Kagome smiled to herself as she changed out of her work clothes in the small locker room that was provided for the workers. Though it was to be she start her job next week, after the three days she spent at home sick, she needed to do something that wasn't tied to her home. As much as it was her haven, with all the drama Scott was bringing home with him, it wasn't exactly her haven any longer.

She was still somewhat reeling from the news her aunt and Scott had shared with her from what happened at the conference the other night. Turns out a mountain lion had actually showed up and had caused a panic in the parking lot at school. After aunt Mel had gotten over the shock, she had chewed Scott a new one for skipping the entire day.

Kagome had ignored the pleading look he had sent her way, she had warned him when he had called her earlier that day. But did he listen? No- he brushed it off. While it was a sweet gesture to keep Allison away from something that would upset her on the day of the year where she should be nothing but smiles, but it had fallen on a really shitty day for Scott.

That day at school, Allison had been pretty much glued to his side, telling the both of them that she had been grounded and wasn't allowed to see Scott outside of school. Kagome merely raised a brow. The one time she had anything resembling a love life had been anything but normal, so she couldn't offer any word on the subject matter. She simply told them to find a way to bend the rules, to find a loop hole if not being able to see or communicate with each other for a short time was so hard on them.

That had garnered praises of her genius from Allison and an awed look from her cousin. To think that were all in high school. They would by then know how to think and look for loop holes, and know of her genius by then. Oh well, they were in love and were not able to think much if not than each other.

She had called to see if Scott could pick her up from work, but all she got was that damn per-recorded voice that said the number was unavailable at the time. She could only blink and shrug her shoulders. Either Scott was in a location that got no reception at all, or he turned his phone off again. Rolling her eyes was all she could do.

Blinking, a sigh was released when the house came into view. Despite the work not being all that hard, she could use a shower and then start on her homework. Scott should be home by the time she arrived, or around then at least. If not, he was at Allison's. He did have the car after all. Doing the shopping and all. Her bike wouldn't be able to carry all that they needed on the list that they had made up the previous day.

The sound of screeching tires brought her back to reality and she swerved to avoid her crazy cousin. Grasping at her heart, she got off her bike after she felt she was able to stand on her own two feet and pushed her bike to the back door, more than ready to rip Scott a new one for nearly running her over.

"What the hell is wrong with you?! Don't you have eyes?" her eyes narrowed on Scott as he rushed out of the car.

Though her brows furrowed when he didn't answer her, he looked somewhat surprised to see her standing there, but simply rushed over to her and dragged her inside and then up the stairs.

"Scott? Scott?! What's wrong?" she winced and hissed when the grip he had on her wrist merely tightened and she stumbled into his room when he practically threw her in.

She tried to soothe her wrist, bending and rotating her hand, hissing at the slight pinch when she went to fast or too far. Her eyes followed Scott's movements as he locked his door and then slammed the window shut.

"Should I even ask..." she brought up her other hand to try and message her wrist, seeing that it was already bruising when Scott turned on a light. "Great... at least it wasn't my writing hand."

So into trying to heal her wrist as far as she would go, continuing to flex her hand and message her wrist, that she didn't notice the extra presence in Scott's room. But she did notice Scott's jump in surprise. Lifting a brow, she turned her attention to the reason, and felt her face instantly warm up.

Hadn't she been trying to avoid any confrontation with Derek since Stiles had told her earlier that day that she had cuddled up to the male the day before. Worst part was, she didn't remember any of it. Furrowing her brows, she thought it over. If she didn't remember it, then it didn't happen, in her mind. So, ergo, there was nothing for her to be embarrassed about.

"You seriously need to stop doing that!" Scott panted out, trying to catch his second wind.

Derek merely sat there in the corner chair, looking far too comfortable and at ease. He eyed Scott, though he did turn his gaze her way with a raised brow. Kagome merely shrugged her shoulders. She had no idea what was going on.

"So what happened? Did he talk to you?"

Ah. The alpha. Turning to Scott, she really took him in. He was frightened. Face pale, his aura fluctuating, a slight amount of sweat dotted his brow and he still continued to take in short, quick breaths. If Scott was acting like this, that must mean the alpha got really close.

"Yeah. We had a nice conversation about the weather. No he didn't talk!"

It seemed, blood or not, sarcasm was a natural defense mechanism in the family. She had picked up on it heavily since she had started the Shikon quest. She absently wondered if it was natural for all everyone or a certain trait in the family.

"Well did you get anything off of him? An impression."

"What do you mean?"

Derek inhaled deeply through his nose before pushing himself out of the the chair to stand before them, more so Scott than herself. Kagome felt like the third wheel, a flat third wheel as she continued to soothe her wrist. Either way, Derek seemed slightly exasperated.

"Remember your other senses are heightened. Communication doesn't have to be spoken. What kind of feeling did you get from him?"

Scott was already thinking, which was good. Kagome did make a mental note to go over some methods she could try and teach him. They might be able to help him in the long run. They wouldn't be for the exact same thing, seeing as she was taught for mikos, but the principle was the same. To work on one's senses to be in touch, or better touch, with the world around him. But since Scott did have a link with this alpha, it might just work on 'those' senses as well.

"Anger."

"Focused on you?"

"No, not... not me. But it was definitely anger. I could feel it. Especially when he drew... drew the spiral."

So, maybe learning how to use this link to their advantage as well. Could she teach him to recognize it in the alpha, when the alpha wasn't... wolfed out? Because the connection was there either way. Unless one could turn it on and off, but Kagome didn't think that was possible. Even Naraku needed Onigumo's heart returned after a while. And as far as she knew, werewolves were physic in any way whatsoever. Save for the pack mentality thing they seemed to have.

"Wait, the what? What did you just say?"

Kagome could only blink at Derek's honest shock at that. Obviously, this spiral meant something. And she was pretty sure it wasn't a good something either.

"He... he drew a spiral, on... on the window of my car. In a condensation, you know."

They were both taking Derek in, obviously this was important to him. It meant something really important. Kagome was at war with herself whether to ask or not, but Scott seemed to have beaten her to the punch.

"What? You have this look, like you know what it means."

Derek didn't answer him right away, his face lacking that brooding look she had quickly associated him with. But then he shut himself down, his face went blank and he finally answered, brushing past them while doing so.

"No. It's nothing."

Scott was quick to follow Derek, obviously wanting to know whatever it was that Derek knew, "Wait. Wait, wait, wait a second!"

Derek paused and looked Scott in the eye, letting his hand drop instead of unlocking the door.

"You can't do that! You can't ask me to trust you, and, and then just keep things to yourself!"

"Doesn't mean anything." Derek's quick answer shot Scott's question down and was once again turning towards the door to leave.

"You buried your sister under a spiral."

Kagome's eyes widened a bit. That was news to her. She wasn't shocked over the fact that he buried his own sister. She had lost -that- innocence a long time ago, after the first village she had helped bury and pray over. So, did a spiral have significance to werewolves? Or was to certain werewolf families? Her head was swimming with endless questions of the like. But they came to a halt as Scott spoke up yet again, demanding an explanation.

"What does it mean?"

Derek merely continued to look at her cousin, his face still blank, but she could tell that Scott had hit a nerve when he had brought up Derek's sister. Instead, he lowered his eyes for a brief moment before looking Scott dead in the eyes and rested his hand heavily on Scott's shoulder. He wore a look that Kagome herself was familiar with. She had seen it often enough on the faces of the group she had traveled with. Even Shippo and Rin would wear it rarely.

She would sometimes catch glimpses of herself in the mirror wearing that look, making her look all that much similar to Kikyo when she did.

"You don't want to know." with his hand on the open door, the other on Scott's shoulder, he let the answer sink into Scott's head before leaving. But not without tossing a glance her way.

Scott watched after him, his face clearly showing confusion. When he swung her way, Kagome merely shook her head.

"...There are reasons for not sharing certain answers, Scott. Most times, it's because others aren't ready to hear them."

Scott's brows furrowed at her words, obviously not expecting her to side with Derek. She had learned after the true first horror of the feudal era she had retold her mother, to water it down and filter the things she shared with her mother. Even then, her mother would sometimes clutch to her and cry, ask how it was possible that she was willing to return to such a world and could still smile after seeing and surviving the things she did.

She had learned the hard way. That was life. It wasn't fair, it was often times cruel, more so back then. But she had learned to live with that knowledge and do the best she could for any that asked her for help. Which had been a lot.

With her piece said, she followed after Derek, feeling that he was still on the property, just waiting outside the backdoor.

"I really hope, you have a very good reason for withholding the answer to Scott's question regarding the spiral." Kagome let the door close behind her and lean back against the door frame behind her as she took Derek in.

"Like you said, he isn't ready to know the answer."

"Is that -your- impression, you do you really think Scott isn't ready?" her eyes narrowed slightly, she knew things were still unstable between the two of them.

"What do you think?"

Kagome took in the dark backyard, thinking over the question. Absently, she rubbed at her slightly bruised wrist. "No, Scott isn't ready. Not yet."

Her hands paused when Derek took hold of them, flipping the one hand over to see the largest part of the bruise. It pretty much encircled her entire wrist, like some sort of sickening bracelet or brand.

"It'll be gone by the end of tomorrow. Nothing to worry about."

"It's one of the reason's Scott isn't ready. He can't control himself. Especially around Argent."

"Allison?! He acts like any other hormonal teenage boy around a hot looking girl. Or thinks about her. If anything, I think he's showing exceptional control when she's involved." and she wasn't just saying that because Scott was her cousin, because she honestly believed that what she said.

Derek's tightened his hold slightly on her wrist. Not to a point that it was painful, but she did subconsciously wince at the action. His hold loosened, but he didn't let go of her.

"She's a distraction."

"I'll admit that one, he does tend to lose his head when Allison is concerned. But that's also natural, isn't it? To think about the one that... you find is set apart from the others. Means something to you?" though she formed it as a question, it was rhetorical. She sure as hell knew she had worn rose tinted glasses when she first knew she had feelings for Inuyasha. But she had taken those glasses off, after they had been removed forcefully from time to time with all his secret meetings with Kikyo.

She felt Derek's thumb sweep over her pulse, making something in her tighten and tingle. Biting the inside of her cheek, she tried to focus on the conversation, and not Derek's sudden physical contact with her. What had changed between now and their last conversation?

"How's the girl?"

"Lydia?" with her brows raised, Kagome tried to understand if it was Lydia he meant and the sudden reason for the topic change. When Derek simply nodded his head, she went over what she had gathered from Lydia that day. "As far as I could tell, pretty normal, all things considering. Then again, I haven't known her for that long, I'm also not in her grade. If anything, you would be better off asking Stiles."

"Nothing else?"

"Like I said, I've only known her since the summer, and barely. So I can't really tell if she doesn't actually remember, or if she acting. Stiles saw her the day after the murder, so he would know if she was acting or not. But, I'll continue to keep an eye on her."

Silence once again washed over them. Derek continued to hold her hand in his own, Kagome unsure on whether she should say something or not about it, so she decided it best just to keep her mouth shut. She knew she would otherwise end up embarrassing herself if she tried to say something about it.

"I need you to help keep Scott away from Allison."

Kagome rolled her eyes, "Why? Besides the whole, Allison's family are hunters. What's the reason for the sudden need for him to cut himself off from her?"

"He came to me to help teach him how to control himself. He can't do that if Allison is in the way."

"In the way." Kagome licked her lips, Derek's words and actions reminding her of two brothers that had often said the same thing about the humans in their pacts. "I don't mean to sound insulting, but I think you've been a lone wolf for far too long."

Derek's eyes narrowed and his grip tightened on her wrist in warning. He wanted an explanation and she would give it to him, as best she could.

"I met someone once, who told me what his father had asked of him before he died in battle; Do you have someone to protect. I've seen, and even done, some pretty amazing things in order to protect those I care for. Allison isn't in the way. Scott is different than you. You grew up with this gift, Scott is still coming to terms with it. So the methods you are familiar with and work for you, might not be the same for Scott."

She looked him in the eye, trying to weigh down the words she was trying to pass onto him. She more than understood that right now, he couldn't really teach Scott with kid gloves, lives were at stake here, his and those closest to him included.

"All I'm saying is, keep all options open when teaching Scott how to control this. That might mean how to control himself, distractions included." she looked down at the hand that was still wrapped around her wrist with some hidden interest.

His skin was slightly darker than her own, his hand much larger than her own. While it seemed harmless at the moment, he still had the strength to crush her wrist in an instant, as well as how his nails could turn into deadly claws. Her life seemed to revolve around canines, predators hidden behind masks of none threatening faces. The perfect disguise for a predator in all honesty.

Taking a step forward, her free hand eased the grip he had on her wrist, letting her hand slip free, speaking up while doing so, "Derek, do you have someone to protect? You'd be amazed, how much stronger you'd become, if you did."

Derek looked down at her, her eyes taking on a glow in the light of the moon and from the house, making them almost electric blue in coloring. They reminded him of his own eyes when he felt 'the wolf' in him just brushing beneath the surface. With the single step closer she had taken to get him to release his hold on her, it had made her scent all that much stronger.

While he was going over her words, he was also going over what he had come to realize what 'the wolf' in him, his instincts had been telling him about her. He had come to terms with them, accepted them, but he wouldn't act on them. It was far to dangerous with the alpha's identity unknown and killing random people.

He so wanted to close the distance between them, to simply take her and find out if her taste was anything like her natural scent. But he could wait, he had learned to be patient. Sadly, his patients was running thin, and there were many reasons. Scott for one, with his inability to follow simple instructions. The hunters, and their constant need to antagonize him into engaging against them. The alpha, for killing his sister and these random people, that might not be so random at all.

"Good night Derek. And try and stay safe."

He watched as Kagome entered her house backwards, her eyes still on him the entire time. He felt himself shit his weight, almost following after her. Clenching his hand into a fist, he merely let her go. It was then it hit him, this thing Scott seemed to have with Allison. It was a dangerous feeling. It felt like everything was soon revolving around her, made him feel... grounded, and sometimes weak. But the thought of another male, or the alpha getting in any way near her made his blood boil in anger, made him feel that much stronger.

Did he have someone to protect?

At the moment, no he didn't. But if he continued to follow his instincts, he hoped that soon, he would have someone to protect. A very specific someone.

Perhaps she was right, he had been a lone wolf for too long.

Turning on his heel, he made his way back to what was left of him home, his thoughts still trying to sort out logic from instincts with everything that was happening. A certain blued eyed young woman being at the forefront of his mind and dominating those thoughts.

Kagome watched from the window as Derek's form was swallowed up by the shadows before she herself backed away. Letting out a sigh, she turned around and made her way upstairs.

Yup, was she ever glad to have a job, a place away from home. A new sort of, hectic haven. She locked up, making sure the door was actually locked, before turning off the lights and turned to head back upstairs.

"Jesus! Are you tying to give me a heart attack? Cause you almost succeeded." with a hand pressed tightly to her chest just over her heart, she tossed a glare at her cousin, not at all noticing his own narrowed eyes or the slight anger that rolled off of him.

"What was that all about? And since when did you start talking with Derek?" his eyes were narrowed and Kagome could see in the dim lighting coming from behind him, how they were beginning to take on that golden glow that indicated the wolf was just beneath the surface.

"No, 'I'm sorry Kagome, didn't mean to scare you' first?"

"Sorry. Better?"

Rolling her eyes at his gruff answer, far too used to such attitude from Inuyasha, she simply shrugged her shoulders to answer his first questions, "Firstly, you would know if you had picked up Stiles' calls and text messages the other day. And secondly, since you seemed to have forgotten that you happen to be a werewolf."

"I don't forget." his brows were furrowed, wondering what exactly she was trying to get at with that last part.

"You can't only be a werewolf when it's convenient for you Scott! It doesn't work like that. It's not something you can simply turn on and off, it's what you are now! Trust me, I've been there before." she let out a sigh and ran a hand through her hair.

Letting her head drop, she tried to calm herself down before speaking up again. She loved Scott dearly, he was her baby cousin. Though he acted far younger than his actual age at the moment, but she would let that slide due to his current situation. But only so far. He had to learn to pay attention and take up responsibilities now as well. Which was something he was being lazy about. Doing that, would only hurt him in the long run, it was best to learn all that he could now, so he wouldn't run into potentially dangerous situations in the future.

"Scott... I'm not going to say that what you're going through is normal. I'm not going to side with either you or Derek when it concerns the teaching methods on how you gain control. I will however offer any aid I can give you in that area, if you're willing to listen to what I have to say and do as I tell you to. Which is something I expect you to do with whatever advice... Except for that thing about Allison... I hate that bit. Women make you weak? What a load of bull if I ever heard of it..." with that she walked past him, muttering about sexism and how men thought women and love made them weak only to be surprised to find out otherwise.

"Remember that Scott! I hear of you saying such shit, I'll pound on you one something painful!"

Scott winced, knowing she was one that kept true to her promises. He was mentally thankful she hadn't done anything rash when he had demanded answers from her after getting the jump on her. It reminded him of the cold shoulder Stiles gave him all day at school. While he could understand, it was still painful. And on top of that, Derek wanted him to stay away from Allison, but Kagome wasn't in agreement of that. But like Kagome said, his situation wasn't exactly a normal one, and Derek was the only one that knew some something of his situation, so he would be sticking with his advice.

AN: Errr, nothing to say really. Other than; read, enjoy, and review!