If I Could Turn Back Time

The Three of Us... We're Brothers Now

"Seven devils all around me

Seven devils in my house

See, they were there when I woke up, this morning

And I'll be dead before the day is done!"

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Stiles and Scott raced, fully transformed, through the shadows of the night, as they followed Allison and Derek's entwined scents on the wind, stopping only briefly when they were in front of a familiar black car parked just outside the entrance of the Preserve. However, when they peered inside the car, the teen wolves found no sign of Allison or Derek. 

In a fit of desperation, the two of them split up to cover more ground. Everything they saw was colored by a red haze, as they leaped on all fours through the woods. The scent of Allison got stronger the further into the woods Scott traveled until he came to a stop in front of an old oak tree. He looked up frantically and saw Allison's jacket hanging loosely on a tree branch. 

All of a sudden, he heard Stiles cry out in pain in the distance, and instantly jumped into action to go rescue his friend. Scott's heart pounded in his chest, as he went tracked down Stiles. It didn't take very long to find him, however, when he did, he was impacted by the stench of blood and fear, and he noticed the arrow protruding out of Stiles's forearm, realizing that someone must have wounded him.

"Stiles, what happened?" Scott said in a barely contained growl. 

"I don't know. I was looking for Allison and then out of nowhere, something just shot through my arm and pinned me to the tree," Stiles cried out. 

Out of nowhere, Derek showed up and shoved Scott out of the way, and wrenched the projectile out of Stiles's arm, as he muffled Stiles's screams with his other hand. Blood spurted out of the wound before rapidly healing even as Stiles slumped against the tree trunk in exhaustion. "Hey, it's okay. Stay awake, Stiles!" Derek said, shaking the young boy.

At that moment, Scott lunged at the Alpha, however, Derek could sense his attack coming and grabbed Scott's wrist and flipped the teenager over his shoulder, and pinned him to the ground. "Where is Allison?" Scott growled. "She is safe at home and alive," Derek whispered. "However, the three of us will not be if you don't keep quiet."

As if on cue, the three werewolves heard footsteps a handful of yards away, eliciting a growl from Derek. "Shit! It's too late!" he swore. "Run. Now!" Then he hauled both of the Betas up and bolted off in the opposite direction, leaving them no choice but to follow him. 

Unfortunately, Scott and Stiles didn't get very far before they were pinned by more arrows. Derek breathed in exasperation and turned to go back for them, sticking to the shadows as he snuck up behind Chris and his hunters, taking them out the same way as the last time before he came back to free his friends. "Next time I tell you to run, fucking run!" he growled in annoyance, letting his eyes glow red. Then they ran off as far away from the hunters as inhumanly possible and they didn't stop until they were back outside the entrance to the Preserve. 

"Hey! What the hell is going on? Who were they?" Stiles snapped? "Hunters," Derek answered. "The kind who have been hunting us for centuries." 

"Us?" Scott wheezed.

"Werewolves," Derek clarified. "Meaning us." 

"No, there is no us!" Stiles shouted. "You're the one who did this to us!" 

"No, I didn't!" Derek argued. "That was another Alpha. I would never turn someone into a werewolf who didn't want the bite."

"And why should we believe you?" Scott challenged. Derek opened his mouth to speak but stopped short. What was he supposed to say to that? Sure, in the last timeline he gained their trust and they became friends, but that was only after all of the many long and arduous rivalries and disagreements between them had been put to rest. But this time around, he had a chance to get them on his side early. 

Then it hit him. Maybe it wasn't up to him to convince them to trust him. Maybe he needed someone who was already close to them to get them to believe him. 

"Tomorrow at 3 p.m. Meet me at the animal clinic if you really want to know what's going on," Derek smirked. Scott swallowed thickly as his eyes widened in fear. The clinic was where he worked. How did Derek know about that? Scott must've said that out loud because a second later, Derek said, "Come by tomorrow afternoon and you'll find out."

Then he started walking back to his car with Allison's jacket in hand. But just before he got into his car, Derek turned back towards the wolfish teenagers. "Oh, and, uh, for future reference, until we deal with our rogue werewolf and hunter problem, you are going to need me to help you control your powers, which means you and I are gonna be working together very closely," he stated. "As far as you two are concerned, the three of us... we're brothers now."