Chapter 34 ✧Almost Is Never Enough✧

Just as quickly as they had turned golden, Liam's eyes flashed back to their usual sea colored hue. But the rest of Liam was not back to normal.

My fingers curled around the chain barrier that separated Braeden and I from the others. I swallowed hard as I watched Liam's face began to contort in pain, just like I had seen Erica, Boyd, and Isaac's do countless of times. He was obviously trying to keep control of the wolf within but, by the looks of it, he wasn't to far from breaking.

"Liam, are you with me," Derek called out to the struggling werewolf across from him. "We have a mantra that we use. You repeat it and focus on the words, it's like meditating. You say the words until you feel control coming back to you."

"Okay," Liam groaned out, clenching his fists as he doubled over in pain. "Okay, okay. What are the words?"

"Okay, look at the triskelion, see the symbol?" Derek asked calmly. I followed his gaze to the talisman and couldn't help but wonder why he'd never tried teaching Isaac and the other's control by using that. "I have it tattooed on my back, it's the same thing. Each spiral means something."

"Alpha, Beta, Omega," Stiles murmured, catching on to what Derek was getting it.

"It represents the idea that we can rise to one and fall back to the other," Derek explained. "Betas can become alphas."

"Alphas can become betas," I continued, remembering what Derek had done to save his sister, Cora.

"Can alphas become omegas?" Liam managed to question through his pain.

Derek nodded slowly. "All you have to do is say the three words and with each one you tell yourself you're getting calmer, more in control. Go ahead."

"Alpha, Beta-"

"Slower," Derek cut in sharply.

"Alpha. Beta. Omega," Liam said again, this time more slowly to let each word sink in. "Alpha. Beta. Omega."

"Good say it again," Derek encouraged the beta, "Remember, everytime you say the words you're getting calmer."

"Alpha, Beta, Omega," Liam began to say again but he most definitely was not getting calmer. His voice was become a deepening growl, his claws glinting in the moonlight.

"Say it again," Derek ordered.

"Derek, I don't think that powerful talisman of self control is working," Stiles pointed out as he pulled his legs against his chest in an attempt to move away from Liam.

Stiles was right, Liam stopped chanting the mantra and instead just let out a hateful growl as he made a lunge at my two friends. Luckily, his restraints kept him at bay but I was sure they wouldn't be too much help for too much longer.

"Liam, say it again!" Derek repeated loudly. "Liam."

Now, as Liam began forcefully struggling so much that the van began to sway, I pulled back the barrier between us.

"Charlotte, sit back down," Derek shouted to me.

"Let me back, Derek," I begged Derek, causing the him to look away from Liam and to me. "Please, Der."

Even though Derek wasn't a werewolf, he still managed to make a fairly good exasperated growl before moving over to give me room. I nodded to him thankfully before squeezing between the small gap to get into the back.

"What the- No! Charlotte you're going to get hurt! Go back!" Stiles tried to yell at me but I shook my head.

"Stiles, I'm helping," I told him sharply. "I don't believe that he'd hurt me-"

I was cut off from what I was saying by Liam breaking one of his clawed-hands free of its restraints, thrusting it towards me. Just before his claws could make contact with my face, Derek intercepted his hand and held it back. As he struggled to contain the angered teen wolf, Derek looked at me briefly and raised his eyebrows.

"I'm still not going anywhere," I said firmly.

"Derek?" Braeden shouted to us, probably trying to figure out what the hell was happening.

"I think we're going to need to go a little faster!" Stiles called back to her.

"Keep going!" Derek yelled over all of the chaos.

Now Liam had broken free from both of his restraints, the only thing keeping him from killing us now was Derek struggling to hold him down. I took in a sharp breath of air and tried to think of what I could do to help him. I came up blank seeing as the methods I had used to help Isaac probably wouldn't do too much to help an already overly-angry teenage boy like Liam.

"We're almost there," Braden informed us. What was that saying again? That almost is never enough?

Derek struggled with the out of control werewolf even more and I lost count of all the times my face came close to being slashed opened. The ferocity in Liam's glowing eyes seem to intensify with every growl that tore its way from his mouth.

"I really don't think 'Alpha, Beta, Omega' is resonating with him," Stiles stated. I wanted to smack his arm for being a pessimist but I knew he was right, this plan was not going to work.

"Well do you know any other mantras?" Derek snapped at the pale boy beside him.

"I do," I spoke up as I suddenly remembered Brett. I scooted closer to Derek so Liam would be able to get a clear view of me. "Liam, Liam, what three things cannot long being hidden?"

Liam seemed to register my voice and looked at me for a moment. Then, the wolf in his head must've thrown more nasty thoughts around in his mind because Liam lunged forward, causing Derek to once again struggle with keeping him back.

"Liam! Look at me! What three things cannot long be hidden?" I pleaded with him to look at me, to recognize my voice. But even with my now shrill voice begging his to listen, he still gave me no attention unless he wanted to kill me.

I nudged Derek to get him to move but he didn't. I looked up at him, now pleading with the former werewolf too. Derek sighed but moved over so I was directly in front of Liam. Liam lunged for me but Derek still managed to keep him back.

"What three things cannot long be hidden?" I asked as softly as I could. Hesitantly I moved my hands onto the sides of his face, making him finally look at me. He no longer struggled to break free of Dereks containment, he just looked me in the eyes.

"The sun, the moon, the truth," Liam finally answered.

"That's it, say it again," Stiles encouraged him, a hint of disbelief evident in the older boys tone.

"The sun, the moon, the truth," Liam repeated in deep breathes. He leaned forward and I found myself leaning in to him. Soon, our foreheads were touching as my hands stayed cupping his face, all the while Liam kept chanting the mantra to himself.

"Derek?" Braeden questioned hesitantly.

"We're okay," He assured her. I felt a hand on my shoulder, giving it a squeeze, and I smiled, knowing it was Derek. I'd done something to make him proud for once and maybe, just maybe, it could even be said that I had been the one to save him this time.

As the time passed, I pulled myself away from Liam some, figuring that he was at a steady enough state of mind now to control himself. My hands fell from his face but he caught them with his own hands. I looked up into those energized, vibrant blue eyes and I swear if I could, I'd melt right into them.

Liam forced a small smile on to his face, one that I happily returned. I kept holding his hands, happy that the whole frightful moment was over, and tried to ignore Derek and Stiles' eyes boring into us.

The ride continued but with a lot less tension. A couple of times Liam would squeeze my hands from the pain the full moon was causing him but he'd chant the mantra and be able to keep his control over himself.

Suddenly, the van jerked to a stop. I looked out the windshield and saw and old, broken building just in front of us.

La Iglesia. We had made it to la iglesia.

"I can't believe I did it," Liam spoke up, letting out a short laugh. "You know, for a minute there I thought I was going to tear the three of you apart."

"Yeah, well, that would've made for an awkward ride home so thanks," Stiles said, his usual sarcastic tendencies creeping back into his voice.

"Do you think you can bring the same level of control and strength inside of La Iglesia?" Derek questioned.

Instead of answering him with words, Liam held out his hands and allowed his claws to slid out but this time they were completely under his control, ready to do his bidding.

"Alright, we might actually be able to do this," Stiles regarded. I looked over at him and we both shared a small smile of relief because, honestly, saying that was a lot coming from us seeing as normally had no clue what were doing.

Derek was the first of us to get up and he opened the back of the van. He was immediately greeted by a creature that was unnaturally larged. A Berserkers had been waiting for us.

The abomination of a human pulled Derek out of a car and threw him onto a ground with such force I wouldn't be surprised if that action alone had broken some of Derek Hale's bones.

"Derek!" I screeched, having to be held back by Stiles and Liam as there was nothing I could do to help him. I was forced to watch as the Berserker threw Derek up against ruins and hit him with all it had, a knife soon appealing in its bony hands. I kept screaming out to Derek, trying, and failing, not to think about all the times I had been put into a situation like this, all the times I had to see Isaac get beaten right before my eyes.

Braeden finally makes it out of the van with a shotgun in her hands. She fires at the creature and, even though it looked like it hardly did any damage, the berserker stopped beating Derek. It let go of the Hale and let him slid to the ground as it turned away from us and disappeared.

That's when I finally managed to make it out of Liam and Stiles' grasp. I jumped down from the back of the van and, as soon as my feet touched the dirt ground, I sprinted over to Derek, sliding to my knees once I got to him.

"I knew this was going to happen," I croaked, not sure what to do with my hands so I just ran them over his.

"What do you mean?" He forced out in a low voice but I just shook my head.

"God, oh god, you're bleeding, Derek."

"How bad is it?" Peter asked, stopping before he could get too close to his nephew. For the first time in my life I witnessed Peter Hale sporting a genuine horrified expression.

"I'm fine, I'm fine. Just get to Scott." Derek said sharply, talking louder than he had been before.

I wasn't sure if I had been crying before but I knew there were tears spilling from my eyes. "We can't- we can't just leave you here."

"Find him. I'll be right behind you" Derek promised everybody in a hard tone. "Go!"

Peter slowly back up before turning around and jogging into the ancient building with Malia and Liam quickly following him. Stiles was the one to hesitate, his eyes still trained on Derek.

"Hey," Derek said when he noticed Stiles' reluctance to leave, "Save him."

Stiles blinked and looked over to me. "Go Stiles," I begged his hoarsely. With brown eyes that looked to be glassy, Stiles nodded slowly. Taking a deep gulp of air, he turned around to go and catch up to the others, looking over his shoulders at us several times before he too disappeared. I took a deep breath before looking down at Derek.

"Looks like Lydia was right," Derek let out in a small murmur. I whimpered looking down at his blood that had tainted my hands. With my wrist I tried to push my hair out of my face, I wanted to still look strong for Derek. But I couldn't. I choked on the sorrow filling up my lungs and let out a burst of tears.

Yeah, Lydia was right.

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Emotions man. Like, am I right or am I right? This part in the episode had me bawling as badly as Charlotte is cause I so was not ready to loose my Derek Hale. I love that man with all my soul.

But hey, I was right! I really did update within a day. Who knows, I'm feeling good so maybe I'll even update again! (Don't count on it though, I'm kinda tired so I just might nap instead)

Question - There's only a few (Meaning like three tops) Chapters left to this story, what are some predictions you have on what is going to happen?