Chapter 5 –

"This is a terrible idea," Lydia bit out as she followed Scott towards an abandoned house in the woods. The fact that anyone would think that confronting the Alpha again was a good idea, let alone someone like Scott, who had barely managed to escape with his life last time escaped her.

"You didn't have to come," was Scott's frustrated reply, though she detected some other emotion there as well.

"And be left without my own werewolf to protect me. Yeah, no thanks."

"Aww Lydia, it actually sounds like you care."

"As if," she deflected a little too quickly for her liking. The last thing she needed was for him to know that how he had easily put himself in harm's way, so they could escape had affected her. Whatever retort she had prepared was cut off by the roar of the Alpha coming from deeper in the house in the clearing ahead. Scott attention immediately moved to the hallway in front of him, taking a single step forward before Lydia grabbed a hold of his hand to stop him.

"Please Scott, you don't have to do this", she pleaded with her eyes, hoping that somehow she would get through to him.

"I have to Lydia. I couldn't live with myself if I did nothing and someone got hurt." The conviction in his voice was enough to make her believe him, but she was still wracked with worry. Throwing caution to the wind, she launched herself forward and wrapped her arms around his neck, his own coming around the small of her back.

They pulled back after a few minutes, but neither let go of the other, their eyes locked as if mesmerized. Without thinking about it, she began slowly leaning forward, her mind having shut off in the moment. In a distant part of her mind she noted that he too was leaning forward as well. Her heart threatened to burst out of her chest it as beating so fast, the tantalizing feeling of his breath ghosting on her lips.

"Lydia."

Her breath caught at the sound of his voice, not because it aroused her at all, but because it sounded panicked. She would've questioned it, but her ears suddenly picked up on a nearby growling sound. Her eyes slowly drifted open again but were met by a startling sight once they settled back on him.

She saw that Scott was shadowed by the dark form of the Alpha, when claws suddenly burst from his stomach, causing blood to spray on her face. The Alpha tossed Scott's lifeless body away, leaping towards Lydia, forcing an earthshattering scream from her lips.

She shot up in her bed, sweat pouring down her face as her eyes scanned her surroundings for the Alpha. When she realized that she was in her room and had been dreaming, she reclined back into bed and attempted to get her breathing under control. A glance towards the clock on her nightstand revealed that there was still 2 hours until morning. With a defeated groan, she swung her legs over the edge of her bed, stumbling towards the bathroom to wipe her face off.

Looking at herself in the mirror, she saw the evidence of nearly a week of fitful sleep. Ever since the encounter with the Alpha at the school, Lydia had been having nightmares, all with vivid depictions of death, whether it be Scott, Allison, or Jackson, but never herself. She would always jolt awake right before she herself was attacked.

Her thoughts naturally drifted back to that night, and the fall out of everything that happened. Allison and Jackson now knew about Scott's secret, both taking the news difficultly. While Allison had chosen to isolate herself, Jackson tried to act normal around her, despite the apparent awkwardness, or would be deep in thought while staring analytically at Scott.

Scott himself had seemed shaken up by the whole thing. He had confided in her after both Allison and Jackson had asked to be left alone that they Alpha had somehow managed to control him, trying to make Scott kill his friends so he could join the Alpha's pack. Scott had managed to resist when he heard their voices through the door, but Lydia had a strong feeling that he wasn't completely honest about it. Still, he had shaken off the Alpha's influence and had risked himself so the three of them could escape.

No one had ever done anything like that for her, even her boyfriend had decided to hide and save himself from the Alpha when they saw it at the video store. He was slowly becoming a more important figure in her life, she found herself constantly worrying about him, concerned that his need to save others would cost him his life.

It had also lead to the strange dreams she'd been having lately. Nearly every night since, she found herself back at the burned down house in the woods. Every time she watched the Alpha kill those close to her like Allison or Jackson, but it was usually Scott who would reach his unfortunate end, before the werewolf would turn his attention to her. She always woke up before he would kill her, but it still left her shook up.

After trying and failing to go back to sleep for the next 2 hours, she finally gave up, deciding to get ready for school that day. She picked out her clothes, fixed her hair, and applied her make-up as she always did, but her body was moving on auto-pilot while her mind was distracted. She had been trying to get Allison and Jackson to talk about everything with her, and despite being shut down at every turn, she wasn't going to stop now. Checking herself once more in the mirror, she climbed into her car and headed towards the school.

Lydia stared at Allison's retreating form, the girl in question having turned and fled the moment she saw Lydia. Huffing out an irritated breath, Lydia reapplied her mask of indifference, and began the search for her boyfriend.

The search as a short one, as she found him predictably standing nest to his locker talking to Danny, laughing as if the events of the last few weeks had never happened. She honestly couldn't help but be jealous of how easy it seemed for him.

"Jackson?" He turned his head towards her, his smile only dipping slightly though somehow becoming smugger in the process. She knew that smirk, it couldn't possibly mean anything good.

"Hey Lydia." He didn't move from his spot, forcing her to move towards him.

"Jackson," she started, his optimistic demeanor still throwing her off, to the point where she struggled to put the right words forth. "I just wanted to talk to you about what happened the other night."

"What about it?" he said, as if being attacked by a werewolf was completely normal occurrence. Sometimes, Lydia wasn't sure why she was still dating him.

"I just wanted to make sure that you knew-"

"Listen Lydia," he interrupted her with the most condescending voice he had, the one that normally would end with passionate, angry sex, but all it did now was annoy her. "Don't worry. I haven't told anyone about what happened, okay? Now if you'll excuse me, I've got something important coming up," and with that, he and Danny started heading towards the cafeteria.

The whole exchange left Lydia a little unnerved. She knew that things had been tense between them for a little while now, but what could possibly be more important than talking about how werewolves were apparently a thing. More troubling though, despite how terribly narcissistic and inconsequential it seemed, was the fact that whatever was so important, he didn't feel the need to tell her about it.

Deciding that it was something to worry about later, she too left for lunch, where she was going to meet with Scott. Since Allison wasn't talking to them, and Jackson ad most of his friends had taken to sitting with her, Lydia could now be found sitting by herself at lunch or with Scott. Tonight, was a full moon, so she expected tat he'd need some help from her. She bought her lunch quickly, and sat down in front of Scott, pulling out an AP Calculus book so it looked like they were working on school stuff.

"Are you ready for tonight?"

"What?" came Scott's confused reply, his cheeks lighting up while his eyes danced around the room, falling anywhere but her.

"The full moon. Are you ready for it?"

"Oh," he said quickly rubbing the back of his neck in embarrassment. "I mean I guess so. I'm as ready as I'll ever be."

Something strange was going on with him. "Scott are you okay?"

"Yeah, it's nothing." She leveled a glare at him, giving away that she didn't buy his answer one bit, and after visibly gulping, Scott relented. "Alright, fine. It's just that," he looked around briefly before leaning forward conspiratorially and continued with a whisper, "it's like my sense are going haywire. I can see, hear, and smell everything."

"More so than usual?"

"Yeah. It's like the moon is amplifying it somehow. It's just making me really uncomfortable." She nodded her head in understanding. She couldn't even imagine all the things he was picking up on.

Deciding she should probably get some actual work done, she started working on the problems in her book. She got through a few problems before she realized Scott was staring at her.

"What?"

"Nothing. It's just that I don't think I've ever seen you work on that stuff in school before."

She thought about it for a few moments, realizing that he was right. Normally, she would wait to do this stuff at home, she had a reputation to uphold, and appearing as anything other than the queen bee that she was would've hurt her image. She almost threw her book away to save face, but the more she thought about it, the more things like that seemed so insignificant. She merely shrugged at him and returned to her work, not before noticing a smug smile on his face, and try to hide it as she might, she couldn't help but smile herself.

By the time she was nearly done working on the problems in her book, she noticed out of the corner of her eye, that Scott had gone visibly stiff. Her head snapped up, noticing that his gaze was locked somewhere on the other side of the room, but when she followed it, all she saw was Allison sitting at another table.

"What's wrong?" she whispered.

"It's Jackson. He's talking to me." He was gripping his lunch tray so strongly that she could hear the plastic starting to bend.

Lydia looked back towards where Allison was sitting and noticed that Jackson was no longer sitting at the table. She quickly glanced around the room but couldn't find him.

"What's he saying?"

"He wants me to turn him." Lydia's breath caught in her throat. Jackson couldn't really be saying that. He saw the Alpha and what it almost made Scott do. She knew that Jackson had inferiority issues, but to go to these lengths sounded crazy, even for him. Her train of thought was broken when Scott suddenly snapped his tray in half.

"Scott?", she called as Scott suddenly took off out of the cafeteria. When she looked back over to where Jackson was sitting, he was no where to be seen. Fearing the worst, she shot up from her seat and left the cafeteria in search of Scott.

She stopped at the first intersection, trying to discern and clues as to which way he had gone. There was no sign of him in any direction. Lydia began to panic, if Scott was losing control an someone stumbled upon them, she didn't want to think of the outcome. She was about to check out front of the school, when she heard a loud grunt coming from deeper in the school and she finally realized where he was.

The locker rooms.

She sprinted towards the locker rooms as fast as her heels would allow her, she began to hear voices coming from that direction, one slightly pained and aggravated one that belonged to Scott, and one that was mocking that she realized belonged to her boyfriend, the accompanying sound of low growling making her heart stop, as she quickly yanked the locker room door open and ran inside.

Scott had evidently stripped himself of his shirt and attempted to use the showers to help calm him down. He may have succeeded but Jackson's continued presence only served to increase his stress. Ignoring her boyfriend for the moment, she quickly kneeled next to Scott and tried to get through to him.

"Scott?" No response. "Scott. I need you to concentrate. You need to calm down."

"I can't," said Scott, his voice amplified with an animalistic growl. "He'll tell them," he bit out as his eyes began to glow, "He'll tell Allison's parents about me if I don't turn him."

Her head whipped around, leveling a glare at Jackson, who was still looking as smug as he had earlier. She crossed the distance between them quickly, pushing him out into the hallway so that he could antagonize the werewolf further.

"What the hell are you doing?" He didn't even look nonplussed.

"I'm getting ready my moment. My rightful moment," he said, his eyes popping out slightly at his impassioned reply. "Why should McCall be special when I earned my place here. I want to take back what is mine."

"And what about the hunters, or the giant werewolf that's out to kill everyone."

"That's not my problem. All I want is what is mine, and McCall is gonna give it to me."

"He can't. Only an Alpha can turn someone. You're wasting your time."

"Well it's either that, or Allison's family is gonna find out her boyfriend – no sorry, ex-boyfriend's little secret."

Lydia wanted to believe that Jackson wouldn't stoop so low but the conviction in his voice told her otherwise.

"Jackson, please don't do this."

"Awww", he said with a sneer. "is that concern I hear?" He stepped forward until they were nearly chest to chest. "I didn't think you cared that much."

Lydia's eyes flicked to Scott momentarily, still trying to get himself under control. When her gaze returned to Jackson, the arrogant smile was gone, replaced by a deep frown.

"I see how it is. You actually care about that loser," he scoffed looking back over at the boy in question, "That's fine. I was looking to get rid of some dead weight in my life anyway. So fine, worry about him Lydia, because we're through!"

She told herself that she couldn't cry, that she wouldn't look weak in front of him, but the realization that she was not only losing her boyfriend, but someone that had been one of her best friends prior to that, made it impossible.

"Jackson, please…"

"Face it, it's over. Sorry to pop your little social bubble, but you need me more than I need you. You were nothing more than a pretty face before we started dating, and now things will be just like they were, but everyone will see you for what you really are. A pathetic piece of eye-candy, a spoiled little bit-"

A roar cut off Jackson's last insult, and before Lydia could process what was happening, Jackson flew across the room hitting a row of lockers.

"Leave her out of this!" He looked poised to charge Jackson and rip him to pieces. Despite her shock, Lydia had the wherewithal to grab ahold of his arm and keep him at bay.

"Scott you need to calm down." His head whipped towards her voice, though he didn't seem to see her, his eye gold with rage.

"You know what, fine! She's not worth it anyway", came Jackson's voice from behind her. When she turned she saw him slowly get to his feet, holding the shoulder which had taken the brunt of the impact. "All that matters is that I get what I want, and if I don't, then I'll tell Allison's parents what kind of animal you are." His scowl slowly transformed into a smile before saying, "Or maybe I'll go to the Alpha myself and tell him about your little girlfriends here." Lydia had to jump in front of Scott and push on his shoulders to stop him from mauling Jackson, who had the sense to run from the locker room as quickly as possible.

Once he was gone, Scott suddenly turned and ran back into the shower, punching the ceramic wall a few times causing pieces to fall from the ground.

"Scott?"

"Stay back. I can't control it. I don't know what's going to happen," He pleaded turning to her, the rage gone from his eyes only to be replaced by utter panic, and he slumped against the wall and began hyperventilating.

"Scott. Remember your anchor. Focus on Allison. Find her voice."

He closed his eyes and attempted to get his breathing under control. In through his nose, out through his mouth, but barely half a minute into it, his breathing became labored again.

"I can't. I can't do it."

She mentally cursed herself for her mistake. Of course, having Scott think about Allison just days after she had broken up with him and stopped talking to him, would only make things worse. Figuring that desperate times called for desperate measures, she scrambled for some solution, until an idea finally came to her.

"Alright, then focus on me." That got his attention, his breath caught and for the first time during this whole situation, his eyes were focused, focused on her.

"You're right. I did tell Finstock about your asthma that day." He continued to stare at her, his breathing slowing down slightly, and the accompanying growl also receding. "A part of my wants to argue and say that I didn't do it for any selfish reasons, but I can't do that."

Her words had helped Scott calm down somewhat, but by the still present gold tint to his eyes, she knew he was still struggling. Realizing that it was working, she decided to go for broke.

"Part of me did it because I wanted to impress Jackson but… I saw you struggling out on the field, and even though I knew you wanted to join the team, to prove to everyone that you could do it…but all I could think about was what if you had an attack during the game and you couldn't get help. I don't think I could live with that."

Lydia studied his face to see if her confession had helped, but Scott's face was a stoic mask. His body was still stiff as he peered at her questioningly. She was about to say something, when Scott suddenly shot forward, making her tense as she expected an attack. Instead he did the last thing she expected, he wrapped his arms around her in a tight hug. At first, she did nothing, her arms remaining limp by her sides in shock. Eventually she managed to lift her arms and return his embrace, a smile slowly growing on her face.

AN – Here's another chapter. This one was originally supposed to go on for a bit longer, but this first part ended up being much longer than I had anticipated so I'm going to split it up into two chapters.

The other reason is because I'm posting 1 One-shot a month for the next 2 months and I haven't even started this month's yet, so there's that.

Not much else to say so I hope y'all enjoyed this installment.