chapter forty four
"shocking surprise"

"HOW LONG DO YOU THINK she'll be asleep?"

      Lynn's heavy eyelids felt as if they were practically sucking the life out of her — she was much too tired to even try to lift them, too much energy had been lost in the fight against the Alphas, and she was almost certain that she had, once again, been injected with some type of wolfsbane.

      Her toes dragged against the hard cement as she felt two strong arms under both sides of her armpits — however, by the way one had a tight clump of her hair and the other held a death-like grip on her skin, surely leaving a bruise behind.

      They weren't friends.

      Lynn ever so softly lifted her chin up from hanging limply, and she heard a sly chuckle escape a males lungs. A murmured, "Looks like someone woke up."

      "I wish I could murder you right here, right now," Lynn grumbled under her breath, and there was almost a slight growl laced in between her words. If she could've, she would've brutally killed Ethan and Aiden right here, right now.

     Lynn struggled in the two Alphas grasps on her body as she heard commotion happening in some nearby room. Finally tearing her eyes off her captors, she easily recognized the hallway that she had walked down dozens of times by now — she was at Derek's. 

There was a bit of fear that crossed those glazed blue eyes of hers, and her nostrils flailed every so slightly. Why in the bloody hell would they kidnap let and go through all this hassle just to bring her to the exact place she was going to anyway? There was an uneasy feeling settling in the pit of her stomach, and now there was some more energy fluttering in her veins to dig her back.

"What's a girl gotta do to get you alone?"

Lynn exhaled a heavy, yet shaky, breath of air as she acknowledged belonged to none other than Kali. And much to her surprise, her stumbling feet and movement was suddenly halted — forcing Lynn to glance up to gather her surroundings.

But nothing prepared her for the heartbroken expression that was stretched across that usual charming face of Derek's.

But it wasn't just Derek in his loft, on both sides of the werewolf Alpha were both Boyd and Isaac. Isaac, naturally, seemed to have anxiety and worry crossing her pale complexion, where Boyd didn't seem to be as bothered — but anyone could smell it, the concern he had for the female werewolf in the deathly grasps of their opposed Alphas.

"You and me Derek, or they tear her apart," Kali increasingly smirked victoriously in Derek's direction, peeling a questionable eyebrow up in the man's direction. "What do you say? You think you can beat me one on one?"

Why was she always the chosen one for the stupid damsel in distress? Evelynn Kennedy isn't a damsel in distress, she isn't.

Derek's loft that usually fluttered with light from the wide paneled window was no longer in that giddy aroma — instead replaced with dripping darkness and anxiety with the oncoming, unavoidable fight.

      With a simple swing of his head, Derek's two Beta's seemed to instantaneously understand his words without actually having to produce them. Reluctantly, the two slushed their way through at least a foot of water — that was why they needed electrical wires, too bad that plan failed.

      "I'm gonna rip your throat out," Derek hissed violently through his gritted teeth, and Lynn's eyes glanced down to his fingertips — they were anxiously fiddling against his rough jeans with sharp claws replacing those regular nails. "With my teeth."

      It was hard to keep her heavy swinging head up to watch the bickering argument unfold in front of her. Lynn let her body go limp, she was tired of always fighting back, she didn't have the energy anymore.

      Lynn didn't understand — she had always kept to herself her entire life, gotten good grades, kept this part of her life hidden away in a dark, little corner. But within living in Beacon Hills for over a year now, she had almost died at least a dozen times.

      Lynn didn't know if it was worth it anymore. She's practically failing Biology and English, hardly with her mother anymore between both of their busy schedules — sure, she loves her friends, and Derek, more than anything in the entire world, but she's ruining out of patience.

      Burning through her thoughts was the distracting fight going on between the two Alphas — Derek and Kali.

Kali had Derek by wrapping both of her sharpened claws around his wrists, and he struggled deeply in her grasp. There were bloody wounds covering both of the Alpha werewolves, but it appeared that Derek's body had gotten more harm than her.

      Her eyes floated over towards Isaac and Boyd near the right wall of the apartment, awaiting anxiously for the battle between the two to be over. They didn't dare disobey their Alpha's direct orders by intervening either with Lynn and the twins nor the two of them.

      In a second, Isaac darted through the slosh of water, creating his jeans to be sprinkled with water all the way up his thighs. The twins protectively loosened their grip on Lynn in an attempt at stopping Isaac in his steps — but they were interrupted as hundreds of shock waves echoed throughout their body.

      Lynn was too drowsy to even comprehend what had happened — but in reality, her best friends Stiles and Lydia, with the accompanied help of Cora, had switched all of the main power back on and the plan to surprisingly shock their enemies had suddenly come back alive.

      Thankfully, Isaac had narrowly avoided the water and had grasped Lynn's weak body into his arms, warmly hugging her as she unwillingly dropped her head on his chest. She melted directly into his touch, so happily relieved to know everything was going to work out okay.

      The twins fell to the ground due to the overwhelming shock, but unfortunately that also meant that both Kali and Derek were affected by the electrified water.

      "No!" Lynn exclaimed through an almost hoarse breath, and as she slowly slipped forward, Isaac only tightened his grip around her — not allowing her to even come close to touching the water, nor rescuing Derek.

      "Take him!" Kali yelled through the mess, her index finger warningly pointed at Boyd, who was also on the ground with groans escaping his lungs — and because he was the only Beta, he was much weaker from the attack than the others.

      Instantly obeying, the two twin Alpha used their unbeatable strength to force Derek's arms, more specifically, his clawed fingers, in an upwards angle. Kali then wrapped her hands tightly around Boyd's body, forcing the boy up from the water, and then threw his body as if he was as light as a feather.

      Right onto Derek's claws.

      A emotional gasp left Lynn's system as she struggled to keep herself calm, and a single tear slid down her rosy cheeks as silence filled the air. She could feel the way Isaac's clammed up next to her, and her heart broke for him — Boyd was apart of his pack, they were almost like brothers.

      "I'm giving you till the next full moon, Derek," Kali warned while turning her back on the two boys, where Derek was helplessly holding Boyd's bleeding out body. "Make the smart choice, join the pack. Or next time, I'm killing all of you."

       Isaac helped lift Lynn up from the ground as the threatening Alpha's left the bloodied scene, their backs were pressed against the wall as they just exited — no more words, no more fighting, they just left.

      That was when Lynn's attention was paid towards Derek, who was breathing heavily while glancing down to Boyd's wounds. He held his hands to cover them, to add pressure and help with the bleeding, but everyone in the room already knew what the outcome was — there was no way he'd survive it. 

      "It's okay," breathed out a barely conscious Boyd, and Lynn felt the way he tugged on her heart strings. Just like when she found out Erica was gone, she felt a piece of her own heart chip off.

      "No, no," Derel sucked in a deep breath, and Lynn could tell — he was trying his best not to cry, not to show how much he cared for him. "No, it's not. It's not. "I'm...I'm sorry."

      Isaac and Lynn were still close to each other as the two boys spoke gently with each other, and Lynn swung on her heels to bury her head into the crook of Isaac's neck, not having the courage to watch anymore. She couldn't stop losing people she cared for, and it was slowly killing her. Isaac didn't care whether or not she stained his shirt, he let the girl cry out silently, rubbing her back in a circular motion to calm her down.

      "The full moon. That feeling, that was worth it," Boyd slowly spoke as it took even more energy with each coming word. "There's a lunar eclipse. I always wondered what...what that felt like for one of us."

      And that was when he fell.

———

"Okay, so is two days standard, then, or are we thinking Derek's on, like, some extended getaway?"

Lynn jerked her head in the direction of Stiles as he so snarkily spoke, and she wanted to desperately flash him a deadpan expression, but kept to herself for once. The two best friends, along with Cora, were residing in Derek's loft currently.

However, that meant without the man.

Ever since Boyd's death a few days ago, Derek had disappeared into the night. Lynn understood truthfully, knowing that another one of his Beta's death had racked deeply in his heart, even more so than Erica's because of the role he played in Boyd's death.

"I don't know," Lynn answered honestly, placing two palms to rest on Derek's table, a loud sigh easily escaped her lungs as she just stared at the wood. "He's not taking any of my calls, or texts."

Derek needed time to mourn, and Lynn understood that completely and respected it — but a part of her was angered at the way he just departed and didn't split a word to her. She as concerned for her boyfriend, but he didn't even give her a chance.

"Why do you care?"

"Why do I care? Let's see...because over the last few weeks, my best friend's tried to kill herself, my other best friend's boss nearly got ritually sacrificed, a girl that I've known since I was three was ritually sacrificed. Boyd was killed by Alphas," Stiles sarcastically responded to Cora's annoyed question, and Lynn rolled her eyes simply from how often these two seemed to have arguments. "Do you want me to keep going? 'Cause I can, alright? For, like, an hour."

"Stiles," Lynn seethed through her teeth, knowing that he was only adding on to the stress of the werewolves and human. "Really?"

Stiles, being himself, only dramatically shrugged his arms in the direction of his best friend, and Lynn patiently rubbed the side of her temples in an attempt at calming herself.

"You think Derek can do anything about that stuff?" Cora questioned through the upcoming silence, and Lynn was thankful she wasn't going to have to be the one to talk.

"Well, since he's the one everyone seems to be after, it's more like he should do something about it, yeah," Stiles answered, and once again, his tone of voice was riddled with attitude.

"I don't know," Cora admitted, and Lynn's eyebrows slightly knitted together as the defeated voice she was hauling. "There's something different about him now — he wasn't like this when I knew him."

"What was he like?"

The three teenagers were interrupted before they could continue their conversation, every single one of their eyes floating towards the spiral staircase in the loft. Footsteps echoed out, and at first Lynn was taken off guard, not understanding who else could possibly be here. But then her tensed bones relaxed ever so slightly when she recognized the other Hale — Peter.

Although, she wasn't sure just how relaxed seeing the man made her.

"A lot like Scott, actually," Peter explained, stopping on the staircase for an extra moment of dramatize. "A lot like most teenagers — unbearably romantic, profoundly narcissistic, tolerable really only to other teenagers."

"So, what happened to him?" Lynn questioned, and that was when the man finished his slow walk down the stairs.

Lynn was extremely curious about Derek's past since he had spoke so little of it, but she always imagined that it would be him explaining everything to her — not learning from a relative. It felt weird wrong almost, to be hearing it from Peter and not Derek himself.

"Well, the same thing that changes a lot of young men, a girl," Peter then replied, and a little short laugh chuckled from him as he glanced over towards Lynn. "Surprised you're not his first, sista?"

Lynn's interested face then shifted into a deadpan stare, and she contemplated whether or not Derek would hate her if she just so managed to accidentally kill the man.

"You're telling me some girl broke his little heart? That's why Derek is the way he is?" Stiles chimed in, and it appeared that he cared more so about Derek's past than Peter's little comment.

"Do you remember Derek before he was an Alpha had blue eyes?" Peter spoke up, and all emotion voided of Lynn's face, and it completely straight out. "Do you know why some wolves have blue eyes?"

"Shut up," Lynn interrupted quickly, gaining almost everyone's attention in a split second. She had spent so long keeping this secret bottled up, she didn't need Stiles and Scott to figure out why some wolves have different eyes, and she wasn't ready to face it yet. "Just shut up, Peter."

"I just always thought it was, like, a genetic thing," Stiles shrugged simply, almost confused what had suddenly shifted Lynn's demeanor. "What is it?"

"If you want to know what changed Derek, you need to know what changed the color of his eyes."

a/n: wow! sorry it took so long for an update, but i hope you all enjoy this chapter <3 more will be coming soon, specifically now that school is over and i have all summer to write.

don't forgot to comment and vote and stuff! it truly makes me happy to know how much people enjoy this book, so pleeeaasse don't be a silent reader, or someone who just comments and doesn't vote (although i still luv u) thanks!!!