"I'm gonna tell you a story, maybe it'll sound familiar."
Thunder rumbled as the SUV drove through another puddle on the road as it sped into the night. Chris Argent glanced across the controls of the car to look at Scott McCall as he turned to face the young boy that was sitting upright in the centre back seat of the car.
The boy was drenched through to the bone, and he was trying to appear more relaxed than he actually was as he sat in the car with the two strangers that had just saved his life from the group of hunters that had killed everyone he had ever loved.
"There was this kid. Sixteen, alone, and running for his life," Scott continued, his eyes casting a quick glance to Chris before he continued to tell the young boy the story that he had brought to the front of his mind. "He couldn't see them, but he could hear them getting closer. They had guns, crossbows. They were hunting him."
Scott paused again for a second as he noticed the boys eye glaze over slightly, obviously comparing his own situation to the story that Scott was telling him. The boy could tell that the man was an alpha, but he could also smell the heavy gunpowder scent that clung to the man next to him.
"It started on the night of a full moon. Something came at him, something bit him and it changed his life," Scott smiled as he noticed Chris was also smiling slightly at his story. "It changed everything."
"What's your name?" The alpha asked the boy as he clung on to every word that Scott was telling him. The boy blinked and hesitated for a second before realising that he had nothing left to lose by telling his saviour his name.
"Alec."
Something seemed familiar about this boy, but Scott just couldn't put a finger on it. There was something about his face and his scent that seemed so familiar to him and even the name had a ring to it that he couldn't quite figure out.
"Did I get it right, Alec?" Scott asked, looking at the boy who was only a few years younger than him that was scrunching his face up defensively at Scott from where he was sitting.
"Is that what happened to you?" Alec asked, his eyes narrowed as he tried to figure out what was real.
"I've got my own story," Scott continued. "But there were parts that I didn't expect. People that I thought that would be with me forever were the ones that I lost. Some people I thought I could never trust ended up saving my life - more than once. We've all got stories."
"Everyone in my story is dead," Alec argued, his eyes sad as he looked between the two men that were sitting in the front. "All of them, Abigail, Sin, Xander, they're all dead!"
Chris furrowed his eyebrows, recognising those names but not realising where from. Scott noticed the man, but knew that it was best to ask after they were out of the car.
"Yeah, but you're not. And now you're with us," Scott told him firmly, reaching out and lightly placing a hand on the boy's arm.
"So what happens next? Your story," Alec asked, feeling like there was something about this alpha that he already felt attached to. "How does it end?"
__
"Having two alphas in one pack, well, that's a large target," Scott told the boy as he continued with the story. It was a long car journey, so while he had time to skip out some of the specifics, he knew that he could tell the boy a lot more than just the basics.
"Two?" Alec asked, surprise in his voice as he thought about the amount of packs he had heard of that had more than one alpha. One was the all alpha pack - something that had taken one of his best friends away from their pack when they had been younger.
"Levi," Scott smiled, a smitten look crossing his eyes. Chris rolled his eyes at the boy as he looked back to the younger boy in the back. "She's amazing."
"She's a Hale." Alec told them, causing Chris to almost break the car in shock. "Levi Hale. I'm right, aren't I?"
Scott nodded, confusion across his face.
"She was my alpha, a long time ago. Then the alpha pack took her. We thought she was dead, the last we heard from her was when some demon possessed her friends."
Scott laughed for a second, knowing that the night was only going to get more exciting from there on.
__
"They ran that night. Gerard put guns in people's hands. But a lot less than he thought were actually willing to use them. More people know our secret now. But more of them are on our side.
And they weren't afraid of us anymore. Now we have allies who used to be enemies. We have protectors. We have friends willing to fight for us. The rest of us have been looking for others like you," Scott paused as Chris pulled up in the empty lot, both of the males jumping out of the van to say goodbyes to each other.
Thanking Chris, Scott motioned for Alec to join him outside the SUV. Alec watched as the car sped away, the rain splattering against the roof like it was against his body. He felt his whole body tinge in excitement from knowing that his old friend was alive and was with the pack that had offered to take him in.
"Okay, Alec. The people who are hunting you, they've got a leader." Scott told him, his ears picking up the sound of tyres on gravel coming towards their location. A small smile filled his face as he felt his mate connection with Levi grow stronger, knowing that she was nearby. "Her name's Monroe. She's got a lot of followers."
"Like what? Hundreds?"
"Thousands. All over the world," Scott explained, knowing that Jackson and Ethan were going to keep them updated on what the situation was looking like in London. Levi had also reached out to Isaac and the scarf-loving wolf had promised he would send them regular updates about the town - and promised that they were going to receive some good photos of his new pack.
"So what are we doing here?"
"Well, we're meeting up with some people who can help us. Some of them are always with us. Others come when we need them. But tonight, well, we need everyone we can get."
They both turned around as the cars that Scott had heard pulled into the area around them. The first of his friends to appear was Lydia and Stiles, while Scott noticed that Malia and Liam had already climbed out of the coyote's car. Levi and Derek stepped out of his new sports car, both donning matching leather jackets as they smiled across at their friends.
Levi felt her grin grow wider as she realised just who they had picked up. Alec had been her first beta when she had had her first pack, and it now felt that something in the universe was setting her journey into leadership full circle. She stayed at her brother's side as she watched her husband try to inform the boy about everything that he would expect if he joined them.
"Are they all uh, different?" Alec asked, referring to the supernatural talents that he found himself possessing.
"Some of them are," Scott agreed, his eyes shining as he looked directly at his friends. "Some can do things you'd never believe. And the others might only be human, but they make up for it by being really smart or really good in a fight."
Stiles smirked at this, pointing to himself as he knew the comment was clearly aimed at him. Levi laughed lightly, rolling her eyes as she looked at the boy.
"Who are they?"
Scott beamed with pride as he looked across at his family. He would never have been able to imagine the things that they had all gone through, all the people that they had lost on their way there, but he knew that there was a journey left for them to go on.
"My friends," Scott started, looking at almost all of the others that had gathered around them. "My wife," Derek nudged Levi jokingly as the girl rolled her eyes, Alec now noticing the ring that rested on Scott's ring finger as the man pointed towards the girl. "My pack. And you can be with us if you want. But you're gonna have to fight."
"Against Monroe?"
"And everyone that follows her."
"She said she'd find me. That she'd hunt me down and kill me. She didn't care how old I was. She said I was a monster."
Scott smiled at Alec, knowing that there was only one thing left to say. He turned, catching glances with the rest of the group as they all smirked. They knew exactly how Scott was going to respond, and they knew that once he did Alec was going to join them in the pack.
Levi smiled warmly as she looked at her husband, her brother's arm resting around her shoulder. She had came a long way from when they all had first met her. Levi had once believed that Deucalion's original morals were right; that humans and betas and omegas were lesser than her, that the McCall pack was weak and needed to be snubbed out. She had lied and tricked and fought the very people she swore her life to, but that didn't matter.
Lydia hadn't cared that she had betrayed her. Lydia had taken her back under her wing the second Levi had started to realise that everything she had done was not right and that they were the good guys. Lydia had held her and cried with her when they had lost their sister, when Allison had died right in front of them. Lydia had been her maid of honour at her wedding, looking like a supermodel as she smiled warmly down the aisle at her.
Stiles, Stiles had really shown Levi how to re-connect with the human side of herself. He had taught her the value and importance of a smile, how one stupid joke could make everything okay again. He had spent those three months of hell with her in the non-existing train station when no-one else remembered them. The boy even let her drive his jeep - even if it was only once.
Malia was the reminder to Levi that your past didn't define you. The girl's had clashed at first, but now that they had realised how similar they were, there was nothing that held them back. Malia was the first person who had ever truly made Levi feel admired in a leadership sense and the girl knew exactly how to get Levi to bend to her will. There was something about Malia that had shown Levi just how strong the bond between extended family could be.
Liam had taught her that not all mistakes had horrific consequences. While her bite had changed him, he had proven to her that becoming supernatural had always really been destined to the boy. His ability to excel at everything they did - except anger management - was something that stayed close to her heart. He was her first ever beta, and he knew that was something that had no verbal explanation.
Derek. Derek had given her a reason to live again. Before she and Scott had truly realised that they were meant for each other, Derek had taken Levi in based simply on the fact that they shared a mother. He had helped to mould her into the person she had became today, even saving her life multiple times to do so.
And lastly, the other person her eyes fell to was Scott. Her co-alpha, her boyfriend-turned-husband. There had been no engagement stage, just straight to marriage, and she wouldn't have had it any other way. Levi had learnt a lot more from Scott that she would ever have really realised had the past few years not shaped her in the way they had. She had learnt how to love, she had learnt how to survive but most importantly, she had learnt how to become one with someone. The boy had changed her life to the fullest, and she would never be able to thank him enough for that. They knew that their mission to stop the hunters was risky, and Levi and Scott both had decided to make their love eternal legally to stop wasting time. Who knew how much time they would have left?
Levi smiled once more at Scott as the man turned to make his final sentence to the boy in front of them.
"You're not a monster, you're a werewolf. Like me."
//.//
I'M NOT CRYING YOU ARE!
Okay so, I started the first instalment of the Red Eyes trilogy all the way back in July 2015. That's 3 years. Three whole years I have somehow written my way through four (technically three) seasons of Teen Wolf, and letting you be introduced to Levi Hale.
My writing in the first book was utterly tragic, so if you've made it here I want you to know that you truly deserve a veterans discount.
For anyone confused about the Alec/Levi connection, I'd recommend giving book 1 chapter 34 (i think) another read! While it was a small part of the series, I just knew that it tied everything in perfectly.
A massive thank you to everyone who has ever commented, if it be one time, six, a hundred times - I have appreciated it all. Even if the occasional "update" comment has caused me to screech in anger once or twice ;)
Honestly though, I started this book when I was in high school and now I'm about to enter my second year of university and that's an incredible thought to me. Thank you so much, from the bottom of my heart.
I hope that I can see some of you keep up with my other works, but if they aren't your cup of tea then I just wish that you can remember how this book made you feel - thats if it made you feel anything!
So, for the final time;
Much love, K.