Chapter 15: Aberrations
Searing sunlight roused Melanie from her deep sleep the next morning. She could feel the heat on her face and saw bright yellow on the other side of her eyelids. They fluttered open as the blanket of sleep upon her lifted. She took in a breath just to start coughing due to the dust that shot into her lungs. She pushed away from the couch arm that left an imprint on her cheek and squinted around the room. Dust motes floated around in the air of the house. The charred house. How it was still standing, she didn't know. Black, smoke damaged walls and floor surrounded her. The remains of what appeared to be a rocking chair sat in a corner of the room. Otherwise it was bare.
Melanie got off the couch, the cushions squeaked beneath her shifting weight. She brushed her unkempt hair out of her face and took tentative steps forward, looking around. Her steps halted altogether when another set of footsteps sounded on the floor boards. Quick footsteps. Melanie didn't have time to move when her visitor approached.
"What are you doing here?" she addressed Derek. Her heart thudded against her chest. Derek Hale was standing in front of her. Derek Hale was alive. He was alive! But how? She had seen him get poked through like a shish kabob. She saw him get thrown against the wall like a rag doll. And yet there he was, standing as if he hadn't a care in the world. She couldn't help it; she surged forward and flung her arms around his midsection. She had never been so happy to see someone in her life. She had never been so happy to see a werewolf in her life. He was alive and he was safe.
Derek stiffened beneath her but she didn't let go of him. It only made her hold on tighter. Feeling his muscles beneath her arms was just a bonus. Not that she was focusing on that. Nope. Not one bit. She could hear a growl rumble deep within his chest. "Getting you out," he answered, grabbing her upper arm."You shouldn't be here," he said firmly. "It's not safe."
"No kidding," Melanie replied, stepping away from him. As if standing next to a werewolf would be safe in any regard. She rubbed at her arm where he had grabbed her, noticing the red marks that marred her skin. Any harder and she'd probably have the police at her door to investigate an abuse claim. "Why am I here? Did you bring me here?"
"What are you talking about? You wandered out into the middle of the woods yourself. You came here yourself. You're lucky I was the one to find you and not those hunters," Derek said, his voice stern, his stare hard.
Melanie scratched her head. "I did what?" She asked, looking around. That wasn't possible. She had been in her room. She was doing her homework. Why would she leave just to wander around in the middle of the woods? And why wouldn't she remember it? Her eyes darted around the room, going back to the couch she had occupied. She rubbed her face, still feeling the pattern imprinted in her cheek. "Where am I?"
"My house," Derek replied.
She blinked. She certainly didn't expect that. But it all made sense now, the state it was in. She regarded him and he watched her. Did he live here still? Is this where he disappeared to? His burnt out shell of a home? Why would someone want to stay there? She couldn't even imagine her won house burning down, let alone going back to it to live there afterwards. "Why am I at your house?" she asked but then a moment later she forgot about her question as she gasped aloud. "Shit! My mom and dad are going to freak out! Why did you bring me here, Derek?"
"Are you deaf?" he demanded, his nostrils flaring. "You came here by yourself. You were the one in the woods! I didn't bring you here!" The emphasis he put on his words were heavy. He didn't mince his intent to point out his detachment in their current predicament.
"No I wasn't!" she denied. "I-I was at my house. I was doing my homework..." But her words weren't as strong as she wanted them to be. Frankly she couldn't remember anything after going up to her room to do homework and before waking up that morning. Maybe she had wandered into the woods herself. Maybe she sleepwalked. But why now of all times would she start sleepwalking? She's never done it before. There was a first time for everything but…it felt weird. She wasn't in her pajamas; she was still in her clothes from yesterday. Yesterday! She had gotten injured during lacrosse practice but now her back didn't hurt at all. It was as if she had completely healed overnight but she was hit hard by Scott's werewolf body check. No one could come back from a hit like that that soon. Let alone her. And yet there she was, standing around as if nothing had happened.
Derek turned on his heel and walked away. Melanie gulped and brushed her hair out of her face. This is it. I'm out in the middle of nowhere, he's going to go all wolf on me and kill me. Man, I knew I should have sent those chain e-mails. This must have been what they were warning me about. "Here, eat this," Derek said, shoving a plate into her hands. She stared at it, as if she hadn't seen a plate before in her life. She blinked rapidly for a few seconds before her brain finally connected the dots for her. The object on the plate came into view, like a sharpen tool had been used in photoshop. She made a face at the deep red colored meat that sat on the plate.
"What is this?" she asked. Her mind couldn't come up with anything that could describe it. It didn't look like anything she'd eaten before. She looked around again. How was he able to prepare t anyway? Surely nothing electric worked in the house anymore.
"Deer," he replied. Her face became more grotesque. He rolled his eyes. "Sorry, I don't have filet mignon on the menu," he grunted. "Eat it and go. You don't want to be found with me, thanks to Scott."
She drummed her fingers on the plate. "He was just trying to protect the others," she said quietly.
Derek scoffed. "Yeah, at my expense. I can't get the alpha with the cops around. He really fucked things up. All because he couldn't shake his friends loose. Now he sees how important it is to only deal with a pack."
"But…we're his pack," she said, her eyebrows furrowing at Derek's words. "Isn't that the point of one? To protect who's in it at all costs? Or else it wouldn't survive, right?" He glared at her and she briefly wondered how he was able to put so many words into one look. Turning her eyes away she picked up the piece of meat on the plate and took a bite. It was drier than she expected, a bit tough and chewy but wasn't too bad. It left a funny aftertaste on her tongue and in her mouth but she wasn't going to complain when he was being hospitable. Which reminded her… "Derek, why did you let me stay here?"
"Stop asking questions and eat," he ordered while crossing his arms. A muscle in his clenched jaw twitched. His eyes darted around, as if looking for something. Hunters, probably. She took another bite and chewed. If he was so worried about hunters wouldn't coming back to his own home be like wearing a target on his back? That couldn't be a smart idea. He paced around the windows, peering out here and there. Just as the last piece of meat passed Melanie's lips he wrenched the plate out of her hands and put it aside. "Good, you're done. Now go!"
"How do you expect me to get to school?" Melanie demanded, digging her heels into the floorboards. The rubber on the bottom of her shoes emitted squeaking sounds against the wood. She nearly bumped into Derek when he stopped walking.
"Use your legs, they got you this far," he replied. Well, more like growled. If she didn't already know he was a werewolf she would have thoughts so from the growling alone.
"I'm not going to get there in time. Don't you have a car?"
"And have every member of the police department after me? Really?" Derek shook his head. "You've been hanging around those two for too long, they're rubbing off on you."
"Well." Melanie crossed her arms. "If you can live with yourself with the idea of me walking around in the woods without a weapon and without cover with hunters roaming about that could strike me down at any minute—"
Her words collided against his hand when he pressed it against her mouth. Her eyebrows furrowed as he leaned closer to her face. Her eyes roamed his face. She appreciated it from far away but up close was another thing all together. His eyes were a moss green, fading into a maple brown and hooded by a thick brow. There was an intensity nestled deep within his eye that she didn't think was a learned trait. It looked like a fire crackled in the darkness of his irises.
"Do you…ever stop talking?" Derek finally asked. Her lips stretched into a smile despite his palm still pressing against her mouth.
"When I have nothing to say," she replied, her words and voice muffled by his hand. "Come on, I'm better to listen to than Stiles, right?"
"Not by much," he replied. The relaxing muscles in his face contradicted his clipped sentence. His sturdy jaw softened when he unclenched his teeth. He dropped his hand from her mouth and ran it through his hair. He gripped at the shafts of his hair for a moment. "Okay," he said, sighing and dropping his hand. "Let's go."
"Go where?"
He stopped by the door and stared at her. "You said you wanted to go to school."
Melanie tilted her head, much like a confused puppy. With her wide blue eyes she almost looked like one to him. "But you said—"
"I know what I said, just come on! Before I change my mind!"
She scurried after him and out the front door, noting the red chipped paint on the front; some places looked as if the paint was about to droop right off. Derek stood still on the porch, his eyes darting around. Then he took in a long, audible breath through his nose and let it out slowly.
"What are you doing?" Melanie asked.
"Looking. Smelling. Listening," he replied.
"Listening for what?"
"Heartbeats," Derek replied. "I can hear someone's or something's heartbeat. Every dip, every spike I can pick up." Melanie's eyebrows jumped up. That was new. She figured that their hearing was on a different level than a human's but not by that much. "There's nothing here," he reported after a few moments of silence. Then he knelt on one knee. Was he…? What was he…?
"Whoa, dude! You're cool and all but I think I'm a little young for that," she commented, waving her hands. "Besides, I'd need my parents' permission and that's kinda not cool when it comes to signing papers, right?"
Derek threw her an exasperated look over her shoulder. She didn't miss it. In fact there was no way she couldn't catch the look. Even if she was a butterfingers. "Get on!" He ordered.
"Yes sir," she squeaked, his bark making her jump. She shuffled forward, learned over his back, and wrapped her arms around his neck. Her nose twitched at the spicy scent that clung to his neck – a cross between burning firewood, old leather, and something sweet she couldn't put her finger on. He stood at full height, easily lifting her off the ground. He looped his arms around her knees, took one step forward, and then they were off.
Wind tugged and pulled at their clothes to slow them down. It whistled in her ears and brushed its icy claws across her skin. Her eyes watered; the tears spilled over her bottom lids and ran down her cheeks, further distorting the green and brown blurs of the trees and leaves surrounding them. The brush of the cold air on the tear tracks on her face cut into her flushed skin.
She directed him which way to go to get back to school, directing him this way and that. She had managed to walk in much further than she expected but she knew her way out. As if she had been there before. As if the woods felt familiar somehow. Or perhaps it was just her good sense of direction. She had never been lost in her life, no matter how many times she wandered off. And in this case she wandered far.
"This is as far as I go," Derek commented once he stopped running. He bent his knees and waited for Melanie to slip off his back. "I shouldn't have to tell you to keep your mouth shut but because it's you—"
"You can trust me," Melanie told him. And it wasn't until the words came out of her mouth that the realization hit her that she needed him to trust her. She was involved now. She was an ally. She had their back. But even then he didn't trust her. Not just him, Scott and Stiles didn't either. Why else wouldn't Stiles let her help out during the full moon? Would they include her in anything else or was that the end of their partnership?
Her blue eyes lifted only to lock with Derek's hard stare. His eyes shifted ever so slightly, as if he was trying to figure her out. Her eyebrows furrowed and then a light turned on in her head. He was listening to her heartbeat. "Sorry," she muttered, pressing her hands to her chest as if that would muffle the sound. "I'll just go." She turned away, shifting from front facing to profile, only to stop and turn back. She pulled her bottom lip between her teeth, exhaled, and murmured, "Be careful, okay?"
Melanie turned away before he could say anything or glare at her some more. Honestly, she didn't know how his eyes weren't starting to hurt from how much he glared. Hell, she wouldn't be surprised if his eyebrows froze the way they were held.
She jogged up the slope and broke through the line of trees that slowly evolved to the asphalt of the school's parking lot. It was full of cars and the smell of exhaust fumes from the bus had long gone stale. She was late.
Moving across the parking lot and slipping between cars, she reached into her pocket and pulled out her phone. She cringed at the double digit numbers that indicated the texts and voice messages left on her phone. The flashing battery sign drew her eyes over to that number and then to the time. She was really late.
She charged into the school, the front door banging shut behind her. The metal clang bounced off the lockers and filled the space of the empty hallway. She cringed at the sound. Her skills at sneaking in were still subpar. Grumbling under her breath, she slipped into the front office and pulled an apologetic face when the secretary shot her a disapproving look. It was better than anything she could have said aloud. Thankfully she was occupied by the secretary being on the phone.
"I know, I know," Melanie whispered. "Detention. I have to stay after school anyway to ensure the flower delivery for tomorrow. I need to learn responsibility, yadda, yadda. Can I just have a late slip?" She extended her hand and waited for the woman to put it in her palm. Once she got it she raced to her locker to see…that it was nearly empty.
What? Standing on her tiptoes, Melanie peered up at the top shelf, blinking to be sure what she saw was actually looking back at her. And it was. Emptiness stared her in the eye. She dropped back to her feet and looked down at the bottom. That was empty too. Her backpack was gone as was her lacrosse stick. Her heart thudded in her chest. She had been robbed!
Her body shook with the jolt of realization. She hadn't been robbed. Her books and her backpack and her lacrosse stick were at home. She hadn't been home since she supposedly wandered away. She left everything there. She was still in clothes from the day before. She groaned and dragged her hands down her face, pulling at her features.
This was going to be a long day.
Melanie closed her locker door and put her lock through the hoop. She spun the dial, shoved the late note into her pocket, and rushed for her first class of the day. As she expected, she gathered attention as soon as the door swung open. After passing the late slip over to the teacher, she tried to appear as small as possible – which wasn't that hard due to her naturally small stature – and slunk between the rows of seats and sat down behind Erica. The short pause due to the teacher reading her slip ended as he continued teaching.
Hiding behind Erica's dry hair, Melanie leaned forward. "Did my mom call?" she asked.
"About eleven," Erica replied, keeping her head forward.
Melanie sighed in relief. She could always count on Erica to have her back. "Did you cover?"
"Of course. Said you came over because I needed you."
"I owe you."
"Yeah, you do." Erica paused and ducked her head as if she was taking down notes about what the teacher was saying. Melanie slumped in her seat and crossed one leg over the other. She forgot how boring History could be. All the people they talked about were dead, who cared? Her disdain for the subject was short lived when Erica sat up straight again. She turned her head slightly to whisper, "What happened? I had to stop my mom from calling yours. Where were you?"
"It was so weird. One minute I'm in my room and the next I'm waking up in the woods," Melanie whispered back, making sure to keep her voice low.
"So, what, you sleepwalked?"
"I guess? It was…so weird. It's almost like my brain checked out or something. Like…that one space in my mind is gone. Like it's blocked out or erased or something."
"Repressed memory?"
"I dunno." She frowned. It hadn't bothered her that much until she talked about it. That one part of her day was gone. Wiped. She didn't remember what she did or if she did anything or if someone did something to her. All she could do was trust what Derek told her but even then that felt funny. It rubbed her the wrong way. It poked and prodded at her, like having a rock in her shoe. She cleared her throat and shifted in her seat, resting her arms on the tabletop and leaned forward. "Anyway, I don't have any of my stuff so can I borrow some of your books?"
"Of course. But…are you sure you're okay?"
No. Melanie's skin crawled as her mind soared with the possibilities of her lost chunk of time and what could have happened around her and to her. She ran her hands through her hair and flinched at every itching sensation on her body. But still she put on her best smile and replied, "Yeah, I'm good. No big."
Class finally ended and the two girls walked to their lockers, joining the crowd of students that spilled into the hallway. Melanie did her best to ignore the pointing and the whispers directed at her and her day-old wrinkled clothes. Throw in her unkempt hair and she bet the stupid rumors would come back around at full force. Like she needed to deal with that on top of everything.
"So did you and the rest of the SLC decide what to do with your flower money?" Erica asked as she popped open her locker door.
Melanie nodded, resting her shoulder against the locker next to Erica's. "Yeah, we're going to put it towards formal at the end of the month. Figured we may as well try to get a live band. We made a decent amount. So, after detention, I have to stay and make sure everything has been delivered and then tomorrow will be good to go."
"What are your parents' plans this year?" Erica continued. "They always do something super romantic."
"Well, it's date night again and I suggested they go to that new fancy place in town," Melanie replied. "Maybe getting out by themselves and dressing up and having all the expectations will make things better. You can't be mad at each other when you can be mad at overpriced desserts, right?"
Erica giggled. "That's true. Meanwhile my mom and dad will be taking me to the spa and out to dinner again." The smile that was on her face faded a second later. "Another year of a pity date for me."
Melanie twisted her mouth to the side. "Eri, c'mon, it's not a pity date. Your parents love you and just want you to see how special you are."
"I know but…just once I want to have a proper Valentine's Day."
"S'cuse me. Who has sent you a bouquet of the reddest roses every year?" Melanie demanded. Her arms crossed tight over her chest. The roses weren't cheap, either. But Erica was worth it. She always would be worth it. Erica didn't answer so Melanie held her hand up by her ear and leaned forward.
"You do," Erica replied.
Melanie smiled in a smug manner and nodded. "That's right. Me. And if you ask me, Valentine's Day is about showing those that are important to you that you love them. And no one loves you more than I do."
"What about my mom and dad?" Erica asked.
Melanie looked her in the eye and repeated, her words firm, "No one loves you more than I do." The bell sounded in the hallway. Melanie's eyes jumped up to the one down the hall and she looked over at Erica. "Meet at lunch? I have music and then a free period where I need to sell last minute flowers."
"Yeah." Erica grabbed Melanie's arm and gave it a squeeze. "I'll see you later. Try not to beat anyone up."
"I can't make any promises," Melanie replied. She exhaled a breath-like laugh through her nose when Erica bent over and kissed her cheek before hurrying away. Briefly pressing her weight against the locker, Melanie pushed away from it and regained her balance only to stop when she spotted the snake-like smug grin on Jackson's face. "Yes?" she asked.
"Nothing," Jackson replied. But she didn't buy it. Jackson had to get his biting comments out, one way or the other. So she waited. It came right on time. "Just wondering, with Valentine's Day tomorrow, how much we should expect you and your lesbian lover to parade up and down the halls." He paused and then added, "Does she know about your extracurricular activities?"
Melanie's eyelids fluttered as she rolled her eyes. Jackson was going to give them a workout, that's for sure. Mainly in her ability in restraint. Her fingers were itching to wrap around his neck. "Jackson, we're teammates. Can't you cut a girl a break?"
He held up his hands. "Hey, I'm all for girls loving on each other." She raised an eyebrow, sensing a 'but' coming. "But I just thought they would be attractive. Ruins it when they're not." Aaaand there it was.
She couldn't help it. She laughed. Jackson was just so…Jackson. Did he ever listen to himself before he talked? Or was that the problem, that he liked the sound of his own voice that much? She shook her head. He was just so…so Jackson.
"I'm going to be late for class," she announced, walking away.
He scoffed. "Tell someone who cares," he muttered.
She stopped at the end of the hall. She whirled around, seeing him reach the other end of the hall. "Last I checked," she said aloud, causing him to stop at his end of the hallway, "you did that. Told someone who cared." He shifted his weight and lifted his bag higher on his shoulder. "About what you saw." His sturdy jawline sharpened when he clenched his teeth. "What you thought about that night of the attack. How you felt." She sighed, exasperated. "I'm trying here, Jackson. I don't see Scott or Stiles or Allison or Lydia doing anything. Believe it or not – and for reasons I don't totally get – I care. You can be an ass and shut me out and make fun of me all you want, but at least I'm trying."
She waved her hand, as if pushing him away, and hurried off to music class before the late bell sounded. She was thankful that she had most of the music for class memorized. Not having her books wouldn't be a problem. She slipped into the room right before the teacher could close the door. Much like that morning, she waved her way through the rows of chairs but instead of sitting in her usual seat she dropped down in the empty chair next to Danny.
He looked up as he placed the mouth piece on his trumpet. "Hi?" he muttered.
"Hey," Melanie replied, pushing a hand through her hair to keep it out of her face. "I have a question to ask. About Jackson."
"No, we've never hooked up," Danny said with a sigh.
"I wasn't going to ask you that," Melanie protested. He lifted an eyebrow. "Okay, so maybe I was curious about it," she conceded to his smug smirk, "but that wasn't what I was going to ask you. I was going to ask something else."
"No, he hasn't had plastic surgery."
"Seriously? Those cheekbones are real?" She gasped. She shook her head. Focus, Mel, focus! Clearing her throat she said, "No, that's not it. I was going to ask…how are you friends with him?" Danny stared at her. "I mean…you're so different. Everyone likes you and…Jackson's…special."
He shrugged his shoulders. "How are you friends with who you're friends with?"
Melanie mimicked his shrug. "Because I like them?"
"No, really," Danny stated, deadpan. "How are you friends with Stiles. He's—"
"Twitchy?" Melanie filled in for him. Danny nodded. "Yeah, I say he's like a chipmunk on speed. But that's what I like about him. He's not boring, that's for sure."
"Well, that's the same for me and Jackson," Danny replied. "Only he's not hyperactive. More so that the things that people don't like about him I do. You can't claim that he's afraid to say what he thinks. Or that he's not creative. Some may say he's intense, I'd go with passionate. That's the whole point. You can't say you know him, can you?"
Melanie pursed her lips. "I kinda do," she grumbled. "During swim season he's decent enough."
"Yeah, that's because you were helping the team go on to States, he trusted your abilities in the pool after seeing it firsthand," Danny said.
Melanie huffed. "So why's lacrosse any different? Why do I have to try harder to get him to take me seriously?" Danny sighed. He didn't reply right away. He brought the mouthpiece to his lips and blared a note so loud that it made Melanie press her palms against her ears. The teacher at the front of the room nodded his head and then moved onto the next person to hear if the instrument was in tune. Melanie stuck her tongue out at him as he put his trumpet down, dimples carving their way into his cheeks as he smiled. She could tell he wasn't sorry for that so she nudged him. "Answer my question!" she urged.
"You're making Jackson into this complex person when, really, he's the most straightforward person in the world," Danny said as he clipped his music to the stand. "Look, being on the swim team is as much an individual sport as a team sport. During swim season he only had to rely on himself. And now…"
"He has to rely on the rest of us," Melanie filled in for him. Danny didn't reply but pressed his lips into a line. "Okay, let me ask one more thing."
"You really love to talk don't you?" he asked with a laugh.
"Well, if no one wants to fill the silence I may as well," Melanie replied, keeping an eye on the teacher as he continued down the line to tune instruments. The last few people had yet to be tested. "But, I just wanted to know…are you two best friends because you came out to Jackson first?"
Danny blinked rapidly and then a peaceful smile appeared on his face, it made the dimples reappear and a softness settle into his eyes. "No, that's the thing. I never had to come out to Jackson. He always knew. That's why we're best friends."
# # #
"Well finally! Geeze, it's like you two disappeared on me," Melanie cried out as she dropped down in an empty chair next to Scott at lunch. Once settled in the chair, she reached across for one of Stiles's tater tots. "Yoink!" she said and popped into her mouth, ignoring the disgruntled expression on his face. "Come on, spill the deets!" she said while backslapping Scott's arm. "What happened during the full moon? I gotta know. Did Scott go Hulk on you?"
Stiles and Scott locked eyes across the table. Melanie lifted her eyebrows while waiting for an answer and chewed the potato in her mouth. More silence stretched on and her eyebrows dropped, furrowing together as worry began to gnaw at her. "Well!? I'm going to absolutely die of anticipation!"
"Well, long story short, Scott's not immune to the full moon. He escaped, went all werewolf, and found that there's a chance that he could get rid of his powers," Stiles finally replied. He unscrewed the lid to his bottle of water and took a swig as he waited for the news to sink in.
"Wait. You can get cured?" Melanie asked, turning sideways in her chair to address Scott. She exhaled. This was…well, she didn't expect it. Didn't expect that there was a way he could be turned. In everything she's read the curse was just that. A curse. It was permanent. The only way it could be broken was by death. And, well, they seemed a bit calm about that idea.
"Yeah," Scott replied. "Supposedly…the only way I can get this…condition cured is if I kill the one that bit me."
Melanie swung her eyes over to Stiles. "The Alpha?" she asked.
Stiles nodded. "Yeah. That's one big turn of events, isn't it? Wants Scott to kill his pack but now Scott has to kill him. It's like a werewolf Hunger Games."
Melanie snorted. "Good one," she said, holding out her fist. Stiles tapped his against hers. Her smile faded the instant she saw the reproachful expression on Scott's face. "Sorry," she muttered. "Hhow'd you find out about this? I mean, this isn't in any sort of werewolf book I've read, nor any sort of mythology."
"Derek told me," Scott replied.
"Oh yeah! Surprise! He's still alive," Stiles said.
"Yeah, I know," Melanie sighed. Stiles and Scott stared at her, looked at each other, and then looked at her again. "What?" she asked, shifting beneath their gaze. She stole another tater tot off of Stiles's plate, managing to avoid him trying to slap her hand away, and ate it.
"How do you know he's alive?" Scott asked. "I just found out last night."
"Oh. Well, apparently I ended up sleep walking last night. He said he found me wandering around in the woods and then into his house. Brought me here this morning. I don't remember any of it, though," Melanie replied. Even as she relayed the story she was told it still didn't sit right with her and judging by the expressions on Stiles's and Scott's faces they felt the same way.
"Wait. He found you in the woods and that was that?" Stiles asked. "He didn't try to bite you or anything?"
"No," she replied. "Though, let's be real, being nibbled on the neck by someone that looks like him wouldn't be the worst thing in the world." She did her best to restrain the smile that pushed its way to her lips but it won out in the end. Even the admonishing look Stiles shot her way didn't make it leave.
"You wandered into the woods? That's weird," Scott muttered.
"I know! Of all the places to go I go to the woods. Why couldn't it be, like, the Chocolate Factory or something else fun?" Melanie said, making a face at the facts.
"Not that," he said, waving his hand. "That you wandered into the woods. On the night of the full moon. And you don't remember any of it." He scratched the side of his head. "Are you sure he didn't bite you?"
"Trust me, I'd be walking around and flaunting a hickey if I had one," Melanie said. "I checked. Nothing weird on my body. Besides my bellybutton. Kinda looks like a grandpa's wrinkled face."
"As interesting as that sounds," Stiles said, cutting into the conversation, "fact of the matter is he was wandering around after you while he knows that there are hunters out there. It doesn't make sense, putting himself in danger like that. He knows what would happen if he got caught. Methinks he's not telling the whole truth."
"What would he gain from it though?" Melanie asked.
"Who knows? It's Derek," Stiles replied, as if that explained everything.
"Look, maybe you should stay away from him," Scott spoke up. "For now," he added at the shocked expression on Melanie's face. "Just until we know what's up for him. I don't want you getting hurt."
"Scott, come on. I can help you out. Really!" Melanie protested. "I-I know I haven't done much yet but you haven't given me a chance. I knew about the wolfsbane bullet. And...and I can cover for you guys if you ever need. I can find out more about the hunters too. And the Alpha! I know I don't know a lot but him—yet! But I will! I'll dedicate my time to figuring out who it is and helping turn you back!" She was grasping at straws trying to get him to change his mind. He was taking away something she needed! Something she needed to distract herself from everything else. Something that was fun despite the danger involved but it was right up her alley! It was almost like he was dangling a piece of cake in front of her face and yanking it away when she tried to grab for it.
"And what if the Alpha comes after you next?" Scott demanded, his dark eyes boring into her. "Huh? What if the Alpha tries to attack you, or worse, kill you? It'd be my fault. You can't defend yourself. And what if he bites you? Do you really want to live this life?" He gripped his hair and then sighed, looking forlornly at Stiles and Melanie. "I just want to be like you guys. I want to be normal again...b ut I can't. The only thing I can do is stop it from getting worse, for either of you." He licked his lips. "So please, Mel, I'm begging you. Stay out of it. We…we can call you and text you with information but please don't put yourself in harm's way. I wouldn't be able to live with myself if you got hurt."
The concerned laced around his words hit Melanie straight in the heart. Her shoulders sagged and she bit her lip while sitting beneath his soft gaze. "I didn't go looking for Derek," Melanie pointed out, her voice quieter than before, "It just happened."
"And what if it happens again and a hunter gets you?" Scott pressed. Melanie sat back in her chair. Truthfully, she hadn't thought that far ahead. She wouldn't stand a chance against a hunter but still! She didn't want to sit by and constantly worry about whether or not Scott and Stiles and Derek were okay. She had to do something.
"So, what, I'm just a home base?" she asked. The bitterness in her voice couldn't be missed despite her attempts to hide it. "Keep me far enough in the loop that I'm caught up but far enough removed that I don't get to see any action?"
"You want werewolves breathing down your neck?" Stiles asked incredulously. "That's a weird kink if I've ever heard one."
Melanie ignored him. She swallowed the lump in her throat and turned her eyes to Scott. "Scott, please. I need this. I need to help. I need to do something. Please." The desperation in her voice sounded foreign. For a moment she didn't know it belonged to her; didn't know that such raw emotion could be housed within her.
"I'm sorry," Scott replied. "It'd be best if you just stayed back. Okay?" He reached out and grabbed her hand, an action that would have short circuited her brain once before but not now. It only made the stabbing hurt in her chest that much more intense. She swallowed the lump in her throat and pulled her hand away, sighing inaudibly at the lack of heat around her hand.
"Fine," she conceded. "I'll stay out of the way." And while the odd sense of loss rushing around inside of her was strong it didn't take over the little bit of confusion that niggled in the back of her mind about waking up in the woods that morning. Good thing she had detention after school, it would give her enough time to pour over every moment to try and figure everything out. As if a clear answer was possible when it came to the supernatural.
a/n - Hey guys! I hope you enjoyed the newest chapter! Thanks to all those new reviews, guys! I loved reading them and seeing your reactions and guesses to what's going to happen next. I'm glad to see new people enjoying the story as time goes on. What do you think of Scott asking Melanie to stay out of the supernatural business? Is he just trying to protect her or do you think he made a mistake. And what do you think of Derek finding Melanie? Seems like he's hiding something...
Thanks to all those who recently fav'd and alerted this story and thanks to all you reviewers! I love hearing what you think and seeing what you have to say! I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Please read and review!
~C.M.
