TWBB fic: A Wolf's burden 5/6 (platonic sciles, gen)
Fic: A Wolf's Burden
Pairings:none
Characters:Scott McCall, Stiles Stilinski, a bunch of oc's, and some mentions of Derek Hale, Chris Argent, and pretty much most of the tw cast
Rating:PG13
Word Count:25.527
Disclaimer: I do not own any of these characters.
Warnings:Character suffering from PTSD, depression,and alienation from normal life
Summary: After the War with Monroe came to a stand still, Scott tries to go back to school and lead a normal life. Fate unfortunately doesn't make things that easy, as the secret of the supernatural is revealed worldwide
Series: part one of 'An alpha never walks alone'
Masterpost
5.
If there was one thing Scott didn’t understand, it was how people here were fussing about him. Sure, people back home had cared if he was hurt, but usually all he had to do was say he was fine, and they’d focus on something else. Even Mom, for all that she cared, just didn’t have the time to keep asking him how he felt. She knew what he could heal from. Here, though….
Laurie kept acting as if he was about to drop dead, and it took a lot of his effort to get her to calm down. But that was to be expected. She’d only just gained an alpha, her body and mind were adjusting to his presence in her mind and instincts, so even the idea of losing that newfound connection was a horror to the new beta’s instincts.
It was the others that really confounded him.
The paramedics who’d arrived on the scene, insisted on bandaging his side, and tried to at least give him a blanket against shock. The owner of the beverage stand who brought him a soda, and refused to take his money when he wanted to pay for it. But most of all, there were the police officers.
Officers Jones and Speckley kept checking on him to make sure he was really fine. Ramirez had tried to make him go to the hospital, to take the ambulance that was offered. The man was sure that the university would pay for it. Scott had refused no matter what.
He’d told them he’d heal. That he was a werewolf, and the wound was already closing. But even after all they’d seen in the past two weeks, they still couldn’t get their mind around it.
In the end, Scott had just told them he couldn’t risk the medical bills. He’d gotten one of the cheapest healthcare plans available, refusing to let his Mom or Chris pay for anything more. After all, anything he had that couldn’t be taken care of by some rest, or Doctor Deaton, would probably kill him. So why waste their money?
And he was fine, it just ached a bit, but that would be gone soon enough. He had his pack, most of them weren’t here in the flesh, but he had them. He’d heal. He would.
It was just taking some time.
Scott wanted to… he wasn’t sure what he wanted to. He just knew he had to distract himself. Had to keep his mind in the present so he didn’t think of…
The children’s eyes looked at him in fear. Their little hands tied with wolfsbane drenched ropes. A little girl’s voice: “It hurts. It hurts so much.” Wires attached to their chest. Hanging loose for now.
“Let them go.”
But Monroe stood there with a grin on her face, pressing the button, letting electricity course into them. The children screamed. Screaming, piercing in his ears.
“I’m sorry son. But this is office policy. I can’t let you help us, not with you injured like this.”
“But it’s already healing.”
“Is it? Is it really?”
Scott stared down, his hands clawing at his side, down the leftovers of his torn up pants. Of the monster he’d become as the spear had hit him. A monster like Peter.
“I know you want to help them, Scott. But can’t you see it? She’s using those children as bait. They’re not the ones she wants. She’s after their parents, after their alphas, after you.” Chris placed his hand on Scott’s shoulder. Trying to sound fatherly. Succeeding at it to a degree that Scott’s own father hadn’t managed in years.
“She could kill them. It won’t matter to her that they’re only children.”
“She could. But if you go, she’ll kill you. I’ve already lost Allison, don’t make me…”
“I have to. I can’t not do this.”
Chris looked forlorn.
“I’m an alpha. It’s my responsibility. But I can’t do it on my own.”
Stiles was already standing next to him, as were Isaac and Lydia. Malia was glaring at the other Alphas, the ones still bickering instead of working with them.
Chris stared at them all.
Then the Hunter grabbed his guns.
“She’d be proud of you,” he said.
Scott didn’t have to ask who he was talking about.
“You’re a good kid McCall.” The sergeant stood firm. “And you’ve helped us more, than anyone could expect of you. “
“But…”
“But I don’t want to see you back at the station for at least a week.”
Scott glared at him, but it didn’t work.
“If I see your furry butt anywhere near one of my cases for the next week, you can spend the rest of your healing in a cell.” It was a false threat, filled with concern. Scott shivered, seeing the Sheriff’s face over the sergeant’s.
Chris’ voice in his ears.
“No, Scott, no!” Hearing the man’s composure break, even if only for a second, right before he turned his weapons on Monroe’s hunters. Compartmentalizing, being the hunter he’d been raised to be.
But that crack in the shell...
Scott was dying, but he knew he couldn’t let himself go.
“How the hell are you still standing?” the paramedic asked. Her eyes had gone wide as she’d seen the wound start knitting together. Bleeding and knitting, bleeding and closing, and Scott tried to focus, forced it to heal. It only seemed to make things worse.
He sat down on the back of the ambulance, letting her cover up the remnant of the wound, watching the blood drench the cotton.
“Anyone else would be dead.”
And he remembered the white room, the roots of the Nemetons tying together all across the world.
“Anyone else would have stayed dead.”
He knew. But he hadn’t, and here they were.
Here he was.
Half a soul.
It wasn’t until after she’d added a few more bandages on the wound that she finally agreed that they couldn’t force him to go to the hospital. They wouldn’t let him walk back to his dorm, and drove him back. It took longer to drive, than it would have to go on feet. He was just glad he was able to avoid a hospital trip.
He’d seen some of a scientist on television talking about all the potential scientific discoveries that could be made by exploring how lycanthropy worked. He had no intention of letting himself be turned into a lab rat. The very thought of it made Scott hesitant to tell them that his side was still hurting, that the wound should have already been gone by now.
He figured that it was probably nothing. Just phantom pain, and if it wasn’t, it would heal, eventually.
It always did.
“Rest.” Ramirez told him. It almost looked as if the man would have tucked him under the sheets if Scott had let him. As it was, he barely left until after Scott grabbed some shorts to replace his pants. “We need you, kid.”
Scott shivered, not relaxing until after they finally let him be.
“Don’t go, Scott. I need you. We need you!” Stiles screamed, begging Scott to stay as he slipped into the white room. As his blood flowed under him onto the Nemeton. “Please, Scott, please…”
It was the last thing Scott saw before he fell into the roots.
The forced vacation was the only positive side out of the whole deal, even if he couldn’t manage to stay in his room. Couldn’t manage the dark.
He’d call it silence, but really, it wasn’t, not when he kept hearing the voices of all the kids surrounding him. Their arguments, their discussions, hearing his name spoken over and over. It was almost easier to head back do the lunchroom, where he could try and force them out of his head and sit down for an actual meal.
No one called out to him.
He forced himself to be happy for that. It was better than stuffing his face in between jobs. Better than the donuts at the police station.
Peace and quiet, is what they said he needed. But what quiet? His phone kept ringing, the sergeant couldn’t stop that. The world didn’t stop spinning, just because he got hurt. But at least he could stay put. Even if the lunch lady behind the counter couldn’t stop shaking and had to be replaced by one of her colleagues when he tried to order the dish of the day.
He stared up seeing the woman behind her. Maria.
Maria who was trying to keep her head down, focus on her work. She’d been one of the wolves he’d helped in the past two weeks. He wanted to go up to her, and ask her how she was doing. If things were better with her son? If he was still having nightmares about his mama’s glowing eyes? But he wasn’t stupid enough to out her like that. So instead he let her keep filling plate after plate, quietly.
“It’s… he’s…” he could hear the first woman babble as the head of the kitchen tried to calm her down. The way she reacted, it almost sounded as if he’d been ready to tear her throat out, while all he’d done was ask for food. Maria softly rolled her eyes at her co-worker’s behavior as she wordlessly threw down an extra dessert on his plate, before he moved on to get some coffee
The large woman at the coffee counter, pushed her hand over her hairnet as she smiled at him before giving him a cup with extra foam.
“Here you go, sweetie”.”
Scott winced as he moved, and she seemed to look concerned, but he shrugged it off. Moving towards a single table.
While he ate, he couldn’t ignore how all the tables around him remained suspiciously empty, and people kept staring at him.
Someone was barking somewhere behind him. He ignored them.
It was the first time since weeks that Scott managed to get enough of a break to actually sit down and relax for more than five minutes. Scott was going insane before the day was even over. All he could do was look at his phone, keep track of what was going on, and worry about all the people he wasn’t helping.
It was even worse now that there was an actual immediate threat to worry about.
His food was getting cold as he kept having to take phone call after phone call. After the fifth or so during the same meal, he was about ready to throw his phone at the wall. He barely stopped himself from doing so, when he realized the next call came from Stiles.
“Scott, just get some sleep,” Stiles had said on the other side of the phone before Scott could even ask him a single question. “You’ve done more than enough.” Then as if he could predict Scott’s protests: “You’ve already done more than anyone expects. It’s not like you’re the only alpha in the country.”
“It’s not even six.”
“You were impaled! Those bastards shot you with a fucking spear. I don’t care how quick you heal. Go back to bed, rest, heal. Give your body a chance to take care of you. Let the rest of us worry about the world for a change.”
“Have you been talking to my Mom again?” Scott asked.
Stiles chuckled a dry weariness in his tone. “You think I wouldn’t worry on my own?”
There was no need for an answer to that one, of course Stiles would, he just wasn’t usually this… forthcoming about it.
“Yes, your mom called.”
He knew it.
“She said she’s been trying to get through to you all day, and that your phone’s been busy every single time.”
Scott took a breath. God, he wanted to slam his head in a table, or at least get a separate number for his friends to reach him. But he knew he wouldn’t.
“I’ll call her?”
“Damn right you will,” Stiles answered, “or you know she’ll show up at your doorstep if you don’t.”
He knew Stiles was right, but that didn’t help make things better. It just made him even more nervous.
It was silly, arrogant to think the world couldn’t do without him for a few days; he knew that. It’s just that that feeling of dread he’d had since that first day still hadn’t gone down. And he couldn’t bring himself to ignore it.
But he did as Stiles told him to, he went back to his room, he called his Mom, and after about half an hour or trying to convince her he was just fine, he tried to sleep, tried to get out of his head, even if just for a bit.
It didn’t work.
In the end he was checking his phone over and over, just trying to find every bit of information he could, until he finally fell asleep with his phone still playing a video on the pillow next to him.
The roots were waiting for him.
******
He woke up the next morning, almost scared he’d overslept. He hadn’t. It was barely six in the morning.
Steve threw him a fresh pair of pants and a shirt. Scott gladly accepted them. He stared at the ruined clothes in the trash, before turning his eyes to his hand. For a moment he imagined his arm getting big and hairy, his fingers becoming claws. He blinked, and his hand was normal, perfectly human.
He took a deep breath and checked his books, looking at the notes Steve had gotten for him.
Two weeks of missed classes. Part of him wondered if he should just give up on the semester. But he knew he couldn’t. Instead he sat down and read through every page he’d missed.
He didn’t think he’d ever been this happy to go back to class. At least it would serve as a distraction, keep his mind from worrying too much.
He’d promised Derek that he’d keep his phone on him, and to check for texts. But things had finally seemed to start settling down a bit. Either that, or Stiles had sent out some threatening calls to get people to leave him alone for a bit.
Steve seemed even more excited about Scott finally getting to go back to class than Scott himself. Scott figured that the boy was just hoping to ask him some more questions. Steve’s eyes seemed always so damn hungry for more knowledge, new experiences, new anything.
Scott wasn’t sure if he should be fine with that, or start looking for somewhere to run to. It was kind of funny just how eager the kid was. It felt familiar, too familiar, like regaining a shadow he had lost.
Steve didn’t have the moves down right though, his voice too low, his remarks not nearly cutting enough. Scott’s wolf didn’t care.
Not that it meant that his classmates were as ready to see Scott return, as he was to get back. Not if the whispers from the people around him were anything to go by.
“What if he bites?”
“He looked huge, like really huge. Does every part of him grow like that?”
“Maybe those guys had the right idea. They just had crappy aim.”
“Oh fuck off, he’s like a big puppy. Maybe all he needs is a belly rub.”
Scott didn’t think they realized just how good his ears were.
He blushed as two of the guys started talking about what he’d be like in bed. Some of the girls jumped in with commentary.
They seemed unsure, what to do or say. Worried, scared, excited. Some were wondering about the kind of stuff that made him cringe just thinking about it.
Why did they keep thinking that werewolves were like dogs?
Scott desperately tried to stop listening, but he kept hearing his name. Some were defending him, others were just gossiping, a few, not many, but still a few kept saying that he shouldn’t be allowed to be here. He didn’t think he’d heard his name said this often since he first arrived in college.
He wished they found something else to talk about, that they could just forget all about him and ignore him, like most of them had done up until Laurie’s first shift.
“Scott.”
Scott startled as he saw the TA come up to him.
Jewel was a known hard ass who took attendance pretty damn seriously. And she definitely didn’t take absences lightly.
Like the one Scott had been having since this whole thing started. He’d missed three of her sessions, and that was something she wouldn’t easily overlook.
“It seems you had something more important to do than be in class?”
“I know, I had to...”
He wasn’t sure what to say, what he could say. That he hadn’t meant to miss her class. Or anyone else’s for that matter. That should be obvious.
“You are aware, Scott, that I normally only excuse absences under extreme circumstances. Such as death. Do you think yours was excusable, Scott?” Scott shivered under her glare. Not sure how to respond. He almost took a step back, ready to show his neck and submit. “I don’t mind students doing civil service, Scott, volunteering is part of college life.” Scott stared up, her expression softened as she continued. “But try and keep it outside of school hours. I would hate to have to kick you out of my sessions.”
Jewel was serious.
She was one of the best Bio TA’s they had, and if Scott pissed her off, then it wouldn’t matter what anyone else said, he’d be left stuck in one of the other class sections. And the second section was apparently given by a TA boring enough to make you long for watching paint dry.
“Thank you, thank you, I…” He wanted to grab her hand, shake it, tell her he’d do better, even if he knew he wouldn’t be able to keep it. But oh so desperate to try.
“Yes, I get it. You’re dealing with life changing, world changing events. Just try and keep it out of the time I spend with you children. Is that understood, Scott? Or is that Alpha McCall? The media weren’t clear on it.”
“No, I… It’s just Scott.” Always just Scott, just a kid. No matter what other people seemed to think.
“Just tell me one thing. Are there any precautions I should take during tests to keep you or other werewolves from cheating?”
“Like what?”
“I don’t know, you’re the expert here.” She was tapping the cardboard of the file she was holding
“Uhm,” he tried to think of something to tell her, “Tell people not to whisper the answers? Even from outside of the classroom?”
“What?” She looked at him, questioning.
“I can hear what people are saying here, and if it isn’t too noisy, in the next few classrooms.” She was still staring, some of the kids behind Scott froze as well. The room grew so quiet that even a human could hear a pin drop. “I can hear that Mark is currently giving someone a hard time over his physics essay,” A beat. “In his office.”
Mark Statson, another one of the TA’s, had his office at the other side of the building. “His sink is still dripping.”
“You can hear…”
“I can hear a heartbeat behind a closed door if I have to.” She stared at him in shock and started mumbling something. He was pretty sure he heard her mention something about white noise headphones. He really hoped he was hearing that wrong, those things sucked. Araya had insisted on them during their last… meeting.
It was almost a relief to hear her talk about practical things. That when she mentioned tests, she meant papers, and maybe a hearing test to make sure he wasn’t just having a go with her.
When the session started, having her call out other students who kept whispering about him, actually helped make it easier to stay focused. He just wished she could do something about it outside of class as well.
Still, it seemed easier after that, as if the other kids in his class seemed to stop expecting him to go feral at any moment. They went back to focusing on their notes instead. Scratches on paper replaced the whispers, and they were almost soothing to Scott’s far too sensitive ears.
The kids who’d been discussing his … prowess earlier seemed to be blushing when they looked at him. Their pheromones smelling of embarrassment. Scott just shrugged it off. They weren’t the first to think of crap like that.
But that didn’t mean he wanted them to pull him in a conversation about it. He had no intention to ever find out what was up with that Bad Dragon website that they’d kept going on and on about.
“I don’t even want to know where your thoughts go, buddy.”
“My thoughts? What are you... Oh God, no Stiles, no. What even-!?”
Stiles was snickering
Scott shook his head as he took another look of Malia as her coyote form ran into the scrubs. Coyote might not be common here, but in the dark most people would take her for a dog. Sometimes Scott wondered what it would be like to be able to do a full shift. To become a wolf for real, and not just halfway through.
He rarely voiced that thought, knowing it was a pipe dream. His mind was too human for him to ever be capable of it, but sometimes in his dreams, he imagined himself running with her into the night.
Steve joined him at his table during dinner, and Scott appreciated it. He hadn’t been sure who to sit with, now that a lot of kids seemed to be either scared of him, fascinated by him, or didn’t seem sure just ‘what’ to make of him.
Someone was barking in the background again, thinking he was being funny, Scott wanted to flip them off, but didn’t. Breathe in, breathe out, keep a hold of his temper, and try not to flinch when the pain hits. It was easier to tell himself to do so, than to actually stick to his own advice.
He felt out of place. Before it had been his past, the things he’d been through that the kids around him hadn’t. The life he’d led that they’d never understood, and the innocence that he coveted them for.
Now, it was like there was a physical barrier between him and the rest of the world, one built by them that he couldn’t force himself to break through.
Sometimes people would smile when they saw him, hesitate a moment, as if they wanted to come up to him, and then they didn’t. Scott didn’t want to be the scary guy, but he had no idea how to tell them there was nothing to be scared of in the first place.
Steve looked shocked when Laurie came up to the table and sat down without a word, put down her plate and started cutting her food.
Not even half a minute later, Chad joined them. The werecoyote seemed to feel out of sorts but was following Laurie like a little duckling, hoping for instructions. Scott knew that Laurie had promised the guy she’d look out for him, he was glad that she seemed to be good for her word.
He took a whiff of his food, before sinking in. The meal tasted flat, hard to chew like cardboard. It didn’t matter. At least it was food.
When he got up, the other three followed. Scott hadn’t even realized when Chad had joined the pack, he just knew that the boy had. He wasn’t about to kick him back out.
Maria stared after them from her place behind the counter. She looked almost forlorn, as if she wanted to join them, but couldn’t. He decided to ask Laurie to go talk to her. Help her out, while Chad could go talk to the last werewolf on campus.
He wasn’t all that shocked to find William joining them the day after. It was his first day back at work after a few days of enforced rest. Scott assumed that rest would have been longer, if it hadn’t been for the emergency situation the town, the world, was dealing with. Dressed in his uniform, seeming almost shy as he sat in front of Scott. Scott held William’s hand, letting the pain of the man’s weariness sink into himself. “It’s ok.” He repeated the lie.
The young wolves weren’t trained enough yet to recognize it for what it was.
Maria was behind the counter again. Scott heard her say something about her taking her break, and he was almost shocked when she actually came up to them. Still wearing her work uniform.
The woman shivered, hesitated a moment, before sitting down with them. A lot bolder than he’d expected her to be. They were both pack before lunch break was even over.
Scott knew it shouldn’t be that easy, that he should have a tighter rein for whom he allowed into his pack. But he couldn’t bring himself to stop it, his heart bleeding too open for him to tell them no.
Maria went back to the counter, the larger set woman patting her on the back, the scared one staring at her in horror. But she was smiling, and no longer hiding.
He got up to the window of the cafeteria and stared outside, looking at the press gathering outside the building. The campus police was already heading up to the reporters. Probably to tell them to leave. William followed after him, staring at his colleagues, hesitant. “They didn’t even call me in,” he whispered.
Scott wondered how he could get through the rest of the day while avoiding the press.
He had one more class today. A few more cars were arriving, but Scott ignored them.
He winced as he felt the pull in his side. He broke a few of his fingers, hoping it would help with the healing. It did, slightly. His side was still hurting, but he could feel the itch of healing set in, somewhat at least.
He was still bleeding. He’d ducked into the toilet earlier to replace his bandages, the ones he’d put on that morning were soaked.
It was hard to focus, to stay sitting up, while his wound kept distracting him. The professor kept eyeing him, asked him to stay after class.
Professor Kelly stared at him as if he was some weird specimen, brought to his lab for examination. It seemed like he wasn’t sure how to state his questions, what to say, or do. The man was never unsure about anything. It made Scott feel like the world was falling to pieces underneath him.
“Can I have some blood samples from you?” the words seemed almost anti climatic.
Scott still flinched.
“With your permission, of course. I just… the chance to research this, to figure out how it all works.”
“I’ll… I’ll think about it.”
Scott fled before the man could ask more questions.
The pack, their group, met again after class. William joined them twenty minutes later, still hungry. Scott let him comp it on his student ID. Steve came running up with some information Lydia had sent him. He was talking about vagaries of werewolf abilities vs mass energy quotients, or something along those lines.
It was hard to keep track of him once he got going.
Maria was working, doing the dishes. She was mumbling something in Spanish about stupid bigots thinking she’d somehow transmit her ‘illness’ if she was allowed to keep serving food.
“The guys in my frat won’t even talk to me,” Chad said. “I’d almost wish they’d just mocked me over it. This silence. I never dealt well with people going quiet on me.”
Scott didn’t think he’d ever heard Chad talk this much. But then, he hadn’t known the other boy all that well before now.
“But the worst part of it… The coach has been hounding me about my ‘powers’, he says the NCAA has been on his ass about me.” Scott understood, Liam was having similar problems back in Beacon Hills. “But if I don’t play, I could lose my scholarship.”
“Have you talked to the dean about this?”
“I don’t know, that kind of stuff… I picked English as my major for a reason, you know. School was just never my thing. I was going to play football in college and hoped to go pro, before I actually had to graduate.”
Scott wasn’t sure what to say to that. He’d loved playing lacrosse, and he’d considered getting a lacrosse scholarship. But once Derek had offered to pay for the pack instead, that just never became necessary.
“We’ve got a game next week, and if the Coach won’t let me play, I have no idea how I can even stay in school after that. How am I even supposed to tell my Mom that? I’m supposed to be the one to make it big. I’m supposed to take care of her and my siblings.”
“I don’t think they can take away your scholarship. Can they?” Laurie asked. Scott flinched, not sure how to answer. He was hardly an expert.
He kept hearing cars arriving outside, murmuring, nails hitting wood. His head was hurting, just too many noises, the blood in his veins, the feeling of his pack. He wanted it all to stand still for a moment so he could catch some air, some….
“I don’t know,” Scott said. “I … wait? Next week?”
“Yeah?”
“The full moon is next week.” They stared at him in baffled confusion.
“So?”
“The full moon, as in the time when you’ll lose control and need to make sure you’re chained up somewhere where you can’t hurt anyone?”
The others stared at him in a joined level of … he couldn’t quite describe it. As if they were waiting for him to start laughing.
“It’s the full moon, you’re werewolves.” Didn’t they get it? A plate fell in the kitchen.
The moon stood high in the sky when they arrived in Zurich, almost as if it were mocking them and their focus.
Scott had growled as he saw Monroe standing there, at the edge of the airport. Waiting for them, taunting them, letting them know that she knew they were coming for her. But more importantly, that she didn’t care. That she wasn’t scared of them.
And there was nothing he could do to go after her, without getting the police after them.
“Scott, it’s just a moon. It’s just a stellar body, it has some effects on gravity, on the tides, other than that. The full moon and werewolves…it’s just a story, right?” Steve was gawking at him as if he didn’t quite know what to believe right now.
“I told you that I keep track of the lunar cycles, that it’s vital.” Steve had been talking to Lydia and Mason for two weeks now. How could he not get it?
The children were screaming, howling in pain. They were bait. There to drag their packs into a trap. And even knowing that, they couldn’t stop going after them. Because they were werewolves, not monsters. Not like her.
Scott shivered when he heard the explosion, when he felt the wave of power unleashed.
“It’s the Nemeton.” Stiles had whispered.
Scott closed his eyes, opening them back up to alpha red.
“I know.”
It was all he could say, there wasn’t a minute left to consider their actions, they were running out of time as it was. And Monroe had no idea what she was unleashing.
“I thought that was a joke. Like a werewolf joke.” The younger boy stared at him in utter disbelief. Still so stuck in his scientific mind set, as if he was almost willing all of this to make sense to the world he believed in. So resolute to refuse to accept magic as something beyond his understanding.
“Steve.” He placed his hand on the boy’s shoulder. “I am a werewolf. I don’t joke about things like that. Not about the moon.” Steve started shaking, babbling, almost incomprehensibly so.
“But, I’m better now.” Laurie was shaking. “And we can shift any time, I didn’t think…”
Scott wanted to grab Laurie in a hug and hold her forever. William looked like he’d been hit by a truck. “I can’t take this.” The man whispered, his heart beating in his chest. As if he could fall into a panic attack any second now.
“We can shift at any time, and you’ll learn control. But this is your first full moon. It will affect you, every single time. It will hit you and increase your instincts. Even Alphas like me aren’t free of its power.”
He’d roared as the spear hit him, he’d roared in all his power, making the Nemeton heed his call. His pack was coming, were already there, no alpha ever walks alone. But his mind was already falling into the white room, and there was nothing he could do to stop it.
“Then how do you get through it?”
“Usually the alpha takes care of those in his pack. We lock up new betas, keep them safe, where they can’t hurt themselves or others, until they’ve learned how to control it enough to be on their own during the full moon. For some it’s a constant struggle for others… It’s easier. Music helps, mantras help, chains help… more.”
Maria broke out crying. William grabbed her closer, letting her cry on his chest. Looking like he wanted to be pissed at Scott, but didn’t see the point.
He cringed. He wasn’t sure if it was at the pain, at the thought of these pups not realizing the danger, or at being so unprepared.
He didn’t understand why this was such a big shock. Even he’d known about the full moon before Stiles had to tell him so. He just hadn’t wanted to take it seriously at the time.
His heart sunk realizing it, knowing he’d have to prepare his new Pack-members, get them through this. Be their Alpha. The wolf inside roared in approval, its chain flapping away, mocking him with its uselessness.
“I’ll help you. I promise.” His stomach hurt as he sat up, his spleen protested as he moved. There was something in his throat, he spat it out in his napkin, black. He tried to ignore it.
“You’ll help them.” Steve muttered, not looking at him, staring at his hands instead. “That’s great. But what about everyone else? What about the world? What about the werewolf apocalypse that’s on our way?”
“The what?” Some part of Scott was yelling at him not to be a dumbass, that he knew what Steve was talking about. He just didn’t want to know, hadn’t wanted to acknowledge it. Because if he did…
“Scott. You said it yourself, the pack takes care of their own. But what about the around half a million other new werewolves going through their first full moon with little to no warning of what’s coming? What about the ones that are going to be activated during it? Because the number of people going feral is still rising, and the CDC has no idea when or how it is ever going to stop. We’re heading towards an apocalypse, and nobody even seems to realize it.”
”You love to play the part of the hero, don’t you McCall. Love to pretend that you’re nice and safe. That you’re just a human with some powers.” She whispered her words in his ear as she pushed the blade in his chest. “But on the inside, you’re still nothing more than a monster. More dangerous than any of the others, because you’ve made them believe the lie, made them believe that they could ever be good.”
For a moment Scott thought he saw double, Stiles standing there instead of Steve. Joking about the upcoming apocalypse, telling them they were all going to die.
Standing outside in the sun, a crowd forming behind the windows, holding boards saying things like, ‘No wolves on campus!’ and ‘Claws are weapons too.’
Their faces filled with anger, with fear. And for the first time in years, Scott couldn’t help but agree with them, that they were right to be scared.
Stiles scent was in the air. Stiles… standing there in the doorway, waving at him to be let in. Stiles.
“What have we done?”
Scott fell down.
Next
Pairings:none
Characters:Scott McCall, Stiles Stilinski, a bunch of oc's, and some mentions of Derek Hale, Chris Argent, and pretty much most of the tw cast
Rating:PG13
Word Count:25.527
Disclaimer: I do not own any of these characters.
Warnings:Character suffering from PTSD, depression,and alienation from normal life
Summary: After the War with Monroe came to a stand still, Scott tries to go back to school and lead a normal life. Fate unfortunately doesn't make things that easy, as the secret of the supernatural is revealed worldwide
Series: part one of 'An alpha never walks alone'
Masterpost
5.
If there was one thing Scott didn’t understand, it was how people here were fussing about him. Sure, people back home had cared if he was hurt, but usually all he had to do was say he was fine, and they’d focus on something else. Even Mom, for all that she cared, just didn’t have the time to keep asking him how he felt. She knew what he could heal from. Here, though….
Laurie kept acting as if he was about to drop dead, and it took a lot of his effort to get her to calm down. But that was to be expected. She’d only just gained an alpha, her body and mind were adjusting to his presence in her mind and instincts, so even the idea of losing that newfound connection was a horror to the new beta’s instincts.
It was the others that really confounded him.
The paramedics who’d arrived on the scene, insisted on bandaging his side, and tried to at least give him a blanket against shock. The owner of the beverage stand who brought him a soda, and refused to take his money when he wanted to pay for it. But most of all, there were the police officers.
Officers Jones and Speckley kept checking on him to make sure he was really fine. Ramirez had tried to make him go to the hospital, to take the ambulance that was offered. The man was sure that the university would pay for it. Scott had refused no matter what.
He’d told them he’d heal. That he was a werewolf, and the wound was already closing. But even after all they’d seen in the past two weeks, they still couldn’t get their mind around it.
In the end, Scott had just told them he couldn’t risk the medical bills. He’d gotten one of the cheapest healthcare plans available, refusing to let his Mom or Chris pay for anything more. After all, anything he had that couldn’t be taken care of by some rest, or Doctor Deaton, would probably kill him. So why waste their money?
And he was fine, it just ached a bit, but that would be gone soon enough. He had his pack, most of them weren’t here in the flesh, but he had them. He’d heal. He would.
It was just taking some time.
Scott wanted to… he wasn’t sure what he wanted to. He just knew he had to distract himself. Had to keep his mind in the present so he didn’t think of…
The children’s eyes looked at him in fear. Their little hands tied with wolfsbane drenched ropes. A little girl’s voice: “It hurts. It hurts so much.” Wires attached to their chest. Hanging loose for now.
“Let them go.”
But Monroe stood there with a grin on her face, pressing the button, letting electricity course into them. The children screamed. Screaming, piercing in his ears.
“I’m sorry son. But this is office policy. I can’t let you help us, not with you injured like this.”
“But it’s already healing.”
“Is it? Is it really?”
Scott stared down, his hands clawing at his side, down the leftovers of his torn up pants. Of the monster he’d become as the spear had hit him. A monster like Peter.
“I know you want to help them, Scott. But can’t you see it? She’s using those children as bait. They’re not the ones she wants. She’s after their parents, after their alphas, after you.” Chris placed his hand on Scott’s shoulder. Trying to sound fatherly. Succeeding at it to a degree that Scott’s own father hadn’t managed in years.
“She could kill them. It won’t matter to her that they’re only children.”
“She could. But if you go, she’ll kill you. I’ve already lost Allison, don’t make me…”
“I have to. I can’t not do this.”
Chris looked forlorn.
“I’m an alpha. It’s my responsibility. But I can’t do it on my own.”
Stiles was already standing next to him, as were Isaac and Lydia. Malia was glaring at the other Alphas, the ones still bickering instead of working with them.
Chris stared at them all.
Then the Hunter grabbed his guns.
“She’d be proud of you,” he said.
Scott didn’t have to ask who he was talking about.
“You’re a good kid McCall.” The sergeant stood firm. “And you’ve helped us more, than anyone could expect of you. “
“But…”
“But I don’t want to see you back at the station for at least a week.”
Scott glared at him, but it didn’t work.
“If I see your furry butt anywhere near one of my cases for the next week, you can spend the rest of your healing in a cell.” It was a false threat, filled with concern. Scott shivered, seeing the Sheriff’s face over the sergeant’s.
Chris’ voice in his ears.
“No, Scott, no!” Hearing the man’s composure break, even if only for a second, right before he turned his weapons on Monroe’s hunters. Compartmentalizing, being the hunter he’d been raised to be.
But that crack in the shell...
Scott was dying, but he knew he couldn’t let himself go.
“How the hell are you still standing?” the paramedic asked. Her eyes had gone wide as she’d seen the wound start knitting together. Bleeding and knitting, bleeding and closing, and Scott tried to focus, forced it to heal. It only seemed to make things worse.
He sat down on the back of the ambulance, letting her cover up the remnant of the wound, watching the blood drench the cotton.
“Anyone else would be dead.”
And he remembered the white room, the roots of the Nemetons tying together all across the world.
“Anyone else would have stayed dead.”
He knew. But he hadn’t, and here they were.
Here he was.
Half a soul.
It wasn’t until after she’d added a few more bandages on the wound that she finally agreed that they couldn’t force him to go to the hospital. They wouldn’t let him walk back to his dorm, and drove him back. It took longer to drive, than it would have to go on feet. He was just glad he was able to avoid a hospital trip.
He’d seen some of a scientist on television talking about all the potential scientific discoveries that could be made by exploring how lycanthropy worked. He had no intention of letting himself be turned into a lab rat. The very thought of it made Scott hesitant to tell them that his side was still hurting, that the wound should have already been gone by now.
He figured that it was probably nothing. Just phantom pain, and if it wasn’t, it would heal, eventually.
It always did.
“Rest.” Ramirez told him. It almost looked as if the man would have tucked him under the sheets if Scott had let him. As it was, he barely left until after Scott grabbed some shorts to replace his pants. “We need you, kid.”
Scott shivered, not relaxing until after they finally let him be.
“Don’t go, Scott. I need you. We need you!” Stiles screamed, begging Scott to stay as he slipped into the white room. As his blood flowed under him onto the Nemeton. “Please, Scott, please…”
It was the last thing Scott saw before he fell into the roots.
The forced vacation was the only positive side out of the whole deal, even if he couldn’t manage to stay in his room. Couldn’t manage the dark.
He’d call it silence, but really, it wasn’t, not when he kept hearing the voices of all the kids surrounding him. Their arguments, their discussions, hearing his name spoken over and over. It was almost easier to head back do the lunchroom, where he could try and force them out of his head and sit down for an actual meal.
No one called out to him.
He forced himself to be happy for that. It was better than stuffing his face in between jobs. Better than the donuts at the police station.
Peace and quiet, is what they said he needed. But what quiet? His phone kept ringing, the sergeant couldn’t stop that. The world didn’t stop spinning, just because he got hurt. But at least he could stay put. Even if the lunch lady behind the counter couldn’t stop shaking and had to be replaced by one of her colleagues when he tried to order the dish of the day.
He stared up seeing the woman behind her. Maria.
Maria who was trying to keep her head down, focus on her work. She’d been one of the wolves he’d helped in the past two weeks. He wanted to go up to her, and ask her how she was doing. If things were better with her son? If he was still having nightmares about his mama’s glowing eyes? But he wasn’t stupid enough to out her like that. So instead he let her keep filling plate after plate, quietly.
“It’s… he’s…” he could hear the first woman babble as the head of the kitchen tried to calm her down. The way she reacted, it almost sounded as if he’d been ready to tear her throat out, while all he’d done was ask for food. Maria softly rolled her eyes at her co-worker’s behavior as she wordlessly threw down an extra dessert on his plate, before he moved on to get some coffee
The large woman at the coffee counter, pushed her hand over her hairnet as she smiled at him before giving him a cup with extra foam.
“Here you go, sweetie”.”
Scott winced as he moved, and she seemed to look concerned, but he shrugged it off. Moving towards a single table.
While he ate, he couldn’t ignore how all the tables around him remained suspiciously empty, and people kept staring at him.
Someone was barking somewhere behind him. He ignored them.
It was the first time since weeks that Scott managed to get enough of a break to actually sit down and relax for more than five minutes. Scott was going insane before the day was even over. All he could do was look at his phone, keep track of what was going on, and worry about all the people he wasn’t helping.
It was even worse now that there was an actual immediate threat to worry about.
His food was getting cold as he kept having to take phone call after phone call. After the fifth or so during the same meal, he was about ready to throw his phone at the wall. He barely stopped himself from doing so, when he realized the next call came from Stiles.
“Scott, just get some sleep,” Stiles had said on the other side of the phone before Scott could even ask him a single question. “You’ve done more than enough.” Then as if he could predict Scott’s protests: “You’ve already done more than anyone expects. It’s not like you’re the only alpha in the country.”
“It’s not even six.”
“You were impaled! Those bastards shot you with a fucking spear. I don’t care how quick you heal. Go back to bed, rest, heal. Give your body a chance to take care of you. Let the rest of us worry about the world for a change.”
“Have you been talking to my Mom again?” Scott asked.
Stiles chuckled a dry weariness in his tone. “You think I wouldn’t worry on my own?”
There was no need for an answer to that one, of course Stiles would, he just wasn’t usually this… forthcoming about it.
“Yes, your mom called.”
He knew it.
“She said she’s been trying to get through to you all day, and that your phone’s been busy every single time.”
Scott took a breath. God, he wanted to slam his head in a table, or at least get a separate number for his friends to reach him. But he knew he wouldn’t.
“I’ll call her?”
“Damn right you will,” Stiles answered, “or you know she’ll show up at your doorstep if you don’t.”
He knew Stiles was right, but that didn’t help make things better. It just made him even more nervous.
It was silly, arrogant to think the world couldn’t do without him for a few days; he knew that. It’s just that that feeling of dread he’d had since that first day still hadn’t gone down. And he couldn’t bring himself to ignore it.
But he did as Stiles told him to, he went back to his room, he called his Mom, and after about half an hour or trying to convince her he was just fine, he tried to sleep, tried to get out of his head, even if just for a bit.
It didn’t work.
In the end he was checking his phone over and over, just trying to find every bit of information he could, until he finally fell asleep with his phone still playing a video on the pillow next to him.
The roots were waiting for him.
******
He woke up the next morning, almost scared he’d overslept. He hadn’t. It was barely six in the morning.
Steve threw him a fresh pair of pants and a shirt. Scott gladly accepted them. He stared at the ruined clothes in the trash, before turning his eyes to his hand. For a moment he imagined his arm getting big and hairy, his fingers becoming claws. He blinked, and his hand was normal, perfectly human.
He took a deep breath and checked his books, looking at the notes Steve had gotten for him.
Two weeks of missed classes. Part of him wondered if he should just give up on the semester. But he knew he couldn’t. Instead he sat down and read through every page he’d missed.
He didn’t think he’d ever been this happy to go back to class. At least it would serve as a distraction, keep his mind from worrying too much.
He’d promised Derek that he’d keep his phone on him, and to check for texts. But things had finally seemed to start settling down a bit. Either that, or Stiles had sent out some threatening calls to get people to leave him alone for a bit.
Steve seemed even more excited about Scott finally getting to go back to class than Scott himself. Scott figured that the boy was just hoping to ask him some more questions. Steve’s eyes seemed always so damn hungry for more knowledge, new experiences, new anything.
Scott wasn’t sure if he should be fine with that, or start looking for somewhere to run to. It was kind of funny just how eager the kid was. It felt familiar, too familiar, like regaining a shadow he had lost.
Steve didn’t have the moves down right though, his voice too low, his remarks not nearly cutting enough. Scott’s wolf didn’t care.
Not that it meant that his classmates were as ready to see Scott return, as he was to get back. Not if the whispers from the people around him were anything to go by.
“What if he bites?”
“He looked huge, like really huge. Does every part of him grow like that?”
“Maybe those guys had the right idea. They just had crappy aim.”
“Oh fuck off, he’s like a big puppy. Maybe all he needs is a belly rub.”
Scott didn’t think they realized just how good his ears were.
He blushed as two of the guys started talking about what he’d be like in bed. Some of the girls jumped in with commentary.
They seemed unsure, what to do or say. Worried, scared, excited. Some were wondering about the kind of stuff that made him cringe just thinking about it.
Why did they keep thinking that werewolves were like dogs?
Scott desperately tried to stop listening, but he kept hearing his name. Some were defending him, others were just gossiping, a few, not many, but still a few kept saying that he shouldn’t be allowed to be here. He didn’t think he’d heard his name said this often since he first arrived in college.
He wished they found something else to talk about, that they could just forget all about him and ignore him, like most of them had done up until Laurie’s first shift.
“Scott.”
Scott startled as he saw the TA come up to him.
Jewel was a known hard ass who took attendance pretty damn seriously. And she definitely didn’t take absences lightly.
Like the one Scott had been having since this whole thing started. He’d missed three of her sessions, and that was something she wouldn’t easily overlook.
“It seems you had something more important to do than be in class?”
“I know, I had to...”
He wasn’t sure what to say, what he could say. That he hadn’t meant to miss her class. Or anyone else’s for that matter. That should be obvious.
“You are aware, Scott, that I normally only excuse absences under extreme circumstances. Such as death. Do you think yours was excusable, Scott?” Scott shivered under her glare. Not sure how to respond. He almost took a step back, ready to show his neck and submit. “I don’t mind students doing civil service, Scott, volunteering is part of college life.” Scott stared up, her expression softened as she continued. “But try and keep it outside of school hours. I would hate to have to kick you out of my sessions.”
Jewel was serious.
She was one of the best Bio TA’s they had, and if Scott pissed her off, then it wouldn’t matter what anyone else said, he’d be left stuck in one of the other class sections. And the second section was apparently given by a TA boring enough to make you long for watching paint dry.
“Thank you, thank you, I…” He wanted to grab her hand, shake it, tell her he’d do better, even if he knew he wouldn’t be able to keep it. But oh so desperate to try.
“Yes, I get it. You’re dealing with life changing, world changing events. Just try and keep it out of the time I spend with you children. Is that understood, Scott? Or is that Alpha McCall? The media weren’t clear on it.”
“No, I… It’s just Scott.” Always just Scott, just a kid. No matter what other people seemed to think.
“Just tell me one thing. Are there any precautions I should take during tests to keep you or other werewolves from cheating?”
“Like what?”
“I don’t know, you’re the expert here.” She was tapping the cardboard of the file she was holding
“Uhm,” he tried to think of something to tell her, “Tell people not to whisper the answers? Even from outside of the classroom?”
“What?” She looked at him, questioning.
“I can hear what people are saying here, and if it isn’t too noisy, in the next few classrooms.” She was still staring, some of the kids behind Scott froze as well. The room grew so quiet that even a human could hear a pin drop. “I can hear that Mark is currently giving someone a hard time over his physics essay,” A beat. “In his office.”
Mark Statson, another one of the TA’s, had his office at the other side of the building. “His sink is still dripping.”
“You can hear…”
“I can hear a heartbeat behind a closed door if I have to.” She stared at him in shock and started mumbling something. He was pretty sure he heard her mention something about white noise headphones. He really hoped he was hearing that wrong, those things sucked. Araya had insisted on them during their last… meeting.
It was almost a relief to hear her talk about practical things. That when she mentioned tests, she meant papers, and maybe a hearing test to make sure he wasn’t just having a go with her.
When the session started, having her call out other students who kept whispering about him, actually helped make it easier to stay focused. He just wished she could do something about it outside of class as well.
Still, it seemed easier after that, as if the other kids in his class seemed to stop expecting him to go feral at any moment. They went back to focusing on their notes instead. Scratches on paper replaced the whispers, and they were almost soothing to Scott’s far too sensitive ears.
The kids who’d been discussing his … prowess earlier seemed to be blushing when they looked at him. Their pheromones smelling of embarrassment. Scott just shrugged it off. They weren’t the first to think of crap like that.
But that didn’t mean he wanted them to pull him in a conversation about it. He had no intention to ever find out what was up with that Bad Dragon website that they’d kept going on and on about.
“I don’t even want to know where your thoughts go, buddy.”
“My thoughts? What are you... Oh God, no Stiles, no. What even-!?”
Stiles was snickering
Scott shook his head as he took another look of Malia as her coyote form ran into the scrubs. Coyote might not be common here, but in the dark most people would take her for a dog. Sometimes Scott wondered what it would be like to be able to do a full shift. To become a wolf for real, and not just halfway through.
He rarely voiced that thought, knowing it was a pipe dream. His mind was too human for him to ever be capable of it, but sometimes in his dreams, he imagined himself running with her into the night.
Steve joined him at his table during dinner, and Scott appreciated it. He hadn’t been sure who to sit with, now that a lot of kids seemed to be either scared of him, fascinated by him, or didn’t seem sure just ‘what’ to make of him.
Someone was barking in the background again, thinking he was being funny, Scott wanted to flip them off, but didn’t. Breathe in, breathe out, keep a hold of his temper, and try not to flinch when the pain hits. It was easier to tell himself to do so, than to actually stick to his own advice.
He felt out of place. Before it had been his past, the things he’d been through that the kids around him hadn’t. The life he’d led that they’d never understood, and the innocence that he coveted them for.
Now, it was like there was a physical barrier between him and the rest of the world, one built by them that he couldn’t force himself to break through.
Sometimes people would smile when they saw him, hesitate a moment, as if they wanted to come up to him, and then they didn’t. Scott didn’t want to be the scary guy, but he had no idea how to tell them there was nothing to be scared of in the first place.
Steve looked shocked when Laurie came up to the table and sat down without a word, put down her plate and started cutting her food.
Not even half a minute later, Chad joined them. The werecoyote seemed to feel out of sorts but was following Laurie like a little duckling, hoping for instructions. Scott knew that Laurie had promised the guy she’d look out for him, he was glad that she seemed to be good for her word.
He took a whiff of his food, before sinking in. The meal tasted flat, hard to chew like cardboard. It didn’t matter. At least it was food.
When he got up, the other three followed. Scott hadn’t even realized when Chad had joined the pack, he just knew that the boy had. He wasn’t about to kick him back out.
Maria stared after them from her place behind the counter. She looked almost forlorn, as if she wanted to join them, but couldn’t. He decided to ask Laurie to go talk to her. Help her out, while Chad could go talk to the last werewolf on campus.
He wasn’t all that shocked to find William joining them the day after. It was his first day back at work after a few days of enforced rest. Scott assumed that rest would have been longer, if it hadn’t been for the emergency situation the town, the world, was dealing with. Dressed in his uniform, seeming almost shy as he sat in front of Scott. Scott held William’s hand, letting the pain of the man’s weariness sink into himself. “It’s ok.” He repeated the lie.
The young wolves weren’t trained enough yet to recognize it for what it was.
Maria was behind the counter again. Scott heard her say something about her taking her break, and he was almost shocked when she actually came up to them. Still wearing her work uniform.
The woman shivered, hesitated a moment, before sitting down with them. A lot bolder than he’d expected her to be. They were both pack before lunch break was even over.
Scott knew it shouldn’t be that easy, that he should have a tighter rein for whom he allowed into his pack. But he couldn’t bring himself to stop it, his heart bleeding too open for him to tell them no.
Maria went back to the counter, the larger set woman patting her on the back, the scared one staring at her in horror. But she was smiling, and no longer hiding.
He got up to the window of the cafeteria and stared outside, looking at the press gathering outside the building. The campus police was already heading up to the reporters. Probably to tell them to leave. William followed after him, staring at his colleagues, hesitant. “They didn’t even call me in,” he whispered.
Scott wondered how he could get through the rest of the day while avoiding the press.
He had one more class today. A few more cars were arriving, but Scott ignored them.
He winced as he felt the pull in his side. He broke a few of his fingers, hoping it would help with the healing. It did, slightly. His side was still hurting, but he could feel the itch of healing set in, somewhat at least.
He was still bleeding. He’d ducked into the toilet earlier to replace his bandages, the ones he’d put on that morning were soaked.
It was hard to focus, to stay sitting up, while his wound kept distracting him. The professor kept eyeing him, asked him to stay after class.
Professor Kelly stared at him as if he was some weird specimen, brought to his lab for examination. It seemed like he wasn’t sure how to state his questions, what to say, or do. The man was never unsure about anything. It made Scott feel like the world was falling to pieces underneath him.
“Can I have some blood samples from you?” the words seemed almost anti climatic.
Scott still flinched.
“With your permission, of course. I just… the chance to research this, to figure out how it all works.”
“I’ll… I’ll think about it.”
Scott fled before the man could ask more questions.
The pack, their group, met again after class. William joined them twenty minutes later, still hungry. Scott let him comp it on his student ID. Steve came running up with some information Lydia had sent him. He was talking about vagaries of werewolf abilities vs mass energy quotients, or something along those lines.
It was hard to keep track of him once he got going.
Maria was working, doing the dishes. She was mumbling something in Spanish about stupid bigots thinking she’d somehow transmit her ‘illness’ if she was allowed to keep serving food.
“The guys in my frat won’t even talk to me,” Chad said. “I’d almost wish they’d just mocked me over it. This silence. I never dealt well with people going quiet on me.”
Scott didn’t think he’d ever heard Chad talk this much. But then, he hadn’t known the other boy all that well before now.
“But the worst part of it… The coach has been hounding me about my ‘powers’, he says the NCAA has been on his ass about me.” Scott understood, Liam was having similar problems back in Beacon Hills. “But if I don’t play, I could lose my scholarship.”
“Have you talked to the dean about this?”
“I don’t know, that kind of stuff… I picked English as my major for a reason, you know. School was just never my thing. I was going to play football in college and hoped to go pro, before I actually had to graduate.”
Scott wasn’t sure what to say to that. He’d loved playing lacrosse, and he’d considered getting a lacrosse scholarship. But once Derek had offered to pay for the pack instead, that just never became necessary.
“We’ve got a game next week, and if the Coach won’t let me play, I have no idea how I can even stay in school after that. How am I even supposed to tell my Mom that? I’m supposed to be the one to make it big. I’m supposed to take care of her and my siblings.”
“I don’t think they can take away your scholarship. Can they?” Laurie asked. Scott flinched, not sure how to answer. He was hardly an expert.
He kept hearing cars arriving outside, murmuring, nails hitting wood. His head was hurting, just too many noises, the blood in his veins, the feeling of his pack. He wanted it all to stand still for a moment so he could catch some air, some….
“I don’t know,” Scott said. “I … wait? Next week?”
“Yeah?”
“The full moon is next week.” They stared at him in baffled confusion.
“So?”
“The full moon, as in the time when you’ll lose control and need to make sure you’re chained up somewhere where you can’t hurt anyone?”
The others stared at him in a joined level of … he couldn’t quite describe it. As if they were waiting for him to start laughing.
“It’s the full moon, you’re werewolves.” Didn’t they get it? A plate fell in the kitchen.
The moon stood high in the sky when they arrived in Zurich, almost as if it were mocking them and their focus.
Scott had growled as he saw Monroe standing there, at the edge of the airport. Waiting for them, taunting them, letting them know that she knew they were coming for her. But more importantly, that she didn’t care. That she wasn’t scared of them.
And there was nothing he could do to go after her, without getting the police after them.
“Scott, it’s just a moon. It’s just a stellar body, it has some effects on gravity, on the tides, other than that. The full moon and werewolves…it’s just a story, right?” Steve was gawking at him as if he didn’t quite know what to believe right now.
“I told you that I keep track of the lunar cycles, that it’s vital.” Steve had been talking to Lydia and Mason for two weeks now. How could he not get it?
The children were screaming, howling in pain. They were bait. There to drag their packs into a trap. And even knowing that, they couldn’t stop going after them. Because they were werewolves, not monsters. Not like her.
Scott shivered when he heard the explosion, when he felt the wave of power unleashed.
“It’s the Nemeton.” Stiles had whispered.
Scott closed his eyes, opening them back up to alpha red.
“I know.”
It was all he could say, there wasn’t a minute left to consider their actions, they were running out of time as it was. And Monroe had no idea what she was unleashing.
“I thought that was a joke. Like a werewolf joke.” The younger boy stared at him in utter disbelief. Still so stuck in his scientific mind set, as if he was almost willing all of this to make sense to the world he believed in. So resolute to refuse to accept magic as something beyond his understanding.
“Steve.” He placed his hand on the boy’s shoulder. “I am a werewolf. I don’t joke about things like that. Not about the moon.” Steve started shaking, babbling, almost incomprehensibly so.
“But, I’m better now.” Laurie was shaking. “And we can shift any time, I didn’t think…”
Scott wanted to grab Laurie in a hug and hold her forever. William looked like he’d been hit by a truck. “I can’t take this.” The man whispered, his heart beating in his chest. As if he could fall into a panic attack any second now.
“We can shift at any time, and you’ll learn control. But this is your first full moon. It will affect you, every single time. It will hit you and increase your instincts. Even Alphas like me aren’t free of its power.”
He’d roared as the spear hit him, he’d roared in all his power, making the Nemeton heed his call. His pack was coming, were already there, no alpha ever walks alone. But his mind was already falling into the white room, and there was nothing he could do to stop it.
“Then how do you get through it?”
“Usually the alpha takes care of those in his pack. We lock up new betas, keep them safe, where they can’t hurt themselves or others, until they’ve learned how to control it enough to be on their own during the full moon. For some it’s a constant struggle for others… It’s easier. Music helps, mantras help, chains help… more.”
Maria broke out crying. William grabbed her closer, letting her cry on his chest. Looking like he wanted to be pissed at Scott, but didn’t see the point.
He cringed. He wasn’t sure if it was at the pain, at the thought of these pups not realizing the danger, or at being so unprepared.
He didn’t understand why this was such a big shock. Even he’d known about the full moon before Stiles had to tell him so. He just hadn’t wanted to take it seriously at the time.
His heart sunk realizing it, knowing he’d have to prepare his new Pack-members, get them through this. Be their Alpha. The wolf inside roared in approval, its chain flapping away, mocking him with its uselessness.
“I’ll help you. I promise.” His stomach hurt as he sat up, his spleen protested as he moved. There was something in his throat, he spat it out in his napkin, black. He tried to ignore it.
“You’ll help them.” Steve muttered, not looking at him, staring at his hands instead. “That’s great. But what about everyone else? What about the world? What about the werewolf apocalypse that’s on our way?”
“The what?” Some part of Scott was yelling at him not to be a dumbass, that he knew what Steve was talking about. He just didn’t want to know, hadn’t wanted to acknowledge it. Because if he did…
“Scott. You said it yourself, the pack takes care of their own. But what about the around half a million other new werewolves going through their first full moon with little to no warning of what’s coming? What about the ones that are going to be activated during it? Because the number of people going feral is still rising, and the CDC has no idea when or how it is ever going to stop. We’re heading towards an apocalypse, and nobody even seems to realize it.”
”You love to play the part of the hero, don’t you McCall. Love to pretend that you’re nice and safe. That you’re just a human with some powers.” She whispered her words in his ear as she pushed the blade in his chest. “But on the inside, you’re still nothing more than a monster. More dangerous than any of the others, because you’ve made them believe the lie, made them believe that they could ever be good.”
For a moment Scott thought he saw double, Stiles standing there instead of Steve. Joking about the upcoming apocalypse, telling them they were all going to die.
Standing outside in the sun, a crowd forming behind the windows, holding boards saying things like, ‘No wolves on campus!’ and ‘Claws are weapons too.’
Their faces filled with anger, with fear. And for the first time in years, Scott couldn’t help but agree with them, that they were right to be scared.
Stiles scent was in the air. Stiles… standing there in the doorway, waving at him to be let in. Stiles.
“What have we done?”
Scott fell down.
Next