The next day bothered me. Who would've shot Derek? How did Scott know?

Why didn't he say anything before?

I know I probably would've been pushing it with the questions, but it doesn't just involve him anymore. Scott's involved, Stiles is definitely involved which bothers me altogether.

I sighed.

Only way to get answers is straight from the source. Hearing my phone vibrate, I look at the notification that Stiles had texted me. I widened my eyes at the text Stiles sent, describing that Lydia and Jackson might've seen something.

A store clerk was attacked by the alpha, apparently.

That's no good.

I ask him if he's seen Scott and he replies quickly, informing me that he and Derek are scoping a place out. Werewolf training, I suppose.

Tomorrow then. "Sam! C'mere!", I hear my mom call me.

I sighed, getting up and walking downstairs. Meeting her in the kitchen, she turned to me, her focus on her phone. "When were you gonna tell me there was a parent teacher conference?" Oh… that. I rubbed behind my neck.

"I had other things on my mind." Not exactly a lie. She frowned at that. "We're going tomorrow. Be ready at 5. We'll be there a little after.", she said, before leaving me alone.

After everything that's been happening, I hadn't had time to think about school. I guess he was right. Things are gonna change from now on. The morning after, I tried tracking time with what I was gonna do.

Just go talk to Derek and be back before 5. Simple.

After getting ready to see Derek, I drove up to the treeline that led to the Hale house. Parking, I walked up to the abandoned house and knocked on the door.

Derek's sweaty scowl met me at the door. "What the hell do you want?" I frowned, pushing into his house.

"Uh, a hello and thanks would suffice."

He closed the door. "What do you want.", he repeated.

I look around and then at him. "I want answers. I was trying to be considerate before but we can't risk something like what happened the other day to happen again."

He raised his eyebrows. "Excuse me? We?" He brushed past me and started to work out, performing pull ups on a door frame. "What do we have to talk about?"

"I don't know, Derek. How about, do you have any ideas of who shot you? Or how can we avoid that? Or how about calling to tell me about the Alpha attacking that video store clerk, if you already knew about that.", I listed.

Derek dropped down from the door frame and held an irritated glare. "Look, I don't tell you anything because you have no business in this. Both you and Stiles, actually. This isn't some teamwork project.", Derek barked before turning away from me again. "Whatever you think you want to know, trust me, you don't. It's best you forget everything that happened."

I gaped at him. "Forget everything? How the hell am I supposed to just forget that my best friend is a werewolf, Derek?"

He turned to me. "Pretend! Mind your business! It doesn't involve you!"

I took a step towards him. "It absolutely involves me! If you forgot, I almost got killed by those hunters-"

"All the more reason for you to mind your business, Sam!", he bellowed.

I crossed my arms. "It's hard to do that when you keep popping up in our lives. Which seems to be happening more often than you're trying to prevent.", I sneer. I stepped up to him. "Whatever you think is going to happen, won't. Not unless you get rid of this lone wolf attitude and actually bother to put some effort into helping.", I say.

He glares at me as I continue. "As far as I'm concerned, I'm worried about Scott and what the hell he could do, and you're the only person I can turn to!", I yelled, jabbing a finger into his chest.

"This doesn't concern you. You're human. He's not. What if he turns on you, then what?", he growled. "That'll be on you, won't it?", I say, making his face contort in irritation.

"Look here-" Suddenly, Derek snapped his head to look at the front door.

"What?", I asked, and he held a finger up to me. "Hide," he growled. "For what? What's out there?", I asked.

Him being impatient with my questions, he threw me over his shoulder, and booked it up the stairs. When he lowered me, he held me against a wall, keeping a finger to his lips. "Hunters.", he mouthed, pointing at the direction of the door. I jumped at the sound of the door being kicked in.

I looked at him with widened eyes and he shook his head, furiously. We heard the sounds of their heavy boots as they walked along the old charred wood of the floor downstairs, searching for Derek.

"No one home?", a male voice sounded. "Oh, he's just not feeling particularly hospitable.", a female voice responded. I looked at Derek in confusion as his face contorted in shock and slight anger.

"Maybe he's out burying a bone in the back yard", the previous voice joked. "Really? A dog joke?", the female mused. "We're going there and that's the best you got? If you wanna provoke him, say something like, too bad your sister 'bit it' before she had her first litter."

My eyebrows furrowed as I tried to crane my neck to get a look at this bitch.

Derek shook his head at me again, struggling to keep himself under control. The more the woman droned on, the more Derek got more and more angry. His eyes flickered blue as he struggled with control.

"Too bad she howled like a bitch, WHEN WE CUT HER IN HALF!" He let out a loud snarl that made me cover my ears as he launched himself downstairs. I could hear someone being thrown against the wall before leaping over the banister to take out another.

Derek was growling and snarling all until I heard zapping and weakened growls. What the hell? Was Derek ok?

"Wow, this one grew up in all the right places.", I heard the female hunter say seductively. "I don't know whether to kill it or lick it." I frowned in disgust, conflicted as to what I should do. I pulled out my phone, considering texting Scott but if Derek's down, there's no way Scott could do anything.

I put my phone on silent before putting it away. I heard the unsettling zapping noise again and Derek crashing to the floor again. The woman laughed. "Oh, 900,000 volts. You never were good with electricity,were you? Or fire." She laughed again.

"Which is why I'm gonna let you in on a little secret. And, well, maybe we can help each other out. Yes, your sister was severed into pieces and used as bait to try and catch you. Unpleasant, and frankly, a little too Texas Chainsaw Massacre for my taste." I silently fumed as she put Derek down for her own amusement.

"Now, here's the part that might really kick you in your balls. We didn't kill her.", she paused as if waiting for Derek to respond. "You think I'm lying?"

"Wouldn't be the first time", I hear Derek growl out. "Aw, Sweetie," She zapped him again, causing him to groan.

I huffed again, in frustration, apparently too loud. "Did you have other guests Derek? How rude of you not to invite them down..." I hear her walk closer to the stairs. "Why don't you come down and join the party... I don't wanna have to come up there to get you!"

I stood in silence, staying out of sight. I could hear Derek's groan. "No one's here…" She didn't seem to believe him. "It's fine with me if you don't come down..."

I heard her footsteps fading away from the stairs and a loud zapping noise, followed by a loud yell. I practically throw myself downstairs to stop her. Stupid move, but better than listening to her torture him.

My eyes caught the sight of the female hunter. Blonde, a little taller than me, definitely older than me. I looked at Derek who was lying on the dusty floor, leaning against the wall. "Well. What do we have here? Another beta?", she asked, proceeding to circle me. Beta?

"Sh-she's nobody", Derek stuttered and gasped out as his body still shook with aftershocks of the tazing. "She doesn't seem like nobody.", she says, with a maniacal grin.

"Who are you, sweetheart?", she asked, pinching at my cheek. "Seems a bit young for you Derek, I thought you only liked older women." I glared at her. "Who I am isn't any of your damn business. You're trespassing."

"Trespassing, hm…?" She poked me with the electric baton. "What're you, the police?", she mused. I rolled my eyes. "G-Get out of here…", I hear Derek warn, weakly. The woman ignored him. "So, if you aren't a werewolf, why are you out here with Derek?"

"We're friends.", I say, courageously. Her eyes flickered shortly in surprise before holding amusement. "Friends, huh? So that means you know what he is? Unless he hasn't told you?" I feigned confusion. "What he is?"

She frowned, rolling her eyes. It seems to have convinced her. For now. "Sit down, right next to him. I have more to say and I don't trust you."

I quickly made it over to Derek, helping him sit up. He looked at me, helplessly and with a hint of shame. "Now, where were we? Oh right, you thought I was lying...about killing your sister, isn't that right?", the woman asks before smiling at him.

"Why don't you just listen to my heart and tell me if I am. Okay?", she said, firmly and stalking closer to Derek. "We. Didn't. Kill. Your. Sister. Do you hear that? There's no blips or upticks. Just the steady beat of the cold, hard truth. Found bite marks on your sister's body, Derek. What do you think of that? A mountain lion? Why aren't we helping each other out? You might as well admit what you've been guessing all along, which is - The Alpha killed your sister. And all you have to do is tell us who he is, and we'll take care of it for you.", she says and shrugs. "Problem solved, everybody goes home."

Derek looks at her with a solemn look which makes her smirk. "You don't know who he is either. Wow. Guess who just became totally useless?", she sneers, rolling her eyes before turning away.

I glared at her, standing up as I felt Derek suddenly grab at my ankle. I stormed up to the woman and just as she turned back around, I slammed my fist into her face. Before she could recover, I was lifted back over Derek's shoulder as he ducked and dodged oncoming bullets. Once we got quite a distance away Derek stopped and set me down on my feet again.

He cautiously looked back at his house. "That fucking bitch. Who the hell is she!?", I fumed. "This is exactly what I was talking about!", he yelled, before lowering his voice as he looked around. "You aren't safe. She saw your face and now you definitely have a damn target on your back." He huffed, roughly running his fingers through his hair. "She's a part of the Argents. Now that she's seen your face, she could easily ask Allison about you. There's nothing, not even the sheriff can do to protect you against them!"

I let him pace and fume silently. "You done?", I asked.

He looked at me in disbelief. "Am I done?"

"Yes, are you done? As I said before, this already involved me. If something happens to Scott, me and Stiles are the first to be confronted about his "condition" and there's nothing you could do to stop it. I'm not trying to live out some fantasy here, Derek. Hell, I left fantasies to books, and now my best friend is a werewolf.", I say, tiredly.

I stepped up to him. "I'm in this whether you like it or not. Not because I want to, but because I can't stand here and be helpless while you guys are risking your necks by simply trying to live. It's not right.", I say, making him look at me, taken aback. He looked away before harshly sighing.

"You're right. You're right. I'm… sorry.", he says, begrudgingly. I crossed my arms. "Can you at least trust me now? I almost got tazed."

That put somewhat of a smile on his face as he rolled his eyes. "Okay. Okay, I trust you." I smiled, before turning away.

"That's all I'm asking for. Now, c'mon, you can't go back there.", I say, walking away but stopping only after hearing my own footsteps. I turned around to see he's already gone. I lifted my arms in confusion. "The hell."

After getting home, I looked at the time.

4:45pm.

I'm cutting it close.

I ran into the house after parking in the driveway and got cleaned up. The less mom knows about where I've been, the better.

After 5, we pulled into the parking lot and I could see Stiles' jeep. Shit.

I pulled mom into a different entrance so she wouldn't see the Jeep. I'd forgotten she thought Stiles got rid of it.

"So, who're we going to first? How about we start from worse to better?", she suggested. I sighed harshly. "I can't stand either class."

We ran through every class, leaving one at last. "Last one… Coach Finstock.", I said, rolling my eyes. He wasn't too bad, he was just childish.

Entering his office, he looked up and a proud look washed over his face. "Wilson! My star!"

My mom smiled at the praise.

"Your daughter is a delight on the team: great kid.", he said, shaking my mom's hand.

I rolled my eyes at his ass kissing. "So, records. Fast learner, dependable, a little C's and D's here and there but other than that, she's good.", he says.

Seriously? That wasn't too bad. Though, I feel like this is gonna bite me in the ass later.

After leaving the office and finally exiting the school, I stretched. "I'm so glad that's over.", I whined. "I was kinda expecting the worst.", I said to my mom.

She placed her hands on her hips. "How bad could you have done?"

I shrugged and jumped at the sudden shrill of a scream that ripped through the parking lot. With panic amuck, it was hard to see what was going on. The only thing I could make out of all the screaming was a roar.

My mom pulled me close. "Stay close to me, something's loose in the parking lot.", she said, looking around.

No way it could be the alpha. Would he really attack in front of hundreds of people?

I looked around to see Stiles' dad, who had fallen on the ground. I yanked myself out my mom's grip and ran to help him up.

He looked at me in confusion. "What're you doing!? Get out of here!", he ordered before stopping to look at a dark four legged figure stalking towards us.

It moved faster and I braced myself before hearing loud gunshots in my ears. I looked at Mr. Stillinski and saw he didn't even have a weapon but was looking at someone else.

It was an older man pointing a gun in the direction of the roaring beast who fled. "Thanks.", Mr. Stillinski said, as he helped me up.

My mom ran up to me, scolding me for leaving her like that. Suddenly Scott and Allison ran up to us.

"You guys okay?", he asked. I nodded. "Yeah. Must've been a cougar. Couldn't get a good look.", I said, pointedly at Scott. He nodded and I noticed Allison hugging the man from before.

Scott seemed to catch onto my line of vision and introduced the man. "Sam, this is Allison's dad."

My heart dropped to my stomach as the man nodded at me. "Nice to meet you."

I faked a smile and nodded. "Nice to meet you too."

Allison walked off with her father and I felt my palms sweat as I glared subtly at Scott. He didn't know that I had a confrontation with another Argent but now that's three Argents I have to worry about.

"What's wrong?", Scott asked, absentmindedly. I rolled my eyes and whispered in his ear. "We're talking about this later."

I walked off with my mom, ready to go home.

When I was finally alone in my room, I paced back and forth. That woman from earlier saw my face. And she knew Derek.

If the entire Argent family are hunters, minus Allison who seems to not know of this, then there's no way that woman didn't go and tell him.

Now that he's seen my face and knows my name, anything could happen. In the midst of me panicking, I jumped to the sound of something being thrown at my window.

I hesitated walking over to it. I looked around for a weapon and found an old bed slat that fell under my bed and walked over to my window. I peeked through the crack of my blinds and saw a familiar face standing outside.

I sighed heavily as I opened my window to fully see Derek. "Seriously?", I whispered-yelled.

He climbed up a nearby tree to enter my room through the window.

"What're you doing here?", I asked. He huffed as he situated himself. "Sorry for being concerned.", he said, rolling his eyes. "I heard your heart. It's going a mile a minute. What's going on?"

"We just came back from the conferences at school and then the whole thing in the parking lot with a cougar and Allison's dad was there-" He stopped my rambling. "Hold on, hold on. Allison's dad was there?", he asked with wide eyes.

I nodded. "Did he see you?", he asked. "He practically scanned me. He saved me and Mr. Stillinski from being mauled but it didn't help that Scott introduced us.", I said.

Derek's face contorted in anger. "I'm gonna fucking kill him."

"Hold on-"

"He's being too carefree. Especially around that Allison. All she has to do is bat her eyes and she'll get him to tell her everything.", he rambled.

I panicked more. Scott was hopelessly in love with Allison. And him being a werewolf just makes his infatuation with her even worse.

Derek seemed to notice and put his hands on my shoulders. "Easy. Breathe."

I tried calming down with a few deep breaths before finally relaxing a bit. I looked up at Derek. "He can't be this stupid. I mean, he shot at us for Christ's sake!"

"Again, Scott is obsessed with this girl. Of course he's not gonna think straight with her around and that's gonna be a big issue and a hindrance to all of this.", Derek said.

"Speaking of all of this, you can't really go back to your house now because of them, huh? Where are you staying?", I asked.

He shook his head. "I'm fine. They don't know about other places I've been staying at so everything's good."

For now.

I sighed in relief. At least one good thing has come out of all of this.

Derek shook his head. "Just relax. He may know what you look like, but he doesn't know where you live and we're not gonna jinx that. Starting with me leaving now."

As he starts climbing out of my window, I stop him. "Hey."

He looks at me attentively.

"Be safe. Please.", I say. He gives me a half smile. "Night, Sam." With that he jumps out of the window and I watch as he disappears into the night.

The next morning, Scott called me to go grocery shopping with him and it was a struggle, considering he forgot the entire list of what he needed to get.

Luckily I helped him retrace his memory and we finally got everything out. "You don't have to babysit me, y'know.", he grumbled.

"Hey, you asked me to come along. You can't get mad at me when you forgot the list.", I argued.

"I am capable of Shopping unassisted, you know that right?" Scott said smartly as we entered the parking structure, heading back to the car after getting groceries.

"Says the guy who forgot the list. You're lucky I did come, otherwise your mom wouldn't have half the things she asked for.", I fussed, following behind him.

"I've just had a lot on my mind lately.", he said defensively.

"So, I see. Since this is the second level we have checked and still no car...", I shook my head.

"I'm sure I parked here.", he said, pulling the keys from his pocket and clicking the locking button.

Nothing.

He hit the clicker about 2 or 3 more times before the car horn beeped...

"Above us…", I grumbled, looking up.

Scott sighed and took half of some bags from me, only for the half gallon of milk he bought to roll out of the bag.

"No, no, no…" He went chasing after it, only for it to roll under a car.

"Great" I followed him to get it, chuckling along the way. Just as he was about to get on his hands and knees to get it, it suddenly came rolling back with four puncture marks running down the side.

He backed up rapidly, growls reverberated off the walls and we both started to panic.

"Holy shit…", I muttered before Scott grabbed my wrist in a vice grip and ran off with me. He seemed to have gotten faster even though we were both on the lacrosse team. I still seemed so out of shape compared to him.

When we finally stopped we ducked down behind a car on the opposite side of the parking structure, Scott was trying to calm his breathing.

When he calmed down enough, he stood back up and began setting off car alarms all around us.

Smart.

He made it down both sides, letting off every car alarm he could.

We backed away enough to just hear the car alarms from all sides, which was dangerous and tactical.

Just as I thought we were okay, his phone decided to ring and I looked at him in disbelief. "You have to be shitting me right now.", I huffed.

Just as he tried to turn it off, he was tackled to the end of the row, on top of the hood of a car. I got a good look at what it was… rather who it was.

"Derek?"

"And now because of that, you got both you and her killed.", I hear him fuss at Scott, finally releasing him.

He started to walk towards me and I wanted to slap him. "What the hell was that for!? How is this gonna help him!?"

"I said I'd teach him, I never said when.", Derek countered, walking past me.

"Ok, but I was fast though, right?", Scott asked, running up beside Derek.

"Not fast enough.", Derek replied.

"But-but the car alarm thing, that was smart, right?", Scott panted, trying to catch up to Derek.

"Until your phone rang.", Derek said, dismissively.

"Yeah, but that was - I mean - Would you just stop? Please?", Scott exclaimed, causing Derek to slow down and finally stop, turning around to face Scott.

"What happened the other night, Stiles' dad getting hurt, that was my fault. I should have been there to do something. I need you to teach me how to control this.", Scott pleaded.

"Look, I am what I am because of birth. You were bitten. Teaching someone who was bitten takes time. I don't even know if I can teach you.", Derek said.

"What do I have to do?", Scott asked.

"You have to get rid of distractions. You see this? This is why I caught you. You want me to teach you, get rid of her.", Derek held up Scott's phone for him to see 'Allison' flashing across the screen.

"What, just because of her family?", Scott accused. "Wait-wait!", Scott exclaimed as Derek threw Scott's phone against the wall, shattering it.

"You getting angry? That's your first lesson. You want to learn how to control this, how to shift, you do it through anger, by tapping into a primal animal rage, and you can't do that with her around.", Derek ordered.

"I can get angry.", Scott growled.

"Not angry enough. This is the only way I can teach you. Now, can you stay away from her? At least until the full moon.", Derek asked.

"If you can teach me, I can stay away from her.", I looked at Derek as he looked back at me like he didn't believe him. I wasn't strong enough to vouch for Scott.

Derek sighed. "Fine."

Scott gathered up the groceries to put them in the car, I followed Derek.

"What do you want, Sam?", Derek asked.

"You don't have any faith in him, do you?", I asked.

"Are you forgetting Scott can probably hear everything we're saying?", he asked, raising a thick eyebrow.

"I'm aware, but he's too pissed at you to be focusing on what I got to say.", I said.

Derek sighed. "You asked me to help, and what little expertise I have in helping the bitten, I'm trying. Cut me some slack."

I raised my hands in defense. "I get it, it's hard. I can't imagine how difficult it is to have someone else's responsibility on your shoulders like this. I appreciate it anyway."

That seemed to calm him down, just a little.

I gave him a smile before turning to leave but he grabbed my arm. I turned to him. "What's the matter?"

He held out his hand. "Give me your phone."

I pulled out my phone and handed it to him, watching him hastily punch his number in before handing it back to me. "Now, go home. We made a ruckus.", he says before leaving.

I thanked Scott for the ride home and rushed inside to collapse in my bed.

These guys are gonna be the death of me.