𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐑𝐓𝐘-𝐅𝐎𝐔𝐑 - the night off

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𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐖𝐎𝐋𝐅 𝐀𝐍𝐃 the devil had made quick work of their trip to warn Betsy and... recruit Nadeem if you will.

The conversation with Betsy hadn't gone quite as planned; Matthew had told the woman that Melvin had been arrested and that she should run as far as she could until they could take down Fisk. Apparently, she didn't like that her lover on parole had been put behind bars; of course she didn't, she didn't know what his actions had caused. Neither of the pair knew whether the parole officer would heed their warning, but there was little else they could have done and so they went on their way for a late-night, surprise visit with Agent Nadeem.

Olivia and Matt had managed to pull off their secret meeting. If you could call it that. Matthew had waited until Nadeem had made his way down to the basement, on route to the fridge, before slamming him against it, covering the agent's mouth with his hand to drown out any noise he was going to make.

After a few moments, Nadeem relented and his confused eyes glanced towards Olivia who had stood with her arms crossed, leaning against the door with a new, less holey, and bloody turtleneck covering her face.

The pair conveyed the information Melvin had given them; telling the agent that Matthew was, in fact, the real daredevil, without telling Nadeem his name of course, or revealing either of their identities. The information, specifically the part where they had told the agent that the deaths at the Bulletin were in fact caused by a member of the FBI, one of his co-workers. That had gotten Nadeem on board almost immediately; agreeing to look into it further and meet with the duo the next day.

On their way back Olivia took the lead, her steps echoing into the night as she led Matthew in a direction that was completely opposite from where the church was.

"We're going the wrong way," Matthew spoke.

"Nope. I told you to take a night off, and I wanted to sleep in a comfortable bed."

Matthew chuckled as he fastened his steps to walk next to Olivia. "Where are we going then?"

"Jessica's. Asked her if we could stay the night. She's with Trish, and Malcome has his apartment. She just had one rule."

"And that is?"

"Don't touch her alcohol."

He clicked his tongue, not an ounce of surprise on his face, "Of course."

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The pair had swiftly made their way to Jessica's, both climbing up the fire escape and entering through the window that had been left open, thanks to the P.I.

Olivia hopped in and headed straight towards her old bedroom and shook her head at the mess. Malcome had his desk against one wall as neat and tidy as it could possibly have been and on the opposite wall was her bed, it had been made but everything she had left on the ground was piled up.

"This is your room?" Matthew questioned as he made his way inside, following after her.

"Yeah, Malcome did his best to move his office in here, but I still need to get rid of my things, take them out when I find somewhere to live." She replied as she carried the heaps of clothes from the bed and stuffed them inside the closet. If Malcome ever did decide to open it. She wasn't entirely sure he'd make it out alive.

Olivia grabbed an old jumper of Derek's as well as a pair of sweatpants from the copious amounts that she had stolen from her brother and tossed them towards the vigilante before shimmying out of her own clothes, replacing them with a jumper than engulfed her frame and a pair of shorts. "That went... surprisingly well." She spoke with a hint of genuine shock in her tone.

Matthew breathed a laugh as he copied the woman, shedding his dark attire for the clothes she had thrown to him, "I'm as shocked as you are."

"But, let's not jinx it, because we do not have great track records."

"Well... You know my track record; I'm not so clued in with yours."

Olivia sighed as she made her way over to Matt, helping him pull the sweatshirt over his head as he winced. "Is that you asking me to spill all of my secrets?"

"Not if you don't want to."

"No. You know what?" Olivia swallowed, "I want you to know."

Matt's brows rose in shock, not entirely expecting the wolf to be ready to open up about everything she had kept locked away, he took ahold of her hand, his thumb brushing over her knuckles. "I'm all ears."

Olivia recoiled, amusement plain on her face, "Was- was that a blind joke?"

Matt chuckled as he followed after the wolf as she climbed onto the bed. The bed that was ten times softer than the one at the church, "An... unintentional one."

"I'm sure." Olivia hummed before letting out a deep sigh. She had no idea where to begin; her backstory, if you will, was long and filled with death and anguish, she wasn't looking forward to reliving it, but she knew so much about Matthew and yet, he knew next to nothing about her. "You better get comfy; Beacon Hill's was a magnet for trouble."

"Beacon Hills? I can't say I've ever heard of it."

"It's... I loved it there, but I needed a break. I kind of realized how dependent I was on my brother, I wanted to become more independent." She leaned her head against his shoulder, taking her own advice, "Okay, before I start you might want to know the meaning of a few words; an alpha is a leader of a pack of werewolves, the strongest, a beta is a member of a pack, and are considered stronger than omegas... an omega is a 'lone wolf' and are considered weaker because they aren't part of a pack. A beta or an omega can kill an alpha to gain their power."

"I think I've got that." Matthew nodded, slowly as he processed the information. Though his mind did recall when Olivia had told him the story of the alpha pack; how she had killed the alpha.

"When I was younger; a teenager, around fourteen or fifteen Derek met this girl -woman- Kate. She was older and they started dating, my family didn't know, apart from me. She'd spoil me and I thought she was my best friend... as it turns out, both myself and my brother were played like absolute fiddles. She used us both to get information about my family. She was a hunter, a werewolf hunter and she wanted to take my family out in one fell swoop."

She paused for a moment, her jaw becoming tense as one of the worst memories she ever had flashed through her mind. "And she did. She waited until our home was filled to the brim of werewolves and humans alike, and she set fire to it."

Matt inhaled deeply. He could remember back at Midland Circle when the wolf had been engulfed in flames, the way her heart pounded against her chest when she had curled in on herself. He couldn't imagine the mental and physical pain it must have brought out.

"All I could hear were the screams of my family." She continued, "The smoke that filled my lungs and the way I held onto my brother for dear life, telling him how much I loved him before I passed out. When I came to, I was in my older sisters, Laura's, arms. We got out. Me, Derek, Laura, and Peter. We left Peter behind; he wasn't in good shape so we left him to heal...

We uh, we actually came here for about a year. My father had lived here for a while so we wanted to check it out... Laura hated it, said it wasn't safe and moved us. Six years later and Laura got word of someone, something, terrorizing Beacon Hills, biting people; so she left us... and she never came back.

Derek and I went back too, followed after her a week later and we found her. She was dead, cut in half and left in the middle of the woods that surrounded our old home. Peter was the one who killed her so that he could steal her power; she was an alpha."

Matt's head snapped towards her, "Your uncle killed your sister?"

Olivia hummed in confirmation, "Yes. He also killed Kate -I'll get to that- he was the one biting teenagers, trying to turn them into werewolves to make a pack, make himself stronger to take out Kate and her family. A bite from an alpha has a chance on turning someone, more likely in younger people, you turn or you die. Scott turned, he's like a little brother to me now. Derek then killed Peter, slashing his throat and gaining his alpha status.

The following year was honestly the most tiring time of my life. There was a kanima -a lizard man, thing- try not to think about it, it doesn't really matter. But, Peter had bitten this girl, Lydia, and somehow latched his spirit or something to her mind, she became a banshee and honestly, I don't know how it happened, but he came back on a worm moon, I didn't question it; it's Peter, he finds a way. I wasn't thrilled, neither was Derek, but throughout my childhood... I was attached to Peter, I adored him, he treated me like a princess. I'll always resent the part of him that killed my sister, but I can't help but love him; he's changed.

Derek had also created a pack, one that I did slowly become fond of, Isaac, Erica, and... Boyd. You know about the alpha pack that came to Beacon Hills. They took Erica and Boyd, kept them locked up for months without access to the full moon -that makes your control go straight out the window- and uh, as it turned out, my little sister Cora was alive. She had escaped the fire, fled and returned upon hearing of Derek's alpha status. The alpha pack took her too. They killed Erica... but we managed to get Cora and Boyd out... You know what happened to Boyd... What I was forced to do.

Derek got himself a girlfriend that wasn't human, bit of a bitch actually, she- she poisoned Cora. Mistletoe is poisonous to us. I stayed with my little sister and I- I tried to heal her, alphas can use their power to heal but they'll no longer be an alpha... I wasn't an alpha, but I had to try. Peter pulled me away before I could kill myself and uh..." She cleared her throat, ignoring the tears welling in her eyes, "Cora died. She died because I wasn't strong enough."

Matt frowned, grasping one of the wolf's hands comfortingly, "That wasn't your fault."

"It was. I wasn't strong enough. That's that." She breathed, tears rolling down her cheeks. "You uh, you know what I did to the alpha, so you know that I gained his abilities; I was the alpha. But that didn't last long. The Nogitsune came next; something we thought was released by someone in the town, but it wasn't."

"I heard you. The fight at Midland, the woman you were fighting, she released it?"

"She did." Olivia nodded solemnly, "The Nogitsune is a dark spirit, they draw their power from strife, chaos, tragedy and pain; they feed off of pain. Pain and chaos was all there was whilst it was roaming free. It got in my head, made me try and kill Peter... I almost did. It possessed one of our friends; a kid, he became a shell of himself, killed and hurt people and he had to deal with that after we got rid of it. We were fighting it's... henchmen uh, the Oni.

One of them killed Allison, Kate's niece. She was such a sweet girl; she changed her family's hunting code from 'We hunt those who hunt us' to 'We protect those who cannot protect themselves'... and she- she died, but she had figured out how to kill them.

We fought them and we won. We banished the Nogitsune and saved Stiles. But... there was yet another death; another Oni killed one of the teenagers, Aiden. He was a twin, they had both been members of the alpha pack and they joined me once I took the alpha's power. I found them, Aiden bleeding out in Ethan's arms and I did what I had tried to do with Cora. I was an alpha; I had the power to save him... but I didn't have the time. He was on the verge of death when I pulled him into my lap and tried to save him.

He died because I was too late, and I lost my alpha status along with a member of my pack. A member of my pack died, again. Derek left for a while, traveled whilst I stayed. I couldn't bring myself to leave.

He came back eventually. And as it turned out, Kate was still alive. I- we always say that in Beacon Hills, nobody ever stays dead. Peter's claws when he slit her throat didn't kill her, but they were deep enough to turn her. Safe to say she had a vendetta. She took us, me and Derek, and somehow..."

She chuckled causing Matt to furrow his brows, "She somehow managed to regress us to the age she had met us. To the ages when we trusted her. I won't go through everything, but we started to lose our powers. Starting with our eyes; each type of wolf has a different eye color and ours regressed back to gold.

Then everything else faded alongside. We were dying and there was nothing we could do to stop it... turns out, we were actually evolving."

Matthew shook his head, he had no idea what she meant, "I'm confused. Evolving?"

Olivia hummed as she twisted, leaning her arm against the wall as she faced Matt whose head was tilted towards her in intrigue. "My mother had this ability to actually turn into a wolf." She chuckled, knowing how obscene everything she had told the lawyer must be. How hard it must be to believe. "That's what was happening to us. We have that ability."

Matthew blinked, "You can turn into a wolf?"

"Yes."

"I don't- I don't know how to respond to that."

"You can make all the dog jokes you like; I honestly enjoy them."

Matthew shook his head at Olivia's nonchalant attitude, "so uh, why don't you ever do that?"

"Turn into a wolf?" Upon seeing the man nod, she tilted her head, "Because even though it makes me stronger, I've lived with this body for twenty-seven years, I know how to fight properly, I have my claws and my strength... and it- it leaves me naked." She snorted, unable to help herself.

Matt brought up a hand and dragged it down his face as his shoulders lightly shook from his laughter. "Really?"

"Yes! When it happened for the first time and I turned back, I was mortified. A bunch of teenagers had watched me turn into a god damn wolf, and turn back completely naked... right next to my brother, I will never live it down.

"Well, I'm sure the teenagers enjoyed it." Matt joked, gaining himself a light smack on the chest.

Olivia groaned as red blossomed on her cheeks. She wasn't often one for embarrassment, but turning to see those teenagers gawking at her, that was a memory she wished she could erase. "Liam literally said 'wow' at my chest. Safe to say that myself, Derek and Scott slapped him upside the head. I was absolutely mortified."

"I don't doubt it."

"Well, after that, things still didn't quite calm down; we still had to keep fighting our way through our impeccably annoying lives. When I came here, Derek and Peter stayed. They 'protect' the town now and I visit them when I can... so much happened in such a short period of time and as much as I love my home, it's a graveyard now. Whenever I go back, I'm filled with happiness when I see my brother and uncle, even the... well, they're not kids anymore, but them too. Then, when I'm alone all I think about are the people that died because of us, because of me."

Matt turned to mimic her position, the pair laying on their sides and facing one another. He brought up a hand to stroke her cheek, "You gave six years of your life to help protect that town. You could have left at any time, you didn't have to stay. But you did, and the number of people you saved, outweigh the people that died. The people that did die, you tried to save them. You tried, and that is what matters. You forgave your uncle for killing, murdering your sister because he followed it up with a few good deeds, so why can't you forgive yourself?"

Olivia stayed silent. She had never actually looked at it from that perspective. He was right; she had forgiven Peter for killing her sister, forgiven him for betraying his own blood time and time again... Her mouth opened and closed before a sigh finally slipped out.

"I know," Matthew muttered. "It's different when you're the one that you're blaming. Forgiving other people is a thousand times easier than forgiving yourself."

"It is." Olivia breathed, as she brought her hand up to the one Matt had resting on her cheek. "Can I ask you something?"

"Yeah, of course."

"What do you see?" She had wanted to ask for so long but never knew when would have been the best time, it was almost certainly going to be a sensitive subject. But after sharing what she did, she just wanted to know.

Matt's eyes dropped, a solemn look covering his face as he described the world he saw, the world he lived in, "I see a world on fire." It was ironic really. Matthew's every moment was covered in fire, something that Olivia knew all too well.

The wolf glossed her eyes over Matthew's face before they connected with his unfocused eyes. Her brows furrowed and her eyes narrowed as a small, uncertain, lightbulb flickered inside of her head. She jolted up, Matt's hand flinching back as he slowly pushed himself to sit opposite her, "Are you okay? He questioned her.

Her eyes were focused on his as a grin began to build on her lips. Deucalion, the alpha she had killed; he was blind. He couldn't see until he used his 'wolf eyes'... and Olivia wondered if it would work in reverse; Deucalion could see out of them, perhaps... maybe Matthew would be able to see them, after all, every time she had her glowing eyes on show, Matthew had never been there.

"I'm- I'm going try something, I'm not telling you what because I'm not sure it's going to work, but... I have to try."

"Okay?" Matthew spoke hesitantly. "Uh, go ahead."

Olivia closed her eyes and took a deep inhale, preparing for the worst; she didn't bother telling Matthew what she was doing in the fear that he would get his hopes up, just as hers were; she didn't want to crush that. She lifted her head just slightly and when she opened her eyes, they were glowing their ever vivid and shining cobalt blue.

Matthew didn't say a word and Olivia feared her theory had been destroyed. Just as she let out a defeated breath and dropped her head, Matthew's hands darted to her cheeks, lifting her head back up only to reveal her normal eyes. "Do it again."

Olivia did as he said, her whiskey eyes illuminating into blue once again, and watched as they reflected within his pools of coffee brown. "Can you-" She didn't finish, instead her focus fell to the feeling of Matthew's thumbs swiping just under her eyes as his, for the first time, focused on hers.

He let out a short gasp as his head nodded slowly, "I can see them."

"Oh my God." She swallowed; a grin overtaking her features as a light she had never seen sparked in his focused eyes.

"How-"

"-I just... the alpha I killed, his name was Deucalion and he was blind. When he used his 'wolf eyes' as we say, he could see. I- I didn't know if it would work in reverse."

"Olivia." Matt choked out, his eyes flooding. "I can see them. They're blue... I haven't seen anything but red and orange for so long and I can- I can see your eyes."

"An alpha's eyes are red, but a betas or omegas can be gold or blue. You get blue eyes if you take an innocent's life; not as beautiful now..."

"I don't care, Liv." He responded; his eyes still locked with hers. It felt so intimate, looking into her eyes after living for so long without eye-contact, and for it to be her. "You- you've told me about the things you've done, you've told me about the people you've saved too. And right now, none of it matters. I can look into your eyes, Olivia. I haven't been able to do that for so long."

Before she could reply, his lips were pressed against hers, a hand flying to her waist as Matthew pulled her closer, their bodies molding into one another's before Matt moved a hand to her neck and used it to push her down, back pressed against the soft mattress.

A few minutes passed as lips moved fervently against one another, heavy and panting breaths mingling with each other before Olivia grinned against his lips and used her supernatural strength to flip them over, her legs either side of his torso. Long tendrils of brunette hair curtained around her face and brushed against his cheeks as she hovered above him before pulling the sweatshirt from her body.

His hands immediately latched onto her hips, short nails digging into her sensitive skin, "How do I keep forgetting that you have super strength?" Matt breathed with a laugh.

Olivia leaned forward, a hand sliding underneath his sweatshirt and the other planted on his chest. She could hear his heart rate accelerate as she brushed her lips against his ear, her voice a teasing whisper "I have super stamina too."

"You're gonna be the death of me."

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08-09-2020