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TEN
SHIFTING FEELINGS
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The next day was better and worse.
It was better because the pack had Boyd and Cora back. The next full moon wouldn't be till another month. And Carson was starting to feel less awkward around Stiles, which was probably a good thing, considering he and Scott were pretty much a package. It had been that way since they were little, you don't get one without the other. She used to be involved in that, but times were changing. Maybe that was for the better.
It was worse, in Carson's opinion, because she was forced to go to school. She would much rather stay home with the others. Hell, she would even let Derek throw her into a wall a couple hundred times if it involved her not having to deal with the hellhole that was Beacon Hills High. She was fairly certain that she was never going to be able to walk back into Coach's class, especially after that scene she had caused. He would probably hate her for the rest of the year and make her life in intro to business a living hell.
Then again, Carson wasn't Greenberg.
"This is pointless," she muttered to Isaac as they headed up the stairs to the school. "They lock us in here for eight hours a day and what do we get out of it? Maybe a fact or two, some shit lunch, and another four hours of mind numbing work."
Isaac shrugged. "Anything has to be better than staying back at the loft with Peter."
He pulled one of the doors open and she ducked under his arm to get by first. He chuckled at her impatience before taking two large steps to get beside her again; he was a giant and one stride of his matched at least four of hers. An arm then hooked over her shoulder and she shot him a curious look but he wasn't facing her, just shooting a heartbreaking grin at a few people they walked past. Everyone seemed rather confused as to why the two of them were walking together but no one bothered to say anything.
"True, but at least it would give me a source of entertainment," Carson grumbled angrily. "All I get from here is potentially shoving you down a flight of stairs and laughing while you face plant."
"Is it just me or has being a werewolf made you more violent?" Isaac chuckled lowly, drawing his face closer to her head as he said it.
She looked up and met his blue eyes and shrugged underneath his arm. "I've always been like this. You just never really knew."
"You never really knew me either," he pointed out.
"Touché, Lahey," Carson muttered as he led her to her locker.
She then wriggled out from under his arm and began spinning her lock. Beside her, Isaac leant up against Allison's locker, just looking on. She raised an eyebrow. "Are you just going to stand there and watch?"
"I like to look at a nice view," he shrugged, tossing her a smirk.
She blinked a few times before cocking her head at him. Her heart began fluttering in her chest, but her face was expressionless. "That might work on your little fan club, but the cheesiness is not allowed around here unless there some mac to go with it, Lahey."
And with that, Carson turned back to her locker, practically shoving her head inside. Her hands were tugging off her coat and shoving it inside, all while she was trying to slow her heart rate down. It was just a simple comment, but it brought what she thought was an unnecessary smile to her face. She didn't like feeling like this; feelings like this were what caused problems and they already had enough on their plates as it is.
But Isaac wasn't stupid. He leaned into her from behind, towering over her small frame. A mouth came near her ear and a chuckle escaped it. "You're forgetting I'm a werewolf, Bradley. You can't hide the escalated heart rate from me."
And then he was backing up and turning on his heel.
"Screw you."
He chuckled again, tossing a smirk over his shoulder as he adjusted his bag strap. "See you at cross country, Bradley."
As he disappeared into the crowd of juniors and underclassmen, she felt she eyes go wide. Carson turned back to her locker, yanking the miniature calendar off the inside of the door. And right there, on the little square for the day's date were the words Cross Country Practice in bright blue marker, along with a crude drawing of her as a stick figure dying of physical exertion.
"Aw, shit."
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Carson hated everything. She literally hated everything. Cross country as a sport should be illegal. Running in general should be freaking illegal. There was absolutely no need for a group of teenagers to run around in the wooded area behind the school. That was the area that was meant for people to get drunk and hook up, not for people to get exercise.
She gets that because she's now a werewolf, physical exertion wouldn't affect her at all. But it was just the principle of the fact that she didn't even want to sign up for cross country. In fact, Carson didn't want to sign up for any sport.
The only reason the name Carson Bradley had ever made it onto the signup sheet was because of Stiles and Scott. The lacrosse team was being forced by Finstock to do cross country, because he wanted them in shape in the off season. Before the boys never had to do it because A, they sucked and B, Scott had asthma. But now that both of those problems were solved and Scott was going to anything to keep his sorry ass on the team, it was mandatory.
She ended up getting roped into it one day during the summer when the three of them were all hanging out. The two boys had been talking about different ways to keep in shape for lacrosse until one of them remembered about this specific way. They had spent a good twenty minutes trying to bribe their favorite girl into it, saying it would be a good bonding activity while also being good for the soul.
Carson ended up getting bribed with curly fries.
So here she was, being forced to think of ways to get her sorry ass out of this whole running thing. Maybe she could fake a disease. Or a broken leg. Broken bones always seemed to work if you wanted to get out of something.
Just as she was about to start tripping over a nearby branch, a hand clapped onto her shoulder. She looked up, seeing Isaac grinning at her.
"Oh, come on Carson," he stated. "How bad could it be?"
"Knowing my luck from the past year and a half?" Carson started, pretending to mull it over. "Deadly."
He shook his head at her. "It's just one practice. It's not going to kill you. Besides, you're all set to go, considering you have a certain . . . boost," Isaac added lowly, before bending down to tie the laces on one of his sneakers.
She rolled her eyes at him, trying to find another snarky comeback until a crunch of leaves caught her attention. Her eyes drifted upwards from Isaac to see the two twins on either side of them. The same twins that were staring at her the other day in the hall when she was with Scott. She was fairly certain their names were Aiden and Ethan, from messages she had received about Lydia wanting one, specifically the straight one. But Carson had a feeling that neither of them would be good for her strawberry blonde friend. They looked dangerous.
And not the good kind of dangerous either.
They stared down at Isaac and Carson, before smirking at each other. Carson scooted closer to Isaac, her eyes flickering between them. There was something about them that seemed even more familiar than before, but she couldn't place her finger on it. Isaac, on the other hand, looked like he knew exactly who they were and how he wanted to act out their death.
A shrill shriek of Coach's whistle cut through the air like a blade. The twins took off, followed by at least twenty or so of their classmates. She was still as Isaac leaped to his feet, preparing to take off without notice. But he was stopped as a hand reached around her, pulling back on his shoulder.
"Isaac," Scott warned.
"It's them," the blue eyed beta snarled, before ripping Scott's arm off his shoulder and taking off like a flash.
"Isaac, no!" Carson shouted, watching as he dashed around the bend of trees. Turning to Scott, she began panicking. "He's going to get himself into trouble, isn't he?"
"Yeah, trouble," Scott agreed. "Big trouble."
And with that, Scott started sprinting away from where they stood, almost twice as fast as Isaac had. He sped around the curve, before disappearing out of sight as he took off after the other boy.
The brunette girl was left standing on a pile of leaves, trying to compute what the hell had just happened. Isaac said that the twins were them, which meant that they had something to do with his kidnapping slash memory erase. This meant that they were part of the alpha pack.
That's why they had been staring at her like they knew something and why they were watching over her a moment ago, along with Isaac. They were trying to taunt him, all of them. And Isaac was falling right into the trap.
"I'm going to regret this," the new werewolf groaned, before taking off.
She could feel the wind whip past her as she sprinted down the track, almost like she was flying. Her legs were pumping harder than they ever had before, one foot hitting the ground after another. She had barely been running for twenty seconds, but already she was passing a few of the other students as she rounded the corner. Carson didn't even feel winded, which was possibly the first time that had ever happened to her. Usually when she ran, she was out of it within seconds. This was actually kind of depressing, seeing as though her life had practically become running from monsters.
But it was almost like something was awakening inside her as she dashed over twigs and weaved in and out of other people. Carson could barely feel the ground beneath her at this point, even though she was fairly certain that her feet were smacking the ground with every step. A familiar head of hair was soon in front of her and she found herself pushing her legs even harder to come up beside Scott.
"Have you seen anything yet?" Carson called over to him.
He did a double take at the sight of her before shaking his head. "I think they went off the track down here somewhere."
She nodded. "At least they have the decency to do it out of public view," Carson said sarcastically.
Scott began taking steps off the path and she jogged up behind him. They soon broke through a cluster of trees that opened up into a small clearing, only five or so feet from the official track. In the center, Aiden and Ethan had Isaac bent over backwards, almost like the little girl in The Exorcist. Neither noticed the other two werewolves coming in through the trees.
Aiden was too busy sneering at the curly haired boy, before glancing up at his brother. "Ethan, I always forget. How many bones in the human body?"
Ethan grinned in a cruel way and venom filled his every word. "I don't know. Let's count."
Suddenly, a fist shot out of nowhere and punched Ethan in the face. The audible sound of bone cracking emanated through the clearing and the other two whipped around to see Scott glaring at the alphas.
"That's one."
Isaac wrangled himself out of Aiden's grasp, while the other brother snarled before jumping to his feet. The five stood around in a fairly large circle, eyes flickering from one opponent to the next to see who'd make the first move.
Aiden, however, didn't seem keen on waiting as he flicked both of his wrists out as his claws broke through the flesh of his fingers and his eyes glowed a brilliant crimson red. Isaac snarled and Carson glanced over to see that not only he, but Scott was sporting the gold eyes of a beta wolf. Another pair of red eyes popped up and it was almost like a game to see who would be last.
Carson sighed, before closing her eyes. She was definitely going to regret this now. She was getting angrier by the second, trying to harness what were her so-called superpowers. Her balled up fists uncurled and she could feel the claws were out. "You want a fight? Come and get us," she snarled, before her eyes flicked open, revealing irises of glowing gold.
The five of them each took one step forward, preparing to launch before a loud, feminine scream broke through the clearing. The scream was enough to scare the werewolf out of Carson, her human side appearing almost immediately as the sound wracked through her body and pierced her ears. She blinked once, twice, before the gold had faded from her eyes. The other wolves in the clearing seemed to have the same reaction, before they made eye contact with one another for one brief second.
What the hell?
Five heads whipped around before sprinting out of the small clearing. Carson and Scott pushed past a few people, only for the former to wish they had stayed where they were. Up on the tree in front of them was a boy. He was tied to the tree with a leather strip wrapped around his neck. Blood looked like it was pouring out of every hole on his face, dripping down his shirt and jeans till it hit the ground.
"Oh my God," Carson muttered lightly, putting a hand over her mouth to stop herself from gagging. Two hands rested on her shoulders and she knew that Isaac was behind her, trying to steady her.
On the other side of Scott, Stiles jogged up. Looking at Scott, he muttered, "It's him, isn't it?"
Carson had no idea who him was, but she was fairly certain that this wasn't going to end well.
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Only seven and a half minutes later found the entire cross country team and Coach Finstock staring wide eyed at the body. Everyone was either sick to their stomachs or on the verge of tears as they continued to watch the mutilated body of the teenage boy dangle from the tree, the leather cord around his neck being the only thing keeping him in place.
Carson still was getting sick at the sight. She knew this kid, his name was Kyle. She was fairly certain they had taken an elective together at one point, despite being a senior. She always saw him and his girlfriend, Ashley, together in the hallways and in the parking lot and at parties.
He was just a normal kid.
And now he was just dead.
Angry footsteps trampled the leaves in the way, and Carson looked up to see the Sheriff Stilinski was headed in their direction, flanked by at least four other officers.
He laid his gaze on the body within seconds, considering it was fairly hard to miss. His face dropped before hardening. "Get back! Get this area cordoned off before they trample every piece of evidence!" he yelled to one of his deputies, whom Carson was fairly sure was named Tara.
She nodded, before extending both of her arms out and walking towards the crowd of students. They immediately did as she wished, stumbling over their own laces. "Back up! Everyone back! Get these kids out of here!"
Stiles, who had been muttering things to Scott for the past few minutes, pushed past everyone to reach his father. "Dad, just come here," he said, motioning the sheriff over to the body. "Look, look. Look at it. It's the same as the others, you see?"
The sheriff sighed, before nodding to his son. "Yeah, I see that. Do me a favor. Go back to school, yeah?" He then turned, facing the hair brained man that was Bobby Finstock. "Coach, can you give us a hand here?"
Coach jumped where he stood and nodded erratically, before blowing loudly into his whistle. "You heard the man! Nothing to see here. Probably just some homeless kid."
Scott groaned and ran a hand over his face. "Coach," he deadpanned.
"Yeah?"
"He was a senior," Carson divulged after a second, before running a hand over her face. She leaned back slightly, feeling Isaac's strong chest behind her. He didn't object to her leaning against him and she was fairly certain she felt one of his hands place themselves on her waist. Still, she stayed.
"Oh," Coach muttered, looking embarrassed. Then, his face contorting with worry, he asked, "He wasn't on the team, was he?"
Carson tilted her head back with a groan, disturbed with how insensitive Coach could be. "Finstock — "
"Kyle!" a voice screamed and everyone's head whipped around to see Ashley Williams running up towards the tree. A cop grabbed her around the waist before she could get any closer, but that didn't stop her frantic cries and kicks. "Oh God, Kyle! Oh God!"
Tears were staining her face and Carson had to look away. She just couldn't stand to see the girl crying. It made a pit form in her stomach to know that this was an effect of their supernatural related problems. Any blood that ended up being spilled would be on their hands.
And there was only so much blood that could be on them before they were forever stained with the crimson color.
Stilinski turned to his son and all the other students. "Go. Go."
Stiles nodded, grabbing Scott by the arm and yanking him back towards the way the path faced the school. They started down the small hill and Carson and Isaac looked at each other before he let go of her waist and they started to head after the other two.
When they were out of an earshot of all the other students, Isaac looked at his friends. "You see the way the twins looked at him?"
Stiles gave him a look. "Yeah, you mean like they had no idea what happened?" he deadpanned.
"No, no, they knew," Isaac insisted, shaking his head at the other boy.
Stiles went slightly bug eyed, waving his arms around. "The kid was strangled with a garrote, all right? Am I the only one recognizing the lack of werewolfitude in these murders?"
Isaac looked at him like he couldn't believe what was coming out of Stiles's mouth. "Oh, you think it's a coincidence they turn up and then people start dying?"
Carson and Scott shared a look, being the ones literally in the middle of the argument. She rolled her eyes and he shrugged. What could they do?
"Well, no," Stiles started. But when Isaac nodded in victory, he quickly tacked on, "But I still don't think it's them!"
Isaac rolled his eyes before looking away from Stiles. "Scott? How 'bout you?"
Scott shook his head defiantly. "Oh no, I'm not getting sucked into this."
Another roll of blue eyes occurred before they landed on the girl to his right. "Carson?"
She looked up, slightly in shock. "I don't know yet," she admitted after a moment.
"You don't know yet?" Stiles cried out. His arms whipped out and he looked at her in disbelief.
"Well, I mean, Isaac has a point. Like seriously, human sacrifices?" she relented, causing the curly haired boy to smirk proudly.
"Carson, your eyes turn into yellow glow sticks, okay?" Stiles asked, slowly beginning to move his arms. And then he sped up, words rapidly spewing from his mouth. "Hair literally grows from your cheeks and then will immediately disappear, and if I were to stab you right now, it would just magically heal, but you're telling me that you're having trouble grasping human sacrifices?"
"I get that, but there's a line that needs to be drawn when it comes to the supernatural and I'm pretty sure human sacrifice is where it belongs," Carson sighed. "I don't know, but I think Isaac might be closer to the answer."
"Oh, of course you would say that," Stiles said, annoyance rising in his tone.
She looked up at him, confused. "Excuse me?"
"Oh, please. Don't act like no one saw your little moment back there," Stiles spat. "You're only saying that because you like him."
"Who said I liked him?" Carson cried.
"So you don't like me?" Isaac cut in, brow furrowed.
She groaned, throwing her hands in the air. "I never said that either. And — oh for the love of God, why does it even matter?"
"It doesn't," Scott cut in, before either of the other boys could respond to Carson first. He put the palms of his hands down gently, telling them to calm the hell down in the nicest way he could. But then again, he was Scott McCall and just about everything he did was calm and nice. "We don't know who did this and arguing about Carson's personal feelings isn't going to get us anywhere."
Stiles sighed but nodded and Carson let out a small breath of relief, thankful the focus was off of her.
Isaac, however, didn't share Scott's way of thinking. "I don't care. They killed that kid, they killed the girl that saved me," the blue eyed boy whispered harshly, looking back at the twins over his shoulder. "I'm gonna kill them too."
He then started walking off, shoving his hands in the pockets of his track pants. Carson sighed and ran a hand down her face, watching Isaac walk off. She closed her eyes and reopened them, only to find Stiles looked at her with a frown.
"Yeah, you're choosing that over me? Smart choice," he noted sarcastically.
"Since when did you get to be such a dick?" She glared heavily at him and her eyes sparkled with a gold coloring for a fraction of a second, causing him to stumble back slightly. "Actually, you know what? I don't care. Because it's not my problem anymore."
Carson rolled her eyes for good measure and began stalking after Isaac, who unbeknownst to her had heard the last part of the conversation and was smiling lightly to himself. He slowed his walk ever so slightly and in seconds, Carson was at his side.
Her face was angered but she brightened up slightly as she looked over at him and both of their insides got that empty, tugging feeling. That feeling that generally comes along when you're with someone you feel comfortable with. Someone, that maybe, you could possibly end up liking. Maybe things were going to okay, in a non-supernatural aspect.
Even if it was Beacon Hills, which meant that eventually the supernatural was going to invade it anyway.
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author's note: So basically, now that we're in third person, I can see myself writing this more often. I just absolutely hate first person now. Every time I write it, it looks like a two year old was responsible. So If you see any POV mistakes between the prlogue and this chapter, hmu and I'll be sure to fix it. Also, Isaac and Carson's little ship name is Brahey, and Tara, and Kaybae ship them hardcore. So I guess we'll just have to wait and see where this little thing goes :)