THE FIVE OF US WERE TOO SHOCKED TO SAY ANYTHING as we stood dumbfounded. Isaac's words didn't really process well in my head, they sort of got jammed somewhere and clogged my entire thought process and brain. I couldn't even move from the shock as I watched as Isaac suddenly jumped out of the tub, water and ice splashing all over my feet as he gasped for breath.

"I saw it! I saw the name." He told us, "It's, uh... B-beacon hills first national bank. It's, um... it's an abandoned bank, and they're keeping them locked inside — inside the vault."

He took a towel from Deaton as he wrapped it around him and he looked to us all in confusion, "What?"

"You don't remember what you said right before you came out of it, do you?" Stiles asked him.

Isaac shook his head as water dripped off his face, "No."

"You said when they captured you that they dragged you into a room and that there was a body in it."

"What body?" He questioned, looking between us all.

I looked to my friend apologetically knowing Isaac had had a good bond with Erica after Derek had turned them both. The two of us mightn't of gotten along but it was still horrible that she'd been killed by Deucalion and his alpha pack. I exhaled quietly under my breath as I said, "Isaac.."

"What body?" He pressed, looking to me for the answer.

I shook my head as I bit my bottom lip and it was Stiles who replied, "Erica. You said it was Erica."

I watched as Isaac drew his head back and an expression of sheer confusion paired with denial painted over his face. His jaw dropped slightly as he looked between us all, too speechless to say anything.

It was me who broke the thick silence that fell upon us as I stepped forwards, "Isaac, I'm sorry."

"I—I can't remember that." He said to me as he looked to the floor and shook his head, "Are you sure I said that? Did you mishear it or something?"

"No." Scott said to him softly as he put his hand on Isaac's shoulder, "We didn't."

"I can't believe it." He muttered then, dropping the towel from his body as he grabbed his shirt and put it back on. He ran his hand through his hair, flattening it to his head, as he walked over to me and hopped up on Deaton's examination table that had been pushed up against the wall.

I frowned at him and followed him over as he leaned against the wall, looking down to the floor and I shook his knee gently, "Are you okay?"

"Yeah.. yeah." He said to me quietly as Derek and Scott began to converse behind us. He met my concerned gaze before he looked down to my arm and took it in his hands, examining the red bruising on my skin from where he'd gripped on to me, "Are you all right? I'm sorry if I hurt you."

"The claws stung like a bitch." I joked with a faint amused grin and he chuckled shortly under his breath as I continued, "But I suppose I'm gonna have to get used to it, right?"

"Yeah.. it's not a pleasant feeling."

I nodded in agreement with him as we both smiled faintly, doing anything we could to take our minds of the possibility of Erica being dead. I reached for his jumper I'd been wearing and I slipped it back on, pushing the long sleeves up to my elbows before I jumped up on the table beside him. I curled my knees into my chest, hugging them as I leaned against the wall, looking to Derek as he paced back and forth but I was suddenly struck by an intense feeling of jealousy.

It made my head spin and I exhaled in surprise as I turned to Isaac, "Jesus.. do you feel that?"

Isaac met my gaze fleetingly and he nodded before he turned and looked away from me. I followed his gaze as he fixed it on something in front of us and turned to see Stiles. He was watching Isaac and I intensely, his jaw locked tight and his eyes glossy. I didn't know what to do at first. I had half the mind to move.. to separate myself from Isaac but then I wondered why I'd do that. Isaac was my friend and he'd been there for me while I cried over Stiles so I was going to return the favour and support him during this time.

But then I realised if his thoughts were similar to mine all he wanted right now was to be the one sitting next to me. Like I craved him, he craved me and there was nothing neither of us could do about it. A giant rift had formed between us, preventing us from getting close to each other. It didn't make matters easier that I was wearing Isaac's lacrosse jumper instead of his. I always wore Stiles' lacrosse jumper and now, sitting here wearing Isaac's was me rubbing salt into the wound.

Stiles and I met each other's gaze for a second and I was so taken by the way his hazel eyes swirled they rendered me breathless. They were so enticing and they held enough power to draw me in.. even when I couldn't allow them to. I needed to heal and so I tore my gaze away and put my focus into Derek.

"She's not dead." He denied.

"First stage of grief, Derek." I reminded him, referring to what we'd not long talked about outside, "Denial."

"Derek he said 'there's a dead body. It's Erica.' Doesn't exactly leave us much room for interpretation." Stiles also said.

"Then who was in the vault with Boyd?" Derek snapped.

"Someone else, obviously."

"And maybe it was the girl on the motorcycle." Scott suggested as he turned to Isaac, "The one who saved you?"

"No, she wasn't like us.. and whoever was in the vault with Boyd was." Isaac replied.

"What if that's how Erica died?" Stiles suggested, "They, like, pit them against each other during the full moons and see which one survives. It's like werewolf thunderdome."

"Then we get them out tonight." Derek said firmly.

"So you want us to die?" I asked him with an arched brow, "Go marching in with little to no plan and wing it?" I scoffed as I shook my head, "Look, I know we've got a hell of a lot on our plates right now and saving Boyd and whoever else is in that vault tonight would be easier than doing it on the full moon but we've got to think about this."

"Alex is right, Derek." Deaton said as he backed me up, "Be smart about this, You can't just go storming in."

"If Isaac got in, then so can we." Derek argued.

"But he didn't get through a vault door, did he?" Deaton asked him rhetorically.

"We need a plan." Scott agreed.

"How are we gonna come up with a plan to break into a bank vault in less than 48 hours?" Derek asked the five of us.

"Uh, I think someone already did." Stiles said as he looked down to his phone, "'Beacon Hills First National closes its doors three months after vault robbery.' doesn't say here how it was robbed, but it probably won't take long to find out."

"How long?"

"It's the Internet, Derek. Okay? Minutes." Stiles responded.

Derek sighed in defeat as he crossed his arms and he looked back to Isaac and I, "You really want to wait until the night of the full moon?" He said to me, "If we did it tonight we could solve all our problems."

"Not really." I said to him, "Because then we still have the full moon to deal with or are you forgetting about that?"

"Look." Isaac interjected, "Best case scenario, Stiles figures out how to break in and we go tomorrow. Worst case scenario we have to do it on Friday."

"But we need as many of us as we can get." Derek argued his point.

"Hang on." Stiles said then, holding his hand up as he waved it around in our direction, "What the hell is going on here? You guys keep on talking about the full moon like it's important. Isaac has control now, right?"

The three of us hesitated as we looked around sheepishly. I tucked a strand of hair behind my ear in apprehension, coaxing myself up internally as I looked between Stiles and Scott.

Realisation dawned upon my friends face and it fell slack with shock as Scott said, "Wait a minute.." He glanced to Derek fleetingly before he looked to me, "I thought something was off before when you walked in but I couldn't place it, now.."

"What?" Stiles snapped desperately, "Scott, what?"

"Your arm." Scott said to me, "It's healed?"

I pressed my lips together as I looked down to my untarnished skin on my forearm. It was clear, not even a trace of the bruise that had been there a few minutes ago. I nodded as I lifted my arm up for both him and Stiles to see.

"The way you healed when you'd been shot." Scott mumbled, "From the inside out.. discharging yourself from the hospital twelve hours after a car wreck that made you go into cardiac arrest.."

"I'm surprised your mom didn't tell you." I mumbled sheepishly.

"Did they bite you?" Scott asked me before he looked to Derek accusingly, "Did you bite her?"

"What?" Stiles said then and as I looked to his face I saw as disbelief consumed him. He shook his head in denial before he looked to Derek in disgust before he tried to charge after him but Scott intervened before he could reach him, "You bit her— no. No way."

"Derek didn't bite me." I said to them both quickly, "I was born."

"Born?" Stiles asked me incredulously as his eyes narrowed in disbelief. He scoffed as he shook his head, "Neither of your parents were werewolves unless.."

"My dad." I said then as he and Scott looked to me in confusion, "He's not my biological dad... it's Peter."

A thick silence blanketed us as Scott looked to the floor in shock while Stiles paced back and forth. My friend furrowed his brows eventually and he said, "I thought if you were born a werewolf you shifted early?"

"Normally you do." Derek nodded.

"The fire sort of kick started my abilities." I said then, "My dad was a hunter long before I was born and he knew a doctor in the hospital who was a hunter too. They trialled a type of wolfsbane to suppress the gene and it worked."

"Can't they give you the wolfsbane again?" Stiles asked me, "Stop you from becoming a werewolf."

I shook my head bitterly as I listened to the way he spoke to me. It didn't anger me.. it broke my heart, "You really can't stand the thought of me being a werewolf can you? You want me to continue poisoning myself?" I asked him, "Thank you so much for your support Stiles during this extremely difficult and confusing time."

"I just don't like the sound of my odds of survival during your first full moon." He defended.

I scoffed then as I sat forwards, the back of my nose began to burn like it always did before I cried and I dragged my hands through my hair, "You really think that I would kill you?"

"I think you've got enough anger and hatred stored up against me, yeah."

"Stiles I don't— I'm not angry with you." I told him, opening myself to the vulnerability I'd been hiding away from all this time. I could feel myself leaping off the stepping stone of anger and disbelief and jumping towards sadness. He only held my gaze, his eyes swirling with such an array of emotions.

"I think this might be something that needs addressing in private." Deaton suggested as he looked between Stiles and I, "If you'd like to."

Was that what I wanted? Could I handle something like this right now?

I looked to Stiles as he clenched his jaw and nodded. Seeing him so visibly upset was something I still wasn't accustomed to, he was always the one who kept himself and us in high spirits.

"Okay." I found myself whispering quietly as I pushed myself off the table. I passed Stiles as I headed for the front, walking outside where the rain had subsided. Thunder still rumbled in the distance but it didn't bother me. What bothered me was how Stiles couldn't even meet my eyes when he walked out of the clinic.

A sharp pain stabbed through my chest, "You can't even look at me, can you?"

He swallowed thickly before he lifted his gaze of the ground to meet my eyes. I watched as he inhaled heavily before he finally shook his head and said, "Alex, I'm so sorry."

"And you really think sorry is going to cut it?" I asked him.

He shook his head again, "I know it's not going to cut it, all right? I know because Scott has told me a thousand times, Lydia has reminded me over and over again."

"Then what?" I asked him, throwing my arms out slightly.

"I just want you back." He said to me honestly.

My bottom lip began to tremble as tears clouded my eyes. I wanted him back, I really did but the worst thing was I'd lost all my trust in him. He was once the person I thought would never, ever, hurt me.. yet here we were.

"Stiles.." I uttered tearfully.

He walked slowly towards me until he was standing right in front of me and yet I didn't have the heart to push him away. I barely had the strength to look away from his hazel gaze.

"Alex, please." He pleaded, "I need you. I can't cope without you. I was a mess on Sunday night when I got to the hospital. I could hear everything they were saying when they were working on you, I heard you flatline.. I heard them shocking your heart. I lost my mind when you left with those two boys on Friday. I hated how you were looking at me because I knew how badly I'd screwed up."

When Stiles took both of mine in his and brought them up to his lips, pressing kisses to my knuckles before he held them, tears slipped uncontrollably down my face. I couldn't help it... I couldn't take it. The longer we stood like this, close in vicinity, the more I felt myself gravitating towards him but I knew it was only because I missed him. Until I had forgiven him I couldn't allow myself to be near him because I wasn't physically strong enough not to crawl back to him.. even after his wrongdoings.

With a shake of my head I pulled my hands out of his and stepped away from him, trying my hardest to ignore the hurt that seeped into his face, "Stiles, I don't trust you anymore." I cried, "You hurt me.. you- you actually cheated on me—"

"I didn't cheat on you, Alex, she just kept on trying to make a move on me."

"But you never stopped her." I said to him, "You didn't pull away."

"Because I was shocked, what else was I supposed to do?" He yelled.

"Walk away from her!" I yelled back, matching his tone, "Come and found me, left the party— anything! Stiles, you could've done anything except agree to go into the basement with her."

"She told me—"

I shook my head as I closed my eyes, "I don't care what she said to you, Stiles." I said to him tiredly, "You hurt me.. and because of that I don't trust you anymore. I can't be around you until I've figured all this out."

"Figured what out?" He croaked then as his eyes glistened with unshed tears, "If you want to stay with me?"

I licked my lips before I sighed. Stiles took my silence as an answer and he nodded in disappointment, his crestfallen face causing me so much pain and guilt. I wasn't the one who has caused this though, I reminded myself. This was Stiles' mistake and so I couldn't allow myself to feel guilty for telling him how badly he'd hurt me.

Sadness engulfed me. It was strong and overbearing — even worse then when I'd caught him kissing Heather. I didn't know how to handle it. It was too much for me to even tackle and instead I felt it consume me whole. It was the progression from the anger to sadness, the fourth stage to the fifth and while I was glad I'd overcome my immediate anger towards Stiles I desperately wanted this feeling to pass.

It was so heavy and I felt as if I was being pulled further and further into the ground with every passing second. I didn't know what to do.

What was clear to me though was the longer I stood in front of Stiles the more I wanted to let him help me through this sadness. It was turning me against my own morals, my own process of getting through this independently. It was like my mother had said the night I saw her last, I couldn't rely on Stiles for the rest of my life. I had to be my own strength and my own anchor.

It took everything inside of me to turn away from him and walk back into the animal clinic, pretending as if he wasn't there, and I cleared my throat bravely as Derek looked to me.

"Can we go now?"

___________________

Thursday passed in a blur and I spent the night in Isaac's room, unable to control my tears as I scrolled through all the photos of Stiles and I. Isaac didn't understand why I was putting myself through the unnecessary pain but he didn't get it. I was doing it in an attempt to speed up the process of overcoming my sadness but if anything it just made me even more depressed. The two of us spent our night on Derek's balcony, watching as the town settled in for the night as I dried the many tears from my face.

When the sun rose I felt physically ill with anxiety. Scott and Stiles were supposed to of found how to break Boyd and whoever else was in the vault out yesterday but they hadn't. Now we were on a serious time crunch. We had to do this tonight, before the full moon hit it's peak. That wasn't why I felt sick though, it was the thought of my first full moon that scared me beyond belief. This morning I had a little headache — nothing I hadn't ever dealt with before — but as the day passed and the night fell I could feel everything around me slipping away. I was losing my footing by the second, my voice of rationale was getting quieter and quieter, my vision was getting darker and cloudier and my mood had been on a downward spiral since I'd woken up.

I was quiet.. I had to be to be able to listen to and comprehend my thoughts before I lost them completely.

Not even Derek's punching bag — that I had been going to town on all day — managed to subdue that tiny ball of anger in the back of my brain. I'd never noticed it until I had shifted but now I was hyper aware of it. It was red — or at least that was what colour I had given it — and it was like a small ball of energy. It lived in the darkest crevice of my mind with my suffocating nightmares and fears and all day it had been slowly growing in size. It was always no bigger than a pea though now I had to estimate it was the size of a quarter and that scared me. All that anger just waiting to consume me...

When Derek walked in with a heavy duty duffel bag and dropped it on the floor near me my stomach churned. I looked down to the bag nauseously after hearing the clattering of metal chains and I balled my fists at my sides.

"It's a precaution." Derek warned me.

I looked up and met his gaze before I couched down to the bag and undid the zipper. The chains were big and they were heavy. There was a lot of them and the cold bite of them against my skin caused me to shiver.

"There not a precaution." I shook my head, "They're a definite.. I can tell you're lying to me."

Derek glanced back fleetingly to Peter who had been silent since he'd arrived. I wasn't entirely sure what he was doing here but I didn't care to ask either, I had too much on my mind.

I looked back down to the duffel and continued looking through it until I saw something at the bottom of the bag. I picked up the metal and examined it in my hands, recognising the design inside the circular shape immediately. I grazed my thumb over the front of it and with a confused frown looked up to Derek, "The triskele?" He nodded once as I stood up with the metal disk in my hands, "I thought this was just a tattoo design."

"It's how my mom used to teach us to learn how to control our shifts during our first full moons." Derek said to me.

"By looking at a symbol?" I asked him in confusion.

He shook his head as he pointed to the top swirl, "There are lots of different meaning for it. You use whatever works best for you, when I was shifting I used to use Alpha, Beta, Omega.. how you can rise but also fall to any status within the pack." He said, "A Beta can become an Alpha but an Alpha can fall back down to an Omega — everyone in that pack is the same, no matter of their status."

"You can use the stages of life." Isaac suggested, "Birth, life and death. Sky, earth and water.. past, present and future.. the phases of a moon, new, half and full."

"Past, present and future." I mumbled then as I glanced to the floor. How fitting. I was tying to recover my past to progress with my future while negotiating my preset. It represented me well, especially in this moment in time, "I think that's the one."

Derek nodded as he pointed to the top spiral and said, "This is your past.." He pointed to the lower right, "your present.." Then he pointed to the lower left, "and this is your future. It represents you.. it's who you are."

"Don't count on it to work for the first time, Alex." Peter said to me then, "Sometimes it takes a bit of practice before you can keep control of your shifting under the full moon but it should take some strain off you tonight."

"He's right." Derek said to me, "Don't be disheartened in the morning if it doesn't work tonight."

"You'll do better if you find yourself an anchor also." Peter added, "Don't think overthink it though."

I exhaled steadily, "Got it."

Derek put his hand on my arm supportively and he said, "I know your nervous but you'll be okay." I nodded while swallowing thickly and he said, "Keep the triskelion, after all you are apart of the Hale family."

I looked down to the metal circle and nodded. I had a lot to help me through tonight. I had the triskelion, I had my anchor which I was praying I'd find before it was too late and worst case scenario I had the chains and my claws. Pain kept you human and while that was my absolute last resort it was a method to prevent me from shifting completely.

Past, present, future, I thought — letting the words echo softly in my mind as I took controlled breaths. My anxious thoughts ceased somewhat, lessening to an extent that didn't make me want to vomit everywhere.

The loft door swung open and I looked to see Scott and Stiles walking in with two duffel bags of their own and they walked into the loft. Derek left my side as he walked over to them and the three of them gathered around his table with Isaac. I remained in my spot though, looking back to the triskelion in my hands before I glanced fleetingly to the contents of the black duffel bag.

"Alex?" I heard my name being called then and I looked up to see Scott standing in front of me. He gave me a supportive smile and put his hand on my shoulder, "Are you okay?"

I pressed my lips together and I nodded, "Just nervous." I exhaled.

"You'll be okay." He told me, "I was scared too."

"I just remember Stiles telling me how you nearly killed him that night in the locker room and I remember your second full moon and it just—"

"You're much better prepared than what I was." Scott told me, "You've got the triskelion.. you were born."

"Being born doesn't make it leaps and bounds easier, Scott." I said to him.

"You're gonna be okay." He told me reassuringly but his expression held one of belief, "We're all gonna help you get through this."

I nodded and gave him a pressed smile as he pulled me into his chest and gave me a short hug, rubbing my back comfortingly. I put my chin on his shoulder, "Thanks, Scotty."

"What are supernatural best friends for?" He said to me with a smile on his face, "Come on, the sooner we get this plan into motion the sooner we can put all our focus on to you."

Scott and I walked over to the large table where Stiles had laid out everything he and Scott had found. There were blueprints, papers and folders all over the table and I climbed up on it, sitting on the side opposite Derek and Stiles and I crossed my legs underneath me.

"So what's our plan?" I asked as Isaac leaned on the table besides me.

He nudged me discreetly and as I turned to him he arched his brow, "Feeling okay?"

"For now." I mumbled.

"Stiles?" Derek said then, forcing Isaac and I's attention to him. Stiles had his eyes on the both of us but it didn't last long as he cleared his throat awkwardly and nodded to himself.

"The plan." He said to himself, shifting through some papers before he unfolded an old blueprint and opening it out for us all to see, "Okay. You see this? This is how they got in. It's a rooftop air conditioning vent.. leads down inside into the wall of the vault, which is here. Okay? One of the robbers was lowered into this shaft. Now, that space is so small, it took him about 12 hours to drill into that wall, which is stone, by the way. Then throughout the rest of the night, they siphoned the cash up to the guys back on the roof through that one little shaft in the wall. Boom."

"Can we fit in there?" Scott said then as we all looked to the blueprints.

"Yes, we can, but very, very barely." Stiles replied, "And they also patched the wall, obviously, so we're gonna need a drill of some kind. I'm thinking maybe a diamond bit—"

"Look, forget the drill." Derek said dismissively.

Stiles looked to him in confusion and said, "Sorry?"

"If I go in first, how much space do I have?"

"What do you... what do you think you're gonna do, Derek? You gonna punch through the wall?" Stiles exasperated as he fully turned to Derek.

He too turned and he crossed his arms over his chest, "Yes, Stiles, I'm gonna punch through the wall."

"Okay, okay, big guy. Let's see it. Let's see that fist. Big, old fist. Make it, come on. Get it out there. Don't be scared." Stiles said to Derek then. I couldn't help but gain some form of amusement from this as I watched Derek make a fist for Stiles, an expression of boredom on his face as Stiles continued, "Big, bad wolf. Yeah, look at that. Okay, see this?That's maybe three inches of room to gather enough force to punch through solid co—"

Derek punched Stiles hand as he held it inches away from his fist and I quickly put my hand over my mouth as I snorted in amusement. I honestly couldn't control the sound as it came out of my mouth. Derek's face made me just want to laugh as loudly as I could.

Stiles hit the table as he groaned in pain, his face contorting into a grimace. I caught Scott looking at me as I tried not to laugh and I felt my cheeks heating up from trying to contain it.

"He could do it." Stiles said then as he walked away, shaking his hand painfully.

"I'll get through the wall. Who's following me down?" Derek asked as Stiles whimpered in pain.

"Don't look at me." Peter quipped then, "I'm not up to fighting speed yet, and honestly, with Isaac out of commission, you're not looking at very good odds for yourself."

"I just love how I'm not even mentioned in the equation." I said in annoyance as I rolled my eyes.

"It's too risky." Derek said to me, "As much as I need your help I'm already looking at the possibility of two werewolves trying to tear everything and everyone apart. I don't need the possibility of you joining them."

"So you're just gonna leave me here to suffer?" I spat, "What happed to 'I'm going to help you every step of the way through your first full moon'?"

Silence seeped through the room then and I felt all eyes on me after my sudden and abrupt outburst. It consumed me at an alarmingly fast rate.. I hadn't even seen it coming.

I exhaled loudly then, repeating the mantra 'past, present, future' in my mind over and over again like a song until I was calm. I kept my eyes on the triskele, brushing my thumb over the symbol, "I—I'm sorry."

"It's okay." Derek said to me then and I could feel everyone's sympathy for me. I didn't make me feel any better though, in fact it made me feel almost ten times worse.

"We need a plan." He said again after another minute, "I can't just let them die."

"One of them is already dead." Peter quipped.

"We don't know that."

"Do I have to remind you what we're up against here? A pack of alphas. All of them, killers. And if that's not enough to scare your testicles back into your stomach, try to remember that two of them combine bodies to form one giant Alpha. I'm sure Erica and Boyd were sweet kids. They're gonna be missed." Peter said.

I cringed internally when he mentioned Aiden and Ethan. I didn't actually know that the two of them could merge bodies. It did seem pretty cool but also really terrifying at the same time. I would've hated to go up against them.

"Could someone kill him again, please?" Stiles asked then.

"Uhh." I found myself saying as I glanced up from the triskele to see everyone looking at me, "Is now a bad time for me to tell you that I know the two who can merge into one?"

Derek's eyes narrowed at me as he leaned on the table and Stiles voiced what they were all thinking, "I'm sorry.. what?"

"Yeah." I nodded sheepishly.

"The twins." Scott muttered in realisation, "Those new guys in school, your friends you left with on the night of Heathers party."

"That's them." I nodded.

"And you just didn't think to tell us you knew about them?" Peter asked me.

I looked over to him as he sat on the stairs and I narrowed my eyes at him fractionally before I looked to Derek, "I only found out on Wednesday when I ran into Aiden while I was out jogging... and in his defence he didn't know one of them tried to kill me the other night."

"You could've told me." Derek said to me supportively and my shoulders finally relaxed.

"I did ask him where they were keeping Boyd and Erica but he wouldn't tell me. He said they'd kill him if he betrayed his pack and I can't ask a person to put their life at stake like that — no matter the cost."

"Did he say anything else?" Scott asked me curiously. I felt like he was the only one who truly wasn't judging me right now.

"He said he wanted to help me. He knows his pack.. better than anyone, and he wanted to help me so I'd at least know how to keep myself alive if I ever had to come up against one of them." I said as I shrugged, "And naturally I said yes.. and I can feel you all judging but I honestly don't care, all right? I'll take all the extra help I can get."

"Alex—"

"No, Isaac, you don't get it." I told him firmly, "I've known these boys since I was fourteen, okay? I've shared so much with them both and I knew them just after they'd been bitten. Did they kill me? No. Did they hurt me in any way? No. They protected me when I couldn't protect myself — from boys, from my dad.." I shook my head as I sighed heavily, "My point is, I know they would never ever hurt me.. especially when they're willing to go behind their packs back to help me through my first full moon."

"They said that to you?" Derek asked me curiously with arched brow.

I nodded then and tucked a strand of hair behind my ear, "Aiden texted me earlier.. I haven't replied yet."

"I believe you." Peter said then, taking us all by surprise, "If what she's saying is true then those boys really do care for her. They won't hurt her and I'm willing to bet they won't let their Alpha friends lay a finger on her... think about this Derek, we can use this to our advantage."

"Uh... no." I said then, "I'm not using my friends."

"Look, I don't have time to think about this right now." Derek said dismissively.

"I can't believe you still want to do it." Peter replied, "Derek, seriously? Not worth the risk."

Derek turned to Scott then and asked his brow, "What about you?"

"Yeah, if you want me to come—" Stiles began.

He shook his head, barely able to conceal his eye roll, "Not you."

Stiles nodded, "Got it."

"I don't know about Erica but if Boyd's still alive, we have to do something. We have to try." Scott said determinedly.

"But?"

"Who's the other girl? The one locked in there with Boyd?"

"Well that's what we're hoping to find out." I said then, "It could be a lone wolf."

"Most likely." Derek agreed with me.

"So, you and Scott are gonna go to the bank and break Boyd and this other person out." Isaac said then, "I take it I'm on Alex duty."

"It's not a duty!" I snapped in offence.

"Right." Isaac agreed with me, "Sorry."

Derek nodded in response to Isaac, "You and Peter watch over her but don't crowd her, it'll only make it worse."

"I'm right here guys." I exasperated, waving my hand to them all.

"If we need your help we'll call." Derek said, "But I'm hoping we're done and back before the moon reaches it's peak."

"In an hour and a half?" Peter scoffed, "Good luck with that."

Scott looked to Derek then and he said, "He's right, we should get going."

Derek merely nodded once before looked to me reassuringly, "You're going to be okay."

I only nodded as the two of them made their way towards the door, the four of us bidding them a good luck as they left before we all exchanged weary glances. I sighed on the table as Isaac looked to me and I met his gaze briefly before I looked back down to the triskelion, praying the reminder of the night passed quickly and smoothly.

___________________________

A/N; I wrote the Stiles & Alex scene outside the vet clinic while listening to the tiktok version of 'I think I'm in love' by Kat Dahlia and it just gave me so many feels. I also finished writing is Alex fared under her first full moon in the next chapter and I'm already on 4,000 words without writing anything else