the benefactor

With his best friend following right behind him, Scott McCall rushed through his house, needing the assistance of the only person he saw fit to handle the mess that he had gotten himself into, a big mess. One that could cost both him and someone else their life. If Araya Calavera ever found out what he had done, he was dead, she made that clear in Mexico. He didn't know what to do, it wasn't as though he had done this before. Neither had Stiles, but his best friend was smart, they always managed to figure something out together, this had to be the same. He hoped.

He could barely think straight, all he could hear was his own heart beating ten to the dozen. He'd always thought of himself as a good person, someone rational, maybe even fair. He was careful, he tried to do the right thing. But tonight there was no telling what was the right thing, what was fair, rational, or whether he would be claimed as a good person for what he did. He was trying to do what he always did- save people. That was all he ever tried to do, it never usually ended in an obnoxious mess like this. Perhaps he had saved someone, two people, including his mother who was attacked by a wendigo, a kid named Sean, but it was the other person he had saved that left his mind reeling. Liam Dunbar, the freshman. The new lacrosse player. A boy who was only in the hospital because of him putting him in there because his jealousy had taken over, his ego got the best of him. Saving the boy came with consequences. Big ones.

What else was he supposed to do? When a fifteen-year-old was clinging onto the edge of a roof it wasn't as though he could step back and let nature take its course. He had to help. In any way he saw fit in the moment. And with a wendigo hanging off of his back like a buckaroo, he was left in a jam, with only one option at hand. To bite him. He had never had any intention of building his pack, biting someone, and putting them through the same hell he went through. That was why a threat like that from Araya never concerned him too much, he thought it was impossible. There never seemed a possibility before. Now, it was his reality.

"What did you do with him anyway?" Stiles Stilinski asked as he followed his best friend through the house.

Scott stopped at the bottom of the stairs, biting his lip as he thought of an answer. "He's... lying down." He mumbled lowly, raising Stiles' brow. He didn't elaborate, he would let what waited in his bathroom do all the talking. With every moment that passed Stiles became more concerned, unsure what waited for him, he had a few ideas, with the little information he had, he had to be conscious of all possibilities. Despite all of the possibilities he thought of, none matched up with reality. He slowly drew the shower curtain back, revealing Liam Dunbar in Scott's bathtub, taped in every place possible, restricting him, silencing him. The boy looked petrified, and rightly so, a usual Thursday night didn't consist of being kidnapped by the lacrosse captain.

His eyes darted between the two Juniors, hoping that the newcomer might save him from what was clearly a psychopathic friend. The duct tape muffled his plead for help, Stiles couldn't speak as he stared at the boy, his jaw on the floor while Scott guiltily stood beside him, hoping that this wasn't too far and that they couldn't fix it somehow. He waited for reassurance, but Stiles didn't know anything that could help in a situation like this. Instead, he slowly covers Liam up with the curtain, a temporary solution to their problem.

As the two of them threw themselves on the edge of the bed, they walked themselves through the events of tonight, allowing Stiles to get a better understanding as he asked questions. Scott had bitten Liam. He had then kidnapped Liam, bringing him here, to his house. The house that his mother, a nurse, lived in. A house where the girl he hoped to be his future girlfriend lived, a girl strongly against kidnapping after being kidnapped twice herself. Scott justified the stupidity with panic, he didn't know where else to go, what else he was supposed to do. He knew that all of it was insane, that he was perhaps the dumbest person this world had seen, but he was just a teenager himself. There was no handbook on this.

Stiles's last question was possibly the worst one, putting the fear of God into his best friend, but he had to ask. Would this end with the two of them burying pieces of the teenager's body out in the desert? A question he asked too loudly, based on the muffled cries of an eavesdropping Liam Dunbar who feared for his life now more than ever.

"How long until she gets home?" Stiles Stilinski asked as he paced around his best friend's room, a hand running through his hair, hoping he might comb out some of the stress that Scott caused him tonight. And every other night of their lives.

"A few hours." Scott nodded, sitting on the end of his bed, keeping his head bowed, trying to be rational, it was being irrational that brought them here in the first place. He followed an impulse and had gotten someone hurt, he might have just ruined a life. It was Thursday, Noelle spent the Thursday night of every week with Darby and Peyton, trying to get to know them better, having a family dinner, or a movie night. Anything that made them feel like an actual family. Scott didn't expect her back yet, she usually came home late, trying to make the most of her time with Darby and Peyton without exhausting herself for school the next morning.

Stiles glanced at the clock, rubbing his hands together, gearing himself up. "Okay. A few hours." He reiterated. "We have a few hours to figure this whole mess out. We can do that. We just can't tell Nellie that-"

"Can't tell me what?" Her voice came from behind him. Stiles froze still, his back to her, eyes as large as UFOs, hoping that it was a figment of his imagination. That would have been ideal, the look on the werewolf's face told him that it was real, he looked shell-shocked, as though he had just unloaded some timber. "Stiles... What can't you tell me?" Noelle asked in a prying voice.

Noelle walked further into the silent room, watching as the two boys enhanced nervous looks, a silent pact not to tell her, hoping she would give up and go away. That wasn't Noelle. The blonde furrowed her brows, analyzing the looks the boys shared until Stiles glanced towards the slightly opened bathroom door. That was all she needed to know her answers were in there. Sheepishly, she stepped towards the door, looking between the two boys again, both quickly lowered their heads, terrified for their lives.

The blonde walked into the empty bathroom, nothing seemed out of the ordinary upon her first glance, it was Scott's usual, surprisingly well-kept bathroom. Noelle was ready to step out, about to question them further until she found out what was really going on, as her boots hovered over the threshold of the bathroom door, she heard it. A muffled noise. Coming from the shower. The blonde turned her body at a ninety-degree angle, Scott and Stiles's stomachs dropping, getting a get-out-of-jail-free card had come so close, but no, their hostage just had to make a noise.

She harshly pulled back the shower curtain. Her face dropped. "Oh, my God." She mumbled, any more words were caught in her throat as her eyes met those of her brother's biggest fan, the boy fidgeted, crying for help through his taped-up mouth. With a sigh, Nellie dropped her head, for a moment, she looked back at Scott, she wanted to ask him what the hell was going on, to give the boy a lecture of a lifetime, but the shouting could wait.

With Stiles's assistance, the two pulled Liam out of the tub, unraveling the tape from around his body, giving him some freedom. Some. The three boys waited for her to removed the tape from his mouth, for the scream of pain that would come, and then the scream for help that alerted the neighbors, and in turn, the cops. Stiles's dad, a man bound to be concerned that Scott and Stiles had kidnapped a poor freshman. But she didn't. Instead, Noelle instructed her best friend to get a chair, he hadn't moved as quickly as he had then, insistent on listening to every instruction the girl gave to him, it could be the thing to save him from death by a flame thrower.

Noelle sat the worried boy in the chair, kneeling down in front of him while Scott and Stiles had chosen to stand behind her, keeping quiet for now, it seemed like their best option. Letting her take the lead seemed smart. "Liam, I know that you're scared right now, and probably confused about what's going on. But we're going to look after you, okay? We will keep you safe." She said in a soft, calming tone that allowed the boy to trust her despite the fact she accompanied Scott and Stiles. For now, the blonde stood up, turning back to said boys. "I don't know what the two of you have done but Peyt is waiting in the car outside for me, so if I leave now, do you two have whatever this is under control?" She asked, looking between them.

Though still unsure, the two boys nodded. If it wasn't for knowing that Peyton was downstairs in the car, they would have begged for Nell's help, but it was her sister, the one she had been trying and struggling to get to form a bond with. They couldn't take away an opportunity for the two of them to finally find a foundation for their relationship, Noelle needed it, more than they needed her help. Perhaps this night would end terribly without her, but they would feel better if Noelle's relationship with Peyton had improved by the end of it.

"Are you sure?" Noelle asked, hoping that giving them a second chance to answer would change their minds, she wanted to stay and help, she wanted to spend as much time with them as they possibly could without wanting to kill each other. She would rather spend the time helping with Liam than suffering from awkward silences when neither Darby nor Peyton knew what to say, the three of them had suffered in silence a lot lately, this wasn't the experience any of them had ever imagined. The boys remained tempted to agree, but they chose to pass up the offer, insisting the two of them had it all under control, a complete lie. Slightly hurt, perhaps even offended, Noelle accepted it. "Well, you know where to find me." She smiled weakly, leaving them to fix this mess.

The following morning, Noelle and Scott approached the school on a mission- to ambush Liam. He had managed to slip through the fingers of his two kidnappers last night, despite that, Scott and Stiles hadn't thought to chase after him, nor had they thought to tell Noelle about any of it until she came home hours later. By then, Liam was long gone, Stiles had gone home and Scott was sitting on the couch with a bowl of popcorn as though he didn't possibly have his first ever beta running around town talking about how someone from the lacrosse team had bitten him.

Scott tried to defend himself, walking her through what had happened, though the expression across the girl's face told him that nothing he said to her would make up for him and Stiles not following Liam, ensuring that he was okay. That was what she would have done, in retrospect, Scott would have done it too now that he thought about it, but last night, he wasn't in the right mind to think rationally. Liam seemed like he was about to cry, they felt guilty, agreeing to take the duct tape from his mouth, it had all gone downhill from there. Before they knew it Liam was attacking them, hitting them with a chair. After that, Scott's explanation failed to make sense, it was just a jumble of words as the panic started to hit him once again, realizing that he needed to do something about Liam, this time, with her help. Thus, the ambush.

As they walked across the school grounds, Noelle spotted their target, Liam was standing by the parking lot, he was sweaty, pale, and disoriented with his arm in a bandage. The two stopped as they watched him talk to one of his friends, struggling to breathe as he stabilised himself with a metal railing. Scott listened in, hearing the lies that Liam told his best friend to explain what was going on with him, blaming it on a three-mile run to school, as for the bandage, he blamed it on a fall, that he had cut his arm. Noelle might not have been able to hear it for herself, but it didn't matter, the full moon was tonight, they needed to be with Liam when it rose, they needed to get him to Lydia's lakehouse somehow. That was where their past few full moons had been held, the McCall house could no longer fit all of the supernatural creatures they were bringing home.

In agreement with the blonde, the two disappeared into the crowd, a disoriented Liam searched for the two familiar faces through a sea of teenagers, unable to see them again, they were in his head, their faces taunting him. He quickly brushed off his conversation with his friend Mason as he headed toward the school. The freshman walked hastily through the halls, he peered over his shoulder, seeing that those two faces had appeared behind him, following him. He sped up, with another turn of his head, the third person that he had dreaded seeing appeared in front of him. A whole trio of them, they were everywhere. Liam turned back to the pair following behind, they'd cornered him. Noelle called his name, telling him that they needed to talk.

"No, you need to back up, okay? All of you." Liam shut her down, he made it clear she played just as big a part in this as the two boys. She could have helped him but she didn't instead, she'd left, allowing her two friends to continue keeping him hostage. Noelle held up her hands in surrender as she asked for a minute of his time, just a minute. With a sigh, the boy agreed, perhaps the fact that Cole Priestley's sister was the one who asked him, and he was still waiting to train with him one-by-one, he would never get that if he double-crossed Noelle.

The blonde nudged the wolf beside her, encouraging him to say something. "Liam..." Scott said, a tremor in his voice. "We're brothers now." Noelle furrowed a brow as she looked at the wolf, it wasn't exactly what she imagined him to say, she looked back to Stiles whose fingers pressed his temples, he knew exactly where this was going. It wasn't good. This speech was plagarised, from Derek Hale of all people.

"What?" Liam mumbled, just as confused as the blonde girl beside Scott. "What are you talking about? We just met and you bit me." The young boy spat out with a curl of his lip.

Scott continued his speech, it didn't matter how confused Liam looked, or how many times Nell elbowed his side as a warning to stop, he didn't take hints, not even Stiles's strong shakes of the head, Scott remained adamant on getting their point across. The bite was a gift, the Alpha said, a groan coming from his best friend who had heard this more times than he could take. Usually, he only heard it while mocking it, not because Scott had decided it was a fantastic speech after all. Noelle herself had never heard it before, and she hoped this would be the last time, because this was awful, and she was glad Derek wasn't pursuing a job as a motivational speaker. As soon as Scott had closed his mouth to take a breather, Stiles interjected, turning to Liam, or the little runt as he nicknamed the boy, emphasizing that they were just trying to help him. That message was bound to be lost in translation what with all the name-calling.

Understandably, the freshman couldn't understand how kidnapping him was helping, frankly, it was a mystery to Noelle still, she was sure that Scott could have handled the situation better but he had never quite been one for rational thinking, especially in stressful situations. Scott tried to talk again "Liam, I've been through this before. Something's happening to you. Something big."

"Nothing is happening to me." Liam deadpanned, a point that they were ready to argue against if not for the boy raising his bandaged arm, ripping off the cotton to show his completely healed arm. Nothing, he repeated, and theoretically, he was right. On the outside, there was nothing. He had no idea what was going on inside of him, the transition that was coming, the animal that the full moon tonight would unleash. He may have thought it was nothing, but it had just confirmed to the three of them that their worst nightmare was true. Liam Dunbar was a werewolf.

The school bell rang in their ears, supposed to initiate the beginning of class, but with what they had just found out meant that class would have to wait, it was time for the pack to gather, to try and figure out what they were supposed to do about the latest teen wolf in Beacon Hills, the boy who might just be the most difficult person they had ever met. And they were friends with Derek Hale. With the emergency meeting called, the pack met by the buses, somewhere out of the way, far from anyone who could overhead their conversation, questioning the talk of supernaturals.

Malia, Lydia and Kira were already waiting, they hadn't needed the details of why Scott called to meet by the buses, they could already guess from what they already knew. People talked, and a pack overrun with girls meant that news spread fast within the group, Noelle had told Malia who told Lydia who told Kira. This was undoubtedly about the freshman that Scott bit.

Before the other three could try and explain what they were here for, Malia made it clear that all of them knew already, and that she would not be sharing Lydia's basement with the newbie, she needed all the concentration that she could get and having a newbie lashing out beside her was an absolute guarantee that Stiles wouldn't see another sunrise. With that out of the way, they'd all agreed to take Liam somewhere else, somewhere where Liam couldn't leave claws marks like Malia had in the basement. The boathouse, Noelle had suggested as an alternative, it had beams to tie him to and was far from Malia, as for the claw marks, that was something they would need to work on when the time came.

Everyone seemed to agree with Noelle's idea, the only person able to find a fault in it was Kira, a very interesting point came to mind. "How do we get him to the boathouse if he doesn't trust?"

"I say if it keeps him from murdering someone, we just chloroform the little bastard and throw him in the lake." Stiles unhelpfully proposed.

Malia immediately pledged her vote to his idea, raising her hand as Noelle quickly lowered it, her vote was for anything but murdering Liam, the poor teenager had been through too much in the short space of time he had been in this school, all of which was because of them. Scott agreed, it wasn't an option to kidnap or kill Liam, though he didn't have any other ideas for getting Liam to the lakehouse, Lydia did.

"We tell him there's a party and invite him." She deadpanned, perhaps the smartest idea.

Stiles giggled. "You're going to ask out a freshman."

"No." Lydia quickly disagreed. "I'm done with teenage boys. But, if one of us happened to have a pretty blonde freshman as a sister that we could use..." She hinted as she turned to the blonde at her side, Nellie too busy ironing out the creased of her white dress to pay any attention to any of the plans the pack was making. They all waited for a second for her to speak up, the only person here with a blonde freshman sister, but she didn't notice, not until Scott had coughed and Lydia had nudged her side.

With a hum, she asked what they were talking about. Peyton, Scott deadpanned. Noelle raised a brow at him, unsure what Peyton had to do with any of this, she looked around the group, a sea of hinting faces, telling her the plan so that words didn't have to. "Peyton and Liam?" She asked in a scoff. "But that makes... perfect sense actually." She hummed. A freshman inviting another freshman to a party. Someone pretty, someone who could attract Liam. As much as she hated it, it made sense, as much as she had planned on keeping Peyton out of trouble, out of the business of the pack, she had been fooling herself to think that would be possible. Peyton was a druid, she was supernatural, it was only a matter of time before this town found her out and pulled her into all of the trouble that came with it.

"So..." Stiles questioned. "Do you think she'll be up for it? Will Peyt do it?"

Noelle nodded, sure of it. Because if the roles were reversed, she would do it for her sister. With all of the effort Peyton had been trying to put in to make the two of them closer, she believed the girl would do it, she would do anything to be closer to Nellie. Until now, Noelle had hated that, it was weird to her, she couldn't understand why someone would want to do anything for a person they didn't know. But now she knew it, because she knew that if this was Cole, she would do the same for him. She was Peyton's Cole.

It didn't take Noelle long to find her sister walking through the school halls, conveniently on her free period, surprised that Noelle was looking for her at all, let alone in the school. For weeks she had thought that her big sister had purposely avoided her at school, desperate to hide that they were related to one another. She couldn't blame her, they still hardly knew each other, but she'd heard plenty about Noelle from other people in this school. Everyone who she met here knew of Noelle and Cole Priestley, she didn't even have to ask before they told her everything. The entire history of her older siblings. Noelle and Stiles gave the girl a brief explanation of what they were asked her to do, and just as the blonde expected, Peyton jumped at the opportunity, perhaps she was interested in it for other reasons, she was eager. It wasn't an eagerness to impress her sister, even Stiles could see that, there was some other benefit here for Peyton, they just hadn't figured it out yet. But they would.

Soon enough the three of them were locating Liam Dunbar, plotting the perfect chance for Peyt to woo him into coming to a party, both Noelle and Stiles had tried to give her some tips, Stiles was far from a lady's man, he hadn't had the best of luck, nevertheless he had a male perspective, he knew what would catch Liam's eyes. As for Noelle, she was once quite the heartbreaker, she was the hard-to-get girl, not to mention, captain of the cheerleading squad, a team since demolished after her disappearance, that had been Coach's way of mourning one of his favorite students, an entire sport tossed out the window in respect of her. That wasn't the point of the little story that she told her sister, the point was, she knew how to stand out in a crowd, and she could teach her a lot of things in what small time they had before Liam's class finished.

That moment soon rolled around as the bell rang, people began rushing out into the halls, it was showtime. Stiles and Noelle kept themselves discreetly hidden in the halls, they watched the top of the stairs where Peyton peeked around the corner, waiting to see Liam Dunbar before she put all of her sister's knowledge to good use. As Liam departed the classroom Peyton descended the school staircase, her head high, shoulders back as she carried the upmost confidence, she was a natural. At first. Just as Noelle and Stiles were about to praise her, they watched as Peyton tumbled down the stairs, tripping over her feet until she landed at the bottom, right at Liam's feet, they'd found themselves lost for words, unable to find it in themselves to help her as they stood riddled with shock. Completely flabbergasted.

Peyton might have messed up on what her sister had told her to do, but as someone notoriously clumsy, she had a few of her own tricks up her sleeve, leaving her big sister and Stiles even more in shock as they watched Peyton finish her task, Liam ecstatically agreeing to attend a party with her. As soon as the words had come out of the boy's mouth, the young blonde searched for Nell in the crowd, hoping to see some pride in her sister's face, but she and Stiles were already gone.

·❥·

When nightfall had washed over Beacon Hills, four teenagers waited outside of the lakehouse for the arrival of Scott and Noelle, their backs pressed against the parked up Jeep as they wondered how to drop the bomb on their two unsuspecting friends. They had arrived later than everybody else to ensure that tonight wouldn't be too much for Peyton to handle, not only did she still have to bring Liam out here, but for the first time ever she would be surrounded by lycanthropes on a full moon. Somehow, even after falling face first down a staircase in front of her date, Peyton had remained confident in her abilities, powered by the want to please her big sister.

As soon as the two of them had pulled into the driveway they had seen the four nervous faces, a bad sign before the night had even begun. In the three hours since they had last spoken to them something had happened, something that could change the course of the night, if not their lives. Scott put it down to nerves, this was new, to some of them at least. Lydia and Noelle hadn't ever had to deal with fresh betas, they were both introduced to it at a time when Scott had controlled his transitions for the most part. And Malia was different from a new beta, at least she had some idea of what she was doing, she could be bad, there was no denying that, but nothing was worse than the first full moon of a werewolf. Like Liam.

Scott reassured the four of them that Peyton was on her way up with Liam, driving around with a driver's license that wasn't her own, but Noelle's, a topic they hoped wouldn't come up with her date. For now, Liam didn't know that she had any involvement with the pack, until he arrived at the lakehouse, it had to stay that way. Whether the Blake girl had picked up Liam was far from a problem to the four of them, not compared to what they knew now.

Stiles stepped forward, telling them that he had asked around school about Liam, it turned out a few people knew why Liam had moved to their school, his tone had finally told the Alpha that he had made the wrong assumption, this was worse than some nervous jitters. Stiles relayed what he had been told, that Liam had gotten into it with one of his teachers at Devenford, and that he may have some anger issues. Though Noelle and Scott would have taken his word for it, Stiles's phone was pulled out, prepared to show them proof. An image of one of his teacher's cars, after a crowbar had been taken to it by the boy in question. He had engraved a message into it, that it was all their fault. The windows smashed, the exterior dented. That was the boy Nellie had left in her sister's perhaps not-so-capable hands.

Within ten minutes the car with the two freshman in had pulled up to the lakehouse, the car ride filled with the girl trying to convince him that everyone was coming tonight, the lack of vehicles in the driveway simply meant that they were all late, and maybe they were a little early. Peyton's voice was shaky, growing nervous about this plan, it was already clear that Liam was feeling the effects of the full moon, he was as on edge as she was.

As they walked into the dark living room they found the six teenagers lined up, waiting for them, meeting him with glares or agitated smiles, though all were relieved to see Peyton had arrived in one piece. They still had time. Liam turned back to the girl who had brought him here, a slightly tense smile across her face as she blocked him from leaving the house, apologizing through her nervous chuckling.

"What the hell is this?" The boy asked, glancing back at the six juniors before he turned back to Peyton for an answer to his many questions. "You know them?"

The young girl nodded, pointing at Noelle. "You've met my big sister, right?"

Noelle flashed another smile, waving at him awkwardly, watching as the boy's face dropped. He seemed to be meeting everyone but Cole Priestley, but that was beside the point right now, she had helped them, and this seemingly nice girl had helped them. Before he could ask her another question, Stiles jumped in, telling him that this was somewhat an intervention, that the boy had a problem. The Alpha finally spoke up, insisting that they were the only ones who could help.

Liam was befuddled as he analyzed every face in front of him, these people that supposedly had done all of this to help him, some of them were faces he had seen in school, others were ones he had quickly grown sick of seeing, especially when all they brought him was trouble and pain. To claim that all of that was to help him was unbelievable. Scott stepped closer to the wolf, ready to explain everything, everything that for the seven of them was nothing more than an average day in Beacon Hills. Liam was quiet as it was all explained to him, almost everything that they'd been through since the day since before Scott had been bitten, all beginning with the first person who had found out their supernatural abilities. Noelle. She had relieved Scott and Stiles of explaining her complicated story, choosing to use her own words, she knew her story might resonate with a confused newbie like him. Of course, she had refrained from mentioning the secret that only two people knew, she explained everything but. Including her kidnapping. Scott took it from there, a long tale about the past year of their lives. Lycanthropes, Hunters, Kanimas, Kitsunes, Banshees and Druids were amongst some of the many creatures they listed, all of the people they'd fought against over the past year fitting somewhere beneath those categories.

It was a lengthy, winding explanation, nevertheless, Liam seemed to have taken it all in, the six of them had taught him more tonight than he had ever learned in school, he wanted to ensure it was all right, that for once in his life he had actually listened when someone was trying to teach him something important. He began with a list, his finger pointing at each of the teenagers lined up in front of him. Scott, the werewolf. Kira, the kitsune. Malia, the werecoyote. Each nodded as he moved past them, surprised it had sunk in so well as he continued. Lydia, the Banshee, then, he found himself stuck as he lingered over Noelle, asking what she was again.

A druid. She told him, her eyes flickered between a fiery orange and bright green as she held out her two hands, one ignited a flame, the other a small vine that left him startled, nodding, trying to comprehend how the palm of her hand could do such things, he certainly had more questions about that. For now, he turned to the girl standing behind him, Noelle's sister, he had to assume that they were connected. Peyton followed Nellie's footsteps as she held out her hand, a sphere of water forming, her eyes glowing blue as she admitted that her sister was more advanced than herself, nevertheless, he was flabbergasted by their capabilities. That left one person.

He then turned to Stiles, the only person that Scott hadn't pointed out while listing all the kinds of supernatural creatures in Beacon Hills. "What are you?"

"Uh, for a little while, I was possessed by an evil spirit. It was very evil." He nodded.

"What are you now?"

"Better?" Stiles mumbled, unsure how else he was supposed to answer. "Um..."

Liam nodded, his eyes wandering around again until he spotted the set of handcuffs laid out on the table, asking if they were for him. Malia finally spoke, they were for her, she told him, the girl flashed her steel blue eyes, startling the boy again, the whole glowing eyes were something that he would have to get used to, it seemed like the majority of this group had them. Scott told him that he would learn, for now, they had to get through tonight, his first full moon that was already risen, they were a little behind schedule, the moon didn't tell them that, Liam's heavy breathing and clammy face was enough of an indicator that it was time.

The Alpha asked if he was feeling it, Liam's answer far from what any of them expected, with his voice raised he told them that all he felt was that he was surrounded by a bunch of nutjobs, that was rich, Noelle couldn't help herself to mumble a comment about taking him to meet Camila, a real nutjob for him to embrace. Liam brushed off what she said, insisting that they everyone was out of their minds, perhaps a little, but not as much as the boy made out. With his voice riddled with anger Liam pointed back at the front door, telling them that he would walk out of it, they'd all waited for it to be followed by a threat in case they tried to stop him, though he never made it that far before he dropped to his knees, screaming in pain as the full moon overwhelmed him.

He was in inexplicable pain, unable to see straight as the seven people stared at him, this was an average werewolf transition, it was only the beginning, a tip of an iceberg. Frankly, he was doing better than Scott, on his first full moon he had turned into an unrecognizable person who almost killed his best friend, and Malia had killed someone on hers. Noelle and Stiles often talked about progress, this was progress if they had ever seen it, finally, a werewolf who didn't threaten a life.

Soon, the teenagers began growing concerned as Liam screamed in a way they had never heard before, exceeding the level of volume that even the scream of a Banshee failed to reach. As Scott stepped forward to help him a set of headlights flashed through the gaps of the blinds, washing over their faces as fear struck them. Immediately, cheers sounded, hollering and shouting, they all turned back to Liam, asking him who he had told. Peyton peeked out of the window, her eyes grew wide. Everyone, she mumbled. He had told everyone.

Liam's claws extended, digging into the wooden floor of Lydia's lakehouse as the girl cried out, a desperate call for Scott to get him out of here, though she had already stepped forward to do the task herself, quickly cut off by Liam's bright yellow eyes and his bore canines, Noelle pulled back the redhead before she could get her arm bitten off, insisting to Scott that it was time to take him down to the boathouse before everyone saw him like this.

As she and Scott threw Liam's arms over their shoulders, she instructed her little sister to stay in the care of Stiles, the person she unreasonably trusted to care for the girl, though he soon threw the responsibility over to Lydia and Kira, he had a transitioning Malia to handle.

For a while, the pain had weakened the teen wolf, allowing the couple to lead him out to Lydia's boathouse with ease, but it had only lasted so long. Just as Scott and Noelle had prepared to get the chains out he had truly embraced his animlastic side, his claws reaching out for either of the two, his eyes glowing brightly as he snarled. It wasn't easy getting a hold over him, but they did, Scott held down the freshman while Noelle worked on chaining his hands to the beams. Nellie's hand slipped, freeing Liam as he pounced on the Alpha, gripping his throat as he growled, Scott struggled to keep his face intact as the blonde girl panicked, looking around for something that could help them. Just as Liam raised a hand, ready to rip out Scott's trachea, he fell to the floor, Noelle stood behind him, holding a boat paddle with a guilty expression.

After ensuring that the blow to the head hadn't killed the wolf, the two were relieved, finally able to chain him to the support beams without a fight, allowing them both to relax until he woke up, both sinking into the wooden floor as they watched the peaceful freshman. He was so young, he had so much to live for, a long life ahead of him, just like they had. Only Liam had something the two of them didn't. Help. Help from friends, people who knew what they were doing. It was time to pass on the knowledge that their experience had given them, ensuring that Liam didn't meet a fate like either of theirs, he would have it easier than they did.

Scott's head turned towards the lake, a furrowed brow. "What?" Noelle questioned softly.

"I can hear the music from the house." He smiled as she asked what kind. "Electronic."

"I wish they still played slow songs at parties. Like in the movies." The blonde described with a smile across her face, she didn't have many real parties to compare it to, they were sparse when it wasn't Lydia Martin hosting them. Besides that, she had the parties from middle school, they were nothing like the movies either. She had to live vicariously through the movies that Lydia or Allison had made her watch at sleepovers.

"Why do you like the slow ones?"

Noelle shrugged, she just found them romantic she told him. That, and the fact that she wasn't a great dancer, perhaps it was the lack of parties that played a part in that, even if she once been a cheerleader she was always much greater at the flips and splits then she was at the dancing part of the routine. That part she was never too fond of, scared that she would embarrass herself with the moves her feet just couldn't pick up during practice. Camila was the only reason she was on the team in the first place, an attempt to make her daughter more popular, stopping her from an unbearable label of track runner or netball player, apparently those were too masculine for a girl like her, her looks would be put to waste by those sports.

Scott couldn't help but stare at the blonde as she talked, rambling on about the reasons she had always preferred the idea of slow music at parties, and then a thought appeared in his mind, the wolf jumped up, offering a hand to the blonde, guiding her towards the edge of the boathouse, a few inches away from the lake that the reflection of a full moon shone down on, glistening in the clear waters. Scott pulled out his phone, finding a slow song to play as Nellie's face lit up, putting it aside as he held out a hand for the blonde to dance with him.

Noelle wrapped her arms around the wolf's neck, a warm glow inside of her, she felt the best she had in months, and that was all thanks to him. "I never asked, how are you so good at staying in control on a full moon?" She asked as they swayed slowly.

"A lot of it's about making sure that my pulse doesn't get too fast." He explained. "And my heart rate doesn't go up."

"So you've mastered it?" She asked with a raised brow. The Alpha shrugged, it still took a lot of concentration to keep it under wraps. He could still feel a piece of him wanting to give in to a full moon, wanting to shed blood and run wild on all fours, it was hard to resist, he had to admit, but it was something that was getting easier with time. "So if something distracts you..." With a smile she began planting kisses along the wolf's neck.

"I'm indistractable." He told her.

Noelle hummed, struggling to believe it as she kissed him again, each kiss longer than the last, a lot more passion infused into them as she checked over and over whether she had yet become a distraction to the wolf. For a while, her mission was failing, he was still in complete control, both of his eyes their usual chocolate brown. But she had never been a quitter. With every one he had become more infatuated, finding it harder and harder to resist as she traced kisses along him, it was after a few more attempts that she checked again, Scott shook his head. Nothing, he said, a smile across his face. His glowing red eyes told her differently, as she cocked her head smugly. A defeated Scott shook it off, maybe he wasn't as good at controlling himself as he thought.

"I'm pretty sure I heard you growl too." Noelle added to her smugness.

Scott's brow furrowed, turning his head back to their once unconscious werewolf, he wasn't the one who growled. Liam looked up at them with his canines bore once again, his golden eyes as bright as ever, suddenly, the blonde girl wasn't so confident as she questioned if the chains they had put him in would hold. Scott swallowed the lump in his throat, definitely, he told her, it was clear he had no faith in his own words, he was practically using them as a prayer for their lives, it wasn't like Liam was strong enough to break free. He couldn't be.

Only he was. Immediately after Scott had stuttered those words the boy had broken free, Nellie knew they were toast, to him, they probably looked like a pair of walking t-bones waiting to get some teeth sunk into them. Liam charged towards them as Scott and Noelle quickly moved out of the way, allowing him to run straight through a window, even that hadn't stopped him, there didn't seem to be anything that would as he run into the woods without so much as a look over his shoulder to see the couple he had left behind.

A single look was shared between the two of them before they were kicked into gear, rushing to follow Liam through the woods, hoping that nobody had found themselves wandering them on the night of a full moon. Those things never paired well. Nellie depended upon the Alpha as the two of them ran through the woods following Liam's scent, she was barefoot, trying her best to keep up with someone who was much faster than her, Scott knew he couldn't wait up for her, it would put too much on the line, nor did she want him to wait. It wasn't her first rodeo, she had been alone in the woods more times than she'd had hot baths, as long as they found Liam she was happy to get lost in these much more unfamiliar woods.

Noelle felt as though she had been running forever trying to find either of the woods, ready to cough up a lung she had exerted herself so much, she always wondered how any nice moment she had with Scott turned to something like this. Life had never failed to catch up to them. She took a break, leaning on her knees as she tried to focus herself, she had chased a werecoyote in the middle of the night without growing tired, she could do it again.

Just as the blonde was about to stand up straight, a hand landed on her shoulder, scaring her to death as she opened her mouth to release a deadly scream if not for the hand that had stopped it from releasing, muffling any sound she made. Slowly, the hand was removed from her mouth, a single second passing as she stood still before she unleashed something else that was deadly; her months as a trained hunter. The blonde spun on her heel with a raised hand, about to hit the person who had grabbed her, only they were trained too, much better than she was. Her mentor himself wrapped his own hand around her wrist, stopping the hit as her jaw dropped.

"Oh, my God." Noelle mumbled. "Oh, my God!" She beamed as she dropped her hand, wrapping the man into a large hug that he had gladly returned from the girl who was now the closest thing he had to a daughter. "Your here! Why are you here?" Noelle asked, the overwhelming night she had had was showing it's toll on her, she couldn't think straight. "That's not important. We need to find Scott." She insisted, about to explain everything until she noticed the crossbow he held in his hand, her eyes looked back up at him, her brows furrowed. "You already know, don't you?"

Argent hummed, he knew a lot more than they thought. Perhaps he had been gone for months, but he knew things, he had managed to keep up with the trouble that the teenagers kept getting themselves into when it came to the supernatural. His sister. New werewolves. Everything. When Noelle was the closest thing he had to a daughter now, it was only natural that he kept an eye on her, making sure he knew everything about her life, so that when needed, he was there. Tonight was one of those nights. He would have gotten here sooner if not for struggling to convince Isaac to stay in France, that what was going on here didn't call for both of them to return. Maybe it was a lie, they probably could have used everyone they could get, but these teeenagers had put their lives at risk too many times before.

Before either of them could get too hung up on reunions, they got back to the task that brought the two of them out here in the first place- helping Scott with his beta. The two of them scoured the woods as Argent reminder her of her hunter training, that hunting out a creature wasn't all about speed and rushing to find them, it was about using instincts, outsmarting the creature at hand. She had neglected all of those things, that he had known too, how she chose to act like a girl who hadn't given up months of her life to learning the trade. Tonight, she was reminded of who she had been before everything went wrong, and soon enough, the two of them found the two wolves out in the woods mid-brawl.

Argent held up the crossbow, prepared to shoot a flashbang arrow at the beta who had attacked his Alpha, in a split second he handed it to Noelle, bringing her back to her roots as she shot it, a startled Liam screaming as his eyes began burning. Scott knew those arrows anywhere, unlike a very unexperienced beta he covered his eyes with his arms until they stopped shooting, when it finally came to an end, Liam was gone, he looked around in a panic. His eyes finally landing on a pair of hunters in the distance as the blonde lay down the crossbow.

Chris held out a hand for him, receiving a similar reaction as the blonde had given him. "How did you know?" Scott asked as he was pulled to his feet.

"I got your text." The man told him, surprising both of the teenagers. Argent told the boy what he needed to know to get Liam back, there was a clearing not far from here, he needed to corral the boy into it, Scott doubted it would work, Liam wouldn't listen to him. "He will if you start using your own words." In the distance, they could hear Liam's screams, urging that Scott had to hurry and get to him before he or someone else got hurt. "Go." Argent urged as the two of them stayed in their place, Argent looked back to his blonde surrogate daughter.

"Don't give me that look." Noelle pleaded, the man continued to give her that look.

"Your good at this, you know you are." He told her anyway. "I know it reminds you of them, Nell, and I know that it hurts, but they wouldn't want you to give this up because of them. They would want you to do it for them. The people here need someone like you. Someone to protect them."

A smile grew across Noelle's face. "I really missed you and your wiseness."

"I missed you too, kid."