A/N.
Don't worry, I haven't forgotten the Argents but dear Isobel have to reveal herself before I can do anything, she's waiting for the big bad out there.
Thank you so much to GFM for reviewing.
Chapter twenty-two
A mother's love.
"I may not win any awards for mother of
the year, but if you touch my children
may the devil show mercy on your soul." -Isobel J. R.
Isobel POV.
She crunched low in the cover of a bush as she watched them move behind the glass façade. She was too far away to hear exactly what they were saying but a smile appeared when the tone of conversation changed to argument. They were yelling at each other.
She flinched when an ear shattering howl cut through the night, full of pain and fear, she could almost taste it and her eyes changed to blue.
It was a wolf, that much was clear and it sounded like it was in a lot of pain but she knew that before she could even get to its aid, the hunters would already have killed it.
She snarled before turning to the city again. She had to do something; it wasn't in her nature to be passive.
Her phone rang and she glanced around before picking it up, heavy breathing met her on the other line, making her grow tense.
"What?" she snarled and swore she could almost hear the heartbeat of the other person pick up speed.
"Always such greeting, Izz.
For once again in her too long life, Isobel was speechless, she didn't even notice the tears that had started rolling down her cheeks, until she had to swallow and breathe deeply before she could answer.
"How did you find me," she answered in a much gentler voice and tried in vain to dry her tears away.
"The internet is a great discovery," the sarcasm was clear in Peter's voice and she couldn't stop giggling like a schoolgirl.
"How are my pups?" She finally dared asking.
She could hear Peter take a deep breath before answering her, "Ace is heading back to the animal clinic where Scott is and then I guess we take it from there." She could picture his shrug but before she could question why her youngest was at the animal clinic, Peter hung up.
"Fuck you Peter."
Alexander POV.
He stilled when he entered the clinic and saw Isaac sitting in one of the chairs, his head hidden in his hands and he could see the silent sobs that wrecked the teen's entire body.
He carefully walked over and sat on the chair to Isaac's right but didn't touch.
"What happened?" he asked.
Ret rimmed eyes met his, and the beta shuddered all over before he answered.
"I just couldn't be in there. I couldn't look at him and not feel guilt at what he's been through, I cannot … it feels like I don't even know him anymore. Was everything a game to him? I can't…" He sounded frustrated and scared at the same time and it broke his heart, making his lay a hand on the other teen's shoulder before talking again.
"I can assure you that nothing about you is a game to my brother. He loves you with everything he has and while I have not been with him for far too long, I know that you are one of the very few handpicked people that he doesn't hide what kind of person he really is to."
He sighed and finally laid an arm around Isaac's shoulder, "There's nothing we could have done, we can only try and make it better, wait for them to attack, deal with Derek." He rose again and walked towards the room Scott was in.
The teen was sitting straight up with his hands clenched around the edge of the table. He didn't look up when he entered but Ace could hear the accelerated heartbeat.
"Something on your mind?" he said and leaned up against the wall, crossing his arms.
His brother looked up at him with the same kind of red rimmed eyes as Isaac, and gave him a smile, it fell as fast as it had come, when Ace shook his head, "Don't play that game with me pup, I have played it for far longer than you, give it up. And don't think I'm not keeping an eye on you; I'm not letting you go out a get yourself killed."
He sighed and looked down.
"I'm your Alpha Scott, and I know you enough to know that if we let you go, you'll go off on a killing spree, just like dad," he paused, "And I can't let that happen."
Scott looked up at him, his eyes the soft mix of golden and red and his next words broke his heart.
"What makes you think you can stop me?"
His body convulsed as sudden sobs wrecked his body and he couldn't find it in him to care as he felt the tears roll down his cheeks and he stepped closer to Scott and let his hands fall on his shoulders.
"I know you're angry, "his breath hitched before it was calm again. "But-but, you can't just go into this like that, they will kill you…and I refuse to lose another brother." He whimpered.
Everything was silent except for his own hitching breath and racing heart. There was no reaction from Scott and he was just about to let go and leave, when the teen gripped his wrists tightly enough to leave marks.
"Mom will not like the person that I have become," Scott whispered and he couldn't help but snort, "A mother always love her children, even when she doesn't."
Scott looked up at him again and he was enveloped in a hug.
He took a deep breath and carefully scented Scott, there was an air of earth and decay that he wanted gone but under that, if he breathed deep enough, he could still smell the baby scent that he had always smelled on Scott.
'Everything was going to be alright' he thought.
Scott POV.
He knew what he was doing to him; he knew that he was hurting his brother. He sighed but remained lax in Ace's embrace, letting the older wolf scent him as he went over what he had said in his head.
He knew that their mother wouldn't be happy with the kind of person that he had become. What little he remembered from her, was that she beat down hard on rouge wolves, he knew that she would do the same to him, cause he was no son of hers, he had done bad things, he wanted to do bad things.
Things that would make what their father did, pale in comparison.
"Stop it," a voice sounded in his ear and he felt himself being removed from the hug, both Alexander's hands moving to his shoulder, forcing him to look his older brother in the eye.
"We talked about this, okay? It's okay to get angry, hell, I'm angry, but you need to control that anger, control it, don't let it control you, got it?"
He finally looked down and exhaled. Alexander was right but…. There were so many things running around inside his head, so many things happening at once that he didn't know what to do, how to act.
A cough from the doorway interrupted their brotherly moment and they both turned around to face the stranger. He flinched when his eyes landed on his former Alpha.
Derek stood leaned against the door, his eyes showing nothing but the right corner of his mouth was curled downwards and his scent was sour.
"So now I have to find out myself that my beta was raised from the dead and have been so for almost two days and no one cared to tell me!?" he then turned around and pointed in the direction of the waiting-room and his eyes turned scarlet red and his voice changed to a snarl.
"And now Isaac, my other beta, tells me that he's leaving the pack! Mind telling me what it is that I'm doing wrong here? Am I really just that bad at being the Alpha?"
By then he had been pulled behind his brother and he knew without even looking, that Ace's eyes, were just as crimson as Derek's.
He was about to open his mouth but Alexander beat him to it.
Isaac POV.
He shouldn't have let him pass, he really shouldn't, but for everything he had done, and for how little time he had known the older wolf, he knew that Ace, was more than capable of protecting both himself and Scott if the need to do so came.
He sincerely hoped that it didn't.
Ace POV.
His lips curled back in a snarl as he interrupted whatever Scott was going to say.
"Bad Alpha?" he laughed, "Try bad person, try a neglecting and selfish asshole." He snorted and felt the younger wolf's eyes on him but he didn't dare to look back.
"You're making Peter look like a good Alpha," he said with a finally.
The words got a reaction from the Hale wolf and he snarled, stepping a single step forward, making him push Scott a little more away, he sighed in relief when his brother didn't protest.
"Please leave now or you are not going to like what I'm going to do," he said on a low tone, ignoring the way Scott tensed behind him for now, all while hiding the fact that he didn't know what to do.
He sighed in annoyance when Hale laughed and starred down at him.
"And what are you going to do, huh? Right now you are protecting a pathetic excuse for a beta, letting him cover behind you, shaking like a leaf." The older wolf smiled, "You are bound Alexander, realize it."
"But I'm not," a voice said from the door way.
Isobel POV.
Her eyes bored down on Derek Hale's form and she stepped fully into the room, for now ignoring her children.
"You took care of my son, nursed him when he needed, it, mended his wounds caused by his past and yet. When you learn who he really is, you don't hesitate and throw every insult you know after him, treating him like he's nothing," she stopped in front of Derek and flashed her blue eyes at him, before she spoke again.
"I would love nothing more than to hunt you down like the wolf you are but there's already a prize on your head and someone on the way to collect it," she stepped closer, pressing the wolf against the wall.
"Someone I wouldn't mess with," she snarled and watched with sick glee as fear entered the Hale wolfs eyes and his scent turned scared and with a final whimper, he turned tail and fled.
Her face fell when her gaze landed on her two children as saw Scott sitting up against the wall, Alexander taking to him in a calm voice, trying to soothe the incoming panic attack that was on its way, fear filling every corner of the room, making her snort in attempt to get the scent out of her nose.
She carefully walked over to the pair, lowering her body as she neared. When Ace heard her, he turned his head and scooted to the left, his right hand not once leaving Scott's arm.
"Shay," she carefully said and laid her hand on his shoulder, pulling back immediately when he flinched and tried to merge with the wall, an endless whine coming from his throat.
A tear slid down her cheek and her breathing hitched before she tried to touch him again.
"Scott, my little pup," she whispered through the tears that clouded her vision.
The young teen carefully and slowly moved his arms and hands away from his face, his eyes glowing a soft crimson and his eyes darted to Ace's before they darted to look at her. She felt like it was the first time he looked at her and in a way it was, he had suppressed so many memories that it was a wonder he even remembered her, just a little.
"Ma," he whimpered and threw himself in her arms, his body shaking at the force of his sobs and her shirt and jacket was immediately soaked wet from the tears.
She hugged him just as tightly in return and wowed to herself that she would never ever let him go again.
Ace POV.
He smiled through his tears and joined their hug. They were going to be fine, old wound would heal and enemies of their past would no longer be.
He ignored the way black lines made their way up his arms as he took what pain he could take from Scott, anything to make this moment remembered, not in pain but in happiness.
A/N.
A little later than I wanted it to, but it was tricky and I rewrote serval times before settling on this.
The quote at the beginning of the chapter is my own.