The Animal Within

Antsy didn't begin to describe my feelings at that moment as I checked by phone once more for any messages from Aiden, but, yet again, none had been received; the thunder looming in the horizon didn't help my anxiety either as the bus I was in was bouncing from the poorly paved road while we were heading to a Cross Country meet in... some place I'd peg was in the middle of Nowhere, and Why-Does-It-Even-Exist?

Consequently enough, I was sat next to Danny who was rather more observant than I'd want him to be, but the guy was hard not to like. Coach Finstock's whistle drew me from my revere once more as some stupid kid kept wanting to talk to his friend; this is a school bus people not the back of your Mom's sporty van - you can't climb into the front seat and expect it not to be noticed.

"Stop thinking about it man" I heard Isaac say as if I wasn't aware of Boyd's thoughts myself. "What? You're not thinking about it too?" Boyd asked his fellow Beta as I tried to shut the conversation out of my head, but I was to hyped-up in my anxiety that I couldn't close it off like usual. "We'll both stop thinking about it" Isaac said as I knew he was trying to keep his heart calm, but was failing miserably. "I can't" Boyd replied as I knew their attentions were all on one little subject concerning their Alpha. "Yeah, well, there's nothing you can do about it either" Isaac told him now I just couldn't help my unintentional eavesdropping. "You sure about that?" Boyd asked before looking my way, but I was once again checking my phone for messages.

"Everything okay?" Danny asked from beside me - this is the too observant part that has gotten to me. "Yeah, why?" I asked him trying to play my weirdness off like nothings going on when both of us knew something was. "Checked your phone at least three times in the last five minutes" he answered as if he suspected something kinky to appear on it, and brighten the mood of the bus; how wrong he was. "Waiting for a message" I said smiling back at him to keep his interest on me, and not my phone.

Admittedly, and overwhelmingly unwilling, I had gotten closer to him. As the days went on, though, I found that the closer I got to him the more I figured out he knew about as much as Coach Finstock did on the subject of Derek and his pack so it was nice to at least have a normal guy as a friend rather than a potential boyfriend.

"Anything important?" Danny asked me looking as if he was more interested in getting closer to me rather than knowing what's on my phone, but those visits to Drex's hospital room weren't for naught. The guy had captured my heart somehow, and I have to figure it out before I take the next step; the more I try to figure out, though, the more the memories invade my head about a guy not-so-different looking than to Drex.

"No" I countered back wanting him to pay attention to whatever he was doing in the first place. "Nothing" I muttered darkly before smelling infection, and turning my head toward Stiles Stilinski and Scott McCall - the two biggest pain in my ass at the moment. Stiles was working on vocabulary words while Scott McCall was trying to keep a strong hold on himself while Stiles was close, but even I knew the mentally strong had to let down their guard at some point, and I bet it'd be soon.

I honestly didn't know if I should take the chance to attack the Omega when he was down or not, but I knew something was going to have to give at some point or another. The next bump came with a jarring feel to it which made Scott hiss in pain - I was beginning to wonder if the smell of infection was coming from him or some other idiot on the bus since we were traveling too fast for me to catch the scent of roadkill on the side of the road.

Hated enemy right now or not, Deucalion wanted Scott to be in peak condition for what was going to happen next, and some unhealing injury couldn't take him out of the game just yet. As soon as Scott pulled up his shirt to show Stiles the injury, I was hit with a giant wave of infection coming from the wound, and I had to hold myself from tossing my biscuits.

Only one thing would make someone as strong as Scott keep from healing as every other Omega and Beta should from an Alpha's scratch - that thing is felt by all. Guilt. Scott was preventing himself from healing because of guilt from Derek's death...or supposed death since the guy just refused to die.

Another thirty minutes and hundreds of times looking at my phone later, and still nothing. I was getting very impatient - Stiles pointing out that Scott still wasn't healing was also getting me slightly worried; don't take my worry as a sign of liking him I was merely comparing his injury with Drex's which had me all the more worried of why he and Baylynn were following us rather than staying home, and resting for the weekend.

Scott caught on that I was listening to their conversation, but I didn't care seeing as I nearly had my head caved in when the bus came to a violent stop on the freeway with stop and go traffic in front and behind it. I also got tense when I sensed an attack from Boyd was about to happen seeing as I was his enemy, and there were three of them on the bus. I was the duck surrounded by sharks no matter if one of them was previously injured - my throat was still on the line, and if Scott or Isaac didn't stop him I knew Boyd would take the chance to kill me and become an Alpha.

At the last possible second, Scott comes to the rescue, and put's Boyd back in his place while I still have no news from Aiden on Ennis. Ennis and Derek were fighting before they slipped off the platform we were fighting on, and onto the escalators below. As I said before - I hold no loyalty nor feelings to Scott or even Derek, but seeing Ennis and Derek fall at the same time...kinda hurt. It was a mental hurt for Derek, and a physical hurt for Ennis since he had become the father figure that I needed in my life while Kali was the crazy bitch sister, and Deucalion could just fuck off for all I care.

Seeing the man that helped keep my nightmares at bay hurt was like branding me with a silver cross that was laced with wolfsbane, and the burn never fully healing. If Deaton couldn't help him, I don't know what I'd do - I knew I could count on Aiden. But I also knew if any of us got hurt to the point of death - Deucalion wouldn't care at all; he'd take the powers of another Alpha for himself just to continue to be the "Demon Wolf" as long as he could.

I just had to pray that Ennis bounced back fast enough to prevent Deucalion from interfering in any decisions made.

Something hinky was going on as Danny started receiving multiple text messages that he was at first responding to, but started ignoring while looking embarrassed at the same time when I looked over to the dinging sound that kept coming from his phone. His expression changed from embarrassment to irritation as the messages kept coming, and he opened his mouth to voice something but a quick glance over my shoulder proved it wasn't Danny who was wondering the question at all, but a nosey Omega and his equally as nosey human friend.

To get the dinging noises from Danny's phone to stop, I told him a friend of mine was severely sick and might not make it over night. Let the Omega and human stew over that while I try to keep up on what's going on with Ennis, because he was more important right now than the Hale Pack is.

The next ten minutes went by in a snap, and I am happy I can say snap because the last two minutes made me just want to die. That evil genius Stilinski got us off the bus after he made this Jared kid throw up, because he, apparently, has motion sickness to the most severest of norms which made the bus have to be pulled over at the next rest stop.

This gave me the chance I needed to grill Baylynn and Drex over why they were following the bus in the first place, and why they hadn't stayed away from me, but I was soon stuck between following Scott and his group into the bathroom or waiting outside for one of the Beta's to attempt to kick my ass.

I was absent choice when Baylynn hurried off into the bathroom with Scott's group leaving a crutch bound Drex to sit down and relax. Figuring now was the best time to start some sort of friendship with the guy whose life I saved seemed better than Isaac or Boyd going to town on me while Scott is currently MIA was the better option.

I walked up to the crutch bowed teen and sat on the table rather than the bench to give him some space while also being close enough to be noticed. "Hi" I said not knowing what really to say to him even though I had "talked" to him all week while he was in the hospital; they had doped him up on a nice level of Morphine to keep him lucid enough that he could talk, be away, and so forth during the day while at night - he was sound asleep and not waking up for even a tornado.

He looked to me, and smiled the most amazing smile I had ever seen before responding, "Hey". The smile was like a thousand suns shining down on me, but not blinding me in the slightest; "How's your leg doing?" I asked him as I motioned to the wound slightly. "It's healing, couple more weeks and I should be able to get the stitches out" he answered keeping all of his attention on me. I guess that's the person Drex Lockwood was - he never spared anyone or anything else attention when he was being talked to.

"Listen, I uh I heard that you were the one that caught me before I fully collapsed on the floor in Ms. Blake's class. I was told if you hadn't caught me that there'd be glass shards stuck in my leg, but you pulled the glass out somehow without leaving any shards behind either so I just wanted to thank you" Drex said looking at me shyly. The guy had a way with words I'd give him that, but I still couldn't shake the feeling that something more was going on with him and his sister.

Coach Finstock's whistle shook me from the revere I was sharing with Drex, "Let's go! Back on the bus!" Observing the shock and panic on Stiles and Lydia's faces said all I needed to know - the infection in Scott had gotten worse, and him not allowing himself to heal had put them in a hard position. "Ethan" Drex said as he got his crutches again. I stopped so he could get right beside me, "Listen I have a weird question, and I don't want to sound like a nutcase about it, but...Have you ever felt like you've seen someone before from somewhere, but you know you've never met them in your entire life?" Drex asked as he looked at me innocently - like he had no idea why he asked in the first place.

"I have, why? Have you felt the same way?" I asked not wanting to allude to any hints of feeling like I've known him since before I was even born. "Yeah actually, with you. I swear I keep having these weird...dreams like I've seen you before in a different time, but it's not physically possible" Drex answered with the a "I-feel-like-I'm-going-crazy" expression. I folded my lips in and out as I thought on how to take the comment, but I knew how he was feeling and I wanted to tell someone about the dreams - it's just a matter of trusting this guy so I answered with a riddle, "Some thing's in this world that seem impossible - aren't as impossible as they seem" before I walked toward the bus once more.

I was, predictably, stopped by the one puppy who really wanted me dead. I just lay back and took it knowing that the pup would be put on a leash soon. Danny tried to stop him, but Isaac just pushed him back, and kept hitting me - the pup wasn't listening to anyone with authority while the other humans were just egging him on. "Isaac!" Scott exclaimed getting the puppy to snap out of his temper tantrum.

Naturally, Danny came to my side while Drex stayed back because he'd likely get trampled by the crowd, but I oh so wanted him by my side in this time just to have him touching me and wiping away the bit of blood on my face, and his expression read that he wanted to as well but stayed back with his sister who just appeared at his side with a haunted look on her face. She will, no doubt, be telling him about what she saw in the bathroom while he wouldn't tell her anything, because I gave away no information.

"I'm fine" I told Danny as I wiped the blood on my face away. "He was hitting you with his full strength" Danny responded looking at me in concern, but he failed to see I didn't need his concern. I was fine, and I still hadn't heard anything from Aiden which was making me more and more worried as time went on, but a sudden out-of-breath experience left me winded and trying to figure out what was going on. Did that puppy hit me again? No, I was just talking to Danny who grew more concerned when I collapsed to the ground, but all I could see was Drex falling into his sisters arms as if he felt my pain.

'Don't hurt him' I thought thinking it was some supernatural force hurting us both, but I soon realized my heart felt like it was crying out to the sky and that's all the news I needed to know Ennis has died. Ennis and I had made a bond through blood and scars that we would always be father and son - we had done it behind Aiden's and the others backs so it'd mean just me and him. No one else knew about it, but I guess Drex knew something or was connected to him as well even though it'd be impossible since our pack never truly went anywhere without each other.

I caught his eyes, and I saw that his mind was as shattered of a mess as mine. As soon as we got to the meet I wanted to fix those beautiful brown eyes so they may never know sorrow ever again.