(they make him look so short 😭)
—
"What is that?"
Boyd glanced at Isaac before turning to the item in Derek's hand, "It's a triskele. Spirals mean different things - Past, present, future. Mother, father, child."
"You know what it means to me?" The man pressed,
"Alpha, beta, omega?" The teen shrugged his shoulders, easily guessing.
"That's right. It's a spiral. Reminds us that we can all rise to one or fall to another. Betas can become alphas, but alphas can also fall to betas or even omegas."
"Like Scott? Or Ryder?" Isaac asked,
"Scott's with us." Derek hummed, "Ryder's doing her own thing."
Derek wouldn't admit it out loud, but it truly bothered him how persistent the girl was with not joining a pack. Statistically speaking, she was apart of her mothers pack, but technically, Romona didn't even have a pack.
Despite the woman being an alpha, Romona hadn't actually bit anyone, and when Ryder was born, she hadn't actually been a wolf until she was bitten by Peter. So, technically, despite the girl not caring, Ryder was apart of Peter's pack. Her being as stubborn and headstrong as she is, Ryder wouldn't allow anyone aside from her mother to take her into a pack.
"Really? Then where is he now?" The Lahey snapped.
"He's looking for Jackson. Don't worry, he's not gonna have it easy tonight either. None of us will. There's a price you pay for this kind of power. You get the ability to heal, but tonight you're gonna want to kill anything you can find."
"Good thing I had my period last week, then."
"That's—okay."
The boys cringed at her words, uncomfortable with how comfortable she was with saying that.
"Well, this one's for you."
•••
Austin wasn't planning on attending Lydia's birthday party, but after hearing that it was apparently the biggest party of the year and that everyone would be there, his mind immediately went to catching Jackson.
What he didn't expect when he walked up to the porch was for the house to empty, aside from Scott and Stiles.
"Where the hell is everybody?"
"Not here." Stiles said bluntly.
"Happy Birthday!" Austin smiled at Lydia once she passed him.
Lydia smiled him, much to Austin's confusion. She hadn't been properly nice to him since she found out he was with Ryder, "Thank you. Don't forget to try the punch."
"Okay..."
Stiles watches the girl walk away, his eyes traveling to the two teens in front of him, "Have you seen Jackson anywhere?"
"No. Seen Allison?"
"No." Stiles shook his head, facing Austin, "Is Ryder coming?"
"She doesn't plan on it."
"We should probably tell them what we found."
Scott sighed, "I'm still kind of not sure what we found."
"I figured out it has something to do with water. You know, the fact that all the victims were on the swim team, the way the kanima reacted around the pool."
"So whoever's controlling the kanima really hates the swim team?" Austin asked.
"Hated the swim team." Stiles corrected, "Specifically, the 2006 swim team. So it could be another teacher. Maybe like a student back then. I mean, who are we missing though? What haven't we thought of?"
•••
"Uh, Jackson's not here." Allison pointed out, looking around the empty room.
"Yeah, no one's here." Stiles scoffed.
Scott shrugged, trying to look on the brighter side of things, "Maybe it's just early."
"I don't want to be rude but maybe nobody's coming because Lydia's turned into the town whackjob." Austin said.
Allison huffed, looking at her best friend in pity, "Well, we have to do something, because we've completely ignored her for the past two weeks."
"She's completely ignored Stiles the past ten years."
Austin dropped his head, hiding a smile at the remark.
"I prefer to think of it as me not having been on her radar yet."
"Sure, bud."
"We don't owe her a party."
"What about the chance to get back to normal?"
"Things are far for normal, Allison." Austin told her,
Allison looked at him, "She wouldn't be the town whackjob if it wasn't for us."
"For you, not me." He shook his head.
The three boys looked over at the strawberry blonde, sympathy covering their features as they noticed how upset she was that no one showed up.
Austin released a short groan, "I'll call Ry."
"I guess I could use my co - captain status to get the lacrosse team here." Scott followed.
"Yeah, I also know some people who can get this thing going. Like, really going." Stiles smirked, looking at Austin, the George teen rolling his eyes at the memory.
"Who?
"I met them the other night. Let's just say they know how to party." He pointed his phone towards Austin, "Austin could tell you."
•••
"Happy birthday."
"What are you doing here?" Lydia asked, looking Ryder in her eyes as she tried not to look at the group of people piling up being her.
The person Ryder now knew as Phoenix, spoke up, hands on the girls shoulders as they leaned forward, "We're here for the party."
Lydia looked at Ryder in confusion, the tatted girl hide a smile at her expression.
"Just— let us in, Lydia."
"Well, come on in. Don't touch anything."
•••
"You feeling alright?" Austin mumbled into Ryder's neck, pressing delicate kisses onto her skin to keep her calm, "You're not feeling the effects of the moon, are you?"
"Nope, but it seems like you're feeling the effects of Lydia's punch."
The Martin girl had offered Ryder the drink countless times, but the Miller knew how she was. She hadn't had a drink in a while and she knew that once she had one sip, she wouldn't be able to stop. Even if she now knew she couldn't get drunk as a wolf, she didn't want to risk anything.
So, she took it upon herself to simply watch over her friends while they got wasted.
"I'm not drunk, I swear."
She chuckled, "I didn't say you were."
She moved his head from her neck, smiling softly as he leaned into her touch, staring down at her with pure adoration in his eyes. In her thirty minutes of being here, she came to the conclusion that Austin was a clingy drunk, which wasn't really a problem, but it did made it a bit hard for her to watch out for everyone else.
•••
"Are you gonna apologize to Allison or what?" Stiles asked Scott, watching Austin and Ryder from afar.
Scott jerk his head back, "Why should I apologize?"
"Because you're the guy. It's, like, what we do." The Stilinski squinted, "Hell, Austin apologized to Ryder and now look at 'em."
Scott looked to where he gestured, his eyes falling on the couple that stood off by themselves. He didn't find the need to listen in on their conversation, but his heart did clench as he saw how focused they were on one another. Ryder was speaking softly to him, softer than he had ever see her talk at all, and Austin didn't seem like he cared for anything aside from what his girlfriend was saying.
"But I didn't do anything wrong."
"Then you should definitely apologize. See, any time a guy thinks he hasn't done anything wrong, it means he's definitely done something wrong."
"I'm not apologizing." The McCall seemed more focused on his pride than getting his relationship back on track. The thought confused Stiles greatly.
"Is that the full moon talking, buddy?"
"Probably." Scott lifted his shoulders, "Why do you care, anyway?"
"Because, Scott, something's gotta go right here. Aside from Austin and Ryder being the only stable thing going for everyone, we're getting our asses royally kicked, if you haven't noticed. People are dying. I got my dad fired. You're gonna be held back in school. I'm in love with a nutjob. And if on top of all that, I gotta watch you lose Allison to a stalker like Matt, I'm gonna stab myself in the face."
"Don't stab yourself in the face."
"Why not?"
"Because Jackson's here."