DEREK'S FREAKING STUPID UNCLE WAS THE FREAKING STUPID ALPHA. Apparently, he was not as in shock from the fire as they thought he had been, and his nurse had been helping him murder people. Wren discovered this when she went to the hospital and almost got murdered herself. Luckily, Derek showed up before any real harm could come to her.

However, she honestly wished she'd died because now, she was driving to save freaking Jackson from getting killed by Allison's dad. Scott had picked up on his heartbeat and their voices on their way to school, and they pulled into some random parking lot to see Chris standing in front of the hood of the Whittemore boy's broken-down Porsche and Jackson looking really uncomfortable.

"What's up?" Stiles called as they got out of the car, all eyes snapping toward them. Both of them looked extremely confused, although Jackson looked a bit relieved.

Scott moved to stand beside him, looking up at his ex-girlfriend's dad and trying to not look intimidated. However, he kind of seemed like he was going to run away screaming if "Is everything okay?"

"Hey, Scott," Argent greeted dryly. He was clearly upset that whatever conversation he had been having was interrupted. Wren had never met the man before, but now that she saw him up close, she was kind of terrified. "Your friend here was just having car trouble. We're just taking a look."

"Hi, sir, I'm Wren Carter," the blonde girl introduced herself, holding her hand out, which led to even more confusion among the group. Scott looked terrified that Chris was going to tear her arm off, and Stiles looked annoyed.

However, everyone was shocked, even him it seemed, when he reached out and accepted her hand, shaking it. "Nice to meet you, Wren Carter. I was just helping your friend with his problem."

"Oh, he's not my—" she started, but Stiles elbowed her in the ribs and cut her off.

Scott quickly filled the awkward silence, wanting to be the hell out of there as soon as humanly possible. He remained calm, though. "There's a shop right down the street. I'm sure they have a tow truck."

"Yeah. You want a ride?" Stiles offered to Jackson, and Wren could tell that it physically pained him to do so. It looked like it pained the boy being spoken to as well. "Hey, come on, Jackson. You're way too pretty to be out here all by yourself."

"Hey, boys? Told you I knew a few things about cars," Argent told him, and the engine started suddenly. He then walked back to his car, and they all waved at him gratefully and anxiously.

Jackson spun around as soon as the man got in his car and drove off. "What, are you following me now?"

"Yes, you stupid freaking idiot!" Scott shouted in response, and Jackson was shocked by his sudden outburst, like he didn't know that anyone could ever be angry with him. "You almost gave away everything, right there! He thinks you're the second Beta."

"What?" the Whittemore boy questioned, clearly confused. He had a scratch mark on the back of his neck, and Chris must have noticed it at a lacrosse game.

Scott banged on the front of Stiles' car angrily. The last thing that he needed to worry about was Jackson getting hunted down by Allison's dad. They had too much going on already. "He thinks you're me!"

"Dude, my Jeep..." the Stilinski boy cut in, wincing at the impact. It did not make a dent, but just a tad more force definitely would. It was making Wren nervous as well since he had just had the hood replaced.

Scott ignored him and hit the car yet again after Jackson did. "I can hear your heart beating from a mile away— literally! Now he thinks that there's something wrong, and now I have to keep an eye on you so he doesn't kill you, too!"

"Okay, how about we step away from Stiles' Jeep..."

"This is your problem, not mine, okay?" Jackson scoffed, as if they did not just save him from a freaking werewolf hunter. He made it his problem when he begged Scott to help him turn into a werewolf and somehow got himself scratched on the back of the neck. "I didn't say anything, which means you're the one that's gonna get me killed. Okay? This is your fault!"

Scott looked like he was about to explode, and he threw his hands up in the air. "When they come after you, I won't be able to protect you. I can't protect anyone."

"You know, now you have to do it. Get me what I want, and I will be fine protecting myself," Jackson pointed out, but that was an even stupider idea. That meant that he actually would be a werewolf, and Chris would have a definite reason to kill him.

Wren shook her head, wondering how someone could be so thick. "Then, you won't be able to stop Argent from hunting you! At least now, you can convince him you're human because you freaking are! Turning will make everything worse, jackass."

"Oh, yeah, really? Scott can hear anything he wants and run faster than humanly possible. Sounds like a real hardship," the boy responded sarcastically.

She just turned around to look at Stiles. "I'm gonna kill him."

"Yeah, I can run really fast now, except half the time, I'm running away from people trying to kill me! And I can hear things, like my girlfriend telling people she doesn't trust me anymore, right before breaking up with me," Scott ranted. "I'm not lying to you! It ruins your life."

"It ruined your life. You had all the power in the world, and you didn't know what to do with it. You know what it's actually like? It's like you turned sixteen, and someone bought you a Porsche when they should have started you out with a nice little Honda. Me? I drive a Porsche."

Wren could not believe her ears, and she honestly had all of the respect in the world for Lydia in that moment for putting up with that dumbass. She knew that Lydia was a genius, so either she lost brain cells since seventh grade or she has unbelievable patience. "Oh, my God, you're a dickhead."

《❀》

LATER THAT WEEK, WREN WAS IN ACTUAL HELL. She had been in one of her down periods and hadn't had the energy to deal with anything supernatural for the past couple of days. She was sitting in Chemistry with the worst headache of her life, and she felt like she wanted to die. And Scott and Stiles didn't show up to school that day. And she was wearing a sweatshirt and pajamas because she couldn't be bothered to actually try. But at least they weren't doing anything because Mr. Harris was still gone.

"Hey, you okay?" a voice asked because she was just sitting with her head in her hands. Danny had not showed up either, so she was all alone. She looked up to see Isaac standing by her desk with raised eyebrows. He looked incredibly nervous to be talking to her as well.

"Yeah, sorry," she replied, and she did not know why she was apologizing. She ran a hand through her hair and sighed. "Just tired. Long day."

He checked his watch and the classroom he was in, making sure that it was the time that he thought it was. He pointed out, "It's nine o'clock and first period."

"If you're gonna be a dick about it..." she muttered, and he chuckled slightly before having a seat next to her. It did not seem to be taken, and he hadn't seen Danny that day. So, he assumed it was all right. He was definitely scared that she was about to yell at him to go away, but she did not seem phased by it.

He glanced around the classroom, realizing that none of the people that she usually hung out with and talked to were there, which was strange. She, Scott, and Stiles were usually inseparable. She was with them whenever he saw her outside of class. "Where are your friends?"

"Who knows?" she breathed out, leaning back in her chair. It was then that she finally got a good look at him, and she eyes widened when she saw a giant cut running across his lip, surrounded by a bruise. It looked like he had gotten punched across the face. "Oh, my God. What happened to you?"

"Ran into a tree when I was biking," he answered.

She frowned. That was the second biking-related incident he had had since she had met him. He was either a really crappy biker, or there was something else going on. She told him, "You know, maybe the bike life just isn't for you."

"It's starting to look that way, isn't it?" he laughed, playing with his fingernail nervously. His face lit up when she let out a giggle as well, glad that he could brighten up what seemed like a bad day for her.

As the Carter girl examined him further for a moment, she realized that he was cute. Like, really cute. All of the other times that she had spoken to him, she had been too caught up in herself to really look at him. She snapped out of her thoughts for a second when she remembered what they were talking about. "Are you okay? That looks nasty."

"Yeah, I'm fine. I've had worse," he assured her, but she did not know if that made her more or less worried. She shook it off, pretty sure that he was just talking about his previously broken arm. He went silent for a moment, and he seemed extremely anxious about something. She looked down at the table, not wanting to make it look like she was just staring at him. "You know, there's a dance tonight."

"Yeah?" she replied obliviously. She knew about the dance, of course, but she just assumed that he was just informing her about it in case she didn't know to be a nice person.

He paused for another minute, and his voice grew quieter, like he was hoping that she would hear him wrong or something. "I was wondering if you wanted to maybe go with me?"

She opened her mouth to respond, but she was stopped when her phone rang. The class looked around at her, the substitute teacher raising an eyebrow at her, and she shot him an apologetic look. She checked the caller ID, and she held her finger up to Isaac as she accepted the call. "Hold on one second. Stiles?"

"Wren, you need to meet me at my house now," Scott's voice told her.

She furrowed her eyebrows. It must be something bad if he wanted her to walk straight out of school. She checked the clock. The bell was going to ring any second, so she could walk out during transition. She still had not gotten a reason, though. "Why, what happened?"

"A lot," he answered, and he seemed like he was spiraling. She assumed Stiles was there with him since it was Stiles who called her. He revealed, "My mom went on a date with Peter."

"Oh, God," she exclaimed, earning a confused look from the Lahey boy and some other students around her. She really could not give a damn though because that piece of information deserved that response.

He sighed, but before she could freak out, he told her, "We stopped it before anything could happen, but we need to stop him. Can you come help us find Derek?"

"Yeah, of course," she answered. Her mom just might kill her, but she had to go. As soon as she hung up the phone, the bell rang, and she needed to get out of there as soon as possible. She turned to the boy beside her. "I'm so sorry, Isaac. I gotta go."

"Oh, yeah. Uh—" he replied, looking like he had expected something like that to happen. It was honestly better than just being completely rejected.

"I'll meet you at eight?" she asked, and his head shot up to look at her in confusion, not knowing what she was referring you. Noticing his expression while she was packing her things, she reminded him, "For the dance."

His face went really red, but a grin spread across it as well. "Yeah, okay. Yeah."