Love's Spiral

A/N: Make sure to read the Author’s Note at the bottom, please!

!@#$#@!

Spencer and Isaac got to the preserve as fast as they could. She had hardly been able to calm herself before they found Derek. Spencer kept her breathing even, but she could tell that he knew something was wrong with her.

Derek was giving her a few strange looks that Spencer tried to shake off.

Spencer focused her attention on the task at hand. “So how is this working?” She asked. “Where are they?”

“Scott’s tracking them right now.”

“By himself!?” Spencer exclaimed. “Derek, you literally just told me they were rabid. They’ll kill him.”

Derek’s phone rung from his pocket. He passed Spencer a look and went to answer it.

Spencer scoffed.

“Derek, we have a problem.” Scott’s voice sounded through the phone. “I may have lost them.”

“You lost them?” Derek asked.

“I don’t even know why he was alone with them in the first place.” Spencer chastised.

“Yeah, I kind of had to.”

Derek took in a deep breath, looking to Spencer. He noticed her stare with a raised brow and tried to keep his cool. “That wasn’t exactly the plan.”

“I know, which is why I think we should stick together.” Scott said. “Trust me, he’s too strong, too fast and way too angry for one person to handle. We’ve got to do this together.”

“Look, we’re at the trails by the entrance to the preserve. Can you meet us here?”

“Yeah. Just gotta drop something off first.”

Spencer heard the line go dead and narrowed her eyes at Derek. “What the hell were you two thinking?” She asked. “With how manic those two are, you decided splitting up was the best option?”

“We’re working with what we’ve got.” Derek defended.

“Well, you’ve got us now.” Isaac said, placing a hand on Spencer’s arm to calm her. He looked at her for a minute, and she nodded. “Which way were they headed?”

“Towards the campgrounds, I think.” Derek responded. “That was the way Scott was supposed to go, in case there were some stray campers.”

“Alright then.” Spencer said, turning in that direction. “Let’s go then.” She took off into a heavy run. Spencer paid attention to everything around her, in search for either Scott’s scent or one she didn’t recognize. Finally, she found Scott’s smell and turned slightly in the direction she knew it was coming from.

Scott almost tripped from being snuck up on by Spencer, Isaac, and Derek. He caught himself though, coming upon a tree and jumping over it with Derek and Isaac.

Spencer used the slick leaves to slide under it before stopping along with the boys.

Derek was staring down at a track that was directly in front of him.

“Is it them?” Scott asked from his crouched position.

Spencer approached the footprint to catch a good look at it and, hopefully, a scent. She looked a little further ahead, seeing a smaller print than the one Derek had his attention on. “Derek…” Spencer said, pointing to it.

Derek lifted his head, seeing the same thing. “We’re not the only ones that decided to stick together.”

“Is that gonna make it easier or harder to catch them?” Scott asked.

“I don’t know.” Derek admitted.

Scott nodded, and stood to his feet. “Derek?” He called, the pack’s attention. “I saw Boyd try to rip two little kids apart.” Scott admitted. “Are they gonna do that to everyone they find?”

Derek clenched his jaw and nodded, walking towards Scott. “Everyone and anyone.” He walked passed the young wolf and continued tracking.

Spencer let out a hard sigh and looked to her best friend. “They’re okay, right?” She asked. “The kids?”

Scott nodded. “Yeah.”

“Good.” Spencer said, relieved. She gestured to Isaac and the two hurried after Derek, Scott following shortly after. Spencer broke into a jog, following the steps she saw, her and Isaac surpassing Derek in his own hunt.

Isaac stopped suddenly, making Spencer stop to check on him.

“Something wrong?” Spencer asked her boyfriend.

Isaac held up a finger to her. “Do you hear that?” he asked.

Spencer listened to the air around her, paying close attention. She was about to say that she didn’t, when another piercing sound broke out. “Screaming.” Spencer realized, before taking off quickly in the direction the sound came from.

Isaac was faster than Spencer and he got there first. He jumped through the treeline, seeing a female wolf he determined to be Cora.

Spencer approached the pair, seeing Isaac crouching down in front of Cora.

Cora faced Isaac, claws and teeth bared, softly growling.

Isaac got to his feet heading towards her quickly.

“Wait!” Spencer shouted.

However, as she did, Isaac swung at Cora just as quickly, knocking the feral beta to the ground.

Spencer couldn’t release her breath yet because Cora managed to hold herself up.

Cora growled at Isaac and twisted her way to a standing position in front of Isaac. She grabbed him by his shirt and threw him backwards into the heavy branch of a tree.

Spencer felt her canines grow in her mouth and stepped forward feeling a heavy rage for the girl in front of her. “I really thought we were going to get along.” She said to Cora, flicking her wrist to draw out her claws. What Spencer wasn’t expecting was for Scott to come from behind her and drip kick Cora down. Spencer couldn’t help but glare at Scott.

Derek came out of the woods and they all tried to corner Cora in. He roared for a moment but Cora quickly ran off, Derek chasing after her.

Isaac looked back at Spencer, questioning what he should do.

Spencer looked towards Scott and saw a girl standing in front of a tent. She looked back at Isaac and gestured for him to go.

Isaac nodded and quickly followed after Derek.

Scott approached the girl, but she took a frightened step back. “Are you okay?” Scott asked.

The girl’s breath was shaking. “What?”

“Are you alright?”

The girl nodded.

“Look, you need to leave.” Spencer said, trying to move this party along. “You need to get out of here. Get out of the woods as fast as you can, okay?”

The girl didn’t respond, but Spencer and Scott didn’t have time to wait around for her to. When Spencer and Scott had caught up to Derek and Isaac, they were stopped.

Spencer slowed and approached Isaac with a furrowed brow. “What happened?”

No one answered her for a minute. “We lost her.” Isaac said finally.

Spencer groaned, angrily dropping her head.

“She’s fast.” Isaac tried to defend.

“And so are you.” Spencer countered. She scoffed. “Has anyone even seen Boyd since he tried to kill those kids?” Spencer asked, looking between all three of her friends. All of them shook their heads. Spencer could feel her breaths start to get heavy again. It lightened though when she heard the sound of Darth Vader’s Imperial March coming from her pocket. Spencer pulled out her cell phone, answering the call. “Stiles, what happened?”

“Well, I told you that she found a dead body at the pool, right?” Stiles said. “Well, it’s bad. And I think it was them.”

“Them, being Cora and Boyd?” Spencer tried to clarify.

“Yeah.”

“I’m not sure how that’s even possible. Are you sure?”

“Yup. Pretty sure.” Stiles stressed. “Throat ripped out, blood everywhere. It’s like the frickin’ Shining over here. If two little twin girls come out of the woods, start asking me to play with them forever and ever, I’m not gonna be surprised.”

“Stiles, please.” Spencer calmed. “You have to be really sure about this. Can you get closer and make sure that it was them?”
“‘Make sure it was them’?” Stiles said, taken aback. “Spence, who else is goin’ around rippin’ throats out?”

Spencer took the phone away from her ear, annoyed that he wasn’t listening to her. She brought it back and spoke. “Please, just do it. Okay, two seconds of your life to double check.”

“Gah, okay.” Stiles sighed. It took just a moment for Stiles to confirm his thoughts, but still Spencer wasn’t sure.

Spencer had asked Stiles to send her a picture after they hung up and he agreed. Awaiting the picture, she turned to Derek, Isaac, and Scott and let out a breath. “So, there’s a dead body at the community pool.” She said, even still, knowing they’d all heard the conversation.

“This doesn’t make any sense.” Derek insisted. “The public pool is all the way on the other side of the woods. We haven’t tracked them anywhere near there.”

“Derek, they killed someone.” Scott said.

“How are they moving so fast?”

“Derek.”

“But they can’t be that fast on foot.”

“They killed someone.” Scott stressed, gaining a hard look from Derek. “Some [i[totally innocent kid is dead… And it’s our fault.”

Derek’s eyes trailed away from Scott. “It’s my fault.” He corrected.

“God, stop!” Spencer said harshly. “I’m seriously tired of this blame that’s going around.” She looked straight at Derek, making sure he met her eyes. “It’s not your fault. It’s not his fault.” Spencer said, pointing to Scott. “It’s not any of our faults. It’s them, the alphas. This is all their doing.”

Something passed over Derek’s eyes that Spencer hadn’t ever seen before. After a second, Derek showed her a small nod.

“We need help.” Scott told the pack.

“We have Isaac now. And Red.”

“I mean, real help.”

Isaac jerked his head towards Scott, slightly offended by what he’d said. “You have no idea what Spencer’s been doing for the past few months to get us this far.”

Spencer reached for Isaac, shaking her head. “It’s okay. That’s not what he means.” Spencer said, looking towards Scott, wanting to make sure that she was right in what she’d said.

Scott nodded. “They’re too fast for us, for all of us. They’re too strong, too rabid.”

“We’ll catch ‘em.” Derek promised, shaking his head.

“What happens if we do?” Isaac asked. “We just gonna hold them down until the sun comes up?”

“Maybe it would be...easier just to kill them.” Derek realized.

“No way.” Spencer argued. “Boyd is my friend. And Cora… She’s family.”

“Killing them isn’t the right thing to do.” Scott supported.

Isaac looked at Spencer and then to Scott. He’d wanted to be on her side, but he knew this wasn’t going to be easy. “What if it's the only thing to do?” Isaac questioned. “If we can’t even catch them, what else do we do?”

“Find someone who knows what they’re doing.” Scott said, simply.

Derek scoffed, looking to the beta. “Who?”

“Someone who knows how to hunt werewolves.”

Spencer laughed once. “So, we call up Argent and say we’ve got a loose werewolf? I really don’t think we have to go that far. We can do this.”

And Spencer believed that. However, Scott was already on his way back towards town.

!@#$#@!

“I don’t understand why we’re even trying. They could be leaving Beacon Hills right now.” Spencer complained from beside Derek. Her body was turned in the passenger seat to face him. “You get that, right?”

Isaac sat in the back seat, quiet, like always. He had no argument to what Spencer was saying. Argent helping them out was a long shot.

“We should have stayed.” Spencer insisted. “We should have stayed on the preserve and tried to track them down ourselves, because all we’re doing is wasting time until they kill someone else. This is pack, we’re talking about here.” She turned her head towards the windshield seeing Chris Argent heading towards his car with a couple bags of groceries. Spencer looked back “I am including Cora in that, by the way. She’s your sister, so she’s part of the pack, no questions asked.”

“It’s not really your say.” Isaac countered.

Derek heard the snark and looked back at him in the rearview mirror with a raised brow.

Spencer turned towards the beta sharply. “Oh, I have a say.” Spencer pressed. “Until the day I stop being his emissary, I will have a say for who is in this pack. If Mr. Alpha’s smart, he’ll just keep listening.” She nodded and harshly turned in her seat, sitting the correct way. Spencer crossed her arms over her chest, and stared out the window, watching Scott beg the ex-hunter to go back to work for just one night. What brought some amusement to Spencer was that Argent held a gun up to Scott’s face.

“Are you okay, Red?” Derek asked, carefully.

“Just peachy.” Spencer replied, obviously not wanting to talk about it anymore.

There was a moment of silence before Isaac said something. “Do you think this is gonna work?” He asked aloud.

“Nope.” Derek said quickly.

“Me neither.” Isaac insisted. He thought for a moment and then clicked his tongue. “So your, uh… Your sister...”

Derek looked over at Spencer seeing her huff quietly in her seat. He then looked in the rearview mirror telling Isaac to be careful with what he was saying.

Isaac’s eyes shot to Spencer and then back to Derek. “Sorry, yeah, it’s - ” Isaac cleared the blockade in his throat. “It’s bad timing, I’m sorry.”

Derek’s eyes returned to the scene with Argent and Scott.

“I’ll ask later. It’s fine.”

“Are you freaking kidding me?” Spencer scoffed and turned completely around in her seat. “What part of ‘no questions asked’ don’t you get?”

Both of Derek’s brows were raised as he looked over at what was going on between Spencer and Isaac.

Isaac shrunk back into the back seat. “Or never.” Isaac nodded. “Yeah, yeah, I’m totally good with never.”

“She’s part of the pack, Isaac.” Spencer stressed. “That’s all you need to know unless either of them are willing to share more.” At that point, Spencer was tired of preaching, she turned back in her seat, catching Derek’s eyes as she did.

Derek nodded at her appreciatively.

Spencer could tell that there was more that he wanted to say. Maybe more that Derek wanted to ask, but like Isaac had said, the timing was wrong. It also probably wasn’t about anything Spencer wanted to talk about. She knew that he knew that she was still freaking out about everything, even though they’d finally learned some answers about the rest of their pack.

Thinking about it, Derek had realized that Spencer hadn’t had a chance to grieve for Erica yet. He’d had his moment, back at the bank. Derek had found her body in the closet and carried it out towards the vault, showing Scott and Allison what he had been dreading for four months. With some quick thinking, he managed to make it look like the bank had been broken into, which (thanks to Allison) wasn’t hard. Derek would make a call later from one of his burner phones to inform the sheriff of a break-in that might have happened at the abandoned bank, insisting that some kids were up to something stupid. They’d find Erica’s body and not much else, but at least her family knew.

“You don’t really think that Cora and Boyd killed that kid at the pool, do you?” Spencer asked quietly, without turning her head.

Derek just stared at her.

“I mean, you were right. Even with the extra boost they’re getting from the full moon right now there’s no way that they would have gone from the bank to the preserve to the pool and back.” Spencer reasoned. “They’re not that fast. Isaac’s the fastest of all three of us and he couldn’t do that in what time they had.” She pulled her phone from her jacket and pulled up the picture Stiles sent her. It wasn’t a good picture, but it did the job. “Look at this.” Spencer said to Derek, holding up the phone to show him the picture. “Does that look like something a feral werewolf would do?” She asked.

Derek examined the picture.

Isaac pulled himself forward to see the picture.

Spencer was shaking her head, watching as Derek’s eyes stared at the photo. “I mean, yes, that kid’s throat is severely perforated, but it’s too clean. Too structured. Boyd and Cora wouldn’t have done this with that much patience.” She took her phone back, analyzing the photo again.

“So, they didn’t do it?” Isaac questioned.

Derek shook his head, but agreed. “If they didn’t do this, it means there’s someone else in Beacon Hills who is.” He looked to Spencer. “Who else would be doing this?”

Spencer shrugged, totally unsure of that answer. “Heard of any other murders recently?” She asked, staring up at Derek, brows furrowed, deep in thought. “And, honestly, who would want to kill this kid? I don’t really recognize him.” Spencer looked to the picture again, her eyes catching on something on his hand. “He’s some innocent kid, in more ways than the obvious one.”

“How do you know that?” Isaac asked with a small laugh.

“He’s wearing a purity ring.” Spencer said, zooming in on the boy’s hand to show Isaac.

Isaac scoffed, impressed that she had noticed that. “Have you ever thought about a career in law enforcement instead of teaching?”

“No way.” Spencer said, scrunching her nose up. “I know firsthand that’s a stressful job. Pops goes crazy with everything that happens in this town.”

“And she’d need a high school diploma.” Derek quipped, staring out the windshield.

Spencer turned her head quickly towards Derek, her eye twitching with frustration. “We’re gonna have this fight again?” She asked.

“Not fighting. Just saying.” Derek surrendered.

Spencer clenched her jaw. “I working on going for the GED and that is just as good, and it’s gonna have to be good enough for you.” She scoffed, turning away from him. “I’m not even sure why you care so much. Honestly, you’re gone for three months and, somehow, it’s your way or the highway.”

Derek turned his head, only slightly to look at her.

Isaac wasn’t sure what was happening in front of him, but it made him feel uncomfortable. Like there was suddenly someplace else that he should be and it certainly wasn’t in the car with the moment the two were having. They were fighting like they used to when they were… But Isaac shouldn’t think about that. He knew Spencer had promised that she was with him. Isaac knew that, but with what was unfolding in front of him, the doubt he had for her grew larger.