Chapter Six

'We do not need three gallons of milk!' Scott protested, trying to put one back on the shelf.

'Yes we do. I'm on my period and I use the milk to make milkshakes.' I said, taking the milk from him and putting it inside the cart.

'Mom only gave us a hundred dollars you know.' Scott reminded me as we made our way to pay.

'Yeah, we're not using that.' I waved him off as the checkout assistant put the shopping through. Mom had sent us out for essentials, but I knew we needed a lot more and she just couldn't afford it, so I was doing the weekly shop that she would usually do. I had gotten paid yesterday- Deaton paid me monthly and Scott weekly- so I wasn't going to miss the money.

'Mom won't be happy,' Scott commented, taking as many of the plastic bags as he could, leaving me to carry two.

'It's fine. We can use the hundred dollars to pay the electric before it gets shut off again.' I continued when Scott gave me a confused look, 'she tries to hide them so we don't know, but I know her secret hiding place. The electric bill is on the final notice stage, while the others are just overdue, so we have time before we need to worry about that.'

'You're amazing, Stacey,' Scott said, sounding awed. I waved him off with my free hand, not liking the attention.

'No, Mom is amazing.' I disagreed, and just left it at that, reaching over to take the car key from his hoodie pocket as his hands were full, 'you know I have supernatural strength too, right? You didn't need to carry all of those.'

'Force of habit,' Scott shrugged, looking around on the level we were on for the car.

'Dude, don't tell me you forgot what level we were parked on,' I huffed, following my twin as he went to the door to take us up a level.

'I'm pretty sure it was your turn to remember,' Scott pointed out, shoving the door open with his shoulder.

'That's irrelevant.' I mumbled as we walked down the isle of cars, when I didn't see ours I sighed in annoyance.

'Hold up the key, we can listen for the lock.' Scott said, placing the bags at his feet; if I hadn't been so focused on listening, I would have commented on how odd that was. He had supernatural strength, so the bags weren't too heavy for him. Maybe the bags being on the floor helped him hear better.

When I heard the clicking of the lock from above I could have cheered. Scott leaned down to pick up the bags, only to lose a gallon of milk as he did.

'Not the milk!' I complained as it rolled under the car.

'Sorry!' Scott apologized, getting to his knees to reach for it, 'I'll get it-,' he cut himself off and when I glanced over his shoulder from behind him I could see why. The milk was rolling back, and it had been cut open as if a wolf had clawed at it.

'Seriously?' I complained, not at all impressed.

'Stacey,' Scott scolded me, grabbing my upper arm and pulling me after him.

'The groceries!' I huffed, having no choice but to run after my brother due to his hold on me.

'You're seriously worried about groceries right now? The alpha is about to kill us and you're worried about the shopping?' Scott panted out as we sprinted to the floor below.

'Yes,' I sighed, not at all out of breath, 'you think that's the alpha?'

I tried to keep the amusement out of my tone- I was pretty sure I knew who it was thanks to the scent I had picked up right before the milk had rolled back to us. It was the same one from the locker room yesterday, but apparently Scott hadn't realised that yet.

'Who else could it be?'

I just shook my head, but didn't answer. We carried on running, reaching the second level. Scott pulled me behind a black car and then winced when I pointed to his chest, indicating that if I could hear his heartbeat then the "alpha" definitely could. He grabbed my wrist and started running again, taking us down another level, when he released me to start jumping on cars to set off the alarms, I barely held back a snort of amusement as I ran down the parkway, meeting him as he jumped off the last car. He grabbed me again and yanked me to hide behind another car. I focused my hearing, trying to recognise any sound out of the ordinary. I thought I could hear him on the other side of the wall we were currently on, probably looking for us in between the car alarms we had set off. Seeing as Scott was looking the other way, I decided I was going to have a little fun with both of them and snuck away, hiding a few cars over from where my twin was.

When I heard Scott's phone ring, I could have laughed at how loud he was being when trying to turn it off, but somehow I managed to contain my amusement. I heard the banging of someone standing on the cars and then-

'Now you're dead!' Derek yelled, I assumed he had cornered my brother and I very slowly moved from my hiding place when he said, 'where's your sister?' I pounced, pulling him from the hood of the car where he had my twin pinned and throwing him to the floor, pinning him there with a loose hand around his throat.

'Now you're dead.' I laughed at the surprised look on his face before I stood, helping him stand by offering him a hand, which he took once he had recovered from his shock.

'What- How- Where?' I turned around to see my twin standing on the ground, looking between Derek and I with a confused look on his face, 'did you plan this?'

'Who are you asking there, Scotty?' I crossed my arms over my chest before I started to make my way over to the staircase, hoping the groceries were where we had dropped them.

'Both of you,' Scott huffed, walking a few paces behind me.

'I didn't know about it, but I knew it was him when I caught his scent. I was going to tell you but you grabbed me and had me running before I could,' I shrugged, jogging up the stairs.

'Why didn't I catch that?' Scott complained.

'Because you're acting like you're still human and not tapping into your advanced senses.' Derek said simply, holding the door open for the both of us, I smiled in thanks before I stepped through.

'I don't know I'm doing it though. It only happens when I'm not trying.' I muttered, picking up a handful of the groceries, jutting my head in the direction of the others silently telling my twin to do the same.

'Because when you're not trying, you're letting it come naturally.' Derek shrugged, grabbing the now half empty gallon of milk.

'You owe me a gallon of milk, by the way, I need them to make-,' I started but I was cut off by Derek's answer.

'To make milkshakes, yeah I know.' He seemed to be fighting a smile at what was probably a dumbfounded expression on my face.

'You were listening?' Scott asked, as we made our way up to the next level, where our car should be.

'I was tracking you,' Derek corrected.

'So eavesdropping,' I smirked before turning to Scott who was holding the same amount of bags I had been the first time we did this, 'grab the keys, they're in my pocket.'

Scott did as instructed and unlocked the car, popping open the trunk, without another word we loaded the bags and I told Scott he was driving home. Before we could get in the car though, my twin turned to look at Derek.

'Are you going to explain what the hell that was?' He demanded.

'I said I was going to teach you. I didn't say when.' Derek crossed his arms over his chest defiantly, and I took a seat on the hood of the car, ready to sit back and watch the show.

'You scared the crap out of us!' Scott yelled, I cleared my throat and he amended himself, 'you scared the crap out of me!'

I nodded approvingly, and looked over to Derek who looked like he was inhaling, when he had taken a deep breath he said, 'not yet.' I choked on a laugh at his response.

'Okay, but we were fast right?' Scott said, looking for some praise.

'Not fast enough.' Derek muttered.

'But the car alarm thing that was smart right?'

'Until your phone rang,' Derek replied, and I cocked my head to the side as I observed him, the man was not capable of giving praise was he?

'You know you're acting like some high and mighty teacher, but I think your missing the key thing here.' I piped up, grinning at Derek's confusion before I continued, 'you didn't catch me.'

'Yeah, yeah rub it in.' Scott sighed, running a hand through his hair.

'You also abandoned Scott.' Derek pointed out.

'But I saved him by temporarily abandoning him,' I countered, jumping from the hood of the car and walking forward to poke Derek in the chest, 'so I believe the score is Scott zero, Derek one and Stacey one.'

'This isn't a game, Stacey,' Derek reminded me, catching my wrist in a gentle but firm hold.

'I know. But it's less depressing if I pretend it is,' I shrugged, pulling my arm out of his hold. Derek nodded in understanding before turning to leave, but apparently my twin hadn't finished yelling yet.

'That thing that happened last night, with Stiles' dad almost getting hurt, that was my fault.' Scott yelled, guilt clouding his tone as he continued, 'if Stacey hadn't been there he could have been seriously hurt. I should have been there to do something. I need you to teach me how to control this.'

'Look,' Derek sounded frustrated as he turned to face my brother, 'I am what I am because of birth; you and your sister were bitten. Teaching someone who was bitten takes time. I don't even know if I can teach you.'

'What do I have to do?' Scott panicked; I rubbed his back comfortingly as I tried not to freak out myself.

'You have to get rid of distractions,' Derek reached forward and grabbed Scott's phone, holding it up to reveal his missed call from Allison, 'you see this? This is why I caught you. You want me to teach you, get rid of her.'

'What just because of her family?' Scott snarked and I winced at the sound of his phone smashing against the concrete wall, courtesy of Derek.

'Are you getting angry?' Derek goaded, his eyes flickering over my twin's expression as he spoke, 'that's your first lesson, you wanna 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.'

'I can get angry,' Scott assured him.

'Not angry enough!' Derek yelled, trying to make him understand, 'this is the only way I can teach you. Now can you stay away from her? At least until after the full moon.'

'If that's what it takes.' I could hear the reluctance in his voice, and apparently so could Derek.

'Do you want to live? Do you want to protect your friends? Yes or no?' The blue-eyed wolf countered, trying to bargain with him.

'Yes!' Scott answered immediately, 'if you can teach me… I can stay away from her.'

'Good.' Derek turned to leave but paused when I shouted after him.

'What about me?' my hands smacked against my thighs in frustration.

'You just carry on as you have been, the only person you need to stay away from is Jackson so that you don't rip his head off.' Derek answered without turning around.

'Fine. I expect a gallon of milk when you pick us up tomorrow,' I yelled after him and I would never know for certain, but I could have sworn he was smiling as he walked away.

Half an hour later

'You must be insane,' I huffed, leaning back into the passenger seat, 'I knew I should have drove.'

'Don't overreact. I just need to tell her that my phone is broken so she doesn't think I'm ignoring her.' Scott assured me as he parked the car in front of Allison's house.

'Whatever. Just be fast.' I told him, pulling out my phone and scrolling through Facebook.

It was fifteen minutes later that I witnessed Scott climbing back out of Allison's bedroom window, and I was about to accuse him of making out with her when I saw him stop, turn around and talk to… a bush. I didn't know whether to laugh or drive him to the nearest mental hospital. I reached over and opened the driver's side door.

'You realise you're talking to a bush, right?' I shouted over to him.

'I'm talking to Derek!' He retorted.

I frowned and looked over to where he had been facing, only to see a pair of red eyes, 'Scott! That's not Derek!'

Scott's expression transformed into one of confusion, he turned back to the bush, saw the eyes and started sprinting towards the car. When I saw the alpha come out of the bush, revealing just how huge he was, for a second I thought I was about to watch my brother die. But thankfully he dove into the already open drivers side and slammed the door shut. I quickly pressed the button to lock all of the doors, but lets face it- if he wanted to kill us so bad, I didn't think that some glass and metal would be a problem.

Scott and I were breathing heavily, nervous as to what he was going to do. He was slowly pacing around the car, and when he came to a full circle on Scott's side of the car, he stopped. I shuddered when he bought a finger to the window and drew a spiral in the condensation, the sound echoed in my bones.

Scott basically floored the drive home, getting us there in half the usual time. We grabbed the groceries from the trunk and raced inside. After we had unloaded everything, I grabbed the electric bill from underneath the bread bin, and went with Scott up to his room. My twin was acting all nervous and antsy; when we got into his room he shut his door, locked it and then proceeded to look through the closed blinds.

'Can I sleep in here tonight?' I asked him, not exactly calm over what just happened myself, I made my way over to his armchair, planning on making a call to pay the water bill before bed.

'Sure. I don't really want to be alone tonight either.' Scott answered, still looking through the window.

I nodded, even though he couldn't see me, and went to sit down. When my butt ended up on a warm body instead of the usual cushioned cushions I screamed. Scott screamed in reaction and switched his lamp on while I grabbed the baseball bat by the window. When the light illuminated the room and revealed Derek, a mixture of amused and worried, I almost went to hit him with the bat on purpose.

'What the hell? You do know that front doors exist for a reason, don't you?' I huffed, collapsing on Scott's bed, the side nearest to the armchair.

'Why are you two so jumpy?' Derek glanced down to me, but when it became clear that I wasn't going to answer he looked over to my twin.

'The alpha… he found us.' Scott said, deliberately leaving out where we had been, making me snort in amusement.

'So what happened? Did he talk to you?' Derek asked, standing and stopping a few paces from my brother.

'Yes we had a lovely conversation about the weather.' I said, not even opening my eyes to read the annoyance that was probably on Derek's face in that moment.

'Did either of you get anything off him? An impression?' Derek tried again.

'Yes. I got the feeling that he's a Libra and enjoys long walks on the beach.' I snarked, massaging my head with the tips of my fingers.

Scott snorted but I had a feeling Derek was resisting the urge to smother me in that moment.

'Remember your senses are heightened. Communication doesn't have to be spoken. What kind of feeling did you get from him?' Derek said, sounding close to breaking.

'Anger.' Scott answered immediately.

'Especially when he drew the spiral,' I chipped in.

'Wait, the what? What'd you just say?' Derek sounded massively interested, so much so that I sat up and opened my eyes.

'He drew a spiral, in the condensation.' I clarified, taking in his enlightened expression as I stood, 'you have this look like you know what it means.'

'Forget it, it's nothing.' He walked past me and Scott, heading for the door, but I stopped him with a hand on his arm.

'You can't do that! You can't ask us to trust you and then keep things to yourself,' Scott complained, and for once I agreed with him.

'It doesn't mean anything,' but I could tell he was lying. He gave us a half smile and turned to the door, unlocking it and then turning to face us when Scott spoke again.

'You buried your sister under a spiral,' Scott remembered, and Derek stared at him surprised that he did, 'what does it mean?'

The blue-eyed wolf went for a different tactic, placing a hand on each of our shoulders and simply saying, 'you don't wanna know.' With that, he was gone.

The Next Day

'Mom, I don't know what you're talking about.' I said, grateful that she couldn't see my expression; I physically couldn't successfully lie to my mom.

'Sweetie, I know you paid it,' She insisted, her voice soft.

'You probably just did it and forgot.' I insisted, shoving some books into my locker, which was harder to do than it looked with one hand.

Apparently the electrical company had called up my Mom to confirm her payment of the bill and to assure her that the power wasn't going to get shut off. Naturally, Mom being the honest woman she was, told them that she hadn't paid the bill and they must have her confused with someone else. They gave her my account number and she realised what had happened, hence why I was lying through my teeth.

'Stacey I appreciate your help but I'm the parent and I'm supposed to take care of you,' she told me.

'Sorry, Mom I can't agree to those terms. I guess I got the caring gene from you, just like I got the ambitious one so I should go so I'm not late for class.' I said, hanging up the phone with an "I love you".

'What's up with two of my favourite people?' I said, taking the seat to the left in Stiles while my brother sat behind him.

'Aside from the fact that one of my best friends ignored me all day, which would have resulted in my dad being hit by a car if my other best friend hadn't been there… I'm good thanks, Stace.' Stiles gave me a sarcastic thumbs up, making me laugh, though I tried to smother it when I noticed the glare Scott was sending my way.

'I told you Stiles would take longer to forgive you Scotty. I only forgave you so quickly because we're twins,' I shrugged, turning to the front of the classroom as the teacher walked in.

'Thanks, Stacey.' Scott said, his tone sarcastic.

When the class ended I overheard an interesting conversation.

'So what time is he picking you up?' Stiles asked Scott.

'After I finish at the clinic later.' Scott told him.

Stiles glanced over to me in confusion, 'what about you?'

'I have no idea what you're talking about.' I answered honestly, looking in between both of their expressions; Scott looked amused and Stiles looked irritated.

'Isn't Derek teaching you too?' Stiles huffed, running his hand over his scalp.

'Oh… yeah he wants to teach us apart, so he's picking me up for my lunch hour because I have a free period after.' I shrugged; linking my arm through my twins as we walked out to the lacrosse field- we all had a free period together.

'Great, that crunches my time even more,' Stiles scoffed, irritated.

'Time for what?' I frowned; I'd clearly missed an important conversation.

'To teach you myself, so you don't have to learn from Derek.' Stiles' arms flailed around as he explained.

'I'm grateful for the extra help, but I'd like it on the record that I don't have a problem with Derek and I will continue to learn from him.' I gave Stiles a look when he made a sound of protest that made his jaw snap shut.

'So what's your brilliant idea?' Scott looked over to Stiles, changing the subject and preventing him from saying anything that might piss me off.

'You'll see,' Stiles smirked evilly at the both of us. Scott and I shared a worried look as we followed after him.

'Stiles you're an idiot,' I huffed, on my knees with my hands duck taped behind my back, my brother was in the same position next to me.

'Just don't get angry and you'll be fine,' Stiles waved his hand dismissively and took aim with his lacrosse stick again, flinging a ball into my face. It was a good thing I had supernatural healing because I was pretty sure he just gave me a black eye.

'Stiles,' Scott huffed a warning on my behalf.

'Are you getting angry?' Stiles taunted, looking down at the phone he had stolen from coach. How he was tracking both of our heartbeats at the same time I had no idea.

'Yes I am,' I growled, I could feel my eyes flashing and with the jolt of strength that came with it I tore the tape that was holding my hands behind my back and dug the my growing claws into the grass, trying to pull it back.

'Stiles you need to untie me.' Scott growled, and from the sounds of it he changed too and managed to get himself free.

The trouble was, Scott wasn't as good at coming back from the change as I was, and in that moment I was completely passed the point of being able to control myself. Stiles seemed to realise that himself because I could hear his heartbeat rising at an alarming rate. I looked up to him, my vision tainted a much more defined red and I was about to charge at him when something grabbed my waist and pinned me to the ground. I looked up to my twin, my completely un-transformed twin, I idly wondered how he had managed to pull it back but at that moment my urge to maim and kill was too strong. I pushed Scott back with a firm hand on his chest and he went flying a few feet through the air as I leaped to my feet and went for the human who was flailing around like a fish out of water and I almost reached him when-

SNAP.

I screamed from the pain of my wrist being snapped in half and fell to my knees. I felt the bloodthirsty haze fall from my eyes and I looked around, confused as I cradled my wrist to my chest.

'What the-,' my eyes fell on Stiles who looked completely terrified, when I took a step toward him and he took one back I winced, 'I'm so sorry, Stiles.'

'Hey, Stacey it's okay. It's nothing Scott hasn't already tried to do,' he joked, but I could tell he was scared of me.

'Seriously, Stacey that's the first time you've not been able to hold it back. It needed to happen so you can learn to control it.' Scott assured me, pulling me into a hug.

'Seriously, kiddo it's fine.' Stiles assured me, joining us in a group hug.

'That was awful,' I mumbled against my brother's chest.

'I know,' Scott kissed my hair, 'but I think I finally understand why Derek wants me to stay away from Allison.'

'Why because she makes you happy?' Stiles had pulled away from the hug and was packing away his equipment.

'No, because she makes me weak.' Scott replied, continuing when Stiles' confusion only grew, 'when I shifted I felt more powerful, I can only shift from anger and Allison makes me feel the opposite.'

'I need to get to class,' I murmured, pulling out of Scott's hold and avoiding their gazes, 'I'll be meeting Derek after so I'll see you in economics.'

I could feel them watching after me but I ignored it, pretending to head off towards the main entrance but walking out of the gates at the last second. There was no way I was going to be able to concentrate on anything in that moment, so I decided to walk for a little bit to try and clear my head. I knew I was going to get chewed out by my Mom but in that moment I didn't care; all I could see was the fear in Stiles' eyes and the concern on my brothers. I didn't know where to go- I couldn't go home because there was a chance Mom was home napping before her night shift, I couldn't go to the clinic because Deaton would ask why I wasn't at school and I didn't want to make up a lie. So I just wandered, letting my feet carry me wherever they wanted while I was completely lost in thought.

'Stacey?' A voice said, snapping me out of my daze.

I looked up to the shocked gaze of Derek Hale and realised with a start that my feet had bought me to the Hale property. I ran my hand through my hair and dropped my bag to the floor.

'I-I- can't do this, Derek,' I hated how my voice trembled as I paced back and forth on Derek's porch.

'What happened?' The blue-eyed wolf asked, his arms crossed over his chest.

'Stiles had this brilliant idea to try and help Scott and I control our transformation, but I've only turned once so when I did this time,' I chocked on a sob, the tears I had been holding back falling down my face, 'I tried to kill my best friend.' I stopped dead and turned to face him, his face blurry through my tears, 'I can't do this Derek, I nearly ripped his head off and if Scott hadn't stopped me-'

Derek gripped my forearms, snapping me out of my hysterical rant. I blinked away the tears in my eyes and was taken aback by the concern I saw shining in his blue orbs.

'You're still new at this. When you transform you have these new urges and it's going to take you time to learn to control it. It's perfectly normal, the key thing to focus on here is that you didn't kill anyone.' He assured me, his voice softer then I'd ever heard it before.

I felt my breathing return to normal and when Derek's hands moved from my forearms to wipe the wetness away from my cheeks I felt my face flush in embarrassment.

'I'm sorry for freaking out on you,' I said, trying to push down my blush to no avail.

'You're allowed to freak out,' he assured me, pulling me into a hug that I was incredibly grateful for in that moment.

'I felt like a different person.' I admitted, so low I was sure he had to strain to hear it, but when his heart continued to beat at a steady rhythm I continued, 'I think the reason it freaked me out was because a part of me liked it. And when I came back and saw how terrified Stiles was of me I was ashamed.'

Derek didn't say anything, he just continued to hold me and listen to what I had to say. The only change was him gently rubbing my back; he must have been able to detect my emotional state because the moment I was starting to feel normal again he released me. I wiped my cheeks with the palms of my hands, surprisingly my earlier embarrassment had faded, and I felt the bond I was forming with Derek strengthen as another tether was added.

'Seeing as you're here, let's get on with your training,' Derek said swiftly, apparently he had reached his limit for dealing with emotion for that day.

'Sure,' I laughed lightly.

Then the training began. It was completely and utterly brutal. I managed to land a few shots that surprised the blue-eyed wolf, and I'd even managed to make him stumble a few times, but I didn't stand a chance against Derek so how I was going to face the Alpha I had no clue. Derek assured me that I just needed practice and I would learn with time. I hoped he was right.

'Ugh. I give up,' I muttered from underneath Derek- he had just pinned me to the hardwood for the hundredth time. I was covered in sweat, all of my muscles ached- I was done.

'You think the alpha is going to just let you surrender?' Derek asked, his brow cocked. He didn't move from the top of me- keeping me firmly pinned to the ground by my forearms.

'I'm sure I'll be a lot more motivated to fight when there's a snarling werewolf with red eyes pinning me to the ground, but your pretty face isn't so scary, sorry.' I sighed, closing my eyes trying to pretend I didn't just actually say that aloud, apparently grouchiness weakened my filter even more.

My eyes snapped open when I heard Derek laughing from above me, his eyes sparkling in amusement, and just like that I was laughing too, though when I noticed how… close we actually were my amusement faded and I found myself fighting the desire I could feel blossoming in my belly. Thankfully at that moment my phone rang and Derek moved off me, offering me a hand up. I managed to answer my phone before it finished ringing and up until I realised who it was I was grateful for the distraction.

'Stacey?' My Mom's voice cut through the phone.

'Oh, hey Mom,' I ran my hand through my hair, trying to think of a distraction, 'so how's your shift going?'

'It was going great until school called me up and told me my usually very well behaved daughter skipped class.' Her tone was a little stern but worried at the same time.

'Oh, yeah, I-uh… I got my timetable mixed up and thought it was a free period. I've been stressed out with the midterms that are coming up.' I lied, once again grateful that she couldn't see my expression.

'Okay… I'll let you off this time, just don't tell your brother.' Mom answered, making me laugh. I hung up the phone with an "I love you" and turned to the amused wolf behind me who was shrugging on his leather jacket.

'What?' I asked, grabbing my own leather jacket and pulling it on.

'You physically can't lie, can you?' He smirked, making me gasp in offence.

'When it's life or death, yes.' I told him seriously, 'but not usually no.'

Derek just shook his head, grabbing the keys to his Camaro from the emerald couch and heading for the door.

'I have an errand to run, I'll take you back to school.' Derek offered, holding the door open for me.

'That'd be great, thanks.' I told him with a smile, following him out to his car. He managed to get me to the school with just enough time for me to make it to economics with Coach, which was my last class for the day.

'Hey guys,' I said, casually sliding into the seat in front of Stiles and next to my twin.

'Don't you "hey" us!' Stiles whisper-yelled as he leaned forward, his head basically resting on my shoulder, 'you disappeared! We were worried about you.'

'I'm sorry… I needed time to think about how I almost murdered my best friend,' I replied sarcastically.

'Stacey…' Stiles started but I cut him off.

'Shhh- class is starting.' Stiles huffed in my ear but he didn't reply.

Class hadn't been running for five minutes and I was ready to tear out Coach's throat. Stiles could apparently see that both Scott and I were on the verge of transforming and I could hear his accelerating heart rate as he stressed over what he was going to do. I glanced over to my twin when I heard him exhale a huge breath, his heart rate slowing down again. The distraction was enough to pull me back from the bloodthirsty haze enough to focus on Stiles' heartbeat and bring myself from the edge.

'Stace, are you good?' Stiles asked, squeezing my arm. I gave him a nod and turned to focus on the rest of the lecture.

Afterwards led to a very interesting chain of events. Apparently, Stiles had a theory that Allison bought Scott back when he was on the verge of transformation and to do that he set Scott up to be beaten up by a group of guys. I wasn't allowed to watch his experiment because of how protective I was of my twin and I didn't have an Allison to pull me back from the edge, so I headed home instead. I wasn't surprised when Stiles texted me to say he had been right, Harris had broken up the fight and now they were in detention. That teacher was a complete sociopath.

I decided to spend the night cleaning the house, seeing as Mom was still at work, and I made some lasagne for dinner because it would be easy to warm up later. I had just unloaded the now clean dishes from the washer and left a note for mom, telling her where to find dinner, when my phone buzzed with a text from Scott.

Meet us at the school; Derek is coming to pick you up.

Why? What's going on?

I'll explain when you get here.

I had just read the last word of his reply when I heard a car pull up in front of the house. With a sigh and a shake of my head I shrugged on my Mom's kaki puffa jacket that was hanging by the door and my grey Uggs. I was actually wearing my pyjamas; a white vest top and black shorts, but after the day I'd had I couldn't bring myself to care. When I pulled open the passenger side door of the Camaro I jumped in and fastened my seatbelt before looking over to Derek accusingly.

'Are you going to tell me what the hell is going on?' I asked, wondering if I imagined his gaze lingering on my legs for a second too long before he met my eyes again.

'I think the Alpha is Deaton, Scott says he's going to prove it isn't, though I have no idea how he's going to do that.' Derek reeled off, pulling away from the kerb and heading towards the school.

'Why do you think our boss is the Alpha?' I said, turning to rest my back against the passenger side door so that I could observe his profile with more ease.

Derek handed me a piece of paper before saying, 'my sister was led back to Beacon Hills because of this. I found it on my car after I visited my uncle earlier and it mentions the police talking to Deaton about the spiral on the animal. When I asked him about it, he lied. Why would he lie unless he was the one who did it to lure Laura back here so he could kill her and become the Alpha?'

'There's definitely something off about it, I'll give you that. But Deaton can't be the Alpha.' I shook my head in denial, continuing before he yelled at me, 'I trust my instincts, Derek and I'm never wrong about people.'

'Well, we'll see if your brother proves me wrong.' Was all Derek said.

'You have a hard time trusting people, huh?' it was a rhetorical question and we both knew it, but I couldn't stop myself from offering him some reassurance, 'for what it's worth… you can trust me.'

Derek glanced over as me with his assessing, penetrating gaze but other than giving a barely noticeable nod, he didn't say anything. We reached the school within ten minutes to see Scott and Stiles leaning against Roscoe.

'What's the big plan, Scotty?' I had my arms crossed over my chest as I leaned against the Camaro, trying not to react when Derek leaned next to me.

'Derek said we're connected to the Alpha. I'm gonna see if he's right.' Scott smiled, making me frown.

'Scott I don't like the sound of this.' I moved from the car and grabbed his arm to stop him, 'you want to draw the Alpha here to prove it isn't Deaton.'

'Yeah,' Scott looked at me as if I were insane.

'What's your brilliant plan if he shows up? I'll be dead in about two seconds and you'd last about five. If I'm dying tonight it is not going to be at school!' I rambled, a knot of panic forming in my gut.

'Stacey, he won't kill us he wants us to be part of his pack.' Scott disagreed, sounding gullibly confident.

'Okay, what about Derek, what about Stiles?' My brows rose challengingly.

'Derek can take care of himself and Stiles-,' Scott cut himself off and looked over to our best friend, realising how bad this could go for the first time.

Stiles looked moderately offended and squeezed out a, 'I'll be fine.' But none of us believed him.

'Scott, I'm telling you don't do whatever you're planning,' I pleaded and for a second he looked like he was going to listen, but I saw the flicker of resolve grow in his eyes.

'I'm doing this.' He marched into the school, Stiles trailing after him while I growled in frustration and punched the bricked wall coming off the staircase hard enough to break off a few bricks.

'Okay, calm down.' Derek said, frowning in concern.

'Tell me that we're not all about to die and I'll be calmer than ever.' I ran my hands through my hair, my voice on the verge of hysteria.

Derek opened his mouth to speak but was cut off by something that sounded like a cat being strangled to death. Derek shook his head in disbelief, his expression made me laugh a little, despite the situation. I saw the blue-eyed wolf's lips twitch in amusement before the sound of a roar that made my eyes involuntarily flash. Derek went from amused to angry in a heartbeat, and I was personally glad I wasn't Scott when he joined us a moment later.

'I'm going to kill you!' Derek yelled, pointing at Scott and Stiles, 'both of you. Are you trying to attract the entire state to the school?'

'Sorry, we weren't expecting it to be so loud.' Scott apologised, though the huge grin on his face contrasted with his words.

'Yeah it was loud!' Stiles exclaimed excitedly, slapping my twin on the shoulder, continuing when he saw Derek's furious expression, 'come, on don't be such a sour wolf.'

'You're both stupid.' I muttered, glancing over to Derek's car and noticing the driver's side door open, 'why is your car open?'

Derek glanced over and saw the door open and rushed over to glance in the back seat.

'What did you do with him?' Scott yelled, confusing me.

'Do with who?' I asked, looking over to Derek.

'He had Deaton tied up on the back seat,' Stiles informed me.

'How did I not notice that?' I wondered aloud.

'I didn't do anything!' Derek said, sounding freaked out and I could understand why; if he had been in the back seat he had gotten out without the two werewolves nearby noticing him.

'He didn't.' I agreed, standing next to Stiles while Scott stood on his other side.

Several things happened very quickly. The Alpha turned up out of nowhere, his claws sinking into Derek's back. I screamed as blood started flowing out of his mouth and stepped forward, planning to go to where the Alpha had just thrown him, but my twin and Stiles dragged me kicking and screaming into the school.