sydney felt the familiar rumbling building up in her stomach. She didn't like listening to Lydia, she hated the control the girl had over, well, over everyone and she didn't want to sit on the couch, listening to Lydia's boring story. Derek settled a glare in Sydney's direction and she glared right back, swallowing the growl forming in her throat.

"She called Maddy who was planning on taking one of the boats out on the lake, but Maddy said that the sun was shining there too, so Lorraine didn't say anything."

"Then what happened?" Sydney egged her on, more for spite than anything but Lydia was looking at Parrish. Chalk it up to jealousy but Sydney wasn't very fond of Lydia's eyes on the deputy and she fought harder to bite back the snarl that was heading in Lydia's direction.

"There was an accident." Parrish offered and Sydney rose to her feet, closing the distance between her and Jordan.

"It took them four days to find Maddy's body and then it took decades to figure out how Lorraine knew. She started with parapsychologists, like the PhD in their name made it more scientific. They built the study in the lake house according to every pseudoscientific theory they could of it worked." Lydia carried on.

"Shocker." Sydney scoffed. "Crazy is as crazy does."

"Syd…" Derek growled at her and Sydney huffed in frustration. "Then what happened?"

"So then she started going to more extreme occult. Things like mediums and psychics, all of them were failures, until she found Meredith. They found her in Eichen House, this fragile girl who didn't understand the things she heard. They brought her to the study and they almost killed her. She was hospitalized for over a year and she…never really recovered. My grandmother drove her insane. I drove her to suicide. And all she ever wanted to do was help."

"Yeah and look where that got her." Sydney muttered. Lydia pulled a sheet of paper out of her pocket and set it on the nearby table.

"My grandmother created the code for the dead pool. They think she's the banshee who put the names out in the first place. She left me this message in the same code." Lydia droned on. Hell Sydney was learning quite a bit about banshees and how certifiably insane they really were.

"But she didn't leave a cipher key, did she?" Scott broke in and Lydia shook her head no.

"Are you done now?" Sydney piped up.

"Why's she even here?" Lydia shot back.

"Contrary to popular belief, I know a little bit about this stuff, plus I was the one who pulled Deputy Parrish here out of a fucking bonfire." Sydney growled back at the banshee. "So you know what, you can just take a step back little girl."

"I'm done here." Lydia retorted. "We're done here."

"Good." Sydney snorted. "I wouldn't mind getting home."

Parrish closed the distance between himself and Sydney and set his hand on her wrist. She felt her body relax at his touch and turned her attention towards him. If he knew what kind of effect he had on her, he didn't let on, instead he motioned for the door, suggesting that maybe it was time they left.

"Leaving so soon?" Lydia baited and Sydney bit down on her tongue, following Jordan as he led her out of the loft.

When the two of them were outside, the door shut behind them, he turned to look at her and studied the hard expression on her face. She flinched as his hand rose up but she calmed down when he merely tucked a lock of her luscious brown hair behind her ear.

"You've got some sort of unresolved issues with Lydia in there." He remarked and she ground her teeth together. "Hey, I'm not judging you here, I'm sure you have your reasons."

"She doesn't like me either." Sydney pointed out.

"I saw that too." He nodded his understanding of the mutual dislike for one another. "So, you're a werewolf…"

"Does that freak you out?" She asked with a sigh. She'd let the Lydia thing go for now, especially if Parrish was focused solely on her. "You don't seem to be taking this too hard you know."

"Maybe it hasn't really sunk in, or maybe I've seen crazier things."

"Well you were set on fire and you somehow managed to survive that." Sydney pointed out.

"My sentiments exactly." He smiled at her and Sydney couldn't help but smile right back at him. "Come on, I think it's time I got home. Did you need a ride at all?"

"Um, no I have my car." She nodded.

"Well, then let me walk you to it."

Sydney leaned against him and let him slip his arm around her shoulders. She let out a soft sigh and moved with him as he led her towards the top of the stairs. She glanced to the side and basked in his warmth, feeling calm just being near him. Phoenix or not, Sydney was starting to like having Deputy Jordan Parrish as an ally, she just hoped that he'd survive.

XxxxxxXxxxxxXxxxxxX

Author's Note:

Sydney and Peter, back together temporarily, do you think Peter's starting to get a little concerned with all of the time she's spending with other people, mainly Stiles and Parrish? A little Sydney and Derek interaction too, I hope you guys like the loft scene. It would seem that Lydia is not growing on Sydney at all.

I absolutely adore getting feedback from you guys! If you have any comments, concerns, questions on anything (including Sydney as a character) or something you want to know about the story itself, please feel free to PM me or leave a review.

Thank you to everyone who's reading this story and thank you to those who have added it to their favourites or alerts!

19irene19: I hope it was worth the wait! Thank you so much for the review!

cecld16: Parrish and Sydney make the best pair of buddies! That butt kicking scene will happen, I got you covered! Aw yay, Syd's moving on up! Thanks so much for the review, I hope you enjoyed the latest installment, more Parrish and Sydney being absolute bros for you!

OutlawqueenFTW: Sheriff and Sydney make really good allies in my opinion, they both care a lot about Stiles (Sheriff obviously more since Stiles is his son) and she'd do almost anything in her power to protect both Stilinskis. Thank you so much for the review!

LirealAion: He IS such a gentleman! Yes, Sydney definitely needs friends, and more her own age too haha. She's one of those girls that prefers hanging around guys and as for the distraction, well I think I've got something that I hope you'll like (No funny business though). Thanks so much for the review!

Thank you so much you guys!

If you have any ideas, questions, comments or concerns, feel free to PM me or leave me a review!