┏━━━━⋆°.☾⋆.ೃ࿔*:⋆━━━━┓

A CALL FOR HELP

EMERSON WAS ON A PERPETUAL HIGH AS OF LATE.

The soccer season started up, and their first batch of friendlies with other schools in the county went extremely well. She was being praised by her coach, her teammates, and the occasional college scout that stuck around after the games concluded.

She was also blissfully ignoring the fact that there was a rampaging lizard roaming around, because thanks to Derek and suddenly Scott McCall, it wasn't a problem she needed to deal with. On the bright side, due to the other wolves hunting this creature down, it meant that Emerson wasn't being pestered as much by one of Derek's betas in particular.

Yeah, shit had returned to a more than pleasant equilibrium, especially when Wally came by to reinstate her favour due to Isaac rejecting his offer. Isaac began making less and less of an appearance around school, she found, but that was a Derek sort of problem now.

Still, that didn't mean she didn't get a slight headache over the boy's no doubt depleting grades now that he'd become a werewolf.

Another full moon rolled around, the feeling of it settling deep beneath her skin as she stayed up in her room behind a closed door. It wasn't that she felt the ravenous urge to maim and kill anything, for that trait died out when she had turned eight and had gotten enough practice of controlling it, but she felt antsy.

Like an itch beneath her skin, one she just wanted to curb down and let die. So, despite her guardian being held up at the station due to a recent string of murders, murders she knew could only be attributed to the lizard, she just wanted to have an extra sense of alone-ness. 

Hence why the door was closed and why she'd been pacing all night, trying to get herself to settle— trying to get herself to not be so on edge for a reason she could not yet determine.

The shrill ringing of her phone made her stop, dead in her tracks, before she retrieved it from the mountain of pillows on her bed.

"Hello?" she answered down the line, and physically had to pull the device away from her ear at the sound of the commotion on the other end.

"I need your help."

Once that voice amidst the snarling and grunting that was playing out in the background filtered through her ears, her eyes widened on their own.

"How the hell did you get my number, Derek?" she fumed in response, and the pacing started up again.

"Isaac doesn't have a password on his phone," he explained, a little blandly, "and I just assumed that you're the Chemistry Wizard who's been ignoring his texts."

Emerson's heart clenched before she rolled her shoulders back, not wanting to dig into that can of worms during a night like this. "You've caught me at a bad time," she lied, ruffling some papers around on her desk to make it sound like she was actively busy, "but I'd love to catch soon in fifteen business days if—"

"I need your help," the statement was restated, this time with a little more desperation that the Hale man let bleed into his tone. "I wouldn't be calling if it wasn't serious. Something's wrong with Isaac— with all of them, but mostly him, and I don't—"

At the sound of Isaac potentially being in trouble, she felt her eyes heat up on their own accord. The moon was beating down on her through her bedroom window, and she saw her own crimson orbs stare back at her in the reflection.

What the hell was going on?

"Where are you?"

ೃ࿔*:⋆

Despite Emerson telling herself that this really wasn't her problem, that Derek had dug this hole all by himself, it was really her instincts that led her to the subway station that night.

He met her at the entrance, clad in a dirtied tank top that made Emerson will herself to avert her gaze to anywhere other than his damn biceps. Her jaw was clenched, opting to focus on the damn ground as they went deeper underground.

They walked in a tense silence until they reached the abandoned subway carriage, and the blonde girl nearly tripped over her own feet at the sight of all three of his betas within— all strapped to some sort of metal that they fought against.

"What the fuck, dude." She was flabbergasted really. "This is what you get when you turn too many betas too quickly." 

"You don't think I know that?" he snapped in her direction, obviously feeling less than happy about the situation at hand. "They aren't listening to me, but after Isaac told me about what happened at the school, I figured he might listen to you."

Her eyebrows furrowed, the sound of the angry betas growing louder. "What about the others?"

"I'll handle them," he dismissed, and Emerson didn't want to know what he meant by handle.

They began to enter the subway carriage with tentative steps. "You are a colossal disaster, did you know that?"

His lip curled back. "Yeah, okay princess. You can berate me all you want after we—"

In a split second, all three of the wolfed out, chained up sophomores broke free from their constraints, angrier than ever. And that itch beneath her skin? Yeah, that roared to life as she stared at the figures that charged for the pair of Alphas.

"Holy fucking shi—"

The entire carriage descended into chaos, and Emerson hadn't seen anything like it before.

The wind was knocked out of her, the Lahey boy immediately diving for the blonde which sent the pair toppling down the stair that led up to said carriage. Looking over Isaac's shoulder, she saw Derek be bombarded by Erica and Boyd, and it looked like both betas were fighting over who got to kill the man first.

Emerson and Isaac were, for lack of a better word, tussling on the concrete ground. Her claws were out, the itch beneath her skin telling her— no, begging her to put him in his place. His bright golden eyes shone down on her, and her own red ones shine right back.

"Calm down!" she tried, almost gritting out the word as he pressed her back further into the ground. There was a sharp stinging sensation she felt, no doubt her back being sliced by stray debris that littered the entire floor of the abandoned subway station.

The Lahey boy growled in her face, and just as he went to take a swipe at her face, she caught his wrist easily. "I said, calm the fuck down, Lahey!"

Though his wolfed out features remained, his golden eyes widened by the most minuscule of fractions. She shuddered a breath of relief when he all but pushed himself away from her, his chest heaving as he merely stared at her.

Emerson sat on her knees, ignoring the pain in her lower back. "Don't just stand there," she snapped, her hand pointing to the carriage window where she could see Derek actively being jumped by Boyd. "Go help!"

Isaac scrambled jerkily to his feet, like he was still trying to gain some control over his limbs, and pulled himself back into the confined space. That left Emerson to pull herself to her feet, the pain in her back not subsiding in the slightest for some reason. 

By some utter miracle, Isaac listened to her, and soon the commotion lulled to a stop, only the sounds of heavy breathing and softer snarls could be heard throughout the space.

She panted, hands going to her knees as she barred her teeth at the ground, snapping out the words she knew Derek had to hear most.

"You're in way over your head, Hale."

All she got in response was an annoyed growl from the carriage, but it was one she knew that came from the man himself.

⋆°.☾⋆.ೃ࿔*:⋆

[ wyn's note ]

something is making emerson feel so protective over isaac, something she has zeroooo idea about just yet and neither do we the readers teehee

derek is giving big dummy energy to emerson rn, like she can't fathom how this has all gone to shit so fast LMAOAO

all my love x