All That Glitters Is Silver

The escalator beneath Allison, Lydia, and I rose slowly, lifting us up into the dress department of Macy’s.

I couldn’t even begin to count the ways I didn’t want to be here but Allison and Kate insisted.

Kate had been especially relentless about going on with my life.

“People die.” She had told me last night before going out with a group of hunters, “We mourn and move on. That’s life.”

They weren’t the tenderest and most inspirational words I’d ever heard but I understood. There weren’t many older hunters. I guessed they had a way of dying before they made it to retirement. Gerard seemed to be the only exception.

I wasn’t going to simply get over my mother’s death. That was going to take a long time, especially with the guilt I felt over it. But, I could put on a mask, make them think I was okay.

The first step to that was dress shopping for the formal.

Lydia was being especially generous. She was going to buy Allison and I dresses, as well as her own. I was a bit suspicious with her nice offering but Allison seemed to understand what was going on.

“I have to admit. As far as apologies go, this was a little more than I was expecting.” Allison commented, staring meaningfully at Lydia. Lydia pursed her lips and shrugged nonchalantly.

“But, not as much as I’m going to ask.” Allison went on. Lydia looked at her in alarm.

“What?” She readied herself to get off the escalator. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“It means that you are going to cancel on whatever dumb, roided-up jock that you said yes to and you’re are going to go with someone else.” We all got off the escalator and I caught a familiar sight: Stiles.

“Who?” Lydia asked, furrowing her neatly waxed strawberry blonde brows.

Allison looked pointedly in Stiles’ direction, “Him.”

Stiles caught a whiff of some perfume he was spraying at the perfume station and sneezed spastically. Twice.

I couldn’t help but smile.

“Oh, don’t frown, Lydia,’ Allison mocked, “Someone could be falling in love with your smile.”

Lydia took in a deep breath as Stiles finally noticed us. He grinned and waved enthusiastically.

It made me feel a bit better knowing Stiles was here. That meant that Scott wasn’t too far away. Since I was with Allison, he could know she was safe as well. In a sense, it was killing two birds with one stone for Scott.

We darted into the dress section with full force. Immediately, Lydia started piling dresses into Stiles’ unwilling arms.

“Oh. So—okay,” Stiles rambled, “So are you going to try all of these on right now? Is this a twenty-four hour Macy’s?”

He obediently followed Lydia to the dressing room with me snickering in his wake. Allison and I had split up to look in different dress sections. I could no longer fit into a size two (or probably even four) so I ended up just wandering the aisles aimlessly.

My eyes wandered absentmindedly to the maternity section. Pretty soon I was going to have to get clothes there because my regular one’s were getting tighter and tighter. I had adopted an all-sweatshirt-all-the-time policy to hide. But, eventually even my sweatshirts wouldn’t be able to hide my stomach. I was truly dreading that day because it meant that I could no longer hide it from parents—or dad. And finding out that his only daughter was pregnant by a werewolf was the last thing he needed to hear after one of them murdered his wife.

I turned my head to tell Allison I was just going to sit down somewhere when I noticed she was in conversation with someone.

Her body language was tense and uncomfortable. When she shifted over an inch, I understood why.

Standing less than a foot in front of her was Peter Hale.

I felt my heart palpitate and my entire body freeze. In the past five days I had dreamt up numerous ways to exact revenge upon Peter. They were brutal, bloody, and slow.

Now that he was standing less than three yards away from me, I couldn’t remember a single one, let alone move to act on them. It was pathetic, I was pathetic.

“Attention, shoppers. The owner of a Mazda, license plate: five-U-N-seven-six-eight. Your car is being towed.” A lady over the intercom announced. Allison looked up in alarm.

“That’s my car.” She muttered to herself before dashing off. Peter smirked before looking in my direction. My eyes enlarged like a deer caught in headlights. I couldn’t move or scream as Peter edged closer to me. He smiled that smile which was a perfect mixture of triumph and madness.

I gulped as he halted directly in front of me. I felt like I couldn’t breathe.

“Hello, Cassie,” His face looked surprised but I knew he wasn’t. He knew I would be here. He had probably been following me since he found out I was pregnant. I still wasn’t completely sure how he found out. Maybe Derek had told him.

Derek.

“Where’s your sidekick?” I growled. That white-hot anger boiled within me again. I wanted revenge so badly it was starting to consume me. If only I was strong enough to act on it.

Peter tilted his head as if to size me up, “Your boyfriend?”

“He’s not my boyfriend.” I seethed.

Peter shook his head like he couldn’t comprehend, “You kids have a strange way of going about things. In my day, we fell in love, dated, and got married. Then had the kids. I guess you two just skipped right to the end. It’s like ruining a good book.” He said innocently.

I didn’t respond. I wanted to close my eyes and wish Peter away. If werewolves were real, why couldn’t magic be, too?

“I think you know why I’m here, Cassie.” Peter’s evil voice flew through my unwilling ears. “I’m going to retract my prior statement and ask you one last time. Will you give me the baby?”

I didn’t have to think about it this time. There was too much at stake. Too many people getting hurt or dying, it was a no brainer. I knew I was going to pay the consequences later—but now I couldn’t think about that. I had to make sure everyone survived the formal and the next full moon.

“Yes,” I replied quietly.

Peter smiled broadly and triumphantly. There was no question in my mind he knew I would say yes. Not when there was so much at risk. He knew that. Peter Hale wasn’t an idiot. He was cunning and scheming and I worried that maybe he would win this battle of Beacon Hills.

“I thought so.” Peter smirked, fingering a dress next to me, “This would nice on you.” I looked over nervously at a pretty, black dress. “Black has an amazing ability to hide every flaw, every truth.”

I glanced at Peter’s own dark appearance. Derek wore a lot of black as well.

“But, it’s your formal.” He chuckled like he was intruding on my dress decisions instead of my entire life, “You wear what you want to wear.”

“How thoughtful.” I said thickly.

“Have fun tomorrow night, Cassie.” He told me seriously. “It’s going to be a night to remember.”



Allison and I sat in her car in silence. Kate had just texted Allison to meet her somewhere with me. I was getting nervous while Allison stayed calm. She didn’t know what she was getting herself into. Kate was going to reveal to us—maybe just Allison—what our family secret was and I had no idea how she intended to do so.

Was she going to bring in some werewolf like a sick show-and-tell or give us a lecture on the supernatural? It could have been anything and the ambiguity of it all scared me shitless.

“How’s the baby?” Allison asked out of the blue. I felt my throat constrict. I didn’t see it as my baby anymore. Maybe I never did. Derek and I never wanted it. It shouldn’t have been possible to conceive anyway. Peter wanted it and now it was his. It was as simple as that.

“Fine,” I answered shortly.

“You still haven’t told me who the father is.” She reminded me. She had relented on the baby talk since my mother died. It was her gift to me in exchange for losing a parent. How sweet of her.

“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.” I snorted humorlessly. Allison didn’t know what to make of that.

“Is it Scott’s?”

“Yes, Allison,” I rolled my eyes, “I slept with Scott a few weeks ago. We just have this undying connection. Every time I see him with you, I die a little inside—”

Allison laughed, rolling her brown eyes as well. “You said I wouldn’t believe you. If it had been Scott’s, I wouldn’t have believed you!”

“Name one person in town you would believe I’d slept with.” I challenged.

Allison took it into serious consideration. “Jackson.”

“That’s just repulsive.” I muttered. Then again, I knew Jackson a hell of a lot more than I knew Derek. I saw him more often, too. And he was taking Allison and I to formal. Maybe I should have seen that one coming. “Besides, he has a girlfriend.”

“Had.” Allison reminded me of Lydia’s and Jackson’s sudden break.

“Right,” I nodded.

“So, this guy doesn’t have a boyfriend.” Allison said, “That’s the first clue you’ve given me. Ever.”

“We’re not playing Twenty Questions who’s-your-baby-daddy-style.” I groaned, crossing my arms around my swollen stomach.

“Just give me a name, Cassie.” Allison pried, pulling into Beacon Hills Reserve parking lot.

Why did Kate want us to meet here?

“That would ruin the air of surprise.” I muttered distractedly, getting out of the car.

“Cassie,” Allison groaned, getting ready to start in again when Kate suddenly appeared.

We both stopped in our tracks, staring at our mysterious aunt. The anxious look on Allison’s face revealed that she wasn’t as collected as I first thought.

“Let’s go, girls.” Kate smiled reassuringly. And without another word, Allison and I followed Kate into the forest.