Wonder

MATES SUCK

The wind whipped around Ariel, the cool air biting at her exposed flesh. Being a werewolf had little benefits in the cold, not affecting her internal temperature like twilight had promised her. She was clothed only in a t shirt and spandex shorts, having been woken up from her slumber by none other than Derek Hale.

He had pulled the McCall siblings out of their house, driving them to an unknown location and not divulging any information. Now Ariel, understood why. She was standing on the roof of Movie 2 C, watching with a heavy heart as the mutilated body of Chad Daniels was wheeled from the store.

"Starting to get it?" Derek shook her from her trance and she turned to look at him. His arms were crossed over his chest and his face was grim as he surveyed the police cars and ambulances below them.

"I get that he's killing people, but I don't get why." Scott shook his head, his attention fixed on Lydia, who was sitting shaking in the back of an ambulance. From listening to the conversations taking place, the werewolves had surmised that Jackson and Lydia had found the body and narrowly escapes death at the hands of the alpha. Ariel wasn't sure what was worse- the death of Chad or the fact that the alpha left Jackson relatively unharmed. "I mean, this isn't standard practice, right? We don't go out in the middle of the night murdering everyone, do we?"

"No." Derek looked at Ariel out of the corner of his eye. She was trembling, her face pale as she looked over the scene. He sensed that it wasn't the gore that had gotten to her, that she knew something that she wasn't saying. Ariel caught his eye and looked away. "We're predators, we don't have to be killers."

"That doesn't seem to be stopping the alpha." Ariel muttered bitterly, her hatred for her mate growing.

"The alphas an exception." Derek frowned.

"Then why is he killing?" Scott didn't notice but Derek did. He heard the skip of Ariels heartbeat, smelled her nervous chemosignals. She knew something.

"That's what we're going to find out."

"You know I have a life too." Scott wasn't happy with how Derek seemed to expect him to throw everything away for the werewolf business.

"No you don't."

"Yes I do! I don't care what you say about him making me his pet or part of his pack!" Scott huffed. "I have homework to do."

"You have fun with that, I'll be trying to prevent murders." Ariel snorted.

"I have to go to a parent teacher conference tomorrow because I'm failing chemistry!" Her brother took no notice of her jab.

Derek laughed dryly. "You want to do homework? Or do you not want to die?" He let out a sigh. "You have less than a week until the full moon. You don't kill with him, he kills you."

"Okay, what sadistic bastard made up these rules?" Ariel scoffed. "This sounds like a shitty soap opera plot."

"It's a rite of passage into his pack." Derek rolled his eyes.

"You know what else is a right of passage? Graduating from high school! And you don't have to kill anyone to do it!"

"Depends-"

"Why can't you just find him yourself? I think can't you just sniff him out when he's human?" Scott took no notice of his sisters smart ass comment.

"Because his human scent could be entirely different." Derek glared at Scott, before turning to Ariel. "That's why it has to be you."

"Me?" She choked on air.

"You're his mate, you have a connection to him."

"I barely know what a mate means! You haven't told me anything!"

Derek turned towards Scott. "And I need you to harness your abilities so you can protect her. Werewolves turned by their mate are an entirely different type, one we don't know much on because it's so rare."

"How do I harness my abilities?"

"I'll teach you. And then you," he turned to Ariel. "Can draw him to us."

"And then you'll stop him?" Ariel cautioned.

"Not alone. We're stronger in numbers. A pack makes an individual more powerful."

"How are we supposed to help you if we have no idea what we're doing?" Scott cried out.

"Because I'm gonna teach you." Derek sighed. "Do you remember what happened the first night you were shot in the arm? Right after you were hit?"

"Yeah I changed back." Scott nodded.

"And when you were hit by his car, same thing, right? What's the common denominator?" Derek reached out, taking Scotts wrist and snapping it easily. Ariel flinched at the loud crack as bone broke.

"No! What the hell are you doing?" Scott screeched, pulling his broken wrist away from Derek and cradling it.

"It'll heal."

"It still hurts!"

"And that's what keeps you human. Pain." Derek watched as Scott snapped his wrist back into place, his eyes glowing gold as he did. "Maybe you will survive."

"Glad that's all sorted out, but apparently I'm still a lost cause. I'm just gonna go-" Ariel sighed.

"No." Derek stopped her, shaking his head. "You remember when you threw me off Scott and your eyes glowed orange?" Ariel nodded. "You're not a full werewolf. Since you were hit by your mate you have combined power of sorts. Your eyes are the mixture of beta and alpha. It makes both of you stronger but it also connects you. That's why you need to find him."

"So i feed off of his power?" Ariel rubbed her temples. She was too tired to process any new werewolf information.

"And he feeds off yours. That's what the tattoos you share are for. And that's why Scott has to fight him and not you- hurting him will weaken your powers." Dereks expression grew dark. "I don't know much about mates but I do know that it's more of a curse than one would think."

"What do you mean?" Ariels breath caught in her throat.

"They become insanely possessive, to the point of instability. Especially for the males- they will stop at nothing to protect and claim their mates. It's their instincts. But sometimes they try and protect too much. There are stories of males killing their mates fathers because they won't allow any men close to her. Many have also killed their sons." Ariel let out a shaky breath, her heart heavy.

"Last week this guy harassed me at a coffee shop trying to get me to go on a date with him. He showed up dead a few days later. A few hours ago, that guy" she gestured towards the black body bag holding the corpse of Chad Daniels "flirted with me."

"It's the alpha." Scott mumbled, pulling his sister closer to him territorially.

"This means he's even more unstable than I thought." Derek mumbled. "The possessive behavior is only supposed to start after the completion of the mating process."

"If you're saying be careful, then I think she gets it." Ariel had fell quiet, the awful realization of her hand in the deaths of two men weighing down on her. If the alpha had killed Todd and Chad for so little, what would he do to Peter? She felt sick at the thought of him showing up as yet another body in the morgue. Scott hugged his sister close, glaring at Derek.

"I'm saying be afraid." Derek shook his head. "Be very afraid. And be careful of who you're around." He sent a pointed look at Ariel, having smelt the scent of male in her room earlier. "Because the alpha won't stop at anything to make you his and if that means killing any man in a mile radius of you, then so it be."