ACT ONE - CHAPTER THREE
Season One - Episode One
The Pilot

"I think this is stupid, I can't believe you're dragging me out here. I didn't lose your inhaler." Tatum whined as Scott proceeded to drag her through the woods as the three friends looked for the teens missing inhaler. 

"Oh shove off Tate, I know you want answers too. I don't - I don't know what it was. It was like I had all the time in the world to catch the ball. And that's not the only weird thing. I - I can - hear stuff I shouldn't be able to hear. Smell things." Scott spoke as he looked at both friends. "please tell me I'm not going crazy and the same things are happening to you Tate." He added at the end watching as Tatum took a moment to think on his words. 

"Well, the hearing stuff yeah. I'm not sure about time slowing down if you didn't notice I don't exactly exercise." Tatum spoke watching as Scott's shoulders dropped a little as he seemed to be calmed by the knowledge that at least the both of them were experiencing some of the same things. 

"Smell things... like what?" Stiles pressed 

"Like the mint mojito gum in your pocket." Scott looked directly at stiles 

"I don't have any mint mojito." Stiles started as he moved his hands through his pockets, only to pick out a single strip of the exact gum Scott was talking about. "So this all started with a bite?" Stiles added and Tatum could literally see the cogs whirling in his head as he did so. She wasn't sure she was going to like the answers the lanky boy was going to come up with. 

"What if it's like an infection, like, my body's flooding with adrenaline before I go into shock or something?" Scott's idea made sense, Tatum could see that. 

"Like Rabies?"

"Come off the rabies Tate. You're gonna be fine." Scott stressed clearly having heard enough about the possibility of rabies from the teenaged girl over the last 24 hours or so. 

"You know what? I actually think I've heard of this. It's a specific type of infection." Stiles words were taunting but also serious at the same time and Tatum had no clue where he was heading but she knew it was enough to piss Scott off. Most things were to be honest. 

"Are you serious?"

Yeah. Yeah, I think it's called Lycanthropy." Stiles remained serious but Tatum could see through the fake act and pushed him on the shoulder. Rather harshly with a strength she didn't know she had. 

"Oh piss off Stiles. Can't you see the boy's having a breakdown?" Tatum rolled her eyes, noting just how often she seemed to do so, especially around the boys she might as well have called her brothers. 

"What's that is it bad?"

"Oh yeah it's the worst. But only like once a month."

"Once a month."

"On the night of the full moon." Stiles continued with his little joke adding a howl to his words. At the look of disbelief on Scott's face he laughed "Hey you're the one who heard a wolf howling." He tried to defend himself. 

"Don't listen to the disphit Scott. Whatever it is we'll figure it out together. After all both of us seem to be in it together." Tatum placed a hand on Scotts shoulder as they continued into the vast woodlands. 

"No I could have sworn this was it. I saw the body, the deer came running I dropped my inhaler." Scott sighed out as he looked around the area, trying to catch sight of anything he had seen the night prior. 

"Maybe the killer moved the body." Stiles pondered but Tatum didn't like the idea track the boy was heading down. 

"If he did I hope he left the inhaler those things are like 80 bucks." Scott knew his mom would be mad at him if he told her he had lost his inhaler. Money wasn't exactly tight but it wasn't flowing freely in the McCall household and a new inhaler might just push them over budget for that month. 

"What are you doing here huh? This is private property." A gruff voice called from a distance over and Tatum turned instantly at the voice. She had quickly worked out what land they had walked onto by accident, after all it was well known only one family had lived this far out in the woods, she just didn't know any of them were back. The man was older than the teenagers possibly somewhere in his mid to late twenties. He was tall, rather well built and the way he was standing he could completely snap all three of them in half. Something Tatum didn't want to stick around and find out. 

"Uh sorry man we didn't know." Stiles spoke for the three of them. 

"Yeah we were looking for something. But forget it." Scott added on that was until something small and blue was flying through the air and the teenaged boy was able to catch it, his missing inhaler. 

"Thank fuck, now can we please go?" Tatum added tearing her sight away from the man, the man of which she felt as though she needed to submit to, in a way that made her feel really gross. 

Friday had come a lot sooner than Tatum had expected. She had been on edge all morning, very on edge. Like she was having her period but worse like a hundred times worse. There was no cramps, thank lord, but her attitude was all over the place. Her emotions were bordering on murderous. She had even managed to snap in ASL at her mother that morning. Yet she felt no guilt about it, more annoyed that her parents were almost forcing her to go to the party going on that evening, something she just didn't want to do at that point in time. Concerned that Tatum just didn't have enough friends. 

Therefore, when she found herself dressed up in her little crop top and a pair of heels on her feet at the party she really did find herself regretting everything. Especially when it came to realising that Scott had got a date and the boy hadn't even bothered to tell her. And when Stiles finally caught sight of the girl who it seemed had been avoiding everyone all day, he was quick to rush over to Tatum. 

"Hey Tato, I've been looking for you like all day." Stiles rushed out as he looked at Tatum properly noting the way she was holding herself. And it made his suspicions even more alarming, because this tense Tatum was not his best friend. Even when cranky and annoyed at the world, she never held herself this tense. 

"Stiles." Tatum paused she wasn't sure exactly what she was going to say to him in response. 

"Look that joke the other day, what if it isn't a joke after all." Stiles waited for her response. Getting none he continued. "Are you like finding yourself freaking out more today?"

"I think it's the full moon man. Like I'm 100 percent sure the full moon is making you like this, like you're gonna transform or something." Stiles spoke and Tatum felt her eyed widening. 

"Werewolves aren't real though."

"I think you're about to prove yourself wrong. Look Tate, the moons gonna be at it's apex soon and I don't think either of us want to be around all those people when we find out whether or not its true."

"Where am I gonna go?" Tatum could feel her eyes tear up, all of a sudden she felt incredibly sad, like her mood had just done a 180 and she was no longer annoyed at the world, but rather she was aware now that her life was about to change. And she wasn't sure it was going to be for a good thing. 

"I'm not sure I'll drop you off at yours and then come back shortly when I've had more of a think about it and after I've made sure Scott hasn't murdered Allison." Stiles placed an arm around Tatum's shoulder as he lead her back to his Jeep ready to start the short drive back to the girls house. 

Yet when he had driven away back to check on Scott, Tatum couldn't stay at her house. For some reason she was drawn back towards the woods this had all started in. And she followed whatever it was that was telling her to head out that way. She walked, and continued walking on and on not caring for the time what passed and not taking notice of where she was heading.

That was until she reached the burnt remains of The Hale house. And towards a tall figure she recognised from a few nights prior. Derek Hale stood there moonlight creating a shadow around him as he took in notice of the teenaged girl approaching him. He had clearly sensed the teenaged boy that night as being in transition. But he hadn't paid attention to the girl. Her scent had not been so strong that night, and therefore he had ignored her thinking she was just another sarcastic human of a best friend the boy was dragging through the woods. But now, now he could tell she was not far from a transition. But something was a little different as he looked at her, there was some sort of strangeness about it all. 

"You're Derek Hale right?" Tatum confirmed waiting for any sort of response from the man. 

"That's me. Who are you?" Derek did as she expected. 

"Tatum."

"Do you have a surname Tatum."

"Cross. Tatum Cross." And that was when Derek made that connection. The Cross family had once been a pack of wolves much like the Hales were. Yet, they had been cursed years before and had lost their connection to the wolves. No longer shifting, no longer being connected to the moon. But it appeared this was no longer the case. That was until he spotted the clear bite of an alpha on her arm. That was when his brain could no longer clearly work out what was going on before him. 

"You were drawn here little wolf?" Derek spoke and Tatum felt that same desire to submit, she wanted to hate it because it was completely gross. But it was also making her feel better in this current moment. 

"Yes." She had to agree because it was making her feel more in control. 

"That's okay we'll work through your first full moon together, that's okay." Derek held out a hand encouraging Tatum to take it. And she pondered on it for a little while, not sure what it actually meant to take his hand. But she knew she kind of had to do it, because the longer she stood there, the longer she didn't do as he asked her to, the worse she felt. 

And so she took his hand.