chapter thirty five
"werewolfitude"

      "SO, ARE YOU AVOIDING ME or just managing to escape every time I'm near you?"

      Lynn nibbled down on her bottom lip as she easily recognized the voice behind her, and she pathetically cringed up her face while clasping her eyes shut.

      It wasn't like he had been purposely avoiding the boy, per say, she just wasn't sure how to bring up the fact it had been wrong of him to sudden dangle herself over Derek's head as if she was some prize the either of them could win.

      Evelynn Kennedy is no damsel in distress, and she most definitely doesn't need o be stuck in the middle of some hormonal asshole boys who one day love her and the next are as cold as ice.

      "I'm not avoiding you, Isaac," Lynn replied while she turned on her heels towards the boy, who had a somewhat smug smirk covering his expression.

      Currently, almost everyone in the pack was now outside in the sunny bright lights of Californias backyard forest of Beacon Hills High School -- the beginning of cross-country practice that was being forced upon them by Coach.

      "You know I can tell when you're lying," Isaac stated with perked eyebrows, and Lynn puckered her lips outs she softly chuckled under her breath. "Did I do something wrong?"

      Lynn adjusted her leggings by fixing the way they were resting on her hips, and awkwardly chewed on the inside of her cheek as she tried to figure out an accurate answer.

      "I'll take that as a yes, then," Isaac faintly murmured, and he turned his body around to probably head towards the starting point of the run. Lynn sighed a bit as she caved, knowing there was no way she could stay mad at her best friend for very long, even if he did drop some comments about them she would've rather stayed private.

      "I'm not mad at you," Lynn suddenly rushed forward to wrap her frail hand around Isaac's elbow to force him to a stop, and she had a somewhat desperate expression covering her face.

      Lynn cares for her friends so much she worried it would only be a certain amount of time because it will inevitably kill her.

     The space between the two was almost nonexistent, where Lynn could feel the way Isaac's warm breath bouncing off her skin. She hadn't released her palm still in contact with his skin, but there was a moment of hesitation written on her face.

      It wasn't the same feeling.

      Not the same butteries that would erupt in the pit of her stomach when their skin just hardly grazed, not the fireworks that seemed to echo off the two as their soft lips collided for a kiss, not the eyes that would make Lynn go insane in her own mind.

      He wasn't Derek.

      "Can't you feel what's between us?" Isaac questioned with observant eyes, his somewhat taller figure reaching a few inches over Lynn's head. He softly rose his hand to ever so gently cup Lynn's cheek, making their eyes retain contact. "Because I do, I feel this spark whenever I touch you, this feeling of happiness when I see you or hear your laugh. Because you, Evelynn, are perfect in every possible way."

      "I'm not perfect, Isaac," Lynn mumbled while backed away a foot or so away from Isaac, and the boy was almost taken off guard from her flinching. "You don't even know me."

      "Know you? Of course I know you, Lynn."

      Isaac reached forward to place a hand on Lynn's wrist to perhaps pull her to a stop from her murmuring under her breath, but she immediately yanked her arm away from his touch.

      "You don't fucking know me, Isaac, you don't know half the messed up shit about me," Lynn suddenly snapped, and this was when she had managed to see to the way she was gathering a few teenagers attention nearby. So, when she continued, she was much quieter and calmer. "You don't. And you shouldn't, no one should."

      Best trying to ignore the completely broken and disappointed glance that had covered Isaac's face, Lynn turned on her heels to head over to where they would begin their run.

———

      "So, you just shattered his heart into a million pieces?"

      Lynn glanced over her shoulder with a deadpan look as she glared daggers in Stiles, the one who had dropped the comment in the first place, who only simply shrugged his shoulders in response.

      It was currently only Stiles and Lynn jogging side by side while the rest of the team was either ahead of them or the few that were actually behind them. She had saw the way Scott immediately chased after Isaac once Coach announced the beginning of the race, but she figured the last thing the boy needed right now was her following right after him.

     "Stiles, I only told you this so you could make me feel somewhat better about letting him down," Lynn replied with a bit of annoyance on her tongue. She had left out the part where she told him no simply because she was worried about getting him hurt, because that's what happens with everyone when they get too close.

      They get hurt.

      "You had every right to tell him no, alright?" Stiles spoke up, but this time, without much sarcasm or with a teasing tone. "Listen to your heart, Lynn, about who's the one and who isn't."

      Lynn's eyes started to drop as she thought, who's the one for her? She cared for Isaac, but there just weren't the same feelings that came along when she was with Derek.

      "Thanks," Lynn smiled softly in Stiles' direction, having an overwhelming feeling to just envelop the boy into a tight hug, but since they were both busy continuing their jog, she figured right now wasn't the best time. "So, speaking about the one, have you, uh, spoken to Lydia lately?"

      Stiles suspiciously narrowed his eyes in Lynn's direction as a little smirk started to cross her own pink lips, but the two best friends were swiftly erupted when a blood-curling scream echoed throughout the air.

Both Lynn and Stiles shared a completely concerned expression, and then immediately the werewolf darted forward using her supernatural strength. She knew Stiles would only be a little bit behind her, but she needed to know who it was.

Lynn pushed a few tree branches out of the way as she shuffled through some, but just as soon as she gained her vision back she gasped at the image that suddenly appeared right before her face.

She dug her heels into the ground just in time or else she would've ran straight into the tree where there was a man drenched in blood that was tied to it with some type of leash. The mere image of the lifeless body made her own start to shiver, and she backed away a few feet, only managing to bump to someone else.

Lynn was relieved to only see it was Stiles, who had placed two hands on her shoulders to make sure she was alright. She nodded faintly in his direction, straightening out her back, however Stiles didn't seem to hover away from her back still being pressed into his chest.

"It's him, isn't it?"

Lynn switched over her shoulder to see both Isaac and Scott staring in awe at the body, and she was trying to best control her emotions.

Scott slowly nodded in their direction, and Lynn made sure she was steadily avoiding looking at the bloodied body.

"You see the way the twins looked at him?" Isaac questioned as the group of werewolves and one human started to hear away from the body due to the fact the police officers were hushing away all the teenagers surrounding the crime scene.

"Yeah, you mean like they had no idea what happened?" Stiles replied, and he switched over to Lynn who was slightly trialing behind him, having a dazed look on her face. He wrapped a soft hand around her fingers, gaining her attention, and he flashed her his signature smile, and Lynn returned it with a nod.

Isaac let out a swift scoff, glancing over his shoulder over towards the twins, who were still aimlessly staring at the dead body. "No, no, they knew."

"The kid was strangled with a garrote, alright?" Stiles explained, and Lynn furrowed her eyebrows a bit together, it did seem odd to accuse the alpha pack of these killings, because why would they go through all this? "Am I the only one recognizing the lack of werewolfitude in these murders?"

"No, I agree with you," Lynn chimed in, all the boys gazing over in her direction, perhaps because she had been so quiet for some reason. "It doesn't make sense why alpha werewolves would kill their prey in a...non-werewolf way."

"Oh, you two think it's a coincidence they turn up and then people start dying?"

Lynn's expression dropped into a glare when she recognized just how much venom was growing in Isaac's voice — and she wondered if it was because of her he had shifted into a harsher attitude.

"Well, no, but I still don't think it's them," replied Stiles, who then glanced over in Scott's direction while crossing his arms over his chest with distaste.

"Scott?" Isaac spoke up, coming to a halt while he also switched over to Scott. "How 'bout you?"

"I don't know yet."

"You don't know yet?" Stiles slightly scoffed at his best friend, wondering just whose side he planned on taking.

"Well, he's got a point," Scott explained with a shrug, and both Stiles and Lynn perked up their eyebrows in his direction. "Seriously, guys, human sacrifices?"

"Scott, your eyes turn into yellow glow sticks, okay? Hair literally grows from your cheeks and then will immediately disappear," Stiles rambled, and Lynn let out a little chuckle under her breath at how dramatic the boy sounded. "And if I were to stab you right now, it would just magically heal, but you're telling me that you're having trouble grasping human sacrifices?"

"That's a good point, too," Scott said with a sympathetic frown towards Isaac, and Lynn let a little triumphant smirk cross her face.

"One day, you guys will understand that Stiles and I are never wrong."

a/n: thank you guys for 80k holy shit, i do not deserve it🥺i love you all!!!