Tethered // Teen Wolf // Isaac Lahey

NINETY-SEVEN

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KOREY

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I whipped around the side of the kitchen doorway the second I heard the front door open, my heart beating rapidly in my chest. "How are they?"

Isaac offered me a miniscule smile as he slipped his shoes off, tiredly nodding, "They're okay. Mom's gonna watch both of them overnight at the hospital. They're both taking a well-deserved rest."

"Thank God it was nothing worse," Allison joined my side, "the lashing out is one thing, but I really hate the seizing thing. It was bad enough when you had it," she nodded at me, "but seeing it on Scott was something else."

"It's cause he's the alpha," I shrugged, moving back to lean on the doorframe as Isaac slipped past me into the kitchen. "We all expect him to be tough and in control. He's got to be strong for all of us. When he can't, it affects all of us."

"Has anyone noticed that Derek, Deaton, and Peter haven't been affected by the Black Mass?" Chris looked up from his stack of papers on the dining table.

"We have," Allison nodded shortly, slinking away from me to sit back down at the table with him, "we think it's because they're not part of the pack. The Black Mass sees a True Alpha, a kitsune, a banshee, and an augere as a threat. Two ex-alphas and veterinarian don't seem quite as much of a danger."

Chris debated her statement before he tilted his head, "Fair enough."

"You know..." Isaac turned away from the sink where he'd been washing his hands, and he fiddled with a kitchen towel. "That's all of us now. The whole pack has been in a mindscape."

I pushed off the doorframe, dragging my feet as I made towards him, taking the towel from his hands as he finished with it. I tossed it behind him before I wrapped my arms around his waist, setting my hands flat against his back. "We all got out of them okay."

"Do you think it's over?" Allison mumbled, "Do you think we can finally go outside and not be afraid that we're going to get attacked? Do you think we can turn off a light without having a panic attack?"

"Let's hope so," I said quietly, focusing on the lamp that sat on the kitchen counter, "it would be nice to go back to normal."

"Deaton told us that they don't stop until there's nothing more to take," Isaac murmured lowly, bending his head so he could rest it on top of mine. "What do you think that means? Do you think we can be put into mindscapes again, or do you think it means they'll target more people outside of the pack?"

"A really selfish part of me wants to hope that it means the Black Mass will target other people," Allison murmured, reaching out to toy with a pen on the table. "I don't want to go through any of that stuff again. It was nearly impossible to tell apart what was real and what wasn't."

"It's like even if we knew that the people haunting us were gone," Isaac jumped in quickly, "we couldn't convince ourselves of it."

"It's like we went back in time," I mumbled, "back to the moment the fears happened."

"And then there's the addition of the things that definitely didn't happen, but we're so terrified that they might," Allison finished with a small huff. "I miss the days when the worst villains were stuck up chemistry teachers."

"Speaking of teachers," Chris pipped up, looking up from his papers again, "how is school going? Have you guys managed to get anything done between being harassed by shadows and chasing possessed people around?"

"Uh..." I raised my hand slightly, "the track team is awesome, and Coach thinks I'm the best thing to appear in Beacon Hills since sliced bread."

"That's good," Chris nodded slowly, a smile growing on his face, "and what about your lessons?"