Author's Note: Hey guys! So, you are all way too good at anticipating what I've got planned, sometimes it feels like you guys know what's going to happen next before I do, lol.

Once again, nothing happening with the main plotline, but we get to see a lot of character development all over the place, so that's good, right?

I hope you guys enjoy!

Avery

I'm not sure whether it was the light or the pain that woke me up, maybe it was both. I can feel Derek's arm under my neck, though I don't feel the heat of his chest, which means he must be lying flat on his back.

For a moment, I lay completely still, wondering if he's awake. When I feel confident that he isn't, I try to push myself up, only to have a stabbing pain cut through me. And what's worse, Derek isn't asleep.

He's just staring at me, "I was wondering when you'd wake up." He says, almost regretfully.

I push myself up as smoothly as I can manage, and sit on the edge of my bed. I spot one of my shirts on the floor and thank God that I've never been able to keep my room clean. I pick it up and slip it over my head. I suddenly become aware of a misplaced warmth between my legs, and my face grows hot in embarrassment.

"Were you even going to tell me?" he asks. My entire body is rigid, both in pain and fear.

"Tell you what?" I ask with a smile as I look back at him.

He looks at me with an unyielding stare, "I can smell the blood, Avery," I bite my lip and look away.

"I didn't think it was important," I squeeze my eyes closed and clamp my lips together, the pain is getting worse.

"How's that not important?"

My head is spinning, and suddenly the room is really hot. I push myself off of the bed and practically collapse from the pain that the simple motion makes. I recover and take a few deep breaths as I force myself across the room to the bathroom. "Avery!" Derek calls after me as he tosses the sheets aside and follows me.

I step into the bathroom and close the door behind me. I can feel the sweat collect on my forehead, why is it so damn hot in here? And why is it hurting now? I thought it stopped last night…?

Plus, I should've healed by now.

So why haven't I?

"Avery-"

I lock the door, "Just give me a couple minutes, please," I practically beg. He doesn't respond, but I can sense he's not at the door anymore, and I can hear his steps walk back towards the bed before they drift down the hall.

I force myself towards the shower and toss off my shirt before stepping in. I sit under the cold water as it begins to turn warmer, I take deep breaths ad relax, waiting for the healing to kick in, God why hasn't it healed yet, anyway?

Slowly, the pain fades, and the stream of red does the same.

My head stops spinning, and I take a relieved breath, but then I remember that there's still Derek to deal with.

How do I deal with that, anyway? What do I say?

I stand up and wash my hair as quickly as I can manage. When I finally get out of the shower, I've calmed down significantly thanks to the werewolf healing that took its sweet ass time to work today, and I have a pretty good line to use, if this conversation goes how I think it will.

I get out of the shower and quickly make my way out of the bathroom into my room and over to my dresser. I pull on a plain black pair of underwear, black shorts, and a Maryland t-shirt. I don't bother with a bra since putting a sports bra on after a shower is a struggle in itself, and what's the point? He's already seen me naked anyway.

I turn towards the bed and see the blood stain on the yellow sheets. I toss the pillows off the bed and tear the sheets off of the mattress and onto the floor. I gather them all up and make my way downstairs to the laundry room.

As I reach the laundry room, I get more nervous about what I'm going to tell him, and I forget the line I'd come up with. I drop the bundle of bedding into the washing machine but hold off on turning it on.

I walk toward the living room and find Derek sit back on the couch. His hands rub his face as if he's tired.

For a moment, I wonder if it was really such a good idea to lose my virginity to a man, whose age I didn't even know, and who, other than him being an alpha werewolf and a good person, I still knew nothing about.

But as I look at him, a feeling of guilt spreads through me, but it's not my guilt. It's his.

He's afraid that he hurt me.

I bite my lip and hold in a small laugh.

My mother threw me out for some dumb reason I don't even remember, my father moved to the other side of the world when I was a kid and only visited when I was on my deathbed, and my ex-boyfriend was probably the one who left me to die in a car accident and then dropped off the grid. And none of them feel guilty. At all. Or at least they don't show it.

And then here's Derek.

The big alpha werewolf badass who is currently blaming himself for something that he couldn't have possibly even known about.

Which makes him probably the one person who actually cares. And when I had no one else to call...? He answered:

"Anytime."

He saved me from dying in a hospital bed and had been one of the few people who have genuinely had me back this whole time.

In all rationality, I probably shouldn't be relieved that he feels bad, but I am.

Derek

I sit down on the couch and rub my forehead with my hands. I finally get her alone, and I rip her apart.

Smooth.

I was so damn caught up in it I hadn't even paid attention to her. Last night was about me fulfilling some stupid fantasy I had ever since those damn dreams started.

But I didn't mean to-

All I had to do was pay attention for a moment, and maybe I could've figured it out, but no. Why the hell didn't she just say something-

I feel the air shift around me, and all of a sudden notice Avery walking towards my spot on the couch. "Avery, I-" I make a move to get up, but she holds out her hand, as if telling me to stay where I am. "Are you okay?" I ask as she comes to stand right in front of me.

Her eyes are soft and she stares down at me for a moment before her hands come to either side of my head, "Yeah," she whispers, "I healed," a small smile crosses her face for a moment, before she leans down and places a light kiss on my lips.

I stare up at her in confusion as she leans back out and bites her lip with a smile pulling at her mouth, "Want some breakfast?" she asks.

Isaac

"I don't get it, wasn't he supposed to be here by now?" Boyd asks from his spot sitting on the station steps.

I sigh and look over at Erica, who is filing her nails again. "I called him, his phone is off."

Boyd looks over at me, "And what about Avery?"

"She didn't answer." I say, a thought suddenly crossing my mind. There's always that tension you can feel when kids from school like each other, and there was definitely something weird going on between them the other day in the car but…Would Derek really…?

"You know what?" I say, snapping out of my thoughts, "Let's just get started," I walk over to the massive stone pillar that is still intact, "Boyd you're up first."

Boyd comes around and I use the chains to lock him around the pillar. "Alright, now remember; just think of something that keeps you calm."

Boyd nods and takes a deep breath as he leans his head back against the stone. I bring out my claws and take a breath as I reach out to rake them across Boyd's chest, only deep enough to get him angry.

But just before I make contact, I stop. Boyd looks at me with confusion, but also with relief. I step back and look between Erica and him. "You guys just wanna go to IHop instead? Maybe do some school shopping? We go back this week, ya know."

Erica rolls her eyes and Boyd laughs.

Scott

"Right, so, it's nice to finally be spending time with you again," Stiles says as he puts the Jeep in park, "I mean you've pretty much ignored me all summer to hang out with Allison so it's nice to finally-"

"Stiles, you're rambling," I say as I look out the window towards the house.

"I just- last time we went to Avery's to have some kind of werewolf intervention, which, by the way, went very poorly, and now? Now we're staking out Jackson Whittemore's house."

I look over to Stiles, who's looking at me with his mouth open and eyes wide, "So?" I ask.

"Sooooo can't we just hang out for once? Sans dangerous supernatural and overall unpleasant stuff?" I open my mouth to respond, but something slams against the glass on my side.

I look over to see Jackson looking in with an annoyed face. Stiles quickly rolls down the window and Jackson leans in, "You know, if you guys wanted to do a stakeout, you really should invest in something besides a big blue piece of junk on wheels."

I look over at Stiles, "Hey man, this is my baby," he says as he rubs the steering wheel.

"Yeah?" Jackson scoffs, "Well, your 'baby', could use a tune up." He says with acid in his voice.

"So could you." My eyes turn gold, and Jackson steps back reflexively. His jaw goes rigid and he runs his tongue over his lips.

"What do you guys want?" he asks in a serious voice.

"We're just here to make sure you're okay." Jackson looks away briefly.

"Derek bit me forever ago, why am I just now changing?" He asks in confusion. "Like shouldn't I have turned by now? Why is it just now happening?"

"We don't," Stiles starts, "We don't really know," Jackson closes his eyes and sighs, "but does it really matter? You've just gotta focus on staying human now."

"Yeah man, you scared the crap out of Lydia," I say. Stiles' leg comes across and slams into my ankle, I do my best not to react.

Jackson's eyes go wide, "Fuck," he says, "is she alright?" he asks.

"Yeah, yeah!" Stiles says too quickly, "She's absolutely fine." Jackson's face is relieved. Stiles fumbles with the steering wheel nervously, "Well, actually," Jackson looks at Stiles questioningly, "she was pretty torn up about the whole 'my boyfriend is a werewolf' kinda thing. I believe her words were 'I'm not sure I can look at him the same way. Ever. Ever.'" Stiles gives him a fake pity smile.

Jackson narrows his eyes and walks away from the car. I look over at him and whisper, "Dude, what the hell?" he just shrugs and turns the engine on.

Derek

I watch as Avery pours the cup of water into the pancake mixes and begins stirring it happily. "Sorry, but pancakes is all I know how to make, really." She says with a smile.

She makes no sense. At all.

The only feelings she's giving off are ones of calmness and happiness. And that makes no sense, either.

She catches me staring and her smiles fades slowly, though her good mood stays, "I'm sorry," she says, "I should've told you, I know. I don't really know why I didn't, honestly." She keeps her eyes on the bowl, "but it wasn't your fault."

"I wouldn't have been so rough with you if I knew-"

She looks up at me again from across the counter with a gleam in her eye, "I know," a smile crosses her face as she looks back down at the bowl and keeps stirring, "but, I mean after the beginning, I kinda liked it." She says as if it's a dark secret.

She laughs at herself, I can't help but laugh at her, too. "I, um, I actually had this pretty good line prepared," she says, "wanna hear it?" She looks at me, waiting for an answer. I smile a bit, which urges her on, "I'm sorry I didn't tell you I was a virgin," she says, her voice anxious for the next line, "it'll never happen again." she looks at me with a wide smile and laughs from nerves and humor.

I laugh a little but bury my face in my hands, "That's a terrible joke," I say.

"It is not!" she says, "Besides, if it's 'terrible', then why are you laughing?" This girl could make a gargoyle smile.

"Has anyone ever told you that you make absolutely no sense?" I ask, she looks up and shrugs.

Author's Note: ^_^

Alright, so I'm not sure if I did a great job of explaining Avery's emotions in this chapter, so I'll just go ahead and do a synopsis really quick. Basically, she's really happy that Derek feels bad because it shows that he actually cares about her and it validates her decision to, ya know, lose her V card to him. She also finds it rather adorable that he felt that badly.

If you guys think that it wasn't a great explanation then I can add something in next chapter that fixes that, just let me know. On another note, I thoroughly enjoyed the last scene, I thought it was really really cute. Oh and Stiles trying to do his part in the Lydia-Jackson breakup was entertaining. Overall, though, I think Isaac stole the show this chapter, hmm? XDAlso, I realized that you can't really see the new cover that well :/ If you want to get a better look or you want the pic just to have on your phone or something, I have a twitter that I only use for fanfic updates, I'll tweet out the cover pic on there, the link is in my bio once again.

Lastly, I just want to say thank you so much for all the support via favs, follows, and reviews, it's awesome to know that people are enjoying the story so far and I'm so happy you guys like Averek and like Avery! It's hard to write OC's a lot of the time because they are too perfect and the story is kind of centered all around them, I'm trying to make Avery as flawed as possible and make sure other characters are getting their time!

At any rate, please let me know if you liked this chapter! It kind of made me nervous to post it quite honestly!