"Ow."

"Take it easy," A voice instructed, the sound causing Rowan to flinch and attempt to scrabble away from its source, though given her current position propped against the bushes lining the walkway she had collapsed in, all her efforts earned her was the sensation of branches pricking against the fabric of her shirt, "You hit your head pretty hard."

"Yeah, no kidding," Rowan quipped, lifting a hand to gingerly press her fingertips against the back of her head, and wincing as the act caused pain to flare to life and nearly blacken her vision for a second time, "Thanks for that, by the way."

"Exactly how is any of this my fault?"

"You're the one who wouldn't let go, remember?"

"What did you see?"

"What?"

"What did you see?" Derek repeated, ignoring the slight look of confusion that passed across Rowan's features, and finding that his frustration with the current predicament he faced only grew as she shook her head back and forth before managing what she likely thought was a suitably convincing reply.

"Nothing."

"You're lying."

"Except that I'm not," Rowan pressed, knowing somehow that she was failing to sell her fib, though she could not for a moment even begin to explain how Derek had picked up on it to begin with, "Maybe you just have trust issues."

"Or maybe you need to consider telling the truth."

"Why the hell do you care whether I'm telling the truth or not?"

"Because if you saw what I think you saw, you'll-"

"I'll - what?"

"Never mind," Derek huffed, running a hand across his face, and moving to stand from his former position crouched before Rowan, his eyes scanning their surroundings for a moment before returning to her face. She was terrified. He could hear it in the uneven pounding of her heart, and smell it on her skin. But for whatever reason, she seemed absolutely determined to hide that from him, whether because she honestly didn't know what it all meant because her brother and Scott had kept her in the dark, or because she simply wished to ignore it entirely, he couldn't tell. Not that any of that mattered, now…

If she had seen what he thought she had - if she had seen the alpha - then she was in far more danger than she knew. Something that almost concerned him, at least until she was once again accosting him with a sort of vitriol that he hardly felt inclined to accommodate given how his chance bumping into her had probably saved her life.

"Seriously? That's how you're going to play this? Demand to know what I saw and then refuse to be honest with me in return?"

"Well it's pretty clear that you're okay now, so if you don't want to come clean that's not really my problem."

"Really," Rowan scoffed, planting her hands palms-flat on the ground at either side of her hips to push herself to stand, only to find the effort rewarded by a renewed throbbing at the back of her skull that had her plopping back on the ground in seconds, flat, "If it's not your problem, why did you want to know what I saw?"

"Are you always this charming? Or just with the people that are trying to save your life?"

"Save my - you seem to be forgetting, I wouldn't have fallen if you hadn't been trying to keep me here! And for the record, this is twice, now, that you've knocked me on my ass!"

"Maybe you should have some tests done. Poor balance can be a sign of something far more serious."

"And now you're mocking me. Great," Rowan groused, once again attempting to haul herself to her feet, only to find that Derek had taken the liberty of grabbing her by the arm, albeit a little roughly, to pull her to stand without ever being asked, and was releasing his hold on her arm as soon as he was relatively certain she would remain upright, "Ow."

"Your head?"

"My arm."

"Sorry," Derek apologized, almost managing to look sincere for a moment, though Rowan was not at all reassured, regardless. As she glanced around them, herself, she took some manner of comfort in the fact that the growling - the red eyes - were completely absent this time around, as was the sensation of being watched. But in the wake of the relief that she felt over just such a realization, Rowan found that she was suddenly possessed with another conundrum entirely.

Why the hell was Derek Hale, of all people, at a party full of high school students?

"What are you - what are you even doing here, anyway?" She asked, turning back to face Derek directly, and noting that her inquiry was met with a skeptically raised brow in response, "You're not exactly in high school anymore-"

"I'm here for Scott."

"Scott McCall? Why? You already gave him his inhaler. And we - we had no idea we were on your land the other day."

"This isn't about trespassing on private property," Derek said, aware of how Rowan had almost immediately opened her mouth to question that statement, and moving to speak again before she could, herself, "I'm trying to help him."

"Help him with what?"

"It doesn't matter."

"See, I'm kind of thinking that it does," Rowan disagreed, folding her arms across her chest, though somehow she knew that the gesture hardly made her look any more formidable despite her best efforts, "He's one of my best friends."

"You can't help him with this. Neither can Stiles."

"And how exactly would you know that?"

"Because you have no idea what you're getting yourself into. Neither of you do."

"How about you give us a chance to find out?"

"I can't," Derek began, recognizing the flash of aggravation that registered in Rowan's eyes and moving towards her as she simultaneously took a step back, only to freeze as he heard the familiar sound of pounding footsteps headed their way. In seconds, he knew it was her brother, and she likely suspected the same judging by the way in which she turned as the sounds of someone crashing through the walkway to get to them reached her, as well. Using her distraction to his advantage, Derek simply turned and left, knowing that it was now far more important to find Scott than it would be to endure another round of questioning from the teen wolf's best friend.

With any luck, he could do what needed to be done - find and kill the alpha - and everything could go back to the way it had been before. Rowan and Stiles wouldn't even need to get involved.

If experience had taught him anything it was that mixing humans with the business of his kind only led to collateral damage.

Involving Scott's friends would only do more harm than good.

…

"Rowan! Ro! Where the hell have you been?" Stiles demanded, skidding to a halt in front of his sister, only to find her turning from him to glance behind her, instead, "Hey - earth to Rowan - Stiles speaking-"

"I - what?"

"I asked where the hell have you been? You just - completely disappeared!"

"I just - I needed some air, I guess," Rowan explained, aware of Stiles' apparent look of disbelief, and exhaling in a rush before dropping her hands down to her sides. She had no idea how to react to Derek's sudden disappearance, despite knowing that his presence would have only made her brother far more suspicious than he seemed to be, already. But the sudden sense of unease she felt in the wake of his absence troubled her, to say the least, particularly as the meager interactions the two had experienced were far from warm and friendly - something Rowan knew she needed to keep from Stiles if at all possible, unless she wanted to find herself subjected to yet another relentless inquisition about her whereabouts that would reveal she had not, in fact, told him the truth the first time around, "I'm fine."

"You sure about that?"

"Positive."

"Good. Because we have a problem," Stiles informed, reaching down to grab at Rowan's wrist in order to tug her back to the rest of the party behind him, "Scott's gone."

"Gone?"

"Gone. As in disappeared. Missing. Absent-"

"I know what gone means, Stiles."

"Then why are you acting like you don't?"

"Maybe because you're dragging me along after you without actually explaining where it is we're going?" Rowan proposed, stumbling along in her brother's wake, and doing what she could to ignore the attention their movements were drawing as soon as they neared the perimeter of the gathering and began to push through toward the driveway and Stiles' car, "And we need to find Cass, besides-"

"We don't have time for that right now, Ro."

"I'm not leaving her here! We're her ride!"

"Scott left Allison, and he was her ride!" Stiles protested, as though he truly believed the information would persuade Rowan to leave her best friend behind, and thus provoking her to yank her wrist away from him in response as she came to a full stop in the middle of a crowd of teens dancing to the music that blared through the speakers nearby, "Rowan come on! We need to go!"

"I need to find Cassidy."

"I already told you, we don't have time!"

"Then go!" Rowan prompted, ignoring the exasperated look her brother sent her in response, and holding her ground even in spite of how the very real hesitancy she could sense in Stiles' expression at the thought of leaving her behind pulled at her heart like nothing else could, "Go, and Cass and I will figure out another way home."

"Rowan-"

"Go! We'll be fine. Go - go help Scott."

"Are - are you sure?" Stiles pressed, not entirely sure it was the wisest course of action to be leaving his sister behind, even though he knew it was absolutely imperative he got to Scott, to figure out what it was that had made his friend literally run away from the girl he would not stop talking about in seconds, flat. He could tell Rowan was keeping something from him about why she had been off on her own, despite not having had the time or patience to ask her about it directly, yet. But he knew he could always ask her about it later, when they were back at home and there was no real means for her to escape.

Comparatively speaking, Scott's situation was far more dire.

"I'm positive," Rowan said then, her expression wavering for a moment before she was capable of schooling it into something far more resolved, her shoulders squaring as she forced what she hoped would be a convincing smile to her lips before she spoke again, "Go. I'll be fine."

"But-"

"Stiles! Go!"

"Okay!" Stiles groaned, throwing his hands up in the air in exasperation, the gesture so comical that Rowan might have actually laughed had the situation been just a little bit different. If she hadn't seen the red eyes again - if she hadn't endured one of the most frustrating encounters she could recall ever having with Derek Hale, and if she wasn't far more worried about whatever it was that Scott was currently going through than she cared to admit - Stiles' typically over exaggerated reactions would have made her smile, just as they always had, before. But things were entirely different. Terrifyingly different. And as Rowan watched her brother walk away, disappearing into the throng of fellow classmates without a trace, she caught herself hoping that whatever he found when he got to Scott would not prove to be more than he could handle.

If anything happened to him, and she had deliberately forced him to face whatever it was alone, Rowan knew for a certainty that she would never forgive herself…

She would never stop hating herself for letting him down.

…

"Hey! There you are! I've been looking all over for you," Cassidy exclaimed, having just turned from her cursory investigation of the kitchen, where some of their classmates were gathered around various bowls of chips and other snacks, just as Rowan had been jogging up to the back door to head inside, herself, "Where have you been?"

"Looking for you. I think - I think we should leave."

"Did something happen?"

"Not - not exactly," Rowan murmured, reaching up to run a hand through her hair, and biting down on her lower lip for a moment as soon as she recognized the familiar suspicion that settled in Cassidy's expression in response to her hasty reply, "But I'm kind of tired, and I thought maybe you could stay the night?"

"Okay. Let's find Stiles."

"That's uh - that's going to be a bit of a problem."

"Why?" Cass inquired, glancing around where they stood, hovering almost awkwardly on the border between indoors and out, as though at the simple mention of his name, Stiles would just appear as he had seemed to so many other times before, "What's - is something wrong?"

"I'm not really sure. I guess Scott bolted out of here pretty quickly, and Stiles-"

"Went after him."

"That's pretty much it, yeah," Rowan nodded, stepping closer to Cassidy in an effort to avoid one of the boys in the junior class bowling into her on his way to get another drink, and then jumping as Allison suddenly appeared on her other side, her brow furrowed in confusion as she raised her voice in order to be heard over a renewed swell in the music coming from the speakers nearby.

"Did you lose your ride, too?"

"Looks that way, yeah."

"Wonder what's up with that," Allison mused, frowning despite knowing that at least she did not appear to be the only one without a way home, and allowing a heavy sigh to escape before going on, "What do we do now?"

"We could always hitchhike," Cassidy suggested, grinning broadly as soon as she realized the two girls standing beside her had taken the remark exactly as it had been intended, a brief swell of laughter passing between them before they sobered once again, "Or maybe Rowan could call her dad."

"And get Stiles into trouble. Which he probably deserves," Rowan sighed, only just managing to suppress a smile at Cassidy's almost immediate concerned frown, and holding out a hand to waylay any impending protest in favor of assuring her friend that despite what she said, getting her brother into trouble was not in the game plan at all, "If we wait on my dad, we may be here for a while. Weekends are always busier."

"So what do we do?"

"You let me take the three of you home."

Whirling to face the source of the unexpected intrusion into their conversation, Rowan staggered back a few steps as she found herself once again face to face with Derek Hale, the look he was giving her almost daring her to disagree with his offer, before he was turning to smile faintly at Cassidy and Allison, instead. Dimly, she registered he was introducing himself, and her friends were doing the same, their own concerns obviously at ease after his off-hand mention of being a friend of Scott's. And although Rowan highly doubted Scott would agree with that assessment - although she was more than a little skeptical of Derek's own claim from before about trying to help her friend, when Scott had apparently already left and Derek was still here - Rowan forced herself to nod along with Cassidy's entreaty to follow them as their would-be savior led the way to wherever it was he had parked his own car, her eyes catching his as he passed her, and filling her with more curiosity and apprehension than she already had on her own.

At least she wasn't going to be on her own with Derek, she mused, a twinge of guilt causing her heart to lurch as she remembered, once again, that Stiles was the one left on his own to face the unknown.

At least she would have Allison and Cassidy with her, if her first intuition the other day in the woods had been wrong, and Derek was the one she should have been afraid of all along.

…

"So - what exactly was going on between you and Derek?" Allison inquired, having persuaded their newfound acquaintance to drop all three of his temporary charges at her own home, and opting for shutting her bedroom door behind Cassidy as she trooped inside after Rowan, effectively pinning their curiously silent companion between them in the small space before her bedroom widened out into its full size.

"I don't - I'm not sure what you're talking about."

"She means why on earth did it feel like there was some sort of electrical charge between you?" Cassidy clarified, aware of the startled expression that took over her best friend's features, and adopting a sly grin in response, "Like you either wanted to kill each other, or-"

"Or what, Cass?"

"You know what."

"Oh my - no! No, not even close!" Rowan protested, glancing between Cassidy and Allison, and hating the way her cheeks had warmed in response to the implication behind her best friend's words, "That is so not what that was!"

"So what was it?"

"Cass!"

"Honestly, I'm a little curious, too," Allison admitted, biting the inside of her cheek to keep from grinning openly at Rowan's obvious exasperation, and folding her arms across her chest as she leaned against the wall before going on, "And since Scott made it sound like you, he and Stiles are a package deal, it makes sense you'd know Derek, too."

"That's just - that's just it, though. I don't. I don't know him."

"You don't?"

"Not - not really," Rowan confessed, turning to slip past Cassidy under the pretense of getting a better look at Allison's room, and taking what she hoped would be a sufficient breath to allow her voice to remain steady in spite of her lingering trepidation over everything that had happened to her in what felt like a very short period of time, "I mean, I know of him, but-"

"But you don't really know him," Allison finished, watching as Rowan turned back to face her, her fingers fiddling with the hem of her shirt before she offered an obviously reluctant nod, "I shouldn't have roped the two of you into letting him give us a ride home."

"You didn't rope us into anything, Allison."

"No. You didn't," Cassidy agreed, moving after Rowan with Allison at her side, and shifting to sit on the plush carpeting while Rowan did the same, and Allison perched on the edge of her bed, "Trust me, Allison, you may not know this yet, but there are not many people that can get Rowan to do something she doesn't want to do."

"Are you sure?"

"She's sure," Rowan said, unable to completely resist the fond smile that tugged at her lips as she leaned over to nudge Cassidy in the side with her elbow, and dodged out of the way before her friend could retaliate in kind, "You didn't do anything wrong, Allison. And besides, we got something good out of the deal, either way."

"What's that?"

"An unplanned girl's night, obviously. Unless you're going to change your mind and kick us both out."

"Definitely not," Allison promised, leaning over to place her cell phone on the bedside table, and then straightening before she had fully completed the act, instead, "Wait. Girl's night usually means tons of junk food and cheesy movies. Who's up for pizza?"

"Count us in," Rowan replied, sharing a smile with Cassidy, and finding that she was more than a little relieved to get this one night where she might actually stand a chance at being distracted from her own thoughts. Fishing her own phone out of her pocket, she shot off a quick text to Stiles, hoping he would actually remember to check his phone before panicking that she had not turned up at home as originally planned. After that, all she had to do was convince herself to focus on her two friends, rather than on everything she had seen at the party, instead…

She could manage that, right?

Right?

…

Hello again, everyone! And welcome to chapter four in Rowan's tale! Once again, everything seems to have gotten away from me in terms of rogue muses and unexpected side-trips for the characters along the way. But I hope that adding in these little nuances only makes the story that much more enjoyable. Rowan and Derek in particular are not starting out exactly as I had planned, but I feel like it makes a bit more sense for them to be skeptical of one another right now, rather than immediately falling head over heels. Hopefully everyone approves!

As always, I thank each and every one of you that has taken the time to read this story thus far, as well as those who have given it a favorite or follow as well! I'm so thrilled I'm not the only one enjoying myself here, and as always, if you are willing, I welcome any and all feedback you are inclined to share! I'd love to know what I'm doing right (or wrong) and if you have any suggestions for what to do in the future! Bring it on! I promise I won't bite ;).

Until next time, darlings…

MOMM