In the immediate aftermath of their meeting with Peter, Derek shuffled Allison towards his Camaro as fast as he could, and, once he was certain they were out of listening range, he told Allison that he needed to start building his Pack and fast. “Wait a second, what do you mean you need to build your Pack now?” she questioned.
“I mean that if I don't build my Pack, this town is going to drown in a river of blood caused by my crazy uncle and the death count is going to skyrocket until there is nobody left alive,” Derek replied. “The night Peter wounded Laura and took half of the Spark, he bit Stiles and Scott.”
“Which turned them into werewolves. Yeah, yeah, we know this already,” Allison waved off. “Yes, but that also turned them in his Betas. Meaning that they are a part of his Pack,” Derek elaborated, eliciting a look of surprise and concern from the girl sitting next to him. “Wait, so what does that mean for Scott and Stiles? Does that mean Peter can control them?” she inquired. The Alpha nodded and shrugged slightly, and said, “In a manner of speaking. It means that he has a higher influence over them than I do, because of the Pack bonds he's forged with them through the bite. And those bonds are only going to get stronger, and make Peter stronger, the more time passes, which means that I need to strengthen my Pack as soon as possible.”
“You mean you need Betas,” Allison clarified.
“Well, I certainly don't need any more Alphas running around town,” Derek snarked, then in a low murmur he said, “There are too many of those already.”
Instead of responding to his sarcastic remark, Allison opted to think of a solution to Derek's latest problem. That's when it hit her.
“Why don't we just rebuild your Pack from before?” Allison suggested.
“I don't know. I mean, in the original timeline, I didn't start building my Pack until Kate and Peter were dead. And on top of that, I wasn't exactly “Alpha of the Year”,” Derek responded. “Well, I think we've established that things were going to be different this time around,” Allison reasoned, then adding with a smirk, “Besides, now you have me here to make sure you don't screw everything up.”
Derek glared at her with no real heat behind his gaze. “Oh, my hero!” he drawled. “Whatever would I do without you.” The Argent girl beamed at the Hale wolf, letting out a bubbly echo of laughter that filled the car with a pleasant aura that not even the Sourwolf of Beacon Hills couldn't resist smiling at.
Despite everything that was going on, Derek had to admit it felt nice to be able to talk to someone about all of this, and it felt even better to start off the right way with Allison. Who knows? Maybe she's right. Maybe now that he had her on his side, things wouldn't go directly to hell. At least not at first.
“Well, we can talk more about this later. Not everything has to be done all at once,” the Alpha cleared his throat. “If I remember correctly, Peter’s second attack won't happen for another two weeks at least. However, there is a small chance he will move up his attack after what just happened at the hospital.” “Do we think he'll move up his attack?” Allison asked. “Not likely. He knows that that I know what he's up to, but he also knows the police and your family are hunting him, too. After today, he's going to be planning his next moves based around the assumption that you are going to tell your parents that Peter is the Alpha,” Derek answered. “He's gonna lay low for now, which gives us time to think of our next move.”
“When do you think we should meet up again?” Allison inquired.
Derek paused for a moment. “Not tomorrow. But we definitely shouldn't put it off for more than a week. I can try to find time in between practices to meet up with you, but it's gonna be difficult.”
“I can always tell my parents that I'm looking into joining some of the clubs at school or that I'm staying after to watch practice,” Allison added.
“Ah, we really shouldn't be seen together in public. At least for the next few days,” Derek sighed. “We'll figure it out. In the meantime, are you going to tell Scott that you know the truth?”
Allison shook her head in response. “Not yet. I think I need a while to wrap my head around it first before I tell him. Plus, from what you told me of Scott in the first timeline, he seemed to have a bad habit of not trusting you when he should,” she confessed. “I think if we're really going to have a shot at doing things right this time around, you need to gain his trust on your own and not make it look like you're trying to manipulate him by getting me on your side. Sound good?”
Derek nodded. “That actually sounds like a great plan.”
“See? I told you I would stop you from screwing things up,” she quipped.
Derek rolled his eyes fondly at her. “Oh, bite me.”
“Isn't that your job, Alpha,” she teased.
They bickered lightheartedly as Derek drove back to the restaurant, where they had left Allison's car, threw japes and jeers at each other like they were old friends who had known each other for years. And in a way, that was somewhat accurate.
* * *
The next day hit like a freight train and not in a good way. Between Derek waking up 20 minutes before his alarm went off and still managing to leave the house later than he planned and listening to the principal and the coach argue back and forth about the unorthodox method in which Derek had been hired which resulted in him getting the job anyway, it was shaping up to be a very taxing day. And that wasn't even considering the upcoming torment he was set to endure in the afternoon at practice.
Meanwhile, outside the front entrance of the school, Scott was sitting on the bench fidgeting anxiously while searching for any sign of Allison. “So, what happened to you last night?” Allison huffed as she came up to the teenage werewolf. “You just left me stranded at the party.”
Scott immediately jumped up, even as the girl of his dreams started walking away from him. “Yeah, I know. And I'm really sorry. But you're gonna have to trust that I had a really good reason.”
“Why, were you sick?” she queried, already knowing the answer.
“Well, I definitely had an attack of something last night,” Scott responded vaguely.
Yeah, I'll bet. Allison scoffed inwardly. Still, she continued to play the part of the oblivious girl next door despite every fiber of her being screaming at her to just confront him about the truth.
But she needed time. Time to herself take in everything she's learned. Time to wrap her head around the fact that her new friend and potential boyfriend are both werewolves and that her family is actively hunting them down.
So she would play along for now.
“Am I gonna get an explanation for this?” she snapped. “Can you just find it in your heart to trust me?” Scott pleaded.
“Am I gonna regret this?” she huffed. “Probably,” he admitted, making her chuckle softly. “So… is that a “yes” on the second chance?”
She bit her lip tentatively, as she mulled it over in her head. Knowing what she knew now, she didn’t want to redo her entire relationship with Scott just because they were in love in the past. Plus, it felt like she was manipulating Scott in that sense, and she didn’t want to make him feel like that. On the other hand, she couldn’t deny the palpable attraction she felt for him even knowing what he was. With all of these thoughts jumbled up in her mind, it made it hard for her to think.
Still, she had to give him something.
”We can start over,” she began, not missing the way his eyes lit up, making what she was about to say next even worse. “But as friends.” Almost immediately, the hopeful look on Scott’s face dissipated, leaving behind a sorrowful look. “It’s just that I don’t wanna rush into a relationship right now. But I really liked hanging out with you before. I think that for now, we just take things slow and see how we work as friends,” she said quickly. “And if we are still romantically attracted to each other after that, then maybe we could be more.”
Scott opened his mouth to say something, but was interrupted by the sound of a car horn honking.
“That’s my dad. Look, I have to go, Scott, but… I’ll call you. Okay?” Allison exhaled. Then she darted off to her dad’s truck leaving Scott all alone.
And as if the universe was trying to show him how much it hated him, he caught a whiff of a familiar scent in the air coming from the direction of the truck. What, or rather who, he saw next scared him shitless. It was the hunter from last night. At first, he was terrified that the hunter had tracked him down and was here to finish him off, but then he saw the older man hug Allison before helping her into the passenger side of the truck.
And that's when he realized… Allison Argent was the daughter of a werewolf hunter. The same one that nearly killed him and Stiles.
This was not good.
TO BE CONTINUED…