"You don't have to hide from me, Corey," Theo coos through the halls.

The boy in question detaches himself from the lockers — damn, that's creepy — with an almost scared look on his face as his skin turns back to its normal colour. "I was trying to do something nice," he says defensively.

"You were trying to do something normal," Theo says. "But you don't have to be normal anymore, and you definitely don't have to be nice."

"Well, I'm not going to hurt them," Corey argues.

"Look," Theo says. "I don't want you to. In fact, they don't know it yet, but we're going to protect them. Just like I'm going to protect you. So you're going to come with me and you're gonna do everything that I tell you, because I know you don't want to die again.

"Do you, Corey?"

The boy flinches briefly before quickly following after Theo. I have to feel sorry for him, to be honest. Theo walks back to his blue pickup and unlocks it. Corey sinks down into the backseat as I make my way to the passenger's seat.

"Theo, where are you going?" I ask.

"We're going to the power station," he says as if it was the most normal thing in the world.

I narrow my eyes. "And why are we going to a dusty, abandoned, potentially electrocution inducing warehouse?"

He smiles slightly. "That's where Scott and Stiles are."

I raise my eyebrows. "Okay. I'm missing something. When did Scott come back to life?"

"I heard his heartbeat when we went to see them last time," he says as he parks the car in front of a large building.

"So he's resurrected? Figures. There's always some sort of loophole in the supernatural world," I say. I sigh, fighting back the wave of woe rising up inside of me. "Until there isn't," I add quietly.

"Wait," Corey says pressingly from the back seat. "Arden, what about the stuff that Theo used to bring me back to life? Will that work on your mom?"

I could've probably hugged Corey so hard he died a second time around in that moment. I look at Theo, my eyes probably glittering with a thousand emotions. "Theo, please." My voice cracks.

He smiles in an almost pitiful way. "I want to make you happy, Arden," he says. "That's all I want."

He pulls me into a hug as I try to fight back tears. My smile probably stretches the length of my face and it feels like it's the first time I've genuinely smiled since that night. I look over Theo's shoulders at Corey who shifts uncomfortably in his seat. I detach one of my arms from around Theo. "Come here, Corey," I say. A small smile plays on his lips as he comes into the group hug. With our arms around each other, I feel like we're an actual pack.

And in that moment, I realise that maybe everything will be alright.

Even so, after the heartwarming moment, it's time for Theo, Corey and me to delve into that very malevolent looking building.

My emotions are already running high after the revelation concerning my mom. Although I don't want to get my hopes up too high, it's hard to quell the the ecstatic feeling when I could have my mom back in my arms.

Theo turns to Corey. "Go get down there with the other betas," he says, nodding towards the building. Corey scurries away and as I see him place a hand on the chain link gate, he immediately blends into his surroundings. I shudder and turn back to Theo.

"Can we get her back after this?" I ask.

"I-I don't know whether it'll work," he says. He swallows hard and the Adam's apple at his throat bobs.

I smile sadly. "It's better than nothing."

"Come on," he says. "Let's check out what we're dealing with."

He leads the way into the building. It's industrial and dusty and I have to wonder just how many people have walked these floors recently.

I trail after Theo and I have to look behind me at regular intervals to make sure there's no ancient French beast lurking in the shadows. Sometime between this, we go underground. The tunnels are older and dirtier, a rancid odour emitting from the walls.

"What is this place?" I ask.

Theo holds up a finger to silence me before whispering back, "The old sewers."

I almost gag. I could be getting faecal matter all over my boots, I think dismally.

I hear grunts from somewhere further down the tunnel and I squint my eyes to try and see my way through the darkness. As we approach, I see a light glow coming from down the tunnel. When my eyes adjust, I can make out figures.

Scott has Corey up against the wall, the younger boy's eyes wide with terror. Tracy and Josh lie groaning on the ground. There's someone else lying beside them and as I focus my eyes, I can see that it's Stiles.

"Okay, maybe they're not ready to take on an alpha," Theo says.

My stare flits over to Corey. "Especially one that can smell fear," I add. "No offence."

"He's got fangs!" Corey argues.

"What did you do?" Scott growls.

"I found some new friends," Theo says. "I don't take rejection well."

"Hey, Theo," Stiles says, his body still paralysed from Tracy.

"Stiles. You're going to leave here thinking that you need to worry about me.
But you're wrong. We're actually back on the same side. Because that thing —" he points to the ceiling which has a gaping hole in it, "— that's what we need to worry about." He pauses. "Your pack and mine. We're gonna go back to school and pretend like we're normal teenagers, but at night, we're going to be fighting for our lives."

"What is it?" Scott asks, understandably uncomfortable.

"It's not a chimera," Theo says.

"But it's just a kid underneath," Scott presses. "Someone like us."

Theo sounds irrevocably hopeless when he speaks again. "Not anymore."

* * *

I never thought I'd be breaking into a morgue to resurrect my dead mother using liquid from a parascientist lab.

I tread around the corner, keeping an eye out for any nosy doctors wandering about. "It's this one," Theo says, stopping outside a door labelled MORGUE.

I roll my eyes. "I'm not stupid," I say, gesturing to the sign. I grip the door knob and make a move to twist it, sighing. "It's locked."

Theo brushes past me. "Here. Let me." He grasps the doorknob and with a jerk of his arm, the doorknob snaps off and comes off in his hand. When I gape at him, he shrugs. "Bench presses, sweetheart."

I grin. "Yeah, right. More like being physically enhanced by a bunch of doctors."

He shoulders the door open and is immediately engulfed by darkness. I follow after him and after some bumping into each other, I finally find the light and switch it on.

The walls are covered in drawers, each with a name labelled on the door. I scan the wall with my eyes before Theo announces, "Found it."

I turn around and start towards him. I look at the name on the front. "Alexandra Dimitri," I breathe. "That's her."

My hand reaches for the handle and I hesitate before opening it. The woman inside looks exactly like my mom and nothing like mom all at the same time. Her olive skin has been dulled down to a pale, icy complexion. There is no sign of the warmth my mother once emitted.

I once read that people after death look almost like they're smiling because of the way the muscles begin to tighten. Even though my mother's lips are slightly upturned, it will never look the way her warm, toothy smiles looked when she was alive. I sort of have to accept that I'll never hear her laugh again or see her smile again or have her in my arms again.

"Do you want to?" Theo asks quietly.

I shake my head. "No," I say softly. "You do it."

He brushes her hair away from her neck and feels around with the pads of his fingers. He tightens his grip on the massive syringe. In a swift movement, he plunges it in to her neck. He grits his teeth and squeezes the piston as I struggle to tear my eyes away.

He pulls it out slowly and gently. "Are you okay, Arden?" he asks, reaching out a hand to grab mine.

I realise that I must look like I've seen a ghost, my eyes wide open and my mouth slightly ajar. "Yes," I mutter.

My mom hasn't moved at all, her chest still frozen and her eyes still shut. As she continues to keep that white pallor and unflinching movement, my worst fears seem to be growing more real by the second.

"Is it supposed to take this long?" I ask, looking up at his face which is trained on my mom.

He bites his lip. "I don't know," he murmurs. "With the chimeras it happened instantly, but I don't know about your mom."

"You're stalling," I whisper. "It's not going to work, is it?"

His jaw clenches anxiously and it's enough to know that I'm right. I feel my legs go out from beneath me and I cup a hand over my mouth to muffle the sobbing. My whole body trembles, the only thing keeping me from falling to the ground being Theo. His arms are latched around me, perhaps the tightest I've ever felt them, and his hands trace soothing circular motions on my back.

"Shh," he murmurs. "Arden, it's okay." He tips my chin up so that I'm face to face with him. "Look at me, Arden. You're going to get through this. You're stronger than you think."

I grit my teeth as the last of the tears dry on my cheeks. "We're going to find that pack."

On the way home, the car ride is silent until I speak. "Who do we go to next?"

He sighs, drumming his fingers nervously on the wheel. "I-I don't know," he says. "I can't go to the Dread Doctors anymore."

I gnaw on my lip. "Maybe we should look at this from a different point of view," I say. "A human's point of view." He looks at me curiously as I continue. "I mean," I continue, "that we should look at this from a rational point of view. Why did they kill Lex and my mom? What was their intention?"

Theo knits his eyebrows together and gives a curt nod. "I think I know what you're trying to say," he says. "Why they killed Lex and then your mom. I think they used Lex as a sort of favour for you, to tell you that they were on your side. And your mom, well..." he trails off into uncertainty.

My eyes fly open wider. "Wait," I say. "A favour. They did it as a favour. They wanted to make me happy."

"To get you into the pack," Theo contributes, following the same train of thought as me.

"Right," I say. "They killed my mom so that I had no reason not to go into the pack. I had no family left, which means that they wouldn't have to deal with any hiccups in their plan."

"Which brings us to who," Theo says. He pulls in to a parking space outside my house. I clamber out of the pickup, walking quickly and purposefully to the house.

As soon as we're inside, we go to my bedroom, Theo lying on the bed as I pace around. "Whoever is alpha would have had to kill an alpha," I point out. "They couldn't have killed my dad because my mom had already done it."

"Your mom couldn't have been alpha," Theo declares. "She wasn't a werewolf or anything similar."

"So who was it that the current alpha killed?"

"Look, Arden," he says. "I don't know for sure, but it makes sense that the current alpha didn't have to kill anyone."

I furrow my eyebrows. "Do you mean the alpha position was given to him before he died?"

"I mean that he could be a true alpha," he says.

I raise my eyebrows. "Okay," I say. "But you all were acting like true alphas were something that happened, like, once in every thousand years or something." I pause, tilting my head to the side. "And he doesn't seem like the very honourable type, either."

Theo sighs exasperatedly. "Another dead end."

I collapse back into the bed and look up at Theo. "Where do we begin, now?"

He pulls me into him, the skin of his chest warm against my cheek. "I don't know, Arden," he says, his words slightly muffled as he speaks into my hair. "But I promise we will. Maybe not immediately, but the funeral's tomorrow and there might be someone there who knows something." He twirls a lock of my hair around his finger. "I'm sorry that I couldn't save her."

I huff out a breath. "I couldn't either, Theo," I murmur. "But there's nothing either one of us can do now."

"Are you going to be okay tomorrow?" he breathes.

I gnaw on the fleshy part on inside of my bottom lip, swallowing hard. "Yes," I decide.

He eases himself closer to me. "Goodnight, Arden."

I give him a light kiss at the base of his jawline and look up at him as I speak. "Goodnight."

The next morning, I wake up earlier than usual. I take one look at Theo in his briefs sprawled out across the bed and decide to leave him sleeping because of how angelic he looks. Once he wakes up, there's no telling which young teen he's going to manipulate to his cause next or which member of Scott's pack he might mutilate.

My general mood today isn't as bad as I expected. In a way it's almost calming that I'll finally be able to let go properly. I expected to be weighed down with melancholy, but it seems final and almost sacred in all its peacefulness.

When I get downstairs, I see the lithe frame of a certain kanima chimera traipsing around aimlessly, appearing to be bored out of her mind. "Good morning, devil child," I say. "Why are you up so early?"

She looks up at me with her huge hazel eyes. "What's your problem?" she hisses. "I can rip you to shreds with my nails."

I give her a funny look. "Hence the term devil child," I say matter-of-factly. "And I don't have a problem. I'm just not in the mood for Theo's chimera squad at the moment."

She lets out a sound somewhere between a grunt and a laugh. "You hate us, don't you?"

I sit motionless, giving her a scowl. "Not all of us have no problem with killing our own parent," I say, raising an eyebrow — a challenge. She shoots me a look before spinning on her heel and making a beeline to the stairs. "And just for the record," I say. She pauses mid-stride, her body language rigid. "I don't have a problem killing you, either."

She turns halfway, her dark brown hair curtaining half her face. "Theo would never let you touch me," she says.

"Unlike you, I don't need Theo to tell me what to do."

She walks up the stairs without another look in my direction. Bitch. I sigh and plop down into one of the stools at the countertop, pouring myself a bowl of cereal which probably has too much sugar for so early in the morning and drowning it in milk.

When the door bell rings, I have a mouthful of cereal stuffed in my mouth. I make a half-groan, half-hum sound and quickly swallow the last of the Froot Loops in my mouth.

"Coming!" I call out. I hurry to the door and make a grab for the knob, twisting it quickly and pulling open the door.

On my doorstep is a hoard of my mother's Greek relatives, perhaps even enough to fill a small village. "Ah, Arden!" my grandmother says. "My sweet baby!" She plants a wet kiss on my cheek, pinching my other one in the process. "You've grown so much!"

"Yes, grandma," I say nonchalantly. She places a firm hand on my back and I have to think about how strong she is without doing weights or anything. She pushes me inside, balancing a dish of food in the other hand precariously. When I look back, a steady stream of aunties and uncles are flooding into the place.

She sits me down on a couch and then, to my surprise, starts suddenly sobbing. I sigh as she grips my hand so tight with her calloused, shrunken fingers that I can feel my own starting to lose circulation.

"My daughter," she cries in her first language. "How could this happen?"

Sometime later, my mother's cousin, a black-haired woman called Nicole, takes my grandma by the hand. "Ela, vre," she sternly hisses at her. "We have to get ready for the funeral." She looks over at me and gives me a warm smile. "You go get dressed, agápe mou. If you need anything, I'm here."

I nod, grateful for the momentary lapse of responsibility. "Thank you," I say. I push myself to my feet, suddenly feeling suffocated from all the movement around me. I gently wind my way through the small gathering, taking care not to accidentally knock any elders over before I get to the foot of the stairs.

And that's when I see Theo, clad in nothing but a pair of tight white briefs. "Good morning, babe," he says.

I widen my eyes. "Theo, get back up there before anyone sees," I urge.

"What?" he asks. "Who the hell is her—?"

But it's too late, because by now everyone has seen my almost-naked boyfriend on the stairs.

Now, it would be worse enough with your boyfriend coming down in his underpants in front of your family. But in front of a Greek Orthodox extended family is like signing your own death warrant. It'd be the scandal of the year. I wouldn't be surprised if the Greek president hears about it.

Because on the floor, there is my short, wide-eyed grandmother doing her crucifix.

* * *

Hello my loves! This last part was sooo funny to write lmao. I'll put comments next to the Greek language parts translating for y'all.

In other news, HOW BEAUTIFUL IS THE GIF UP THE TOP MADE BY JESS AKA bobmorley !! It's so cool to see Theo and Arden come to life like that omg!!

Also, I'm going to be introducing a new character in the next chapter during the funeral and I'm very excited for you all to be introduced to him! Just note that I'm sort of stretching out the Teen Wolf timeline to fit in all of Arden's storyline :). Until next time, Georgina xx