Author's notes- Sorry if this chapter is really late. I've been super busy with school and life in general. UGH!

Chapter Five:

Training, Love, and Bitten

Remember how I said I wasn't exactly sure where Derek and I stood at as acquaintances? We were practically strangers. He was the last person that I expected to get a call from.

I was in my room studying that night when my phone vibrated.

"Hello?"

"Are you and Scott home?"

I blinked once in confusion before answering, "Derek?"

"I asked you a question," he continued rudely.

"Scott's not, but I can call him. Why?"

"You want to learn how to use your abilities, don't you?"

This took me by surprise, but I tried not to let it show. "What if I already know how to use them?"

"You've kept yourself from shifting for most of your life, but I can tell that you've refused to use the other abilities that have been gifted to you."

I couldn't argue with that. It wasn't my fault that I had been bit as a baby and didn't have a clue on how to control it. Scott told me not to trust Derek, but unlike my brother I've been researching a lot more on werewolves. I wouldn't say that I trusted him completely yet, but it's a whole lot more than what Scott's giving right now.

"Okay. I'll call Scott and tell him to meet us. Where are we meeting anyway?

"My house."

"Isn't that a bad idea? Wouldn't hunters know to look for us there?"

"No," he replied. Realizing that he wasn't going to continue with his answer, I sighed and told him I'd call Scott. I begrudgingly started dialing my brother's number. I knew exactly where he was.

"H-Hello?" came the breathless answer from the other end. I could hear Allison giggling in the background and tried my best to hide the disgust in my tone.

"It's Natalie. Derek needs us to go to his house."

"Why?"

"Why do you think?"

"Listen Nat, I'm a little busy-"

"Don't give me that bullshit, Scott. You already blew me off twice this week so you could go hang out with Allison. Must I remind you that you're supposed to stay away from her?"

"I'm controlling it! I don't need Derek's help!"

"You and I both know that's a lie. Meet me at Derek's house."

"Yeah, yeah. I'll be there," he replied before hanging up on me. I already knew he wasn't coming.

I stopped my car in front of the Hale house. I had changed my outfit to black yoga pants, a T-shirt, and a track jacket just in case we would be doing any physical activity. My mother's necklace hung around my neck. It was probably a bad idea to wear it, but for some reason I felt a little more at ease wearing it.

Derek was standing on the front porch with his arms crossed. He was wearing a black T-shirt, dark jeans, and dark gray sneakers. I was now able to see how ripped he was without the leather jacket hiding it. Take away the ever present scowl and he actually would look pretty handsome.

"What are you doing? You're dating Tony! Don't go swooning over a guy you hardly know," I mentally scolded myself. I turned the car off and walked toward the house.

"Where's Scott?"

"He told me he was on his way."

"You're lying."

"I did call him," I retorted. "I just have a feeling that he's not coming."

Derek shook his head before stepping down from the porch and walked behind the house. I followed him for a few minutes before we stopped in a large clearing a little away from the house.

"Have you used any of your abilities before?" Derek asked.

"Well, I've used the heightened senses a few times, but I haven't used them to their complete potential."

"We're going to start out with those. Before we do, though, I have to ask you something."

"What?"

"Were you bitten, or were you born a werewolf?"

"Why do you need to know that?"

"Someone who was a werewolf by birth has better control over the shift due to being in a family of them. And looking at the differences in appearance between you and your brother, it's obvious that you're not related by blood," he explained bluntly.

Letting the comment slide (It's not like I hadn't heard it before), I started to explain. "Yeah, I was adopted by Scott's parents when I was a baby. I had a meeting with one of the social workers last week and I was able to learn about my parents."

"Were they wolves?"

"No. Turns out a wolf broke into our house and killed my parents when I was one year old. It bit me on my side, but according to the doctors there wasn't any sign of rabies or anything."

When I was talking, I noticed that Derek had stiffened slightly. When he saw me notice he immediately relaxed his frame and settled the scowl back in its place. I wanted to question him, but thought better of it.

"Do you remember when you first started noticing that you had turned?"

"When I was six years old. It was a full moon. I was home with a babysitter when my eyes turned purple, my teeth got sharper, and my nails turned to claws. I was terrified of what the babysitter or my parents would think. Somehow, I made myself calm down and I turned back to normal."

"And you've been afraid to turn ever since."

I nodded.

"Are you still afraid to try now?"

"I don't know. The most that I'm afraid of is if I'll be able to control myself after I shift."

"That's why we're starting off with basics," Derek then turned his head. His green eyes scanned the trees for a few seconds. "Do you hear that?"

I honed in on the sounds around me. A bird chirping. The gurgling of the nearby stream. Nothing out of the ordinary.

"No."

"You're not trying."

Suppressing an eye roll, I closed my eyes and concentrated. I heard the faint sound of sirens.

"The police?"

The brunette nodded. "Which way are they headed?"

"... They're headed in the direction of Video 2C," I answered after a moment of listening. I strained my ears and caught the sound of someone talking on a police radio. My eyes snapped open. "There was some sort of animal attack."

Derek nodded before picking up his leather jacket from the porch. He put it on and took the keys to his Camaro out of his pocket. "C'mon. You're going to have to give me directions to this place."

We drove in the direction of downtown. An ambulance and more police cars passed us. I hoped that no one was seriously hurt.

Derek pulled to a stop behind the video store. Blue and red lights were flashing on the other side and panicked voices filled the air. The older werewolf got out of the car and sprung onto the roof in one effortless bound. He turned and looked back at me. "See if you can jump up here."

I thought that this was absolutely insane, but I pushed down my nervousness and prepared to jump. I took a small running start before springing upwards. I missed the roof by an inch, but Derek caught my arm and hauled me up.

"I want to go home!"

"I know that voice," I thought to myself.

"What part of I'm fine don't you understand!" The pissed off voice came again.

"Shit, it's Jackson!" I started running toward the front of the roof, ignoring Derek's yells to come back. I was almost to the edge when I felt his hand yank on my hood. I stumbled backwards slightly and looked up into his angry eyes.

"What the hell are you doing! Someone could see you!" he hissed. Letting go of my hood he crouched and crept toward the front of the roof. I followed him and peeked over.

The police had roped off the front of the video store and a crowd had gathered. Lydia was sitting in the back of an ambulance. She looked shaken, but otherwise okay. Jackson was arguing with Sherriff Stinlinski.

"If he's here, Stiles is probably here too," I thought aloud. I saw the passenger door of one of the squad cars open. Stiles was slowly getting out and taking in the entire scene.

"I'm pretty sure that it's a pretty simple concept to understand!" Jackson continued with his yelling. "Especially to a minimum wage paid rent-a-cop like yourself! Now I WANT. TO GO. HOME!"

My hands slowly turned into fists. Jackson was such a disrespectful little shit it wasn't even funny.

I could feel anger coming off of Stiles even from my position on the roof. "Oh, hey is that a dead body?" he announced suddenly. I had to chuckle at that. Good ol' Stiles.

Derek stood up and planted his foot on the edge in front of us as the cops started moving people away from the scene. "Are you starting to get it now?"

I looked up in confusion. What was he talking about? Our conversation the other day clicked everything into place. "The alpha."

Derek nodded.

"I can see he's killing people, but I don't know why."

The older werewolf stared out in front of him at the crime scene.

"I mean, this isn't what we usually do, right? We don't go out in the middle of the night ripping people's throats out, right?"

"No. We're predators. But we don't have to be killers," he answered. He almost sounded as confused as I was.

"Then why is he a killer?"

"That's what we're going to find out," he stepped off of the edge and looked at me. "It's late. We'll continue your training tomorrow. Hopefully Scott will be smart enough to join us."

I nodded and started following him back across the roof. A shift in the wind made me stop. Looking over my shoulder I gasped when I saw a huge blood red spiral appear beneath me.

"Derek!"

The older werewolf stopped and looked back. His eyes widened slightly when he walked over.

"What does it mean?" I asked. I remembered Scott telling me about a similar spiral around the grave that Derek had dug for that girl who had gotten ripped in half.

Derek let out a breath with his eyes closed. He turned around and started walking.

"Derek, what does it-"

"You don't want to know. Don't concern yourself with it," he snapped. Sighing, I followed him back to the car.

Few Days Later

I opened the door of Tony's car and stepped out into the cool evening breeze. He and I had just come back from a date at the movies.

"I'm sticking to my guns and saying that The Avengers is the best movie ever," I said while walking around to the front of the car.

"Above all movies, no way. In the superhero category, maybe," he replied.

"You speak of lies!"

"And you drool whenever Captain America gets screen time."

"Hey. Not my fault that he's got a nice ass."

Tony laughed and leaned against the drivers door. I glanced toward my dark house. The light in Scott's room was on showing that he was home.

"I would invite you inside, but my mom still has the rule of 'no boys/girls in the house when I'm not home since you might have sex' rule," I explained while turning my attention back toward the blonde. My heart beat picked up slightly when he took a few steps toward me.

"It's okay. My parents have the same rule," he murmured.

We stood there silent for a few seconds with the wind blowing softly.

"So..." I hesitated.

"Yes?"

"What... exactly are we?"

"What do you mean?" he asked smirking slightly. God, he looked so hot.

"Are these just going to be a few dates? Or are we..." I swallowed suddenly very nervous, "boyfriend and girlfriend?"

Tony took one of my hands and started stroking the back of it gently with his thumb. "What would you like it to be?"

Our noses were now just barely touching and he was looking at me. Those eyes made the words I was going to say die in my throat. My own eyes slowly shut as I felt his lips against mine.

The hand that was holding mine let go and brought it up to rest on the back of my neck. My hands slid up his chest and locked behind his neck. He smiled and pulled me closer as the kiss continued. I felt like my heart was going to burst out of my chest. This was perfect.

We finally parted when our lungs started burning for air. Toby rested his forehead against mine and smiled so beautifully it made my knees weak. "I love you, Natalie."

My heart was beating a mile a minute. I let out an even breath before responding with "Love you too." He kissed my cheek before letting me go. I walked down my pathway as his car drove away. I felt like I was floating on a cloud.

A violent rustling of the bushes snapped me out of my woozy thoughts. I stopped and turned my attention to the foliage.

"Who's there?" I called out. I didn't receive an audible response, but what was moving through the bush was some kind of animal. I started to take a step closer.

Two blood red eyes stared back at me.

Everything happened so fast. I was running toward the front steps. The animal knocked me to the ground. I let out a scream as I felt my arm being ripped open. My claws came out and I blindly swung my uninjured arm. I heard a howl of pain and a weight being lifted off my back. I scrambled up the porch and burst into the house tumbling on the floor.

"SCOTT!" another shriek tore from my throat as I rested my back against the wall. My arm felt like it was on fire and my vision was being bombarded by black spots. I heard the sound of feet sprinting down the stars.

"Natalie!" Scott's voice assaulted my eardrums. I could barely see, but I felt someone taking hold of my shoulders and heard someone else sprinting outside.

"Natalie? Natalie, can you hear me!' Wait, Derek was here? My vision cleared slightly to reveal the older werewolf squatting in front of me and holding my shoulders. The look on his face was one of pure horror.

I tried to answer him, but my heart felt like it was in my throat and tears were rushing down my face from the pain. I couldn't utter a syllable even if I tried.

Derek reached forward and brushed the tears away with his thumbs. He said my name again to get my attention. His irises turned ice blue and locked eyes with me. I felt my eyes itch and knew they were turning their shade of purple. My heart started to slow to its regular beating and I started to calm down.

"Where's your bathroom?" Derek asked me gently. I managed to stutter that it was down the hall. He returned a few seconds later with bandages, a small bucket of water, and a hand towel. I winced as warm water ran over my wounds.

It was at this time when I was able to see the damage done to my arm. The sleeve on my jean jacket had been completely ripped off. Long, jagged scratch marks were embedded in my skin from my shoulder to my lower arm. A long bite mark was bleeding on the under side of my wrist.

"Wh-what was that?" I stuttered unable to look away from the scratches.

"Was it a wolf?"

"Wha?"

"Was it a wolf?" Did it have red eyes?" Derek asked again.

I nodded. Derek swore under his breath and picked up the bandages.

"It was the alpha."

"Yeah," the brunette replied. He started wrapping the bandages around my shoulder and upper arm. He murmured an apology when I winced before continuing.

"Why do I need those? Won't I just heal in like twenty minutes?"

"These scratches are pretty deep. They might not heal until tomorrow. Until then, we have to hide them as best as we can before they heal."

"Where's Scott?" I looked around the room realizing that my brother wasn't there.

"He ran out the door when you came in. He wanted to get whatever attacked you," Derek had stood up and helped me to my feet just as my brother came back in the house.

"Nat, are you okay!" he exclaimed rushing over.

"I am now," I replied trying to give him a reassuring smile.

"Whatever attacked you, it's gone now," Scott said before shutting the door.

"It was the alpha," Derek told him as he was putting the bucket and bandages away.

"Why would he attack Natalie? She's already a werewolf," Scott asked confused.

"He probably doesn't know that," I answered as I sat down in one of the hallway chairs.

"This is part of his plan to get you to join his pack," Derek said to my brother. "He probably thought that biting Natalie would give him a bonus beta."

"I'm part of no ones pack," I snarled.

"Even so, if you had turned into a werewolf, you would have become one of his betas. Scott would have probably then had no choice but to join him."

"I don't want to join him! Can't you just stop him yourself? Sniff him out when he's a human or something," Scott asked exasperated.

"His human scent could be entirely different," Derek explained sounding annoyed. It sounded like they had had this conversation many times. "I need you because you were bit by him. You have the connection."

"How am I supposed to help if I have no freaking idea what I'm doing?"

"That's why I'm going to teach you," The brunette growled. "It would help if you showed up at the training times with your sister. She's already one step ahead of you in learning and she's been a werewolf since she was a baby!"

Scott grumbled something inaudible under his breath. I decided to step in before they brought the claws out.

"Scott, do you remember what happened on the full moon? When you got shot with the arrow?"

"Yeah, I changed back to human," he answered.

"And when you got hit by Mr. Argents car. The same thing right?"

Scott nodded.

"Okay, so what's the common denominator?"

My brother shrugged. Derek rolled his eyes and took hold of Scott's hand. He bent it backwards and Scott let out a yell. I cringed when I heard bone breaking.

"It'll heal," the brunette told him.

"It still hurts, asshole!"

"That's what keeps you human. Pain," I explained.

Scott shot me a look. Derek raised his eyebrows and gave me a small nod. I could tell he was impressed.

"I expect to see both of you at the next training session. No excuses," the last sentence he looked right at Scott when he spoke. He then turned around and walked right out of the house and into the night.

Post notes-

Yeah, I know it's late. I've been super busy lately. Sorry lovelies :)