I leaned against the broken train next to Isaac, watching in silence as Derek set a large box down in the middle of the floor. Isaac pushed himself off of the train, sauntering forwards to get a better look at the box. He traced his hand over the only decoration on the box, a symbol with three spirals.

"What is that?" he asked, crouching down.

I answered before Derek could. "It's a triskele."

I'd seen it in my spell book often, the symbol representation of both werewolves and witches. Derek looked at me curiously, waiting for me to go on.

"The spirals mean different things – past present future, mother father child, strength wisdom nurture."

The last one was what it means to witches. I'd read about a few times. Some witches followed that code as much as possible, relying on that when making decisions. Others barely thought about it and made their decisions on their own. It means something different to everyone, and I was yet to figure out what it meant to me.

"You know what it means to me?" Derek asked me.

I resisted the urge to roll my eyes at the obvious question. "Alpha, Beta, Omega?"

Derek nodded shallowly. "That's right. It's a spiral. It reminds us that we can all rise to one and fall to another. Betas can become Alphas, but Alphas can also fall to Betas or even Omegas."

"Like Scott?" Isaac spoke, voice flat.

Derek glanced at Isaac. "Scott is with us."

"Really?" Isaac challenged. He looked around the room. "Then where is he now?"

"He's looking for Jackson," Derek said, opening the box. "Don't worry, he's not going to have it easy tonight either. None of us are. That's why Y/n is here, and since Y/n sided with Scott, there's the proof you seem to want that Scott is on our side. He wouldn't let us borrow his witch if he was against us."

I wrinkled my nose in distaste at Derek's wording but said nothing. It was true, technically, but I wasn't fond of being worded as if I were a possession, not a human being. I was here to help though, so I stayed quiet, remembering earlier this morning instead.

Using the spell last night had drained me, so much so that last night was one of the best sleeps I'd had in a long while. I was out the whole night, and when I woke up the next day, I was groggy, disorientated.

That could have also been due to the fact that there was a male's arm slung around my waist, the feeling comforting yet bizarre at the same time.

I tensed up at the feeling, momentarily panicked, before a rough laugh found its way to my ears, the arm pulling my closer to a wall of body behind me. I knew that laugh, or at least I knew it when it wasn't in his morning voice.

I rolled around, turning face to face with Isaac Lahey, the boy grinning wolfishly at me. I smiled back, before glancing around at my room.

"What are you doing here?"

He raised his eyebrows at me. "You asked me to stay."

"And you did?"

Isaac gave me an incredulous look. "'Course."

Something warm bloomed in my chest and I smiled at Isaac, feeling content to just stay there with him forever. It took me a minute to realise why I felt like this, but when I did it was all I could think about.

Trust.

I trusted him.

I hid my face in Isaac's chest, hiding my smile as I tried to smother the giddiness I felt. I wasn't a naturally trusting person- not after growing up with Kate- but I trusted Isaac. It felt relieving, to be able to trust someone. It was scary, yes, but the fact that I did trust him made me feel safe, because I had someone I could rely on. Someone I knew wouldn't do me wrong.

"What's got you so smiley?" Isaac teased, bringing a hand to ruffle my hair.

I looked up at him, feeling the same warmth spread through me. "Just you."

Isaac's smile softened and he pulled me close, the two of us relaxing in one another's embrace. That was until I frowned, listening to the birds chirping outside and the rays of sun making its way through the cracks in my blinds.

"What time is it?"

Isaac mumbled something incoherent as he pressed his face into my hair, that was until he actually realised what I just said. He groaned, craning his neck to check the time on my alarm clock when he jumped up, cursing as he started looking around the room for his shoes.

I got up, looking at the time, and let my own curse slip as I started getting ready. I'd agreed to help Derek with the full moon tonight, and I'd been supposed to meet him at his base about... 5 minutes ago.

I smiled at the memory, secretly suspecting that Isaac had been awake for a lot longer than me but hadn't woken me up, content to lie there next to me as I got my much-needed rest.

Present Derek grabbed something out the box, a long piece of metal chain that clinked together as he pulled it out. "That's the price you pay for this power. You have the ability to heal-" he passed the chains to Isaac, who looked at them with a nervous stare. "-but you're gonna want to kill anything you can find."

"Good thing I had my period last week then," Erica commented.

I snorted, unable to help myself, and Erica and I shared a tentative smile. No matter how much she'd changed when she became a werewolf, she was slowly growing on me, much to Derek's dismay. He didn't like what trouble we could cause as a united front.

Derek was unamused and pulled a particularly horrifying item from the box, chucking it to Erica. "Well this one's for you."

I grimaced as I got a closer look at the thing. It was a metal circular band, supposed to go around the head, with nails covering it that I assumed you'd screw into the wearers head to keep the thing on. Erica looked decidedly less happy as she stared at the torture device in her hands.

Derek continued his lecture on the price for being werewolves, preparing his pack for the full moon. I helped when I could, practising putting on the chains and taking them off of the others. I had to leave after a while though, so as to avoid suspicion from the Argents.

As I left, Isaac intercepted me. He gave me a chaste kiss on the lips, biding me goodbye, before focusing back on Derek who was immensely displeased at me for being a distraction. I left with a huge smile on my face, knowing I'd be there later tonight when the moon actually rose.

Until then, I'd hang around the house, probably talk to Allison about the Kanima or watch a movie. The possibilities were endless.

When I got home though, I knew what I was going to do when I found Allison sitting dejectedly at her desk, staring at her notebook. She looked up when I knocked on her door, giving me a tight smile before gesturing for me to come in.

"You feeling okay?" I asked hesitantly.

Allison sighed, looking at her hands. "I wish Scott had told me about the plan. I only told my parents to help, but if I'd known you guys were doing something I wouldn't have told them."

She didn't mention anything about Scott nearly dying, which made me realise she didn't know. I pondered what to say before deciding Scott could tell her what happened himself, as it wasn't really my place.

We were interrupted from our conversation when Lydia walked in holding a bunch of shopping bags in her hands.

"Clear your schedules," she ordered happily, moving to place her bags on the bed. "This could take a while."

I rolled my eyes at her antics. I'd already told her beforehand that I'd be out of town with my friends from my old place for the night, and while Lydia had been disappointed she'd insisted I still be a part of the getting ready, so here I was.

"How many outfits do you plan on wearing tonight?" Allison asked.

Lydia sent her a side eye. "It's my birthday party."

Lydia seemed to find this answer explanatory enough, because she went on pulling out dresses before landing on a short, black and grey striped one.

"I'm thinking host dress," she said, before grabbing a beautiful velvet green dress, "evening dress, and then... um," she grabbed another dress, "after hours casual."

"I noticed you didn't send out any invites," Allison said.

Lydia scoffed. "It's the biggest party of the year, Allison. Everyone knows."

Allison continued speaking as Lydia rummaged through her shopping bags. "I was wondering if maybe this year things were gonna be, you know, different."

Lydia picked out a sparkling purple dress, inspecting the slit in the side as she said, "why would anything be different?"

Allison shrugged, toying with the end of her sweater. She looked to me for help but I just gave her a thumbs up, unsure what else to do. "Just cause things have been off lately. Things and people... like Jackson."

Lydia stopped her inspection, putting the dress down as her eyes darted to Allison. "Why do you care about Jackson?"

Allison turned to me for help again and I cleared my throat. "Do you know if he's coming? Like... would that be awkward for you because he's your ex or....?"

"Everyone's coming," Lydia repeated, before grabbing another dress and blabbering on about its properties and designer.

Allison and I shared a look. Her response had sounded a bit... robotic. She had been acting off lately, and I worried what it might mean. Did she suspect us? Did she know about the supernatural? Had someone told her?

A knock on the door interrupted my thoughts and Victoria smiled as she entered. "Allison, can I grab you for a moment to talk. Just the two of us?"

I frowned. Something about Victoria seemed off. Her posture was stiff, her smile not meeting her eyes.

"Um, can we do it later?" Allison asked, oblivious to the change in her mother.

Victoria's hand went to her shoulder, rubbing it lightly. "Actually, to be honest sooner would be better."

"The party's at ten," Lydia supplied helpfully, momentarily distracted from her hunt for outfits.

Victoria nodded tightly. "Will you be around before then?"

Allison looked at the dress Lydia had shoved into her hands. "I uh, I think so."

"You think so?" Victoria repeated, disappointed by the response.

I stared at her. Something was definitely wrong, but I wasn't sure what. Allison sighed, putting the dress down.

"I don't know, mum," she shrugged, before turning her attention back to Lydia.

Victoria nodded, swallowing, before her gaze landed on me. I gave her a hesitant smile and she returned it.

"You've been a great kid, Y/n," she said. "I'm glad to have met you."

She walked away after that, the two girls behind me oblivious to what had just happened. I felt nervous though, because what she just said, her words, had sounded uncomfortably similar to a goodbye.