~Theo POV~

"This is bigger than any of us. If…if we don't find out how to stop this thing soon, it's going to destroy Beacon Hills."

Liam sounded so defeated that it startled me. There wasn't an ounce of 'give-up' in that boy, where the hell was his determination? "You act like this is over." I said.

"We are about seven steps behind in finding out what this thing is and why it's here. And while we're stumbling around in the damn dark, it's killing people left and right!"

"And we've had worse," I said, giving him a dark look, "did you completely forget about the Anuk-Ite? How about the Ghost Riders? Douglas? Monroe? There was no way of escaping them, whatsoever, but Scott never gave up. He always figured it out, and we're going to figure this out too. You need to step into his shoes, Liam. You said you could be the alpha of this town, now be it!"

Liam's look both thanked and cursed me. He never seemed to figure out that he wasn't smarter than me. If anything, he was dumber.

We turned to the sound of the door to the garage we met at opening and in stepped Cora, with Rachel behind her. I wanted to throw something at Cora. She knew we were discussing things, and these were things that a human like Rachel didn't need to hear. We all knew what happened the LAST time humans discovered what we were, and I wasn't going to be running in my own home again.

I pulled Cora aside before she could reach us, and I stifled a growl as I watched Rachel walk over and put her arms around Liam's neck in greeting, then turned back to Cora. "What the hell is SHE doing here?" I hissed. "I'm keeping her close by. She IS my friend, Theo, which is more than I can say for you." "Har-de-har, you know DAMN well we can't discuss things with her around!"

"That was one thing I was going to discuss with Liam, in the case you ever let go of my arm," I released her and she went on, "I'm thinking about telling her. Hell, Theo, she's living with me and almost everyone she has put her trust in is supernatural. In case you haven't heard, she's got a…shaky past…and trusting people is far from easy for her. We're lying to her." "I don't give a good hearty damn about her past. What matters is we keep her in the dark, and WE don't get attacked again. I know you were galloping through a field of flowers in slow motion when Monroe was here, but for the rest of us it was outright hell."

"Don't make me break your quick healing nose in front of her, you bastard. She's not like them, if she were, she wouldn't have come here in the first place. She's not trying to be a hero, she's just doing what the rest of us are: surviving."

Fed up with the conversation, I let my eyes flicker yellow at Cora and walked off. I watched as she went to where Liam and Rachel were sitting. I supposed telling her wouldn't be terrible, as she wouldn't be very hard to kill, but it still irked me. Didn't we have enough humans who knew about us? Mason, Stiles, the whole damned town? I braced up against the wall in the dark corner and folded my arms, homing in on their conversation.

Rachel had stepped away, chatting to Mason and Corey, as Cora had asked to speak privately with Liam.

"…I can't lie to her anymore, Liam. She was upfront with me a couple nights ago and I've been turning it over in my head since. She asked me not to relay any of her past, but it's not been easy. She hasn't trusted anyone in years, and for some reason, she chose us. We owe it to her."

"I'm not saying no, but is it really a good time? We're still struggling to find a way to stop this thing, and if she freaks out?" "With things she's seen, Liam, I really don't think she'll do that."

Liam went quiet, and I glanced up to study his quizzical face. I had heard enough.

I instead chose to bother Rachel. I didn't like that she always felt off and suspicious. I wanted to know what was going on in that little head of hers.

"So," I entered their conversation, "what are we busy chatting about?" "Video games," Corey said sheepishly. I refrained from rolling my eyes.

Rachel had shut down completely, not as bubbly as she had been ten seconds before, and for some reason, instead of angry, it made me feel worried. Okay, she had a bad past…did it somehow involve me?

At any given time, she could have seen something she didn't need to, years before now. I was the only one she hadn't grown accustomed to, which I'd taken simply as she didn't like me, and that could also have been a possibility. I had to question her.

"Corey, Mason. Give me a second. I want to talk to Rachel." Mason's look became dark and wary, but Corey knew me well enough that he took his arm and gently pulled him away. When he'd been in my pack, he'd seen what I did and could do. He knew that although I made scenes, I didn't hurt or kill without purpose, even if that purpose was dumb in the long run. I still felt the snap of my neck from Deucalion and remembered Tara dragging me down to what could only be described as hell.

I shook my head to disperse those memories and focused on Rachel. I had hoped to be firm and fearsome, but as I studied her, I didn't have the courage. She'd cursed at me, she'd tried to kick me, and she'd redirected my flirting with threats, but this woman didn't look so fierce at that moment.

Instead, I noticed things I hadn't noticed before. What an odd shade of blue her eyes were, and how no matter her stance, there was something there that told of terror, of always watching out. I knew that feeling, I'd been there before. Her hair was soft looking, the color of freshly made toffee and she had it kept in a messy bun, though swirls rested around her temples and ears. She was small compared to me. I stood at least a good half a foot taller and a lot more built.

No wonder she was scared of me.

I couldn't understand why that bothered me. I didn't need to be on her good side…but I wanted to be.

I decided that I had looked at her long enough, and spoke. "Hey Rach, how's working going?" "It's always good, especially when you're not there bothering me." Damn it, this had to stop being the default conversation starter.

"Being that you say everything is better when I'm not around, I think I get the point. You don't like me, and you don't have to, but you do have to know that I am not the enemy."

I saw fear and anger go up in flames in her eyes and she bit her lip. "I can see that you're scared," I said, "but I'm not who you're scared of."

I could not have expected the punch she threw that connected to my jaw. I felt it shift painfully and reached up to hold it. "You know nothing about what I'm scared of!"

"Shit," she groaned, and I looked over to see her holding her hand, which was already swollen and bruised.

"Rachel, what happened?" Liam asked. "Theo, what did you do?" He directed at me. "ME?! She punched me, all I did was tell her not to be scared of me!"

"Dumbass." He said.

~Cassia POV~

"I overreacted. Please tell Theo that I'm sorry." I said to Liam. "Yeah…alright," He snickered. "I…" "You don't have to say anything. Theo always deserves what he gets, and more, so don't beat yourself up."

I nodded and watched as he left the room. Melissa was smiling as she bandaged my hand. "He isn't wrong," Melissa said, "Theo Raeken is nothing but trouble. To put it lightly, he's a bastard." "He still didn't say anything worth me hitting him. I…let my defensiveness take too much of a hold." Melissa looked like she wanted to say something else, but kept her mouth closed.

"At least we know you aren't scared of him," she said after a little bit, "there have been times we were." "What?" I asked.

She startled, and cleared her throat hard. "Nothing, sorry, just…nothing." "What could Theo have done to make you scared of him?" I asked, completely confused now.

"Your hand is fine, just keep ice on it for a couple of nights. I'll see you on Thursday." "Melissa…?" I asked, but she walked out and the door closed behind her.

As if I hadn't been wary enough of him before. He'd obviously done some sort of terrible thing if MELISSA had been afraid of him. What was this mysterious man capable of?

Deciding to just leave rather than ponder it on my tired brain, I stood and began to walk out, when I heard light commotion behind me. I turned and saw a huge crowd had gathered around something, or someone, and couldn't help but be curious.

Melissa was standing there also, her hand put to her chin in thought. "Call Dr. Deaton," she said, "he'll know what to do." "What's going on?" I chimed.

I pushed past several people and found a young girl sitting on the floor, gesturing wildly with her hands, almost angrily. She was in pain.

"Why isn't anyone doing anything for her?" I asked Melissa. "We can't understand her. No one on this floor knows sign language, and those who do are tied up in bigger matters." She said worriedly. I was so glad that I hadn't left yet.

"I can speak it. I know sign language, let me through." I pushed through a few more people before I was able to settle before the girl.

"What is your name?" I signed. "Zinnia." She spelled out.

"Where is your pain, Zinnia?" I asked her. In response, she lifted her shirt sleeve to expose her left upper arm, where I saw three deep puncture wounds, swollen, irritated and worsening. "What happened?" I asked.

"Went for a jog. Stumbled. Fell into a rusty bicycle near the junkyard." She signed quickly. "We will help you, can you stand?" She nodded and with my help, she stood, holding the hurt spot. If she had gotten rust into the wound, that wouldn't be good for her, so we needed to have a doctor examine it.

"Melissa, we need a doctor to come take a look at her. She fell into a rusty bicycle at the junkyard and has puncture wounds. I'm taking her to room three." "On it!" Melissa called.

I steadied Zinnia and helped her sit on the covered bed in the room. I noticed that she wasn't looking so good. She was white in the face, and her skin was clammy and sweaty. I noted bullets of it near her hairline, and she scrunched her eyes closed then and now like the pain was too much. That was an awful lot of pain for some simple wounds. Even if she did have rust in her bloodstream, nothing could have taken effect yet. Perhaps she wasn't telling me the whole truth.

"Zinnia?" I signed, and she answered, "Is that all your pain, or is there more? You are pale." "That's all," she replied, "not good with blood or any pain. Makes me weak." I nodded and wrote down her vitals. "Last name?" I signed.

"Rubek."

I filled in her information and left the papers for the doctor to see. "I have to go now," I signed to her, "the doctor will be in shortly. Feel better soon." She nodded and thanked me and I walked out.

Cora was waiting outside when I came out of the doors, and she was smiling. "Well, well," she said, "how's the hand?" "It'll be fine. I didn't…hurt Theo too bad, did I?" "He'll live. It was just dislocated, he got it fixed. Come on, there's something I want to discuss with you."

**Hope you guys are enjoying this! Please feel free to leave a review! Thanks for reading! Have a good day!**