Tethered // Teen Wolf // Isaac Lahey

SIX

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KOREY

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A few days of school later, Paisley had managed to weasel her way into Ethan's good graces with a few honey coated smiles and some well placed jokes.

I had almost thought persuading the rest of the pack would be easy after that but then came the tests: jump scares, decapitated limbs outside the door, mountain ash in front of the entrance and so, so much more.

"He's nice?" Blake snorted, holding up a boxing pad for me to hit.

"He is," Paisley mused, sitting on top of a pile of weights, "surprisingly, Ethan is actually a really nice guy."

"And his brother?" Archie glanced at me from beside Paisley.

"No," I grunted plainly, striking the boxing pad again and trying to push Blake back a step.

"No?" Archie repeated, amusement coating his words, "Just no?"

"Yep," I popped the 'p', arching back to swing my leg up, trying to catch Blake off guard. I failed, and she moved the pad in time.

Aiden was still suspended from the school, but I gathered enough about him from the words of other students at Beacon Hills High. He was rude, hot-headed and stubborn; under any other circumstance, he would have been my best friend but while trying to convince him to agree to the recruitment of my pack into his, it was a pain.

"Alright then," Archie shook his head at me, casting his eyes over to Blake so he could roll them, "helpful."

I sniffed, grabbing onto the wraps around my knuckles, "He's a piece of work, and we'd do better ignoring him entirely."

"I thought you were going to be making friends with him," Blake lowered the boxing pad, her eyes stern.

"I was," I shook my hand to throw the wrap off it, "and then, he got outsmarted by McCall and his little buddy, which got him suspended."

Archie hummed sharply, his finger jumping up to wag in the air, "The great mystery! A true anomaly we did not consider!"

"Oh, here we go again," Blake huffed under her breath.

"Who is this McCall?" Archie continued, his smile wide as he began to pace in front of Paisley, "Who is Derek Hale? Do they intend to join Deucalion? Are they just passers-by? Are they friends or fo—"

"Arch, get to the point." Blake snorted, motioning for me to follow after her as she made for the water bottles neatly lined up against the wall of the makeshift gym we'd built in a spare room of the new house.

"Bitch," Archie didn't hesitate, his nose wrinkling at her, "as I was saying, we need to understand this anomaly before we continue."

"An anomaly is discovered to be ignored," a voice drawled lowly, "if we based every decision on what anomalies we found, we'd never reach one."

I finished drinking from my bottle, turning to the doorway where Mason was leaning against the wood, his eyes carefully trailing over all of us.

"Mason," Archie grinned, his heart skipping like pebbles over a lake, "you were supposed to be away for some time."

"I was," Mason agreed, offering Archie a curt nod, "but things changed and now, I'm back early."

"You're never back early just for the sake of seeing us," Blake mumbled, her tone teasing but her eyes cautious and calculated.

"True," Paisley sighed theatrically, leaning back on the weights so she could dangle her legs up, "I don't even think you like us sometimes."

"Nonsense," Mason cooed, his smile razor-sharp and full of teeth, reserved only for Paisley who he doted on above everyone else.