"What do you think?" Sam asked as she pried the lid off the paint can to reveal the purple substance inside.
"I probably would have gone with a dark gray... or red, blood red." Erica responded as she took her jacket off and laid in on Sam's bed which was pulled out away from the wall.
"Of course you would have." Sam said, and then laughed, "But I'll have you know that purple represents strength and a special kind of beauty because the color purple is rare in nature."
Erica raised her eyebrows as she said, "Okay, what kind of new age juju book did you read that from?"
"I didn't read it out of any book! This guy we go to school with...Matt, told me." Samantha explained as she handed Erica a paint roller and said, "Let's get started."
Erica watched as Sam started to roll the royal purple color over the off white walls.
"So... what are you going to do about Derek?" Erica asked.
She smiled when she saw Sam freeze for a second before continuing to paint.
"Well, I got another waitress to cover my shift tonight because I should really be there, it's Boyd's first night of training." She answered.
Rolling her eyes and laughing she said, "I mean about your feelings for him."
"What are you going to do about your crush on Stiles?" She quickly retorted as she scooted the paint tray farther down and started on a new patch of the wall.
"Nothing for now, in case you haven't noticed he seems to only have eyes for Lydia Martin... apparently he's into the stuck up princess types." Erica said as she moved farther down the wall in the opposite direction.
Sam nodded, she was pretty sure everyone who knew Stiles could see how much he liked Lydia.
"What's you're excuse?" Erica questioned.
"They're not excuses... they are reasons, starting with the fact that Derek would never-" She started to say but Erica cut her off as she turned and loudly proclaimed, "Don't even say he'd never be into a girl like you."
"I'm working on the whole self-confidence thing." Sam's nose wrinkled.
"Plus, your first reason isn't even an actual reason. Because I've seen him with you... he's different." She tried to put her hunch into words.
"Different how?" Sam questioned as she stopped painting and turned around.
"For one, he's definitely more protective over you." Erica pointed out.
"I think it's because I was his first beta." Samantha remarked, her tone simple and dismissive.
"You're wrong." Erica argued as she poured more paint into her tray and moved to the opposite wall and added, "You're the one he takes to run errands with."
"Probably just because I've been with him, er - a part of the pack for longer." She reasoned it away.
"Or, because he actually likes spending time with you." Erica argued.
"You should have seen the looks we got at the hardware store the night I went with him to get the chains and everything." Sam chuckled.
"I can imagine!" Erica nearly choked on her own breath with a laugh.
"Seriously, Sam." She cleared her throat, "I've seen him smile at you and I don't think I've ever seen him smile at anyone -or anything else."
Sam's lips pressed into a thin line, this time it took her a little longer to throw out a dismissive shrug at her friend's words.
"Not even a counter argument?" She playfully gasped.
"I don't know." Sam shrugged again, "If I'm being 100% honest... sometimes he'll say something or I'll catch something in his eyes and I think maybe, you know? But then I think it doesn't matter anyways because even if he did feel the same way, we're in a war and in the big picture, it wouldn't even matter at a time like this."
"Right..." Erica's face twisted up, "Because great love stories never start up in times of war."
Her tone was full of sarcasm.
"I'm so not talking about this anymore with you." Sam shook her head.
~()~
"Are you okay?" Derek asked as he walked over to Sam, who was leaned against a support beam holding onto her left arm.
"Yeah, I just don't know why my arm isn't healing." She admitted her voice strained from pain.
"Let me see it." He stepped closer.
Sam took a step back and tried to lie, "No, I think it's okay."
Her eyes were glued to the floor
"Sam," Derek look confused, "Just let me see it."
"You're not going to break it like you did to Isaac are you?" She looked up at him from behind the hair that had fallen over her face.
Glancing up to the ceiling with a hint of irritation he shook his head and answered in deadpan voice, "No. Sam. I'm not going to break your arm."
Choosing to believe him, she nodded as he reached out gently taking hold of her sore arm.
"Boyd's a lot stronger than Erica and Isaac are, I wasn't expecting that." Her words were followed by a pained gasp when he moved her arm to the side.
Starting with the bones in her wrist he worked his way up her arm, carefully feeling her bones to try and find the problem.
If they were dealing a simple break she should have healed long before now.
Her heart picked up speed at the feeling of his skin against hers.
All she was aware of in that moment was how warm his touch felt.
"Boyd might be bigger and stronger than you, but you're faster. Next time use the speed to your advantage." He said as he glanced at her.
"Okay..." She said, her voice trailed off.
She couldn't even feel the pain in her upper arm anymore; she was entirely focused on the sensation of his touch.
Not to mention her rapidly beating heart.
And how being in a room full of werewolves, they would easily pick up on the change in both her breathing her heart-rate.
She nervously licked her lips and tried to control her hastened breathing but was failing miserably at it.
"I don't feel any broken bones." He seemed puzzled.
Her cheeks darkened when she could hear his steady breathing, but was unable to control her own.
Instead of letting her labored breathing show, or be heard in the room full of werewolves she kept trying to hold her breath.
Hearing someone laughing she looked over to where Erica was watching them with a knowing smile on her face.
Sam shot her a look before closing her eyes and shaking her head.
"Okay?" She barely heard Derek say.
"Huh?" she asked, jarred back to her senses.
"It's not a broken bone, I think your shoulder is dislocated." He repeated for the third time.
"Oh, okay." She said with a small nervous laugh.
Then her eyes widened and she gasped, "Wait, what?"
Derek nodded before folding his arms over his chest as he simply said, "It just needs to be popped it back into place."
As it if weren't a big deal in the slightest.
Her head spun from the news and she knew now that holding her breath for so long was a bad idea when the room started to spin.
She stumbled a little and Derek rushed forward, curling an arm around her as he guided her over to a chair beside the subway car.
"Are you okay?" He asked, as he knelt down and looked at her.
"I just got light headed." She started to stand back up, but Derek stopped her.
She looked unnaturally pale, he knew if she tried to get up she'd get dizzy again.
"We should probably get you to the hospital." Erica was concerned.
She walked over to her friend.
"No."
"Were you not listening, your shoulder is dislocated." Erica argued.
Samantha shook her head, "No, you don't understand. Even though my mom works at the hospital, her insurance plan is a joke. The co-pay is more than I've got the money for right now, and if she gets the bill... I'll have way too much explaining to do."
Taking a deep breath she looked up at Derek and asked, "Can you fix my shoulder?"
After a pause he nodded and said, "I can try."
"I can do it... I know how." Isaac announced stepping forward.
When everyone shot him a disbelieving look he admitted, "I had to do it to myself a few times... after so many visits to the hospital, people start asking questions."
Memories of the abuse he'd suffered at his father's hands came flooding back and he glanced down to the floor to avoid all of the eyes on him,
"Okay, I trust you." Samantha agreed as she nodded at him.
~()~
"Feeling better?" Derek asked as he walked over to where Sam was texting Lydia on her phone.
"Yeah, a lot better actually." She admitted smiling, thankful her shoulder felt better.
They were both silent as they watched the other pack members train and practice fighting.
Sam opened her mouth but then paused.
There was something she'd been wanting to bring up to Derek.
"Are you sure killing this new monster is the right route to take?" She asked softly.
Derek's eyebrows furrowed in confusion as he asked, "Are you serious?"
Nodding she rose to her feet and explained, "You said it must be some sort of shape-shifter, like us..."
He cut her off, "It's nothing like us."
"But what if he or she is like us? Derek, on my first full moon when I turned, I hurt you... if I'd broken out I could have easily killed someone. I had no control over what I was doing, I turned into a monster." She reasoned.
"You're the one who told me about Deaton saying whatever this thing is... it's only purpose is killing. You really want something like that running loose in your town?" He pushed.
"No, of course not. But maybe there is some way to trap it and make it shift back to human." She offered, her tone hopeful.
"And then what?"
Shrugging she admitted, "I hadn't thought that far in advance, but-"
"If we find this thing, we're going to kill it. We can't take the chance of trapping it." His tone was sharp. Decisive and meant to shut her argument down.
She shook her head back and forth, not sure how Derek could so heartlessly say they were going to kill someone else.
He stared at her in disbelief, with everything she knew about this monster, he wasn't sure how she could even consider trying to get close enough to trap it.
It would slaughter her, slaughter any of them without hesitation.
Their eyes met and as much as she hated disagreeing with him or going against what he said as her alpha, she admitted, "You sound kind of heartless."
Cocking his head to the side at her standing up to him he retorted, "And you sound naive, Sam."
His words stung her.
Sure, she wasn't born into any of this and she was new to the supernatural world and being a werewolf. But she felt like her heart was in the right place.
She couldn't help but wonder what might have happened to her if Derek hadn't been able to stop her the first night she shifted; it was possible she could have killed someone.
But someone was there to stop her from hurting anyone, and maybe it did make her sound naive, but a part of her wondered if maybe that was the only difference between her and this new monster.
She had people who cared enough to keep her grounded, to keep her human.
Maybe this other kind of shape-shifter didn't have anyone.
"I should... get going." She said as she took a few stumbling steps backwards before turning to leave.
"Sam!" Erica yelled after her, but she didn't stop.
"Let her go." Derek spoke up.
With a confused expression Boyd asked, "Isn't she going to help us tonight?"
Before Sam had shown up for training that day, Derek had briefly discussed a plan to corner Stiles and find out what happened with his run in with the monster at the auto shop, at the time he'd planned on filling Sam in after they were done for the day.
But now he thought it was best to leave her out of the plan entirely, she'd probably get killed trying to save it.
"No, uh, Sam's sitting this one out." Derek stated.
~(Later that night)~
"Hey!" Erica yelled with a smile as she waved Sam over to where she and Boyd were sitting.
Smiling back, Samantha surveyed the crowded stands before making her way over to them.
"I didn't think you were coming tonight." Boyd said.
"I wasn't going too. I don't normally go to lacrosse games but Lydia talked me into it." Sam admitted as she looked around again before continuing, "Apparently, it's important for Jackson to see her out having fun and she asked me to meet her here."
"You look really nice." Erica responded.
Sam looked down to her clothes with a light laugh, "Yeah, also according to Lydia; fashion is more important than protecting yourself from frostbite."
"What time is Derek supposed to be here?" Boyd asked, as he leaned forward and talked to Sam who was sitting on the other side of Erica.
"What?" She asked confused, "Derek's coming to the game?"
When she saw her pack mates exchange looks she repeated, "What?"
"We're supposed to be meeting Derek later in the game, he wants to find out what Stiles saw during the attack at the auto center." Boyd spoke in a tone that showed he thought she already knew.
Sam felt her heart sink.
So much for having a pack and people you can depend on and trust.
She felt left out.
"He didn't tell you?" Erica asked shocked. She was under the impression that Sam had willingly chose to sit this one out.
"Wow, so much for a pack mentality, huh? I'm even the odd girl out in our pack." She breathed out, unable to hide her disappointment.
"I'm sure he just didn't want to involve you, he's probably worried you'd get hurt or something." Erica quickly chimed in, hoping to make her feel better.
"Yeah." Boyd nodded in agreement, but he was confused as to why Derek had been keeping her in the dark.
When he'd fist joined the pack, he'd learned that Sam was Derek's first beta wolf and they appeared to be closer than he was to anyone else in his pack.
He thought out of all his wolves, Derek would have trusted Sam the most.
Sam looked down to her phone wondering where Lydia was.
They were supposed to have met over twenty minutes ago.
"It's okay, we'll find out what's going on." Erica offered with a smile as she reached out and gave her friend a half hug.
She nodded, but now she was sure nothing would be able to cheer her up.
As Erica cheered for game and enjoyed the night out with her friends, Boyd sat jealous of the attention the lacrosse players were getting.
And Sam sat in silence, a deep sense of betrayal rising within her as she wondered if the entire pack thing had been a lie, maybe it was stupid and foolish to believe she could ever be different from the girl she used to be.
No matter what designer clothing labels she had, or even if Lydia Martin gave her the time of the day... a part of her secretly feared that deep down she'd always be that girl who ate lunch alone every single day.
The freak who's dad was in jail for trying to kill her mom.
No amount of make-up, or popular new friends could cover up her past. And now she was really wondering if she'd made a mistake letting Derek bite her.
"Someone has got to do something, we're going to lose the game." She heard Erica complain.
"Huh?" Sam asked, shaken from her thoughts.
"I swear, half of our team has been taken to the hospital." Nodding to where another Beacon Hill's lacrosse player was being removed from the field on a stretcher by EMTs." Erica sighed.
Tightening her arms around herself, and shivering in the cold weather Sam considered the fact that maybe Lydia had stood her up.
Perhaps she'd been wrong about considering the redhead a friend too.
"You- you, you play lacrosse?" Coach asked, pointing at Boyd in the stands.
As Boyd started to stand up, Erica grabbed his arm and hissed "Uh-uh, Derek won't like this."
He'd made it clear time and time again that his beta wolves needed to stay under the radar.
Not drawing attention was the route to take in a town full of werewolf hunters.
"Derek won't like it... but I will." Boyd said as he stood up.
"Sam!" Erica said looking to her friend for support.
"You know what, if you want to play lacrosse... if being out there on that field will make you happy, then do it." Samantha said, the words sounded alien coming from the one who had followed Derek's orders and supported him from the beginning.
"Screw what Derek wants." She added with a shrug.
"What?" Erica gasped.
Boyd smiled and pulled off his coat.
With his muscular frame now in full view under the tight blue shirt he was wearing, the coach let out a satisfied cheer.
Someone like Boyd was exactly who he needed on the field to go against Eddy Obomowitz, known to the lacrosse team as 'the abomination'. The one responsible for sending half the team to the ER.
As he walked past Sam he pushed his coat into her arms and smiled as he said, "Thank you."
"Just be careful... Gerard Argent is here." She warned nodding to where Allison was sitting with her grandfather.
He nodded then ran down to talk to Coach Finstock.
Sam tucked the coat between herself and Erica on the bench and clapped her hands for him.
Erica's brown eyes searched the field before she leaned over and whispered, "Are you sure about this?"
"No, but Boyd is." Sam said before rising to her feet and cheering loudly as Boyd reappeared on the field dressed in his lacrosse uniform.
~()~
"Lydia?" Sam asked, surprised as she approached the teenagers car.
"Sam... hey." Lydia responded as she wiped her tears and tried to cover up that she'd even been crying as she looked at her through the open window.
"What's going on?"
"N-nothing. It's nothing." Lydia tried to play it off, but tears welled up in her eyes again.
Walking around and getting in the passenger seat, Sam asked "Is it Jackson?"
Lydia remembered back to when Sam had caught her crying over Jackson in the girls bathroom.
"Kind of."
As bad as Sam felt for her new friend being upset, a part of her was relieved that Lydia had been out in the parking lot too hurt to go to the game.
Originally, she had thought Lydia stood her up.
"Believe it or not, Jackson isn't my biggest problem right now." Lydia confided, then pinned her eyes shut as she thought about waking up to find herself covered in blood and mirror shattered; she had no memory of breaking it.
"I'm listening." Samantha softly said.
"You're going to think I'm crazy."
Samantha held back a small laugh at the idea of Lydia having something to say that would make her sound crazy.
After all, she was a werewolf and pretty sure there wasn't much of anything that could surprise her now.
"There is nothing you can say to me that will make me think you're crazy, Lydia." Sam promised.
Lydia froze and then looked over at her as she said, "Stiles said the exact same thing to me before he promised he'd be back to listen to me."
She scanned the parking lot and then said, "And I haven't seen him since."
"I handle crazy well." Sam said as she looked around and wondered where Stiles had run off to and if his reason for not returning had to due with Derek's plan she'd been left out.
"I've been... having these dreams, really vivid nightmares. And this morning, I woke up with blood all over my sheets." She explained.
"What? Oh my god, are you okay?" Sam asked, her eyes wide as she turned in her seat to face her.
Lydia paused for a few moments, before she removed her gloves and showed Sam her cut and bruised knuckles.
"One of my mirrors was shattered, but I don't remember breaking it. How the hell does someone cross their room in the middle of the night, punch a mirror and then climb back into bed with no recollection of it?" She breathed out.
Sam listened as Lydia explained how she'd hallucinated seeing a man walking through the school hallway and how scared she was that she might be losing her mind.
She was silent in response; she had no idea what to tell her new friend.
A part of her wondered if maybe it was some kind of side effect of being bitten by Derek's uncle when he was an alpha.
Derek hadn't told her much about his family, but he'd filled her in on some of the events that had happened before he'd killed his uncle to take the alpha status.
Thinking maybe she had freaked Sam out, Lydia moved onto the other topic that had her down. "It's so stupid. I used to love to come to these games, cheering Jackson on and watching our team win. I'd even decorate poster boards before the games. And now I can't even sit in the bleachers without being reminded of him." Lydia said, feeling a small relief at talking about her problems.
Sam looked around the brand new interior of Lydia's car as she nodded, and patiently waited for her to go on.
Lydia talked for several more minutes about how Jackson wouldn't even look at her in the hallways and blew her off every time she'd tried to talk to him.
"Should I just stop trying?" She asked, drying her watery eyes again.
Samantha looked down to her lap and shrugged as she said, "I don't know... I've never had a boyfriend."
"Wait, never?" Lydia asked as she turned and faced her.
Sam let out a small, dry laugh as she said, "Never."
"Why not?" Lydia bluntly asked.
Sam continued, "It's not a big deal... I'm too busy with school and work anyway."
But in reality it was a big deal to her, a bigger deal than she'd care to admit.
"I know a few guys on the lacrosse team..." Lydia began to say, but Samantha cut her off.
"No thanks... I'm not really interested in anyone from school."
Feeling better after talking things out and now wrapped up in what Sam was saying Lydia asked, "So... there is someone outside of school you're interested in? The same mystery guy you told me about at the mall?"
Not giving her friend the chance to dig any deeper on the subject, Sam opened the passenger door and said "You think you can handle watching the last of the game? I'm kind of excited to see if we win."
She smiled as how excited Boyd had seemed to be able to play on the team, and wanted to be there to support her new pack member.
"I'm gonna head inside to the restroom first, but I'll meet you out there." Lydia said as she nodded to the field.
Sam nodded and headed back to the stands, but felt her heart sink some as she didn't see Erica anymore.
Derek must have showed up to question Stiles like he'd planned
Sam thought back to what Lydia had told her, Stiles had gone into the school and promised Lydia he'd be right back but he didn't return.
Giving up on trying to focus on the game, Sam stood up deciding she'd go into the school and look for Derek, find out why he didn't include her in his plan.
~()~
Sam followed the sound of water splashing and muffled voices to the school pool.
She pushed the door to the pool room open and walked inside, coming to a stop as she was met by the sight of Stiles and Derek in the water.
Stiles was flailing around and trying desperately to keep both himself and the alpha afloat.
"What the hell are you doing?" She asked.
Her features were twisted up in confusion.
"Sam, watch out!" Derek yelled as he raised his head just in time to see the monster closing in on his beta wolf.
Spinning around she immediately took on a defensive pose, ready to attack as she stared at the reptilian beast.
She'd never seen anything like it before.
"Call Scott!" Stiles shouted at her, his voice strained from trying to keep both himself and Derek from drowning.
It felt like he'd been kicking his legs in the water for days and his energy was fading fast.
Ignoring Derek's warning as he told her to get in the water, she darted forward knocking it backwards, but within seconds it was back on its feet.
Its tail flipped wildly behind it on as it focused its attention on her.
"Sam!" Derek yelled, trying to get her attention.
She might have been his most trained pack member, but none of them knew exactly what they were against yet and he was worried she'd get herself killed.
But she didn't listen as she charged it again, using her claws to slash across its abdomen.
She was caught off guard when it didn't seem to have any effect on it, she hesitated before attacking again.
The slight hesitation was all it took for the creature to get the upper hand, as it dug its claws into her stomach and shredded her skin as it moved his hand upward.
She let out a shriek of pain before crumpling to the floor, paralyzed from its venom.
To Derek, the entire scene happened in slow motion.
He'd seen her error and wanted to jump in the fight to save her, but he was paralyzed from the neck down. Helpless.
Hearing a pained groan he saw Erica slowly sitting up, holding onto her head from where she'd been knocked out after being thrown at the wall.
"Erica, get her out of here, go now!" Derek yelled at her.
Erica blinked as her vision was a little blurry and started to ask him what he was talking about but then she saw Sam's motionless body and without another thought she rushed to her friend's side.
She visually scanned the room again before picking Sam's body up and carrying her into a nearby bathroom.
She heard Stiles yelling something at her about Scott but she was too frantic to hear exactly what he was saying.
"Oh-oh my god." Erica breathed out as she saw the deep open wounds across her friend's abdomen.
Tears rolled down the sides of Sam's face from pain and fear, she wanted to curl up in a fetal position until it felt better but she was paralyzed.
"I don't know what to do." Erica admitted as tears burnt her own eyes as she laid Sam down on the floor as gently as possible.
In the beginning, being a werewolf was awesome.
No more seizures or medicine with terrible side effects.
Perfect skin and new found self-confidence, not to mention the super human strength and heightened senses. But now Erica wasn't so sure the bite was as big of a gift as she'd originally thought.
For everything that had gotten better in her life, there was some new danger lurking in the dark. Hunters hadn't seemed like a big deal, but then they'd waged war on all werewolf kind. And now with this new monster, she was horrified.
Sam had been the first real friend she'd made and now her friend looked only moments away from death as she lay on the bathroom floor.
~()~
A/N- If you're still reading, please leave a comment and let me know. Thank you for the support!