The night before the first day of her junior year and Darcy Harmont had spent most of it chained to a tree.
Look, sometimes she was eternally grateful for the pack, her friends, but other times... Other times she could live without them. Like now, when she had been given very little choice whether or not she wanted to be chained to a tree in the middle of the Beacon Hills Preserve. The only thing that lessened the blow was the fact that she wasn't the only one suffering.
Darcy looked over at the other beta. "You think they're gonna let us go soon?"
Liam huffed a sigh. "Hopefully. I forgot to go pee before we left."
"Ah, thank you. I really needed to know that."
He shrugged and looked over at her, eyes shining as he tried not to smile. "I figured you did."
Darcy rolled her eyes and let silence fall between them.
Metal chains lined with silver dug into her abdomen and arms, making her feel slightly nauseous. Tree bark tore at her skin through her t-shirt every time she shifted. Even though she'd faced worse in the past two years than a tree, she still bristled with discomfort.
Liam spoke suddenly, "Hey, what do you think it's going to be this time?"
She shot him a confused look. "What do you mean?"
"You know, our 'monster of the month.'"
Her mouth made an "o" shape but it fell shut as she thought. Things had been good lately, no monsters trying to kill them, accompanied by little to no death. It'd been as normal of a summer as they could get, filled with friends and Darcy's job at the bowling alley. She didn't want to jinx their lives by answering, but still, she answered, "I kinda hope it's vampires."
Liam's face drew in and he looked at her with typical teenage-boy judgment. "God, I hope not."
"What's wrong with vampires?"
"Mason went through a phase, and that's all I'm allowed to say."
Darcy stored that information away for later. "Oh, I see... but I'm definitely telling him you told me that."
Liam shot her a scared look. "Darcy, you can't."
She just shrugged and looked away, a smirk on her lips. "I guess you'll just have to see." She listened to Liam's sigh and the sound of clothes snagging on bark. She turned back to see him leaning heavily on the tree, his head tilted back against the bark.
"I'd just like to go through my sophomore year without trying not to die," he told the sky.
"Oh, yeah, that would be nice but..." Darcy sagged back against the tree as well, wincing when her skin smarted from the bark.
"It's inevitable," Liam finished for her.
"Exactly."
"Either way, I really need to focus on my grades and lacrosse this year."
Darcy leaned her head back. "You're going to end up saying that until you graduate." Liam huffed a laugh but then let silence fill the air between them.
She looked up at the moon, barely visible through the blanket of clouds. There was a storm rolling in that would probably hit within the hour. She could feel the difference in the air, smell the ozone from the lightning flashing in the distance. Eventually, she'd be able to hear the pitter-patter of falling rain once it got closer, but her hearing wasn't that good.
She dropped her gaze from the impending storm to the two seniors in front of them. From the tree, she could only see Stiles leaning on the jeep but she knew Scott was there too, sitting up front on the hood. She stared at them for a second, listening to the soft tone of their voices.
After a few seconds, Stiles suddenly glanced back at the two of them.
Darcy scowled for at his impatient gaze but it fell away when she heard him ask Scott, "Think it's been long enough?"
Both betas chimed from the tree, "Yes!"
Stiles stepped away from the jeep to look at them. "Hey, trying to have an adult conversation over here."
Liam scoffed. "Alright, you're two years older than me."
"And only a few months older than me!" Darcy followed.
She'd been born the same year as Scott and Stiles but missed the cut-off for Kindergarten due to her birthday being in December. Even if she had been born earlier, she still wouldn't have gone to school with them. For the first bit of her life, she'd lived with her dad in northern California, only having just moved up here around the same time last year.
"And I'm fine. We're fine, right?" Liam asked, glancing over at her.
"Yep, completely fine. Just let us go."
Relief burned in Darcy's chest at the sight of Scott's reluctant sigh and Stiles's dubious scoff. The two of them made their way over to the tree, Scott with the key to their chains in hand.
"It's not that we don't trust you," he said as he approached them.
Stiles chimed over Scott's shoulder, "It's that I don't trust you."
"But after that last full moon..."
"It was one slip-up," Liam defended.
Darcy hummed in agreement. "A tiny one, very tiny, practically not even worth mentioning."
"Tiny slip up? A dozen calls to the Sheriff's Department about a 'monstrous naked, dog-boy being chased by a hairy she-demon around the streets of Beacon Hills.' That's a slip-up?"
Embarrassment made Darcy's cheeks flush. "Tiny," she defended weakly.
Scott suddenly stopped his effort of letting them out of the chains. He looked up at Liam with a raised eyebrow. "Why were you naked?"
"It was really hot out that night, okay?"
"And why were you chasing him?"
Darcy's blush darkened but she still rolled her eyes. "It was a race to see who was faster wolfed-out. It's not my fault Liam sleeps naked."
Instead of further defending himself, Liam begged, "Let us go."
"You sure you're okay?" Scott asked, the question aimed at both of them, but his gaze on Liam. Of course, he held more concern for his beta, and Darcy completely understood, even though envy still sparked a little green fire in her chest. Seeing them together made her miss Derek. She hadn't seen him since he'd left her back in May.
He had stayed in New Mexico right after they had a big fight down there, just before school had ended in the spring, passing Darcy onto Scott who took her in without complaint. Even with Scott's guidance, it was still hard to be away from Derek, who was usually the one to help her in the werewolf part of her life. Though their bond wasn't as strong as the two before her, Darcy still considered Derek something like family.
"It won't happen again," Liam muttered beside her. The beta and his alpha looked each other in the eye, the latter searching for any type of dishonesty.
"You're in complete and total control?" Scott asked, his gaze sliding to Darcy for a moment. She nodded enthusiastically. It was true, she felt fine, though the same could not be said for Liam. She could smell the blood caked in his palms and fingernails and was surprised Scott hadn't said anything about it.
"Yeah. Complete and total," Liam lied.
Scott slid the key in and then they were free. The chains were thrown back in the bag and Darcy felt like she could finally breathe.
Behind her, Liam waited with his back to the tree. The scent of blood suddenly got stronger as he unfurled his hands to examine the damage his claws had done to his palms. Darcy pursed her lips but let him preserve his lie. She jogged a little to catch up with Scott and Stiles, then climbed into the backseat of the jeep.
After she settled, she focused her gaze outside the front windshield. The full moon was bright, bathing her in a soft, white glow. There was no pull on the wolf, which was pretty normal for her. She was lucky; the moon didn't seem to have as much of an effect on her as it did on other werewolves.
On the other side, Liam threw himself into the backseat, his hands immediately reaching for his phone and headphones. He pulled up his music app, simultaneously putting an earbud in one ear and handing the other to her. Darcy graciously took the earbud and slid it into her right ear. The two of them scooted closer so the wire wasn't stretched as taunt, not bothering with seatbelts.
Up in the driver's seat, Stiles put the jeep in reverse and backed off the ledge that overlooked Beacon Hills. Darcy watched the moon grow buried beneath the treetops and let the music wash over her.
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Author's Note:
Thank you for reading and I hope you liked this chapter!!!!!!! Big things planned in this book, tehehehe. Make sure to vote and comment! Thank you guys for reading:)