A/N: Please keep in mind that this isn't a Stydia or a Stalia fanfic. It's a Sophie fanfic.
Any creative decision's I make are going to reflect what's best for my character and her developing relationships for the existing characters.
The last scene of the last chapter was a huge turning point for Sophie and Malia. Before then they were two strangers that tolerated each other because it would inconvenient not to (Malia was distrusting, Sophie was resentful). Now, they have this huge moment to bond them together.
If you have an opinion, feel free to voice it. But please respect my choices as a writer.
Thank you!
Werewolf 101:
"I don't understand why I have to do it." I complained with a pout on my lips as I followed Scott deeper into the woods and he glanced over his shoulder at me with an amused smirk on his lips but didn't slow down. "You're the Alpha, you know. This should be your responsibility."
"And you're my second-in-command. I'm delegating." Scott explained to me with a chuckle and I rolled my eyes at him as I mouthed the words mocking at his back. "Besides, you're the best person for the job. And, as a good Alpha, I'm using the best resource at my disposal."
"I'm not sure if that was a compliment or an insult."
"Whatever gets you to do it."
I glared at his back in annoyance as he entered a clearing in the middle of the woods and I shook my head as I hurried to catch up to him. Taking a stroll through the woods with my brother wasn't what I wanted to be doing that weekend but Scott had practically dragged me out of the house that morning without an explanation. It wasn't until he had driven most of the way to the preserve that he had announced that I had been promoted to Beta trainer. Essentially, he wanted me to teach Liam all he needed to know about being a werewolf.
"Liam, hey. You made it." Scott greeted the younger boy with a grin as he came to a stop in the middle of the clearing and the freshman turned around to face us with a nervous smile.
"Hey. So, I'm ready. What's first?" Liam asked eagerly as he bounced on his toes with excitement burning in his blue eyes and I quirked an eyebrow at him before giving my brother a pointed look.
"First, I want to properly introduce you to my sister. Liam, this is Sophie. She's a special kind of werewolf. And she knows just about everything." My brother introduced me proudly as he threw an arm around my shoulders with a grin and I blushed at the compliment with a small smile pulling at my lips.
"It's nice to meet you, Liam." I greeted the Beta with a wave of my hand and he returned the gesture with a blush on his cheeks as his drifted down to my bare mid-drift. I raised an eyebrow at him as his heartrate accelerated and I hated that Scott had caught me at an end of a run so that I was only wearing a sport bra and tights.
"Sophie is going to teach you everything you need to know about being a werewolf. She's helped train four other people when they turned so she's kind of expert. She's also a black belt, trained in every weapon imaginable and hand-to-hand combat. Speaks six languages and knows sign language. And has been studying the supernatural for eight years. Sophie is the best person to learn off of. So, I'm going to leave you in her very capable, if slightly sullied, hands."
"And that such a nice introduction, until the very end."
"You'll get over it." He joked with a smirk as he patted me on the shoulder and I scowled at him as he waved goodbye in Liam's direction before disappearing into the tree line. I stared at the trees where he disappeared for a moment as I tried to think about how to start and I turned around face the younger boy with a small smile.
"So… To be honest, I don't normally do this on my own. I have a partner." I admitted hesitantly as I clasped my hands in front of me and I walked forward until I was standing in front of him.
"Where is your partner?" Liam asked in confusion with a frown as he crossed his arms over his chest and I thought about where Derek could be but I didn't know for sure because I hadn't spoken to him.
"I have no idea. Probably doing something dangerously stupid. He has a knack for that." I told him drily with a roll of my eyes but a small smile spread across my lips and I quickly shook my head before I could get distracted from the task at hand. "So, let's start with a little Q and A session. Any questions for me?"
"Are all werewolves bitten? Like I was?"
"Not all of them. Some come from werewolf bloodlines and are born werewolves. They typically go through their first transformation at puberty."
"Okay. I noticed that my eyes are gold but Scott's are bright red. Is that normal, or?" he asked in an unsure tone of voice like he was nervous about the answer and I offered him a reassuring smile.
"All regular werewolves have gold eyes. If you take an innocent life, they change to an icy blue. Like Malia's. And Alpha's have red. Like Scott." I explained to him patiently as I sat down cross legged in the middle of the clearing and Liam followed my lead as he sat opposite me with a thoughtful expression.
"What about you? What colour are your eyes?"
"Keep in mind that I'm a special kind of werewolf. I'm what's called a True Druid. It's half werewolf, half Druid." I warned him in amusement as he leaned forward eagerly and I took a deep breath as I closed my eyes before opening them to reveal my violet irises.
"Whoa. Freaky." He breathed out in awe as I changed my eyes back to their normal dark brown and he leaned back slightly with his lips parted in wonder. "You mentioned that Scott's an Alpha? What does that mean?"
"Alright. This is important, so you listening?" I asked him pointedly with a quirked eyebrow and he nodded with a serious expression as I clasped my hands on my lap. "Most werewolves organize themselves into and function in packs. Werewolves become physically stronger and more powerful once they join a pack. Members of the pack with gold or blue eyes are known as Betas and the leaders are called Alpha's."
"What if you don't have a pack? What if you're on your own?"
"Werewolves who have no position in a pack, who have no Alpha, are called Omegas, which leaves them weaker and vulnerable." I informed him gently in a compassionate voice because I could see the information sinking into his brain and I knew he was considering his options. A deep frown spread across his lips as he stared down at his hands and I reached out to lay my hand on his to draw his attention as he snapped his head up in surprise. "That won't happen to you, Liam. After you've finished training, if you decide you don't want to be a part of our pack, that's okay. You won't be alone. We will still take care of you. Protect you. Keep you safe. When Scott bit you, you became our responsibility. And we won't let you down."
"I just – I'm not prepared for this." He mumbled under his breath as he turned his hand over so that our fingers intertwined and I let him because I could smell the anxiety wafting off of him.
"Neither was Scott. You should ask him for his story some time."
"What about you? Were you prepared?"
"I was." I told him honestly with a smile as I unable to keep the pride out of my voice and he made a quizzical expression as he blinked in confusion. "I knew about the supernatural before I was turned. I was friends with a family of born werewolves and one of them accidently phased in front of me when I was ten. Her claws left a scar that runs from the top of my right breast all the way down to the back of my shoulder blade. The rest is a long, crazy story but I was turned my sophomore year of high school. Same with Scott."
"Just let me think out loud for a minute. You and Scott were both turned into werewolves your sophomore. Lydia, the redhead, is a banshee. Malia, the one with the blue eyes, is a werecoyote. The hot Asian, Kira, is a kitsu-may?"
"Close. Kitsune."
"That idiot Stiles, is what again?"
"Well, he's human. But for a little while last semester, he was possessed by a Nogitsune. A Nogitsune is a Dark Kitsune. They draw their power from strife, chaos, tragedy and pain; they feed off of pain. We ended up capturing him, so no need to worry about that." I said almost flippantly with a dismissive wave of my hand and he nodded vaguely as his blue eyes clouded over in thought.
Liam stared blankly at nothing over my shoulder as I let him have a moment of silence to collect himself. I knew that it wasn't easy to learn the truth of the supernatural. Especially, when your new pack had such a sordid history.
This was different than teaching Isaac, Boyd, Erica and Jackson. They all knew what was happening to them. In fact, it was there decision to receive the bite from Derek. But with Liam, I had an empty canvas to work with and it was making me slightly worried that I was going to do something wrong. If something went wrong with Isaac, Boyd, Erica or Jackson, I could just place the blame on Derek but now the blame with solely on my shoulders.
There was an innocence to Liam that had been burnt out of me the moment I learned the truth of the supernatural and here I was about to strip that same innocence out of Liam. I watched it leave Scott's eyes, I'd seen it drain from Isaac's posture, I saw the light dim from Allison's eyes, a spark fade from Stiles' spirit and I watched helplessly as Lydia's diminished before my eyes. There was nothing I could do to stop it now that Liam was a part of the supernatural world but I was going to try my hardest to preserve whatever I could within him.
"Okay, you loser, let's get on with the lesson." I said playfully in a light-hearted tone as I tapped his arm gently to get his attention and he jerked his head around to look at me with wide eyes as he blinked back to reality. I offered him a grin as I stood up from the ground and he followed my lead with a confused frown on his lips.
"Alright, teach. What'd got for me?" he asked jokingly as he spread his arms out to the side in invitation and I chuckled in amusement as I stood with my feet shoulder-width apart.
"Let's talk about your new abilities. Heightened senses: werewolves can smell, see and hear far better than humans. A werewolf's sense of smell is enhanced. A werewolf's sense of smell is so refined that we can smell and detect emotions like anger, fear. This is because we can pick up chemosignals that a person can give off via their sweat. We can hear over tremendous distances and are particularly attuned to the howls, or voices, of our own kind, particularly those who are members of the same pack. One of the most helpful things is the ability to tell if someone is lying. If you focus your hearing, you can hear someone's heart skip a beat when they tell a lie."
"You can tell when someone's lying?" he asked in shock as his lips parted in surprise and I nodded smugly as a smirk spread across my lips.
"I can."
"What else can we do?"
"Well, since you're upright on the leg you broke, I'm sure I've figured out that werewolves heal quickly from most injuries. Accelerated healing means we are able to sustain much more extensive physical injuries, broken bones, gashes, gunshot wounds without danger of dying. Hell, I've been shot, stabbed, electrocuted, bones broken." I admitted casually with a shrug of me shoulders as I pressed hand to the spot on my side where I was once shot. "See? Watch."
Liam's gaze dropped down to me hand as I focused on extending my nails into claws and his eyes widened slightly as I dragged the sharp points across my forearm. Deep red wounds appeared in their path as I gritted my teeth to hold back the pain and Liam released a startled gasp as the cuts miraculously healed before our eyes.
"Wow. That's crazy." He muttered under his breath as he stared at my now completely unblemished skin and I had to smile at the look of awe on his face as I wiped the remaining blood off of my skin.
"Also, becoming a werewolf cures human ailments, such as asthma, epilepsy. I used to where contacts before I turned."
"Um, what about psychological disorders?" Liam asked nervously as he shifted on his feet with his arms crossed over his chest and I quirked an eyebrow at him suspiciously.
"I don't know. I've never known someone who had a psychological disorder before they turned. Why?"
"N – No reason."
"Dude, we just talked about how I can tell when someone is lying!" I reminded him pointedly as I placed my hands on my hips and his shoulders tensed defensively as his blue eyes hardened. In that moment he reminded me for Jackson before he got the bite, before he came the man I always knew he could be and luckily, I knew how to handle self-absorbed defensive jackholes. "Listen, I'm not your enemy. You don't need to tell me, but remember that secrets have a way of coming out no matter how hard you try to hide them. If you trust me, I might able to help you."
"I don't need help." He shot back in a razor sharp tone as he glared at me but I didn't even flinch and I tilted my head to the side silently as I waited for him to crack under the silence. I had learned that if you waited long enough, the heaviness of silence could break even the most stubborn of people.
"I know about the car, Liam." I informed him softly in a compassionate voice and he immediately looked away from me with a guilty expression. "I know you smashed it with a crowbar. I know you scratched 'THIS IS YOUR FAULT' in the door. What I don't know is why you did it. And I know you must have had a reason. If I'm going to teach you everything about being a werewolf, I need to know what I'm working with. If you don't want everyone else to know, that's okay. I'll keep it between the two of us until they absolutely need to know."
"The teacher was also my lacrosse coach." He admitted quietly as he fidgeted with his fingers without making eye contact out of shame and I internally celebrated my victory as I kept a compassionate expression on my face. "He benched me for the entire season. I got a couple of red cards. I overreacted. I couldn't help it. I got kicked out of school. They sent me to a psychologist for evaluation."
"They found something?"
"Intermittent Explosive Disorder." He mumbled in an embarrassed voice as he stared down at the ground and I closed my eyes for a moment as I tried not to vocalise my sympathy because I knew he wouldn't appreciate it.
"They put you on a drug regime? Any serotonin reuptake inhibitors like fluoxetine, fluvoxamine, or sertraline? Or any mood stabilizers or anticonvulsive drugs like gabapentin, lithium, carbamazepine, and divalproex?" I asked him knowingly with a serious expression as I tapped my lip thoughtfully and he squinted at me in confusion as he lips twisted uncertainly.
"Risperdal."
"Risperdal?! Are they crazy? Your psychologist is quack! Stop taking that immediately."
"What? Why?"
"Risperdal is a powerful antipsychotic drug used to treat schizophrenia in teenagers and bipolar disorder in children as young as ten. However, the drug's not recommended for Intermittent Explosive Disorder. One side effect of the drug is apparently Gynecomastia." I explained to him firmly as I rested my hands on my hips with my eyebrows raised and I shivered at the thought as I tried my best to appear nonchalant.
"What's Gyecom – whatever?" he asked in concern as he crossed his arm over his chest protectively and I just shook my head as though to say don't worry about it. "Anyway, I stopped taking it weeks ago. I can't play lacrosse on it. It makes me too tired."
"Okay. Speaking of lacrosse, you're going to have to be careful when you play. The adrenaline and accelerated heartrate could make you shift on the field. But, I suppose that's why I'm here. To teach you how to control that side of you. With time, you can learn to control through with practice and concentration on an anchor."
"An anchor?"
"Something that connects you to your humanity. Something that reminds you of yourself when you succumb to your bloodlust. It can be anything. A person, a place, an emotion, or a memory. Newly bitten werewolves have a hard time controlling their transformations and animalistic bloodlust during their first full moons, making it a particularly dangerous time to be around people. But Scott and I have complete control so we'll be with you and eventually, you'll be the same."
"How long will that take?" Liam whined childishly with a pout as he tossed his head back in frustration and I suppressed an amused grin as I patted his arm in mock sympathy.
"Sorry, hon. But it'll take as long as it takes." I told him with a small smile as he grimaced in annoyance and I stepped forward to wrap an arm around his shoulders as I drew him to my side. "Come on, Scrappy Doo. I'll show you some tricks."