Chapter Five

The ball of dread in my gut grew as I watched the body of the video store worker being wheeled out to the ambulance. Jackson and Lydia were there too, the former reminding me why I detested him so much. He could be such an asshole, and honestly I hadn't known him to be any other way.

'Why is he doing this?' I asked not taking my eyes off the distraught looking Stiles as he fought the urge to chew Jackson out for how he was speaking to the Sherriff.

'I don't know if he has a reason,' Derek admitted, I glanced over to him and saw he had his arms crossed over his chest, his usual impenetrable expression on his face as his eyes flickered over to Scott, 'are you starting to get it?'

'I get that he's killing people. This isn't standard practice is it? We don't go out in the middle of the night murdering everyone do we?' Scott asked, and I was grateful because that question had been bouncing around in my skull since we had got here, but I had been too afraid to ask.

'No. We're predators. We don't have to be killers.' Derek answered and I breathed a sigh of relief.

'What do you think?' I stood from where I was crouched to look over the ledge without being seen to face the blue-eyed wolf, 'do you have a theory over why he's on a killing spree?'

'No that's what we're gonna find out.' Derek stared straight into my eyes, allowing me to see the sincerity in his blue orbs.

'Well,' I sighed, running a hand through my hair, 'hopefully we can figure it out.'

Derek nodded and turned, heading off the roof. After we shared a look, Scott and I followed after him. Things had been a little strained between us since I had yelled at him when we got home earlier in the week after we had helped Derek. I told him that he was being a horrible, petty and inconsiderate adolescent. Seeing as he liked threatening Derek so much with ratting on him to the Argents, I pointed out that if he carried on treating Derek the way he was, there would be nothing stopping him from turning Scott into them. Though I didn't think the blue-eyed wolf would do that, but I didn't tell Scott that as him seeing how helpful Derek was being was vital to my point.

This discussion had been at the beginning of the week and Scott had avoided me for three days straight, which didn't surprise me- whenever we had a big fight he would distance himself to think about what had been said and to decide how he felt about it. He had approached me a few days ago, telling me that he saw my point and that while he couldn't promise not to disagree with Derek, he wouldn't threaten to go to the Argents anymore. That was good enough for me. For now at least.

I huffed as I walked straight into the back of my twin- we had arrived at the Hale property and he had stopped dead at the foot of the staircase inside.

'You know, I have a life too.' Scott commented.

'No you don't.' Derek didn't even pause before responding.

'We do.' I disagreed, crossing my arms over my chest, 'we just need to learn how to balance everything.'

'Easy for you to say. You're the Queen of balance.' Scott huffed.

'Being a werewolf is part of who you are now, Scotty. The sooner you accept it the sooner you'll stop complaining about the responsibilities that come with it.' I said, keeping my voice gentle as I absentmindedly tapped my foot on the floorboards, following the sound of Derek's heartbeat. I was tense for some reason, and focusing on it was helping keep me calm.

'What's wrong with you?' Scott asked, noticing my discomfort but I just shrugged in answer, not knowing myself. I think the killing at the video store with Jackson and Lydia being there was making me realise how close to home this problem was and how easy it would be for the alpha to kill someone I care about.

'Just a little close to home, that's all,' I said, his tone nonchalant, Scott's eyes shone with understanding and he squeezed my arm comfortingly.

'The sooner we can figure this out the sooner your lives can become relatively normal again.' Derek assured us, his eyes lingering on me and the foot that was still mimicking his heartbeat.

'Well how long will that take? You know what I should be focusing on? High school- I have to go to a parent teacher conference tomorrow because I'm failing chemistry!' Scott yelled.

'Yeah, but that's because Mr Harris is a dick,' I muttered, shaking my head in annoyance, 'he marked one of my questions wrong because I didn't completely fill in every inch on the circle. Total sociopath.'

'Maybe he's the alpha,' Scott said, making me snort in amusement.

'I honestly wouldn't be surprised.' I mused, my index finger tapping my chin in thought, 'I kind of hope he is because then when it's all over we'll get a new teacher.'

'Oh my god, yes! That would make life so much easier.' Scott admitted, looking lost in thought and his outburst momentarily forgotten.

'Anyway,' I shook my head, snapping myself out of my tangent and looked back over to Derek, noticing the amusement in his eyes before he deliberately removed it, 'what's this about the alpha wanting us specifically.'

'Yeah, I'm not eager to be some dude's pet.' Scott said, completely serious, and as hard as I tried I couldn't hold back my laughter. I gripped his forearm as I shook my head fondly at him.

'Part of his pack, Scotty,' I corrected him, wiping the tears of amusement from the corners of my eyes.

'Whatever,' he rolled his eyes and started up to the older man, 'I have homework to do.'

'Well if you just did your homework with me then you'd be fine,' I commented, giving Scott a look- if I could find time for school then he could too.

'Do you wanna do homework? Or do you wanna… not die?' Derek's tone was sarcastic as he observed my brother, 'the full moon is less than a week away. You don't kill with him, then he kills you. Both of you.'

Scott and I both said different things at the same time.

'Okay, seriously who made up these rules?'

'Not another full moon. It's not fair that I get two pains in the ass every month.'

Scott smacked my shoulder, his nose wrinkled in disgust at what I was referring to. I just gave him a look, and opened my mouth to make a snide comment but Derek cut me off, probably sensing an argument.

'It's a write of passage into his pack.' Derek said simply.

'And we don't get a choice?' I threw my hands up in frustration, 'it's not like we asked to be bit in the first place, and as far as I'm concerned he can take his precious werewolf abilities back. I don't know who he thinks he his walking around biting people and then demanding they kill someone or be killed themselves.'

'Okay, calm down.' Scott said, moving to pat my shoulder patronisingly, I glared at him and I'm pretty sure my eyes flashed.

'Telling me to calm down is the worst thing you can do when I'm pissed off, Scott. You should know that by now.' I muttered, closing my eyes and continuing to focus on Derek's heartbeat. When if felt like I was in control again my eyes snapped open and I sent my brother an apologetic look, 'you're lucky the full moon is next week and not this week.'

Scott frowned at me, not understanding but I could tell Derek knew exactly what I meant. I wouldn't have been surprised if he could tell that I was on my period by scent or something. Most girls handled their periods by complaining, I responded by having a really short temper, and seeing as my patience wasn't great on a normal day it wasn't good for those around me. To be fair, it usually affected those who didn't know me well and didn't know how to deal with my angry spurts.

'What are you talking about?' Scott asked, and I blinked at him as I came out of my thoughts and frowned as I tried to remember what we had been talking about.

'Are you serious?' My brows rose I amusement, my eyes flickering over to Derek to notice he was staring at Scott with a "what an idiot" expression on his face.

'I'm on my period, Scott.' I told him bluntly, shaking my head when he literally winced as if knowing that was physically painful.

'You'll learn to notice it.' Derek told him offhandedly, his gaze darting over to me before returning to my brother.

'How?' Scott asked, curious.

'I'm assuming by scent, right?' I asked, my head cocked to the side as I tried to decide if I found the idea of him being able to smell my period disgusting or not.

'That's part of it,' Derek nodded, his own arms crossing over his chest, 'but when you get used to your other senses you'll be able to pick up on it before it happens, as you learn to recognise the smells of the different hormones.'

'Huh. Well then, maybe one of you can start giving me a heads up.' I said staring off in a daze as I remembered getting it in the middle of class the first time. Typically, it had been in chemistry with Mr Harris freshmen year. I had asked him if I could go to the bathroom, he refused and then proceeded to give me detention for getting blood on one of the stools.

'Ew.' Scott's nose wrinkled in disgust.

'Okay, if you're old enough to be thinking about having sex with your girlfriends then your old enough to not say 'ew' whenever someone says the word period.' I gave him a look that made him smile sheepishly.

'Sorry it's just… gross,' he said and I had to resist the urge to punch him.

'I agree. But I assure you that when you and Allison start having sex, you're gonna want her to get her period every month.' I told him, my tone matter-of-fact, 'unless you wanna be a teenage dad?'

'Okay! I'm sorry,' he held his hands up in defeat.

'You're forgiven,' I nodded.

'Speaking of scent,' Scott said, both of us turning back to Derek, 'can't you just sniff the alpha out when he's human?'

'No. His human scent could be completely different,' he said simply, looking in between the both of us, 'it has to be the both of you. You have a link with him, one that you don't understand. If I can teach you to control your abilities, you can find him.'

'If?' I questioned, my lips twitching in amusement, 'not exactly inspiring confidence there, Derek.'

He just gave me a look that had me biting back laughter before he looked over to my twin as he spoke.

'So if we help you, you can stop him?' Scott's voice was timid.

'Not alone,' Derek shook his head, 'we're stronger in numbers. A pack makes the individual more powerful.'

'The both of us joining his pack could make him unstoppable,' I realised, and Derek nodded gravely.

'How are we supposed to stop him if we have no idea what we're doing?' Scott sounded panicked, and honestly so was I.

'He has a point you know. The most fighting experience I have is threatening to break Jackson's bones when he leers at me or grabs me. I'm fucked.' My hand ran through my hair as I spoke and tried not to hyperventilate. I might talk a good game, but I had never fought anything supernatural before, so realistically speaking I was the weaker link.

'I'm going to teach you,' Derek assured us, making his way down the stairs, 'do you remember what happened on the first full moon? Right after you were hit?'

'We changed back,' Scott and I said simultaneously.

'Mmhmm,' he nodded, looking over to my twin, 'and when you were hit by the car, same thing right?'

'Yeah.' Scott agreed.

'So what's the common denominator?' Derek asked, looking frustrated when we both shook our heads, at a loss. He reached forward and grabbed Scott's arm, squeezing hard enough to make bones crack. Scott cried out in pain and I reached forward and shoved Derek away from him, with enough force to send him into the stairs behind him.

'Sorry.' I held my hands up in defeat, 'I didn't mean to shove you that hard.'

Derek sighed and brushed the dust off his jacket, sending me a glare that I answered with a sheepish smile. He looked over to my twin and cocked his eyebrow.

'Pain.' Scott realised.

'Pain keeps you human.' Derek agreed, his eyes flickering over to me, 'maybe you will survive after all.'

With that, he turned and made his way up the staircase, signalling it was time for us to leave and we did.

The next day

'Stiles, how on earth do you think Coach is more likely to be the alpha than Harris? Harris is a total sociopath!' I protested passionately as we walked down the hall with my twin, who was listening to the discussion in amusement.

'Because that's just too obvious. Everyone knows Harris is evil, so he would be the likely choice. But, it's always someone you least expect,' he pointed out, his hands waving around frantically as if it aided his point, 'back me up here Scott.'

'I'm with Stace. Harris is way more likely than Coach,' Scott said, smiling in a way that made his dimples flash.

I cheered while Stiles sent Scott a betrayed look.

'Whatever. We need to get to chemistry anyway.' Stiles said, turning down the correct corridor, though we both looked back when we saw Scott hesitating.

'Scott?' I called out.

'You guys go ahead. I'm going to talk to Allison for a second.' He shouted back. My best friend and I shared a look, simultaneously shaking our heads as we made our way to the lesson of hell. Seeing as my brother had loitered, I saw it only fitting to steal his usual seat next to Stiles; I usually sat with Lydia but I didn't think she was going to be in after what happened last night. I had heard them both tell the cops and EMT's that they hadn't seen anything, but the terrified expressions on both of their faces told a different story.

'Just a friendly reminder,' Harris started, but nothing about his tone was friendly, 'student teacher conferences are tonight. Students below a C average are expected to attend. I won't name you because the shame and self disgust should be more than enough punishment.' He walked down the isle, pausing at the station Stiles and I were seated at; the former was reading through his chemistry book, highlighting every word in bright yellow.

'Has anyone seen Scott McCall?' He looked in between Stiles and I, before we could respond, the classroom door opened revealing the entrance of a befuddled looking Jackson Whitmore.

Harris made his way over to Jackson when he was seated and leaned to murmur quietly to him, his hand on his shoulder, but we could all still hear every word, 'Jackson, if you need to leave early for any reason, you let me know.'

When Jackson nodded in response, Harris turned and walked to the front of the room, pausing before turning around to say, 'everyone, start reading chapter nine. Mr Stilinski, try putting the highlighter down between paragraphs. It's chemistry. Not a colouring book.'

I rolled my eyes at the teacher, grateful he couldn't see me. When Stiles blew the top of his highlighter into the air before catching it easily in his hand, I had to bite back a laugh at his exaggeration. I pulled out my chemistry folder and flipped to the notes I'd already made on chapter nine, pretending to ignore the conversation that Stiles was having with Danny.

'Hey, Danny can I ask you a question?' Stiles murmured.

'No,' Danny said bluntly, making me snort.

'Well I'm going to anyway,' Stiles said, after not so subtly elbowing me in the ribs, 'did Lydia show up in your homeroom today?'

'No,' Danny admitted with a sigh.

'Can I ask you another question?' Stiles leaned forward on his heat and I resisted the urge to tip him off it.

'Answer's still no.' Danny sounded frustrated.

'Does anyone know what happened to her and Jackson last night?' Stiles said quickly.

'He wouldn't tell me.' Danny admitted reluctantly.

'But he's your best friend.' Stiles sounded surprised.

Danny looked over to his best friend, shrugging as if he was at a loss to Jackson's lack of confiding in him.

'One more question.' Stiles was dangerously close to falling off his seat now.

'What?' Danny was definitely annoyed.

'Do you find me attractive?' Stiles fell forward as he waited for Danny's answer, and seeing as others were laughing I couldn't help but join in.

'You're an idiot.' I shook my head fondly as I answered the question sheet Harris was handing out on chapter nine.

At the end of Chemistry

'He's not answering any of my texts. Or calls.' I told Stiles, not bothering to hide the annoyance in my voice.

'Me neither. I'm gonna try him one more time and then I'm calling my dad to report him missing.' Stiles said, from the sounds of it not completely joking as he put the phone to his ear again.

'You know he's gone off with Allison.' I gently shoved his arm with my own.

'Finally!' Stiles basically shouted, 'have you been getting any of our texts?'

Yeah like all nine million of them. Tell Stacey I'm okay.

'Do you have any idea what's going on? Lydia is totally MIA, Jackson looks like he has a time bomb inserted into his face, another random guy's dead and you and Stacey have to do something about it!'

What?

'Something!' Stiles said, shrugging in annoyance.

Okay I'll deal with it later.

With that, the phone cut off, indicating that he had hung up. Stiles and I shared a look of disbelief as we continued to walk to our next class. Well, Stiles had to go to class- I had a free period, which I was planning to use to catch up on work in the library.

'You know, sometimes I wonder how differently this would have gone if Allison never came to town.' Stiles said, running his hand over his short hair, clearly annoyed with his best friend.

'He's never had a girlfriend before.' I told him, squeezing his forearm comfortingly, 'he's learning how to balance it all out, and sure he's doing a terrible job of it right now, but you're his best friend Stiles. He still cares about you.'

'Thanks, Stace.' He half smiled and walked into the classroom we had been stood in front of throwing a, 'see you at lunch!' over his shoulder.

I span on my heel and made my way to the library, taking my time; I didn't have much work to do, and none of it was due in any time soon- I was reading ahead in everything and all the assignments that were going to be due in over the next few weeks were already done. I was humming a tune under my breath, tapping a rhythm out on the straps of my backpack when I froze, catching a familiar scent. I couldn't pin point exactly where I knew it from, but the familiarity was enough to get me to follow it, when it led me to the boys locker room I shrugged, thinking it was an old scent of Scott's. I was about to turn around and head to my original destination when the door opened, revealing a slightly pissed off Derek Hale. I frowned in confusion, not understand what the hell he was doing in High school and in the locker room no less.

'You're not in high school,' I blurted, as if he didn't already know that.

'I'm aware of that,' he retorted, making his way around me and heading down the corridor.

'Then what are you doing here?' I followed a few steps after him, when he remained silent I continued, 'you know I'll just keep following you and pestering you until I get an answer. If you think Stiles is annoying you have yet to see me when I'm going after something I want.'

He stopped so abruptly that I literally walked straight in to him, sending him crashing to the floor and me on top of him. Somehow, he landed on his back so the position we were in was somewhat... provocative to say the least.

'Sorry,' I said automatically and then frowned in defiance, 'actually no. I'm not apologising this time, you were the one who stopped so abruptly when you knew I was behind you. This is your fault-,' I rambled; only stopping when he gripped the tops of my arms.

'You're still on top of me.' He stated, looking vaguely amused when I blushed scarlet in realisation and scrambled to get off him. I went to offer him a hand, only to see he was already on his feet.

'So, what are you doing here?' I asked, willing the colour on my cheeks to go away.

'I wanted to ask Jackson if he saw anything.' He shrugged before turning to go to the exit again, shouting over his shoulder, 'but he hadn't.'

I watched his retreating form until he disappeared from view and then turned to spend what little time was left of my free period in the library. If I hurried, it would be enough time to get the current chemistry chapter finished.

After School

I sighed in happiness when I finally reached the animal clinic; Stiles had wanted to go and check on Lydia so he had left in his free period, which happened to be the last hour of the school day. His concern for her was touching, but less so when it meant that I had to trek three miles to get to school, seeing as Scott hadn't been kind enough to leave the key for the lock on his bike for me. I probably could have just broken it, but I didn't think my twin would have appreciated having to buy a new one.

'Ah, Stacey, right on time. You're much more punctual than your twin, I must say,' Deaton greeted me, a friendly smile on his face.

'Thank you for noticing, Deaton. I've been telling people for years that I'm the better twin and you're the first to back me up on it.' I shook my head over dramatically, grinning when he chuckled.

'Well I'm glad I could set the record straight,' the friendly doctor said, organising the surgical tools in front of him.

'Speaking of Scott, I don't know if he'll be in today… he was sick so he missed school,' I lied, shrugging and making myself busy with the receipts from the day that were stacked up on the front desk.

'Oh, well that's okay. Tell him I hope he feels better soon,' Deaton smiled.

I returned it, but grimaced when he turned away from me; Scott definitely owed me for lying to Deaton that was for sure.

My shift passed quickly- I was only doing an hour today as I had to get back to school for the parent teacher conferences. Deaton had tried to let me go early, but I refused, already feeling bad that I couldn't do my usual hours, especially seeing as I didn't actually have to go- my mom just wanted to make sure everything was okay with my teachers. Even if I was the top student in all of my classes, she wanted to be sure I was fully engaging, and she had to be there for Scott as well. Seeing as my twin was currently MIA, I didn't think she would appreciate both of us disappearing under the radar, no matter how much I didn't want to go.

'See you tomorrow,' I called out behind me, before I walked out of the door and prepared myself for the three-mile walk back to hell. I hadn't even reached the end of the street before my phone vibrated, signalling an incoming call from Stiles.

'Stacey! Thank god!'

'Hey, what's wrong?' I could tell he was stressed out.

'I found something, a video, on Lydia's phone and I don't know what to do.' Stiles said, sounding on the verge of hyperventilating.

'A video of what?'

'The alpha!' he screeched and then sighed.

'Okay, send it to me, then delete it off Lydia's phone and get out of there.' I instructed him, already turning around to head in the opposite direction. I had a feeling there was someone who would want to see it.

'Alright. Done. Thank you, Stacey. See you later?' Stiles asked, his voice laced with relief.

'No problem and sure. Bye Stiles.' I hung up the phone, checking for the video file. I didn't bother watching it, thinking that seeing the alpha on the phone would make me ten times more paranoid than I already was as I trekked through the woods. When the Hale property came into view I sighed in relief and walked straight in, not bothering to knock and when I walked straight in on a shirtless Derek Hale my body had a mixture of reactions. A part of me wanted to thank the gods that he wasn't wearing a shirt, revealing all of his toned, sweaty, glorious muscles for all to see. The other part wanted to blush and cover her eyes until he had re dressed. So I went for a mixture of the two, I held my hand out in front of me, effectively blocking the shirtless area but making sure I could still see his face.

'What are you doing here?' Derek asked and I resisted the urge to lower my hand to see if he had his arms crossed over his chest. I'll bet his biceps were huge when he did that.

'Stiles found something on Lydia's phone. She got the alpha on video.' I tossed him my phone with my free hand before continuing, 'I haven't watched it, I don't know if it's important but I made sure Stiles deleted it off her phone after he sent it to me.'

'Good. The last thing we need is it getting handed in for evidence and the Sherriff calling in every police man available to help him kill it.' Derek said, his eyes on my phone as he watched the clip.

'Right,' I said, lowering my arm but not being able to bring myself to look directly at him, 'why are you shirtless?'

From the corner of my eye I saw Derek's gaze flicker over me, 'I was working out.'

'Oh,' I answered, frowning as a thought crossed my mind, 'when you said you were going to help me and Scott, that covers how to handle ourselves in a fight too, right?'

'Yeah. But you need to learn to control the transformation first.' He told me, stepping forward and stopping a meter in front of me.

'Right.' My eyes still refused to look at him as I rambled, 'about that. I've really only ever transformed once and that was on the full moon, I mean I've gotten angry to the point that I feel myself start to change but I keep pulling it back. I don't even know how to conjure the feeling that I need to feel in order to transform and even if I do, I spend so much time pulling it back-,' I broke off when Derek bought his index finger underneath my chin, gently tilting my head so that my gaze met his. His eyes were soft with understanding and reassurance, and I felt myself starting to calm down as the panic subsided.

'You'll learn. Everyone's different. Scott has trouble coming back from the transformation, while you're too scared to let yourself give into your animal instinct.' Derek stated, reading my fears easily.

'I lost my temper quickly before I was bitten. I've broken Jackson's nose before now. I don't know if I can handle how much damage I could do with claws.' I told him, comfortable around him for whatever reason.

'I can help you learn control. And I will.' Derek assured me, his tone and gaze so confident that I believed him completely.

'Thank you.' I breathed; I was about to tell him I needed to leave when we both heard people approaching outside. Derek and I shared a look before he grabbed my wrist and dragged me into a room at the back of the house. He raised his index finger to my lips, indicating for me to be quiet and I just rolled my eyes. I think I figured that out on my own.

I heard the door creek open and three sets of footsteps walked over the threshold. Derek placed his back against the wall, holding me to his chest with one arm around my waist and the other over my mouth to quieten my breathing.

'I don't think anyone's home,' a male voice commented.

'Oh, he's home. He's just not feeling particularly hospitable,' at the sound of that voice, Derek stiffened behind me and I found myself rubbing my thumb back and forth comfortingly where it was resting on his forearm.

'Maybe he's out, burying a bone in the backyard,' a male voice said.

I shook my head and rolled my eyes, secretly agreeing with the next voice's response to that, 'really? A dog joke?'

But then she continued and I felt my anger grow rapidly, '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. Too bad she screamed like a bitch when we cut her in half!'

Several things happened very quickly, Derek moved me behind the counter of the room we were in, before the woman had even finished speaking. When I glanced up at him, I saw he was fully transformed, but he wasn't angry over the woman's words, at least not completely. He was protective, and when a man stepped into the room, I knew why. He growled, which happened to be when the psycho had finished speaking and threw the man through the door he had just walked through. I heard him land with a thud.

'No matter what happens. Stay here,' Derek said, his voice so low I had to strain to hear it.

I didn't know what happened after that, but I heard some more growling, another body landing with a thud and then a buzzing that sounded almost electrical. When Derek cried out in pain I had to physically force myself not to bolt into help- I wouldn't have been much use and I'm pretty sure that if she found out who I was and what I was, my twin would be in danger as well. I heard one set of footsteps pacing, and the sound of Derek dragging himself on the floor, before the buzzing sounding again. I heard him groan in pain as the woman made a sound of delight.

'Nine hundred thousand volts,' She said, 'you never were good with electricity were you? Or fire.' She chuckled and I growled quietly, wanting nothing more than to tear her head off for the way she was taunting him, 'which is why I'm gonna let you in on a little secret and maybe we can help each other out. Yes your sister was severed in half and used as bait to catch you and frankly a little too Texas chain saw massacre for my taste. Quite true. Now here's the part that's really gonna kick you in the balls. We didn't kill her.'

Derek must have looked disbelieving because she continued, 'what? You think I'm lying?'

'It wouldn't be the first time.' Derek replied, sounding rather weak.

'Sweetie,' she tutted, 'why don't you just listen to my heart? Tell me if I am. We. Didn't. Kill. Your. Sister. You hear that? There's no blips or upticks, just the steady beat of the cold hard truth.'

I heard her footsteps again, I assumed she was stepping away from him, 'found bite marks on your sister, Derek. What do you think did that? A mountain lion?' She scoffed, '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. Problem solved everybody goes home happy.'

There was a pause that put me on edge; I assumed she was examining Derek's expression because when she continued she sounded enlightened, 'unless you don't know who he is either.'

I knew that wasn't good- Derek had just lost his leverage. Against my better judgement, I stood and slowly, quietly made my way out of my hiding place, keeping my body to the wall opposite the staircase and carefully passing over the passed out man on the ground.

'Guess who just became totally useless.' She said, and the next second gun shots were ringing through the air. I was about to jolt forward and help, but I found myself swept up in Derek's arms before I could even blink. He had managed to somehow throw me over his shoulder before sprinting into the woods. I didn't dare try and protest and just grabbed onto his bare waist, needing something to brace myself to lessen the pain of my abdomen smacking against his shoulder. When we stopped I sighed in relief, though I did frown in confusion when he didn't put me down straight away.

'Derek?' I murmured, patting his lower back gently, trying not to notice how soft but firm his body was. Damn.

He bent over and lowered me to the ground immediately.

'Thanks.' I said, but ended up gripping his arm as I stumbled, 'what the-,'

'You're bleeding,' he said softly, leading me to a tree stump and making me lean against it.

'I can see that,' I muttered, sliding down the tree stump and sitting on the floor with my head tilted back, 'it'll heal right?'

'Yeah, it wasn't laced with wolfsbane.' Derek assured me, kneeling down and observing the bullet wound on my thigh. I winced when he lifted my denim skirt a little, the fabric rubbing against the wound.

'I'm just making sure the bullet isn't inside.' He told me, his hands sure and confident. It struck me then that he must have had to do this thousands of times, making me wonder if he had ever known a life where he hadn't been hunted by hunters.

'I know. Still stings like a bitch though.' I smiled weakly, hoping to assure him.

I lifted up my thigh when he told me to, allowing him to see the other side, I could tell by the look on his face that it wasn't good.

'It's still in there isn't it?' I cursed, slamming my head against the tree.

'Looks like it. There's no exit wound.' His eyes shone with sympathy.

'Well then. Better get digging.' I said looking around for something to squeeze, Derek noticed and offered me his forearm.

'I'll heal.' He assured me when he read the reluctance on my face. I sighed and with a nod, gripped his forearm with my hand, trying not to scream as his other hand started to dig through the flesh of my thigh. Thankfully, he knew what he was doing so it didn't take him long to pull out the metal, and he left with minimum wounds himself; just a few claw marks that were already almost healed when I pulled away from him.

'So that's what getting shot feels like.' I mused, taking Derek's offered hand to stand, 'I gotta say I'm not a fan.'

Derek laughed, the sound was hoarse and almost rusty as if he hadn't found anything really funny in a long time, and I was surprised that the idea of that made my heart ache.

'Thanks for taking out the bullet.' I said, dusting the leaves off my clothes, noting with relief that there didn't seem to be any blood on my clothes.

'I owed you one,' Derek shrugged, leading the way back to his house.

'How far away did you run?' I asked, coming to walk beside him.

'A couple of miles,' he looked down to me when I groaned, his brow cocked in question.

'My mom's gonna kill me.' Was my explanation as I pulled my phone out of my back pocket. The conferences didn't start for another fifteen minutes, so I was able to tell my mom I was going to be late in advance, thankfully.

Hey Mom. I got held up at the clinic. Heading over now, shouldn't be too late.

Okay sweetie, that's fine.

I slipped my phone away and looked over to the solemn wolf beside me when I felt his gaze, 'what?'

'I can give you a ride if you want,' he offered, making me blink in surprise; that had been the last thing I expected him to say.

'You wouldn't mind?' I clarified, not wanting him to go out of his way for me.

He shook his head in answer, a half smile on his lips.

'Well it's official. You've saved my life more than once today,' I joked, lightly shoving his shoulder.

He chuckled, but otherwise didn't respond. I was starting to like Derek Hale and I didn't know if that was a good thing or not.

Half an hour later

'I'm here. I'm here.' I announced, running into the chemistry classroom and taking the spare seat next to my mom in front of Mr Harris.

'Nice of you to join us.' Mr Harris commented.

'Isn't it?' I smiled sarcastically as I crossed my legs and got comfortable, 'so who are we talking about?'

'Mr Harris was just telling me that Scott needs a male authoritative figure.' Mom said, gesturing to the teacher.

'Does Mr Harris know how much of an asshole our biological father is?' I asked rhetorically glancing over to said teacher.

'While that may be so-,' Harris started, but I cut him off.

'There's no "may" about it. Our father is an abusive drunk, but maybe we should invite him back into our lives so that Scott has a male authoritative figure in his life. Or so you can blame Scott's declining grades on his abusive father next time rather than explain the reason Scott's grades are slipping has nothing to do with the fact our father is no longer a part of our lives.' My voice was seething and I could tell this was about to go very bad very fast.

'Honey, it's okay. Calm down.' Mom tried to soothe me, taking my hand and I gripped it like a lifeline.

'No, I will not have him sit there and try and blame our home life for Scott's grades. You want to know why he's falling behind this semester? He's a teenage boy who just got his first girlfriend. Mystery solved. If you want to disagree with me, explain why my grades haven't dropped. Our home life is amazing; our mom is amazing she does everything she can for us. I know that and I can assure you, Mr Harris, Scott knows that.' I had to force myself not to grip my Mom's hand too tightly as I spoke, because I was getting more and more pissed off. I knew Mr Harris was a dick, but this was low, even for him.

'I think we're done here.' Mom said, standing from her chair and pulling me with her, leading us out of the classroom, I was grateful when she stepped into the bathroom, out of the way of everyone's nosy stares.

'I'm sorry Mom-,' I started to apologise, but she stopped me before I could get any more words out, a soft smile on her face.

'You have nothing to apologise for baby girl. If anything I should be thanking you for standing up for me so passionately in there.' She caressed the side of my face in a motherly gesture before she pulled me in for a hug.

'Now, let's go and find your brother. He has some explaining to do for his absence today,' she muttered, turning and heading out of the bathroom. I stayed behind and splashed some cold water onto my face before I followed after her. When I reached the parking lot, everyone was in chaos. People were screaming and I could hear something growling, I knew from past experience that it wasn't the alpha, but it was definitely something. I noticed the Sherriff walking backwards with his gun out, and rushed forward, pulling him safely out of the way, narrowly stopping the car that was reversing from hitting him. He thanked me for going back to searching for where the animal was, and when we heard a gunshot ring out through the air, everyone froze. I joined the crowd to see a mountain lion, lying dead with a bullet wound in its side. I looked up and saw Allison's dad with his gun out, easily deducing who was responsible for this.

'Stacey!' I heard my Mom shout, her voice laced with panic. I followed the sound and found her easily, standing with Scott and Allison on the steps leading up to the entrance. She gripped me in a firm hug, relieved that I was alr`ight. I gave her a smile of reassurance, as I pulled away, and glared at my brother. It seemed that I was pissed off at him for some reason or another just lately and the reason always came back to his new girlfriend. Don't get me wrong, I had nothing against Allison, she was sweet and she made my brother happy. But since he met her, he was putting the youngest Argent above his best friend, his sister and his ability to help when people were in danger. To me, that was just not okay. And from the guilty look on my twin's face, he knew that too.