I DIDN'T WASTE ANY TIME IN
in rushing to the hospital to the Sheriff. This was reason number seventy-three why I really disliked my friends sometimes. I knew Stiles and I weren't on speaking terms but I expected a text message to at least let me know that his dad had been shot for Christ's sake.

I abandoned my car out front and pulled my keys out the ignition, barely remembering to lock it before I was sprinting through the double doors and into the familiar entrance way. I ignored the queue of people at the nurses station and instead slammed my hands on to the top of it, "Noah Stilinski," I rushed out, staring at the nurse seated before the desk looking at me in shock, "Sheriff Noah Stilinski. He was brought in with a gunshot wound. Where is he?"

The young nurse opened her mouth but stumbled over her words. I was seconds away from reaching out, grabbing her scrubs, and giving her a shake before I heard my name being called out by a familiar voice, "Alex?"

I turned my head sharply, my hair flying behind me, and I saw Melissa McCall standing down the hallway looking at me with a concerned frown on her face. Her curly hair was pulled back into a low ponytail and she wore pink scrubs with a grey undershirt, the sleeves pulled up to her elbows.

"Melissa," I said, her name rolling off my tongue absentmindedly as I pushed away from the nurses station and ran over to her instead, "I just found out, where is he? Please tell me he's okay?"

She put her hands out and placed them on my shoulders comfortingly, staring into my wide and crazed eyes. My heart was pounding like a drum in my chest as a black pit opened up in my stomach.

"He's fine," she told me calmly, "he's scheduled for surgery in the morning. It only caught his shoulder."

All the air whooshed out of my body and my knees trembled. I staggered back a step but Melissa's hands gripped me tighter before she wove them around my shoulders, "C'mon," she said to me softly, "I'll take you to him."

I barely nodded, trying to compose myself while repeating that he was okay over and over again in my head. I was plagued by the memory of being shot by Matt knowing how traumatic that had been yet I had no idea how this had happened. I looked to Melissa as we walked down the corridor together and asked, "How did it happen?"

"There was an altercation at the station between two deputies. One of them pulled their gun out in self defence and it was knocked from his hand while his finger was over the trigger."

I sighed heavily. It was reassuring to know it was just a simple accident and that it hadn't been a targeted shooting, "Jesus." I mumbled.

"I can't believe you never knew until now," Melissa frowned, "he's been here a few hours."

I swallowed deeply, looking to her. Had no one really told her what had happened between us all recently?

"You don't know?" I asked her.

She shook her head, confusion in her eyes, "Know what?"

"We're all having a huge fight at the moment." I swallowed, "Malia and I against all of them."

Melissa's brows furrowed deeper and she sighed in exasperation, "What have I missed?" 

"Malia and I are sisters," I told her matter-of-factly, "she's a Hale on the deadpool but apparently Stiles, Lydia and Scott have known for a few months that we were related... they never told us, we found out the day of the PSAT's when we found the list in Stiles's coat pocket."

She gasped in shock before I saw a hint of anger and frustration cover her face, "They did what?"

Scott might've been Melissa's only biological child but she still treated Stiles and I like we were her own also. Hearing that Scott and Stiles had kept something of this magnitude from me really riled her up.

I only nodded and said, "That's why we're not talking right now."

"Just you wait until I get my hands on them." She grumbled and I had no doubt she was telling the truth. I'd seen Melissa kick their asses all over this hospital before and she had no problem doing it again.

I mumbled my thanks but it wasn't long before we were standing in front of a closed door and Melissa was turning to me, "This is his room," she said to me with a soft smile, "he's on morphine so he might be a bit tired."

"Thank you, Melissa." I replied sincerely with a pressed smile before I opened the door and entered the room quietly.

The Sheriff was lying in bed resting his head against the pillow behind him with his eyes closed. I thought he was sleeping until I watched him open his eyes as if they were heavy and he fixed his gaze on me. His brows rose but he looked relived to see me and he closed his eyes again and released a soft sigh, "Alex."

I walked over to his bed and stood before it, placing my hand over his on the bed and looking at him, "I'm sorry I wasn't here sooner," I apologised straight off the bat, "I only just found out you were here. Are you okay?"

"It's okay and I'm fine." He said somewhat tiredly, leaning back into the pillow. His arm was in a blue sling and he wore a hospital gown but he did look okay and relief pooled out of me.

"I was really scared for a moment, Sheriff." I admitted honestly, hearing my voice shake.

"I'm sorry, kiddo." He responded, "I didn't want to scare you."

I shook my head, pulling the empty seat up to his bed and sitting down, "It's okay," I said quietly, sensing he was tired, "I'm just glad it didn't hit anything major."

I was still scarred from being shot myself by Matt and I hadn't even seen the true extent. I'd been pretty much unconscious for the most part but I knew everyone else remembered it vividly. I remembered Stiles telling me about when he saw the EMTs roll me out of the station on the stretcher, how he felt when he saw the blood and thought I was dead. All I could really remember was the pain and thinking I was going to die.

The Sheriff sighed tiredly, his eyes still closed, "Me too."

I rubbed his arm, feeling for any pain to take away but he didn't have any. I noticed a morphine drip hanging from a drip stand and realised that was why. I was glad he was out of pain.

"Get some sleep, Sheriff," I said softly, "I'll be here if you need anything. I won't go anywhere, I promise."

I thought he might've already fallen asleep when he didn't say anything for a few seconds but then I saw his brows pull into a frown as he started to say, "Stiles should be—"

When the door opened I knew exactly who it was without even having to look. I felt my heart start to thrash against my chest, adrenaline shooting through my body as the all too familiar scent invaded me and wrapped me up in that sea of bliss.

So I looked up and into those hazel coloured eyes that were wide with both surprise and shock. I didn't reciprocate anything. Not as Stiles stood there with a can of coke in his hand and said in total and utter disbelief, "Alex?"

____________

It had been awkward at the hospital with Stiles. When I looked at him no words came to mind. I just drew a total blank and I couldn't figure out if that was good or bad. He tried to talk to me, to ask where I had been and if I was okay. He started trying to explain himself but at that point I cut him off with a shake of my head and said I didn't want to talk. There were better places than in the hospital with the Sheriff while he'd been shot, when I felt ready we could figure it out then.

I didn't look at him and feel sheer and utter anger anymore but I still felt betrayed in a way. It was more the fact that he had broken my trust... again, by choosing—for whatever reason—to hide the truth from me about Malia being my half sister. I think even when I did decide I was ready to hear him out I would never understand or accept his reasoning behind it. If I found out he had a secret sibling I would tell him straight away, no hesitation. Stiles and all my friends made that conscious decision to keep it a secret from Malia and I.

I stayed for a few hours before I went back to the loft. The Sheriff was pretty much out of it with the morphine and Melissa promised to keep me up to date with his surgery. That was two days ago. The surgery had gone as well as could be expected and the Sheriff went back to work today.

Malia and I went back to school yesterday though we had managed to avoid our friends in the two days we'd been back. I'd only seen Liam around and I'd never once spotted Stiles's Jeep in the car park, not like I was looking for it. Malia and I spent our free periods and lunches together digging up whatever we could find on her birth mother which admittedly wasn't much at all. We had a name and that was it. Peter also hadn't volunteered anymore information which was exceptionally frustrating.

But somehow the working week had come to an end. It was a stark reminder that even when our lives were literally in turmoil the outside world was still moving on as if nothing was ever happening. Suddenly, it had been six days since I found out Malia was my sister and now I was picking her up from her house and taking her to the start of season bonfire that took place every year at school.

It was exactly what it sounded like; a bonfire to mark the beginning of the lacrosse season in just under two weeks time. I remembered last year's bonfire as it were yesterday... because that's what it felt like. I'd only been back in Beacon Hills two weeks. Stiles and I weren't even together. I couldn't believe that it was only a year... the amount we'd all been through, it felt like it should've been at least two or three years ago.

The school field was absolutely bursting with teenagers, however. The bonfire in the shape of the cyclone had already been lit and a DJ was already mid-way into his set for the night. The mixture of strobe lights and fire dulled out the soft lights around the school illuminating the area. It was already dark and everywhere I looked were stumbling teenagers, drunk off their asses.

Commotion to my right piqued my attention and I turned my head to see a bunch of boys standing around a keg, holding one upside down as he drank from the pipe and everyone shouted and cheered for him. They weren't dressed in the traditional burgundy Beacon Hills uniform but instead a striking cobalt blue. I couldn't make out what school was written on their jerseys.

That was the thing with the start of season bonfire; rival teams showed up for a bit of teasing and fighting before it got down to the nitty gritty. They were teenage boys. They had tempers. They were competitive and most of all, they liked to fight... a lot. If I had a dollar for every fight I'd seen break out in a Lacrosse game I'd be well on my way to being rich. But when they fought on the pitch they got penalised and if they got penalised they got benched. Turning up at the bonfire was an easy way to start a fight and get away with it without punishment.

The bonfires also brought the alumni crawling out of the woodwork as well. I'd ready spotted three graduates from last years team boasting about how they'd won the state championship. One of them hadn't stopped staring at me all night and he was really starting to freak me out. I'd already watched him and his friend start a fight with Davenforth Prep over the semi-final game last year.

A drunken girl stumbled into me at full force, knocking me to the side, and I looked at her in annoyance and distaste. The only downside I hated about not being able to get drunk was being sober around other drunk people. Drunk people were assholes and they loved to test my patience. The girl glanced at me in what seemed like slow motion, her eyes hazy and glazed, before she looked back at her friend and started laughing. The look of blame on her face—as if it were my fault for being there when she fell into me—enraged me.

Without even having the time to process my anger I was pushing her forward into her friend, watching as she stumbled into her. Whatever alcohol was in her red solo cup sloshed out the side and all over her opened toed shoes but I didn't give one single fuck. When she looked at me again, her eyes were wide and shock was written all over her face. Her friend looked at me too, recognition flashing in their eyes. They looked no older than sixteen. They were probably freshmen and this was their first time experiencing being drunk but they chose the wrong girl to stumble into.

"The word you're looking for is 'sorry' asshole." I bit snakily, flashing her a big, fake, smile before I walked away from them and right into someone else's eyesight.

"Bullying freshmen? That's new for you." Scott said to me as he fell in line beside me.

I barely held back my groan of frustration and instead, gave him a side eye, "What do you want?"

"Your help." Scott replied.

I rose my brows and scoffed as we walked casually, "You have nerve."

"It's not for me," he explained quickly, looking at me, "it's for them."

I glanced over at where he was looking at saw both Malia and Liam standing a few feet apart but not together. Malia was swaying her hips to the music that pounded through my ears while drinking out of a hip flask and Liam was drinking from a bottle wrapped in a paper bag. I knew Malia was here because I'd given her a ride but I was yet to see Liam. I knew he would be here because he was on the lacrosse team but there were a few members of the lacrosse team I was yet to see, including the one I was still actively trying to avoid.

Scott distracted me from my thoughts when he said, "We can't get drunk."

I nodded, "I know." I hadn't said anything to Malia when she got into my car with that flask in her hands. She looked like she needed a drink, and to be honest so did I. I didn't want to put a downer on her already bad mood. I couldn't blame her for wanting to get drunk just to forget about her problems for one night. I wished I could do the same.

"Then why is she drinking?" Scott asked me.

I rolled my eyes, "God who are you? The fun police?" I asked him, "She's going through a hard time Scott, let her do whatever she wants..." I glanced over at her and Liam again and added, "Same for Liam, poor kid just got thrown into a brand new world and has people trying to kill him."

Scott didn't say anything in response to my words. Guilt etched across his face as he turned to look at Malia and Liam again. After a moment he sighed and said, "Will you just help me look out for any assassins?"

"Of course I will." I replied as if it were obvious before looking at him and saying, "If that's all?"

Scott met my gaze but didn't say anything. I took it as my queue to leave, walking away from him until I heard him shout my name again. I turned to him with a blank stare as he said, "When are you gonna hear us out about this?"

I clenched my fist once as my gaze hardened and I said, "When I stop feeling nothing but anger whenever I look at one of you."

I left him standing there in complete and utter silence.

_____________

I wasn't sure how much time had passed but the sun had completely set and it was now dark out. The bonfire still burned brightly and it showed no sign of dying any time soon. I remained true to my word and kept an attentive eye out, looking at anyone who looked or seemed suspicious. The more time that passed however, the more I started to let my guard down. Everyone here were teenagers just like Scott and I and I knew that Garret and Violet had also been teenagers but everyone here was absolutely drunk out of their minds.

It wasn't hard to find a drink of my own and I sipped on it casually as I observed the party around me. The DJ's set was in full swing, a loud mixture of techno and dance vibrating across the grounds and every so often I winced as the pitch became just too much for my sensitive ears. I wasn't planning on hanging around for much longer, I could already feel a headache forming between my eyes, but there was no way on this earth that I would go and leave Malia and Liam here.

I pinched my temples with my thumb and my forefinger before I swallowed what was left in my cup and left it on a wall. I needed to get out of here, the pain in my head was getting worse with each passing second and I was kind of annoyed that I was still yet to see Stiles here. I had no idea why I wanted to see him—I wasn't actually sure if I did want to see him—it just annoyed the ever loving fuck out of me that he wasn't here because where else would he be?

My mood was getting worse by the second. Jesus, I felt like I was going to kill someone.

A quiet growl spilled passed my lips before I could contain it and I looked around for my pack. Liam was in the exact same place he had been at the beginning of the night, sitting on a bench with his best friend. I'd take Mason home, too, if it meant me getting out of here right this second.

I walked over to him, cutting across the field, but paused in my tracks when a wave of dizziness swept over me. It left me stumbling to the side as the world around me danced and I lifted my hand to cover my eyes briefly while I swore, "Shit."

I managed to regain my footing but the world was still twisting and turning in the most unpleasant way. It made me feel nauseous and panic gripped me by the throat. I couldn't get drunk so unless someone had laced my drink with something like wolfsbane there was something else making me like this which meant it would be affecting Liam, too.

It took all my concentration to put one foot in front of the other and walk over to where Liam was. He was just standing when I reached him, calling out his name, and when he heard me he looked at me but he stumbled so far forward he practically fell into me.

"H-hey, Alex." He stumbled out, "I think I'm a little drunk."

I grunted as I tried to right both him and I, planting my feet firmly in the ground to stop us from falling. I shook my head as I managed to get him sat back on the bench and put one hand on his shoulder, "You're not Liam, we can't get drunk." I said to him in a voice his friend couldn't hear.

Liam frowned up at me, confusion pulling though his hazy gaze and while I struggled to see through my own eyes I could just make out that he, too, was feeling the same kind of dizziness that I was by his inability to focus on me properly.

A body caught my attention and I looked to see Scott guiding Malia to sit down next to Liam before he handed her a bottle of water. Her body was swaying side to side in a similar fashion to Liam's and I met Scott's gaze with a worried frown.

We were in deep, deep, trouble.

Scott bent forward in front of Liam and looked at Mason who was standing by me, "How much has he had to drink?"

"Not enough to get him like this." Mason replied.

"Something's happening," Scott said, more to Mason than to me, "we need to get them out of here. I think we're gonna have to—um..." he stopped and I glanced to my left to see him looking at his hand, his eyes unfocused.

"How much did you have to drink?" Mason asked Scott.

"Nothing," Scott replied, "not even a sip."

I fought to look at Mason though when I did I saw double of him and I wasn't sure which was him and which wasn't. I squeezed my eyes shut only to open them again and find nothing had changed. There was still two of him, "My car is in the parking lot... we just need to get to it and you'll have to drive."

"What the—?" He began by saying, "I've been drinking, too!"

"But you're not drunk." I argued, "And I'm willing to bet you're not over the limit... I don't usually condone driving while intoxicated, Mason, but this is an emergency."

I couldn't help but cringe when the pitch of the music practically pounded in my skull. It felt like someone was stabbing needles into my brain and I leaned forward, clapping my hands over my ears while saying, "God, the music."

Scott looked at me, eyes unfocused as he said, "It's not the drinks.... It's the music."

"What?" I muttered, holding his gaze.

He stood tall, body swaying as he looked at Mason and said, "I have to..." he squeezed his eyes shut and tried again, "I have to turn off the music, don't let them out of your sight."

I tried to lean forward to grab what I thought was his arm but my hand swiped at nothing but air and I almost fell face first if it hadn't of been for Mason catching me at the last second, "Scott, my car—" I tried to argue.

"It's too far away." He argued, "We'll be vulnerable. This is the only way."

Before I could protest any further he was walking away and I was left sitting on the bench next to Liam and Malia. One glance at them had my heart pounding in my chest, Malia was passed out against the table and Liam's eyes were growing heavier by the second. I tried my very hardest to stay focus and conscious but with every passing second my vision was becoming more and more distorted.

My body started to feel numb, my arms heavy by my sides, "Mason," I managed to stutter out. He appeared in front of me, crouching and I said, "we.. need to ... go."

"But Scott—"

I shook my head and said, "Now."

He stood up and I lost control of my body momentarily when it collapsed backward into the bench table behind me, my head lulling to the side as my eyes grew heavy. I tried to coax myself to keep them open, to keep awake but opening them was a difficulty I'd only ever experienced once before.

A firm and cold hand around my upper arm made me flinch and I opened my eyes to see the figure of a man in a brown shirt standing in front of me. Whoever he was, he pulled on my arm in an attempt to get me to my feet but I recoiled away, pushing at him with my free hand, "G-get off me." I snapped weakly, barely able to make out his facial features.

"No, up you get." The man said, trying to pull me up again, "Come on now, don't make this harder than what it has to be."

I hit his hand away as it tried to grab my other arm and kicked out with my foot, hitting him in the shin, "I said get off me."

"Here we go." A second male voice echoed in my ear, another hand wrapping around my other arm like a vice. The two men hoisted me to my feet, holding me by my arms when my knees buckled under my body weight.

My heart slammed against my chest in panic as they began to drag me through a crowd of people I could barely see. My vision was swirling and my body was so heavy it didn't work but my mind was still reeling. I knew I was in trouble but as I tried to fight the men holding me I barely moved.

They dragged me from one dark space to another and I just made out the blue double doors that led into the school. They slammed behind us and the two men dragged me a little further down the corridor before they let go of my body and I dropped to hard ground like a led weight.

I groaned as I fell on to my side, pain exploding through my body, "Jesus." I managed to force out. I uncurled my arms from underneath me and used all my remaining strength to push myself up into a slouched sitting position against the lockers. Looking to my left I saw Liam and Malia, unconscious on the ground beside me and I whimpered softly knowing we were royally screwed. Three men stood in front of us, their figures dark in the dim hallway and I swallowed thickly.

The doors opened and closed once more and by the time I managed to turn my head to look, Scott was being dumped on the ground beside me by two more men. He sat up against the lockers, too, and I turned my head to look at him, fear swimming in my eyes, "Scott.." I mumbled.

He met my gaze fleetingly before looking at the five men who had dragged us in here and asked, "What is that? What are you doing?"

"It's gasoline," the man replied in a sneer, "Haigh says we gotta burn you."

A whimper fell passed my lips that I couldn't control. Tears rose to my eyes and I closed them, tilting my head back to the ceiling. I had no idea who this Haigh was but I wasn't all that hard to figure out, especially when someone had tried to set Parrish on fire a few days ago.

But this... it was my worst fear. Not one of those I don't like spiders fear. No, this was my actual worst fear in the entire world. Fire... being burnt alive. It had been ever since I was six years old.

A familiar hand grabbed mine and I interlaced my fingers through Scott's and squeezed tightly when I felt cold liquid splash over my legs. The stench of gasoline was overpowering and I cringed, edging further toward Scott while begging through my tears, "Scott, make it stop."

I turned my face into Scott's shoulder and felt the cold gasoline splash over my body. It hit my hair, my neck, the side of my face. The man soaked the four of us with it and Scott squeezed my hand in comfort while I kept my face buried in his shoulder for comfort.

I heard the flickering of a lighter and opened one eye to see the naked flame burning, ready to light up the second this man decided to drop it. The fear that pounded through my body was paralysing and I decided to close my eyes and wait, knowing I'd rather not know when he started the fire that would torture us to death.

My hand squeezed Scott's in a death grip as I curled into his body in fear but he never said anything. He merely wrapped his other arm around my shoulders and held me in protection, the two of us just waiting for—

The music I could still faintly make out stopped and the heavy feeling in my body just disappeared. I had barely pulled my head out of Scott's shoulder when he grabbed the man's hand that held the lighter and forced him to close it before twisting his arm in an unnatural way. Bone crunched and he groaned in pain while I swung my leg toward him and kicked him square in the chest.

He fell back with a groan, his body slamming off the cold tile the same way mine had only minutes ago. With each passing second I regained more control of my body and I blinked through clear eyes just as Braeden appeared from within the shadows, Derek right behind her. The remaining men that had dragged us in here charged toward them—completely defenceless. I watched with baited breath as two of them engaged in a fight with my cousin while the other two fought Braeden.

Derek moved with expert skill and for a second, I could hardly believe my eyes watching the way he fought. Each hit landed precisely where he aimed and within less than two minutes he had knocked both men to the ground unconscious just as Braeden had. She stepped forward to the man who had held the lighter in Scott and I's faces and watched as he tried to push himself up on his hands only to kick them out from underneath him and use the butt of her gun to hit him in the temple and knock him out.

A sigh of relief pooled out from deep within my chest as Derek walked over to Scott and I. My friend looked at my cousin and asked, "What happened to the gun?"

"You're covered in gasoline." Derek replied as if it were obvious.

"Oh, yeah." Scott replied, slight amusement to his tone as he remembered.

He stopped in front of Scott and I and held his hand out for me to grab on to. I put my wet hand into his and allowed him to help pull me to my feet. The second I was standing upright he grabbed my shoulders and looked me over with worried eyes, "Are you alright?"

I barely managed a nod, swallowing the lump in my throat as I stuttered out a strangled, "Fine."

He nodded slowly, releasing a small breath before he wrapped me in a brief hug. I didn't even have it in me to wrap my arms around him. I merely just stood there and let him comfort me before he pulled away and moved to help Scott up. My best friend smiled at my cousin as Derek shoved him playfully before turning to help Malia and Liam up, also, but all I could do was stand and stare at him until he met my gaze again.

His brow arched and he said, "You're sure you're alright?"

"You saved our lives." I exhaled before I looked down to the forgotten lighter on the ground, "He was going to—"

"I know," Derek said, wrapping me in an embrace again, "I know, but they can't hurt you now."

He was right, they couldn't, but what was to say someone wasn't waiting just outside for us as we spoke. Or if someone was watching us, waiting for the perfect opportunity to strike us down when we were alone? I swallowed thickly, fear still pulsating through my body. Each attempt was coming closer and closer to killing us. People were getting braver, bolder... how long would it be before they finally caught up to one of us?

This had to end. We had to find the Benefactor and put a stop to this madness and we had to do it now.

____________