—

"Goodnight boys!"

"Night, mom!" Austin called back, Isaac following along with a quick, 'night'.

The George teen sighed softly, plopping down on his bed with a groan. Just as he thought he'd be able to close his eyes, a knock on his door had him shooting up.

"Yeah?"

"Can I come in?"

He frowned at the question, nodding before he realized he couldn't see him, "Yeah, sure."

Isaac walked in wearing an old pair of Austin's sweats and plain white tee shirt.

"Everything okay?"

"Yeah, uhm... i'm fine."

Austin had gathered a lot from being with Ryder for almost a year now, being able to read people's emotions was one of them. And looking at Isaac for just a second was enough for him to know that the Lahey was lying to him.

"You know, you shouldn't start your first night in my house lying to me."

"I'm not lying, i just..." He took a deep breath before sighing out, "Do you have something against me, or? I can talk to Scott, I can ask him for a place to stay if you don't want me here, just—"

"No, no. It's nothing against you, i swear." Austin rubbed his hands over his face in frustration, "My mom, she just—she gets attached, okay? I don't want her to get too close to you just for you leave. That's all it is, truly."

Isaac hummed, nodding thoughtfully, he was assuming that the issue had a lot to do with the picture of the small boy he saw the minute he walked into the house. But he didn't want to make the teen uncomfortable,

"Right. I thought it had something to do with me having a crush on your girlfriend."

"Hilarious." Austin deadpanned, though Isaac could see the twitch of his lip, an immediate indication that he wanted to smile.

"I know." Isaac cleared his throat, "Speaking of Ryder..."

Austin raised a brow, "What about her?"

"How is she? How are you guys? Your relationship."

"We're good." He nodded, "I mean, I've grown used to being around her every second of the day to the point where it feels kind of weird and unnatural when i'm not with her."

Isaac made himself comfortable in the other boys desk chair as he listened to him talk. He had long gotten over his crush on Ryder. In fact, he was rather happy that she was his best friend rather than girlfriend.

"I'm just hoping all this shit is over soon so I can finally spend some time with her." Austin finished, "Anyways, how was Paris?"

•••

"When did you get so good? You been practicing? Or did you just suddenly get superhuman reflexes?"

From Liam's bed, Josie chuckled quietly, little did he know.

Liam hesitated, "Uh... Practicing. Yeah, I've been practicing."

"And I should be studying." Mason stood up.

"Where are you guys going?"

"Home? I got a History test tomorrow." Mason furrowed his brows.

"Come on. One more game." Liam insisted, watching Josie get up from her spot on his bed.

"Yeah, you said that four games ago."

"Study here. You can stay over. Come on, one more game. Just one. Jo?"

"Yeah, I should go too. My dad's almost here." She said softly, not wanting to upset the Dunbar, "You okay?"

"Yeah. You're right. You should go. I should probably study too. I'll see you guys at school."

As Mason walked out the door, Josie stopped in her tracks, turning to Liam apologetically.

"Liam..."

"I'm okay, Josie, you can go." He looked down at his hands.

She walked forward, placing her warm hands into his cold ones, forcing his blue eyes to look into hers, "You're not okay, and—and that's okay. But-uh...we can't help you if we don't know what's wrong. I mean, I know what's wrong, you know, because you told me. But maybe you should tell someone else. Someone that can actually help you..."

A honk outside was heard before Liam could respond to her. Grabbing her bag, Josie smiled sweetly at the Dunbar, "I'll see you tomorrow, okay?"

"Yeah." He whispered out, his breath hitching as the girl pressed a soft kiss to his cheek, "Bye."

•••

"Okay." Derek nodded, pushing the bag of money away.

Scott frowned, "Don't you wanna know why it took so long to return it?"

"How much do you make at the Animal Clinic?"

"Minimum wage."

"That's why. Everyone can be tempted, Scott. Even a True Alpha." Derek said.

The McCall seemed confused, "You're not angry?"

"It's not even mine." He shrugged, "It belongs to Peter."

"Where's your money?"

"You're standing on it."

Scott looked down with wide eyes, "There's another vault?"

Derek chuckled, "No. I own the building. And I have my own bank accounts. All the money from the vault was Peter's. I think we'd actually be better off if the rest never came back."

Scott watched as the older man closed the bag filled with money, "I know Lydia was here last night. Deaton's still working on figuring out what Kate did to you. If anyone can find an answer, it's him."

Derek nodded at his words before speaking up, "Isaac's back."

Scott seemed shocked by the sentence. Though, he couldn't really be surprised as everyone seemed to be in decent moods lately, he wouldn't be surprised if the Lahey was the reason behind it. Ryder hadn't lashed out on anyone, he hasn't seen her or Austin in a while now that he thought of it.

"No one told you?"

"Stiles mentioned it but I was too busy with the deadpool to really pay any attention. Where's he staying?"

"Austin's house." The Hale said, "Ryder told Ramona who ended up telling me. She'd figured it'd be best if I knew my beta was back in town."

"Why didn't he come to either of us?" Scott asked, confusion evident in his features.

Derek shrugged, "Beats me."

While he pretended he didn't know, Derek's was almost sure that he had an idea why.

•••

A few hours after school, Ryder would find herself standing in between Isaac and Aaron, the Lahey getting greeted by familiar faces while she simply looked around for the face of her lover, instead catching sight of Liam and Stiles.

"Hey, come on." She gestured for Isaac to follow her, the Lahey doing as told while the girl let her parents and Jennifer know that they could decide where they would sit.

"Everything's fine. I got a text from him this morning and he said he might be a little late."

"Well, how late is late? Is he always late?" Liam questioned, "We're playing Devenford Prep again and this time it's an actual game. He shouldn't be late."

"Who shouldn't be late?" Coach asked as he inserted himself in the conversation.

"Scott and Kira. They might be slightly late."

Finstock stammered, "Slightly late is still late. What are they doing?"

"They're doing something that's going to make them slightly late."

"What could Scott and Kira be doing right now that's more important than playing in the first game?"

"Oh, Coach." Stiles sighed out, watching the man turn his attention to the field before he began to walk away,

"Welcome back, Lahey."

"Thanks, Coach."

"Who's Lahey?" Liam asked, his blue eyes landing on the tall figure standing next to Ryder.

"I'm Lahey." Isaac said, "And you must be Liam?"

"Yeah." Liam nodded, straightening up so he could somehow prove that he wasn't the least bit intimidated by him. That was until Isaac simply chuckled,

"Nice to meet you."

"Oh! There's Austin." Ryder perked up, "I'll be back."

"The games about to start, she won't be back." Isaac shook his head, following after the girl.

•••

"All right. Neither of them are answering. I gotta go see what's going on." Stiles said, instantly catching Liam's attention.

"You're leaving? What are you going to tell Coach?" The three lacrosse players turn to the man in question, watching him mutter angrily to himself,

"Stupid! Stupid old..."

"Uh, we won't tell him anything." Austin said, glancing at Stiles, "I'm sure we'll be fine without you. Go."

While trying not to look offended, Stiles began to walk away, catching the last bit of Austin's sentence,

"Liam, everything's gonna be okay. All right?"

From the audience, Aaron looked at his daughter in confusion, "What's going on?"

"Stiles can't get ahold of Scott or Kira and Liam's freaking out."

"What?" Josie sat up straight, looking over the heads of others to get a look at her friend, "What's wrong with him?"

"He's worried about Scott and whatever the hell else he has going on."

"Liam! Get on the field!"

"Go Brett, go! Whoo!"

"Liam, for the love of God, move!"

"So, who's winning?" Jennifer's question was left unanswered as Brett, Liam's former teammate roughly crashed into him.

On one hand, Austin wanted to be upset, but one glance at the crowd and towards Ryder was enough for him to know that Brett did it out of pure intentions. While it may have made him feel a little good for hurting the Dunbar, he wasn't actually trying to hurt him. 

"What the hell was that?!" Josie shouted, earning a snort from her sister while Isaac went along to explain to the worried adults that Brett was only trying to help.

•••

It was a few minutes after the game, Beacon Hills losing while Devenford Prep celebrated their win.

Although they lost, part of the team didn't even have the time to mourn their loss, Coach found time to yell at how horrible everyone played while Liam and Austin were already off changing into their usual clothes.

Ryder and Isaac made sure that Ryder's parents and sister got in their cars safely and making sure that Jennifer was also okay before they got a call from Stiles to meet up at Derek's loft.

Meeting Austin outside the locker room, nearly startling the George teen half to death before he was informed that they needed a ride.

Austin was already unlocking his car doors before they had the chance to even utter a word.

•••

"What the hell happened?"

"It was supposed to be a date."

"They were both here?"

"And they're both gone." Isaac scoffed.

Before anyone could say anything further, Stiles phone began to buzz with a call from Lydia,

"Hey."

"Scott's been taken."

"A little late on that one." Ryder muttered under her breath.

"Scott and Kira. We just don't know where." Stiles said.

A voice from near the doorway had them flinching in shock as Deaton spoke, "Mexico. And if you want to save his life, that's where you're going too."

—
A/N: one more episode until season 5!!!! brodie theo is gonna make an appearance soon 🤭

kill off the parents or break up ryder and austin?