It had been a little less than a month since Sam had been bitten and turned into a werewolf; she'd spent most of that time around Derek after school and on her nights off of work.
It was a few days before the next full moon and she was already starting to feel the effects from it. She hoped that she'd be able to keep from shifting.
Derek praised her ability to take back control so quickly during the last full moon and even though she felt stronger and more confident than she did before getting the bite -she still didn't fully trust her body yet when it came to shifting.
Everytime her heartrate started to rise she'd internally panic that something would put her over the edge.
She finished up washing the last of the dishes from dinner that night and was leaned over the kitchen island, making a list of things for her mom to pick up from the grocery store when she heard a noise.
Looking up she gasped as she saw Derek standing in the kitchen with her.
"How do you keep getting in here?" She asked him, trying to catch her breath from the fright.
Ignoring her question he said, "There's another beta or maybe an omega somewhere in town."
"Really?" She asked intrigued by the thought of it.
It had just been her and Derek in the pack so far.
He nodded.
"What are we going to do?" She asked him as she laid the pen she'd been writing with down.
"For now try to find out who it is before the Argents do. They've been in the woods every night this week since we're nearing another full moon." He explained.
She nodded and looked back down to the list she was making.
Derek stared blankly at her as Sam continued to prioritize the list she was making over the news he'd just delivered.
When she didn't look back up, he nodded for her to follow him, "Come on."
"You're... letting me come with you?" She asked surprised.
Aside from her learning and training with him at night, he seemed to be going about other things entirely alone.
Nodding he said, "You've been doing really well."
She beamed a smile.
"I need to make sure my brother's asleep first." She said as she walked past him.
He watched her as she went up the stairs.
After checking on her brother and pulling on a jacket she met Derek outside at his car.
Even though it was cold outside they drove with their windows down to pick up the scent of the wolf which they tracked to the cemetery.
They watched as the other werewolf knocked over the backhoe that was being used to dig a grave, the person sitting inside was thrown down into the open earth and the heavy machine landed over the grave.
The other werewolf started to dig up a grave and Derek raced towards it.
She paused not sure whether to follow Derek as he chased after the scared omega who'd darted into the woods or help whoever had fallen into the grave.
From listening to his heartbeat, she could tell whoever was trapped down in the hole was terrified so she went over to check on them.
It put up quite the struggle but, Sam managed to lift the heavy backhoe and look down in the grave to see a fellow student peering up at her with wide eyes.
He was utterly terrified.
"It's okay... it's gone." She said as she reached a hand towards him.
He hesitated but then accepted the help.
Grabbing onto her hand he mostly expected to lift himself out of the grave, but she effortlessly pulled him up.
He stared at her in shock, there was no way she could be that strong.
His eyes cut over to the heavy equipment that she'd somehow moved as well and he took a fearful step back.
"What's your name?" Sam did her best to smile and offer him some comfort.
"Isaac." He said, as he looked around the dark and otherwise empty cemetery.
"What did you see?" She asked him.
"Something... was tearing up one of the graves." He said still in a slight state of shock as he wandered over to where he'd witnessed the grave robbery.
Sam followed him and they both peered down into the grave to see the casket busted open and the abdomen of the body torn into.
Her face wrinkled in disgust and he looked at her with a near matching expression on his face.
"'What the hell was that thing?" He asked.
He was having some trouble catching his breath still.
"Uh..." She stuttered, unsure of how to answer him.
She looked around for Derek but he must have still been following the omega through the woods.
"And you... how did you move the backhoe, or pull me up? How are you that strong?" He asked, feeling a little frantic.
Sam didn't know how to answer him.
She also wasn't used to the feeling of someone being scared of her.
As much as she wanted to find a fix for the situation and soothe Isaac's fears, she didn't have the time.
She needed to stick with her pack and go after Derek.
"I have to go. But please don't go anywhere, and don't call anyone. I'll come back for you." Sam promised him.
"Stay here? Are you kidding me, what if that thing comes back?" Hs words bubbled out in a frantic tone and gasps for air.
Leading him over to Derek's car, she said "Get inside and lock the doors until I come back. Please, don't call the police yet."
Not sure what else to do and seeing no other choice in course of action at the moment, Isaac listened to what she said.
Once she heard the locks click, she darted into the woods and managed to find Derek easily.
"What happened ?" She asked.
"I lost him." Derek said frustrated.
His attention was pulled to voices in the distance and he knew they both needed to get out of there.
Plus, they had a situation to handle at the cemetery.
Sam followed steps behind him and as they got back to the cemetery he saw the backhoe she'd lifted and asked, "What happened to the person?"
"His name is Isaac, I'm pretty sure I go to school with him." She answered.
After a small pause Derek said, "I asked what happened to him, not who he is.
"oh, he was really scared so I told him to wait in your car and lock the doors." She said raised her arm and pointed in the direction he'd parked.
"You put him in my car?" Derek asked as they started towards his Camaro.
Letting the person out of her sight for even a second wasn't smart. They needed to control the situation.
Try and reason with the person -or intimidate them into silence, depending on how the night went.
"He was so scared, I didn't know what else to do with him. But I told him not to call the police." She clearly felt bad for him.
The pair stood in front of the car and watched as Isaac stared back at them wide-eyed from the safety of the passenger seat.
"Get out." Derek instructed the terrified teenager.
Isaac didn't know what to do as he stared back at them, he wasn't sure if he should have called the police from inside the car or what.
The girl who'd helped him out of the predicament he'd been nice and she'd kept her promise about coming back for him.
She had failed to mention she'd been returning with someone else.
When Isaac didn't move from the refuge of the car, Derek took his key from his pocket and used the button to unlock to doors.
Slowly, Isaac stepped out of the car and looked at them.
"It's okay." Samantha assured him.
But her words brought him little comfort this time when she stood beside a man who towered over her in stature whose very presence was intimidating.
Derek looked the teenager over, his eyes stopping on the boys black eye.
"How'd that happen?" He asked what seemed like strangtest thing to bring up at a time like this.
"Uh, lacrosse practice." He stuttered out a lie.
Isaac didn't know why he was even justifying the question with an answer after what he'd just see.
"You hear that?" Derek asked looking over to Samantha, she nodded.
Isaac looked around, "Hear what?"
"It's the sound of your heart beat changing, you're lying." Derek told him.
Recognizing the way Isaac was acting about his injury, it made Sam think back to when she'd been abused by her father.
How easily the lies flowed out to cover up what was happening inside the walls of their house.
Samantha's expression softened even more as she realized what was trying to hide.
Like recognizes like.
"Your dad did that, didn't he?"
She took a small step forward.
Isaac didn't know her at all, but for some reason he instantly trusted her.
He slowly nodded.
"I'm sorry." Sam whispered. She gave him an empathetic look.
Derek glanced between them, and thought about how good of an idea it was to make Sam part of his pack.
He often seemed intimidating, and when he tried to get answers out of people, they didn't respond well, unless it was out of fear.
But Sam was the opposite, she seemed harmless and had a vulnerability about her that seemed to put other people at ease and make them trust her.
She was an asset to the pack; to him.
"You don't have to be a victim anymore, Isaac." Derek looked back over at him.
Samantha's blue eyes widened a she looked over at her alpha; she recognized what he was doing.
He was trying to sell the idea of becoming a werewolf to Isaac.
She wondered if he'd accept the bite as willingly as she did -or how awkward passing him in the halls at shcool would be after this if he turned it down.
~(The next morning)~
After laying some packages of oatmeal out and leaving a note for her brother, Samantha headed toward the cemetery to meet up with Derek.
Parking a little ways down the road, she held her jacket closed and shivered in the cold air as she found Derek in the trees.
"Hey." She greeted with a smile.
An air of excitement about her at the growing numbers of their pack.
Derek nodded a greeting to her but didn't say anything. He was too concerned with listening to the conversation between the police department, Isaac and his father.
He nodded but didn't say anything as he listened to the conversation going on.
Sam tuned her ears into the voices as well.
"Lahey, Isaac Lahey." He said to Sheriff Stilinski, he replied when asked for his name.
Writing it down the Sheriff questioned, "You work for your father, Isaac?"
"When he's not in school, which is where he needs to be in 20 minutes." Mr. Lahey gruffly retorted.
"I understand that, I'll make this short." The sheriff tried his best to remain polite and friendly, depsite the growing feeling on tension.
Mr. Lahey sighed with irritation and the sheriff saw the darkening around Isaac's eye.
"How'd you get that black eye, Isaac?" He asked the teenager.
"School." He responded.
"School fight?" The sheriff asked.
"No, lacrosse." He continued the lie, as he glanced over at his dad.
Derek looked over when he heard Samantha let out a small growl.
"What are you doing?" Derek whisper-yelled at her.
Her eyes were glowing yellow as she looked back at him.
After all the abuse she and her family had been through at the hands of her own dad, she was ready to tear Isaac's father apart for hurting his son.
Seeing him and the way Isaac shrunk down next to his father triggered a rage inside of her she didn't know was there.
"Sam, stop it." He warned, but her canine fangs were already coming out.
Led by that rage alone, she made a move in the direction of the men.
Derek was fast and stronger.
He quickly caught her and slammed her down on the cold, hard ground, knocking the air out of her.
The sudden movement and pain shook her back to her senses; back to human.
She stared up at him as he held her there.
"What were you thinking?" He asked, his voice low with a slight growl eyes going back their human green from the red glow.
"I don't know... I guess I wasn't?" She breathed out.
"You have to control yourself." Derek warned, "I can feel -how you feel about Isaac's dad and I don't like him either, but you can't it affect you like that. It's too big of a risk."
She struggled to stand up, but he kept her pinned, brows waiting on a verbal agreement.
"I know." She finally said.
When he still didn't let her up, Sam said, "It won't happen again."
Standing up he extended a hand to her, and pulled her to her feet.
She knocked the leaves off her clothes and continued to listen to the conversation taking place, "You guys get many grave robberies here?"
"A few, but usually they just take stuff like jewelry." Isaac explained as he looked back to where Samantha and Derek were hiding.
He couldn't see them in the trees but he could hear them. He knew they were there.
"What did this one take?" The Sherriff asked.
Isaac told the sheriff how the only thing missing from the grave was the deceased man's liver.
Once they were done talking Samantha pulled her hood up and headed back to her car, hoping no one spotted her.
Derek had told her to keep an eye on Isaac and Jackson at school, both of them had recently been bitten.
Getting in she drove to where Isaac was meeting her.
He shivered as he got in the car and looked over at her.
"It takes a while for it to heat up." She apologized as she saw him eyeing the heating controls.
He nodded and tucked his hands back in his pockets.
"How are you feeling?" She asked him.
"I don't feel any different." He sounded disappointed too.
"I didn't at first either, but soon you will." She assured him.
"Was everything Derek said true? About the bite being a gift and things getting better for me?" He asked.
She nodded and looked over at him again, "Maybe not at first, but after a little while yeah. Things got better for me."
Knowing the underlying question he wasn't voicing, Sam added, "You can trust Derek. I do."
A few minutes later her phone rang and it was her brother saying he'd missed the bus and their mom had already left for work.
She told Isaac they were going to have to pick up her brother and drop him off before they went to school.
As she pulled up outside of her house and honked the horn, Isaac checked his phone.
Whether he was a werewolf or not, he'd be in trouble with his dad if he was late to school
The car ride her brother's school was mostly quiet.
Once they got Jacob dropped off and were alone again, Isaac asked her, "We're the only ones in Derek's pack?"
He wasn't sure why he didn't think to ask that the night before.
"No... I guess he bit Jackson to." She explained, thankful the car was blowing heat from the vents now.
"Jackson Whittemore?" Isaac asked her.
With a sigh, Sam nodded her head.
"I can't even stand to be on the same lacrosse team as him." Isaac mumbled.
Samantha nodded, the last thing that she wanted to do was spend time with Jackson outside of school either/
But before she had met Derek, Jackson had helped him and Scott take Peter Hale down -which had ultimately ended with Derek killing him and taking the alpha power for himself.
Jackson wanted the bite and Derek had agreed.
Silently, Sam wondered if Derek was getting desperate to increase enrollment numbers in the pack.
They arrived at school just as the bell was ringing, both teens rushed inside and parted ways to make it their first period classes.
It was later in the school day when Sam was sitting in the back row of her class hurriedly scribbling down notes from the board when she heard someone running down the hallway.
She looked up just in time to see Jackson pass by the open classroom door.
Raising her hand she said she needed to go to the restroom.
She made her way down the hallway, checked to make sure she was alone before she put her ear to the door and listened.
She heard labored breathing from pain. Jackson sounded like he was choking and couldn't get his breath.
No other heartbeats were sounding from the room and she knew she was alone.
She knew Derek would be at the school soon to check on Jackson and in the meantime it was her job to keep an eye on him.
After another visual scan to make sure no one saw her going into the boy's restroom, Sam walked inside and up to the closed stall door.
Raising her hand she knocked on it.
"Uh... I'm fine Danny, just go back to class." Jackson called out.
He'd thought his best friend had followed him in there.
Taking out her phone she texted Derek and told him to hurry and then knocked on the door again.
"Just give me a freaking minute!" He snapped.
Sam took a couple steps back from the stall door and continued to listen to his breathing.
He sounded to be in pretty rough shape.
She didn't know what was happening.
Maybe his body was rejecting the bite and he was dying?
Busting the door open, Sam grabbed the back of his shirt and yanked him from the stall.
He stumbled backwards and grabbed onto the sink to keep from falling down.
"What the hell are you doing in here, freak?" He spat out.
"What's happening?" Sam looked him over.
His color was off he and he was drenched in sweat.
She heard the door to the bathroom open and looked back to see Derek was there.
"Derek..." Jackson stuttered out caught off guard.
Derek looked between them and then back to Jackson as he strolled up to him and dusted something off his shoulder, ""You're looking a little pale there, Jackson."
Looking between them, Jackson scoffed when he realized that Samantha must be a werewolf too.
"You feeling okay?" Sam asked.
"Never better." He said angrily as he looked at her.
"If something's wrong, I need to know." Derek stared him down.
"Why?" Jackson didn't waver.
"You're with me now." Derek reminded him.
"With you? Me... with you?" He laughed, "What am I your little pet, like this freak?"
Samantha narrowed her eyes at him and fought to keep her anger in check.
"I mean just because you gave me the bite doesn't mean I'm part of your little wolf pack. I'm sorry but to be honest you don't exactly show outstanding leadership qualities." Jackson argued with him.
"Is that so?" Derek asked him with an amused expression.
Sam wondered why Derek had even bothered with him.
It was pretty clear that he didn't hold any fondness for him.
"I've got my own agenda. Which doesn't involve running around the woods at night howling at the moon with you, this freak and McCall." Jackson said as he glanced back over at Samantha.
Rolling her eyes, Sam said, "We don't run around the woods howling at the moon."
"Whatever." He shook his head.
Enough of a movement for Derek to catch sight of something on the side of Jackson's face.
Wordless, Derek reached out and turned Jackson's head to the side where they could see more clearly what it was.
A thick black substance was running out of his ear and trailing down the side of his face.
Jackson stared at his reflection in the mirror with horror.
He gasped, "What is it, what's happening?"
"Your body is... fighting the bite." Derek said, uneasy about the situation.
"Why?" Jackson demanded to know.
Backing away from him and towards the doorway Derek shook his head as he said, "I don't know."
"What does it mean?" He yelled, but Derek had already left the room.
Sam stared in the direction of the door with a stunned look on her face.
Derek said the bite would either kill or turn someone.
Now, he'd just taken off and left Sam alone with a possibly dying Jackson.
Derek had ditched them both and she had no idea what to do or how to handle this situation.
As some more of the black substance started to run from nose, Jackson looked over at Sam and said "What does this mean?"
Her eyes were wide as she stared at him, "I... I don't know this never happened to me."
Jackson's breathing grew more labored as he stared as his reflection.
Grabbing some paper towels she handed them to him, and watched silently as he cleaned the black stuff up.
"Did it stop?" She asked, trying to lean around to see his face again.
Turning back around, Jackson barked, "I don't know what's happening, but the bite has to work. Okay? I deserve for it to work. I've watched McCall steal everything from me and I'm going get it back. So I don't care what you have to do, or say to Derek but you're going to help me."
Looking down at the floor she tried to control her breathing and heart rate from the way he was talking to her.
When she looked back at him he took a few steps backwards at the sight of her glowing yellow eyes.
"No, I'm not going to help you. You've treated me like crap since middle school, I'm not this weak little girl you can push around anymore. I'm strong, a lot stronger than you and I don't want you in my pack." She blinked a few more times until her eyes were back to their human blue and then turned to leave him on his own.
~()~
A/N- Now Isaac's in the pack! ^_^ I really hope you guys all liked the chapter.