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 37:
Aidan's eyes were locked on Sam, while his arms were holding Bruin against his chest. Sam was wandering along the wall across the room slowly, her eyes taking in everything that resided on the shelf in front of her, intrigued to no end as to what each and every piece was down here. He knew that the poor girl was getting bored of waiting but she was doing really well at not letting it show, nor was she letting Aidan see how much she was truly worried for the alpha female that had taken her in when she had no one else to turn to. It was easy for Aidan to sense, Sam was on edge, she was nervous that Sydney wouldn't come back for them, but Aidan knew better.
If something happened to Sydney, he'd feel, hell, they'd all feel it. If she died, if someone, somehow, managed to end their female alpha's life, then Aidan would feel her pain, he'd feel her death. That didn't mean he wasn't nervous either though, there was still plenty of time for things to go wrong and so far, there was no sign of anyone coming to retrieve them from the vault any time soon.
"Sam?" Aidan called out for her and Sam stopped in her walking and turned to face him, throwing a small, sad smile onto her face. He lifted up a hand and waved her towards him, watching as she hesitated before beginning to step across the room, closing in on him. He held a slumbering Bruin in his arms as he sat on the floor, his back against the chest that he had originally sat on. He was getting a little anxious too, sure being in the vault was probably the safest solution for the time being, but it didn't make Aidan feel very useful.
His pack, what was left of it in Beacon Hills, was out there trying to save the world, and he was locked away in a vault babysitting. Okay, maybe his job was just as important, without him, Sydney would've been the one down here looking after the girls, and Sydney was definitely a better, more skilled werewolf than him, especially when it came to keeping a level head where Ethan was involved.
He had faith that she would get to his brother and bring him back to them, but another part of him was worried that the hunters were going to be a bigger threat than anyone would ever have expected. Gerard was leading them, surely they had to have some sort of secret weapon, he wasn't dumb and he certainly wasn't going into this turning a blind eye.
"I wish Petey was here." Sam whimpered and came to sit down next to him, leaning against his side as she peered down at the baby in his arms. "And Sydney, I miss them both."
"Me too Sam." Aidan replied, not knowing what else to say to the little girl. He missed Sydney too, he feared the worst, and wondered how he would manage to look after the two little girls if anything went wrong. He would do it, he'd raise them as best as he could, but he didn't want it to come to that, he wanted Sydney and Peter to waltz back down into the vault claiming a victory for the good guys.
"Do you think they're okay?" Sam quipped and curled up against Aidan, resting her forehead against his shoulder and letting out a soft sigh. "I want them to be okay."
"I'm sure they're fine." Aidan replied quickly, hoping that she didn't catch the hitch in his words. The war was far from over, and just because he hadn't felt Sydney die yet, didn't mean it still couldn't happen. Then again, there was an army of supernaturals willing to fight and they were tough. Surely they weren't going to go down without one hell of a fight. "We'd feel if something was wrong."
Sam nodded her understanding and let out another sigh. She shut her eyes and curled into a ball against him, hugging her knees against her chest as she tried to relax. Aidan tucked an arm around her back and held her against him, trying to comfort her the best he knew how.
They'd be fine, they'd all be fine, he just had to think positive. Sydney was fully capable; she was strong, she was smart and she had Peter by her side. They were an incredible pair, though he wouldn't easily admit that out loud.
"So," Aidan started, not entirely sure what to say to the girl, "you like it down here?"
Sam's eyes popped open and she stiffened with excitement. He knew that she was entranced by all of the artifacts and relics down here, but he wasn't very knowledgeable when it came to that stuff. If Peter had been with her down here though, he figured the little girl would've been able to spend hours and hours listening to the man explain what each and every piece was.
"I want to spend a week down here with Petey." She beamed at him. "I want him to tell me about everything!"
Aidan couldn't help but smile back at her. It certainly sounded like a great idea and maybe he would ask to join them if that ever happened. Knowing about the relics locked away in the vault would only be beneficial to him, but he wasn't sure how Peter would feel about having him down in the vault.
Aidan was still a little uneasy when it came to Peter but he trusted Sydney and Sydney seemed to trust Peter. They were pack, technically, and Aidan vowed a long time ago to get along with the man simply because Sydney loved him.
"I'm sure if you asked him, he'd love to tell you about everything." Aidan supplied and let his eyes fall down to land on Bruin's face. The little girl was starting to squirm in his hold and he prayed that she wasn't going to start crying when she woke up. He knew how to deal with her crying but he didn't want to, not now, not here, not while they were away from Sydney.
Bruin had the closest connection to Sydney and he wouldn't be able to convince himself that her crying didn't mean that something had happened to the girl's mother. He just didn't want to deal with it, he didn't want the lingering bad thoughts to take over his mind, he just wanted his pack to be okay, he wanted his family to be together.
Sam stretched her arms into the air and clambered to her feet, marching over to the nearest shelf and grabbing whatever was within reach before returning back to Aidan and plopping down next to him. When he studied the item in her hand, he shook his head and knew exactly what he was looking at, the very triskele that Sydney had told him about ages ago, the one and only artifact that Kate Argent had tried to get months and months ago.
"That's the Hale pack symbol." Aidan stated, Sam running her fingers over the pattern carved into the wood disk in her hand.
"Our symbol?" Sam questioned and Aidan shook his head no.
"We're not…I mean technically we're not the Hale pack." Aidan tried to answer but he found himself confused on what pack they were. Sydney was a Vance, that was her last name, but she was mated to Peter Hale, so by supernatural standards, they were as good as married, yet her name was still Sydney Vance and she was their alpha. So what did that mean for their pack exactly?
"No?" Sam pressed and flipped the trinket over, staring at the blank back before rolling it over in her hands once more. "What are we?"
"Vance." Aidan answered, with more confidence than he had felt. "We're the Vance pack."
"Do we have a symbol?" Sam asked, a hopeful look in her eye.
"I uh…I don't think so. I'm not actually sure." Aidan found himself stumbling over his words, but she was bringing up good points, she was asking decent questions. They didn't have a symbol, he wasn't sure what Sydney considered the pack to be- did it matter though, because he trusted his alpha, he trusted Sydney with his life.
"My old pack had a motto too; three things that cannot be hidden." Sam offered up, Aidan tilting his head sideways.
"The sun, the moon, the truth." He finished for her, a smile gracing his face. "It's a good motto."
"I like it." Sam giggled. "But I think we need a different motto, Syd needs a better one, don't you think."
"I agree." Aidan chuckled, letting a comfortable silence fall over them. He looked down at Sam, taking in the sight of her studying the triskele symbol on the wooden disk before dragging his eyes over to Bruin, who was currently partially awake and not yet screaming.
He was rather content, for the time being at least. He liked Sam, he really did, she had such potential and with Sydney and Peter teaching her, she'd become a great werewolf one day. Bruin would luckily be dealt the same fate, of course, that all depended on how tonight went.
At the sound of a door creaking open far away, Aidan went rigid and made his way to his feet. He offered the baby to Sam, who remained sitting on the floor, and she took her, cradling her in her arms and using her legs to help support her. Aidan then took up a stance in front of them, willing to protect them if it came to it, but a couple of minutes later, he felt himself relaxing at the familiar scent of his pack, which included his twin.
Sydney burst into the room, running right for him, but she dropped to the ground in front of Sam and took Bruin out of her arms, hugging her baby girl tight before gathering Sam against her chest and hugging her too. Peter was right behind them, moving a little less urgently, but he ended up in the same place, Sam burying herself into his chest and clinging to his jacket.
Ethan appeared next, Jackson by his side and Derek coming up the rear. Aidan jogged for his brother and took him into a warm embrace, glad that they had all made it back in one piece. He let out a sigh of relief as he hugged his brother, slapping him on the back as he did so.
"Glad you're okay." Aidan stated, reluctantly pulling away and offering Jackson a quick embrace as well. "Hopefully you're staying for a little while."
"A little while." Ethan answered with a smirk, Jackson smiling too.
"Well I'm back on a more permanent basis." Derek interjected, watching as Sam squirmed in Peter's hold to get free. Once she was out of his embrace, she ran for Derek, still holding onto the triskele, before leaping at him.
Derek caught her with ease and lifted her up, hugging her against his chest as she hugged him right back, pressing the disk against his shoulder. He felt the little girl nuzzle her nose into his neck and let out a breath he hadn't realized he had been holding. Being away from the pack, away from Sydney, Bruin and Sam, had taken a toll on him and he hadn't realized how much until that very minute.
This was his family, in more ways than one, and he wasn't going to go running off again, not any time soon.
"You're back!" Sam murmured and settled in against Derek, relaxing in his hold. Derek lifted his hand up and grasped the item in her hold. She let go of it and he took it from her, studying it carefully.
"Where did you find this?" Derek asked. Sam waved her hand around in the air and didn't need to answer with words. She had been locked in the vault, of course she had time to find something like this. "I thought I lost this."
"No." She shook her head. "It was here."
Derek smiled at her and meandered over towards Sydney, who was on her feet next to Peter, who had a quiet Bruin in his arms. He took up a stance beside Sydney and nudged her with his elbow, the three of them standing side by side in front of Ethan, Aidan and Jackson, who also stood side by side.
"Are we the Vance pack?" Sam questioned, breaking the silence that had fallen over them all. "Aidan said that we were."
Sydney shot a look in Peter's direction and he merely nodded his head, a small, proud smile plastered on his face. She returned her attention back to Sam and shook her head no.
"Beacon Hills has always belonged to the Hales." Sydney said softly. "I think we're definitely the Hale pack."
Derek's face broke out into a smile and he shook his head in amusement. This was Sydney's pack, it was her creation, her responsibility, and here she was sharing it with him and Peter. It was a nice gesture, a grand gesture even, he just hoped that she knew what she was doing.
"Are you sure?" Peter questioned, his eyes locked on Sydney.
"Come on Peter, we're mated." Sydney shot back in response, a smirk playing on her lips. "I think the least you can do at this point is marry me, make it official."
"Plus that way you and Bruin can have the same last name." Aidan threw in, clearly joking.
"Petey," Sam shrieked with a grin, "you have to marry her!"
"Yeah, who wouldn't want to marry her?"
Peter merely rolled his eyes and shook his head. Instead of dignifying their ribbing with a response, he headed for the exit, leaving them all in his wake. Derek was next to follow suit, the two men taking the two little girls with them, leaving Sydney alone with the three males. Jackson and Ethan broke away next, letting Derek and Peter lead the way, Aidan remaining where he was standing while Sydney planted her hands on her hips.
"You really want to be the Hale pack?" He asked, watching as she took her bottom lip in between her teeth. "Ultimately it's up to you, I'm with you no matter what."
"One day the pack will be Bruin's anyway." Sydney stated matter-of-factly. "She's a Hale, I'm merely speeding that process up."
"If you're sure." Aidan countered, Sydney slowly nodding her head yes. One day it would be Bruin's pack, that's what Sydney wanted, and why not start on that this very minute. The Hale pack, in all of its former glory, would return to Beacon Hills, better than ever.
She could do this, she could lead them just as well as she had been all along, and now she'd have Peter and Derek by her side, as well as the twins, and maybe Jackson, depending on how Ethan and him really felt about each other. The pack had such potential and one day, when Bruin was old enough, and ready to take over, Sydney would hand over the lead, letting her baby girl carry on for her.
"There was a Vance pack, a long, long time ago. It didn't fair very well." Sydney stated, sadness in her words.
"Yeah but some could say the Hale pack didn't either."
"Maybe, but the Hale pack was never completely gone."
"Neither was the Vance pack."
Sydney cocked her head sideways and knew that he wasn't completely wrong, but the Hale pack had never been without an alpha, they had always been together, had always been a pack. The Vance pack had been decimated, had fallen apart even before Sydney was a child. Her mother had been an alpha once but she hadn't been that she could remember. The Vance pack was gone, and part of Sydney wanted it to remain that way.
She could pave the way, she would officially become a Hale, and keep her pack safe for years to come. It was what she wanted, it had been all along, ever since she had confessed to Peter that she loved him all that time ago.
"This doesn't mean we all have to get triskele tattoos though, does it?" Aidan teased and Sydney let out a bark of laughter, shaking her head no. "Good because I'm not a fan of Derek's."
"All I need is your word." Sydney teased. "I'll be your alpha as long as you'll have me."
"And when you decide to step down, I'll follow Bruin to the ends of the earth."
Sydney smiled at him and let her arms fall to her sides. She walked towards him, looped her arm through his and led him towards the stairs. Aidan was glad that he was finally getting to leave the vault, but he was even happier that he was doing it with his alpha still alive, and all of his pack intact.
XxxxxxXxxxxxXxxxxxX
"Wolves aren't as bad as they're made out to be. Werewolves, though- they're every bit as bad and worse." Sydney said, Sam sitting across from her on the bed. Bruin was tucked away in her crib in the corner of the room and the guys, all five of them, had congregated in the kitchen for some male bonding time. Sydney had gladly taken her leave, bringing the girls upstairs so that they could get ready for bed.
"But you're not bad." Sam pointed out and shifted from her butt to her knees, scooting ever so much closer to Sydney.
"I control it Sam, we all do. But the potential is there, we have to be good, we have to make the choice to be good, every day." Sydney carried on. "We have to choose to be better than the bad guys and not stoop to their level."
"Okay." Sam looked at her with a skeptical expression on her face.
"There will come a time when you do something that you won't necessarily be able to control, maybe it won't be that bad, maybe it will, but you have to know that no matter what, you can always trust me. I will be there for you, always." Sydney pressed, offering her hand out to the little girl. "I won't let anything bad happen to you, you're mine to protect, if that's what you really want."
Sam tipped her head sideways and looked up at Sydney, meeting her eyes. She forced her golden eyes out at her alpha, her mentor, and Sydney responded by countering with her alpha reds. Sam gingerly took Sydney's hand in hers and moved forward on the bed, clambering closer to Sydney and climbing into her lap, settling in so that her back was against Sydney's chest. Sydney's arms came around her and Sam let out a soft sigh, completely content to be exactly where she was.
"I want you to protect me." Sam said softly, curling into Sydney's body. "I want to be with you."
Sydney smiled down at her, waiting as Sam looked up at her, matching her smile with one of her own.
"You trust me?"
"Yes." Sam replied without hesitation.
"You know that I'll always be here for you."
"You came back tonight." Sam answered.
"I did." Sydney nodded. "Nothing was going to stop me from getting back to you and Bruin."
Sam nodded her head in understanding, waiting as Sydney shifted on the bed, leaning to her right so that she could reach for the triskele disk on the nightstand. Once she had a hold of it, she sat up straight and held Sam tighter, offering her the trinket in her hands.
The little girl took it and studied it once again, this time being able to see the grain of the wood in the light of the bedroom. She ran her fingers along the swirls, trying to memorize the pattern, to ingrain it in her head. This was her pack symbol, this was her alpha, she belonged here.
"I want you to have that, so does Peter." Sydney stated and Sam jerked her head up to meet Sydney's gaze, the disbelieving look in her eye was obvious. "You deserve it Sam, you're just as much a part of this pack as anyone else here."
"Really?" Sam asked, her eyes widening either from excitement or disbelief, Sydney wasn't entirely sure.
"Yes." She replied, running her hand up and down Sam's back in a soothing manner. "Unless you don't want it."
"No, no I want it!" Sam cried out and hugged the totem against her chest, cherishing it more than Sydney ever expected her too.
"Okay." Sydney murmured, leaning down and pressing a kiss against the top of Sam's head. "Okay, it's yours."
Sam slowly loosened her grip on the wooden disk but jerked to face the door at the sound of footsteps. Both females remained silent, waiting for the person to show up in their room and when Peter finally showed his face, Sam grinned at him, grateful that he had accepted her without question.
Sam knew that Peter was a rather difficult man, but Sam had never once felt like he hadn't liked her. Peter had always been nice enough to her, respectful of her, and accepting of her. She was glad that he was in the pack with her, that he was there to protect her, to help her become great.
"Look!" Sam exclaimed and held the triskele up, extending her arm high into the air. Peter smiled at the little girl's excitement and wandered into the room, gently lowering himself down onto the side of the bed beside her. "Sydney gave it to me."
"I told her I want you to have it." Peter nodded his head. "Derek agreed, he thought that you were the perfect person to keep it safe."
Sam continued to beam at him and lowered the relic to her chest, hugging it tight against herself. Peter reached a hand out and ran it down her back, drawing her attention back to him. Sam stared at him, but broke eye contact and peered up at Sydney, wondering if they wanted her to leave now.
Peter was here, which meant that it was probably time for bed, and she was sitting on his bed, so maybe it was time for her to go to her room. Except when she made a move to get up, Sydney held her tighter, only loosening her grip on the girl when Sam relaxed back into her hold.
"Thanks." Sam whispered, clutching the disk in her hand.
"You know Sam," Peter started and maneuvered further onto the bed, moving so that he was sitting next to Sydney, his side against hers. He peered down at the little girl in his alpha's arms and smiled, thankful that she had wound up in their possession. He adored Sam, he loved her as if she was his own, and there wasn't anything in the world that would harm her so long as he was alive. "I have to let you in on a little secret."
"What's that?" Sam stared at him, hanging on to his every word, clearly enticed by what he had to say.
"The female of the species is more deadly than the male." He stated, watching as Sam scrunched up her nose, clearly confused by his statement. "One day Bruin will be an alpha, but there's nothing stopping you from being one too."
"Really?"
Sydney couldn't contain the smile on her face at Sam's excitement. Just because Bruin was next in line to be the Hale pack alpha didn't mean that Sam couldn't also one day be an alpha. She had such potential, she was incredibly smart and with the right training, she'd be unbeatable.
"We just want you to be happy." Sydney threw out.
"I am." Sam argued, almost as if she was defending herself against Sydney. "And I want you to be proud of me."
Peter stole a look at Sydney, who smirked back at him in response but didn't say a word. This little girl in front of them was every bit a daughter as Bruin, she was theirs to look after, theirs to protect and raise; and that's precisely what they would do. Sam would become a strong female werewolf in her own right, there was no doubt about that.
This was Peter's family, Sydney: his mate and alpha, Bruin: his biological daughter, and Sam: the girl that had stolen his heart and weaseled her way into his family. There was nothing that would ever take these females away from him, he wanted them to be the best they could, be as fierce as they desired- yes, these were his girls, his pack, his future and he wasn't going to let anything get in the way.
"Sam," Peter started and waited as Sam looked at him with her undivided attention, "we already are."