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"Slow your heart, breathe through your mouth, and repeat after me."
Darcy looked up at Derek through the thick of her eyelashes. The shift had broken through her skin in a wave of relentless fury this time, and she'd been helpless to hold it back. While her canines drew blood from her lower gums, the claws on the end of her fingers coaxed blood from her palms. She knew without looking in a mirror that her eyes were glowing a bright yellow, and her face prickled with the addition of extra hair.
She was still new to this werewolf stuff, and it was severely easy to trigger her shift. This time it had been over a failed test, something that should've been easy but Darcy just couldn't muster up the answers to. Derek had pressed her too hard on the topic, why she was struggling so much, and that had been enough to tip her off.
Luckily, they were already at Derek's loft, so they didn't have to worry about anyone witnessing the werewolf's grotesque features.
Between everything going on- the alpha pack, the darach, and Cora Hale's appearance-, they'd barely had enough time to get Darcy the practice she needed over the past three weeks. Thankfully, what little she was getting had stuck sticking and was actually helping. The mantra had become her most useful tool, that and avoiding stressful situations when she could, which proved to be significantly difficult as time went on.
"Alpha, beta, omega," Darcy repeated, trying to focus on her breathing as her heartbeat pounded in her ears. Derek's had stayed steady on the outside of her bubble. She continued to say the mantra under her breath, feeling her heartbeat slow until it reached a level where it didn't feel like it would burst through her chest. The process didn't take as long as usual, and the shift soon subsided. She was left staring into her alpha's eyes.
Derek smiled at her, and she couldn't help but notice the pride in the look. "Good job."
His smile made her own lips turn up and something warm fizzled in her chest at the comment. A little breathless, she replied, "Thanks."
"You know, you've caught on pretty quick," he said as he helped her stand up. "Faster than most others I've seen."
She felt her cheeks warm at the praise. "Just luck, I guess."
He gave her a look she couldn't read, making a bit of Darcy's excitement fade away, but then his face lifted back to normal and she brushed the nagging voice in the back of her head aside. She nodded at him and then took a look around the loft.
Ever since Derek had taken her in, this place had become as familiar as Alexa's apartment. Darcy almost spent the same amount of time here as she did at home. It was nice, she thought, to be a part of something, a part of a pack.
She wouldn't trade it for the world.
-
The day after they'd seen the horrifying pictures at Deaton's, the pack stood circled around Scott's dining table. Everyone was there except for Mason and Lydia, the latter of which was the reason they were there. Overnight, after they'd dropped Darcy off at her vacant apartment, Stiles and Scott had come up with a plan to get their banshee out of Eichen. Despite the gloom of the mission, Darcy couldn't help but be pleased that they were all together again.
