The Huntress {Stiles Stilinski}

Pack Mentality - Self Defence

  Stiles' P.O.V.

"God, it was like watching a car wreck," Rae shudders, glancing up at Scott. "I mean, first comes the whole group date thing, then that phrase."

"Hanging out," I add, and she grimaces. I turn to Scott. "You don't hang out with hot girls, okay?" I receive an elbow in the ribs from Rae for that comment. "It's like death. Once it becomes hanging out, you might as well be her gay best friend. You and Danny can start hanging out."

"How is this happening?" Scott grumbles. "I either killed a guy or I didn't."

"I don't think Danny likes me very much," I say, ignoring Scott's comment. Rae looks up at me and makes a fake pouty face. I shover her shoulder and she laughs.

"I ask Allison on a date, and now we're hanging out," Scott continues as if I never spoke.

"Am I not attractive to gay guys?" I ask, and Rae rolls her eyes.

"Do you want to be?" she asks, and I shrug.

"I make first line," Scott carries on, making Rae roll her eyes again, "and the team captain wants to destroy me, and now - now I'm gonna be late for work." He dashes out of the doors as me and Stiles stop walking.

"Wait, Scott, you didn't - am I attractive to gay guy - you didn't answer my question."

"I answered your question," Rae says, holding her arms up.

"But you're a girl," I reply, and she narrows her eyes. "Besides, I need a dude's answer."

"Why does it matter so much to you if he cares or not?" she asks as we walk out towards the parking lot. We both have free periods now, and so does Allison. I can see her waiting by the Impala and Rae waves at her, and Allison waves back. "You aren't gay, are you?"

"No," I scoff. "But I'm clearly not attractive to women so I figure if I'm attractive to gay guys then I'm attractive to someone."

Rae looks away, and her cheeks look red. "For the sake of this argument, if I told you you're attractive to me, would you stop asking if gay guys like you?"

I raise an eyebrow at her. "Why would you say that for the sake of this argument? Are you trying to hurt me even more by lying?"

"Maybe it's not a lie," she winks and heads off in the direction of her car. I'm left stood by my Jeep looking like an idiot.

My dad isn't home when I get in, so I start on my homework as well as texting Rae about what a mess tonight is going to be. She seems to agree and is trying to talk Allison out of it and rearranging the date so it's just her and Scott, but she's being stubborn.

"Why'd you call me?" I ask when I pick up.

"Because the message is too long for me to type," Rae replies as if it's the most normal answer.

I nod even though she can't see me. "Allison still not budging?"

"Nope," Rae says. "She's being exceptionally stubborn today."

"Where are you?" I ask. "It sounds like there's an echo."

"I'm in the kitchen, eating dinner," she answers.

"Where's your parents?"

"Allison is grabbing food when she's out so she's upstairs with Lydia right now, Mom and Dad are out somewhere." I know she's shrugging without having to be in the same room as her. "Just an everyday night. Does that make sense?"

I laugh as my door opens, and I spin on my chair to see my dad stood in the door, an eyebrow raised. "Hey, Dad."

Rae goes silent. Dad smiles slightly. "Who's on the phone?"

"Rae," I answer, putting her on loud speaker. "Remember, Raelynn Argent?"

"Hi Mr Stilinski," Rae's voice floats through the phone. I laugh as she does, and I can tell she's smiling. "What are you laughing at, Stilinski? Not you, sir, your son."

"Hello, Rae," Dad answers. "Stiles has told me a lot about you."

I glare at my dad and take her off speaker. "'Kay, bye Dad."

"You told your dad about me?" she asks, grinning.

I scoff but quickly change the subject when Scott texts me. "I have to go. Speak later?"

She sighs. "Okay, leave me to die of boredom."

"Actually, while they're all at that group date, why don't we meet up?" I suggest. "Not like a date, as friends. Maybe you could teach me some combat."

"Sure," she answers, sounding excited. "I'll see you at 8?"

"See you then, Shorty," I say, and hang up as I hear her say 'Hey!'. I get in my Jeep to go and pick Scott up, and he tells me to drive to the back of the school where the buses are kept overnight. There's a chain link fence with barbed wire on top preventing us from getting in, but I want to climb it to be cool; plus it could be something else to talk to Rae about. As I rub my hands together to begin to climb the fence, Scott puts his arm out to stop me.

"Hey, no, just me," Scott says. "Someone needs to keep watch."

I narrow my eyes at him and he looks back at me confused. "How come I'm always the guy keeping watch?"

I go to start climbing again but Scott physically pulls me back down. "Because there's only two of us."

"Okay," I say, brushing my thumb over my bottom lip. "Why's it starting to feel like you're Batman and I'm Robin? I don't want to be Robin all the time."

"Nobody's Batman and Robin any of the time."

"Not even some of the time?" I ask hopefully.

"Just stay here," he orders.

"Oh my God!" I say loudly and frustrated. Scott glares at me and I throw my arms up in the air. "Fine." I head back to the Jeep and pull my cell phone out of my pocket, finding a game and opening the app. I watch Scott clear the fence without even trying. "Yeah, phht, no one's Batman or Robin my ass. I'm always damn Robin. Always." I keep watching the buses for any signs of movement where there shouldn't be, and I suddenly see lights scanning the spaces. I honk the horn several times repeatedly, and I see Scott running from one of the buses. "Come on, come on!"

"Go! Go, go, go!" Scott shouts as I start the engine, letting him jump into the car before I speed off, out of the way of the lights surrounding the buses now.

"Did it work?" I ask when we're back on the roads. "Did you remember?"

"Yeah, I was there last night. And the blood . . . A lot of it was mine," Scott says, glancing at me.

"So you did attack him?"

"No. I saw glowing eyes in the bus, but they weren't mine," Scott says. I know who he's thinking of now. "It was Derek."

"What about the driver?"

"I was trying to protect him, I think."

"Wait, why would Derek tell you to do that if you were gonna remember that it was him who attacked the driver?" I ask, confused.

"That's what I don't get," Scott says, shaking his head.

"Yeah, but you didn't do it, which means you're not a killer," I say happily. "And it also means that-"

"I can go out with Allison," Scott interrupts, beaming.

I roll my eyes. "I was gonna say it means you won't kill me."

"Oh," Scott says, and then nods. "Yeah, that too." I laugh and drop him home before heading to Rae's house.


Raelynn's P.O.V.

I pass Allison's room and hear her and Lydia discussing clothes. We've never done that. I feel a slight pang of jealousy as I hear them laughing together. I push her door open and walk through, holding my half eaten apple by my side. "Hey."

"Rae, hey," Allison says, and Lydia glances up and down my body before she continues looking through Allison's clothes. "You okay?"

"Uh, yeah," I say, looking down at her outfit. It's her long-sleeved camouflage shirt, black jeans and denim jacket. Her black beanie hat is on her desk. "This what you're wearing?" When she nods, I smile. "It's nice. But you'll be staying in tonight."

"Rae," Allison whines, and Lydia comes to stand beside my twin. "Please don't."

"Well, hello Grandma," Lydia says. I narrow my eyes at her. "Since when did you come up with the rules?"

"I don't, the Sheriff does," I reply snappily. "There's a curfew, Alli, no date tonight." That's my feeble attempt to keep her and Scott going on this date so he doesn't make himself look like a dick.

"Rae, I don't have to listen to you all the time, you know," Allison replies.

I lick my lips and take a bite of my apple. "No one's allowed out past 9:30pm." When I still receive blank looks from my twin and her friend, I roll my eyes. "Fine. But Dad is coming up to give you that exact same speech in a minute. Just thought I'd be the nicer one about it." I walk out and bump into my dad in the hallway. He smiles briefly and points at Allison's bedroom door. "I tried. But you've got more authority than me."

I head to my bedroom and flop down on my bed, grabbing my training outfit and changing into it. I put my hair up in a high ponytail so it's out of my face and then wait for the doorbell to ring. When it does, I squeal and run down the stairs, barging past Mom on the way. I open the door and see Stiles stood there with a bag on his shoulder. I grin and let him come in, but Dad is there immediately, Mom not far behind him.

"Who's this, honey?" Dad asks. Act all nicey-nice in front of my friends, that's it.

"Mom, this is my friend Stiles," I reply, and Stiles nods.

"Nice to meet you, Mrs Argent, Mr Argent," Stiles says politely. I roll my eyes and take his hand, dragging him up to the stairs.

"Raelynn, no fooling around," Mom says with a wink.

I blush as my eyes widen and my mouth drops open. "Jeez, Mom." I open the door to my bedroom and let Stiles walk in, closing it behind me. "Welcome to my only privacy."

Stiles looks around, placing his bag on the bed. "It's so . . . Clean."

I nod. "Yeah, I like it clean." That's a lie. There's just not enough stuff in here to make it messy.

"Where's all your photos?" he asks, still looking round.

"I don't have any," I shrug. "In case you haven't realized, I'm not the favorite child in this family. Well, I am when it comes to my aunt Kate, but no one else."

Stiles sits beside me with a grin across his face. "Can we fight now?"

I laugh and stand up, and he looks at me worried. "Easy, bucko, we're going down to the garage." We head down and I go through a separate door that is marked off-limits. This is the room that holds all my dad's guns and weapons to hunt, although he's told Allison that he sells firearms to law enforcement. In that room is also my training room. It has punchbags and a small ring where I sometimes train with my dad, if he's never not busy. I tell Stiles to start on one of the punchbags, while I start on mine. After half an hour, he's shining with sweat. I am, too, but he looks tired.

"How do you do it?" he asks, breathless. He sits on the floor and I stop my bag from swinging before sitting opposite him.

"Do what?" I reply, handing him a bottle of water.

"Thanks." He takes a long sip, and then stares straight at me. "How do you do this everyday?"

"I kinda need to," I shrug, playing with my sock that is showing above my sneaker. "I've been training since I could walk."

"Did you have any kind of childhood?" He's watching me, fascinated.

"Oh, sure, if you mean watching your younger twin have more presents than you on your joint birthdays, Christmas. Watching her have no fear of the dark or the full moon," I say, staring off in a trance. "Or having one family member love you fully, including your hunter genes." I look back up at him and he looks sympathetic. "But, 'ya know, just regular stuff." I take a drink of water and look at him. "What about you? What was your childhood like?"

His face falls and I know immediately I've touched a nerve. "My mom died in 2004."

I look around the room and then at his eyes, which are staring at a spot beside me. "Stiles, don't feel you have to talk about this."

"It's okay," he says, coughing slightly. I move so I'm sat directly beside him, and I take his hand in mine, squeezing it slightly. He squeezes it back. "My mom suffered from frontotemporal dementia. It's a shrinking of the brain that leads to dementia and death. I was with her when she died, and -" He stops, his words sounding choked. I quickly lean up and kiss his cheek, and then place my head on his shoulder. "What was that for?" he whispers.

I shrug. "I figured you needed it. And by the way, Danny was very confused by your question."

He laughs and his laughter vibrates through me. "Shall we go?" I nod and we head back upstairs. We quickly change and rush out of the front door when Stiles gets a message from his dad telling him he'll be at the hospital if he needs him. We end up scaring Scott's mom in the process of climbing Scott's drainpipe because his front door is locked.

"Seriously!" she screams, waving the baseball bat about. "Stiles, Rae, what the hell are you doing here?"

"What are we doing?" Stiles shouts back, seeming slightly scared. "God, do either of you even play baseball?" I'm confused by this but I don't press it.

"What?" Melissa says, and then Scott comes running in. Melissa looks at him and then at us. "Can you please tell your friends to use the front door?"

"But we lock the front door," Scott says. "They wouldn't be able to get in."

"Yeah, exactly," Melissa breathes. "And by the way, do any of you care that there's a police enforced curfew?" When we all shrug and answer 'no' at the same time, she gives a nervous laugh. "No, alright then. Well, you know what? That's about enough parenting for me for one night, so good night."

"Night Ms McCall," I shout out, and she shouts back a 'yep'. I smile and then turn to Scott.

"What?" he asks.

"My dad left for the hospital 15 minutes ago. It's the bus driver. They said he succumbed to his wounds."

"Succumbed?" Scott asks, confused.

"Scott," I say gently, "he's dead." Scott stands up and opens his window, jumping from it. "Scott!" I follow him and land on my feet, looking back up at Stiles. "Stay here or go home, but do not follow!"

"You've got no weapons," Stiles says. I pick out my ring daggers from the inside of my pants and he nods. "Okay, yeah, you're good."

I smile and chase after Scott. I can see him in the distance and follow him through the Preserve to the Hale house. I look at the burned building before rushing inside, seeing Scott stood there. "Scott, we need to go."

He turns and shakes his head, but I hold my ring daggers close. "Derek! I know you're here! I know what you did!"

"I didn't do anything," comes a voice, which I presume is Derek.

"Scott, please," I beg, but he starts climbing the stairs. "Scott, don't be stupid!"

"You killed him!" Scott shouts.

"He died," comes Derek's voice.

"Like your sister died?" Scott says. I gasp. Oh, please, let's go.

"My sister was missing. I came here looking for her."

"You found her."

"I found her in pieces, being used as bait to catch me!" Derek snaps.

"I think you killed them both," Scott says, and I shake my head, tightening my grip on my daggers. "I'm gonna tell everyone, starting with the Sheriff."

A huge roar comes from one end of the upstairs hallway, and me and Scott and thrown down the stairs. I grunt as I land, one of my daggers cutting my thigh slightly. I wipe away the blood and look up to see Derek in wolf form, his face distorted and extra hair growing on the sides of his face. I gasp and shuffle backwards on my behind until my back is against the wall. Scott jumps in front of me and pushes Derek through one of the walls, and Derek lands on his back, debris falling around him.

He stands up, brushing himself off and walking back over to us. "That was cute." He picks Scott up by the shirt and throws him, and then he advances on me. I stand and swing my arm at him, my dagger catching his arm. He growls and lifts me by one of my legs and my waist, throwing me hard through the hole Scott made. I cough as I land, the wind being knocked from me. "Stupid little hunter!"

Scott stands up to defend me while I regain my breath, but he's not a good fighter yet, and Derek ends up smashing a mirror with Scott's back and then throwing him up in the air several times, but keeping his hand on Scott's shirt, forcing him back down, hard. I rush forward and stab Derek's side, and he growls. I remove the dagger so he doesn't die but he lets go of Scott.

"I didn't kill him," Derek says after he's shifted back into a human. Scott does the same, and I help him up, wiping the dust from his shoulder. "Neither of us did. It's not your fault, and it's not mine."

"This?" Scott shouts, but I grab his arm to stop him restarting the fight. "This is all your fault! You ruined my life!"

"No, I didn't," Derek defends. I look at him and realize that his eyes were blue when he was shifted, not yellow like Scott's.

"You're the one who bit me," Scott shouts again.

"No, I'm not," Derek says. His eyes weren't red either. That means he couldn't have bitten Scott and turned him.

"What?" Scott asks, looking back at me.

"He's not the one that bit you," I say, keeping my arm around Scott's waist to keep him up. Scott watches me, as does Derek, and I continue. "There's another."

"It's called an Alpha," Derek explains. "It's the most dangerous of our kind. You and I, we're Betas. Well, except for Graceful over here. She's a hunter."

"I know what she is," Scott snaps.

"This thing," Derek carries on after a glare from me, "is more powerful more animal than either of us. My sister came here looking for him. Now I'm trying to find him. But I don't think I can do it without you."

"Why Scott?" I ask.

"Because the Alpha is the one that bit Scott," Derek says, taking a step forward. "You're part of his pack. It's you, Scott. You're the one he wants."