Derek carries Isaac out of his car and up the stairs to his old house. I run ahead of him, opening the front door and quickly stepping out of his way. Derek waltz right in the house with Scott slowly trailing behind him on the phone with Stiles. 

    "Can you tell me about it later?" Scott starts to follow Derek before stopping in the middle of the room. 

   I move around him and find Derek laying Isaac down on a table. He says he needs to heal Isaac all the way, which kind of scares me what he means by that because Isaac's wounds are healed. Is Derek trying to say they aren't fully healed?

   "Okay, then meet me at Derek's. Just meet us here." Scott ends the call. 

   Derek crouches down next to a pile of wood on the ground. Is wood supposed to help my brother? I stand by the table, nervously glancing down. Isaac is still out cold from the hospital. Why is he still asleep? I bet that nurse gave him something to do this. Fear bubbles up in my chest as I put all of the pieces together. There is an Alpha Pack and something is telling me that we just encountered two. 

    "You don't still live here, do you?" Scott comes up from behind me, but the question isn't directed towards me. 

   "No. The county took it over, but there's something here that I need." Derek tosses the small pieces of wood away from where he needs to get to. "It'll help heal a wound from an Alpha."

   Scott looks over my shoulder. "Yeah, but it did heal."

   "Not on the inside." Derek worriedly glances at my brother. He picks up some kind of blue berry of some kind. Underneath all of the wood, a few pieces of the plant lay scattered on the ground. What is that? 

   "Hey, are you gonna tell me who that was back there? That Alpha." Scott tries to get answers.

    "A rival pack. It's my problem. I know you wanna help, and you did. I owe you one." Derek stands up with the berries in hand. "Now go home. Go back to being a teenager."

   Derek drops the berries on the table, still connected to the stem. I move away from Scott to stand on the other side of the table. Scott starts to walk out of the room until I see him stop and grab his arm, right where his tattoo was supposed to be. 

   "Uh, hey, Derek. If you wanna repay back that favor now... There is something you can do for me."

   After Derek worked his magic on Isaac, I started to see Isaac's color change in his face. He seemed more lively after the berries. I didn't ask what kind they were. I was too worried about Isaac. Scott ended up sticking around because Derek is going to give him his tattoo that he wants so badly. This tattoo must really mean a lot to him. 

   Now, Derek and Scott are sitting down, examing Scott's arm. Stiles finally arrived and I've been standing next to him this entire time. I don't know how Derek exactly plans on doing the tattoo, but I don't need Stiles to pass out again from it. If he falls, I'll catch him, I hope.

   Derek eye's flick right back to his usual color instead of his werewolf red. He moves his fingers over the area of Scott's arm that once had the tattoo on it. "Yeah, I see it. It's two bands, right?" Scott nods. "What does it mean?"

   Scott shrugs and with his other hand he traces two circles in the dirt on the barrell next to them. "I don't know. It's just something I traced with my fingers."

   "Why is this so important to you?" Derek asks, genuinely interested.

   "Do you know what the word "tattoo" means?" Scott quietly asks.

   Stiles leans forward with a cocky grin on his face. "To mark something." Stiles smirks, like he is the smartest in the room. 

   "Well, that's in tahitian." Scott replies, stares down at nothing in particular. "In samoan, it means-"

   "Open wound." I say before anyone else can. Derek looks over at me, surprised I knew the answer. Honestly, I'm not sure how I did know the answer. It's like Scott asked the question and I immediately knew the answer.

   Scott nods. "I knew I wanted to get a tattoo when I turned eighteen. I always wanted one. I just decided to get it now, to make it kind of a reward."

   "For what?" 

   "For not calling or texting Allison all summer. Even when I kind of wanted to. I was trying to give her the space she wants and, to be a little honest, part of me didn't want to call or text her." Scott plays with his fingers, still zoned out. "Everything is so confusing to me and it all hurts. It feels like a, uh..."

   "-like an open wound." I answer again.

   "Yeah." Scott looks down at his feet. 

   If his reasoning for wanting this tattoo wasn't about Allison, I would give him a hug, but a part of me feels like I shouldn't. He's upset about not seeing Allison all summer. I thought he had looked genuinely happy without Allison in his life or maybe that had all just been an act. Scott could have just made it seem like he was doing better to not make Stiles or I worry.

   "The pain's gonna be worse than anything you've ever felt." Derek reaches back to grab the spark to light up the blowtorch in his hand. 

   "Ah, that's great." Stiles mutters, sarcastically.

   I reach over and rub his shoulder. 

   "Do it." Scott doesn't back down. 

   In one quick motion, Derek lights the torch. My eyes widen. Oh, gosh. I don't know if I can watch this. This is really going to hurt Scott and I don't want to see him hurt. My hand on Stiles' shoulder goes from rubbing to grabbing on to it, tightly. No, I can't watch this. 

   "Oh, wow. That's a... that's a lot for us." Stiles grabs the hand off of his shoulder and starts to lead me out of the house. "So I'm gonna take that as our cue. We're just gonna wait outside." 

   Derek grabs ahold of Stiles and forces him back. "Nope. You can help hold him down."

   Stiles and I walk back around to Scott. I flex my fingers before setting them down on top of the muscle between his shoulders and neck. His skin is warm and tight. He must be nervous. I rub my thumb up and down on the back of his neck, hoping to calm him down a little bit. Stiles places his hand on mine, standing behind me. Since I'm kind of short, he can almost see over my head. Scott begins to relax under my touch. 

   Derek pulls Scott's arm out towards him. I suck in a deep breath, worried for Scott. This is so wrong on so many levels. 

   "Oh, my god." Stiles mumbles. 

   The torch slowly comes in contact with Scott's arm. He immediately flinches, which quickly changes to moving around and grunting it pain. I keep my thumb rubbing on his neck, while applying more strength to hold him down. Stiles helps, but he's not the one with the advanced strength. 

   "Hold him." Derek commands. 

   Scott's screams get louder and louder. I tap into my werewolf strength and force him to stay seated. He's still stronger than me, but at least he isn't moving around as much. I squeeze my eyes shut, forcing myself to listen to what is going on outside or anything to block out Scott's screams.

   Thirty minutes later, Scott is still passed out in the chair from when the pain became too much for him. I nearly had a panic attack when I felt all of his muscles go slack. His head had slumped forward and I was terrified. Derek said he had just passed out and quickly finished the tattoo. According to Derek, Scott should wake up at any minute.

   Scott suddenly gasps awake, eyes flashing open. I let out a sigh of relief. He stares straight ahead before angling his head to look at his tattoo on his arm. Derek was right when he said it would never heal. Scott lifts his arm up, smiling. "It worked." 

   "Are you okay?" I take a small step forward.

   Scott's eyes flick up to meet mine. "Yeah, yeah. I'm good." 

   I nod my head, relieved that he is okay. If that's what it takes to get a tattoo, I don't want one ever. Scott stands up, still analyazing his new tattoo. Derek starts to pick up the blow torch and put it back away. I grab Scott's long sleeved shirt he had on before and hand it back to him. While he pulls that back on, I scoop up his denim jacket and hang it over my arm. I'm still wearing his jacket from the hospital and I don't plan on taking it off. 

   "Well, it looks pretty damn permanent now." Stiles comments as the two of them begin walking to the door. 

   "Yeah. I kind of needed something permanent. Everything that's happened to us... everything just changes so fast. Everything's so, uh... Ephemeral." Scott says, stopping by the stairs. 

   I step up to them with Scott's jacket about to hand it over. 

   "Studying for the psats?" Stiles questions. 

   "Yep."

   "Nice."

   Scott opens the front door and stares at the new, red color. I freeze in the foyer, eyes growing wider. I know Derek was hoping that Scott wouldn't notice the new color. After the Alphas put their mark on the door, Derek immediately painted it. He doesn't want Scott to worry about them. Although, after today, Scott is probably in the middle of it. 

   "You painted the door. Why'd you paint the door?" Scott stares back at Derek, suspiciously.

   I angle my body to see both of them. It's not my place to tell Scott any of this. 

   "Go home, Scott." Derek almost pleads with Scott. I've never heard or seen him like this. 

   Scott barely runs his fingers over the door. "And why only one side?" Scott flicks his claws out and scratches the door.

   "Scott, don't." I plead, quickly walking over to them. 

   Scott does it again, ignoring me completely. 

   "Scott." Derek rushes in the room, stopping next to me once Scott scratches all over the door. 

   Paint comes flying off of the door. Stiles throws an arm up to protect his face. It doesn't take Scott long to tear most of the paint off of the door, revealing the symbol underneath. I hold my hand in front of my mouth. Scott just stares at the symbol, putting the pieces together in his head. 

   "The birds at school and the deer last night... just like the night I got trampled by the deer when I got bit by the Alpha." Scott states out loud. He turns serious, looking towards Derek and me. "How many are there?"

   "A pack of 'em." Derek sighs. He stares at the floor and I can tell he doesn't want to say the next part. "An Alpha pack." 

   "All of them? How does that even work?" Stiles glances at me to see if I know anything. 

   "I hear there's some kind of a leader. He's called Deucalion." Derek answers.

   I lower my hand from my mouth, speaking quietly. "We know they have Boyd and Erica." 

   Scott sets his eyes on me. Over summer, he has learned how much Boyd and Erica mean to me. They are my family now. I avoid his gaze, knowing if I lock eyes with him, I might lose control of my emotions. 

   "Peter, Isaac, Chloe, and I have been looking for him for the last four months." Derek sets his hand on my shoulder. 

   Scott moves closer to us until he is right in front of Derek. "Let's say you find them. How do you deal with an Alpha pack?"

   "With all the help I can get." Derek replies, earnestly. He needs Scott on his side. He just won't admit it.

   "Where is she?" Isaac's voice comes from the other room. He's sitting up on the table.

   "Isaac!" I breathe.

   "Where's the girl?" Isaac asks.

   Derek glances from Scott to me before looking back at my brother, asking the one question on everyone's mind. "What girl?"

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

So, I decided that Chloe is going to tag along with Scott and Stiles to the party in the next chapter. She's not really going to want to because she's still breaking out of her shell, but Isaac will want her to have a somewhat normal life. I think she deserves that. 

Next chapter will also be the ice bath scene with Isaac. Chloe is not going to enjoy that at all. Or maybe that will be chapter 6. That will probably be chapter six. You're also going to see Derek being more like a brother to Chloe, at least a little bit.

Anways, did ya like it?

I don't want every episode to be four chapters long, so the chapters may get a little bit longer. 

Question: What do you want to see more of in the next chapter?

So, yeah!