Chapter 7: Birthday (Edited)

Two days have passed since the Wolfsbane Bullet incident. Nothing interesting happened, and the days ended without anything supernatural occurring.

Jackson and Lydia arrived at a video store, with him attempting to persuade Lydia to watch a sports film but ultimately failing.

"Could someone help me find the notebook?" He inquired, but no one responded despite a phone ringing in the background. He looked around, but the area appeared to be empty.

"Hello, is anyone working here?"

"You have got to be kidding me," He says as he begins walking, but he comes to a halt when he notices someone is feet sticking out of one of the shelves.

As he walks up to the shelf, his heart rate increases slowly. Upon his arrival, he discovers the store employee sleeping in a pool of blood and having his throat slashed.

As he recoiled in fear, he took a sudden step backward and collided with a ladder positioned directly behind him. The impact caused the ladder to topple over, bringing down the light fixture above it. The sudden impact sparked a shower of electricity and caused the other lights in the vicinity to flicker erratically.

As he made his way through the dimly lit room, he suddenly heard menacing growls coming from his right. Startled, he turned to see a large creature with thick, black fur and piercing red eyes fixated on him. The creature let out another menacing growl, causing him to instinctively seek cover behind a nearby shelf. His heart pounded as he struggled to control his quickening breaths, realizing the danger he was in.

As the Alpha lunges forward, its massive frame crashes into the shelves, sending them tumbling like a line of dominos toward Jackson. With a surge of adrenaline, Jackson attempts to leap clear of the chaos, but his efforts are in vain. His legs become ensnared in the collapsing debris, pinning him to the ground with his back exposed to the menacing Alpha.

It approached Jackson and stood over him. It carefully lifted Jackson's collar to inspect the claw marks on his neck, revealing one of the wounds glowing a faint blue from the wolfsbane residue. The alpha roars before leaping out of the store's glass window, shattering it and scaring Lydia, who screams.

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Stiles and his dad are eating fast food in the parking lot of a drive-thru.

"Did you forget my curly fries?" Sheriff Stilinski asks as he sees stiles eating curly fries.

"You're not supposed to eat fries especially the curly ones"

"I'm carrying a lethal weapon if I want the curly fries I will have the curly fries"

"If you think getting rid of contraction in all your sentences makes your argument more legitimate you are wrong," Stiles says as his dad turns to him and gives him a look while stiles grin's proud of himself. A voice comes through the radio.

"Unit one do you copy" Stiles move's his hand towards it and his dad smacks it away.

"Sorry"

"Unit one copy"

"We've got a report of a possible 187"

"A murder" Stiles asks with his mouth full of fries. A few minutes later they get to the scene of the crime.

"Stay here," The sheriff says as he gets out of the car. Stiles looks out of the car window and sees Lydia and Jackson standing next to the ambulance.

"Paul let's get this place locked up," Stilinski tells a deputy as he walks to the ambulance.

"Why the hell can't I just go home I'm fine"

"I hear you but the EMT says you hit your head pretty hard we just want to make sure you don't have a concussion," Stilinski tells him.

"What part of I'm fine are you having a problem grasping ok I want to go home," Jackson says.

"I understand that..." Stilinski says but Jackson cuts him off.

"No, you don't understand which kind of blows my mind since it should be a pretty basic concept to grasp for a minimum wage rental cop like you, ok now I want to go home" Jackson rudely states while shouting the last part.

"Waoh! Is that a dead body," Stiles asks as he gets out of the car his dad looks at him in frustration.

"Alright everybody back up, back up," The sheriff tells the civilians. Astrid, Derek, and Scott stood on the store's roof, peering down at the unfolding crime scene below.

"You starting to get it," Derek asks Scott.

"I-I get that he's killing people but I don't get why. I mean this isn't standard practice right we don't go out in the middle of the night murdering people do we" Scott says confused and scared.

"No, we're predators we don't have to be killers," Astrid says as Derek nodes his head.

"Then why is he a killer"

"It's what we're gonna find out," Derek spoke softly as he turned on his heels, and Scott trailed behind, curious. Astrid lingered at a distance, her eyes fixed on the rooftop. With a concentrated effort, she willed her eyes to emit a vibrant red glow, enabling her to discern the intricate spiral drawn on the surface. After taking in the details, she joined the boys, her mind racing with questions on how she would deal with Peter.

~~~

"I have a life you know," Scott says as they enter the Hale house.

"No, you don't"

"Yes I do, I don't care what you say about him making me his pet or..."

"I didn't know you were into that kind of thing Scott," Scott makes a disugusted face at that comment which makes Austria chuckle. "it's part of his pack Scott, not pet,"

"Whatever I have homework to do, I have to go to a parents-teachers conference tomorrow because I'm failing chemistry"

"You want to do homework or do you want to not die," Derek asks him. "You have less than a week until the next full moon you don't kill with him he kills you,"

"He's right you know, the alpha already called you against your will one time and you were lucky enough to not have killed anyone next time you won't be so lucky," Astrid told him.

"Okay, seriously who made up these rules?"

"It's a right of passage into his pack,"

"You know what else is a right of passage, graduating from high school and you don't have to kill anybody to do it. Why can't you guys just fine him yourselves, why can't you sniff him out when he's a human,"

"Because his human scent can be entirely different it has to be you, you have a connection with him a link you can understand. If we teach you to control your abilities you can find him," Derek tells him.

"So if I help you can stop him," Scott asks after a bit of silence.

"Not alone," Derek says.

"we're stronger in numbers the pack makes the individual stronger," Astrid tells him.

"How am I supposed to help if I have no idea what I'm doing," Scott asks frustrated with all this.

"Because I'm gonna teach you, do you know what happened after the first night when you were shot in the arm"

"Yeah, I changed back"

"And when we were fighting and I slashed you in the chest same thing right," Derek asks as Scott nodes. "what's the commenton denominator," He asks.

Astrid rolled her eyes at Scott's confused expression. Derek approaches him, grabs his hand, and twists it until it breaks.

"ugh, w-what are you doing"

"It will heal," Derek says dismissively as he releases him.

"It still hurt," Scott says as his bones crack back together as they heal.

"And that's what keeps you human pain," Astrid tells him as his hand heals completely.

"Maybe you will survive," Derek says as he heads upstairs, while Astrid vamps back home, leaving Scott kneeling on the ground.

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(Astrid's pov)

When I reach Allison, I greet her with, "Happy Birthday."

"How did you know?"

"Lydia told me, which is kind of hurtful because I did not hear it from you," I said with a fake hurt expression.

"I'm sorry, I just didn't want people to know, and I don't even know how Lydia found out," she apologized, adding, "I'm 17."

"That's understandable; you had to repeat a year because you moved so frequently," I told her with a smile. She stared at me for a few moments before closing her locker and kissing me passionately.

"Not that I'd mind but what was that for"

"For literally being the first person to make the correct assumption, everyone's like 'what did you get held back, uhh did you ride the short bus, did you have a baby."

"What if we got out of here," I asked her.

"Skip class," She said.

"Yeah, all day"

"Well, you're asking someone who's never skipped one class to bail out the entire day, I don't...". She replied hesitantly.

"You know, I can just make it seem like we never left, right?"

"Oh, the compulsion; how does it work exactly?"

"You'll find out if you're ready to go" Following that, we went to Allison's car.

"uhh maybe this is a bad idea and my dad would kill me if he found out," she said as we got in the car.

"You always follow your dad's rules"

"Not lately" She smiles at that.

"Good, start the car," I told her as she started the car. I looked in the rearview mirror and noticed a patrol car approaching.

"You want to know how my compulsion worked right," I asked her.

"Yeah"

"Well, here's your chance," I said as the security guard got out of his car and approached my window.

"You girls have permission slips to leave school grounds," he inquired, looking into my eyes.

"Yes, we do, and you just checked them and everything appears to be in order," I compelled him.

"I just checked, and everything is in order." He repeated with a blank expression before smiling. "Alright, you are good to go. Be safe out there," he says as he returns to his car.

Allison exclaims, "That was awesome," with an awed expression on her face.

"Can we go now?" she nods, and we drive away from school.

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(3rd pov)

In the boys' locker room, Jackson washes his face and looks in the mirror before touching his neck and wincing in pain.

He walks over to his locker and applies deodorant before turning to his right and seeing two glowing red eyes in the steam approaching him.

He panics and begins to move backwards as the eyes get closer, but it turns out to be a teammate wearing earphones with glowing red spots.

He breathes a sigh of relief before turning to his left, only to face Derek. In freight, he jumps back and hits his back against the lockers behind him.

"I-I d-don't know where Scott is" he stutters.

"I'm not here for Scott, I'm here for you"

"w-why me I didn't do anything"

"no, but you saw something didn't you"

"No I didn't - I didn't see anything"

"What was it huh an animal, a mountain lion," Derek asks.

"I didn't see anything I swear I'm not lying" Jackson claims his heartbeat is increasing by the minute.

"Then calm down and say it again"

"Say what that I'm not lying"

"Tell me that you didn't see anything, slowly," Derek asks, listening to Jackson's heartbeat.

"I didn't see anything, I'm not lying," Jackson's heartbeat increased slightly as he said I didn't see anything indicating that he was lying, but Derek did not call him out on it.

"One more thing," Derek says as he grabs Jackson's hair and tilts his head to the side to examine the claw marks on his neck, "you should really get that checked out," He adds before leaving.

______________________________________________________

Allison and I parked the car on the edge of the serene forest, its towering trees casting long, dappled shadows on the leaf-strewn ground. Upon stepping out, a gentle breeze carried the scent of pine and damp earth. I glanced at Allison and observed her engrossed in her phone, her features softly illuminated by the screen amidst the natural tranquility of the woods.

"So your phone is more interesting than me now huh" I teased her.

"No, it's just that..." she said not knowing how to explain herself.

"You're still not okay with this are you"

"it's just that I feel like I need an alibi"

"it's gonna be fine plus you're getting straight A's in all your classes so even if your parents find out they'll go easy on you" I reassured her.

"Alright fine I'll stop worrying. Thank you for helping me. I couldn't have gotten those A's with you," She said as she put her arms around my neck kissed me passionately.

"If that's the reward I get then I'm glad I helped," I said with a grin. Allison chuckled before we started walking. We spent the rest of the afternoon strolling through the woods, engaging in deep conversations and occasionally playing hide and seek. It was a thrill to see Allison hiding, only to find her while in my wolf form. At other times, we simply enjoyed each other's company, lost in passionate kisses. As the sun dipped below the horizon, we made our way back to Allison's car.

"So being completely honest this was kind of the perfect birthday," Allison says smiling.

"Good because I haven't even given you your present yet," I said as I took a gift box from the trunk.

"You didn't have to," She says as she opens it to find a collapsible black bow. I also took out the arrows in their own, backpack.

(THIS BUT BLACK)

"it beautiful thank you"

"Why don't you try it out," I told her.

Allison stood with her feet firmly planted, her gaze focused as she carefully untangled the bow. Gripping an arrow, she drew back the string, adjusting her aim toward a solitary tree in the distance. With a steady hand and unwavering concentration, she released the arrow, watching as it soared through the air before finding its mark.

"Thank you so much for this, Astrid. You are an amazing girlfriend."

"I'm happy if you're happy" we took back the stuck arrow and headed home. On our way there we passed by the school and heard someone scream.

"Stop the car," I said to Allison and she stops we both get out of the car and head into the chaos of people running to their cars. I look around seeing a mountain lion running around the parking lot between cars and people.

"What is it? Is it the alpha?" Allison asked.

"No, it's a mountain lion," I said. I see stiles dad moving between people and standing behind a car to look around. I then spot the car owner get in so I ran and pushed him out of the way while the car hit me.

"Kid you alright," Stilinski said concerned.

"Yeah, I'm okay," I said as I got up and dusted myself off.

"You're one of stiles' friends, Astrid right"

"Yes, not the way I wanted us to meet but nice to meet you," I said making him chuckle.

"Thank you," He said with  a smile, just then we heard two gunshots we walked to where they came from to see Chris pointing a gun at the mountain lion who was dead on the ground with two gunshot wounds on its side.