˗ˏˋ⋆ H E A V E N L Y ⋆ˎˊ˗
↳ 𝒗𝒊. 𝒂 𝒕𝒓𝒊𝒑 𝒅𝒐𝒘𝒏 𝒎𝒆𝒎𝒐𝒓𝒚
𝒍𝒂𝒏𝒆
𝘵𝘦𝘦𝘯 𝘸𝘰𝘭𝘧, 𝘴𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘰𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘳𝘦𝘦
(ℭ𝔥𝔞𝔬𝔰 ℜ𝔦𝔰𝔦𝔫𝔤)
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SOON ENOUGH, ISAAC WAS SITUATED IN DEREK'S PREVIOUS SEAT, ALMOST curled in on himself from his nerves. Peter had an unimpressed look on his face as he watched the younger beta, slowly walking around him.
"Relax," he advised Isaac. "I'll get more out of you if you're calm."
Isaac glanced back at Peter as he stopped behind him. "How do you know how to do this again?"
It was a good question because Gracie didn't know the answer, either. All she knew was that Peter knew how to do it.
"It's an ancient ritual used mostly by alphas since it's a skill that requires quite a bit of practice," Peter said as he studied the back of Isaac's neck, lining up his claws at the appropriate spot for penetration. "One slip and you could paralyze someone...or kill them?"
"You've..." Isaac swallowed nervously. "You've had a lot of practice, though, right?"
Peter smiled creepily at him. "Well, I've never paralyzed anyone."
Gracie cocked her head. "Uh..."
"Wait, does that mean that you––?" Isaac wasn't able to finish his question as Peter forced his claws into the back of his neck.
Isaac flinched violently and Peter wrapped his arm around his throat to hold him still.
Jumping to her feet, Gracie winced at the frantic whispers flying through her head.
Derek stood up in alarm, worried for his beta's safety but it seemed that even Peter was having trouble with the ritual. His eyes glowed an icy-blue as he grunted, his head jerking back from whatever he was seeing in Isaac's memories.
"Derek..." Gracie looked at her brother nervously, standing from her chair.
Derek went to stop Peter from continuing the ritual but Peter finally spoke up.
"Wait, I see them," he said urgently.
He went silent again, struggling with everything he was seeing. After another moment, Peter ripped his claws from Isaac's neck and threw himself away from him, shoving himself into the table.
"What did you see?" Derek asked as Gracie steadied their uncle, who was still trying to find his balance.
"Uh, it was confusing," Peter panted, shaking his head. "Um, images...vague shapes."
"So you saw something," Gracie stated, glad that the ritual worked.
"Isaac found them."
Gracie perked up, knowing that that meant. If Isaac found Erica and Boyd that meant that they were one step closer to getting them home safe and sound.
"Erica and Boyd?" Derek checked.
"I-I barely saw them. I mean—g-glimpses."
"But you did see them?" Derek asked firmly.
Peter glanced down at his hands, tightly holding them together. "Worse."
Derek's face fell in realization. "Deucalion."
Gracie's shoulders slumped as she walked toward Isaac, settling her hands on his shoulders to try to give him some calming vibes, though she needed some herself.
Deucalion was the leader of the alpha pack, and even though he was blind, he was the most vicious out of all of them, according to Derek and Peter. While they already knew that Erica and Boyd were with the alpha pack, it was still hard to hear it confirmed.
"He was talking to them," Peter reported. "Something about time running out."
"What does it mean?" Isaac looked to Derek for answers.
Derek sat down on his couch, his face grim. "He's gonna kill them."
"No, no, no, he didn't say that," Peter disagreed. "He did make them a promise that by the full moon that they'd both be dead."
"The next full moon?"
Peter nodded at Derek. "Tomorrow night."
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"YOU GUYS ARE LATE," STILES' VOICE WAS DRY AND DISAPPROVING AS GRACIE and Derek made their way into the empty classroom that they were supposed to meet Stiles, Scott, Lydia, and Allison in before school started.
"Do you know how hard it is to sneak a grown man into a school without being suspicious?" She narrowed her eyes at him, never even giving him time to answer, "I didn't think so."
Stiles rolled his eyes at her while Scott sighed and addressed Derek, "Yesterday someone was at the school looking for me. She spoke to Allison and Gracie—we think it was the girl who saved Isaac."
"The one he was looking for?"
"I gave him the description Allison gave me and he said that the it matched the girl," Gracie told him, crossing her arms over her chest.
"Anyway, she bruised me and Lydia, and now we have matching bruises," Allison revealed.
"We think it's a hint to where Erica and Boyd are being kept," Allison's gaze was cool as she spoke to Derek.
It was the first time they were in the same room after everything went down with Jackson and Gerard.
The tension was very obvious; they could all feel it in the air. Allison held out her bruised arm and so did Lydia, placing hers right next to Allison's to complete the pattern.
Derek studied it for a moment. "I don't see anything."
"Look again," Scott urged.
"How is a bruise gonna tell me where Boyd and Erica are?"
"It's the same on both sides," Scott sighed in exasperation. "Exactly the same."
"It's nothing," Derek glared at Allison. She readily returned the vicious stare.
"Pareidolia," Lydia spoke up from the other side of Allison. Gracie cocked her head in acknowledgement as everyone else looked at her in confusion. "Seeing patterns that aren't there. It's a subset of Apophenia."
Derek raised his eyebrows at her and then turned to Gracie expectantly. She pressed her lips together. "We're trying to help, Derek."
Derek scoffed and nodded his head at Allison.
"She wants to help?" He scoffed. "She shot about thirty arrows into our pack, Gracie."
Allison raised an eyebrow but didn't argue with his point. She knew what she did but she wasn't going to apologize for it.
"Okay, all right, now, come on," Stiles tried to mediate. "No one died, all right? Look, there may have been a little maiming, okay, a little mangling but no death. That's what I call an important decision."
Gracie rolled her eyes at him while Allison glared at Derek. "My mother died."
"Your family's little honor code killed your mother, not me," Derek said tensely.
Gracie scratched her ear, ducking her head. She didn't exactly disagree with her brother. Well, no, she agreed with him completely. It's exactly like the Argents were saints, especially when it came to their family.
True, Allison's mother had died, but Victoria Argent had only killed herself so she wouldn't turn into a wolf after Derek bit her.
And why did he bite her?
To stop her from killing him and Scott after she tortured the beta with wolfsbane the night of the rave.
"That girl knew Gracie and was looking for Scott," Allison didn't back down. "I'm here to help them, not you."
"You wanna help? Find something real," Derek turned away from Allison and headed for the door. Scott quickly stopped him.
"Derek, give her a chance," he said quietly. "They're on our side now."
"Well then maybe you should tell her what her mother was actually trying to do that night," Derek retorted.
Gracie glanced at Allison and was relieved that she had turned away to talk to Lydia and wasn't listening to their conversation. She didn't need to learn what her mother had done at the moment. She shouldn't have to learn about it in a heated conversation –– or at school.
By the time fifth period came, Gracie was still thinking about this morning and what Peter saw. She was hoping Erica and Boyd were okay. Even if they weren't packmates anymore, she still cared about them.
Gracie only jumped a little bit when Coach slammed his teacher copy of their textbook unto his desk, capturing her's and the rest of the class' attention.
"The stock market is based on two principles," Coach spoke as he went to his spot in front of his students' desks. "What are they?"
Gracie knew the answer but she didn't bother to raise her hand to answer him. She was more interested in the fact that Scott had raised his hand in front of her and he was very confident about it.
"Yes, McCall, you can go to the bathroom," Coach said casually as he looked for another hand, not expecting to get an answer from him. "Anybody else?"
Scott lowered his hand. "Uh, no, Coach, I know the answer."
Coach looked at him for only a second before bursting into laughter. When Scott didn't react in anyway, he sobered up. "Oh, you're serious."
"Yeah," Scott confirmed. "It's risk and reward."
Gracie raised her eyebrows with an impressed look. Scott really was taking his studies seriously now.
"Wow!" Coach was shocked by the correct answer. "Who are you and what have you done to McCall?" He advanced to Scott's desk to happily point his finger in his face. "Don't answer that. I like you better, I like you better." He stood straight again and looked around the room. "Does anybody have a quarter?"
"I do," Stiles volunteered, shoving his hand into his pocket to grab the coin.
In what felt like slow motion, a small foil packet flew out of his jeans and through the air, landing on the floor right in front of Coach's feet.
The whole class went silent as he bent down to pick up what was obviously a condom. When Gracie saw the packet, she looked down at her notes with a blank expression.
Normally, she would laugh or blush at something like that, but she didn't this time, unable to ignore the gnawing feeling in her gut and that awful taste in her mouth. She didn't find it funny or amusing like everyone else did. She didn't like it at all, especially since the memory of Stiles hooking up with at the party the night before was burned into her mind.
After the summer, Gracie really thought things were changing between the two, but maybe she was wrong. Maybe she had just been imagining things.
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Stiles and the flush of his mole-speckled cheeks. With wide eyes, he was frozen as Coach cleared his throat awkwardly, completely mortified.
"Stilinski," Coach coughed weakly. "I think you, uh, I think you dropped this." He gave his student a proud look. "...and congratulations."
When Coach handed it back to Stiles, it was only then that she saw the condom displayed itself as extra-extra-large.
Now, she was smiling.
If her cheeks could heat up any further, she was sure a thermometer would show that she had a fever.
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𝐀𝐔𝐓𝐇𝐎𝐑'𝐒 𝐍𝐎𝐓𝐄:
So that's chapter six. I loved the ending. I'm currently rewatching season 4. Is it just me or Stiles more serious in the later seasons? He's still funny, but you can see the difference in his character a little from season 1 and season 4 and 5. Am I the only one who feels this way? If you liked the chapter, please vote, comment, and share.