"This sucks!" Erica hissed, batting at another branch that was in their path. She could've stepped around it like he had, but Isaac figured she needed the outlet. The meeting that morning to go over the plan had been tense, to put it lightly. Isaac wasn't really sure why Erica and Derek were butting heads like they were, but it seemed like every word the older werewolf said riled her up further. It had been annoying to listen to, especially since they were going into a potentially dangerous situation. Now was the time for them to work together, not against each other.

"Looking for a murderer usually does," Isaac muttered, sniffing to see if he could catch anything out of the ordinary. They had split the preserve into three sections, with each pair in charge of one. Derek and Boyd were in one, Scott and Allison in another, while he and Erica were in the last. Lydia was back at the Stilinski house, going through books with Stiles. And the sheriff was keeping all of his deputies out of the area.

Isaac was kind of sick of the preserve, if he was being honest. It seemed like there was always something insidious going on in it. The fact that it was so large and densely packed made it too easy for bad guys to hide out and carry out their nefarious plans. They still weren't sure that it was the case this time, but it wouldn't surprise him. The Alpha pack had kidnapped Boyd and Erica here and Ms. Blake had done her weird magic at the tree trunk. If the whole thing burned to the ground, Isaac wouldn't shed a tear.

"Aw, I thought this was what you and your boy toy considered foreplay?" Erica teased, raising her eyebrows in mock innocence.

"Stiles is not my boy toy," Isaac scoffed, glaring at her.

"So you're his?"

"Neither of us are boy toys!" Isaac snapped. This was exactly why he didn't want to be paired up with Erica. Derek would've been silent and broody and Boyd would've just been silent. Erica wasn't happy unless she was actively getting under someone else's skin.

"Touchy," Erica smirked, stopping in his path as they walked along the edge of a small hill to look up at him. "Trouble in paradise?"

"No, the trouble is with you, out here in the preserve looking for another thing murdering people! You screwing around isn't going to help us get out of here faster!" Isaac growled.

"Oh, come on! Like we're going to find anything."

"We always find something! Haven't you been paying attention? I always end up getting shot or stabbed or slashed or something else that leaves me half dead and traumatized and I'm sick of it!" Isaac exclaimed, throwing his hands up in the air. "For once I'd like to only worry about normal things, like homework and dressing up for Halloween."

"Hate to break it to you, but we left normal behind the second we accepted the bite from Derek," Erica reminded him.

"No shit."

"Do you regret it?" Erica asked seriously.

"What?" He hadn't been expecting that.

"If you could go back, would you make the same choice?"

"Would you?"

"I asked first." Isaac rolled his eyes, but considered the question. A lot of bad things had happened, but a lot of good had as well. And the good was so much better than he could've ever imagined. He'd go through all of it again, just to have his moments with Stiles.

"Yeah, I would. My life was shit before, so there is nothing I'm really nostalgic for. Would you?"

"I don't know," Erica admitted.

"Is that why you're being such an asshole to everybody?"

"Hey!"

"Erica."

"Maybe. Ugh, I don't know," Erica groaned. "My old life sucked too, but maybe if I'd stuck it out for a few more years, things would've gotten better."

"You can't get caught up on the what ifs. All we can do is move forward and try to survive how we are. It's okay to be angry, as long as you don't focus that anger on people who don't deserve it."

"You mean Derek?" Erica scoffed, looking at him in annoyance.

"Maybe," Isaac shrugged. "Offering the bite to a couple of messed up teens probably wasn't the smartest idea, but I really think he's trying hard to do right by us. Does he screw up? Yeah. Is he kind of a dick? Definitely. But you know he'd put his life on the line for any one of us."

"Even Stiles?" Erica smirked, finally letting some of the tension leak out of her shoulders.

"Even Stiles," Isaac confirmed. He believed that would be true, even if he and Stiles had never gotten together. Derek didn't like to show it, but he cared about them a lot. There wasn't really anything else keeping him in Beacon Hills anymore, besides pack.

"I just- I get so mad sometimes, you know? And I can't take it out on the ones who actually hurt me. They're gone, but the anger is still there. And if I can't take it out on anyone else, then I won't have any choice but to blame who is truly at fault for all my issues."

"Erica-"

"Got it in one," Erica huffed.

"It wasn't your fault."

"I was the one who convinced Boyd to leave the pack. If it weren't for me, we wouldn't have been out there."

"The Alpha pack made the choice to attack. That isn't on you. It doesn't matter where you were or what you were doing. The blame for their action lies with them alone," Isaac argued. He'd had a similar talk with Stiles after everything with Ms. Blake. Stiles had blamed himself for Isaac and Sheriff Stilinski getting hurt, since it was his magic that had drawn them to the danger. But even if it had, Ms. Blake still had to choose to be evil. They all had the power to do bad things, but they chose to do better.

"Since when are you all talkative and understanding?" Erica sniffled, digging her toe into the dirt.

"Since I found someone who I could let everything out to. Why not do it for someone else if I can?"

"Stiles has made you sappy," Erica grumbled, tipping forward and letting Isaac catch her in his arms.

"You mean happy," Isaac chuckled, resting his cheek on top of her head. He closed his eyes, relishing in the contact. They weren't really the most tactile bunch, but he did enjoy these moments. If he was braver, he'd try to initiate touching each other more, but memories of his dad were still too strong sometimes. One day, he'd be able to hug someone casually without the little bit of anxiety swirling in the back of his mind, telling him he was about to be pushed away and hurt. But for now, he'd take what he could get.

"What was that?" Erica asked, tipping her head back and staring up at him.

"Wha-" Isaac didn't even have a chance to get a word out before something was barreling into them. He and Erica were taken completely off their feet, rolling ungracefully down the hill. They lost their grip on each other part of the way down, flipping violently from the sheer force of the hit. By the time Isaac came to a stop at the bottom, he was panting from pain and panic. All he wanted was to find clues, not the actual thing doing all this.

Isaac raised his head up, looking around for where Erica could've landed. He didn't sense any signs of danger, which made him even more nervous. Why hadn't they heard or smelled anything before the thing was right on top of them? He hadn't even gotten a chance to see if they were human or not. Isaac reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone, finding the screen shattered. Just what they needed.

"Erica?" Isaac whispered, pulling himself into a crawl. He could feel dozens of tiny cuts and scrapes knitting themselves back together, plus a few more spots that he was purposefully ignoring. If he started focusing on his pain, it would distract him from his goal of getting Erica and getting somewhere safe.

After what felt like some of the longest seconds of his life, Isaac finally spotted a tuft of blonde hair. Erica had somehow landed behind a log, so she was almost completely obscured from his view. And the fact that she wasn't up and looking for him made Isaac move to her side even faster.

"Erica!" Isaac gasped, hovering over her as he checked to see if she was okay. She was alive, but unconscious. How hard did a werewolf have to get hit to be knocked out for this long? Should he even try to wake her up or would it be easier to carry her out? "What do I do?" The sound of a twig snapping made Isaac's decision for him and he threw Erica over his shoulder, ignoring the sharp pain in his ankle and sprinting in what he hoped was the direction of the closest edge of the preserve. All he had to do was get out into the open, then they would be safe.

Isaac gasped with every step he took, trying to stay as quiet as possible. There probably wasn't any point, since they'd been found already, but crying out would only seal their fate faster. This was too much like the night he'd picked up Stiles and carried him from danger after finding Kali's body, except this time he knew he was being hunted. Isaac was unendingly grateful that Stiles wasn't out here with him, but he also ached for his boyfriend. Would he ever see him again, or would he end up in an alley like the guy the police found?

Isaac lost his footing and went down hard, biting into his arm with human teeth to stop the scream from spilling out. Erica was in a heap by his side, as still as ever. Isaac reached down to pull his pant leg up, gagging at the sight of white bone sticking out of his skin. He wasn't going to be able to run anymore. He and Erica were going to be sitting ducks with his blood as a beacon, drawing whatever it was that was hunting them. That wasn't an option. He might be screwed, but he could give Erica a chance.

Isaac ripped off the bottom of Erica's shirt and wrapped it around his broken ankle, trying to hold back all of his whimpers. Maybe if he had some of her scent on him, they would think they were still together and follow him. Plus, he needed to try his hardest not to leave a trail of blood that would lead right back to her. Isaac covered her body with sticks and dirt, hoping they would get the chance for her to bitch him out for that later. He was about to leave when one last idea popped into his head. Stiles would kill him for this, but Erica was hurt and she needed help. He'd apologize to Stiles later.

Once Isaac had done all he could, he forced himself back to his feet, almost passing out the second any weight was put on his injured leg. He powered through, thinking of Stiles to give himself the strength to carry on. Isaac settled into a weird hop/drag, putting as much distance as he could between him and Erica. Maybe he would get lucky and make it out on his own, then be able to get help.

Isaac did not get lucky.

Isaac skidded to a halt, staring at the presence that stood before him. It was a man, as far as he could tell. But you never knew what lurked beneath the surface. Isaac tried to keep his breaths even as he felt more people walking toward him, slowly surrounding him. There was nowhere for him to go and no way to fight.

"Where's the girl?" the man in front of him asked. He sounded so normal that it was ridiculous. Bad people shouldn't be able to hide so easily.

"Gone. She went to get help and you'll never find her," Isaac lied confidently. The man smirked, letting his eyes drift down before flicking back up, this time a different color. Isaac had seen gold, blue, red, even Jackson's creepy reptilian gaze, but he'd seen nothing like the silver that was staring back at him. He was so tired of new monsters.

"That's fine," the man shrugged, gesturing toward someone else in the circle surrounding Isaac. "You'll do." Before Isaac could react, there was a blinding pain in the back of his skull and he went down hard, moaning as his vision swam. He blearily looked up as consciousness fell away from him, finding more faces staring down at him with those same silver eyes.