CHAPTER 33

[Scott McCall's POV]

Scott McCall opened his eyes and saw a very unfamiliar scenery of green and blue that clouded his hazy vision.

His eyes shot wide open as his sleepy brain finally registered the weirdness of the situation. 

The trees were a dead giveaway that he was in a foreign place that was completely different from his room. 

Before he could take a step, images flashed through his mind with high intensity that made him groan in pain as a dizzy spell hit him. 

"Those eyes."

The haunting red eyes of his Alpha surfaced in his fragmented memories and with it came a wave of panic as he looked at himself, his face paling with every passing second. 

His pajama pants and whatever remained of his shirt were stained with large amounts of dried blood. 

He ran his fingers across his chest, a memory flashing through his mind that caused him to shiver in fear. He saw the shadowy figure of a huge monster swiping it clawed fingers across his chest and then red clouded his vision. 

Even now he could feel a stinging feeling of pain underneath the surface of his skin. 

He sighed and looked around his environment and saw that he was near the bank of a stream. 

"Getting back should be easy."

He sure had a lot to do. Keeping his grades up, playing lacrosse, maybe get a girlfriend, trying to survive a murdering Alpha, and maybe surviving another full moon. 

"Ah, that's right. The meeting's today." Talk about starting the day on a bad note. 

He took a few breaths and started running upstream to find his way home. 

… 

[Argents House] 

"We almost got one of them." Kate banged her hand against the cabinet. 

The three adults of the Argent family were in the kitchen after Allison left for school. 

"Which one?" Victoria asked as she washed the dishes. 

"The beta. We couldn't get a clear glimpse of the Alpha." Chris tone was more sour as two of his men got injured, with one almost dying, when the Alpha attacked. 

Kate scratched her head with irritation as she was the one who lost sight of the Beta and made him escape. 

"I think the beta is a fairly new one." She voiced her thoughts, capturing the attention of the other two. "Chris already shot the beta once and our encounter yesterday makes me think that he's still getting used to being a werewolf."

"It could also be either an emotional outburst or he was influenced by his Alpha. We've seen it happen countless times." Chris gave his opinion but Kate shook her head. 

"If that was so then he would have been under the Alpha's control, but his actions seemed erratic to me." She frowned as she tried remembering the Beta's weird behavior. "Didn't you also say you first came across the beta during a full moon?"

Victoria thought over Kate's words and couldn't help but agree with them. "Kate's words are plausible. We've already established a probability that Derek Hale is not the only beta around. He doesn't even know who the Alpha is."

Chris didn't say anything, only tapping a rhythm on top of the cabinet. He remembered the first night he came across those two werewolves in the woods. 

"That means Derek might also be seeking the Alpha for affiliation, which is less likely since it killed his sister." Chris massaged his temples as he brain worked through scenarios and possible outcomes. "From the beginning, our focus wasn't on Derek, but the Alpha. We just need to sniff out the beta, or better still, have another beta do it for us."

The two women's eyes gleamed as they clearly understood his intentions. "Derek?"

Chris smiled. "If he wants to meet the Alpha or kill it, he'll have to go through the beta. He knows he can't kill the Alpha along with the Beta, so he'll have to cut the source of the Alpha's strength." 

"And all we need to do is follow his paw prints." Kate guffawed as the thought appealed to her. 

"Then we'll need to find a starting point. We can't afford to alert Derek. He's turned too cautious." Victoria added. "And Chris, don't forget Allison's teacher's meeting is later in the afternoon." She reminded her husband who only hummed and walked out of the kitchen. 

… 

[General POV] 

In one of the male bathrooms in Beacon Hills, an intense stare off went underway as Tristan leveled a half-glare at Scott who had filled him into the bathroom immediately after he entered. 

Scott couldn't lie and say the boy in front of him didn't make him feel a bit weird. There was something strange about the air around the boy that threw him off, not to mention his faint scent that barely lingered in the room. 

Throwing those useless thoughts to the back of his head, Scott addressed Tristan and solicited for his favor. 

"I need your help. Please hear me out first, please." He watched the expression loosen up a bit and that gave him the green light to go ahead. 

"I spoke with Derek and he said he doesn't know if he'll be able to teach me how to control the shifting anytime soon."

"… And?"

"Can you please help me? I've been trying to find this anchor like you said but it's not working." He was practically tugging on his last thread of hope. 

"… And?" Tristan repeated. 

Scott took in a deep breath and looked directly at Tristan's eyes, even against his better instincts, and asked his favor. 

"Please teach me how to stay in control during the full moon. I.. I…" Scott's hand rubbed his chest as the memory of blood came back to him. "I think I'm about to kill someone. I don't know what else to do."

Tristan stared at Scott, although he could understand Scott's plight, he also understood something more than Scott – the young pup was directly going against his Alpha, and it was only going to end badly from his point of view. 

Though he had no reason to help, pointing Scott to the obvious direction once wouldn't necessarily cost him anything. 

"The best way to control the shift is through anger." He ignored Scott's skeptic look and continued. "The sequence is simple. All you have to do is factor in the consequences of you losing your temper and while the anger won't disappear, you'll be able to redirect it towards something, preferably yourself."

Scott looked confused for a moment before his eyes widened in understanding. "Pain makes us human, right?"

"Yes. While it's easier to use this method, it's also not very advisable as you'll become more susceptible to anger and might start to lose control down the line. Think of it as a quick fix, it's only temporary."

Scott nodded with a serious expression as he listened to what Tristan was saying. 

"Now for demonstration."

"Wait, hu--" 

Before he could fully react to Tristan's, a fist slammed his face and threw him to the floor.

"Remember: focus less on the anger, and more on the consequences. Your best friend might die."

Scott groaned as he head felt dizzy from the blow which he was sure broke his nose. 

BAAAM! 

An agonizing grunt escaped his mouth as a kick made of bricks impacted his stomach and sent him tumbling back down. 

"You might kill your best friend, Stiles. You've tried it before, right? Well this time I assure you he won't live through it." Tristan's words felt like thunder booming in Scott's ears as he fought to suppress the frustration and anger bubbling inside him. 

"Maybe after Stiles, you'll go after your parents. How do you think they'll feel when they find out that their son is nothing more than a monster in human skin? They'll call the authorities on you… that's if you don't kill them first."

Tristan yanked Scott up by the collar and brought him to his face and gazed at the flickering golden ring around his eye. 

"Maybe you'll kill a member of the team, maybe Jackson? You know he hates you after all." He head-butted Scott, breaking his nose further in the process. 

"And then what? You'll probably never live a normal life till you die, either brought down by the Hunters or the authorities."

SLAP! 

Scoot went into a daze at the slap before losing it completely, causing his entire face to change to a mutated form as his hair grew to a widow's peak with his nonexistent sideburns growing out in moments. Hunched nose and droopy eye sockets that glowed gold. 

Tristan didn't look fazed a single bit at Scott's transformation, but brought him closer to his face instead. "And do you know what caused all that?"

Scott was about to bite off Tristan's face before he jolted as a searing pain assaulted his nerves and brain. 

CRACK!! 

Tristan broke his left shoulder without any care, forcing the boy held by his hands to revert back to his human form. 

"It's because you lost control."

He released Scott and watched as the latter fell like a bag of cement to the ground, and walked over him to leave the bathroom. 

Scott whimpered as he held his dislocated shoulder and fought back to hold back his screams and tears. 

"Fuck." He just couldn't. Tears pooled at the edge of his eyes and fell in a straight line as he struggled to lean against the wall for support. 

… 

Leaving Scott in the bathroom, Tristan came across the semi-familiar face of Boyd. Both nodded at each other as a sign of greeting and started walking to their various directions. 

"Should I try out for lacrosse?" A bored thought filtered into his mind but he shook it away. He didn't need to spend a few hours of his day huddling with boys and being on the receiving end of some stuck up players. 

"… Right." He remembered that today was the meeting, which meant he could go home early since no one was coming. 

He brought out his phone and rang Malia rather than walking all over for her. 

"I'll be going home early." Was all he needed to say for her to get the message. 

If she wanted to come with then she'll say so, and if not then that means she's hanging out with Allison. 

"Thank goodness! Hold on a bit for me. It's Allison's birthday." She added. 

"… And?" Tristan asked. 

"Told you he'd say that." He heard Malia speaking to Allison but ignored it for her reply. "Anyway, I think I'll be with you in a couple of minutes, thirty to an hour max."

He nodded and cut the call. 

… 

[Allison Argent POV] 

"Why did he have to be an asshole about it?"  Allison pursed her lips in petty offense but Malia just ignored her dramatics. 

"I told you before. Tristan doesn't like celebrations of any kind." 

They were currently on their way from the library for some revision as they had time to burn. 

"So he doesn't celebrate his birthday in any way?" She asked. Though she didn't like her own birthday celebrations due to her being older than most people in her grade, that didn't mean she hated other birthday parties. 

"We don't see a need to celebrate our birthday." Malia corrected. "It's honestly childish." And as expected of someone with a low EQ like Malia, she completely disregarded Allison's feelings on the matter. 

Allison sighed and shrugged. "I never thought of celebrating my birthday, but I thought we could just hang out. It's lonely for me since you both are the only people I know."

Malia snorted at Allison's words but made no comment on it. "Well, you could hook up with one of the good looking guys around for a spicy birthday."

Allison was astounded at Malia's words which only garnered a raised brow from the werecoyote. 

"Hey, don't look at me like that. I was just making a suggestion."

"Yeah, right." Allison rolled her eyes at Malia's casualness. "I think I can think of something distracting than jumping on some random dick." With that she walked ahead of Malia, ignoring the blunt girl. 

"It was just a suggestion." Malia shook her head at the unreasonable behavior of some people. 

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