Say Something (Sterek)

Chapter 5

The alpha pack doesn't wait long to test their boundaries. Two nights after they establish them, three of the alphas try coming through at Derek and Isaac's point, and then two others attempt slipping through near where Stiles and Allison are camped out in the woods in Allison's car. Allison has a single bow and several arrows, and Stiles has a Molotov cocktail that Lydia gave him at the last meeting, but just as they're about to use them, Scott bursts from the trees, taking down one of the wolves with a raging howl.

Scott is in the way of Stiles's aim with the cocktail, and Allison has her arrow notched but can't get a good shot at the second wolf, which is prowling around the fight as if waiting for his turn. He keeps shooting red-eyed glares at Allison and Stiles, but doesn't attack them, which strikes Stiles as frighteningly odd; why would the wolf avoid the obviously weak humans?

But then Scott has the other wolf down and the second wolf leaps forward and Stiles realizes that he had been waiting to see which human Scott tries to protect first. Scott, of course, has moved towards Allison, even though she's the one with the fighting-werewolf-training and so Stiles becomes an easy target.

Stiles's hand is shaking as he lifts the cocktail into the air and lobs it towards the wolf, which doesn't notice the glass until it strikes him in the shoulder, bursting into flames as the shaken chemicals mix with the air. But the wolf keeps coming, burning and howling and focused on Stiles.

Stiles's heart is beating loudly and he's backing up, scrambling away, and all he can think is, my dad is going to be so upset and so sad, and then Allison's arrow strikes the wolf in its heart and it pauses in the air for a moment, then falls in a smoldering mass to the ground.

The scent of burnt fur and flesh is heavy and acrid. "We're going to need to throw out our clothes," Stiles says as he wipes his suddenly sweaty palms on his jeans. "I've never managed to get burnt werewolf out of jeans before."Allison exchanges a look with Scott, and the two come towards Stiles.

"Are you all right, man? Sorry, I didn't get what was going on." Scott squeezes Stiles's shoulder, and Stiles shrugs.

"Fine. Like I said, a little pissed about the loss of these clothes. This is my favorite shirt." It's red plaid and very comfortable, if a little worn at the elbows.

"No one else will be sad about you losing that shirt," Allison assures him. She's smiling, but it doesn't quite reach her eyes.

"Nice, Allison." Stiles's cell phone is buzzing, and he pulls it out to see that Chris Argent is calling him. He answers it. "Yes?"

"We've had a little bit of activity over here. We saw three wolves and got one in the leg, but it ran off before we could finish the job. What's your status?"

"Scott and I," Allison was allegedly at her house, sitting in her bedroom window and restringing her bow just in case the wolves made a surge into town, "took out two. Last I heard Isaac and Derek were on three of them." Derek might not be okay, Stiles realizes. A half-trained beta and a weary alpha on three alphas does not make a particularly good fight. He swallows. "I'll check in with them and let you know what's going on."

Stiles hangs up and turns to see that Scott is wolfed out again, the cuts and scratches and broken bones he'd retained from his fight with the other wolf already healed. "I'm going to find Derek and Isaac. You two call if anyone else comes around here, okay? And make sure you're both back home by four. Peter and Erica should be out to relieve you soon, anyway. But in case they aren't, you know." And then he leaps forward and is gone.

Allison and Stiles roll their eyes at each other and move toward Allison's car. Stiles retrieves another Lydia-made Molotov cocktail from the back of the car and he and Allison climb onto the hood, staring out into the night. "Derek's going to be pissed that Scott left us alone," Allison says as the woods prove un-werewolf-ized.