Chapter 18: Wolf's Bane pt. 2/Co-Captain
~Rae's POV~
For the next two hours, my sister and I sat and laughed and cried together at the movie we'd seen too many times. When it was over, Lydia sat forward and set her empty ice cream carton on the table. I watched as she took a deep breath and squared her shoulders, shaking her head a little. I'd watched her do this exact thing too many times to count and it hurt a little bit more every time.
Lydia took a moment to herself before turning to look back at me, mask held firmly in place. "Come on, we have to get ready for the game." Getting up, she walked away without looking back; something I knew she did so she wouldn't crack.
Watching her retreating figure, my face squished up as I tried to figure out how much I'd be able to help her. Turning back to the table, I got to work cleaning up. Throwing away the cartons of ice cream, I tossed the spoons in the sink. Going back to the couch, I folded up the blanket and put it back where it was supposed to go before putting my jacket back on.
Running up the stairs, I went straight to my vanity. Fixing up my hair and makeup quickly, I looked at myself in the mirror and sighed. Looking down, I remembered I had to put shoes on and walked to where I put them, sliding them on. Sitting on my bed, I let my head hang as I realized I was going to have to avoid Stiles yet again tonight.
I sat in my thoughts for a while until a newly presentable Lydia whirled through my door, holding onto the frame. "Hurry up, we're gonna be late."
Afterward, she immediately spun around and hurried downstairs while pulling her keys from the purse hanging off her elbow. Letting out a final sigh, I pushed myself up off the bed and followed her until we were outside and in her car.
The drive was silent as we both tried not to think about certain people, Lydia strumming her manicured fingernails on the steering wheel.
It didn't take us long to get there and we simultaneously stepped out of the car, slamming our doors shut. Walking side by side, we made our way to the bleachers, climbing until we found a spot we liked. Reaching over, I rubbed Lydia's arm for only a second before pulling away.
Unable to help myself, I looked down at the players' bench but grew confused when I couldn't find who I was looking for. Looking out onto the field, I still couldn't find number 24.
Spotting Scott, I steeled myself for what was to come before telling my sister I'd be right back.
Walking down the metal steps, I wrapped my jacket around my torso. Partially because I was chilly and partially to protect myself subconsciously.
Reaching the grass, I forced my feet forward until I was standing behind Scott. Tapping him on the back, I stepped away as he jumped around.
For a werewolf with super senses, he sure got scared easily.
"Oh, wow. Rae, hi." He rushed out, running a hand over his head.
"Hey," I smiled meekly, "where's Stiles?"
"I mean-I don't even know. He said he'd be here." Scott told me, looking over at the locker room door.
"Oh...okay. Well..I'm just gonna go." I told him, pointing back at the bleachers as I turned away. Before I could walk away, however, Scott grabbed my arm.
"Wait, just, can we talk later? After the game?" He asked, his face looking a mixture of hopeful and pleading.
Sighing, I felt my resolve drop as I looked at his expression. "Fine. I'll meet you in the locker room." With that, I tried to walk towards the bleachers again.
Sadly, my attempts were once again futile as someone stepped in front of me. "Hey."
Looking up, my blood began to boil at the smirking boy standing in front of me. Not taking a single moment more, I swung my fist up to hit him as hard as I could in the face. Jackson's head snapped back to look at my seething expression with a hand raised to his cheek, his nose bleeding. "Do not talk to me."
With that, I took off up the stairs making my way to my sister. Once I sat down, she let out a small 'thank you' without looking in my direction and I nodded.
For the rest of the game, I kept looking for Stiles, as did Scott, but he never showed up. I was becoming rapidly worried, but I kept pushing it away as the clock ticked down.
Lydia and I both cheered when our team won but as soon as the hype died down, Lydia told me she was going home. I told her it was alright and that I'd catch a ride back with Danny.
Walking into the locker room, I pushed past all of the sweaty teenage boys and excited students and parents to reach Scott's locker. Sitting down, I waited for him to reach the destination as well.
Seeing someone walking closer, I looked up to see Scott and stood up. "Hey." He said, a small smile on his face.
"Hey," I replied, an awkward smile on my own as I rubbed my thighs.
"Look, I'm really sorry about everything. I wasn't in my right mind. I would've never kissed you, or said those things, or grabbed you." Looking up at his face, I caught the pained expression he wore. "Are you alright, by the way? I know I caught you with my claws."
Glancing down at my ankle, I looked back up and into Scott's eyes. "Yeah, I'm alright. It doesn't hurt that bad." Sighing, I glanced away for a moment before looking back. "I'm sorry for kicking you in the face." I shrugged.
Scott laughed at this, putting a hand on my shoulder for a moment. "I think I deserved it."
"Yeah, maybe a little bit." I chuckled, leaning against the lockers. "I forgive you, anyway. I was still kind of mad at you, but I know it wasn't you."
Scott smiled, pulling his jersey over his head. "Good. I would really hate it if you were mad at me. I'm gonna go rinse off real quick. Stay here, we need to talk about Stiles." Pointing at me, Scott backed away until he had disappeared into the showers.
Sitting down, I sighed as I waited for him. Pulling out my phone, I took notice that I had no new messages and put it away. It didn't take long for Scott to come back, a towel wrapped around his waist and the rest of his uniform in his arms.
"By the way, McCall...apology accepted." Hearing Danny's voice, we both looked over to see the shirtless jock.
"I didn't apologize." He responded, confusion laced in his voice as I watched Danny.
"Every time you got the ball tonight, you passed it to me. Apology accepted." He explained, causing Scott to let out a breathy laugh.
"Every time I passed the ball to you, you scored."
"Apology accepted," Danny said, slinging his backpack over his shoulder before looking pointedly at me. "Oh, and Rae? You and I are going to have a long conversation about your choice in men."
Confused, my brows furrowed at what he'd said as he walked out the door. Hearing a chuckle, I looked up and slapped Scott with my hand.
Right after I'd done so, all the lights cut out causing me to jump up in fright.
"Danny?" Scott asked timidly, setting down his body spray. As he began to walk forward, I followed him, not particularly wanting to be alone.
Reaching the light switches, Scott flicked them on and off but nothing happened. Realizing the power had been cut, my panic heightened.
Glancing to the right, Scott and I watched as a lacrosse ball rolled across the floor, bouncing off of the lockers. This caused us to walk forward, wondering where it had come from.
Scott bent down to pick up the ball before straightening back up, starting to move around the corner.
Following him, we both let out sighs of relief when we noticed it was just Derek. "Oh my god, Derek you scared the hell out of me!" I exclaimed, but he wouldn't even look in my direction.
"Yeah, thank god! Where the hell have you been?! Do you have any idea what's been going on?" Scott questioned, starting to walk towards the man in front of us.
Derek simply looked behind both of us, making us turn around. Seeing a man I didn't recognize, I reeled back to stand closer to the teen wolf behind me.
"I really don't get lacrosse." The man spoke, messing with the net of a lacrosse stick.
A light, "it was you," fell from Scott's lips, causing me to turn and look at him. Looking back to Derek and over to the new addition in the room, I felt my feet scurry back until Scott pulled me back behind him, realizing what he meant.
"When I was in high school, we played basketball. Now there's a real sport." As the man finished speaking, I turned back to look at Derek's stone-cold face, hoping for answers. Once again, he wouldn't even look at me, causing my vision to snap back to the Alpha. "Still, I read somewhere that lacrosse comes from Native American tribes and that they played it to resolve conflict. I have that right?" He seemed to ask himself, throwing the stick onto his shoulder. "Ehh. I have a little conflict of my own to resolve, Scott. But I need your help to do it."
"He's not going to help you do anything." I spat, leaning around Scott's shoulder. The man nodded behind me and before I knew it, my arms were pinned behind my back as I wriggled around. "Let go of me, Derek!" Looking over my shoulder, I saw that he still wouldn't meet my gaze. Instead, he was staring at a random spot ahead of him as he kept a firm grip on my wrists.
"I'm not helping you kill people," Scott spoke, glancing between my restrained figure and the figure of restraint in front of him.
"Well, I don't want to kill all of them." He responded casually. "Just the responsible ones. That doesn't have to include..."
"Allison," Derek said behind me, the rumble rolling through his chest and up my back as I squirmed.
"You keep your hands off of her!" I hissed out, trying once again to pull myself away from the male.
"You're on his side?" Scott questioned the man in disbelief as he stared at him. "Are you forgetting the part where he killed your sister?!" He asked incredulously.
"It was a mistake." He spoke, as if that made everything clear.
Speaking what I was feeling, Scott let out a 'what?!'
"It happens." Derek elaborated plainly, causing me to pull harder in his hold.
"In what world, asshole?"
"In the world of werewolves, young girl." Hearing the Alpha speak directly to me, I turned to look at him with disdain. "I know you haven't been in this world long, but I do know that you've already been marked by it. The bruises on your back and the claw marks wrapped around your ankle prove that." He spoke calmly, like he knew he was going to win. But he never would.
"Some bruises and cuts are a far cry from murdering people." I spat, narrowing my gaze at him in hate.
To this, he simply waved his hand at me. "Different circumstances." Looking at Scott he began addressing him again. "Scott, I think you're getting the wrong impression of us. We really just want to help you reach your full potential."
"By killing my friends."
"Sometimes the people closest to you...could be the ones holding you back the most." He said surely.
"If they're holding me back from becoming a psychotic nutjob like you...I'm okay with that." Scott told him with full conviction, not moving a muscle.
The man began to walk forward, making me pull harder to get out of Derek's hold to help my friend. "Maybe..you could try and see things...from my perspective." With this, his hand shot out behind Scott's neck, sticking his claws in.
A strangled cry left my lips as I tried and failed to help him. Scott cried out and started wheezing as his body fell to the floor, the man's nails pulled out of his neck.
The Alpha abruptly walked away, not waiting for Derek to follow. After a few seconds, Derek let me go after whispering an 'I'm sorry' in my ear. Wasting no time, I slid down next to Scott and held his head in my lap as he struggled to breathe.
Looking up, I saw that Derek was still standing there, staring at Scott. "Go! Get out!" I yelled at him, throwing the discarded lacrosse ball in his direction when he looked over at me.
Hanging his head low, Derek nodded before walking away, leaving me to tend to my best friend.
Eventually, he stopped having trouble breathing and just wriggled around a bit. After about ten minutes of holding him and smoothing his hair back, Scott inhaled deeply and sat up abruptly. Leaning back so he had room, Scott anxiously looked around before focusing on me. "Did they hurt you? Are you okay?"
Nodding, I gestured toward the exit. "Yeah, they left a while ago."
"How long was I out?" He asked, rubbing the back of his neck as he sat up next to me.
"About ten, fifteen minutes," I told him, looking down at my lap. I knew we weren't that close, but I considered Derek my friend. His betrayal hurt me and I couldn't understand how he could possibly believe what the deranged man said. "What was that?"
"Memories. The Hale fire, why he killed those people." He told me, getting up off the ground as I followed. "Him killing Derek's sister. He's his uncle, you know. His name's Peter." At the new information, I felt my eyes grow wide. I understood now. Peter was his only living family, of course he would grasp at the chance that he wasn't a maniac.
"Oh my god," I said, looking down at the ground. "So he killed his own niece?"
"Yeah. Obviously, he's got Derek believing it was an accident, but I don't buy it."
"Neither do I," I told him, sitting down next to him on a bench. "What are we going to do?"
At my question, Scott looked down at his hands, not seeming to know the answer. A minute or two of silence later, I heard the sound of shoes scuffing on the linoleum. Lifting my head, I watched as Stiles slid through the door, stabilizing himself before throwing himself in the room. "Dude, we have a serious problem."
"No shit," I responded, causing him to karate chop the air as he turned to locate the source of my voice.
"What are you doing here?" He asked, eyes wild as he held his arms out.
"Oh, you know. Being vaguely threatened by a psychotic, mass-murdering, alpha werewolf. The usual." I replied sarcastically, looking up at him with a grim smile.
"Well, are you hurt?" He wondered, voice cracking as he ran a hand over his head.
"Nope. And now that this is all over, I'm gonna go home and get some sleep." Nodding, I slapped my hands to my knees before pushing myself up.
Walking to the door, I was stopped as Stiles called my name with a 'wait.' "Stiles, whatever you want to talk about can wait. It's been way too long of a day and I want to go home." I told him, turning around to look at him. I knew what he wanted to talk about, but I was glad when he nodded his head and looked down at the floor. I definitely couldn't handle that conversation right now. "Be safe guys, and get some sleep."
Walking out the door, I continued walking until I reached the parking lot, realizing that I had no ride home.
Huffing, I pulled out my phone to send a text to Danny. There was no way I was riding home with Stiles. Walking along the edge of the sidewalk, I began typing out a message when I heard an engine rev not too far away.
Looking over, I noticed Derek's black Camero veering around to drive along the sidewalk I was walking. Scoffing, I looked away and continued typing out my text. Hearing a window roll down, I continued to ignore the man next to me. "Come on. I know you're mad, but are you really going to ride home with Stilinski?"
At the mention of the boy, I looked over to find Derek leaned against his passenger seat, one arm steering the car as he drove slowly beside me. "For your information, no I'm not. That's why I'm texting Danny."
"Oh, you mean your gay friend that spent the afternoon ogling me? Nice." Glancing over, I watched Derek throw his arm down and look through his windshield in confusion. "Look, you know I'm not going to hurt you, just let me drive you home."
Looking him in the eyes when he glanced back, I raised my eyebrows. "Oh really? 'Cause it wasn't you that was bruising my wrists twenty minutes ago?" I questioned him, sliding my phone in my pocket as I overlooked his previous comment.
Derek sighed, moving his head to look out his driver's side window before turning back to me. "I didn't mean to, okay? I was just trying to keep you away from Peter."
"Oh, Peter. You mean your psychopathic, evil, murdering uncle?"
"Just get in the car, Rae." He huffed, throwing open his passenger side door. Staring at it for a moment, I decided to do what he said and got in. "See, look. You're not dead."
With those words, Derek took off out of the parking lot and started driving towards my neighborhood. For the first couple of minutes, we both stayed silent as I watched the trees pass us by out the window. That was soon over though.
"Look, I'm sorry, okay? I get it if you feel like I turned on you or something, but he's my family. And he didn't mean to hurt Laura."
"And you'll have to understand why I don't believe that." I told him, snapping my head around to look at him. "I get why you believe him. He's the only family you have left, but seriously Derek. You're smarter than that."
"How would you know? You don't even know me." He growled out, his jaw clenching as his hand tightened on the wheel.
"Yeah, okay. That's why I know you know I'm right and you're just pushing it away because you want to have family, right? You want to believe you're wrong." Receiving no response, I nodded before turning to look out the windshield. "That's what I thought."
We spent the rest of the ride in silence until he pulled up to the curb. "I won't let him hurt you, Rae."
Looking over at him, I started opening my door. "Yeah? Well then you're gonna have a hell of a time seeing as he wants me and my friends dead." I spat, getting out of the car and walking up the steps to my house.
Unlocking the front door, I shut it quietly behind me and locked it before walking dejectedly up the stairs. Entering my room, I turned the light on and closed the door.
Plopping down on my bed, I leaned down to pull off my shoes. Sitting for a moment, I rubbed my feet and sighed. Getting up, I put my shoes back in the closet and went into the bathroom. Stripping down, I threw my dirty clothes in the laundry bin before walking back to my closet.
Grabbing some pajama pants and a cotton tank top, I quickly threw them on. Walking to my vanity, I pulled the clasp out of my hair and set it down. Throwing my hair into a messy bun, I sat down and wiped the makeup off my face.
Deciding to skip washing my face, I threw the wipe in the trash and got up. Dragging myself to bed, I turned the light off and plugged my phone in before throwing myself under the covers.
Snuggling deeper into the blankets, I tried to clear my mind of the events of the day. It took a while, but I eventually found myself calming down and being pulled into sleep.
This time I didn't hope for everything to work out when I woke up; I knew we would have to do it ourselves.
So the gif I chose was as close as could get to the scene between him and Rae, I just wanted to say he doesn't have sunglasses on in this scene. :)
~SiriusCatBennett