Stiles, sweet summer child that he is, wants to hold something of an intervention for Scott. Scott, who is completely in love with this Allison girl and will probably kill us both if we try to stop him from going to this party with her, werewolf or not.

My life. Honestly.

"You really think this is going to work out?" I ask from where I sit cross-legged on Stiles' bed. He doesn't answer, ignoring me in favor of whatever wiki article he managed to dig out of the depths of the internet. "I mean, if he is what you say he is-"

"Ares, trust me, I know what I saw. Scott's different now. He's a werewolf."

I sigh, rubbing my face. He's really set on this, isn't he? Maybe it's best to let him come to realize for himself how completely wrong he is on his own.

"I didn't say he wasn't. I'm just asking what makes you think asking nicely is going to stop him from going to that party?"

Stiles stills, turning to face me in his chair. His face just drops and he opens his mouth to speak, but is cut off by a quick rapping at the door. We both jump, and Stiles glances over at me before getting up, straightening his shirt and shaking out his hands before grabbing the door knob and jerking it open.

Scotty stands there with a wide smile, and if he had a tail it'd be invisible with how fast it wagged. Stiles lets out a sigh of relief.

"Get in! You gotta see this." He goes straight for his chair again, grabbing the papers I had stacked up at his desk.

Scott follows him in, noticing me for the first time. "Ares, what're you doing here?" he asks, his smile wavering in confusion.

"Moral support," I say dryly. "Not really sure for who at this point, but it's here."

Stiles ignores our exchange and barrels on as if we hadn't spoken. "I've been up all night, reading websites, books, all this."

Scott glances back at me. I just shrug, not wanting to get into it just yet. Let's see how they handle it in their own first. Maybe they don't even need adult supervision. "How much Adderall have you had today?"

"That's exactly what I asked!" I exclaim. Stiles throws me a dark look before going on.

"A lot? Doesn't matter, listen."

Scott drops his bag on the bed before plopping down next to me. "Is this about the body? Did they find out who did it?"

"No, they're still questioning people." Stiles glances over at me. "Even Derek Hale."

I let my head drop into my hands. "Are you kidding me?" I demand. "When did that happen?"

Scott looks between us in confusion. "Who's Derek Hale?" I pick up my head to see Stiles frowning at Scott.

"Derek Hale, bro, he's only a few years older than us. His family died in a fire, like, ten years ago."

"Six," I correct.

"How do you know him?" Scott demands, looking almost scandalized that I, his poor older cousin, would have some sort of life outside of work. I mean, he isn't exactly wrong, but it still hurts, ya know?

"I met him in the woods while looking for your stupid inhaler." Scotty seems to accept that, nodding and turning back to Stiles, who turns out to be a traitor of the traitorous sort.

"She got lost," Stiles supplies unhelpfully.

"Ares!" Scott grabs my arm, and aw, he cares.

"I'm fine," I snap, glaring at Stiles; he just shrugs. "Derek found me and showed me back to the parking lot. I bought him food yesterday. He's cool. Thinking about making him real food sometime though." Scott narrows his eyes at me. "What? He's squatting in a burnt up house in the middle of the woods, he needs real food!"

"Can we please get back to the point?" Stiles exclaims. He looks pointedly at Scott. "Remember the joke from the other day? Not a joke anymore." Scott does an excellent impression of a confused puppy, and suddenly the whole werewolf thing becomes more likely. "The wolf, the bite in the woods! I've been doing research. Do you even know why a wolf howls?" he demands, jumping up.

"Should I?"

"It's a signal," Stiles explains. "When a wolf howls, it's signal to the rest of the pack, so if you heard a wolf howling, that means others coulda been near by, maybe a whole pack of them."

"A whole pack of wolves?" Scott asks in shock.

"No. Werewolves."

There. He said it. It's done. It's out there. I watch in anticipation for Scott's reaction.

"Are you seriously wasting my time for this?" Scott demands, finally letting go of my arm and jumping up.

"Okay, mijo, don't get mad," I say uncrossing my legs at the tint of anger in his words. "Stiles is just worried and looking out for you, misguided as it might be." This earns me glares from both boys, and really with my luck I should have know this thing would turn back on me.

"Ares!" They cry out in unison and I'm kinda impressed. I bring my hands up in defense.

"Stiles, werewolf is a little out there." He huffs, crossing his arms and looking away. "Scotty, if there is something going on because you went and got bit by something and didn't tell me-" his eyes go wide at that and he looks away - "then we need to make sure it isn't something dangerous to you and potentially those around you. Rabies are a thing, you know."

"I do not have rabies!" he snaps.

Stiles nods. "You're right, because you're a werewolf now!" I drop my face in my hands for a second before I push my hair out of my face. This is going just fantastic.

"Why are you being like this? You know I'm picking up Allison in, like, an hour," Scott accuses, reaching for his bag. Stiles stops him, putting hand on his shoulder.

"I saw you on the field today, Scott. What you did wasn't just amazing, it was impossible."

Scott looks down. "Yeah, so I made good shot."

"No, Scott, you made an incredible shot!" Stiles grabs the bag out of Scott's hands and slams it back into the bed.

"Stiles," I warn. Antagonizing the possibly rabid werewolf boy is not exactly the best way to handle these things. He ignores me and goes on.

"The way you moved, your speed, your reflexes? People just can't suddenly do that overnight!" He takes a breath. "And-and there's the vision, the senses, don't even think I don't notice you don't need your inhaler anymore!"

That one. That one is news to me. "Are you kidding me?" I mutter.

"Okay! I can't think about this right now," Scott says. "We'll talk about this tomorrow."

"Tomorrow?" Stiles demands. "No, Scott, tonight is the full moon! Don't you get it?"

"What are you trying to do?!" Scott finally exclaims, and at this point I almost feel bad for wishing I had some pop-corn. Maybe a cherry slushie. This is some prime novela shit unfolding in front of me. "I just made first line, I got a date with a girl who I can't believe wants to go out with me, and everything in my life is somehow perfect. Why are you trying to ruin it for me?!"

Stiles, who had made it back to his chair, looks up with sincere eyes. "I'm trying to help. You're cursed, Scott." And it's like it hurts him to admit it. "And the full moon isn't just when you'll change, it'll also be when your blood lust will be at it's peak."

I can only glare at Stiles and he winces when he notices it. "Why do you have to say these things?"

"It's true!"

"What!" Scott exclaims. "No, you two are being stupid and weird. I have to go and get ready."

I take offense to that. I'm not the one convinced he's a werewolf. I'm the one trying to make sure they don't do something stupid like van surf.

"No, Scott, you can't go on that date!" Stiles grabs the bag from the bed, snatching Scott's phone from a pocket.

"What're you doing?!" And shit. I've heard that tone of voice enough times to know nothing good comes from it.

"I'm cancelling that date," Stiles answers.

Scott explodes.

"No, give it to me!" he snarls in a very un-Scott manner, grabbing the front of Stiles shirt and slamming him into the wall.

"SCOTT!"

I duck under the arm holding Stiles to the wall, force myself between the boys. It hardly seems to phase Scott as he just pulls back his fist. I hold my breath, but the hit never comes. Instead, he slams his hand into the Stiles' chair, knocking it over. He drops his hand from Stiles chest, glaring down at the chair as he breathes deep.

He looks up at us, eyes going wide in realization of what he just did. Looks at how I have my arms out, bracketing Stiles behind me, who's got a bruising grip on one of them.

"I'm… I'm sorry." He steps back. "I, uh, I gotta go. Get ready." He backs away, grabbing his bag as he goes. "I'm sorry."

It isn't until he's gone that I start breathing again. Stiles lets go of my arm, sliding out from behind me. "Ares? You okay?"

I nod once, lean back against the wall, trying to keep my breathing under control as he picks up his chair. That wasn't right. That wasn't right at all. Scott might have his whiny tantrums when I don't drive him somewhere or jack a sweatshirt, but he's never done anything violent. Not my baby cousin.

"Oh, shit."

I look over at him. He turns the chair so the back faces me.

"You gotta be kidding me."

There's three long slashes on the back.

Melissa is home when I finally get there. I find her in the kitchen, standing over a pot of something on the stove.

"Hey, tia," I greet, keeping my voice light as to not betray the fact that her kid is a fuckin' Lon Chaney Jr. character. Because Stiles was fucking right. Scott's a werewolf. Or something like that. I'm trying not to think to much about it. She looks up in surprise, a smile spreading out when she realizes I'm not a serial killer.

Like that guy I had lunch with in the middle of the woods. God. My life.

"Ares, hey. What's up?"

Oh, nothing, just recovering from the fact that your kid is a werewolf. God. We're gonna have to tell her that her kid is a mythical creature.

"Just came back from Stiles'." She arches a brow. "No one was home," I say in way of explanation. "Do you need any help?"

She waves a hand to the bags of groceries on the counter. "Can you put those away for me, please?" I nod and set out to do as she had asked. We stay in silence for a moment before, "Have you heard from your dad lately?"

I still, setting the cans in my hands down for a second before turning to put them away in the pantry. "I, uh. Not in a while," I admit. "It's fine, he's busy."

"Ares…"

"Tia." I look over at her. "It's cool. Really. Besides, Alicia has been blowing up my snapchat lately and Aaron keeps sending me Candy Crush invites on facebook because he hates me." The fact I've told him to stop just fuels his actions, the jerk. "God, don't even get me started on Warren and Sonya." I roll my eyes in remembrance of the group texts from my best friends. She doesn't look convinced, but doesn't push any farther. "So, Scotty's got a big date."

"He does," Melissa says brightly before turning off the stove. "Which reminds me, I need to go talk to him, remind him to put gas in the car after." I smile weakly as she hurries out of the kitchen.

It helps to not think about the fact that he might end up eating his date tonight. And not in the way she would enjoy.

When everything goes to hell, it goes to the inner most circle.

"Scott?" Stiles' voice calls from out in the hallway, followed by several quick knocks. I frown down at Warren and Sonya on my computer screen, having been in the middle of a group video chat with them.

"Is that one of the sixteen year olds?" Warren asks as Stiles goes on.

"Let me in, I can help!"

"Shit," I mutter, images of too much body hair and teeth and claws filling my mind's eye. "Sorry, guys, I gotta check this out."

"You're leaving us?!" Sonya demands, never one to take be dropped for no good reason lightly.

"Come back!" Warren cries as I end my call, closing my laptop and jumping out of my bed.

"Stiles?" I call out, poking my head out into the hallway to see him leaning in close to Scott's door. He looks over, eyes wide, and waves frantically. "Fuck," I groan, shuffling over, keeping my arms crossed over my chest because come on, I wasn't planning on going out, I'm not wearing a bra. I reach Stiles in time to hear Scott on the other side of the door. "Is this about the werewolf thing?" I ask. He nods frantically as Scott cries out from inside his room.

"You gotta find Allison!"

I sigh. "Alright, I'll bite. You're turning into a fuckin' Super Saiyan and you're worried about your little girlfriend?" I demand incredulously. "I am in awe of your priorities, mijo."

Stiles shoots me a look before answering. "She's fine, I saw her get a ride from the party, she's totally fine, alright?"

"Probably doing better than you right now," I mutter, deciding I need to meet this girl to figure out what the seven hells she's done to my little cousin. Love spell of some sort. Harry Potter Unforgivable level shit. Bottom line: brujería.

"No, I think I know who did this!" Stiles and I exchange looks as he goes on. "There was this guy there, he was hanging in the back. Leather jacket, dark hair, kinda pale."

"Congratulations on narrowing that down to literally every male hero in paranormal romance novels," I drawl. "Care to be more specific?"

"Shit, no, I think I know who he's talking about," Stiles says quietly. "Derek Hale was there, I saw him."

And just like that any chances of me having a nonteenage friend here are gone forever.

"Are you kidding me?!"

"It was him!" Scott declares. "He did it! He's the werewolf, I could tell. He's the one who bit me, he's the one who killed the girl in the woods!"

Stiles stills, looking over at me before saying, "Scott. Derek's the one who drove Allison from the party."

I turn my head slowly to look at Stiles, unsure of how to convey how absolutely stupid he's being right now. "Are you fucking kidding me?! Why would you tell him that!" The urge to get in my car and just go back to Texas is so strong right now.

The door slams shut, locking, and Stiles hits it. "Scott?! Shit, he's gonna do something stupid-Scott!"

"Seriously, my fuckin' life," I mutter, stalking to my room. "I just wanted to finally talk to Sonya and Warren. Is that too much to ask for?"

"Ares! Where are you-we have to do something!" Stiles exclaims, running into my room after me.

"What do you think I'm doing?" I snap, pulling on a pair of pj bottoms over my night shorts and shoving my feet into my slipper boots before grabbing my hoodie off my trunk and keys off my nightstand. "Do you know where this Allison girl lives?" I demand, pulling on my hoodie.

"No, but I can find out," Stiles answers as he follows me out of the room and down the stairs. I knew there was a reason I liked this kid, idiot though he's being tonight.

"Good. Go and make sure she's fine." I shake my head. "I don't think Derek actually did the killing, but it doesn't hurt to make sure, right?"

Stiles frowns. "You don't? Why not?"

"I'm still alive, aren't I?"

Stiles is silent for a second. Any longer and I would have been worried. "What are you going to do?"

I shake my head. "Something stupid, most likely. Scotty's gonna go looking for Derek. I need to find my idiot cousin before he gets hurt."

There's a car in the preserve parking lot when I get there, a black Camaro parked right in front of the "Do not enter after dark unless you want to die a horrible death" sign that everyone ignores.

"Shit," I mutter, throwing the Turtle in park and killing the engine. "Scott!" I shout as I jump out of the car, slamming the door shut behind me. "Scotty!" I dig my phone out of my pocket; switch on the flashlight, and head into the woods.

It doesn't take long for the dew to soak through my slippers and the bottom of my pants. To make matters worse, the temperature just seems to drop.

"Noooo, mi tortaaa!"

I frown down at my phone, pull up the messages. Doing so shuts off the flashlight app, leaving me in a darkness I'm not entirely happy about.

Stiletto (1 new message)

Allison's at home. She's fine

"Oh thank fuck," I sigh, throwing my head back. "Okay then. Now I just needa find Scotty." Movement out the corner of my eye catches my attention. "Scott?" I call, but it comes out too quiet. I narrow my eyes, only for them to widen when I realize it isn't just one figure, but three. "Wha-"

Something grabs the back of my hoodie, yanking me behind a tree, out of sight of the figures. A hand clamps down over my mouth before I have a chance to scream.

"Ares, stop!" a familiar voice growls as I try to pry the hand away. I look up in shock, and lo and behold, Derek Hale, looking absolutely livid, but also absolutely human. Not taking his hand away, he leans over, glaring over the edge of the tree where the trio of figures had stood. A tense second passes before he drops his hand and turns his glare toward me.

"What the hell are you doing here?" he demands, stepping entirely too close into my bubble.

"I'm looking for Scott, you asshole," I hiss up at him, shoving him back. "Apparently he's some sort of fucking werewolf now and you're the one who bit him?" I throw my hands up. "What the hell, I thought you were cool! Where's my little cousin?"

He blinks before the glare returns. "What, his little friend tell you he's a wolf now?" And wow, he's taking the whole being outed of the mythical closet pretty well, I think.

"Stiles is a fucking genius, I will fight you," I snap, because I can call my boys idiots and stupid all I want. This asshole can't. "Don't talk shit on him. Is this shit true or not?" I demand. At this point, I just want an honest answer. I want to know what to do to help Scott. Derek's glare doesn't so much as change as he looks away for a second.

"Scott's fine, I sent him home. He would have killed that girl."

A breath I didn't realize I was holding in comes rushing out. "Shit. Shitshitshit, so he's a werewolf. That's just fucking fantastic." I rub my face with my hands and tug at my frizzing hair before what he actually said hits. "Kill her? Please, the kid can barely watch pirated movies without feeling bad, you think he can actually hurt someone on purpose?" I throw my arms up in frustration. "Jesus Christ, the only reason he came out here is because he thought you went and killed that girl they found out here!" He steps back as if struck, a range of emotions flashing too fast for me to even name them. I narrow my eyes at him, because shit, this guy's a suspect in a murder case and here I am, conversing with him in the middle of the night in the middle of dark woods. Idiot teenagers just might end up searching for my body after all.

"You didn't, right? Derek?"

He doesn't answer, instead grabs my wrist and pulls me after him at a speed not made for pj pants and slippers, and for a second panic rises in my throat. "Come on, you need to get out of here before they come back."

"Who comes back?" I demand as I try to pull free. "Who were those guys?"

"Hunters."

"Hunt… you mean like from fucking Supernatural?" He doesn't offer an explanation. "Are you kidding me right now?! There are honest to god people that are going to actively hunt my little cousin?!" Derek continues to ignore me. "Dude, seriously, will you just-" I slip, barely catching myself so that he wouldn't rip my arm out of socket. "Derek-"

"What?" he growls, not breaking his stride.

"Will you just fucking slow down!?"

He stops short, looking back at me. I yank my wrist free and hold it to my chest. "You want me to slow down? When there are people out here that just might kill you for being around me, for being around Scott?"

I stare up at him in horror. "What? No-"

"Then let's go." He reaches for my arm, but I step back, almost falling in the process.

"I am literally in my pajamas, Derek!" His gaze drops to my legs, to my slippers. "I can't keep up with you! Will you stop being such a hard ass and just slow down? Please?"

He doesn't say anything, just turns on his heels. For a second, I'm convinced he's going to leave, until he crouches.

"Come one then," he snaps, holding his arms out to his sides.

I can only stare down at him in shock. "We're seriously going to pull a Twilight?"

"Ares, I will fucking leave you here, hunters or not."

"I wasn't complaining," I add quickly, because I can't say I'm too keen on the idea of explaining to a bunch of testosterone fueled trigger happy guys I'm looking for my little cousin out here. "God, okay." And suddenly those diets in high school are paying off. "How pissed would you get if I start singing 'A Whole New World'?" I ask as he straightens and sets off at a pace I could have in no way kept up with.

"I can still drop you," he threatens, but there isn't nearly as much heat in his voice as he did when I made the Twilight comment.

"I'd appreciate it if you didn't." I pause, readjusting my hold around Derek's neck so I'm not choking him out. "So werewolves are a thing."

Jerk doesn't even have the decency to answer me, but his silence is all the answer I need.

"And Scotty's one now." It puts a bad taste in my mouth. "Dios mio, Scott's a werewolf." I drop my head onto my arm with a mock sob. "My fucking life. Leave one shitfest only to fall into another." I pick my head up. "So what? Stiles and I gonna have to lock him in a tower a la Rapunzel?"

"If he doesn't want to go around killing everyone he knows next full moon, he's going to need me to help him keep him in control," Derek answers roughly. "He needs to learn that the Bite isn't bad, how to use it to his advantage now." I stare at the back of Derek's head before grabbing a fistful of his hair and yanking his head back. "What the hell?!" he exclaims, but points to him for not dropping me.

"Did you fucking bite him?!" I demand, not letting go of his hair.

"I'm going to drop you if you don't let go of my fucking hair!"

"Then get ready for a bald spot, Fido. Answer the question!" I snap, wrapping my free arm around his neck and my legs around his waist.

"No! Alright, it wasn't me."

I narrow my eyes at him, not loosening my grip, and he retaliates with a glare. "How do I know you're not lying?"

He lets out an annoyed growl. "Only an Alpha's bite can turn a human. I'm not an Alpha."

"Refer to my last question."

"I swear to god, I'm going to rip out your lungs," he growls. "Alphas have red eyes."

And holy shit, his eyes are blue. Neon blue, blue like a fucking anime character, tragic backstory and all. I let him go and he just stands still, seething. "Sorry," I say, smoothing his hair back into place, with little effect. "You made it sound like it was you."

"Whatever," he mutters, starting off again. "Where the hell did you learn that?"

"My dude, I'm the youngest of three, and the other two are freakishly overprotective sometimes. Self defense classes happened."

He grunts in acknowledgement, and I like to believe he made up his mind not to test that tidbit of information.

It's by some miracle of God that we finally make it to the parking lot alive. Derek, asshole that he is, drops me and I barely manage to not fall on my ass.

"So what now?" I ask, grabbing his shoulder for balance as I step over the rope fence. "Scotty gonna take werewolf classes with you now?"

"If he wants to control the wolf, then yes."

The wolf. Jesus, it's like those paranormal romance novels Warren used to make us read in high school. I shake my head. "And I feel like you're gonna be a tough love kinda teacher. Throw him in the deep end and all that jazz." He doesn't say anything. "Right, okay then. Phone." I hold my hand out. He stares down at it in confusion. "Dame tu teléfono," I order.

"Why?" he demands, but digs it out of his pocket.

"I'm giving you my number. So you can call or text or send smoke signals when he does something stupid. Progress reports, so to speak," I say, putting in my number in his phone and saving it before shooting a text to myself. "Also, I stole yours because Google only answers so many of my questions." I smile up at him brightly, holding his phone out to him. "It'll be like Ask Jeeves, but with werewolves."

He narrows his eyes. "You shouldn't get involved."

I shrug. "My little cousin is a werewolf. The first person close to my age that isn't a total idiot is also a werewolf. That's you, by the way." His brows shoot up. "Besides, what else am I gonna do here? Watch the lacrosse games?" I make a face. "I never thought I'd say this, but I miss Friday night football."

He shakes his head. "Go home, Ares."

He doesn't have to tell me twice.

Don't forget to drop a review and fave/follow if you like what you're reading! Since someone asked earlier for Ares' age, she is nineteen. It's mentioned in the first chapter, but it was pretty easy to miss.

(҂⌣̀_⌣́) today's emoji is brought to you by Ares' near constant expression from now on.

Translations

1. Tia - Aunt
2. brujería - witchcraft
3. Dame tu teléfono - Give me your phone