Astrid blinked, the red fire dying in her pupils.
'My Dark Half is so strong!' she said in a quiet, pleading voice. 'It's changed. It's grown somehow.'
She closed her eyes and her face scrunched up in agony. Dean could see her fists clenched by her side in a physical manifestation of the internal battle.
'The.. the pain helps a little – subdues the Dark Half some … so I can control it,' Astrid said with some effort.
The Alpha looked up at Dean, growling at the gun pointed in their direction.
'What is she?' he asked around his mouthful of large teeth.
That was the million dollar question. Astrid's good side appeared to have a tentative hold over her Dark Half in that moment. But what would she be when the pain settled?
The pretty little Asian girl stepped forward.
'She has to be given a chance to control it,' she said.
'Kira!' the alpha said, his voice a weak protest. 'This isn't like it is with the Kitsune.'
'Isn't it?' she said, planting her feet and standing off against the much larger form of the red eyed wolf.
Astrid struggled weakly against the claws in her shoulder. 'Please let me go!' she begged softly.
'Don't listen to it, Scott' the boy called Stiles chimed in. 'It's just playing on your sympathy. The minute you let go, it will be at your throat again.'
Scott licked his lips, his gaze flashing from Stiles, to Kira and back down at the witch in white.
'I have it under control,' she reassured him.
Then he surprised everyone present by appealing to Dean.
'If I let her go, you cover her until we're sure,' he suggested.
Dean considered this a moment. He hardly knew Astrid. She had already surprised him several times this night. It wasn't in his nature to give many second chances. And despite the kisses they had shared, he knew only too well just how deceiving a supernatural woman could be.
Yet something in her desperate expression softened him.
He nodded, indicating with a jerk of his head that it was safe for the teen wolf to let her go.
'You're going mushy in your dotage,' Sam quipped.
Dean ignored him.
The wolf rolled off Astrid, retracting his claws, and even extending a hand to help her up. She studied the hand carefully a moment before accepting the help.
Brushing off her skirts, the brunette eyed Dean's raised gun, wide eyes betraying her fear.
'You don't have to point that at me. I have it under control,' she murmured.
'Really? Cause from where I'm standing you were a snarling, wrestling beast a minute ago,' Dean countered, his low voice challenging her.
She held up both hands, now smooth and claw free. One hand went to her shoulder where a deep wound bled freely. She stumbled slightly and the girl, Kira stepped over to steady her. Astrid gripped her arm gratefully.
'Really! I have it. The darkness, and the extra power caught me by surprise for a moment, until the Alpha shocked me back to myself. I can feel it there,' she paused, looking down at the ground, her attention turned inwards. 'I can feel the desperation of my Dark Half… needing to be whole again.'
She motioned to Kira that she felt steadier, brushing off the young girl's hand and examining the tear in her Fair costume.
'It's healed already!' she said, surprise clear in her voice.
She definitely seemed more like the girl Dean had flirted with. He lowered his gun.
'What now?' Dean asked his brother.
Sam cocked his head in thought, his long hair falling over one eye. He pushed it behind his ear with impatience.
'Now we wait and see. If the Dark Half absorbed the energy of the wolves we found dead, she could fit into a pack. Or the White coven can keep tabs on her?' He sounded just as unsure as Dean felt.
'Why not ask her what she wants?' Kira asked.
Astrid had given a little shiver at the mention of the lives taken by her Dark Half. She turned to stare down at the most recent victim, still cooling on the ground.
'I remember it,' she murmured. 'And yet I feel detached from the act, like it was done by someone else.'
The girl called Kira watched her carefully. 'The important question is; do you feel like you want to do it again?'
Astrid's reaction couldn't have been more dramatic. She screwed up her face in an expression of disgust, her hair flying out as she shook her head. 'God no! I can't believe my Dark Half was that vicious in the first place!'
Sam shuffled his feet on the damp ground. 'With a light side to balance all that darkness, maybe it wouldn't be that vicious,' he said.
Dean raised his eyebrows. He'd seen the dark half of Sam and knew his brother was speaking from experience.
'So what do you want?' Dean asked.
Astrid fixed him with her large brown eyes. Was that a spark of interest he saw?
'I want to go home and climb into bed.'
Dean pulled in to the apartment car space and killed the engine of the Impala. Sam had stayed to see the late night festivities and to keep an eye on the three packs present, one with a brand new, unpredictable alpha.
'Would you like to come in?
Astrid asked as she climbed out of the passenger side of the black car.
'Sure,' Dean said, already half way out of the car when she asked.
He followed her around the corner to the door of her ground floor unit. She unlocked the door, turned on an interior light and invited him to step through.
The minute he was through the door, she attacked him. Her hands pushed him forcefully against the nearest wall and she stepped into his space, crushing her lips against his. When he didn't resist, she let go of his shoulders and ran her hands over his sides and round to his back, pulling him even closer. She pressed her soft breasts up against his chest, moving and groaning against his body.
He looped his arms around her, finding her sexy round behind through the flimsy fabric of her dress. She moaned and stepped back for a breath.
A red fire burned in her eyes.
'Sometimes is good to have a wicked side,' she said in a low, throaty voice, her fingers sliding down inside his jeans.
Dean could only agree.