Halsey blared through Grace McCall's speakers as she finished her history essay and started her chemistry homework. She sighed as she put her hair in a bun. Suddenly, Scott ran towards his room, locking it. Grace furrowed her eyebrows but shrugged it off. She heard Scott raising his voice. "You seriously need to stop doing that!"

Curiosity got the best of Grace and she stood up, going towards his room and knocking on his door. "Um, Scott? Are you okay?"

Scott unlocked his door and looked at his sister. "I heard you raising your voice, uh, is everything okay?"

"Oh, um, yeah, just—" he looked at Derek who mouthed to him to not say anything about him, "t—talking to Stiles. On the phone."

Grace raised an eyebrow. "Didn't your phone break?"

Scott scratched the back of his head. "Oh, um did I say phone? I meant, um, over Skype. In the computer."

Grace knew he was lying. "O-kay. Well, um, do you need help with your chemistry homework?"

Scott raised an eyebrow and smirked."Do you need help with your chemistry homework?"

Grace chuckled. "Yeah. I do."

"Okay, well, we'll do it together in a minute, let me just, uh, end this Skype call, and, uh, I'll be there."

"Okay."

Grace left and went back to her bedroom. She knew he had lied to her he just didn't know why. Was it because Derek was there? Ugh, no he's not there. Stop thinking about him. As Scott kept talking, Grace swore she could hear Derek's voice. Maybe it was just her imagination.

"You can't do that! You can't ask me to trust you and then just keep things to yourself," Scott said, loudly. Sure sounds like he's talking to Derek. Grace shook it off. She really missed him but this was way out of line for her. Why would Derek be in Scott's room?

Grace gathered her homework in one place so she could do it with Scott, her back facing the door. In that moment, Derek got out of Scott's room, looking over to Grace's. Her door was almost shut so he quietly opened it a bit to observe her. He missed her. He felt lonely without her. He missed the way their lips molded together perfectly, her smile, her body, everything. He thought pushing her away would be the best thing for them, but it ended up hurting them both. Scott had told him how she cried the day he told her and how different she had been acting. He wanted to be with her. He wanted to just hug her from behind and kiss her perfectly soft lips, he wanted his hands to trail from her cheeks to her waist, to hear her laugh or sing horribly to Halsey's album, which was now blaring through her speakers. He missed her so much, but he knew he couldn't have her.

     Grace looked up from her bed as she felt someone behind her. She turned around, her eyebrows knitting together in confusion as she saw her door open but no one there. "Scott?"

     Scott came out of his room. "Yeah?"

     "Oh, um, nevermind."

     Grace looked back at her homework, shrugging it off. It was probably her paranoid mind. 

•••

Grace was sat in a very uncomfortable desk as she looked up to see a very distressed Scott and a very pissed off Stiles. The black haired girl rolled her eyes as she looked between them.

"You two still haven't made up?"

Stiles looked at her and sighed as he shook his head no. Scott sat behind him and next to his sister. "Still not talking to me?"

Stiles ignored Scott and looked at Grace who just stared at the two with a smirk on her face. They could never stay mad at each other. They were Scott and Stiles, the dynamic duo. Scott sighed.

"Can you at least tell me if your dad's okay? I mean, it's just a bruise, right? Some soft tissue damage?"

Grace looked at her brother with a raised eyebrow. "He got hit by a car, not punched by a twelve-year-old," Grace deadpanned and Scott glared at her.

"You know I feel really bad about it, right?" Stiles kept ignoring him, his face as straight as Ryan Reynolds, "Okay. What if I told you that I'm trying to figure this whole thing out and... that I went to Derek for help?"

Grace's heart stopped at the mention of Derek. "What?"

"If I was talking to you, I'd say that you're an idiot for trusting him. But obviously I'm not talking to you."

The school bell rang and Scott pulled out his book for the class. Stiles muttered some curses at himself at what he was going to ask Scott.

"What did he say?"

Scott smirked and Grace looked at him with furrowed eyebrows. "Are you serious?"

•••

"Wh— he wants you to tap into your animal side and get angry?" Stiles asked.

"Yeah."

"All right, well, correct me if I'm wrong, but every time you do that, you try to kill someone, and that someone is usually me."

"I don't think you should trust Derek," Grace muttered.

"Why? Because he doesn't want to be with you? You know, just because he rejected you, doesn't mean I can't be with him," Scott spat and Grace looked down, clenching her jaw.

"I— I didn't say that."

"Woah, Scottie, bring it down a notch," Stiles said, defending Grace.

"What? Just because he broke her heart doesn't mean I can't be with him."

"No! It's the complete opposite! You're supposed to be sticking up for your sister, not hanging out with the douche that broke her heart."

"No. You know what? You guys go, I—I'll just stay here," Grace said as she headed for the bathroom, feeling the tears spill. She didn't like to feel like this every time someone talked or even mentioned Derek.

Why was Scott being such a dick? He had never acted like that with her before. The stall behind her opened, revealing a very intrigued Lydia Martin.

"Oh honey. You okay?"

Grace nodded, wiping her tears away. "I— I never cry like this i—it's just that... Scott's being a dick," Grace murmured and Lydia nodded, getting her concealer bottle out of her purse and given it to her, "and, um, he brought up some things, well, it's just some boy drama."

Lydia's eyes lit up. "Oh! I love me some boy drama. Now, let's go to the cafeteria so you can spill the beans."

"Why?"

"Because it's lunch period."

"Oh," Grace said as she quickly dabbed some of Lydia's concealer under her eyes and followed the quirky red-haired girl to the cafeteria.

Once they got there, Lydia sat in a table in front of Allison, whose nose was buried inside a book. "What ya reading?"

"Oh. Just something for my history essay about my family."

Grace nodded and Allison looked back at her book. "It's called 'La bete du Gevaudan'."

"The what of who?" Lydia asked.

"The beast of Gevaudan. Listen. 'A quadruped wolf-like monster, prowling the Auvergne and south dordogne areas of France during the year 1764 to 1767. La Bete killed over a hundred people, becoming so infamous that the King Louie the 15th sent one of his best hunters to try and kill it."

"Boring," Lydia said, nonchalantly.

"Can I have this?" Grace asked, taking the water bottle as soon as Allison nodded, ignoring the conversation completely.

"Even the church eventually declared the monster a messenger of Satan."

"Hmm. Still boring."

"Cryptozoologists believe it may have been a subspecies of hoofed predator, possibly a mesonychid."

"Slipping into a coma bored."

"While others believe it was a powerful sorcerer who could shapeshift into a man-eating monster."

Grace almost choked on her water as her mind finally connected the dots. "Any of this have anything to do with your family?"

"This. 'It is believed that La Bete was finally trapped and killed by a renown hunter who claimed his wife and four children were the first to fall prey to the creature.' His name was Argent."

"Your ancestors killed a big wolf. So what?"

"Not just a big wolf. Take a look at this picture. What does it look like?" Allison said as she flipped the book and showed it to Lydia and Grace.

A black creature with blood-red eyes appeared on the page in front of them. Grace looked away, acting as if she wasn't interested, while Lydia couldn't seem to take her eyes off the picture, falling into a trance.

"Lydia?"

"Lydia."

She snapped back to reality. "It looks... like a big... wolf. See you in history."

Lydia stood up and left the table. Grace looked back and saw Stiles and Scott. "Hey, Allison, there's Scott, you should go over there."

Allison immediately looked up, her eyes falling to Scott's direction. "Scott," She said, standing up as Scott tried to run away from her, "Scott, wait."

•••

     The day had been a complete mess and all she wanted to do was to cry. She missed Derek, her brother was acting like a dick, and she couldn't help but feel a heavy heart. All she wanted to do was lock herself inside her room and cry. She walked around the lacrosse field and heard Scott groaning as soon as she felt sharp pains all over her body. She breathed heavily as she tried her best to zone out the pain, until her eyes met with Jackson's body in front of her.

     She looked at the direction he was looking at and saw her brother crouching on the floor, about to turn. Jackson furrowed his eyebrows together in confusion and Grace ran up to him, standing right in front of his face. "Hey! What are you doing here?"

     Jackson looked at her. "Are you covering him up?"

     "Excuse me?"

     "Oh, don't act stupid, Grace, you know exactly what I'm talking about," he stepped closer to her, "I will find out Scott's little secret."

     "Can't you just admit he's better than you at lacrosse?"

     Jackson clenched his jaw. "Nobody can be that good overnight," he said between clenched teeth, "you're hiding something, and I'm going to find out about it. No matter how much you try keep it."

     Jackson left and Grace let out a breath, feeling the anxiety rush through her body. He looked over to where Scott and Stiles where, hearing their conversation almost perfectly.

     "I can't be around Allison."

     "Just because she makes you happy?"

     "No, because she makes me weak," Grace raised her eyebrows as she let it sink in. She made Derek weak. That's why he left her, "but is it a few days or is it forever?"

     "You know, this whole 'women make you weak' thing is a little too spartan warrior for me. It's probably just part of the learning process."

     "Yeah, but you've seen Derek. I mean, the guy's totally alone. What if I can, like, never be around her again?"

     "Well, if you're not dead, that could be a good thing," Scott sighed, "Besides, Derek isn't totally alone, he has Grace."

     Grace's heart flutters and she felt a blush creep up her cheeks. "Yeah, but he pushed her away, just like he's asking me to do to Allison, and you've seen how sad that's made Grace. I just... don't know if I can do that to Allison."

•••

"Let's go. Sit, sit, sit, sit. We got a lot to cover today. Quicker," Coach said as soon as a swarm of students entered the classroom.

Grace sat in her usual seat and saw Scott whispering something to Stiles, and Allison sitting behind him, making Stiles shrug. Grace sighed. She just wanted to go home.

"I haven't seen you all day," Allison whispered, talking to Scott.

"Uh, yeah, I've been, uh, super busy," Scott lied. Grace wanted to laugh but she felt as if she had no energy. She was really tired. Maybe she was about to be on her period.

"When are you going to get your phone fixed? I feel like I'm totally disconnected from you."

"Uh, soon. Real soon."

"I changed lab partners, by the way."

"Oh. To who?"

"To you, dummy."

Grace snickered softly. "Me? I mean, are you sure?"

"Yeah. This way I have an excuse to bring you home and study. You don't mind, do you?"

"I just— I don't want to bring your grade down."

"Well, maybe I can bring your grade up," Allison said, his grade wasn't the only thing she was going to get up, Grace thought, "Come to my place tonight. 8:30?"

"Tonight?"

"8:30"

"Let's settle down. Let's start with a quick summary of last night's reading. Greenberg, put your hand down. Everybody knows you did the reading. How about, uh— McCall."

     Grace and Scott looked up. "What?"

     "Oh, er, Scott."

     "What?"

     "The reading."

     "Last night's reading?"

     "How about, uh, the reading of the Gettysburg Address?"

     "What?"

     "That's sarcasm. You familiar with the term 'sarcasm', McCall?"

     Scott looked at Stiles. "Very."

     Stiles gave a wink and Grace snickered.

     "Did you do the reading or not?"

     "Uh, I think I forgot."

     "Nice work, McCall. It's not like you're not averaging a 'D' in this class. Come on, buddy. You know I can't keep you on the team if you have a 'D'. How about you summarize, uh, the previous night's reading? No? How about the, uh, night before that? How about you summarize anything you've read— in your entire life," Coach raised his voice and Grace looked at Scott, who looked like he was about to turn.

     "I— I, uh—"

     "Coach this is completely—" Grace started but was cut off.

"No? A blog? How about, uh, how about, uh, the back of a cereal box? No? How about the adults only warning from your favorite website you visit every night? Anything? Thank you, McCall, thank you. Thank you McCall! Thank you for extinguishing any last flicker of hope I have for your generation. You just blew it for everybody. Thanks. Next practice you can start with suicide runs. Unless that's too much reading. All right. Everybody else, settle down."

     Fortunately, Scott didn't turn, much to Grace's surprise. When she glanced at her brother, her heart fluttered as she saw Allison had taken Scott's hand in hers. She smiled as she saw how Allison was Scott's anchor. She was happy for her brother.

•••

"Mom?" Grace called out to her mother as she arrived the hospital, "mom, are you here?"

After receiving silence as a response, Grace sat cross-legged on the desk, looking at her phone. After a while, her mother came and gave her daughter a small smile.

"Hey honey! Thanks for coming and helping out here," Melissa said and Grace shrugged.

"It's not like I had better plans."

"Grace, cheer up, it was this or the vet. And I know how much you dislike going to the vet."

It was true. Grace had always hated the vet. She didn't know how her brother could work there. The thought of injecting and working with dogs made her squirm. She hated the vet.

After her mom had left, Grace sat in the uncomfortable chair, bored out of her mind. Her phone fell and she groaned as she bent down and got it. The hospital was eerily quiet. The tan girl walked over to Peter's room, instantly hiding behind the wall as she saw a leather-wearing man there.

"I need your help. If you can hear me, I need you to give me a sign. Blink. Raise a finger. Anything. Just— just something to point me in the right direction, okay? Someone killed Laura. Your niece. Laura? Whoever he is, he's an alpha now. But he's one without a pack. Which means he's not as strong. I can take him. But I need to find him first. Look, if you know something, just give me a sign. Is it one of us? Someone else make it out of the fire? Just give me anything. Blink. Raise a finger. Anything. Say something!" Derek raised his voice and Grace winced.

"Let him go. You think after six years of this, yelling at him is gonna get a response?" A nurse said.

"Got a better method?"

"Patience. He'll respond if you give him the time."

"I don't have any more time."

Derek burst out of the room and Grace quickly hid behind the office. "Why are you— oh! Is that the boy you like?"

"What? Mom, what are you—"

"He's cute. But he looks... older."

"He is."

"What? So it would be illegal if you have a relationship?!"

"Um, yeah?"

"Okay, no. Hell no. I will not let you see this guy," Melissa said as she turned on her heel and walked away. She came to a halt and looked back at her.

"Okay, since I know you'll see him anyways, just... no sex. I swear to god, if you come home pregnant—"

"Woah! I won't come home pregnant! Relax, mom. And the last time I had sex was last year with Sean, remember?" Grace lied. She already had sex with Derek but she couldn't tell that to her mother or she would flip.

     "Oh, yeah. You two were pretty serious, weren't you?" Melissa smirked as she remembered the blonde cutie her daughter used to date and lost her virginity to.

     "Yeah. Until he had to move to Orlando for family issues," Grace sighed. It wasn't love, what she felt for Sean; it was more like the love you feel for a friend. It was endearment, not love. It felt different, what she felt with Sean, compared to what she felt for Derek. It was weird, but she couldn't argue with her feelings. With Sean, it felt... new, yet Derek made her feel some kind of way she just... she couldn't explain.

     "Well, my break is over so... you're okay here, right?" Her mother said as she checked her wristwatch and looked at her daughter. Grace nodded and gave her mother a quick hug before she left. She sighed and sat, once again, on the uncomfortable chair.

She jumped slightly as her phone pinged, indicating she had received a text. She looked at her phone, eyebrows furrowing at what it read.

From: Scotty boo
To: amazing grace

Come to the school. Kind of urgent.

Grace sighed and got her bag, quickly taking a post it note and writing to her mother that she was going out. Getting her keys out, Grace stepped inside her car and headed to the school wondering what Scott was getting into now.

•••

     Grace got inside the school by sliding open a window she had jammed. She headed over to the principal's office, following the voices.

     "Okay, one question. What are you gonna do if the alpha doesn't show up?" Stiles said and Grace furrowed her eyebrows.

     "What the hell are you guys doing?!" Grace exclaimed and the two boys screamed.

     "Why are you here?" Scott asked, furrowing his eyebrows.

     "You texted me?"

     "Yes, you did. Oh, wait. Isn't your phone broken?"

     "Oh shit. Let me see the text," Scott said and Grace showed him her phone.

     "Well, whatever! I'm already here. Now, what are you guys doing?"

     "Since Derek said I was linked with the alpha, I was gonna see if he was right," Scott shrugged and Grace widened her eyes.

     "Wha— no! Are you out of your fucking mind?! And what if it's true? He'll come here and kill us all!" Grace exclaimed, stating the obvious.

     "She's right, Scott. I mean, what are you gonna do if the alpha shows up?"

     "I don't know."

     "Good plan."

     "Are you serious? Okay. Fine."

     "Good to have you on board, Grace," Stiles said as he smirked. Grace sighed, crossing her arms over her chest as she walked closer to them.

     "All right. You said that a wolf howls to signal his position to the rest of the pack, right?" Scott asked and Stiles nodded.

     "Right. But if you bring him here, does that make you part of his pack?" Stiles asked and Scott looked at him.

     "I hope not."

     "Yeah, me too. All right. All you," Stiles said, signaling the small microphone in front of Scott. He cleared his throat and let out a horrible, squeaky sound. Grace snorted as she looked at her brother and he glared at her.

     "Was that okay? I mean, that was a howl, right?"

     "I— yeah, technically," Stiles said.

     "No, Scott. That was horrible. It sounded more like an old man smoking weed than a freakin' werewolf. Get it together, Scott," Grace spat out, bluntly, making the two boys glare at her.

     "Well, what did it sound like to you, Stiles?"

     "Like a cat being choked to death, Scott."

     Scott sighed. "Well, what do I do? How am I supposed to do this?"

     "Hey, hey. Listen to me. You're calling the alpha. All right? Be a man. Be a werewolf, not a teen wolf. Be a werewolf. Do it."

     Scott breathed in and out before letting out a real growl. Grace widened her eyes as she heard the locker doors banging. The floor shook and Grace held on to the desk in front of her.

     "Well, that's what I'm talking about!" Stiles exclaimed as soon as Scott finished.

     "Woah, woah! Where are you guys going?" Grace asked as the two boys started to leave to go outside.

     "To the parking lot. Derek's there." Grace's heart skipped a beat at the mention of Derek's name.

     "Okay, well I'll stay here," she said as she crossed her arms.

     "Hell no, you're coming with us," Scott said and Grace shook her head no.

     "I'd rather stay here than outside with Derek, thanks," she said and Scott sighed, "but if I see the alpha, I'll be sure to scream so loud, San Francisco will hear."

     "Okay. We'll be right back," Scott said and Grace nodded.

     As the teenage boys left, Grace sighed as she looked outside the windows. It was dark outside. Her heart dropped as she caught sight of Derek in the parking lot. Scott, Stiles, and him were talking until they looked inside Derek's car. She suddenly had a bad feeling.

     As she looked in the distance, her heart stopping as she saw a pair or blood-red eyes. She ran to the desk, taking her phone to try and text them the alpha was there, but when she looked back, her stomach sunk at what had happened. The alpha had killed Derek.

     In that moment, she felt her heart stop as she screamed. Derek Hale was dead.

***
omfg guys I'm so sorry I took so long in updating. I'm currently in Texas visiting the fam and I barely had internet so...
But I hope you liked this chapter! It literally took forever to write since some parts would get deleted. Ugh.

— vivian darkbloom