Tethered // Teen Wolf // Isaac Lahey

THIRTEEN

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KOREY

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"He can't be, right?" Aaron paced in front of me, his eyes flickering between golden and brown, "He can't."

"Sit down," Blake muttered, her elbows resting on her knees and her mouth pressed into her clasped hands.

"Sit— Sit down?!" Aaron stopped short to sneer at his sister, "Our beta is dying in there!" He jerked his finger towards the closed doors of Deaton's veterinary lab. "You want me to sit down?! You want me to calm down?! Right now?! Seriously?"

Paisley let out a choked sob, burying her face into Blake's side, her arms wrapping around her neck more for her own comfort than Blake's.

Aaron's anger faltered slightly, and he returned to pacing, his footsteps heavy and echoing in my ears until he stopped right in front of me. "Why didn't you call anyone?"

"She lost her phone," Blake answered for me, her voice distant in my ears, "but she called us another way."

"Too late!" Aaron growled out, his eyes flashing yellow again, "She should have howled as soon as it happened!"

"She couldn't," Blake mumbled, her eyes far away as she answered automatically, almost robotically, "she couldn't wolf out. She couldn't even heal—"

"Don't you say that shit again," Aaron snapped ferociously, his hand reaching down to grab mine that clenched the arm of the chair I was in. He jerked me to stand, his other hand pointing at my stomach, "Where is it, Blake? If she wasn't healing, where is it?"

The wound on my stomach had vanished somehow, healed completely as if had never been there to begin with. I was back to my full strength, and yet, it meant nothing because the only person I wanted to help, I couldn't.

"That's enough," Blake sighed weakly, unclenching her hands so she could drag them down her face, "Archie hates it when we fight."

"Correction," Aaron hissed, "hated it when we fought. Archie's dead, Blake, stiff as a board, cold as ice."

"Shut up," I muttered out, wrenching my hand out of his grip and finally meeting his yellow eyes with my own, "he's not dead."

Aaron scoffed, shaking his head at me, "Oh, so you've found your voice, huh?" He shoved my shoulder, "Why didn't you call anyone?" He shoved me again, pushing me back this time, "Why didn't you tether to him?" Another shove and my legs hit my chair, scraping it back into the wall, "Why didn't you do anything?!" He roared in my face, his fangs extending out of his gums.

"Aaron!"

We froze. No one breathed, no one thought. We all just froze and turned to Mason, who finally appeared out of Deaton's lab.

His face was sombre and tight, his eyes unusually glassy, and his throat bobbed up and down repeatedly, "Now is not the time to turn on one another."

Blake shot out of her chair, "Is he...?"

The question hung in the air full of anticipation and weight, a defining moment that changed everything.

Mason wet his lips, opting to step to the side instead of staying anything.

Deaton met our gazes as we looked into his lab, his gaze overly sympathetic, and then, with utmost care and respect, he brought a white sheet up and over Archie's head.

A strangled scream tore out of Paisley's throat, and she collapsed to the floor, clutching at her chest as heavy tears rapidly hit the floor, echoing like raindrops in my ears.