FOREWORD

Beacon Hills had always been a town full of supernatural beings. Wendigos, banshees, druids, and—of course—werewolves were just some of the creatures that lived among the humans. Unfortunately, being supernatural came at a cost. Because of their nature, many people were tortured and killed by supernatural hunters.

The Hale family, the largest pack of werewolves within city limits, fell prey to a family of hunters in the year 2005. The alpha, Talia, was killed, along with the majority of the pack, in a large house fire that decimated the mansion they lived in. There were only five members of the Hale pack that survived.

Olivia Martin was one of them.

FOREWORD

[1x01; Wolf Moon]

Olivia shuffled around in her closet, trying to find the perfect scarf that went along with her outfit. Today was the first day back to school after winter break and, according to Lydia, they had to look better than any of the other girls that went to their school. Personally, Olivia didn't see the big deal in trying to stay at the top of the social food chain at Beacon High, but she definitely didn't want to upset her cousin. So, she quickly grabbed a plaid scarf and walked out of her closet, setting it on her bed to put on after she styled her hair.

She had already curled her brunette locks into waves and was wrapping the scarf around her neck when Lydia walked into her room, hardly bothering to knock on the door.

"You're going with the green puffer vest?" Lydia asked, disapproval heavy in her voice.

Olivia fluffed her curls so they laid nicely against her vest. "I like it."

Lydia rolled her eyes. "Normally it would be fine, but it's the first day back, Liv," she sighed. "How are you going to keep your spot on top if you're wearing something so simple?"

"Frankly, Lyds, I couldn't care less about the people we hang out with, except for Danny and Jackson," Olivia confessed, slinging her leather satchel over her shoulders while making sure she had everything she needed for a day at school. She turned her cobalt-blue eyes to her cousin. "And I know you don't, either."

"I'm not dignifying that with a response," Lydia huffed, whipping around to leave Olivia's bedroom. "Let's go."

By the time they were both sliding into Lydia's Beetle, their little argument was over.

"What classes are you taking this semester?" Olivia asked as Lydia pulled out of their driveway and started toward the high school.

"The usual," Lydia shrugged. "Unfortunately, Mandarin was full, so I settled with Latin."

Olivia knew her cousin was a genius but she wondered if Lydia ever got exhausted trying to learn as much as she could. Olivia did—she usually grew tired of school around the end of each semester—but Lydia kept going and going. It made sense, though, Lydia loved to be smarter than everyone around her.

"What about you?"

Olivia cleared her throat, suddenly self-conscious about the classes she was taking. "I got into Calculus," she said quietly. "World History II, Chem…Advanced Spanish."

"Advanced Spanish?" Lydia looked away from the road for a brief second to make sure she heard Olivia right. "I thought you only had to do two classes for Spanish. Why didn't you choose a different language?"

"I don't know," Olivia shrugged.

The truth was, Olivia simply wanted to keep taking Spanish classes. When her cousins, Derek and Laura, checked in on her over winter break, they mentioned that their family was fluent in Spanish. Olivia wasn't quite at that level yet and she wanted to make that side of her family proud, even if most of them were dead. She had a duty to the Hale name, even if she didn't use it.

Lydia hummed at Olivia's response, looking like she didn't quite approve. "You should take Latin next year, then."

Olivia stared out her window, mentally praising the fact that they had arrived at school. She loved Lydia but she acted like an overbearing mother sometimes. "Sure."

Lydia parked in the empty spot that no one dared to leave their car, and the both exited the vehicle. After checking her phone, Lydia turned to Olivia, "Jackson and Danny are already in the building."

"Let's go then."

Stiles paced impatiently, his feet moving his body back-and-forth over two squares of sidewalk in front of the school, as he waited for Scott. His best friend has sent him a concerning message when he woke up, and Stiles was eager to see the injury Scott had sustained.

The night before, Stiles' dad, Sheriff Noah Stilinski, had gotten a call and—of course—Stiles overheard what it was about. He was eager for an adventure and half a dead body in the preserve seemed like something that was worthwhile. Needing his partner in crime, Stiles retrieved Scott from his house and they both set out to the preserve.

All was going well until they came upon police officers and their cadaver dogs. While Scott hid, Stiles was caught by his father and forced to go home, leaving Scott all by himself. According to Scott's message, he was almost trampled by a herd of deer and bitten by some kind of animal.

Now, Scott was taking forever to get to school and Stiles was feeling guilty and a little excited.

Finally, Stiles saw Scott ride his bike through the parking lot to the bike rack. After confronting the school's biggest jackass—Jackson Whittemore—Scott made his way over to Stiles.

"Finally!" Stiles exclaimed, waving his hands in exasperation. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah," Scott shrugged lightly. "I'm fine."

"You sure?"

"Yes, Stiles."

"Okay," Stiles quickly moved on, bouncing. "Let's see this thing."

Scott sighed quietly and shrugged his backpack off his shoulders, lifting his gray t-shirt up to show Stiles the piece of gauze he messily taped to his side. Stiles raised his eyebrows and cooed, reaching out to touch the bandage.

Scott hissed and slapped his hand away.

"Okay, okay," Stiles went back to clutching the straps of his backpack while Scott pulled his shirt back down. "So, what bit you?"

Scott shrugged his backpack on and started walking up the sidewalk to school. "It was too dark to see much but I'm pretty sure it was a wolf."

Stiles raised his eyebrows in disbelief and followed him. "A wolf bit you?"

Scott nodded.

Shaking his head, Stiles shot down Scott's claim, "No, not a chance."

"I heard a wolf howling."

There was no way Scott was bitten by a wolf because Stiles knew there were no wolves living in Beacon Hills—or California, for that matter. He knew way too much about the ecosystems of their home state thanks to the AP Environmental Science he took the year before.

"No, you didn't," Stiles insisted.

"What do you mean, no I didn't?" Scott asked, becoming frustrated. "How do you know what I heard?"

Stiles scoffed and abruptly turned around, stopping Scott in his tracks. "Because California doesn't have wolves, okay? Not in, like, sixty years."

Scott was surprised. "Really?"

"Yes, really!" Stiles confirmed. "There are no wolves in California."

"All right," Scott shook his head, still maintaining that it was a wolf that bit him. He didn't care what Stiles said. "Well, if you don't believe me about the wolf then you're definitely not gonna believe me when I tell you I found the body."

Stiles flailed spastically, his shoulders shrugging sharply as he reached out to grab Scott's shoulders. "Are you fucking kidding me?" he asked excitedly.

"No, man, I wish. I'm gonna have nightmares for a month," Scott shuddered, not wanting to think about the gruesome sight he witnessed the night before.

Stiles laughed in disbelief. "Oh, God, that is so fucking awesome!" he cheered. "I mean this is seriously gonna be the best thing that's happened to this town since—"

He trailed off, his attention being pulled by the two girls walking up the sidewalk to head into school, chatting quietly together.

"—since the birth of Olivia Martin!" he declared as the girl of his dreams walked past him with her cousin at her side. "Hey, Olivia, you look…like you're gonna ignore me."

Stiles swore that it may have been the luckiest day of his life because, as she passed him, Olivia sent him a small smile before giving her attention back to Lydia.

"Oh, my God," he breathed, almost swooning, as he watched Olivia walk into the school. He turned back to Scott, who was just as shocked. "Did that just happen?"

"Yeah, Olivia Martin just smiled at you," Scott grinned as the first bell of the morning went off.

Stiles jumped happily, ignoring the annoyed looks of the students around him. "This is the best day ever."

Scott chuckled and rolled his eyes as he and Stiles went with the herd of students, walking into school. They separated to go to their lockers and then met back up to head to their shared AP English class that Scott somehow tested into.

As they walked into Mr. Thomas' classroom, Stiles stopped in his tracks, making Scott bump into his back. There, in the aisle closest to the wall of windows, was Olivia Martin.

Seeing that there was only one more seat left in the aisle and it was right behind Olivia, Stiles rushed to the seat, almost pushing another guy out of the way. He almost knocked the desk over as he slid into the seat but he righted himself, chuckling nervously when Scott rolled his eyes at him.

He could have pinched himself, though, because seconds after he sat down, Scott sat in the empty seat right next to Olivia.

At least I'm close to her, he thought to himself.

"As you all know," Mr. Thomas spoke from the front of the classroom, a dry-erase marker held firmly in his hand as he wrote on the board. "there indeed was a body found in the woods last night."

Scott turned to look at Stiles with raised eyebrows; Stiles winked at him, chuckling under his breath.

"And I am sure your eager little minds are coming up with various macabre scenarios as to what happened," Mr. Thomas continued. "but I am here to tell you that the police have a suspect in custody—"

Stiles shook his head at Scott's curious look. As far as he was aware—and he was—his dad hadn't brought in a suspect.

"—which means you can give your undivided attention to the syllabus which is on your desk," Mr. Thomas capped his marker and turned around, picking up a pack of papers that had previously been laying on his desk. "outlining this semester."

Most of the students groaned in contempt but obediently set to read their syllabus to see what their teacher had in store to them.

Out of the corner of Stiles' eye, he saw Scott frantically looking around the room but he ignored him for the moment, reaching up to tap Olivia on her vest-covered shoulder.

Olivia turned around and Stiles paused, forgetting what he was going to ask her, when his whiskey-colored eyes met her cobalt-blue ones.

Olivia raised an impatient eyebrow, prompting Stiles to speak.

"Oh, um, do you have a pen I can borrow?" he asked quietly, his voice shaking slightly.

A ladies man, he was not.

Olivia's eyes swept his face, her lips quirking slightly, and fell on his desk where a black pen was already waiting to be used.

"R-Right," Stiles could have punched himself. He was such an idiot. "It doesn't work anymore. That's—that's why I'm asking you for a pen. Yeah."

Olivia hummed, amusement lighting up her face, and turned around, reaching for her satchel on the floor. She pulled out a blue pen and faced Stiles again, holding it out for him.

"There you go," she said kindly. "You can keep it."

"Oh, are you sure?" Stiles was kind of hoping she wanted it back so he could talk to her again. "I mean, I can give it back."

"No, it's fine," she assured him. "Let's hope this one works for you."

Stiles chuckled awkwardly. "Yeah, hopefully. Thanks, Olivia."

"No problem, Stiles."

As Olivia turned back around to read the rest of her syllabus, Stiles stared at the back of her head in shock. Olivia Martin knew his name? Olivia Martin knew who he was?

Like I said, he thought, best day ever.

Stiles shook his head to clear his thoughts and focused back on his syllabus just as the classroom door opened. The vice-principal walked into the room, a girl his age following him.

"Class, this is our new student, Allison Argent," the vice-principal gestured to the girl who smiled shyly. "Please do your best to make her feel welcome."

Allison walked to the side of the classroom where Stiles, Scott, and Olivia were sitting, taking the last empty seat behind Scott. Stiles nodded at her in greeting and watched as Scott handed her a pen with a smitten look on his face.

"Thanks," Allison whispered with a smile.

Scott grinned and caught the eye of Stiles, rolling his eyes as his best friend gave him a thumb's up.

Mr. Thomas cleared his throat. "We'll begin with Kafka's Metamorphosis on page one hundred and thirty-three."

Ollie: We need to talk.

Olivia bit her lip as she texted Derek, hoping that he would have time for a phone call. He currently lived in New York but he was a couple hours ahead of her, so she was pretty sure that he was done with work for the day.

She pressed her phone into her pocket, not expecting an answer right away, and focused back on the conversation she was having with Lydia.

"So, you've met the new girl?"

Lydia was talking about Allison Argent, the newest student of Beacon High. Olivia had her English class with Allison but she wasn't exactly looking forward to meeting her. Her last name was Argent, after all.

The Argents were a notorious family that hunted supernatural creatures. Although Olivia wasn't supernatural herself, her father was and that made her a target. Her mother was human, too, and look where she ended up. Killed just because she associated with someone who was a werewolf.

She didn't know if Allison was a hunter like the rest of her family, but if she wasn't and Olivia made friends with her, was it worth the risk? Did she want another target on her back?

"Not yet," Olivia said finally, shaking her head.

Lydia hummed, looking down the hall where Allison was at her locker. "Well, I like her outfit. Let's go talk to her."

Olivia wanted to object but she knew that Lydia would talk to Allison anyway. She followed her cousin down the hall, knowing that she'd meet Allison sooner or later—especially if Lydia was so determined to talk to her.

"That jacket is absolutely killer," Lydia announced their presence to Allison, who was looking down the hallway. Olivia followed her gaze, seeing that the new girl was staring in the direction of Stiles Stilinski and Scott McCall. "where'd you get it?"

"Thanks," Allison smiled shyly. "My mom was a buyer for a boutique back in San Francisco."

"And you are our new best friend," Lydia declared, pointing slyly at her. "I'm Lydia and this is my cousin, Liv."

Olivia wanted to grimace and scold Lydia for putting Allison's attention on her, but she kept her face smooth and clear of emotion. She wasn't one to put her emotions on her sleeve—other than her happiness—and if Allison was a hunter, she wanted to show no weaknesses.

"Hey," she greeted Allison politely. "We have English together."

Allison's face lit up in realization and when she smiled, her dimples popped out. "Oh, yeah. Nice to meet you."

Olivia nodded. "You too."

Allison seemed sweet enough but there was no way that Olivia was going to let her guard down.

Jackson Whittemore, Lydia's boyfriend and Olivia's friend, came up to them then, pulling Lydia into a sloppy kiss. They were a big fan of PDA but to Olivia, their make-out sessions were nauseating.

Allison must have agreed; she grimaced and awkwardly looked away.

"I want to say you'll get used to it, but…" Olivia shrugged, giving Allison a sympathetic look.

Allison blanched. "Oh."

Eventually Lydia and Jackson tore themselves away from each other and Lydia took that time to obsess over Allison's outfit again. While the redhead was observing the taller brunette's bracelet, Olivia felt her phone vibrate in her pocket.

Derek: I'm in town. When can you meet?

Olivia raised her eyebrows, shocked. She hadn't known that Derek was back in town so soon after his visit. She wished that he had said something.

Ollie: Now. School's over. Pick me up?

Derek: I'll be there in five

Olivia sent him back a thumb's up emoji just as Lydia mentioned Jackson's party to Allison.

"So, this weekend, there's a party."

"A party?" Allison asked timidly.

Olivia could relate to Allison's hesitation. She hated parties, especially ones thrown at their house where she couldn't get away from the crowd of drunk teenagers.

"Yeah, it's on Friday night," Jackson confirmed. "You should come."

"Uh, I can't," Allison shook her head apologetically. "It's family night this Friday. Thanks for asking, though."

"Are you sure?" Jackson prodded. "Everyone's going after the scrimmage."

"You mean like football?"

"I wish," Olivia joked, playfully grinning at the annoyed look Jackson sent her. "Unfortunately, the football team's a joke. The sport here is lacrosse."

"We've won the state championship for the past three years," Jackson boasted.

"Thanks to a certain team captain," Lydia spoke up, grinning lovingly at her boyfriend.

Jackson smiled back at her before looking at Allison. "Well, we have practice in a few minutes. If you don't have anything to do, maybe you can come."

"Well, I was going to—"

"Perfect!" Lydia interrupted her brightly. "You're coming."

Reluctantly, Allison followed Olivia, Lydia, and Jackson down the hallway.

As they passed her locker, Olivia spoke up, "I'm gonna miss practice today," she told her cousin. "I'm meeting up with Derek."

Lydia raised her eyebrows. "He's still in town?"

"Apparently," Olivia shrugged. She patted Jackson on the shoulder and gave Allison a small smile. "Have a good practice, Jackson. It was nice to meet you, Allison."

Allison smiled and waved at her while Jackson nodded. Olivia split off from the group and went to her locker, taking out her satchel and draping it around her shoulders.

Once she walked out to the parking lot, she was relieved to see Derek's black Camaro parked where she could see it. She jogged over to the car and slid into the passenger seat.

"Why are you still in town?" she asked Derek as he pulled out of the parking lot, not even bothering to greet him.

Derek sighed heavily. "I did go back," he told her. "But Laura stayed behind for a couple of days. She never came back."

Olivia furrowed her eyebrows, worried and confused. "So, she's missing?"

"She was."

"What does that mean? Did you find her?"

Derek pursed his lips sadly and looked over at Olivia. "Laura's dead."

Olivia stared blankly at the body in front of her, her eyes stinging from the need to cry. She had already shed tears on the way to the old Hale house where Derek had stashed Laura's body and she felt like she was being weak if she cried any more. She hated crying, especially in front of someone. Sure, Derek was her cousin but they were alike when it came to showing emotional weakness.

Laura's body was cut in half, sliced cleanly down the middle. Her brown hair was matted against her dirty back, sticky with blood and debris. Her blue eyes were fogged over, cloudy with death.

It made Olivia sick to her stomach, especially when she realized that Laura was the body that Mr. Thomas and the rest of the town were talking about.

"Did the Argents do this?"

The Argent family was famous for cutting a werewolf's body in half. Usually, though, the Argents didn't bother supernatural creatures unless they were harming humans. Laura was a gentle soul, she believed in preserving the relationship between the supernatural and the humans that lived in Beacon Hills.

"Maybe," Derek exhaled deeply, arms crossed tightly over his chest as he looked down at his sister. "But if they did kill her, I'd be the alpha."

Olivia looked over at her cousin, watching as his eyes flashed their usual icy-blue, not the deep red of an alpha.

"So, another werewolf killed her," Olivia concluded.

Derek nodded. "I found something near her," he pulled something from his pocket, handing it over to Olivia. "Do you recognize the name?"

Olivia glared down at the inhaler in her hand, reading the dirty label. The name of Scott McCall was printed in black ink, along with an expiration date and some instructions.

What the hell was Scott McCall doing by Laura's body?

"Yeah, I recognize it," Olivia confirmed, handing the inhaler back to Derek. "I go to school with Scott," she sighed deeply. "What are we gonna do, Der?"

"We're gonna bury her," Derek's lips trembled before falling into a scowl. "And then I'm gonna catch whoever did this."

Olivia nodded, knowing that Derek was justified in doing whatever he needed to do to avenge Laura.

It didn't take long to bury Laura's body, though Derek did have to stop a couple of times to maintain his composure. Olivia kept him company, holding his hand tightly through his grief, trying to silently show him that she was there for him.

Once Derek flattened out the soil on Laura's grave, Olivia took the wolfsbane rope that Derek prepared to ward off any werewolves around and laid it down into a spiral, the Hale family's sign for vengeance. She attached it nicely to a wolfsbane plant and buried a few feet away from where Laura was.

The two of them stood silently over Laura's grave, mourning their cousin and sister.

"I don't—I don't know what it was," Scott admitted as he and Stiles balanced on a large tree over the creek that trailed through the preserve, jumping onto solid ground. "It was like I had all the time in the world to catch the ball."

Scott was referring to lacrosse tryouts where he was put in the goal by Coach Finstock. Though he had been practicing since the end of last season, Scott hardly ever spent time in the goal. Coach didn't care, though.

Surprisingly, Scott pulled it off. He caught every ball—other than the first one, which hit him in the head—even Jackson's. His playing amazed everyone, including himself.

"And that's not the only weird thing," Scott continued, his eyes on the ground in search of his missing inhaler. "I can hear stuff I shouldn't be able to hear. I can smell things…"

"Smell things?" Stiles spoke up, skeptical. "Like what?"

Scott turned to him, both of them walking. "Like the spearmint gum in your pocket."

Stiles cocked an eyebrow and stopped in his tracks, digging his hand into his jacket. "I don't even have any spearmint—" he paused as he pulled out a stick of gum and looked at Scott, amazed. Scott shrugged in a I-told-you-so way.

The boys continued walking.

"So," Stiles said thoughtfully. "All this started with a bite?"

"What if it's like an infection?" Scott asked worriedly. "Like my body's flooding with adrenaline before I go into shock or something?"

Stiles grinned sneakily, seeing an opening for a prank. He wasn't sure that Scott knew what lycanthropy was but with him spouting about how a wolf bit him and his newfound abilities, it was the perfect joke.

"You know what, I actually think I've heard of this," he said, catching Scott's attention. "It's a specific kind of infection."

Scott stopped. "Are you serious?"

"Yeah," Stiles nodded, putting his hands on his hips. "Yeah, I think it's called lycanthropy."

Scott's eyes widened. "What's that? Is that bad?"

Stiles couldn't believe his luck. "Oh, yeah, it's the worst," he tried to keep the amusement from his voice. "But only once a month."

"Once a month?"

Stiles hummed in confirmation. "On the night of the full moon."

He tilted his head back and howled, mimicking a wolf. When Scott shook his head in annoyance and pushed him, he broke into snickers.

"Hey," he chuckled. "you're the one who heard a wolf howling."

Scott narrowed his eyes and started walking again. "There could be something seriously wrong with me."

"I know, you're a werewolf!" Stiles exclaimed before fake growling. Scott didn't look amused. "Okay, obviously I'm kidding," he conceded. "But if you see me in shop class trying to melt all the silver I can find, it's because Friday's a full moon."

Scott shook his head, coming to a stop. "We don't even have a shop class," he sighed, looking around at the familiar area. "I could have sworn this was it. The deer came running, I dropped my inhaler, and then I saw the body."

He crouched down, sifting through the dead leaves by his feet.

"Maybe the killer moved the body," Stiles suggested, looking around.

"If he did, I hope he left my inhaler," Scott joked, looking up at Stiles. "Those things are, like, eighty bucks."

Stiles snickered and looked around again, his heart stuttering in shock when he saw Olivia Martin and some guy standing a few feet away. They came out of nowhere, serious looks on both of their faces.

He slapped Scott's shoulder, getting his attention.

As Scott got to his feet, the guy stalked forward. Olivia stood in place, crossing her arms over her chest.

"What are you doing here?" the guy asked crossly.

Stiles rubbed his buzzcut, feeling awkward.

"Huh?" the guy prodded when they didn't answer. "This is private property."

"Uh, sorry, man, we didn't know," Stiles apologized, looking between him and Olivia.

They were close to the old Hale house so that probably explained why Olivia was out here. But if Olivia was with this guy so close to the dilapidated mansion, he figured that the guy was one of the other survivors of the fire. Stiles guessed that he was her cousin, Derek Hale.

"Yeah," Scott added to Stiles' excuse. "we were just looking for something, but forget—"

Derek Hale cut off Scott, pulling his hand out of his leather jacket and throwing whatever he had at Scott. Scott caught it without much thought, looking down at his inhaler in shock.

Stiles glanced from the inhaler back at Olivia and Derek, only to find that they were gone.

"Uh," Scott shook his head and slipped his inhaler into his pocket, looking at Stiles. "All right, come on. I gotta get to work."

Stiles looked at him in disbelief. "Dude, that was Derek Hale. You remember what happened, right?"

"That was Olivia's cousin?"

"Yeah, he's only a few years older than us," Stiles confirmed.

"What happened?" Scott asked, not remembering the tragic deaths of the Hale family and many others.

"His family, Olivia's mom...they all burned to death in a fire six years ago," Stiles informed him.

"I wonder what he's doing back."

Stiles shook his head, shrugging. "Probably visiting Olivia," he took his keys out of his pocket, twirling them around his index finger. "Come on."

The rest of the week passed quickly and Stiles was going out of his mind. Scott continued to act weirdly; he outperformed everyone at lacrosse tryouts, he winced every time the school bell rang, and the morning before the party, he slept walked into the woods.

Stiles had already started researching what could possibly be wrong with his best friend but when his dad got a call from the lab where the dead body was sent and they discovered that there was wolf hair on the body, he was mystified.

Was his joke from the other day not a joke? Could Scott possibly be a werewolf?

Stiles didn't know how to approach the topic with Scott but when he flipped over a couple players on the lacrosse field and still scored a goal, Stiles knew he needed to confront his best friend.

He spent the rest of the afternoon researching anything that involved werewolves. There was a bunch on nonsense from Twilight and The Vampire Diaries but eventually he found some promising websites that gave him helpful information. He printed off numerous pages of articles, ranging from the effects of silver and wolfsbane to the first Lycan folklore.

Stiles narrowed his eyes at the screen of his MacBook, reading through the last paragraph of the article about supernatural hunters. He jumped in shock and closed his computer when there were rapid knocks on his closed door.

Scott was here.

He jumped out of his desk chair and opened the door, relieved to see Scott on the other side.

"Get in," he ushered his best friend into his room, speaking rapidly. "You gotta see this. I've been researching all afternoon. I found a bunch of information."

Scott grinned at him, recognizing his jerky movements and quick words. "How much Adderall have you had today?"

"A lot," Stiles admitted, sitting at his desk and grabbing some of the papers he printed. "Doesn't matter, okay? Just listen."

"Oh, is this about the body?" Scott asked, throwing his backpack on Stiles' bed and taking a seat next to it. "Did they find out who did it?"

"No, they're still questioning people, even Derek Hale," Stiles said, turning his chair to face him.

"Oh, Olivia's cousin?" Scott's face lit up in recognition. "Maybe that's why she's been grumpy all week."

Stiles shrugged, remembering the frown and passive glare that had been on Olivia's face the past few days. "I don't know," he shook his head. "But that's not it, okay?"

"What then?"

"Remember the joke from the other day? Not a joke anymore," Stiles said seriously. As Scott shook his head, confused, he pursed his lips. "The wolf, the bite in the woods? I started doing all this research—"

He flipped the papers in his hands, searching for the information on the howl of a wolf, and stood up. "Do you even know why a wolf howls?"

Scott stared at him, wondering where Stiles was going with this. "Should I?"

"It's a signal," Stiles regurgitated the information from the papers he was holding. "When a wolf's alone, it howls to signal its location to the rest of the pack. So, if you heard a wolf howling, that means others could have been nearby."

Scott straightened in alarm. "A whole pack of wolves?"

"No," Stiles corrected him. "Werewolves."

Tension practically fizzled in the air as Scott gave Stiles an annoyed look and stood up from the bed.

"Are you seriously wasting my time with this?" he scoffed, narrowing his eyes as he picked up his backpack so he could leave. "You know I'm picking up Allison in an hour."

Stiles stepped in front of him. "I saw you on the field today, Scott. What you did wasn't just amazing, all right? It was impossible."

"Yeah, so I made a good shot," Scott shrugged, trying to get past Stiles.

Stiles stopped him again, taking the backpack from his hands and throwing it back onto the bed. "No, you made an incredible shot. I mean, the way you moved, your speed, your reflexes? People can't just suddenly do that overnight."

Scott sighed and bowed his head.

"And there's the vision and the senses," Stiles continued, his voice growing louder. "and don't even think I don't notice that you don't need your inhaler anymore!"

"Okay!" Scott interrupted, fed up. "Dude, I can't think about this now. We'll talk tomorrow."

"Tomorrow?! What, no!" Stiles exclaimed, becoming panicked. "The full moon's tonight. Don't you get it?"

Scott's chest puffed up as he grew irritated with his best friend. "What are you trying to do?" he asked Stiles harshly. "I just made first line, I got a date with a girl who I can't believe wants to go out with me, and everything in my life is somehow perfect. Why are you trying to ruin it?"

Stiles shook his head and sat in his chair. "I'm trying to help," he reminded Scott. "You're cursed, Scott. The moon won't just cause you to physically change, okay? It also just happens to be when your bloodlust will be at its peak."

Scott gritted his teeth. "Bloodlust?"

"Yeah, your urge to kill."

"I'm already starting to feel an urge to kill, Stiles," Scott sneered, glaring at him.

Stiles sucked in a sharp breath and turned to his desk, picking up another printed article. "You gotta hear this. 'The change can be caused by anger or anything that raises your pulse.' All right?" he finished reading and looked back at Scott. "I haven't seen anyone raise your pulse like Allison does."

Stiles stood up and walked purposely toward Scott's backpack. "You gotta cancel this date," he proclaimed, digging through Scott's bag for his cell phone. "I'm gonna call her right now."

Scott sighed heavily. "What are you doing?"

Stiles found the phone and stood up, preparing to message Allison. "I'm cancelling your date."

"No, give it to me!" Scott yelled, grabbing Stiles' arm and forcefully pushing him into the wall by his desk.

He raised his fist, preparing to punch Stiles as his best friend squirmed, waiting for the blow. Scott's fist shook severely as he turned away and shouted with rage, pushing away Stiles' chair.

Stiles looked at Scott with wide eyes, trying to comprehend what had just happened. As Scott calmed down, he saw Stiles' face, growing ashamed at the fear there.

He shuffled away from Stiles, grabbing his backpack. "I'm sorry," he apologized sincerely, stepping toward the door. He looked back at Stiles once more, remorseful at the way his best friend stared at him. "I-I gotta go get ready for that party. I'm sorry."

Stiles didn't speak as Scott left the room. When his door shut firmly, he sighed heavily and knocked his head against his wall in frustration.

He was aggravated that Scott got violent with him, but if Scott was really a werewolf, then he had to get over his irritation. Scott could hurt someone and if he was still going to Lydia's party, Stiles had to be there in case something bad happened.

He huffed and bent down, picking up his chair that Scott had tossed away. Seeing the large scratches in the fake leather, he froze.

This was going to be a bad night.

Olivia leaned against the wall just inside her living room, her eyes warily searching the crowd of teenagers that were drinking cheap beer and dancing to the techno music that Danny provided. She was on the lookout for Scott McCall, hoping that he wasn't going to show up.

When Derek told her that Scott was bitten and now a werewolf, she was shocked. She couldn't believe that Scott—who was basically a nobody with really bad asthma—was going to turn into a raging monster on the nights of the full moon.

And the full moon was tonight, which was why she was actually participating in the party. Scott had asked Allison to go to the party with him and if he actually showed up, Olivia had to make sure he wouldn't hurt anyone when the moon reached its peak.

She was just grateful that Derek was there, somewhere among her partying schoolmates. Really, he'd be the only one who could stop Scott from acting out.

Olivia perked up when she saw Stiles Stilinski walk into the living room, his eyes searching the crowd much like she had been doing.

If anyone knew Scott, she thought, it'd be Stiles.

Olivia placed her red cup of soda on a nearby table and made her way over to Stiles, trying not to bump into anyone's full cup.

"Stiles, right?" she asked him, loud enough to be heard over the music pumping through the many speakers around the house and backyard.

She knew his name, of course, but she didn't want to intimidate him.

Stiles gaped at her, his whiskey eyes sweeping her up and down, taking in her red dress with cutouts around the waist and brown boots. "Yeah, I'm Stiles. You're Olivia."

"I know," Olivia gave him a weird look. "Can we talk?"

"What?"

"Can we talk?"

"Sure!" Stiles nodded eagerly, a goofy grin—that Olivia had to admit was kind of cute—adorning his face. "Lead the way!"

Olivia took his sweaty hand and pulled him out of the living room, through the hallway, and into her aunt's office, which was off limits to party-goers. The walls weren't exactly soundproof, but they could hear each other way better with the bonus of privacy.

"So, uh, what'd you want to talk about?" Stiles asked, awkwardly rubbing his buzzcut.

"Frankly, I want to talk about Scott," Olivia said bluntly, missing the way Stiles frowned in disappointment.

"Uh, okay, but he's here with Allison and he really likes her, so…"

"No, I don't care about his relationship status," Olivia shook her head, rolling her eyes. "I care about the fact that it's a full moon tonight and he's in a crowd full of people."

Stiles gaped at her. "What, I—?" he shook his head, focusing. "How do you know about…?"

"About the fact that he's a werewolf?" Olivia raised her eyebrows. Stiles nodded; she shrugged. "Derek told me."

"Well, how does Derek know?"

"Because Derek's a werewolf," she crossed her arms over her chest.

"Are you fucking serious?" Stiles cursed under his breath. Of course Derek Hale was a fucking werewolf. Why wouldn't he be?

What had he gotten himself into?

"Look, we don't know you or Scott that well, but we want to help," Olivia spoke up after letting Stiles absorb the new information. "Derek has experience with full moons, he can help Scott get through it."

"Are you a werewolf?" Stiles asked, still trying to come to terms with everything.

"No," Olivia shook her head. "My dad was but I'm not."

"Oh," Stiles nodded, scratching the back of his neck, his mind whirling a mile a minute. He paused, giving her a skeptical look. "Why should we trust you?"

"Like I said, Derek knows what Scott's about to go through," Olivia said patiently. "And, honestly, I don't want Scott to rip into anyone out there. It's not really safe for anyone involved."

Stiles nodded slowly; he and Scott didn't exactly need to explicitly trust Derek but if he could help Scott with the full moon, what was the harm? They didn't really have anything to lose at the moment.

"Fine," he agreed, hoping that Scott would too. "We should probably get out there before Scott and Allison show up."

"I'm glad we agree," Olivia smiled at him, opening the door and following him out of the room.

Stiles' heart quickened as Olivia's arm brushed against his as they walked back to the party, a brand-new song starting.

"You want a drink?" Olivia asked him loudly, gesturing toward the drink table.

Stiles nodded. "Sure!"

They hustled to the table and poured their drinks, both of them opting for a non-alcoholic beverage. Afterwards, they walked around, trying to find Scott and Allison. When they found the couple dancing outside, they waited together to see what would happen.

It only took two songs for Scott to start transforming under the influence of the full moon. He stumbled away from Allison and into the house.

Stiles and Olivia approached him cautiously.

"Scott, you good?" Stiles asked him.

"Are you okay?" Olivia added worriedly before looking for a sign of her cousin.

Scott pushed past them, ignoring their questions, and stumbled out of the house, knocking into a couple of people.

Before Olivia and Stiles could follow Scott, Allison ran after him, calling out his name. As Scott ignored Allison, Olivia and Stiles followed her, coming out of the house just in time to see Derek offering Allison a ride.

"What's your cousin doing?" Stiles asked Olivia, frustrated and a little panicked.

Olivia shook her head. "I don't know. You go after Scott, I'll talk to Derek."

Stiles nodded and ran off, finding his jeep and driving away. Meanwhile, Olivia walked up to Allison and Derek.

"Hey," she greeted them, trying to keep her nerves at bay. "Allison, are you leaving?"

"Uh, yeah," Allison gave her an apologetic look. "Sorry, I'm not feeling well."

"I offered to give her a ride home," Derek spoke up, giving Olivia a pointed look that Allison didn't catch.

Olivia knew what he was doing and she wished he wouldn't. She had already talked to Stiles and got him to trust them. If Stiles agreed to them helping Scott, she was sure that Scott would agree, too. This—what Derek was doing—was just going to piss them off.

However, she knew Derek. He wouldn't back down.

Olivia hesitantly nodded and smiled at Allison. "Well, you'll be safe with Derek. See you at school on Monday?"

Allison nodded with a small smile. "Yeah."

"Feel better, Allison."

Stiles huffed, silently cursing to himself as he continued to drive down the highway just outside of the preserve. He'd been searching for Scott all night and had yet to find him after he ran off to find Derek and Allison.

Of course, Stiles knew Allison was safe at home but he wondered if Scott knew that.

Really, he was pissed. Not at Scott but at Derek and Olivia. Olivia had said that Derek was going to help Scott but instead Scott revealed that Derek was the one to bite Scott and kill the girl in the woods. He was inclined to trust his best friend more than some random guy and the girl he had been crushing on since the second grade.

So, what was Derek and Olivia's plan? And why did Olivia approach him, giving him false promises?

Stiles narrowed his eyes as he caught sight of Scott up ahead, walking on the side of the road. He was shirtless and clutching his right arm, as though he was injured.

Stiles pulled up and stopped, letting him into the jeep.

"You okay?" he asked, pulling off his blazer to give to Scott to wear.

"Yeah," Scott mumbled, pulling the blazer over him. He leaned his head against his door as Stiles started driving and sighed. "You know what I'm worried about?"

Stiles licked his lips and side-glanced Scott, annoyed. "If you say Allison, I'm gonna punch you in the nuts."

"She probably hates me now," Scott complained, ignoring what Stiles said.

Stiles groaned. "I doubt that," he disagreed. "but you might want to come up with a pretty amazing apology…Or, you know, you could just tell her the truth and revel in the fact that you're a fuckin' werewolf!"

Scott looked at him tiredly, eyebrows raised high on his forehead.

"Okay, bad idea," Stiles admitted sheepishly.

Scott sighed and laid his head back on his window.

"Hey, we'll get through this," Stiles comforted Scott, nudging his knee before returning his hand to the steering wheel. "Come on, if I have to, I'll chain you up myself on full moon nights and feed you live mice. I had a boa once, I could do it."

Scott chuckled, cheered up by his best friend's goofiness. "Sure, if it comes to that."

Stiles pumped his fist. "Yes!"