Summary: When Scott McCall ends up being trapped by hunters, the last thing he expects is to be saved by one of them, a Y/N L/N he knows from school. He later finds out that she is a werewolf as well, and she needs his help as much as he needs hers.
The woods are beautiful at night. The gentle rustling of leaves against the boughs, the silver light of the moon spilling down into the trees. Emerald green melts into deep oak and mahogany. It’s one of the most soothing places in all of Beacon Hills. Scott McCall would love to appreciate this prime example of nature, but he’s a little distracted by silently cursing Liam for running off into the woods and getting himself discovered by the hunters.
Clearly, Scott doesn’t have this whole alpha thing on lock. He had thought it was going fine, that Liam was finally making headway with managing his emotions. It was a difficult enough transition for any wolf, but for a boy with Liam’s anger problems? It turned out to be practically impossible. Scott’s been trying to think of anything from when he had been a beta, of any helpful tricks Derek had taught him. However, Derek’s version of teaching Scott about being a werewolf had basically consisted of disappearing for days at a time and then showing up out of nowhere to lurk ominously across a parking lot. Not a lot of help there.
The most he remembered from Derek was that one line the older werewolf had uttered to him, when Scott had wound up in the middle of the woods with a supernaturally charged heartbeat racing through his veins. “The bite is a gift.” “We’re brothers now.” Scott had tried out those same phrases on Liam, which had gone about as well as one could expect, with the boy storming away. Well, at least he’d tried.
But ‘just trying’ hasn’t really given Scott the results he had been hoping to see. Liam had gotten into some argument, probably with that boy from Devenford Prep- Brett or something- and stormed away into the woods. The only problem was that it was late at night, the moon was out, and the hunters always chose this time to go on patrols, looking for lone wolves. Lone wolves such as Liam, or at least Scott, who is chasing after him. Scott believes that Liam has managed to get away, but only because Scott distracted them. This has the unintended downside that about a dozen hunters are currently on Scott’s tail, and he has no idea how to get rid of them.
Scott leaps over a ravine, taking advantage of the sudden increase of ground in between himself and the hunters to duck around a stand of trees. There’s a large rock face a short distance from him, and if Scott can manage to get over there, he just might be able to lose the hunters once and for all. Just as he’s about to cross the final leg to the rocks, however, he hears the sudden sound of a dozen running feet and an arrow flies an inch away from his head. Looks like the hunters have caught up.
They’re gaining ground quickly, too. Unlike Scott, they aren’t constrained by the need to hide, and can blunder through the woods far faster than him. Scott throws himself behind a grove of trees, leaning back against the rough wood of the trunks and listening to the hunters draw closer and closer to him. They appear to have passed him, and then they fan out and begin searching in earnest. Scott’s heart feels like it’s in his throat. If he moves, they’ll hear him, but if he stays, they’ll see him. What does he do now? The choice is made for him when Scott sees a pair of black hunting boots stop in front of him, and then a pair of eyes meet his.
Scott is about to extend his claws and try to make a run for it through this nearest hunter, but his movements slow when the figure quickly places a finger against her lips, signaling for him to be quiet. The hunter shifts slightly, and the moonlight washes over her face. Scott’s eyes widen as he realizes he recognizes the hunter- it’s a girl from his school, Y/N L/N.
Y/N seems to recognize him as well, and he can see panic warring in her eyes as she tries to figure out what to do. Then she points towards the forest behind him, at a hole in the undergrowth. She whispers quietly, the sound only audible to Scott’s supernatural hearing. “Go. Quickly.” Scott nods, and turns and runs as fast as he can, disappearing into the night. He hears Y/N loudly walk back towards the other hunters, stepping on as many twigs and crackling leaves as she can to hide any sound of Scott’s movement. “I didn’t see him over here.” So she’s covering for him- but why?
Even after Scott manages to make it out of the forest, he’s still confused. If Y/N is a hunter, and her entire family are also hunters, why would she save him? Scott knows other teenage hunters, and they’ve never let the simple fact that they are schoolmates with a werewolf stop them from killing. In fact, they seem to take added joy in making the demise of a former friend turned wolf as gruesome as possible. So why would Y/N disregard all of that to save his life?
Scott decides to get some answers when he returns to school the next day. Y/N sits at a table outside with a couple of friends, and Scott waits until those friends disappear to the lunch line before he slides into a seat next to Y/N. She looks up, but seems unsurprised to see him. “You made it out.” She says, and Scott nods. “All thanks to you. I have to ask, though- why did you save me? I’m used to hunters being more of the merciless type.”
Y/N looks around, as if making sure nobody is watching them, then casually moves her hand onto the table next to Scott. It’s hidden to any passersby by her lunchbox, so Scott is the only one to see the werewolf claws extend from her fingertips. Once she’s sure Scott has seen them, she flicks the claws away as if they were never there. Scott stares at Y/N, speaking as quietly as possible. “You’re a werewolf? But how- I thought hunters weren’t allowed to undergo the change.”
Y/N tilts her head in acknowledgement. “They’re not. Nobody knows except you and me. I was bitten a couple of months ago, by some werewolf who wanted to send a message to my family. I managed to get rid of him so he wouldn’t tell anybody, but there was still the issue of the bite. I know I’m supposed to kill myself because death is meant to be better than living as a werewolf, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it. I’ve been as careful as I can to make sure nobody finds out.”
Scott shakes his head, amazed. “That must be terrifying, living so close to the hunters and having to keep that secret. How do you do it?” Y/N shrugs. “I spend as much time as possible at school or with friends. I figure the less time I’m around them, the less likely they’ll figure it out, right? I’m very careful not to get paper cuts, so they can’t see me heal. Plus, I have a sudden and extreme dust allergy that just happens to flare up whenever I’m handed a container of wolfsbane. What’s nice is that I know what they look for when trying to figure out whether someone is a werewolf, so I can just do the opposite of all that.”
Scott glances over at her, taking in the stress lining her brow. “I’m impressed that you’ve managed to keep it a secret, but that’s going to be hard. If you need any help, any at all, ask me. It’s hard to be a lone wolf, but it’s even harder to be alone in a house of hunters. You saved my life last night, I’d like to be able to begin to pay that back.” Y/N smiles. “I’ll keep that in mind.”
Scott is walking past the lacrosse field after practice when he first hears the howl. It’s quiet, as if someone’s doing their best to hide it, but it’s there nonetheless. Scott turns around to try to find the source, noticing Liam freeze in place as well. “Did you hear that?” The younger boy asks, and Scott nods. “I think it’s Y/N. I think she’s in trouble.” Liam glances around to see if anyone’s watching, then looks back at Scott. “Go find her. I’ll make up some excuse to Coach.” Scott claps Liam on the shoulder in gratitude, already starting to sprint away from the field. He doesn’t know how long Y/N has until the hunters find her, and he intends to get there first.
Scott was able to track the howl fairly quickly. It only came once, but he could get a rough location thanks to his supernatural hearing- roughly around the woods. Besides, the forest is the only place that makes sense- if Y/N was trying to maintain control over her claws and fangs, she’d probably want to go to the one place where she wouldn’t be immediately caught by her hunter family. Not her house, or the town, but the woods. Of course.
Scott turns out to be right about the woods- he finds her after only a couple of minutes of searching through the tangled briars and wind-swaying branches. She’s huddled under a large California maple, back pressed against the trunk. One hand is pressed against her temples, the other over her mouth as she tries to bite back another howl. When she looks up at Scott, her eyes are a glowing, burning yellow.
Scott approaches slowly. “What happened? Talk to me.” Y/N breathes out harshly, as if trying to regain focus, then begins speaking. Her fangs flash in her mouth with every word. “I was with the other hunters, in the house. They started talking about the werewolves they had killed.” She stops talking, as if physically forcing herself to stay calm. “They were so proud of themselves. One of them pulled up a picture on his phone. Scott, the body was a teenager. Just a kid. Younger than I was, and he was so proud of it. It made me sick. I barely managed to get out of there before losing it.”
Scott nods, then kneels to the ground in front of Y/N so they’re sitting next to each other on the leaf-strewn ground. “That sounds horrifying. They’re all horrifying.” Y/N shakes her head in disbelief. “And they’re the ones calling us monsters. I hate that I have to keep hiding from them. I have to live around them all the time, and it’s just going to get worse.” Scott watches as she tries to make herself return to a more human appearance, practically forcing her claws away. Scott reaches out and grabs her hand. “This is how you’ve been trying to hide? Y/N, you’re hurting yourself.”
Y/N looks away. “It’s what works. I don’t have much of a choice.” Scott puts his hand on her cheek, gently guiding her eyes back to his. “You do have a choice. You always have a choice. Even when it seems impossible, you always manage to do the right thing. You saved me from those hunters even though they could have hurt you. Honestly, it’s amazing how you’ve managed to stay afloat in the middle of all this.” Y/N’s angry expression brightens at that, and all of a sudden her eyes lose their golden glow and return to normal. Her claws slowly retract, as do her fangs.
She stares at him. “How did you do that?” Scott shrugs. “A big part of the shift is just losing control of your emotions. Sometimes it’s handy to have someone stay here and help talk you through it.” Y/N smiles at him. “Thank you, Scott. I mean it.” She breathes in and out slowly. “You don’t know how much of a relief it is to go back to normal.” Scott stands up, extending a hand to Y/N to help her up. “Hey, no problem. We all have to have each other’s backs, right?”
Y/N seems about to respond, and then her eyes lock on something behind him. Too late, Scott realizes that the vague noises echoing in the forest around them are not just woodland animals and birds, as he’d assumed, but more distinct. Human footsteps. Y/N’s eyes widen in a panic. “Those are my parents. They’re out hunting. Scott, they’re going to find out.” Scott can feel her shaking slightly with terror. He looks for a way out, some escape route, but there’s nothing. The hunters are closing in on all sides, and they’re only seconds away from finding the two of them. Just before the hunters swarm out from behind the trees, Scott whispers something to Y/N. “Trust me.”
Then there are guns pointed in their direction, guns held by a multitude of hunters. Too many to fight. Besides, a fight wouldn’t have saved them anyway- they would still wonder why Y/N, who was supposed to be one of them, was out in the forest with known alpha Scott McCall. Scott’s mind is a whirl of thoughts, and then he realizes what he has to do. Quickly, he grabs Y/N over to him, extending his claws and holding them over Y/N’s throat. He can feel the panic radiating over her, threads of betrayal making their way to the surface. He mutters something quietly under his breath, something only Y/N can hear. “Go with it. Please.”
One of the lead hunters, Y/N’s father, cocks his rifle. “What are you doing with her?” Scott just tightens his grip around Y/N’s throat. “You’ve been messing around with my pack too many times. I’m here to send a warning.” The hunter laughs, although Scott is pleased to hear a note of worry in the undertone. “We all know this is fake. Scott McCall would never hurt someone.” Scott tilts his head to the side, considering this. “I would never hurt an innocent. She’s a hunter, there’s a difference.”
The lead hunter’s eyes begin to cloud over with panic. “Okay, you’ve said your message. Now let her go.” Scott shakes his head. “That’s not how this works. You’re going to leave the werewolves alone, all of them. Even the lone wolves that aren’t a part of my pack.” The hunters scoff, and another one steps forward. “Why would we ever do that?” Scott’s voice lowers to a threatening pitch. “Because if you don’t, I’ll tear her throat out right now.” It’s a lie, an obvious one to anyone with supernatural hearing. Y/N can hear the hesitation in his heartbeat, and knows that Scott couldn’t do it if he tried. But the hunters cannot hear that reluctance, only see the scarlet glow of his eyes and the monster they’ve always thought him to be.
Anger replaces fear in the leader hunter’s eyes, and he signals to his men. “Like hell you are.” Suddenly, a bullet flies out of the woods and lodges itself in Scott’s arm. He reaches back away from Y/N, fighting the pain in his bicep but watching the skin already begin to reknit itself. The second Scott’s grip loosens, the lead hunter calls out to his daughter. “Y/N, quick! Run!” Y/N’s eyes dart to Scott, and he nods almost imperceptibly. She turns and sprints towards the false safety of the hunters. The other men swarm Scott, grabbing him and forcing him away. Just as Scott is dragged out of the woods, he turns to see one last glance of Y/N, who stares at him. Her eyes are full of terror.
Scott is taken to some hunter stronghold. He’s fairly sure that he’s in the basement of one of the hunters’ houses. Maybe even Y/N’s. It doesn’t really matter, though- he’s a little distracted at the moment. The hunters are lording it over him that they’ve managed to capture a true alpha, and rewarded him with a fairly large dose of torture. It’s not the first pain he’s experienced at the hands of hunters, and it likely won’t be the last, but that doesn’t mean that this doesn’t hurt. He’s been tied to a metal grate at the back of a basement, wires strapped to his arms, legs, and chest. Whenever the hunters feel like it, they’ll up the voltage and a shower of sparks will descend over his vision.
They’ve left for now, but Scott groans inwardly when he hears the sound of footsteps descending down the stairs. He was hoping for at least a little more recovery time, but it doesn’t look like he’ll even have that. His head is hung low, and he can’t see the approaching hunter until they’re only a few feet away from him. Then they pause, and Scott bites back a growl. “Why bother standing there? Just get it over with.” But the hunter doesn’t turn on the electric shocks. Instead, they walk even closer, and gently raise Scott’s head with the palm of their hand.
Scott’s spirits lift when he realizes the hunter is Y/N. She’s looking at him, horrified at what her family had done to him. “Give me a second, I’ll get you out of this.” She grabs a knife from her belt and starts sawing away at the restraints binding his arms and legs. Scott attempts to shake his head. “No, don’t. You have to go- they’ll see you.” A light smirk flickers across Y/N’s face. “Actually, they won’t. They’re all off at some bar on the other side of town, taking the opportunity to celebrate their capture of the one and only Scott McCall with some cheap beer. They won’t be back until late tonight, and they won’t be able to think straight until noon tomorrow.”
The last of the ropes have been cut away, and Scott rolls his shoulders, wincing from the stiffness already starting to creep across his limbs. Y/N watches him, pain flickering across her face. Scott glances over at her. “Don’t feel bad. I made my choice.” She shakes her head. “I should have done something to stop them. To stop this.” Scott reaches out and takes her hand. “There was nothing you could do. I’d rather have you stay alive then save me from a few shocks.” Y/N considers their intertwined hands. “You shouldn’t have had to choose.”
Scott places a hand on Y/N’s face, gently guiding her eyes to his. “We’re not human. We’re always going to have to make impossible choices, that’s who we are. And I chose you in the woods, and I will continue to choose you whenever I can. You’re a good person, Y/N, and good people rarely get to make easy decisions.” Y/N’s look of guilt fades away, and she smiles at him. “Actually, I can think of one easy decision right now. Let’s get out of here. I don’t want to spend any more time in this basement.”
Scott chuckles. “I can agree with that.” The two of them head quickly out of the door, and escape into the brisk chill of night. As they both make their way through town, Scott can’t help but look over at Y/N and smile. He meant what he said earlier to her- he intends to put her first in every day to follow. Today is just the first instance when he can say that out loud.
Word count: 3352