Saving Scott

5: Electric

The McCall House

A Minute Later

Malia had just finished chaining up Scott when the sky cleared and the moon made its first appearance, a brilliant white-ish circle in the night. Scott's eyes immediately turned blue and he roared, his canines coming out along with his claws. Malia simply stepped back, away from Scott, and sat on his bed.

She could wait out this full moon.

"You know, I still remember my first full moon," Malia told Scott, who didn't appear to be listening as he desperately strained against the chains binding him. "Well, not my first full moon, but...well, Stiles had gone out - this was in our sophomore year - to find a dead body. He never found the body, but I did, because it was the night of the full moon and I was spending it in the woods, away from my family. Stiles found me after his dad walked him back to his Jeep, I'd been injured by the alpha that was roaming around the woods that night. He was lucky not to have been bitten," Malia thought aloud.

Scott didn't seem to respond. 

"Anyway, Stiles did a bunch of research, once I told him I was actually the shy hunter's daughter that always sat in the back of the class. He chained me up, and he..." Malia faltered. "Well, he became my first anchor. He made me human, he kept me from becoming an animal. And I loved him for that." Malia stared at her hands, at the crescent-shaped marks that would never heal, because she had made them too many times when she was younger, before she'd met Stiles or anybody in the pack. They were from her own claws, when she had been trying not to transform. In front of her family, in front of the others in her class. Malia swallowed, pushing down the bad memories from her youth.

"Stiles taught me how to control the shift, along with Derek Hale, who popped up. He was looking for the alpha, and I offered to help, as long as he taught me control. Turned out Stiles was more help than Derek, but either way, I still helped. Deep down," Malia told Scott as he roared at her in vain, trying to free himself, "deep down I think I always knew he was in love with Lydia. When he passed her in the hallway, he'd always send her this look, but in the last few months when we were together it got really bad. She'd just broken up with Jackson, since he was moving to London, and I don't know, I guess Stiles thought he had a chance. He didn't know she was hooking up with Aiden. Every time Lydia would come by, he would kiss me, try to make her jealous, and I got tired of it, especially when I found this framed drawing that Lydia had done of the Nemeton." 

Malia could remember the moment so clearly, it was like it was yesterday. She had been looking for a spare T-shirt one morning after she'd spent the night at Stiles', yes like that, they had been dating - and she had come up with the framed drawing of the Nemeton, hidden from her. In that moment, she knew that Stiles would never love her, not the way he loved Lydia.

"So I broke up with him," Malia's voice broke. "And it hurt - it still does, as a matter of fact, because he was my first love, and I did love him. But I want him to be happy, you know? And if - if being with Lydia makes him happy, well, then I hope they're happy together. It's not his fault, anyway - he can't control his feelings."

Scott had stopped roaring, and was instead looking at Malia curiously, his head tilted to the side. "Oh, crap!" Malia cursed, her eyes widening. "With everything that went on today, I totally forgot to ask Lydia for help with Math!" She giggled at Scott's alarmed look. "I'm sorry, I totally freaked you out there." Then Malia realized that she had giggled.