Part of the Pack

Brayden Caldwell sighed, spotting her crowd of friends across the halls of Beacon Hills high school.

"Hey, where were you last night? You totally bailed on us." Rebecca asked Brayden as she approached the group.

"Sorry, I wasn't feeling very good last night." That was the understatement of the year.

"Oh, okay. Well, you should have called and told us." Mariah sighed.

"I know, I'm sorry. I just-"

"Hey, you're Brayden, right?" Brayden heard from behind her. Her friends stood, looking behind her with their eyes popping out of their sockets. "Can we talk to you for a second? In private?"

Brayden was confused, why would Scott McCall and Stiles Stilinski, who had recently received the status of 'popular' want to talk to her?

"Did you happen to get bitten, in the woods by some kind of animal a couple nights ago?" Scott asked, Stiles standing by his side. Brayden nodded. "And it healed, right?"

"Yeah, I just got out of the hospital last night. How did you guys know about that?" Brayden eyed them suspiciously.

"My dad, he's the sheriff of Beacon Hills. They've been working on your case to find out what the animal was that bit you. But Scott and I think we know what happened. Can you tell us everything that happened that night?" Stiles asked. Brayden went to speak, but was cut off by the bell.

"We're going to need you to cut your next class and come with us." Stiles said, grabbing her arm and tugging her towards his baby blue Jeep.

"Whoa, I'm not cutting class. I haven't been to school in three days. I can't afford to miss anymore assignments. And besides, why would I ditch class and trust two guys who have never talked to me, and suddenly want me to go to some unknown destination with them. A little stupid on my part, don't you think?"

Scott and Stiles, paused for a second, looking at each other.

"Okay, look." Stiles started. "We promise that we won't kidnap you, alright? But this is really important, so we really need you to come with us."

"Alright, I'll agree to come with you," Brayden nodded and looked back at her friends, who were keeping a close eye on her. "If you tell me where we're going."

"Scott's house." Stiles told her.

"Just a second." she told them, running back over to her friends, who awaited an answer. "Hey guys, I gotta go. It's kind of an emergency, but I'll probably be back later."

"Is everything okay?" Trisha asked her.

"Yeah, for sure." Brayden lied. She held up her phone. "I'll text you guys later. Don't wait up on me."

They all nodded, watching their best friend run back to the two mysterious boys who made every girl in school drool and get in the Jeep. They thought maybe they should be worried, after all, Brayden had just gotten out of the hospital, and she had been looking and acting a little off these days. Dark circles sat under her eyes, she seemed a lot jumpier, and she didn't eat much at lunch today. But they figured that was just the side affects of being bitten by a- what was Brayden bitten by?

~

"Alright, we need you to tell us everything. What were you doing in the woods before you got bitten?" Scott asked.

"I had a huge fight with my parents. I wanted to blow off some steam so I took a walk and ended up walking into the woods. Out of nowhere, this, this thing attacked me. The bite was stinging, and I couldn't move. Fortunately for me, my parents got worried and came to find me. Eventually they did, and brought me to the hospital. But by the next morning, the bite was gone. So, the doctors did some tests on me, and they told me I was completely fine. So they sent me home. But I don't feel fine. At all."

Stiles and Scott looked over at each other.

"Has anything weird been happening to you since that night?" Stiles asked her. Brayden scoffed.

"Things you wouldn't believe." Brayden shook her head.

"Oh, don't worry. We'll believe you." Stiles replied sarcastically. "Continue."

"I've been hearing voices and sounds. Getting night terrors, and sometimes in the middle of the night, I just involuntarily want to scream at the top of my lungs. And I do. I can't suppress it. I try to but I don't know how." She explained. "I feel terrible. I wake everyone in the house up and if I'm not screaming then, I scream from the night terrors."

This bit seemed to surprise Stiles and Scott.

"What are the nightmares about, Brayden?"

"They're like recurring dreams. I keep finding bodies, and each time it's a different body, but they're always at the same place. The school. For the past three nights in a row since I was bitten."

"Brayden, you're a banshee."

"Excuse me?"

"A banshee, a wailing women. Someone who can seek out the supernatural and screams when she can feel the death of others coming."

Brayden scoffed, "You're kidding me with this, right? Is this some kind of sick joke where you make me trust you and tell you all my secrets just to tell me that I'm some kind of weird supernatural freak? You guys are such assholes. Do you do this to all the girls?"

Grabbing her bag, she headed for the door but as she went to reach for the door knob a pair of red eyes stared back at her. She backed up slowly, looking at the hairy creature from head to toe, realizing that those same horrifying eyes she saw, she also recognized as Scott McCall's.

"Believe us now?" Stiles asked from behind her with a smirk. Brayden turned to look at him with a glare and once she whipped back around, the creature no longer stood in front of her, but instead the Scott she went to school with.

"What the hell was that?" Brayden's eyes widened.

"I'm a werewolf." Scott shrugged.

"You're a wha-what?" Brayden looked between the two. The two smiled at her, but their faces fell when Brayden rushed out the door after mumbling, "I have to go."

Realizing that Stiles had driven her to Scott's house, she groaned and started walking, as she turned the corner she saw the school come into view.

~

"Well, we found her." Scott sighed.

"And?"

"She's not a wolf. She's a banshee. And frankly, she wants nothing to do with us." Stiles answered.

"So what, that's it then? You're just going to wait and see what happens? This girl is probably going insane right now. She has no idea what's going on and you may be able to ignore it but she can't. She has these powers and no idea what to do with them." Derek told Scott.

"What else can we do? She doesn't want to talk to us." Scott replied.

"Banshees alone are only as good as omega wolves. Sure, they can survive on their own. But if they don't know how to use their abilities to their advantage, they can hurt themselves and others around them." Derek informed them. "You need to get Lydia to talk to her."

"But even Lydia doesn't know much about her powers." Stiles argued.

"But Lydia has you guys. She has a purpose to do what she does now. To help you, her pack, seek out the supernatural. And she's learning." Derek replied. "Sure, leave Brayden if you want to. But she's going to drown herself in terror. What she sees isn't exactly rainbows and butterflies."