"You look cute." Erica said with a wide smile as she walked up to Samantha.

Smiling and shutting her locker Sam turned and said, "Thanks, looks like you're not the only one who got a makeover."

Erica titled her head back and laughed, "I'm surprised you didn't get one sooner. What's the deal anyways? You're a werewolf and you still seem like the same person you were before. All quiet and shy."

"I'm not that quiet and shy." Samantha defended, shifting her books in her arms.

"The next morning after I got the bite, I felt like an entirely different person. I felt free, for the first time in a long time. I literally burned all of my old clothes, no more hiding for me. I want to be noticed." Erica explained as she felt her pockets to make sure she hadn't forgotten her lunch money for the day.

Shrugging Sam replied, "I still don't feel a whole lot different than I did when I was human."
"And as for my new found sense of fashion, I didn't pick out any of these clothes... Lydia did." Samantha admitted.

"Wait, Lydia Martin?" Erica asked surprised.

Sam nodded and saw Scott heading towards them.

"I thought she hated you." She exclaimed.

"Yeah, I did too. But I guess not, she's not so bad." Sam admitted, "We actually had fun togther."

"Since Derek has turned three of you, he doesn't need anyone else right?" Scott asked the two girls.

"The bigger our pack, the stronger we are." Samantha simply replied.

Erica pulled a make-up compact from her purse and checked her pale pink lip gloss.

"Are you saying he's going to turn someone else?" Scott asked her.
The fear he felt for his classmates growing stronger by the second.

"I didn't say that." She defended.

Closing the compact with a loud snap Erica took a few steps towards him and said, "Why would we need anyone else, Scott? We have you..."

Knowing they were hiding something he gruffly asked, "Who's next?"

"You know I never knew what I looked like during a seizure, until someone took a video of me once and put it online." Erica began to explain.

Sam bit down on her lower lip as she thought about how bad things must have been for her new friend.

"I don't care." Scott said.

"It happened during class. I started seizing at my desk and everyone was saying how they should put something in my mouth, until some genius reads the card on my key ring which says not too because it could break my teeth." She continued, feeling stronger with every word.

"Erica!" Scott said with his voiced raised.
His first and main concern was stopping Derek from turning anyone else.

"Then you know what happens next? I piss myself and they start laughing..." she said as she moved closer to him, pinning him against the lockers.

Uncomfortable, Sam took a few steps backwards and then glanced around before putting her head down and scurrying off to her next class.

It seemed like Erica was more than capable of handling herself with Scott.

At lunch Samantha sat down at a round table by herself and scanned the lunchroom her eyes stopping on Scott and Allison as they sat at separate tables with their backs to each other.

"I know how it looked, but she came up to me." Scott defended.

Earlier in the hallway, Allison had seen Scott and Erica when she had pinned him to the wall.

"I'm not jealous." Allison lied.

Sam looked down to her lunch tray and let out a small laugh, she could almost smell the jealously from where she was sitting.

"You're not?" Scott asked with a small smirk.
He knew she was.

"She's in Derek's pack now, isn't she? Like Sam and Isaac..." Allison questioned.

Swallowing hard she continued, "Scott you can't get caught in the middle of this. Don't you feel what's happening? My grandfather coming here?"

After a deep breath she continued, "With Derek turning Sam, Isaac and Erica it's like battle lines are being drawn."

"I know." Scott agreed.

Samantha's eyebrows furrowed together as she thought of how serious everything was starting to get.

Maybe Scott really had a good reason to be as worried as he was about more students being turned into werewolves.

Her thoughts were shaken as she continued to eavesdrop on them.

"There is always crossfire." Allison warned, fear in her voice at the thought of losing him.

"What am I supposed to do? I can't just stand by... I can't pretend to be normal." He argued.

With a dry laugh Allison said "I don't want you to be normal, I want you to be alive."

With that she stood up and threw the contents of her tray away before leaving the lunchroom.

Stiles about ran into her as he rushed over to Scott and pointed out that Boyd wasn't at school.

She made the mistake of not looking away quickly enough as both teenage boys turned and looked in her direction and Scott's eyes locked with hers.

Her eyes locked with Scott's and she could see how disappointed he was.

Swallowing hard, she looked back down to her tray wishing she hadn't gotten food since her appetite was gone now.

~()~

"See you tomorrow, Sam." One of the older waitresses called out as she headed towards the exit after her shift at work.

"Have a good night." She politely said back as she pushed the door open and was thankful for the cool air that hit her in the face.

It had felt like the night had just dragged on, not to mention she had a few tables of rude high school students who not only were mean to her, but didn't feel the need to leave a tip.

Opening the door to her car, she threw her purse into the passenger seat and took the clip out of her hair and rubbed her scalp.

All she wanted to do was go home, take a hot bath and get some sleep.

But she still had chemistry homework to do plus she was going to swing by the ice rink and see how Boyd was doing.

As she pulled into the empty parking lot, her eyes widened as she saw someone stumbling out of the door.
The coppery scent of fresh blood traveled with the breeze.

"Scott?" She yelled as she threw her car into park and jumped out rushing up to him as he leaned against the brick building.

"Sam... what are you doing here?" He asked her, his voice a groan of pain as blood seeped through his fingers, he was trying to keep pressure on the deep wounds across his side.

"Coming to check on Boyd." She admitted before pausing and saying, "But it looks like you're the one who needs help, what happened?"

He didn't responded as he leaned down and tried to pick up his bike, but stopped and stumbled sideways again.

As Samantha grabbed onto him to keep him from falling down, he shrugged her off and gruffly said, "I'm fine."

"I'm not your enemy, Scott. Just let me give you a ride to the hospital or home, or something." She offered.

He closed his eyes and sighed, it wasn't her fault what had happened to him.
She seemed to have no idea that Derek had sicced Erica and Isaac on him to prove the he needed to join their pack to be stronger.

When he'd won the two-against-one fight, Derek then stepped in to make a point
And he'd been no match for the alpha's strength.

Sam leaned down some to get a better look at the wounds and breathed, "Scott those look really bad... what happened?"

He grimaced in pain with the deep breath he took.

"What can I do?" She asked, her eyes full of concern.

Relenting, Scott said, "I need to go to the animal clinic."

"Okay, come on." She said softly as she helped him into the passenger seat of her car.

During the drive he explained how he'd been there to try and talk Boyd out of getting the bite, but Derek, Isaac and Erica were already there and ambushed him.

He'd been able to fight off Erica and Isaac, but Derek easily got the upper hand.

Sam's eyes closed; she blew out a heavy breath.

She knew had badly Derek wanted Scott in the pack, but hurting him wasn't the way to go about it.

Once they reached the animal clinic, and the teens headed inside he lifted his shirt and looked at the wounds as he said, "Come on, why aren't you healing?"

"Because the wounds are from an alpha." Scott's boss, Dr. Deaton explained as he flipped the lights on in the exam room they were in to reveal they hadn't been entirely alone after all.

There was a dead body lying on the exam table.

Sam jumped from surprise and Scott stared wide eyed at the body lying on the exam table; it wasn't an animal.
It was human.

"What is going on?" Sam managed to ask as she looked between Scott and the vet.

Looking to Scott, Deaton said, "I think maybe we better have that talk now."

Ushering Scott over to the counter Dr. Deaton gathered medical supplies from the drawer and said "They're coming back, so we don't have much time to talk."

Samantha walked closer to the table and looked down at the deep claw marks in the corpse.

What is that?" Scott asked as Dr. Deaton poured liquid on a cotton ball.

"Rubbing alcohol. You don't want it to get infected, do you?" He replied.

"Oh, no." Scott agreed.

Scott winced as the vet started to clean his wounds.

"You'll heal the same, just not as quickly because of Derek." Deaton explained.

Sam whipped her head around and looked at them at the mention of her alpha's name.

Scott looked back at her.
He had a pretty good idea that whatever Sam found out would instantly get back to Derek.

Sam just couldn't keep her attention off of the dead body.

Whatever had killed the man was not human, but the wounds didn't seem to match with what she knew to be from werewolves.

She thought back to the night Isaac's dad had been killed.
Whoever -er, whatever had killed him had the strength to rip a car door off.

"It wasn't a werewolf that killed him... was it?" She observes, eyes focusing on the strange angle of the claw marks.

Looking over at her as he pressed gauze to Scott's wounds, Deaton said, "No, it wasn't."

"How do you know all of this? Actually, how do you know anything?" Scott asked his boss.

"It's a long story. But what I can tell you is that I know about your kind. Your kind, I can help." Deaton continued to speak quickly as he taped the gauze down.

"But this, this is something different." He reasoned, looking back to where Sam was still eyeing the corpse.

"Do you know what killed him?" Samantha spoke up.

"No, but the Argents will. Are you both listening, this is the crucial part; they'll have some kind of record or book. With descriptions, histories, notation of all the things they've discovered." Deaton explained, waving his hands around as he spoke.

"All the things? How many different things are there?" Scott asked, practically stealing the words right from Sam's mouth.

Just then they all heard bells chime as the front door opened and the hunters returned.

"Hide, and stay out of sight." He whispered as he pushed the two teens into a storage closet.

"What's happening?" Sam whispered fearfully to Scott, her head was spinning from everything that was happening.

"Shh..." Scott shushed her as he saw Chris Argent walk into the room with a few of his hunters followed by Gerard.

They stayed hidden and listened as Deaton explained to the hunters that there was a very precise, almost surgical wound on the dead man's neck, but it wasn't what killed him.

"Whatever made this cut was laced with a paralytic toxin, potent enough to disable all motor functions." Deaton explained.

Moving on to the cause of death, the deep wounds running from the stomach to the chest, Deaton said, "As you can see, it dug in and slashed upward eviscerating the lungs and slicing through the bone of the rib cage with ease."

Thrown off by that he'd found out, Chris Argent asked, "Have you ever seen anything like this before?"

"No." Deaton responded.

"Any idea at all what killed him?"

"No."

After a pause Deaton elaborated, "But I can tell you it's fast, remarkably strong and has the capacity to render it's victims essentially helpless within seconds."

"If you're saying we should be cautious... we get it." Chris said, nodding.

"I'm saying you should be afraid, be very afraid; because in the natural world, predators with paralytic toxins use them to catch and eat their prey. But this prey wasn't eaten. That means whatever killed him, only wanted to kill him."

Surveying the group of hunters in the room he continued, "In fact, killing may be it's only purpose."

After the hunters were gone, Deaton explained to Scott that he needed to get his hands on the Argent's records.

~(The next night)~

"So... what's the deal with you and Derek?" Erica questioned as she got out of the passenger seat of Sam's car.

"What are you talking about?" Sam asked as she crossed to the back of her car to get her bag from the trunk.

"I mean, the fact that he's a lot less... brooding and gruff when you're around." Erica pointed out.

Sam's eyes widened and she tucked some of her dark, golden blond hair behind her ear and shrugged.

When it became clear that Sam was avoiding the topic, Erica reached out and brought her to stop with a hand on her upper arm. "So you and Derek aren't like together-together..."

Samantha laughed and shook her head side to side.

"So, then you wouldn't mind if someone else kissed him?" Erica asked with a wide smile as she saw right through Sam's denial.

"He's free to kiss who he wants. Why, do you like Derek?" She pushed.
Trying not to seem disappointed.

Since receiving the bite, Erica was one of the most sought after girls in their school and Sam was still practically invisible.

"Well, I mean he's hot..." She stated.
She was trying to get her new friend to admit her feelings.

"Yeah, I guess... if you're into that sort of thing. Tall, dark and muscles..." Her voice trailed off and Erica smirked at the sound of Sam's heart rate picking up.

Clearing her throat Samantha said, "Anyways, for now we need to focus on surviving both the hunters and this new monster."

"Whatever you say..." Erica teased, her voice menacing.

Once they were inside, Samantha looked around and made sure it was just her and Erica before she sat her bag down on a chair outside of the abandoned subway car and pulled out a pair of jeans.

Erica leaned against a cold metal support beam as she watched Sam pulling on the jeans under the skirt she was wearing as she devised a plan to get her to admit how she felt.

Even if Sam had only started talking to Erica to help Derek build his pack, she was still the first person at school in a long time who'd been nice to her and even if it would require making her new friend mad at first, in the long run she'd end up thanking her.

Plus, Erica thought her plan might be fun break in the monotony of their daily training and all of the seriousness.

"Hi, Derek!" Erica greeted with a smile as he walked down the stairs.

He paused and looked at her with raised brows; she'd never greeted him like that before.

Ignoring the comment he turned to face Boyd and Isaac who had followed him in and instructed Boyd to sit this training session out and get an idea of what to do the next time.

As Sam turned her back to the group and pulled the snug dark blue skirt off over the jeans, her lower back peeked out from under her black top.

Erica watched as Sam leaned over to pull the skirt off and glanced over her shoulder just in time to see Derek had been watching her.

Sam quickly flipped her head back around with her cheeks a few shades darker.

Erica stifled a laugh as she looked between them.

She decided Sam was either completely oblivious or in utter denial about what was between her and Derek, and she was going to make it her mission to change that.

"I've been practicing." Isaac smugly announced, sure that he'd be able to get the upper hand on Derek that day.

"Maybe, but I'll still be quicker than you." Erica laughed as she elbowed him in the side.

Derek looked back over to Sam who stood up from the floor after tying her converse sneakers and kicking her high heels under the seat her bag was sitting on.

She smiled at her pack members, she didn't speak up to point out that she'd been training longer than the both of them and was faster and more skilled than they were.

But there was a sparkle of immodesty in her eyes as she stared back at them, she might not brag on herself like the other betas did, but she had come a long way and no longer underestimated herself when it came to her abilities.

She had been training the longest and she never complained.
When Derek told her that he was training her to survive she believed him and had surpassed his expectations and had even managed to control her shifting after just one full moon.

Looking back to the other members of his pack, Derek looked between Isaac and Erica -but neither of them budged from where they were standing.

"What are you waiting for?" Derek's voice tinged with annoyance.
They needed to use everything they had to their benefit, including the element of surprise but they were both still waiting every time on a cue to make a move.

Isaac ran forward jumping up and flipping over a shopping cart as he made his way towards Derek.

Erica darted the other way and ran up on top of the subway car.

After jumping over several more obstacles, Isaac climbed a support beam and lunged at Derek, who with one hand effortlessly threw him backwards.

Within seconds Erica jumped off the top of the subway car and tried to overpower Samantha, but she also easy threw her across the room.

Boyd sat back on the stairs and let out a small laugh as he saw Derek and Sam glance at each other out of the corners of their eyes, while Erica and Isaac went back to their starting places.

After several more runs, Isaac stayed on the ground where he'd landed as Erica made her way back up on the subway car.

Derek looked around sighed heavily with irritation as he muttered "Does anyone want to try not being completely predictable?"

Instead of jumping at Sam that time, Erica grabbed onto Derek and locked her legs around his waist and messily pressed her lips against his.

Sam's jaw dropped as she stared at them in shock.

Immediately, Derek threw Erica backwards where she landed with a loud thud and a groan of pain next to Isaac on the ground.

Wiping his mouth he said, "That's the last time you do that."

"Why? Because I'm a beta or because you're interested in someone else?" Erica shot back at him.
She watched Sam's shocked expression from the corner of her eyes.

Talking over her, Derek said, "Because I have someone else in mind for you."

Erica sighed, "Why do I have to be the one trying to distract Scott and Stiles? Why not let Sam do it?"

Samantha stayed quite a part of her wishing Derek would tell her to go distract someone right then so she could leave.
It would be better than standing in a room full of werewolves who could practically feel the jealousy and betrayal seeping from her pores.

"Because I..." His voice trailed off and he wiped some sweat from forehead as he quickly added in, "Sam's just not doing that."

"Why not?" She finally asked.

Derek looked at her and Erica could barely contain her laughter.

When no one spoke she defended, "I could do it. Especially Stiles, he shouldn't be too difficult to distract."

Derek raised his eyebrows and opened his mouth to speak but she cut him off and focused her attention on the one member in their pack who usually came to her support, "Right, Isaac?"

"Yeah." Isaac's eyes widened, "Sam could totally distract them."

"Stop it!" Derek ordered before he surveyed the room of teenagers and said, "This isn't a game... or some kind of contest. This is life and death, don't you get that?"'

"Maybe we should vote." Erica raised up further on her elbows.

"No. No voting. You're the distraction and that's final." Derek argued.

Looking down to the floor Sam muttered, "Apparently this isn't a democracy either."

"Anything else you want to say, Sam?" Derek yelled irritated, arms tossed out to the sides.

She shook her head back and forth, biting down on her tongue.

"Well, I have something to say... are we done? Cause I got about a hundred bones that need a few hours to heal." Isaac groaned as he sat up farther and hoped they could just call it a day.

Leaning down Derek took hold of Isaac's arm and asked, "Here?"

"Yeah." Isaac nodded.

Grabbing his arm tighter Derek bent then snapped the beta's arm backwards.

Isaac yelled in pain and struggled to get free, but Derek kept his grip iron as he leaned over him and growled "A hundred and one. You think I'm teaching you how to fight, huh?"

Erica fearfully scooted away from them on the floor, and Boyd stood from where he'd been sitting.
The smile he'd had at watching their training had long faded and the seriousness of it all was starting to set in.

Standing up and raising his voice even louder, Derek yelled, "I'm teaching you how to survive!"

As soon as Derek let go, Sam dropped to Isaac's side to look at his arm.

"If they wanted us dead, why aren't they coming for us now? What are they waiting for?" Isaac asked, his voice strained in pain as Sam gently helped him move his injured arm.

"I don't know. But they're planning something. And you especially know that's not our only problem. Whatever that thing is that killed Isaac's father, I think it killed someone else last night." He yelled.

Boyd looked down to where Sam was still helping Isaac with his now, badly broken arm.

"Until I find out what it is, you all need to learn everything that I know. As fast as I can teach you." He finished as he walked onto the subway car and pulled the door shut behind him.

Walking over Boyd leaned down and Erica scooted back over to them as she fearfully eyed the subway.

"Sam?" She whispered.

Closing her eyes and gently laying Isaac's now healing arm back in his lap, she took a deep breath and said "Derek's right. He's teaching us to fight for our lives, this is our survival."

"He just broke his arm." Boyd said quietly, hoping Derek couldn't hear him.

"I know." Sam whispered back as she glanced over her shoulder to the subway car.

Standing up and dusting her clothes off she said, "Alright, let's keep going."

"What? We're not done?" Isaac asked as he stood up and moved his now healed arm around.

"You two... let's go." She said nodding for Isaac and Erica to go back to their starting positions.

~(A few hours later)~

"Oh my god... I can barely walk." Erica complained as she drudged several steps behind Samantha.

"Come on, I gotta drop you off and grab dinner for my mom and brother." She said as she got into her car.

Once Erica was in the passenger seat she let out a loud sigh and said, "How are you not in misery? I'm exhausted!"

"Are you joking? My muscles have never hurt so bad in my entire life." She admitted as she pulled out onto the road.

"But complaining isn't going to fix anything. We train until we can't take it anymore and then go even harder, it's our lives we're fighting for... it isn't a game." She repeated some of the things Derek had told her.

"You sound like Derek..." Erica started to complain but was quickly cut off.

"Because Derek is right."

"Derek is kind of a dick." Erica pointed out as she made a fist a few times with the hand she'd broken earlier.
Her mind flashed back to how he'd broken Isaac's arm to prove a point to them.

"Then why'd you kiss him?" Samantha looked over at her.

Leaning her head back against the headrest and looking out of the window she responded, "I did it to make you realize that you like him so you'd stop denying it all the time."

Sam gripped the steering wheel tighter as she growled, "Right, yeah. You kissed him for me."

"Okay, I admit it wasn't the best idea in the world but I was just trying to prove a point." She defended, but felt bad when she saw the expression on her face.

"This is really bothering you..." She realized as she pulled her blond hair up in a ponytail and looked over at her.

"I just... I thought we were friends."

"We are!" Erica quickly answered.

"Are we?" Sam asked as she pulled up outside of Erica's house.

"Of course we are." She assured her.

"Whether I admit it or not, you know I care about him... you know that I like him and you just did that right in front of me. Friends don't do that, Erica." Sam stated as she looked at her.

"I know and I'm sorry." She said, her words sincere as she spoke.

At the time it seemed like something funny to do to make Sam realize she was attracted to the alpha, but Erica had underestimated how Sam felt about him.

"Are you really mad because I kissed him, or are you mad because you didn't have the nerve to do it yourself?" She finally asked.

Samantha shrugged.

"Look, as your friend... because we are friends. You're the first person who was nice to me or ever came to check on me after a seizure and I never wanted to do anything to hurt you. But as your friend, I'm telling you that you need to stop looking at yourself like that." Erica said.

Samantha shut her car off and took a deep breath as she asked, "Like what?"

"I know that look. It's the same look that I've given myself for years. It's the I'm not good enough look. And the he'd never be into someone like me look. But as long as you keep making yourself believe it, things won't turn around for you." She said.

Samantha nodded knowing she was right, but it was true.
She was the girl who people at school avoided like the plague, how was she supposed to get someone like Derek?

"I know because it's the same look I had when I'd try to talk to Stiles." Erica admitted quietly.

Sam's eyes widened, "What? You like... Stiles?"

"I've had the biggest crush on him for... as long as I can remember. But he never noticed me." Erica admitted as she laughed and scrunched her face up.

"Now, I know who you like and you know about my embarrassing lifelong crush on Stiles. Just kiss him and we'll be even." Erica said as she pulled the visor down to make sure her make-up was in place.

"I'm not kissing Stiles!" Sam said with a loud laugh.

"But then we'd be even." Erica said with a smile as she laughed too.

"We're okay, just... don't do anything like that again, okay?" She questioned.

"I promise." Erica said as she paused and then held out her pinky, "I pinky promise."

Feeling a lot better than she had moments ago, Sam laughed as she linked her pinky finger with her friend.

~()~

As always reviews are greatly appreciated and I always love hearing from my readers.