The Lives We Lead | tmr/tw • tw/tmr |

(29) And Sometimes The Hero Dies

(A/N: This occurs 3 weeks before the car crash with Minho and Jessica. That means this is a week before Stiles has dinner at Coach's house and the wedding, and it is two weeks before Stiles gets in contact with Newt. I'm sorry it's out of order.)

Becoming an alpha was the last thing Grant Higgins ever expected to happen, but it wasn't the last thing he even wanted. No, the situation at hand felt much more like the last thing he ever wanted: running with what remained of his pack, praying that they would live to see another day.

Where did he go wrong? What brought them to that moment? He and the 20 remaining members of his pack running and hiding in abandoned buildings throughout Chicago's warehouse district, hoping that they were safe from them.

Them. The hunters. The words brought a bitter taste to Grant's mouth as he glanced at his pack sat throughout the abandoned brick factory. His eyes landed on Steven who lost his mother, only 17 years old. And Sarah who would never get to walk down the aisle because her fiance, Robert, was shot down the night before. It wasn't fair, he decided. What did they do to deserve this?

Grant wasn't sure what to do. Every avenue of help had almost been exhausted. He didn't know of any other packs he could call on for aid--not any packs that could take on an army of hunters, at least. If he thought it would do any good, he would have begged Ramahila for help, but this was not a Sunyatan matter, even if it involved him.

How ironic, he mused, that he and many others faced violence and attack because they were different on earth 816, WICKED using them as lab rats and killing them in the name of science. And there he sat on earth 618, hunted down with his pack because someone decided that different was bad.

What a twisted fate.

Hopefully, they would last the night, the scent of Lake Michigan masking them from the dogs that the hunters used. It rained just a few hours before, and the wind pushed out to sea, so maybe the circumstances leaned in their favor. Grant hoped to get his pack onto a train or bus and away from Chicago. They needed somewhere secluded until they could find help. But where could they find help?

It seemed the same thoughts went through his Beta, Tim's, head as well. They shared a look of concern before settling back into their thoughts. Luckily, the children within the pack had already been sent away with their mother to stay with distant relatives, but most of the other pack members lacked the familial connections to stray from their alpha. After all, he was not only the alpha that they received, but the one they respected.

Grant could remember it like it was yesterday. He had just returned from earth 618, woken up from a 'coma' as the result of a hiking accident. His pack at that time liked to live the nomad life, traveling around. With him unconscious for nearly two months, they skipped town without him, and suddenly, he was an omega. Alone and lost.

He got lucky, he supposed, finding another pack just two towns over. He joined without a second thought, only to find that the alpha of the pack was a monster. She took a special sort of pride in the punishment of pack members. It sickened Grant to watch as she looked upon ever member like they were expendable. And to her, they were expendable. She would kill any werewolf that displeased her too greatly, replacing them before the body was even buried.

The other werewolves were too scared to challenge her, but Grant was too new to learn that lesson. Perhaps it was because he knew first hand how precious life was to him. Perhaps he had watched a few too many good people be murdered. In the Scorch, or in the Maze. How many strong, wonderful women did the others from the maze speak of? And they weren't the only maze that faced countless casualties; Thomas and the others came from a maze after losing far too many to WICKED and their plans.