The last thing James "Jay" Hale ever imagined was to begrudgingly return to Beacon Hills, find out his older sister was murdered, and then be forced to go on a wild goose chase after an enigmatic Alpha that seemed to have a particular interest in ru...
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CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE:
The Better Beta
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"So, your great plan, the one you've been hyping up for the past couple of days, is that we just go up to her and threaten her? That's it?"
Jay deadpanned, staring judgingly over Scott's shoulder as Erica adjusted her hair in the small mirror hanging inside her locker. He and Scott were currently standing on the other side of the hallway watching her while they waited for Stiles, who was in the front office bartering for a refund after the wending machine took his two dollars.
Two dollars he apparently couldn't live without.
"You live with Derek, and you still haven't come up with anything better. You don't get to judge my plan." Scott rolled his eyes, shutting his locker as he prepared himself for his grand attack. He'd been planning it all morning. He and Jay were going to go up to Erica and make her understand how terrible it was to be a beta in today's political climate with the Argents declaring a full-on war. They'd try to make her see reason and figure out what else Derek was planning.
Except Jay was being extremely unhelpful. Rather than going along with the plan like a good friend, he was being all judgy shooting the idea down.
"I've been staying at Lydia's the past weekend after everything at the ice rink happened," Jay explained his lack of contact with Derek. You'd think sleeping over at a girl's house for the first time would have been scandalous, and it felt like it for the first minute when she'd ambushed him and pushed him into her bed. But then she simply spooned him like he was a substitute for a teddy bear, put on The Vampire Diaries—which hit a little too close to home considering she could now be classified as an unknown creature—and told him to shut up when he awkwardly tried to bring up the ice incident. It was mildly embarrassing but comfortable enough that he couldn't complain. "I didn't exactly have time to call Derek up and interrogate him about his dumbass decisions."
"You mean you called him and he didn't answer." Scott raised a knowing eyebrow.
Jay scowled, although his unanswered call log would prove Scott right. "He's busy with Isaac, and now Erica. I think he's been training them."
There wasn't much left to say. The Hale sibling dynamic was confusing to Scott—and Stiles for that matter—most days. Neither of them had a sibling of their own, so they weren't exactly sure if it was normal for there to be such a distance between Jay and Derek yet still a strong sense of loyalty. They assumed if Derek was going to talk to anyone, it would be to his own brother, but Jay was just as in the dark as they were and unwilling to confront Derek aside from giving him snide comments.
Nobody knew where Jay's loyalties lay, considering he seemed just as upset by every beta Derek turned. But if there was one thing Scott knew for sure, it was that Jay felt just as responsible nonetheless.
