Chapter 78

Allison winced as Deaton placed her arm in the dark blue sling. Her fingers hung out limply at the open end.

"You'll be fine in a couple weeks." He said with a hopeful smile.

She nodded, though she didn't have it in her to smile. Not yet. Not until she knew that Scott was okay.

Melissa and Chris were tending to Ethan who was on the exam table behind Deaton. He woke up halfway to the clinic. His leg had been broken and was infected.

Danny and Boyd left to get the others. Erica stayed. She sat out front, behind the barrier of the Ash front desk. If the alpha pack had won this was the last defense. From everything she'd heard, those pricks wouldn't stop until everyone was dead. She might not make it, but she'd give one hell of a fight.

The door burst open. The glass shattered, scattering across the floor. Isaac rushed in with Melanie in his arms. Her arms dangled with her hair. Her fingers twitched. A sign of obvious nerve damage. She was out cold and pale and dirt covered. They were all dirty.

"Let us back there," he pleaded.

A lot of the wounds sustained wouldn't heal right away. Alphas have that handy-dandy extra power which meant the wounds lasted longer. Erica looked at the counter. she couldn't' even touch it. Her eyes were filled with panic. Her heart raced in her chest.

"Allison!" she shouted.

The hunter ran out and opened the mini swinging door without question. Her cheek was swollen now.

Isaac rushed to the back. He held Melanie close and carefully like she was a glass doll and he didn't want her to break even more.

"I'm woozy," Melanie mumbled, coming around.

"Don't talk right now," Isaac told her.

Stiles stayed with Cora in the hallway. Melissa met them with gauze and stitching tools. The clinic wasn't the most sterile place to be doing all of this, but if they went to the hospital there would be a large investigation that would lead to their involvement in the recent attacks and none of them needed to deal with that. Coming up with a decent explanation would be difficult enough. So the hallway of the animal clinic would suffice for a hospital room.

Cora's arm bore four large slashes from claws as did her shoulder down over her shoulder blade. She stared at the wall in an exhausted daze.

Boyd tended to Jackson who kept mumbling to himself.

"I should've never come back. I hate this place…"

Scott and Derek followed after Isaac. Melissa stopped cleaning Cora's arm and gasped. The bloody sight of them made her scared heart leap painfully.

"Jesus," Melissa breathed. "Tell me they look worse."

"They do." Stiles assured her. "And when you have a moment, I think my foot is broken. I got tossed by a coyote."

He looked down. As the adrenaline slowly left his system his foot hurt more and more until it was completely unbearable, but he couldn't make a sound or move. He was afraid to move. It would hurt even worse. The pain shot up his leg from his ankle, making his knee ached too.

"Oh my god," Melissa gasped, looking down at it. She took of his shoe as carefully at she could manage. Stiles groaned, twitching and wincing. His foot was dark blue just below his toes and around his ankle and nearly black and swollen to the size of a softball. "Lydia!"

The redhead whooshed from the room that the twins were in. She turned green at looking at his foot and gagged.

"Sit him down and prop his foot!"

Lydia followed her orders. She grabbed a chair from further down the hall and pulled it to him. After seating him, she was careful to put his foot up on a rolling stool from the exam room. Stiles's eyes kept crossing as she propped up the limb. The pain was unbearable.

In the other room, Isaac had cut Melanie's shirt from her body. Derek held her on her side as Scott handed Isaac everything he asked for-alcohol, gauze, cotton balls, tweezers. The wound was already healing but it wasn't doing so very fast. There was still bits of bark inside it. She also bore a set of claw marks from Peter that stretched over her stomach.

Isaac leaned down to her ear. Derek turned his head away, realizing that what he was about to say was private. Scott took a few steps doing the same.

"You have to fight. I know you're tired right now, but come on." Isaac said low.

He took her hand and sucked in a deep breath as he started to take her pain. A throbbing ache crept up his arm through his fingertips. Melanie shivered and whimpered. The air was cold.

"I'm not losing you." Isaac reached into his pocket with his free hand and pulled out her ring. The chain was still attached. He slid it on her twitchy finger and then took her hand in his. "Wake up Melanie."

He looked back down at the hideous gaping hole which was no longer gaping. Instead of being able to stick one's finger in it, you'd be lucky to stick a pencil in the wound, not that anyone should stick a pencil in another person. That would be rude.

"Her heart is slowing," Derek said. "She's okay."

"She better be." Isaac hissed.

"I'm fine." Melanie's voice was raspy. "My whole Jump-Peter-while-he-wasn't-looking idea was a bust."

"Really?" Isaac said sarcastically. "I couldn't tell."

"Mmmmm," Melanie groaned. "Ethan. Is Ethan okay?"

"He's awake. He'll make it." Derek replied.

"And you?"

"I'm okay."

Melanie nodded. Her face scrunched suddenly. Her stomach clenched and churned.

"I still feel woozy." She leaned off the side of the metal table and puked.

Derek's lips pursed together, twisting in disgust. He avoided looking at his shoes, though he could feel the warmth of the up-chuck through them.

"I'm going to uh, check on Stiles." Scott said, trying not to breath.

Isaac held back her hair. There was an apologetic grimace on his face.

"Are you okay?" he asked Melanie.

"I have a hole in my back right now. What do you think?" she replied.

He chuckled. "Right." He kissed her forehead.

They'd all been wounded. Stiles made it home in a cast. Cora and Isaac who carried a sleeping Melanie went with him. The Sheriff was pacing across the kitchen when they walked into the house. He stormed toward them and pointed an angry finger at his son.

"I told you not to go!" the Sheriff exclaimed.

"Yup," Stiles replied.

He didn't argue. His dad was right. A coyote nearly ate him. His ankle was broken. There were itchy scratches all over his body which actually might be poison ivy. He wasn't sure. And, he would've done it all again, injuries included. He would've been just as terrified, but still.

Melanie stirred uncomfortably in Isaac's arms. He headed upstairs quietly.

"You could've died." Sheriff Stilinski kept on.

Stiles kept nodding tiredly and let him rant. He deserved it. Cora didn't say a word. The look on her face was enough to show that she was on his side. After all of it, he was pulled into a tight hug.

"I'm glad you're alright." Stiles looked down at himself, tempted to give a sarcastic response 'If you call this alright', but didn't.

"Me too."

"Go get some sleep."

Stiles nodded, and he and Cora went upstairs to the guest room. Melanie and Isaac probably already took his.

"I don't get why they get to have MY room." Stiles huffed as he plopped down on the bed.

The mattress bounced. Cora still said nothing. After a few more minutes of his ranting and her silence, he asked,

"Are you okay?"

"I nearly died tonight. We all did. I'm just really glad you were there." she said quietly. "I also hate that you were there. It's very confusing."

Her forehead scrunched together and she sighed.

"I'm going to get a shower real quick. I have blood all over."

When she returned, her skin was still red, but now from the hot water. She was splotched with bruises like a Dalmatian. She only had a towel wrapped around her petite body. Stiles watched closely as she tiptoed to the empty side of the bed and dropped her towel. She crawled in beside him. She was careful in hugging herself to him. They were both badly bruised.

In Stiles's bedroom, Isaac unclothed Melanie and put one of his shirts over her, pulling her arms through the sleeves. He put extra layers of gauze over the spot on her back. She lurched and groaned from the sensitivity of the spot. Her sharp breaths pushing in and out through clenched teeth eased after a few minutes and she laid her head down on the pillow.

"Is it over?" she asked in a faint voice as he lay down beside her.

"Yes." He could hear her heart slow even more at the answer.

Scott stayed with Allison. He was okay with staying on the couch like Chris wanted. However, that didn't stop Allison from coming out of her room with a blanket and staying on the couch too.

Lydia and Danny took Ethan and Aiden to the Lydia's parents' lake house. Erica, Boyd and Jackson stayed with them as well since there was enough room. The place wasn't going on the market just yet.

Derek was glad to have the loft to himself, but he didn't get any sleep. Both him and Deaton went back out to the Hale house and picked up the bodies of the alpha pack. After gathering them, they set fire to their remains. They both backed away from the overwhelming smell of burning flesh. Bright embers floated toward the sky. It grew lighter and lighter with the dawn.

"Your mother would be proud, Derek." Deaton said. the fire had burned down to embers of bone.

Derek didn't respond. He watched the charcoaled leftovers. It was over.

The rest of the summer was a good one. There were no more threats on their life. There would be eventually, but the rest of the summer was one that none of them would forget. Stiles and Cora quit going after the things that bump in the night, at least until the new school year started. Peter was never found. They searched the whole town. He was nowhere to be found. That was okay for now. The Sheriff officially put out a warrant for his arrest should he ever enter Beacon Hills again.

Ethan and Aiden stayed for good now. Danny wasn't going to stop going to Stanford, but he was coming home for holidays this time.

Erica and Boyd stayed for the rest of the summer. Melanie pled with them to. Jackson decided that it was time to come home. He bought a closed down bar. Shockingly, Derek willingly chipped in to be part owner of the place and Jackson didn't turn it down. Jackson also helped in the rebuilding of the Hale house as did Ethan, Aiden and Isaac.

With his internship and the Hale house, Isaac couldn't be around as much as he wished, but that was okay for Melanie. It gave her some time to gather her wits about being home. She finally accepted Isaac's proposal, and he didn't want to wait this time. The wedding happened in late July, a month after the Alpha pack's demise. Her uncle tried to murder him after discovering their engagement, literally. He shot him with a shotgun.

"Oh that didn't hurt, Lahey! Get up! I'm going to shoot you again!" Finstock shouted at Isaac who was on the ground groaning as rock salt pushed its way out of his chest. It stung like a bitch and he couldn't breathe. Another shot went off and Isaac screamed.

That didn't stop him from marrying her. The wedding was outdoors at twilight. Derek walked her down the grassy aisle. Everyone who was there-just family-stood. There were no chairs. Melanie didn't wear shoes. The cool grass sprigged between her toes.

The union was performed by Deaton who described the ceremony to be much deeper than one that a preacher could give. So a druid did. With his connection to nature, they didn't argue. It was much more intimate anyway. The marriage united two packs. The overwhelming feeling that they were moving too fast passed when Isaac kissed her. It wasn't too fast. It was just as he had told her once. It was forever. Melanie was pretty sure she was ready for that now.

The Hale house was finished by the end of September. Derek insisted that Isaac and Melanie move in with him. Cora moved out and into the loft when offered the opportunity. And, then so did Stiles who proposed a year later, but that's another story.

Melanie, against Isaac's wishes, joined Chris in the weapons trading business. She and Derek both discussed how having a hunter and a werewolf working together could promote equality and most importantly, trust. The Calaveras were not privy to it and became an enemy. Not all hunters felt as such, but they weren't very trusting either. The job wasn't always safe, but Chris did his best to keep Melanie out of those situations, at least for a while, which was for the best in the condition that she came down with.

"I'm what?!" Melanie said. Her eyes enlarged in shock.

She looked at the black and white blurry photo again. There was a red circle around a fuzzy mass.

"It's right there," Melissa said. "I'm just as shocked as you."

"One, I'm barely twenty-one. Two, you said it wasn't possible!" Melanie exclaimed in a mixture of panic and anger. She pressed her hand to her racing heart.

"I know!"

"No. Just no." Melanie shoved the picture at Melissa and hurried to the bathroom.

"You cannot just say no. This kind of thing doesn't disappear because you say no." Melissa told her.

Melanie groaned on the other side of the door. She came back out into the hospital room and snatched the photo back. She huffed.

"It's okay to be nervous. I was a wreck when I got pregnant with Scott."

Melanie looked at her sideways.

"This isn't possible," she mumbled.

Life propelled into her and everyone else at full speed. They were no longer teenagers in the big bad world.

Seth. The Darach. The Alpha pack. They weren't the only threats. More came.

Protect your family. Protect your friends. Protect those who cannot protect themselves.

Living by just that alone.

It was enough.