chapter twelve
the ember wolf

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THE TICKING of the clock on the wall of the Animal Clinic echoed through Odessa Stone's head. They had been in those tubs for a long time, coming onto the 16 hour mark. Odessa never left the Clinic, only going to the bathroom to change into fresh clothes that Lydia lent her. And even though Isaac had been nice enough to go out and get food for everyone, the blonde had barely eaten half of it.

Odessa was a nervous wreck. Only now coming to terms with calming people by her touch, she had no idea the repercussions of this new found ability. Before a few weeks ago, she didn't even know she held such power. The girl wondered if she made the right decision when telling Deaton to wait to tell her what she was. A part of her wondered if knowing sooner rather than later would benefit her in helping her friends. But she knew they were in too deep in stopping Ms. Blake and her sacrifices to start diving into what she was.

The sound of gasping and water splashing made the Stone and everyone else in the room turn their full attention to the three tubs in front of them. The four dry people in the room watched the three soaking wet start blurting out words.

"I saw it," Scott panted, "I know where it is!"

Stiles nodded, slowly getting out of the tub, "we passed it. There's—there's this stump, this huge tree. Well, it's not huge anymore. It was cut down. But it's still big, though, very big."

"It was the night we were looking for the body."

"Yeah, the same night you were hit by Peter."

"I was there too, in the car with my Mother," Allison interjected, her voice shaking due to the cold, "we almost hit someone."

Scott's eyes widened toward the brunette girl, "it was me. You almost hit me," he turned to the others, "we can find it."

It was silent for a moment, only the sounds of the three's heavy breathing, before Stiles broke it. He looked toward Odessa with furrowed brows, "wait, Odie, why do you have different clothes on?"

The blonde looked down with pursed lips as Isaac spoke from next to her, "you guys were out a long time."

"How long is a long time?"

"16 hours," Odessa answered the hazel eyed boy, who gaped in disbelief alongside his friends next to him.

The McCall looked toward his boss, "we've been in the water for 16 hours?"

"And the full Moon rises in less than four."

Odessa and Lydia didn't waste any time in getting towels for their friends, who were still shivering from the cold water and the cold air hitting them from every angle. With sudden confidence, the blonde went up to Stiles and wrapped the towel around him, the boy giving her a soft smile while she was doing so.

"I have to go back..."

The Stilinski pulled the towel tighter to him as he exclaimed to his best friend, "no, dude, you are not going back with them."

"I made a deal with Deucalion," Scott reminded them, though his voice held the utmost regret to do so.

"Does anyone else think that sounds a lot like a deal with the devil?"

As Odessa suppressed a chuckle at Stiles' comment, Isaac spoke from next to Allison, "why does it matter, anyway?"

Scott sighed, "because I still don't think that we can beat Jennifer without their help."

"He trusts you more than anyone," the Argent spoke to Deaton, "tell him he's wrong."

"I'm not so sure he is," Deaton surprised them all with his response, "circumstances like this sometimes require that you align yourself with people you'd normally consider enemies.

Isaac scoffed, feeling protective of his friend and fellow Beta, "so we're gonna trust him, the guy that calls himself 'Death, Destroyer of Worlds'? We're gonna trust that guy?"

"I wouldn't trust him, no, but you could use him to your advantage," Deaton pointed out, gaining everyone's full attention, "Deucalion may be the enemy, but he could also be the bait."

As the teens pondered his words, the front door creaking made all their heads turn. They watched Deaton walk toward the front, only to be met with Ethan.

"I'm looking for Lydia."

Odessa's brows furrowed as she followed the strawberry blonde closely as the girl asked, "what do you want?"

"I need your help."

"With what," Odessa didn't hesitate to step in front of Lydia protectively.

Ethan answered with a grave expression, "stopping my brother and Kali... from killing Derek."

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The full Moon was in full effect as Odessa sat in the passenger seat of Stiles' Jeep. While Scott, Isaac and Allison went to collect supplies to track their parents, her and Stiles drove to where he saw the Nemeton while he was in the tub.

The Stone looked up at the full Moon nervously. She had an idea of how her body and wolf side had been handling full Moons now that she has gotten in touch with her abilities. The blonde had observed that as soon as she discovered her calming abilities, full Moons weren't as bad as they used to be from wherever she came from. The dreams, or flashbacks, she had experienced showed how difficult full Moons were before coming to Beacon Hills—it looked like hell.

The Jeep was so quiet the boy driving could practically hear her deep breaths. He glanced at her for a moment before focusing his eyes on the road, "you doing okay?"

"Yeah," she answered after a moment, "just trying not to think about it—trying to distract myself. Nothing's really working," the girl chuckled humorlessly.

Stiles furrowed his brows as her words brought him back to only the day before. Odessa had brought him out of his panic attack with just a question, trying to distract him, and it worked. With that in mind, he released one of his hands from the steering wheel and offered it to her.

Seeing her confused expression while looking at his hand, he spoke, "you can calm people by touch, maybe I can do the same for you."

Odessa's face softened from its visibly uncomfortable state as she took him up on his offer, placing her hand in his, squeezing it when she found herself panicking because of the Moon above her.

The Jeep was turned back into silence for only a few minutes before the sound of thunder rumbled from in front of them. As they drove through the thick fog, it turned into a storm that grew impossible to drive in. Odessa gave the boy his hand back to help his maneuvering.

Stiles swerved out of the way as a tree branch almost collided with his windshield, only for Odessa to shout, "Stiles, look out!"

The Jeep rammed straight into a tree, causing both of their bodies to lurch forward, Stiles hitting his head on the wheel while Odessa's seatbelt dug into her neck. The last thing the blonde saw were the bright head lights shining on the tree in front of them before she lost consciousness.

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It was only a few minutes later did the blonde regain consciousness. She groaned at the soreness of her neck that seemed to heal in a matter of seconds as she woke up. Blinking excessively to evade the dizziness that overcame her, she looked around at her surroundings as the events that only took place a few minutes before came back to her. Her eyes instantly went to Stiles, who was slumped against his door, blood running down his forehead from hitting it on the steering wheel.

"Stiles," the Stone weakly called, taking off her seatbelt to reach him better. She sat up in her seat and got on her knees to have a better angle as she grabbed his face, "Stiles, wake up," seeing no response, the girl started to panic. She knew what she had to do, she just didn't know if she could do it. She knew she had to take his pain. The blonde angled her head to look at the sky, only to see the Moon. The Lunar Eclipse hasn't started yet—she had time. Letting go of his face, but making sure it wouldn't lull to the side again, she grabbed both of his hands in hers and squeezed. She looked down only to see no black veins in sight, "damn it. Stiles, wake up, please," she wheezed, feeling tears well up. The blonde squeezed again but to no avail, "Stiles, please, wake up," she let out a dry sob. Odessa knew she was at the point of hyperventilating and she internally urged herself to calm down. Ducking her head, she squeezed his hands again, Scott and Stiles' words in the back of her mind...

"Odie, are you sure?"

"Yes," the girl firmly answered Scott as she looked in between the two boys. It was the day after she and her friends tried to kill themselves at the Glen Capri, and even though she took Scott's pain on the bus, she wanted to be properly taught, not wanting to doubt herself in the future, "I want to be there for you guys when you need me. Properly learning to take pain will do just that."

The two best friends looked at each other with raised brows. Stiles shrugged, "can't argue with that."

The McCall sighed, seemingly giving up and giving in, "all right. The basics are pretty simple. You grab the person's hand and focus on moving their pain into you."

"Yeah, it's kind of like your calming abilities," Stiles added, "you think of transferring calming energy from you to them. Now it's just you moving their pain from them to you."

The blonde nodded slowly, taking in the information. Taking a deep breath, she spoke, "let's do this."

"Wait, who are you gonna take it f—"

Stiles didn't continue his sentence before he was punched in the arm by Scott, who gave Odessa a nod for her try taking Stiles' pain. The girl stepped forward and grabbed his hand and inhaled deeply, closing her eyes and concentrating on the transferring of Stiles' pain going into her body. She didn't know if it was working until she felt a tingle in her arm. Opening her eyes, she saw black veins traveling from Stiles' arm going through her hand. Smiling, she looked up at the boy, locking eyes with him, indicating that he was watching the whole thing.

As the black veins disappeared, indicating he wasn't in any pain anymore, the two weren't in a rush to depart their hands. That seemed to be the first time Odessa's brown hues really studied Stiles' hazel, and she had a feeling it wasn't going to be the last...

Coming out of the flashback, Odessa's eyes showed more determination than ever. Her grip tightened around his hands as she inhaled deeply, closing her eyes and concentrated on nothing else but him and waking him up. A few moments went by before she felt the familiar tingle in her arm, opening her eyes to watch black veins come from his body into hers. She was so focused on the sight of her taking pain, she didn't notice the boy waking up.

The sound of groaning caught Odessa's attention as she watched hazel eyes open, "Stiles," she cupped his cheeks, "hey, you're okay, you're okay."

"Did you," he spoke groggily, "did you take my pain?"

"Yeah... yeah, I did."

Stiles practically leaned into her hand that caressed his cheek assuringly, "good job."

"Thanks," she chuckled, letting go of his face to reach into the back seat, grabbing his metal bat, "now, let's go save your parents."

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The walls and ceiling of the root cellar continued to crumble as the storm raged on around the group of teens and parents. With his supernatural strength leaving him due to the Eclipse, Isaac buckled under the weight of the beam he tried to hold before it crushed everyone. Seeing his struggle, Stilinski dived in to help the boy, and soon Melissa, Argent and Allison went under the beam to hold it still. They groaned at the weight of the beam that was determined to crush them.

Two sets of footsteps could be heard from above them until they were heard beside them. As Odessa helped lift the beam, a metal bat was lodged under the beam, and miraculously, it held. The storm around them ceased.

"Is it over," Allison asked, and the quiet around them answered her question.

Stilinski laughed in relief and hugged his son tightly as Odessa did the same with Melissa.

"I'm so glad you're okay," the blonde spoke into the woman's shoulder, not wanting to let go.

Melissa held the girl in her arms tightly, "yeah, I'm okay, honey. I'm okay."

As the group celebrated, they all looked toward Stiles, who answered his vibrating phone, "Scott?"

"Hey, are you okay?"

"Yeah, we're okay," the boy answered, eyes glancing around at everyone, "we're all okay. How about you? You okay?"

"Sort of."

"You think you can come get us?"

"Yeah, of course."

"Great, okay. Um, uh, bring a ladder."

Even in times like being held down by a root cellar, Stiles could always make the people around him laugh and smile. His hazel hues connected with Odessa's brown, and they both knew everything would be okay.

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Everything had finally settled. A few days had passed since the defeat of Ms. Blake, and things had slowly calmed down and into a somewhat normal state. However, normal meant focusing on other things. Things like what the hell Odessa Stone was. And she was about to get answers.

"When doing my research, I looked up general rare supernatural beings," Deaton started to explain to the girl, who was accompanied by Scott and Stiles on either side of her, "I narrowed down the list by certain abilities and came across one of the rarest supernaturals in the world."

Odessa felt her breath hitch with anticipation at Deaton's words.

"Odessa, you are an Ember Wolf."

The girl stammered while glancing between the two boys beside her, "a-a what?"

"A combination between an Ember and a Werewolf. Essentially a hybrid," the Doctor went on, "while you have wolf powers, you also possess the rare ability to calm and manipulate."

As the two boys perked at the use of the word manipulate, Odessa was still trying to put together the missing pieces, "so... you're saying that one of my parents was a wolf and the other... a-an Ember?"

"I'm guessing your Mother was an Ember, seeing as it has shown only women from the same bloodline were Embers. Which means your Father was a Werewolf."

The Stone seemed speechless, with so many thoughts running through her head, and Stiles took the opportunity to speak, "what do you mean by manipulate?"

"It seems," Deaton pursed his lips, almost as if he was hesitant to share the information, "with time and practice, you could manipulate people's emotions—how they feel and... how they—"

"How they act?"

The Doctor nodded to the blonde, who looked more grim than before, "yes, how they act."

Odessa didn't dare to make eye contact with anyone. Her powers could cause more harm than good, it seemed. She had people around her to help with her wolf side, but who would help her with her new found Ember side? Nevertheless, one other question remained for the girl.

The Stone looked down at her wrist, her eyes tracing the branding that was placed there, when she didn't know, but she had an idea of where it came from, "okay... we know what I am," she nodded, her eyes hardening, "question is," she held up her wrist, displaying the branding, "where the hell did I come from?"

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3a is completed guys!!
i have looked up supernatural creatures and decided to make up my own and this is what i've come up with!
we will learn the fullest extent of her powers in the chapters to come!
don't be a ghost / silent reader! <3