CHAPTER SEVEN : house arrest

( venomous, part ii )

————

     WHEN SHANNON DECIDED TO assemble her friends in her Dad's office to go over their game plan, she had no clue that Derek was already around. She can't necessarily say she's surprised — it's just like Derek to beat them to the punch. It's also just like Derek to loiter around on the high school's property despite being pretty well into his twenties

     They only have a few minutes to talk before they'll be expected to be in class or study hall, and Shannon strategically picked her dad's office for that exact reason — it's the closest private space to each of their next classrooms.

     Both doors — the one leading to the locker room and the one leading to the corridor — are locked. Shannon's stuck nervously pacing back and forth between the two doors, while Scott, Stiles, and Allison are all frozen in place with their worry.

     "Lydia can't be the Kanima," Stiles is insisting, has been insisting over and over. As much as Shannon really does want to believe that he's right, she knows that hope's chance in Beacon Hills is like a snowball's chance in hell. That is to say — none.

     Allison shakes her head. "It doesn't matter, because Derek thinks it's her," she says— stammers. "So, either we can convince him that he's wrong, or we've got to figure out a way to protect her."

     With a huff, Shannon gives up on her pacing and sits on the edge of her dad's desk, narrowly avoiding a small puddle of spilt coffee that would leave a stain on the back of her light-wash jeans.

     "Well, I really don't think he's gonna do anything here. Not at school," Scott says, managing to reason through the stress.

     "What about after school?" Allison asks. Scott just sighs and turns his head away from her, eliciting an eye roll from Shannon. Allison huffs, glances up at the ceiling, and then leans down in an attempt to get herself to think more clearly. "What if we can prove that Derek's wrong?"

     "By three o'clock?" Stiles questions, his voice ripe with scepticism.

     Shannon inhales through gritted teeth, and the air makes a whistling sound that only Scott can pick up. "It's a little unlikely," she says, her brows furrowing enough that she'll likely walk out of the room with newly formed wrinkles on her forehead.

     Allison flails her hands for a moment, a nervous tic that Shannon picked up on not too long ago. It was only right after Allison found out about the supernatural that the normally level-headed and rational girl would begin to flip out, but because of the way she was raised, she would only show it in those small gestures. A flail of the hand here, a jut of her jaw there. Anything that wouldn't catch the attention of her parents. "There could be something in the Bestiary," she suggests.

     Right. The book of what is essentially gibberish to the four of them.

     Stiles rocks his head backwards. "Oh, you mean the nine-hundred-page book written in Archaic Latin that none of us can read? Good luck with that."

     The room falls quiet for a moment as everyone considers his jab. Then Allison perks up, just a little, but enough to regain everyone's full attention. "Actually, I think I know someone who might be able to translate it."

     "I can talk to Derek," Scott says with a sigh, and before Stiles or either of the girls have a chance to protest, "maybe convince him to give us a chance to prove that it's not her?"

     Stiles and Allison both avoid his eyes but Shannon keeps her eyes up. "I'll come with you." Scott goes to insist she doesn't, but the look in her eyes tells him that she's already decided and that's that.

     Scott exhales through his nose. "Fine, but, if anything happens, you let me handle it, okay?" he says. He's not asking, so Shannon nods to tell him that she understands. He turns his attention back to Stiles and Allison. "You guys as well."

     "What does that mean?" Allison asks.

     "It means you can't heal like I do." Allison glares at him. "I just don't want you getting hurt."

     Allison turns around to dig into her bag, which she's rested on the desk next to Shannon. The bell rings in the hallway, only just heard by the four shut away in the office. The coach had long since disabled the bell in the room so he could have some peace and quiet. Allison pulls a device from her bag and spins back to face Scott, lifting it up into his field of vision. She's brandishing a crossbow, one significantly smaller than the ones that Shannon had previously seen in the Argent family's armoury, and with a confident glare, Allison declares, "I can protect myself."

     Stiles raises a hand as if to say, "Yeah, fair," and lets it fall back to his side with a slap against his jean-clad leg. Scott's gaze flickers between his girlfriend's face, her weapon, and the ground, as he falters whilst looking for something to say.

     "What?" Allison asks, lowering the crossbow to rest it on top of her bag. Scott clenches his jaw while Shannon slides off the desk to stand next to Stiles. "Did something else happen?"

     Scott can't seem to keep his eyes focused on one spot, a telltale sign to the others that he could be hiding something, but nobody pushes it. "I just don't want you getting hurt," he settles on saying. "Seriously, if anything goes wrong, you call me, okay?" His voice grows more intense and Allison nods without hesitation. "I don't care if your dad finds out. Call, text, scream, yell, whatever. I'll hear you and I'll find you as fast as I can." Allison glances down at the ground but nods again once she looks back up. With a jerk of his head, Scott beckons Shannon to his side. "We have until three."

     "Let's go save our friend," Shannon says, her voice coming out weaker than anticipated. It's like it's only just hit her: it's a pack of five Werewolves against them — two humans, an Omega, and a something. And, she knows she won't find out what that something is without Derek's help. And, she knows that she won't get that answer if she decides she wants it without aligning herself with him. Which she won't.

     The pair turn to leave the room, Scott taking the lead as he's the closest to the door. Just before he can reach for the lock, Shannon feels a prickle on the back of her neck and drops into a squat — right as a crossbow bolt comes flying over her head. Scott spins around just in time to catch it before it nails him through the eye.

     Shannon doesn't even have to look to know what happened. "Stiles—"

     Stiles makes a noise somewhere between a groan and a wheeze as Allison holds her hand out for him to deposit the crossbow into. "Sorry. Sensitive trigger on that."

————

     With Stiles taking on the duty of following Lydia everywhere she goes, and Allison working on getting the Bestiary translated, all that's left of their current mission is the actual confrontation. It almost seems that Scott is more worried for Shannon's safety than she's worried about herself.

     Scott's had to use his keen sense of smell to locate Derek, ever since he and his car disappeared from the parking lot. The trail leads to the far end of the lacrosse pitch, not far from where Shannon met with Peter and his claws and fangs. They don't find Derek when they arrive, but Scott knows that he must be near. Standing in place for his Alpha, instead, is Boyd.

     "I want to talk to Derek," Scott announces, still a fair few meters away from the much taller boy. He doesn't need to raise his voice — Boyd's hearing far surpasses that of any human now.

     "Talk to me," comes Boyd's reply.

     Scott doesn't stop his steady approach, even as Boyd leaves his post to come closer and closer, each of his steps about equal to two of Scott's. Shannon hangs a few paces back. Her job right now is to be a distraction, not to get caught up in what could easily turn violent.

     "I don't want to fight," Scott says.

     Boyd only smirks. "Good. 'Cause I'm twice the size of you."

     He's not exactly wrong. Scott's not short by any means but Boyd easily dwarves him, and Scott's all lean muscle while Boyd is, for lack of a better word, jacked. Shannon wouldn't be surprised if he could crush a watermelon with his hands before his supernatural transformation. "He's got a point," the girl mutters, forgetting for just a moment that Scott would be able to hear it just as clearly as if she said it at full volume.

     The boy huffs out a sigh and eyes Boyd up. "You wanna know what I think?" Boyd tilts his head, but he clearly doesn't actually care. "I'm twice as fast."

     Scott charges at the taller boy without giving him a chance to properly process his words. He has Boyd on the ground in an instant, and it's only when both boys are distracted that Derek appears from behind the bleachers. Scott and Boyd get back to their feet right as Derek arrives at their sides — Scott jumping a little at the sight of the Alpha in his periphery.

     "She failed the test."

     Boyd swipes dirt off his jacket as Shannon steps forward to be right by Scott's side, defiantly staring Derek right in the eye. "Yeah, which doesn't prove anything. Lydia's different," Scott protests.

     Derek nods once. "I know! At night, she turns into a homicidal walking snake."

     "I'm not gonna let you kill her."

     The Alpha quickly raises his brows and turns his head towards Boyd, who just smirks back at him. Something bitter settles in the back of Shannon's throat and sinks into her stomach at the action. This can't be good.

     "Who said I was gonna do it?"

     It's then that the pair realise that, while Boyd and Derek are with them, Isaac, Erica, and Jules are unaccounted for. Stiles is the only one who'll have eyes on Lydia at this moment, and he's no match for three feral, newly-turned Werewolves. Scott goes to make a run for it but barely gets two steps before Boyd clotheslines him and drops him to the ground. Shannon's try is halted almost instantly as well, quickly finding Boyd's hand — claws extended — wrapped around her wrist. One tug unceremoniously takes her down as well, landing harshly half on the grass and half on Scott's chest, which only winds him further. She rolls off him but it's not enough to ease his coughing.

     Derek sneers. "I don't know why you think you have to protect everyone now, Scott. But, even so, Lydia has killed people, and she's gonna do it again. And next time, it's gonna be one of us."

     "What if you're wrong?" Scott asks, one hand resting on his sternum where Shannon's bony elbow jabbed him.

     The blonde clambers up to her feet, ignoring the pain in her right wrist from Boyd's claws. Five small holes adorn the end of her shirt's sleeve, each one ringed with crimson, and she sticks her other hand underneath the sleeve to apply pressure to the small wounds.

     "She was bitten by an Alpha! It's her."

     Shannon bites the inside of her cheek. "I was bitten by an Alpha and I'm not a Werewolf or a walking snake," she argues, managing to keep her voice steady and her eyes trained on Derek.

     The older man's jaw tenses and he takes a step towards the girl. "Yes, but you're something. And, I am this close to figuring it out."

     "You saw that thing up close. You know it's not like us," Scott says, drawing the attention back to him.

     "But it is!" Derek insists. "We're all shapeshifters. You don't know what you're dealing with — it happens rarely, and it happens for a reason."

     Scott perks up at that. "What reason?" he asks.

     "Sometimes, the shape you take reflects the person that you are."

     Shannon huffs. "What, so me being scared of water is why I turned into something that burns up in the water?" she asks incredulously.

     With a quick raise of his eyebrows at the blonde, Derek steps forward and offers Scott his hand to help him up to his feet. "Could be," he says, not yet letting go of the younger boy's hand, "or it could be something else." He lets go and flicks his attention to Scott. "Even Stiles calls Lydia cold-blooded."

     "Well, what if she's immune?" Scott hesitantly shoots back.

     Confused, Derek just blinks in response.

     "What if she's got something inside of her that makes her immune to the bite, which is why she didn't get paralysed?" he elaborates.

     Shannon hadn't even considered that as a possibility, but after everything that's happened, she wouldn't be surprised. After all — she and Lydia had gone through a lot of similar events and their effects had been drastically different. Peter's attack left Lydia going in and out of shock, then catatonically wandering the woods for days, while all the effect it had on Shannon was a few days recuperating in the hospital with stitches in her side. The Kanima's venom took Shannon to the ground in seconds just from touching it and left her there for fifteen minutes, and it didn't affect Lydia in the slightest.

     "No one's immune!" Derek exclaims. He spits out the word like it's turned sour in his mouth. "I've never seen it or heard of it." Scott stares him down, unmoving. "It's never happened!" He's stammering, unsure, rethinking everything he knows and everything he thinks he knows about the supernatural world he lives in. It registers on his face for the briefest of moments that Scott may just be right before he returns to his ever-present scowl.

     Scott leans in a little closer, a snarl beginning to form. "What about Jackson?" he hisses. Derek flickers in and out of eye contact with the younger Werewolf. He's truthfully not sure anymore. And he doesn't like it. "That's why you tested him, isn't it?" Scott accuses. Derek turns his head towards the bleachers to avoid Scott's unbreaking glare. "Because you gave him what he wanted, didn't you?"

     The Bite.

     It makes sense now — Jackson's erratic, more erratic behaviour, his black blood nose bleed situation, his lashing out at Danny, and why Derek and his goons kidnapped him in the middle of the night. Derek actually gave in to Jackson's demands.

     Huh, how about that?

     Derek tries to butt in but Scott keeps going. "Peter said the bite either kills you or turns you." Not exactly true, but continue. "You were probably hoping that he would die," the boy says with a disbelieving laugh. Derek and Boyd are silent, unmoving, unblinking. They have no protests. "But nothing happened, right?" No answer. "And you have no idea why, do you?"

     Seething, Derek clenches his jaw. "No," he admits.

     Earnestly, Scott softens both his expression and his voice. "Well, I have a theory: Lydia's immune, and somehow she passed it onto Jackson. You know I'm right."

     "No!" Derek says again, louder.

     For a moment, the boys fall silent and Shannon feels Boyd's eyes on her. His expression matches hers — full of doubt, and apprehension, and nerves. Boyd's no longer completely sure that Lydia is the monster that the rest of his pack claims, and Shannon's no longer one hundred per cent convinced that supernatural immunity is even a thing.

     Scott's voice brings the two back to the present. "You cannot do this!" he shouts.

     "Look, I can't let her live! You should have known that!"

     It almost sounds like he doesn't want to do this. That it's an obligation more than a want. Which, Shannon knows, deep down, it is. She knows he's trying to protect the town, not trying to destroy Scott's life. But, if there's even a chance that Lydia isn't this thing, Shannon's taking it, no questions asked.

     Scott just stares straight ahead for a few seconds. "I was hoping I would convince you, but, then... I wasn't counting on it."

     He turns, looking Shannon dead in the eye, and nods. She pulls her phone from her pocket, a pre-written text displayed on the screen, and hits the send button.

SHAN:
Phase two. Move out.

     It takes only seconds for Allison's reply, a series of thumbs-up Emojis, to come through. Shannon smugly smiles back up at Derek, a devious glint appearing in her eyes. Derek falters, clearly not having considered that the pair would have had a plan to keep their friend safe. Shannon takes a few steps back, watching the reactions of the two Hale pack members before she turns around to walk away faster. She hears clear, thudding footsteps behind her — Boyd's, no doubt — but they stop after only a few paces. A quick glance over her shoulder reveals Derek grabbing Boyd by the shoulder with an expression reading, "Leave it" written over his face.

     She shoots Allison another message, typing as she walks towards the school's front parking lot to retrieve her bicycle, to let her know that she'll meet the group at Scott's place. This time, all that pops up is the 'read' symbol, but Shannon doesn't have the time to read into Allison's lack of an actual reply — she's at the bike rack anyway, and she can't text and ride.

     All she can do is hope she gets to the house before they lock the doors.

————

     When Shannon makes it to Scott's house in record time, she can only hope Lydia won't question it. There's no way an average human could be able to ride a bike as fast as the blonde just did, especially not one still recovering from extreme bodily harm and on the wet road. Luckily, the redhead is too busy being herded up the front steps of the McCall house to even process her arrival.

     "If we're studying at Scott's house, then where's Scott?" she asks, as Stiles ushers her in front of him so he can keep eyes on her at all times.

     "Meeting us here," Stiles replies, before furrowing his brows. "I think," he adds, then quieter, to himself more than anyone else, "I hope."

     Shannon is the last through the front door of the house, so it's up to her to shut it after them. Stiles shoves through after she lets go of the handle, making a point of locking the door and hooking the chain into place, then peeks through the window to the side of the door, pulling the sheer white curtain away from the glass for a better view.

     His actions seem like overkill to an uninformed Lydia, who shoots him an unamused glare, awaiting an explanation. Stiles looks to Jackson for help, but he supplies nothing but a confused glance, his eyes darting about the entryway.

     "Uh, there's been a few break-ins around the neighbourhood," Stiles explains. Lydia nods, seeming to accept the statement. After a moment of awkward silence, in which Shannon begins to break away from the group to head to the living room, Stiles grabs a chair from a corner of the room and wedges it under the door handle for extra measure. He turns back and Lydia waves a hand at the chair, raising her brows. "And a murder," Stiles says.

     Allison scratches her head, avoiding eye contact. Shannon coughs, disguising a surprised guffaw, and Jackson exhales an annoyed breath.

     "Yeah, it was bad."

     No longer willing to engage, Shannon leaves the circle and plops down on a couch by the window, with Jackson and Lydia leaving to head upstairs only seconds later. The blonde pulls a book from her backpack and leans back on the arm of the couch as she cracks it open.

     An hour later, she's barely made a dent in it.

     Her leg is bouncing too erratically for her to focus, the words jumping up and down with every movement. Allison keeps peeking out of the curtains, and Stiles has been pacing back and forth for an unbroken twenty minutes.

     Finally, she sighs and snaps the book shut, catching Allison's attention. "So, can we talk about what happened in chemistry today?"

     Shannon reaches over to the coffee table to place the book down. "If you're gonna talk about what I think you're gonna talk about, then no."

     Stiles stops his pacing. "Wait, what happened?" he asks. "Besides, y'know." He points up at the ceiling, approximating Lydia's position on the second floor of the house.

     "Isaac was flirting with Shannon."

     The blonde scoffs. "He wasn't really flirting."

     "I'm Isaac and I'm hot and you're hot and you should join Derek so we can be hot together," Allison says, lowering her voice slightly in an imitation of the taller Werewolf.

     Shannon raises an eyebrow. "He did not say that, and this is way too dire of a situation for you to be making jokes right now. And, even if he was flirting — never in a million years."

     Allison peeks outside again upon Shannon's mention of their situation, while Stiles remains hung up on the topic of conversation. "Who wouldn't want to date him?"

     Shannon throws a couch cushion at the boy, hitting him much harder than she actually intended to. "He's trying to kill my best friend. So, once again, no."

     The brunette draws in a breath and drops the curtain back into place. "Might wanna tell him that."

     Shannon jumps up onto her knees and pulls the curtain open to look outside, with Stiles leaning over the top of her. Across the road, Derek and his pack stand in a perfect line, all still clad in leather, staring into the window the three teenagers are looking out of.

     "Shit."

     "Give me your phone," Allison says, holding her hand out to Stiles, who obliges without hesitation. She dials a number and holds the phone to her ear. "It's me. You need to get here now. Right now."

     Stiles and Allison move from the couch, using the windows by the door for a better view. Shannon stays where she is and peeks back outside. The pack has broken formation. Boyd's pacing back and forth, stopping only to talk to Derek for a few moments before setting off again, and Erica and Jules are joking with each other a few steps away from Derek. The blonde can faintly hear the girls giggling. Stiles nervously rubs a hand over the top of his shaved head.

     "What are you doing?" Stiles asks from around the corner.

     "I think— I think I have to call my dad," comes Allison's anxious reply.

     Shannon sighs softly. "Great idea, let's all get murdered by Chris Argent."

     She's not quiet enough that Allison doesn't hear her. The brunette looks back at the couch with a furrowed brow and a quivering lower lip.

     Stiles stammers for words. "No, but if he finds you here, you and Scott—"

     Allison nods. "I know," she says, a hint of sadness tinging her words. "What are we supposed to do? They're not here to scare us, okay? They're here to kill Lydia." She eventually lowers her phone with a sigh but keeps it gripped in her hand. Shannon gets to her feet to join her friends at the door, stopping by Allison's bag to grab her crossbow and some arrows from it. She passes the weapon to the brunette once she arrives at her side.

     "I got an idea," Stiles blurts out. "Just shoot one of 'em."

     Baffled, the girls stare at him. "Are you serious?" Allison whispers.

     "We told Scott we could protect ourselves, so let's do it! Or at least give it a shot, right?" Allison reluctantly agrees and looks back to the window. "Look, they don't think we're gonna fight, so if one of them gets hit, I guarantee they'll take off. So, just shoot one of 'em."

     The room falls silent as Allison gets her bearings. "Okay. Which one?"

     "Go around the back."

     Shannon turns her head towards Stiles, then Allison. Neither of them have moved. "Did either of you hear that?"

     Stiles furrows his brow. "Hear what?"

     "Uh." She shakes her head. "Never mind."  She ducks away from the front door and hurries to the McCall's kitchen, grabbing a carving knife from their knife block, before returning to the door. Upon receiving a look from Stiles, she shrugs defensively. "Allison gets a bow, I get a knife."

     With a nod, Stiles returns his attention to Allison. "Shoot Derek. Preferably in the head."

     Allison keeps looking outside, not turning away for even a second. "If Scott was able to catch an arrow, Derek definitely can."

     Fair assumption, probably correct.

     "Okay, uh, just shoot one of the other four, then," Stiles says.

     Allison's brow crinkles. "You mean, three."

     Shannon grips the knife tighter in her hand. "Isaac, Boyd, Erica, Jules. There's definitely four."

     At once, the teenagers realise what's happened. They all peer outside once again. Derek, Boyd, Erica, and Jules are still standing in front of the house, but Isaac is no longer leering over the top of them.

     "Where the hell is Isaac?" Stiles asks.

     Then, Shannon figures it out. Go around the back. She hears the faint sound of a door clicking into place, then the even fainter sound of a boot on carpet. Then, a floorboard creaks right behind her. She spins around before Isaac has a chance to touch her, slashing at the boy with the knife in her hand. He catches her wrist with ease and squeezes, the pressure making her fingers release. The knife drops to the wooden floor with a clatter, and Shannon groans in pain. Stiles and Allison spin around right as Isaac pushes back against Shannon, though she only stumbles back a few steps, not flying back like the taller boy expected.

     He's almost caught off-guard by her resilience, and Shannon uses it to her advantage by charging back at him and shoving as hard as she can. She's nowhere near as strong as him, so he stumbles back a little just as she did and recovers his footing easily.

     Isaac sets off again, this time dodging Shannon and her attempt at an attack, to throw Allison to the ground. Lacking supernatural ability, the brunette tumbles to the floor, her crossbow sliding away from her. He punches Stiles in the head before he has a chance to react.

     Shannon comes at him again, grabbing one of his arms to anchor him in place for the time being so that she can kick him behind the knees. Isaac crashes to the ground and within only a second, extends his claws and slashes the back of her calf. The blonde fumbles her grip and stumbles back with a shout, moving to grab the back of her leg to stem the flow of blood.

     The Werewolf's eyes glow yellow as he turns to look at her, though once his eyes lock on hers, he rears back in surprise. He changes his plan of attack, instead turning back to Stiles to continue his assault on him. With Isaac distracted, Allison scrambles to her feet, picks up her crossbow, and hurries up the stairs. Shannon ducks around the corner and sinks to the ground, tightening her hold on her leg in the hope that it will stop bleeding faster.

     Upstairs, Shannon hears the muffled voice of Allison telling Lydia to hide, and of Lydia calling the police.

     The front door flies open, causing a surprised shriek to escape Shannon's mouth. Erica stands in the doorway in some kind of power pose before locking eyes on the older blonde girl. "Aw, is little Shannon hurt?" She slams the door behind her and takes a few steps into the house, bending to get all up in Shannon's face. Close enough for Shannon to spit a load of saliva into. Erica recoils and wipes her face with the sleeve of her leather jacket. "Bitch," Erica hisses, extending her claws as she slaps Shannon across the face in return. The cuts sting, but Shannon pushes through the pain as she puts all of her energy into lunging up from her squat to tackle Erica to the ground.

     "Guys! It's here!"

     Allison's shout distracts Erica from whatever attack she's about to begin. Erica shoves Shannon off the top of her, jumping to her feet and charging up the stairs. Shannon goes to follow her but stumbles as she tries to stand.

     In the other room, Isaac stops throwing Stiles around like a ragdoll. He swoops into the entryway as if he's some kind of Disney prince and offers Shannon a hand. She flinches back. His claws are still extended, eyes still glowing. He notices, retracts his claws, and re-offers the hand. His face softens.

     When it's clear that he's not giving up any time soon, Shannon hesitantly reaches up to take it. His supernatural-level strength makes pulling her to her feet no challenge at all, and though he also readies himself for her to lean against him to take the weight from her leg, she chooses to rest against the wall.

     Scott finally bursts through the back door of the house. He takes one long look at the carnage on the first floor — Stiles lying motionless on the ground of the living room surrounded by furniture that definitely wasn't that battered when he left in the morning, Shannon conscious but bleeding freely from her face and leg, and Isaac standing by her side with his eyes still glowing bright amber. It's the groan from Erica upstairs that sends him running again.

     He comes back downstairs with Erica's paralysed body dangling in his arms and gives Isaac a look that tells him that it's time to leave. Isaac nods at the floor and turns back to open the front door, stepping out into the nighttime air to face his Alpha and fellow pack members. Scott unceremoniously chucks Erica outside after him, doubling back to help Shannon. She rests her weight against his right side, making sure she doesn't let her left cheek touch his shirt — it would sting too much, and she doesn't want to bloody his clothing.

     "Lydia called the cops," Shannon says weakly. Scott nods in understanding as he brings her further outside. Allison and Stiles follow shortly behind. Stiles is stuck with a slight limp, though he still jumps right in to help prop up Shannon's other side when he notices her injuries.

     Scott glares defiantly at Derek from the porch. The Alpha squints up at the group. "I think I'm finally getting why you keep refusing me, Scott. You're not an Omega — you're already an Alpha of your own pack." He tilts his head to the side with a smile and raises his eyebrows. "But, you know you can't beat me."

     "I can hold you off until the cops get here."

     With that, Shannon removes her arm from Scott, shifting her weight to lean against Stiles instead, freeing up the Werewolf in case he needs to fight.

     Police sirens sound in the distance and Derek's smug smile drops. His breathing picks up speed. And then, there's the hiss.

     Everyone, at once, looks up at the roof of the house. Realising they can't see from the porch, the members of the newly formed McCall pack hurry down the steps to the road, Stiles taking the brunt of the work from Shannon on the way down even though he, too, is injured.

     There, on the top of the house, is the Kanima. It scurries around before turning to screech at its small audience, then leaps away, out of sight. Scott shields Allison with his body, not looking away until he's sure he can no longer see it.

     Derek angrily looks down at Erica's paralysed form at his feet, then looks back up at Boyd and Isaac. "Get her out of here."

     Footsteps draw everyone's attention back to the front door of the house. Lydia storms out and stops at the edge of the porch, right before the steps. "Would someone please tell me what the hell is going on?" she demands.

     With Lydia fully human, everyone realises at once what only Scott would put to words.

     "It's Jackson."

————

a/n:
*taylor swift voice* it's been a long time coming. i'm BACK tho. i've been so, so stuck writing that stupid last scene bc i hate writing action but that's what i signed up for in writing a teen wolf fic (AND i just started a hunger games fic, so that's even more action, whoops)

i'm hoping, for real this time, that i'll be able to have more frequent updates on this story, bc i genuinely do love it, and shannon, so much.

if you're still around at this point, thank you so much, from the bottom of my heart.

published: november 19, 2023
word count: 5.6k