True Crime (Teen wolf Derek Hale X Male OC)

Chapter 17 - Palaeontologia Electronica

Hey everyone! I figured it was better to put out a shorter chapter than to keep you all waiting, so here you go! Serious question, am I focusing too much on dialogue? Should I be doing more descriptions, etc.? How would you rate my writing style? Any suggestions? Please comment them! Thanks!

"Stay away from Allison. Stay away from Allison."

"Are you having a stroke?" I asked Scott. It was a fair question.

"No, I just have to stay away from Allison" Scott turned the corner sharply, making me break out into an almost jog to keep pace with him. This was a high school hallway, not an autobahn.

Seeing Allison heading towards us, Scott pivots and begins going the other way. "Must stay away from Allison.."

"You're going to give me whiplash, Scott"

As if dodging Allison the hedgehog wasn't enough, Jackson exited a classroom, moving straight towards us with a scowl on his face.

"Stay away from Jackson, stay away from Jackson." I actually agreed with that idea. I was not interested in reliving the whole locker room thing.

"Hey, Scott" Spoke Lydia from behind us.

"Oh, come on!"

Scott slinked his way into todays classroom as I followed behind, not really caring about avoiding anybody. I was more preoccupied with whatever I had going with Derek, and a very vague text from my mother about my father coming to see me. Not sure what that was about.

A weird look between Scott and Stiles told me Stiles hadn't forgiven him for the whole mountain lion thing. I personally still wasn't sure how it was Scott's fault his dad got hit by a car.

"Still not talking to me?" Scott asked, sliding into the seat behind him. Seeing no available seats next to them, I chose to sit elsewhere in the room, which turned out to be beside Erica. Long time no see

"Hey, Erica" I spoke awkwardly. My social skills had really taken a hit over the past few years, and I didn't have the kind of effortless friendship with Erica like I did with Scott and Stiles.

She replied with a meek greeting in return. Erica was also lacking in the social skills department, except her case was far worse. Confident people were always hiding something anyway. 

For our lack of talking over the past eternity we'd been dealing with the whole Alpha situation, we still slid back into our regular conversation easily, talking about whatever small interests we shared. 

I hadn't realised how much I missed talking to Erica. She was wise beyond her years and had an empathetic soul, which meant she was a prime candidate for bullying. I couldn't count the amount of times I had yelled at Jackson for a rude comment towards her. 

Sadly, we parted ways as the bell rung and class was dismissed. I hope she was ok.

"The what of who?"

"The Beast of Gévaudan. Listen..." I was currently with Allison and Lydia, listening to Allison tells us about her family history. This could be good intel.

"A quadruped wolf-like monster prowling the Auvergne and South Dordogne areas of France during the years 1764 to 1767. La Bête killed over 100 people, becoming so infamous that the King, Louis XV, sent one of his best hunters to try to kill it." Wolf-like? This certainly sounded similar to a monster that was prowling around beacon hills at the moment. Could it be the same beast? I wasn't sure how long Werewolves lived, but maybe an Alpha could live hundreds of years?

"Boring." Lydia's need to play dumb, when in fact she was one of the smartest people I'd probably ever meet always confused me. 

"Even the Church eventually declared the monster a messenger of Satan." 

"Still boring."

"Cryptozoologists believe it may have been a sub-species of hoofed predator, possibly the Mesonychid--"

"Didn't they go extinct like 30 million years ago?" They both stared at me in a 'why-the-hell-do-you-know-that kind of way'

"What? I subscribe to the Palaeontologia Electronica" 

"Others believe it was a powerful sorcerer who could shape shift into a man-eating monster." 

Shape shift? Man-eating monster? That fits the description of the Alpha perfectly. Could this beast be an 18th century Werewolf? 

"Any of this have anything to do with your family?" Lydia taking an interest in someone else's story, that's a first.

"This... It is believed La Bête was finally trapped and killed by a renowned hunter who claimed his wife and four children were the first to fall prey to the creature. The hunter's name was Argent." Oh god. Is that why the Argents have such a grudge against werewolves? for something that happened hundreds of years ago?

Lydia peered down at the book, as uninterested as ever. "Your ancestors killed a big wolf. So what?"

"Not just a big wolf. Look at this picture. What's it look like to you?"

We both leaned in as Allison flipped the page, showing a grotesque drawing of the beast, shrouded in mist, red piercing eyes tearing through the pages and claws tearing through flesh. At its feet lay the bodies of women and children, slaughtered as though they were more than just simple prey, looks of terror etched onto their faces like marble statues.

Lydia stared at the drawing, longer than I. She looked entranced by it, like the beady red eyes of the monster had hypnotised her.

"Lydia?" Allison probed, as Lydia stood back upright, regaining her usual composure.

"It looks. Like a big. Wolf. See you in History." Lydia strutted off, her usual queen bee stride seeming to have more pep to it today than ever, like she had more to prove. Or forget about. 

Could she be remembering the Alpha? It wasn't unlikely, her memory of that night had to come back at some point, after the drugs wore off and all.

I was planning to go to the field with Scott and Stiles, to do whatever weird werewolf training Yoda thing he had planned, but a familiar black Camaro in the parking lot told me I'd be doing something else today. Not like that.

"I need you to come with me" Derek spoke from inside the car, as I awkwardly stood staring at him through the window.

"It's the middle of the school day." I had never skipped school before. I'd been out sick, but never left in the middle of the day or anything. What if I got caught? I had a perfect academic record.

"Just... please" I hadn't heard Derek speak with such sincerity before, so I figured this was important to him.

Wordlessly pulling open the door to the sleek black car, I was secretly excited about rebelling like this. How cliché.

Derek turned to me with a thankful look, before pulling the car out of the Parking lot, and away from Beacon Hills High. I got the feeling I was slowly being pulled away from what I thought my life would have been, the introverted, study obsessed version of me seemed to be becoming more and more obsolete every day. But I think I liked it like that.