☾

"Derek's outside waiting for Lydia," Scott says as Allison, Stiles and I follow him into Coach's office.

"Waiting to kill her?" Allison asks.

"If he thinks she's the Kanima, then yes," Scott answers honestly. "Especially after what happened at the pool."

"It's not her," I say firmly, even though I saw it with my own eyes that she didn't pass Derek's test. Lydia isn't the Kanima, but she's something.

Scott looks at me. "Mary Anne, she didn't pass the test," he points out. "Nothing happened."

I shake my head stubbornly, crossing my arms over my chest. "No, it can't be her." Stiles is standing next to me, his hand sliding to the small of my back, trying to calm me down with psychical contact. And it does work, slightly.

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

"Well, I really don't think he's gonna do anything here, not at school," Scott says.

"What about after school?" Allison asks and Scott sighs. "What if we can prove that Derek's wrong."

"By three o'clock?" Stiles questions her.

"There could be something in the bestiary," Allison suggests and I can't help but roll my eyes.

"Oh, you mean the nine-hundred-page book written in archaic Latin that none of us can read? Good luck with that," Stiles and I say sarcastically and at the same time, which doesn't really surprise me anymore.

Allison looks away and furrows her eyebrows. "Actually, I think I know someone who might be able to translate it."

"Uh, I can talk to Derek, maybe convince him to give us a chance to prove that it's not her," Scott says. "But if anything happens, you guys let me handle it, okay? Or let Mary Anne handle it."

Allison asks, "What does that mean?"

"You can't heal like me and Mary Anne do. I just don't want you to get hurt."

Allison gives him a deadpan look and turns around to search her bag on the desk, pulling out a mini-crossbow and unfolding it, holding it up and says, "I can protect myself." I believe her, she can handle a bow pretty well. I actually don't blame her, seeing as she's human but more than capable of handling herself, but the werewolves here are vicious and won't hesitate to hurt her. I look at Scott who still has one emotion in his eyes: fear. Fear of Allison getting hurt. "What?" The huntress asks, dropping her arm. "Did something else happen?"

"I just don't want you getting hurt," Scott repeats. "Seriously, if anything goes wrong, you call me, okay? I-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. We have until 3:00."

Stiles leaves my side and I don't notice it until Scott is about to open the door to leave when a 'whooshing' sound fills my ears and Scott spins around to catch an arrow, right in front of his face. I turn my head to see my boyfriend holding Allison's little crossbow, a sheepish look on his face.

"Ah," Stiles breathes out awkwardly. "Sorry. Sorry." He hands the crossbow back to an unamused Allison. "Sensitive trigger on that."

I sigh and shake my head at my idiotic yet adorable boyfriend.

☾

"This is so not gonna work," I mutter under my breath as Stiles and I follow Lydia out the library, setting our plan into motion. Scott went to go talk to Derek while Allison went to go talk to the person who supposedly knows Archaic Latin, all of us doing our parts but now Stiles, Lydia, Jackson, Allison and I are ready to leave.

It's not just Derek, but three other werewolves go here at the school, all three have the chance to kill her. Both Isaac and Boyd are twice, maybe thrice, my size, but if it comes down to it I'll take on all of them to protect her.

"If we're doing a study group, why didn't we just stay in the library?" Lydia asks, annoyed.

"Because we're meeting up with somebody else," Stiles lies.

"Hmm," Lydia hums, not buying it. "Why don't they just meet us in the library?"

"Oh, that would have been a great idea!" Stiles says enthusiastically. "Too late."

"Okay, hold on-" Lydia starts but is cut off by her douche of an ex who takes her arm forcefully and makes her walk faster.

"Lydia, shut up and walk."

I turn my head to meet the faces of my other friend and boyfriend, the latter just shrugging at me as we head down the hallway and out of the school. I get to the passenger side before Allison can, making her sit in the back with Lydia and Jackson. His strong anxiety lessens a little when he sees that I'm sitting down next to him, which also calms me, surprisingly. But that's not the important thing right now, protecting Lydia is.

Stiles drives us to Scott's house, which will only make Lydia question us even more and it does. Once he parks outside and we all clamber out, she starts firing off her questions. "If we're studying at Scott's house, then where's Scott?" Lydia asks as I take her elbow and follow Stiles up to his house.

"Meeting us here, I think," Stiles says over his shoulder, adding quietly, "I hope." Stiles opens the door and walks in a little casually, nothing new since he does have a key, but as we pile into the house and I let go of Lydia, Stiles locks the door, the deadbolt, and the chain lock. Way to go for making this less suspicious.

When he turns around, Lydia raises her eyebrows at him with a confused and wary look. "Uh, there's been a few break-ins around the neighborhood," Stiles lies. But then he puts a chair under the doorknob, making my best friend even more suspicious.

"And a murder," I lie swiftly when she gestures towards it. "Yeah, it was bad."

"Lydia, follow me," Jackson says flatly, clearly not wanting to be here. "I need to talk to you for a minute."

"Seriously?" Lydia sighs but follows Jackson. "What is going on with everyone?"

I give the other two people a look. "This is certainly gonna be interesting."

☾

The three of us stand by the door as it gets darker outside, Jackson and Lydia still upstairs and since I'm choosing not to listen in on them, I have no idea what they're doing up there. Hopefully nothing bad. Or sexual. That'd just be so freaking weird and inappropriate in this type of situation.

I pull back the curtains a bit and my eyes fall on a familiar set of four people wearing black leather jackets, but my eyes are set on Derek. "Allison," I say without looking at her. "Call Scott. They're here." I move away from the curtains and lean against the wall next to my boyfriend.

Allison calls her boyfriend but soon they hang up, her going into the living room to get rid of her jacket and she comes out with her mini-crossbow. I bite my lip anxiously and repeatedly look out the window at the pack outside. "Oh geez," Stiles mutters under his breath as he looks out the window from above me.

I look over at Allison to see her holding her phone with a trembling hand, a look on her face. "What are you doing?" I ask in confusion.

"I think..." Allison trails off, wiping her nose with the back of her covered hand. "I have to call my dad."

If she calls her father, then he'll find out that his daughter is still in a relationship with Scott. Her mother and grandfather will find out, and it'll make this battle even worse with their anger towards the teen wolf stronger now. It's bad enough we have to deal with a Kanima and Derek's pack, but we also have to fight a family of vengeful werewolf hunters. And there happens to be six werewolves in town, five of them being teenagers and they don't care about age. Just that they see us as monsters who need to be slaughtered, or in their twisted minds, put down like some goddamn feral animal.

"But if he finds you here, you and Scott," Stiles starts but she cuts him off.

"I know." She looks down briefly before turning her gaze back at us. "What are we supposed to do? They're not here to scare us, okay? They're here to kill Lydia."

Silence falls upon us after that, tension filling the room that is so thick, not even a knife could cut through it. Allison's right, but she's also wrong at the same time. She knows what we have to do. We have to fight, fight to protect our friend. I don't know about her, but I'll do it.

"I got an idea," Stiles breaks the silence. "Just shoot one of 'em."

"Are you serious?" Allison deadpans quietly.

"We told Scott we could protect ourselves," Stiles says. "So let's do it. Or at least give it a shot, right?"

"Okay," Allison gives in.

"Look, they don't think we're gonna fight, so if one of them gets hit, I guarantee they'll take off," Stiles explains. "So just shoot one of 'em."

Allison pulls back the curtain slightly. "Which one?"

"Uh, Derek," I suggest. "Yeah, shoot him, preferably in the head."

"If Scott was able to catch an arrow, Derek definitely can," Allison points out.

"Okay, uh," Stiles says. "Just shoot one of the other three of them."

"You mean two," Allison corrects, making my brow furrow in confusion. Two?

"No, I mean three," Stiles says, pulling back the window and moving his head next to mine and there is two. "Where the hell's Issac?"

My eyes widen. "We didn't lock the back door, did we?"

But my question goes unanswered and my head snaps to the side to see Allison on the floor and then a silhouette moves towards us, sending Stiles into the living room. Then, it grabs my arm and throws me like a rag doll, my body landing next to Allison's harshly. I groan but sit up, seeing the giant form of Isaac Lahey stalking towards my boyfriend. That familiar protective feeling takes over me, and without thinking or control, my nails elongate into sharp claws, a growl slipping from my lips, heat bubbling behind my eyes.

Isaac stops at the sound and turns around slowly, eyes fixating on me as I stand up, half-shifted. "Touch him again and you'll regret it," I threaten, my voice an octave lower than usual.

He smirks, not buying my threat as he starts to turn back around and picks Stiles up, tossing him across the room, a crash reaching my ears. I snarl and charge at him, grabbing his wrist to pull him away from Stiles, pushing him a bit further into the living room. He slashes his clawed hand at me, but I lean back to dodge the hit, and again when he tries to slash me again. When he does it for a third time, both of us stepping backward and into the entrance of the house, I dodge but this time, he wraps his hand around my throat, pushing me back against the wall.

My own hands go up to his, strangled gasps leaving my lips as he applies pressure, squeezing my trachea, lifting me up and my feet dangle above the floor. "Isaac," I struggle to get out, and something flickers in his glowing eyes, causing him to slightly loosen his grip on my throat.

Taking my chance, I bring my feet up to kick him in the gut, sending him back against the opposite wall with a thud and the wall slightly shakes at the impact. He goes at me again but this time, I'm prepared, landing a hard punch to his stomach, and he doubles over at the pain, holding his middle and I use my elbow to strike the back of his neck, sending him to the ground, unconscious.

I growl again, but something stops me from striking the tall Beta again. "Mary Anne!" My head snaps up to see Stiles standing less than a foot away from us, eyes wide at the sight of me standing above the knocked out Isaac Lahey, with my claws out and my eyes most likely glowing brightly. "Calm down," he says gently with his hands stretched towards me, but he doesn't look scared. My hands slowly uncurl from fists, my chest heaving and I start to shift back.

"Are you okay?" I ask, as if I hadn't turned and fought a werewolf who's twice my size.

"You're asking if I'm okay when you nearly got strangled by a werewolf twice your size?" He asks, flabbergasted, and vocalizing my thoughts.

"Like I told you, I can handle this," I smirk, but it disappears when Allison yells from upstairs.

"Guys! It's here!"

I look at the stairs and then back at Stiles, our eyes wide and that rush of power leaves my body. Then, a flash of something, or someone, out of the corner of my eyes make me stand in front of Stiles protectively, a warning growl leaving my lips but I stop growling when I see the familiar gold eyes of Scott. He looks from me to the unconscious body, then back to me with a confused look but doesn't ask questions. "Scott," I breathe out. "I think Erica is upstairs with Allison." He nods and rushes past us and up the stairs, and I turn back to Stiles. "Are you okay?" I question again, placing a hand on his arm.

He nods, giving me a hint of a smile. "Yeah. It was cool to see you kick some werewolf ass."

I huff out a chuckle, shaking my head at the question that is just him being... Well, him. Our attention goes to the stairs as Scott drags a paralyzed Erica down the stairs with Allison, and his eyes meet mine and I get his message. Grabbing Isaac by the arm, Scott opens the door and throws out Erica and I do the same to Isaac, both landing next to each other on the lawn.

We stand side by side, staring at the last two werewolves with Allison and Stiles behind us but still visible.

Derek takes one step forward. "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, along with Mary Anne." I narrow my eyes at him, knowing he's gonna say something arrogant. But he's right, we may be Omega's, lone wolves, but we have a pack. Stiles, Allison, Jackson, and Lydia, even if the last one isn't aware of all this and Jackson isn't really willing to be apart of this. They're our pack. "But you know you can't beat me," he smirks.

"We can hold you off until the cops get here," Scott counters.

The faint wailing of sirens meet my ears and I smirk at Derek. This time, we won and he knows it. But then, a hiss makes it drop and I look up in slight horror. We move from the porch and to the lawn, my eyes meeting the scaly figure of the Kanima crawling on the roof. It stops and looks at us, screeching and then it slithers off.

"Get them out of here," Derek orders Boyd, but all I can think of is Lydia, and then my eyes fall to the open door and she walks out, making me mentally sigh in relief. Wait, if she's here... Then... Oh, no.

"Would someone please tell me what the hell is going on?" She demands.

"It's Jackson," Scott and I whisper at the same time.

Well, this is just great.

☾

Sorry for such the long wait. Last week was packed with final exams and my last one is either on Tuesday or Wednesday. And after this coming Friday, I'll be out of school and there will be more updates and hopefully, the sequel will be out before school starts again.

Void_Stiles_is_Life xxx