𝐂𝐑𝐀𝐙𝐄𝐃 𝐖𝐎𝐋𝐅 ━━ LYDIA MARTIN

37

"IDIOMS, ANALOGIES, metaphors, and similes..." Jennifer spoke as she walked around the class, "all tools the writer uses to tell their story."

When she passed Lydia's table, she looked down to find her drawing a tree, "Lydia, I wasn't aware you had so many hidden talents."

Lydia spared her a glance, "you and every guy I've ever dated."

"Oh," the teacher cleared her throat, "um, well, that was an idiom, by the way—" she resumed walking, "idioms are something of a secret to the people who know the language or the culture. They're phrases that only make sense if you know key words. Saying ‘jump the gun’ is meaningful only if you know about the starting gun in a race. Or, a phrase like, ‘seeing the whole board’—"

"—Like chess," Stiles mumured earning a nod and a smile from Jennifer, "that's right, Stiles. Do you play?"

Stiles shook his head, "uh, no. My father does."

Jennifer nodded but said nothing as she turned to face the rest of the class, "now, when does an idiom become a cliché."

Scott glanced at Stiles then at Reid before leaning in closer to Stiles to speak, wordlessly telling Reid to listen in as he subtly pointed to his own ear, "I think I can get to Ethan. I'm pretty sure I can make him talk."

"I can make him talk," Reid muttered, "but why would you wanna do that?"

"The Druids are Emissaries, right?" Scott attempted to make his two other friends see his point, "so, what if the Darach was an Emissary to the Alphas?"

"Okay, first of all, I cannot believe we've gotten to the point where a sentence like, ‘what if the Darach was an Emissary to the Alphas?’ actually makes sense to me." Stiles began, feeling overwhelmed, "second of all, we're gonna have a huge problem getting to Ethan."

"What's that?" Scott asked, furrowing his brows as Stiles replied, "going through Aiden."

"Easy, we knock him out," Reid spoke from behind Stiles, "then grab Ethan to talk."

"We're not knocking anyone out," Scott glanced at Stiles then turned to look at Lydia who was behind him. Reid realised what he wanted to do and instantly bit his tongue to refrain himself from cursing at the teen wolf.

He couldn't deny that it could work though considering the fact that Aiden has been pinning after Lydia for a while now.

Lydia looked up from her drawing, noticing that Reid, Scott and Stiles were staring at her "what?"

"Could you maybe distract Aiden while we grab Ethan for a talk?" Scott questioned, offering Lydia a sheepish smile.

"No funny business though," Reid was quick to add, not quite liking the idea of Lydia giving that kind of attention to someone other than him. He wasn't sure how he felt about that.

"Of course," Lydia nodded, even she didn't have it in her to allow any other guy to receive her attention except Reid. She figured it had something to do with the mate bond. "Don't worry about it."

"So..." Stiles began, refraining himself from rolling his eyes at the pair, "nothing's going on between you two, huh?"

"Nope," Lydia shook her head, pursing her lips at the same time as Reid said, "nothing."

**

While Lydia was distracting Aiden, Reid, Scott and Stiles were quick to seek out Ethan. They were standing in front of him and he would be lying if he said that he wasn't intimidated by Reid. He didn't know how he knew his past but somehow he did and that made him feel somewhat weak.

"Why are you even talking to me?" Ethan asked the three, his eyes going to Stiles, "I helped kill your friend. How do you know I'm not gonna kill another one?"

"Is he looking at me?" Stiles muttered, appalled, "are you threatening me? You know what I'm gonna do? I'm going to break off an extra-large branch of mountain ash, wrap it in wolfsbane, roll it in mistletoe, and shove it up your freaking—"

"— Whoa, Stiles!" Scott cut his friend off, "okay, we get it. We're talking to you because I know that you didn't want to kill Boyd. And I think that if something like that happened now, you wouldn't do it again."

"You don't know what we owe them— especially Deucalion," Ethan informed, glancing at Reid, "we weren't like Kali and Ennis when we met him. We weren't Alphas."

"What were you?" Scott questioned, curiosity filling him.

"They were Omegas," Reid filled them in as Ethan sigh, "In actual wolf packs, Omegas are the scapegoats— the last to eat, the one who has to take the abuse from the rest of the pack."

"So, you and your brother were, like, the bitches of the pack?" Stiles asked earning a chuckle from Reid, "exactly like that."

Ethan rolled his eyes at him as Scott asked, wanting to know more, "what happened?"

"They were killers," Ethan further narrated, "I mean, people talk about us as monsters. Well, they were the ones who gave us the reputation— And our Alpha was the worst of them."

"Why didn't you just fight back?" Stiles asked with a shrug, "Voltron-wolf, you know? Kick everyone's asses?"

"We couldn't," Ethan sighed, "we didn't know how to control it back then."

"Deucalion taught you."

Ethan nodded at Scott's words, "and then, we fought. We took down the whole pack, one-by-one. And, by the time we got to our Alpha, he was begging for his life. And we tore him apart. Literally."

"What about your Emissary?" Scott asked, "they're all dead? Kali and Ennis' too?"

"All of them except for Deucalion's," Ethan informed making Stiles raise his brows, "you mean Morrell?"

Ethan parted his lips and was about to answer when he groaned in pain.

"What? What's wrong?" Scott frowned, "are you hurt?"

"Not him," Reid spoke up, "his brother." Part of him considered the thought that Lydia was hurting Aiden but he dismissed it as quick as it came knowing that she wouldn't manage to hurt Aiden that much which could only mean one thing. "We gotta go."