Author's Note: Hey guys! Sorry again that it's been so long! I hope you can all forgive me. As always, thanks so much to all the reviewers! You guys are seriously the best!

Chapter 17

Luckily for the group, Scott's mom was working the night shift at the hospital when they arrived at the McCall residence. As soon as they walked into his bedroom – where he had allegedly been abducted from – the werewolves' nostrils were assaulted by a rank odor.

"Wolfsbane," Derek muttered, features contorting in distaste. "It's gotta be hunters."

"The Argents?" questioned Isaac.

"Scott…" Stiles stammered, trying to be helpful, "Scott told me today that Allison's mom found out about them and that she forbid them from seeing each other. Do you think maybe it was her?"

"Could be. If Mrs. Argent took him," Derek started ominously, "she intends to kill him."

"Even if she's super hardcore, we've seen her – she's like my height, and human. There's no way she could overpower Scott and haul him out of his second story window by herself, on the full moon no less," Amy pointed out.

"You think Chris is in on it?" Derek asked in turn.

"I don't know," she replied slowly. "He doesn't seem quite as murderous as his wife. I bet Gerard is in on it, though."

"Well, where could they have taken him?" Stiles questioned frantically.

"Somewhere that wouldn't look suspicious?" Isaac tried.

"A healthy, eighteen-year-old kid found dead anywhere is going to look suspicious," Amy pointed out once more.

"Where would he be at this time of night, if not at home? Where would he be alone?" Derek questioned.

"Work?" Stiles tried.

Derek shot him a searing look that told him he was onto something. "Let's go," was all he said before bolting out the door.

IN STILES' JEEP

"Deaton's probably not there, right?" said Isaac.

"No, he'd definitely have closed up shop by now," Stiles replied.

"Think of all the dangerous chemicals and stuff he has in there," Amy mused worriedly. "You really think she would kill him?"

"Yes," Derek replied in a clipped, matter-of-fact tone.

"Such an optimist," Stiles mumbled darkly, eyes glued to the road and white-knuckled as he clenched the steering wheel.

"Maybe they're just trying to scare him – like a warning," Isaac proposed. "Mrs. Argent has to know that Allison would never forgive her if she killed Scott."

"All the more reason to make it look like an accident," countered Derek. He unbuckled his seatbelt prematurely as they came within eyeshot of the veterinarian's office and an oversized black Escalade in the parking lot.

The passengers' doors swung open before Stiles even had a chance to shift the gear to park. However, while Isaac and Amy obediently followed after their pack-leader, Derek spun around to face them.

"You three stay here," he ordered.

"What?!" Amy and Stiles said in unison, with equal measures of disbelief and anger.

"It could be dangerous. Having Scott abducted and Jackson killed is bad enough – I'm not going to let anyone else in this pack become vulnerable. I can handle this on my own. The Argents' asses are mine."

"I have just as much a reason to hate them as you do!" Amy protested.

"And we can help!" Isaac added earnestly.

"Neither of you have had enough time to practice controlling your powers – you're not strong enough yet. I'm going in alone."

"No you're not," Stiles snapped. "This isn't a dictatorship, we can do what we want."

"You're human!" Derek growled, "You especially are not coming. And you're part of my pack, so yeah, it's a dictatorship. All of you, wait here."

"Fine," Stiles grumbled petulantly, "We've wasted enough time arguing already. Just go get him."

Derek turned his back to them once more, and Amy shouted, "Stop it, Derek! You can't, you can't go without us!" Isaac held her back as she watched his retreating silhouette fade into the shadows. "If you go alone you're going to die," she cried, out of earshot.

She spun around to glare at Isaac and a stiff-limbed Stiles. "How could you let him do that? Why would you let him walk right into the den of the enemy?"

"He knows what he's doing, Amy," Isaac soothed. "It's the full moon and there's probably only two of them – he can take them on without us."

"And how can we be sure it's just them? How can we know that?" she demanded hysterically. "They could all be in there, waiting for him like a goddamn firing squad and we're just going to let him go? We're just going to wait in the car like a bunch of children?"

"Remember that Allison's mom found out about Scott and Allison today – it makes sense that she would be pissed and act rashly. If they were trying to take us all down, they would have gone after you guys. This is different, personal," said Stiles.

"If he doesn't come back," she sniffed, "I will never forgive either of you."

INSIDE

Derek, wary of an alarm system, was hesitant to break into the clinic and forfeit the element of surprise. However, as his hand wrapped around the doorknob, he soon found that the building was already unlocked. He carefully treaded into the unlit waiting room, hands flexed by his sides and claws ready. As he surveyed the perimeter, he noticed a yellowish glow peeking out from beneath one of the doors in the hallway.

He slunk over to the area, immediately noticing the same stench from Scott's bedroom as he came within ten feet of the door. Fearing the worst, he hastened his movements and flung the door open; there, on an aluminum surgical table, laid an unmoving and fully-transformed Scott. The air in the room was thick with the fog of vaporized wolfsbane. Derek quickly covered his mouth and nose with his shirt in order to breathe and soon noticed the source – directly besides Scott, there was a vaporizer emitting the terrible mist. As he started towards his friend, he heard a rustle behind him.

He turned around just in time to stop Mrs. Argent from hacking away at him with an axe.

"Where's Gerard," he snarled. Gerard was the Argent he truly wanted to kill.

"Not here," she sneered evilly. "It's just me this time. It seems each of us particularly wants to kill one of you – it's too bad I'll have to steal this moment from my dear father-in-law, but he's got something in the works that'll destroy that damned pack of yours... Which we all know will hurt more than dying, don't we? I only regret that you won't be around to see them die first... Oh well."

She swung at him again, tearing his shirt and narrowly missing his flesh.

"You know I'll heal," he said, dodging her again and bashing her head into the counter.

His head began to feel foggy. "I'm not going to kill you with this axe," she laughed, blood streaming down from her hairline, "I just have to keep you here long enough to suffocate you."

Derek coughed into his elbow and quickly launched himself towards Scott – he didn't have much time, and his window of opportunity was closing fast. Soon he would be unconscious and Scott would be dead. Deciding to forgo the satisfaction of killing the red-haired Argent, he slung Scott's limp arm across his shoulders and darted towards the door.

By this time, Mrs. Argent had picked herself back up from the floor and flung herself onto Derek's back, choking him with the wooden handle of the axe. Eyes shining red, he grasped the handle with one hand and threw his assailant over his head, back onto the tile. Ever the fighter, she still managed to scramble to her feet in record time and come at him from the front, this time with a dagger.

"Pure silver," she hissed, stabbing him in the bicep.

Derek let out a howl, red-hot pain shooting through his arm and all the way to his fingertips. His grip on Scott slipped. He needed to get them out of there now. In a last burst of adrenaline, he transformed fully and latched his teeth into the hunter's wrist. She shrieked in horror, stumbling backwards as crimson blood poured from her veins.

He quickly pushed past her, rushing towards the car as his vision blurred.

As soon as he was out of the clinic and in the open air, though, he felt considerably better. His head cleared, as if a pressure had been suddenly relieved from his brain.

"Get him in the car," he barked to his three shocked-looking companions.

He dumped Scott in Isaac's arms, propelling his own damaged body into the front seat of Stiles' Jeep. Amy and Isaac had put the back seat down so that there was enough room for them to attend to Scott as he lay, and Stiles clamored into the driver's seat and twisted the key.

Amy put her ear to Scott's mouth. "He's not breathing!" she announced in dismay.

"Try doing CPR," Stiles ordered in the same panicked tone.

Without a second thought, Amy plugged Scott's nose, pressed her mouth to his, and breathed the air from her lungs into his. Then, she pounded on his chest, trying to force his heart to beat.

She repeated this process three times, until Scott shot suddenly into a seated position and began coughing violently.

Everyone else in the car let out an audible sigh of relief.

"Thank god," gasped Amy.

"Mrs. Argent!" he sputtered when the fit subsided.

"I know," Derek grit out.

"It was just her?" Isaac questioned.

"Yeah. At least when I got there."

"What happened?" Stiles asked Scott.

"Sh-she came into my room… She injected me with something that knocked me out, and next thing I knew I woke up in the clinic and she was using some vaporizer with wolfsbane that would make it look like I had an asthma attack."

"Was there anyone else there?" Isaac asked. "Did she say why she was doing it?"

"I don't know... I can't remember..." Scott said, cradling his head in his hands. "My head is killing me."

"You need to rest," Derek told him gravely. "You were seconds from death."

"Please tell me you killed her," Amy said grimly, stroking Scott's hair as he rested his head in her lap.

"No, just injured," Derek said. There was a heavy pause, before he added, "I bit her."

Everyone in the Jeep froze.

"You what?" sputtered Stiles.

"I didn't know what else to do," he explained. "It happened so fast… I didn't have a choice – I needed to get him out of there."

"What does that mean for us?" Amy demanded in disbelief.

"I'm not sure," Derek answered honestly.

Another poignant silence befell them.

Eventually, Amy noted, "You're still bleeding."

Derek hazarded a glance to his wound. Indeed, dark blood was still oozing from where Mrs. Argent had sunk her blade into him.

"She used a silver dagger," he stated. "I'll be alright in the morning."

"Where am I taking you guys?" Stiles asked, adopting a lighter tone and trying to break the gravity of the situation.

"Take me home," Scott managed.

"Errrr… I don't know if that's the best idea," Isaac said. "You look like shit and I'm sure your mom will be home by now."

"I'm going to tell her," he replied, voice hardened with resolve.

"What?" everyone reacted simultaneously.

"I'm going to tell her," he repeated. "This is getting serious. She needs to know before she becomes a target. It's for her own protection."

"You've gotta be kidding me," Derek scoffed.

"We all know this is becoming more than just a fight between werewolves and hunters. This is getting personal. After what you did to Mrs. Argent, I don't want to risk them coming after my mom."

"He's got a point," Isaac supported. "I wouldn't put it past them to come after the people we care about, werewolf or not. Gerard is a total wildcard."

"Fine," Derek allowed, "but you have to be sure that she can handle it."

"I'm sure. My mom is the strongest person I know."

Author's Note: Pretty please review and let me know what you think!