Brother || Teen Wolf

Chapter 23 - Cool people hang out on rooftops

The blue lights of the ambulance were blinking down in the street as the vehicle drove away to the hospital. Sheriff Stilinski was questioning an angry-looking Jackson, notepad and patience in hand. Scott and Derek were watching the scene from above, both standing on the roof of the video store.

"Starting to get it?" Derek asked in his usual, almost bored tone.

"I get that he's killing people, but why?" Scott inquired, "This isn't standard practice, right? We don't go out in the middle of the night murdering everyone, do we?"

"No. We're predators. We don't have to be killers."

"Then why is he a killer?" Scott pressed on, not liking Derek's short answers.

"That's what we're going to find out," Derek stated before walking to the other side of the roof.

Cursing under his breath and slightly annoyed at the older wolf for being so aloof, Scott followed. He tried not to pay attention to the floor he was walking on, on which a red spiral was glowing -- yet another phenomenon he couldn't explain. Maybe the symbol had something to do with the Alpha?

"You know, I have a life too," Scott finally complained. They were standing on the very edge of the roof, Derek towering above the teen.

"No you don't," Derek stated. Hearing this, Scott felt like he had to check if it was actually Derek speaking, not Stiles or Jamie. This was clearly something one of his two best friends could have said.

"Yes I do!" Scott finally answered, feeling like a child for arguing like this. He couldn't figure out how to properly communicate with Derek, the man was closed off and barely ever spoke more than five words in a row. "I don't care about the Alpha making me his pet or--"

"Part of his pack. He's the one who bit you."

"Whatever. I have homework to do," Scott protested, waving his hand in dismissal. Derek looked completely unimpressed as Scott resumed complaining, "I have to go to a parent-teacher conference tomorrow because I'm failing chemistry!"

"You want to do homework? Or do you want to... not die?" Derek countered, squinting his eyes menacingly. He let his threat settle in Scott's head, then continued, "You have less than a week until the next full moon. If you don't kill with him, he kills you."

"Okay, seriously? Who made up these rules?" Scott exclaimed. He thought this was a legitimate question, if there was a guidebook of supernatural rules somewhere he would really like to have it. The young man felt he should at least be informed of these things.

"It's a rite of passage into his pack," Derek explained.

"You know what else is a rite of passage?" Scott asked, looking proud both of his rhetorical question and of himself for finally standing up to Derek. "Graduating from High School! And you don't have to kill anyone to do it! Why can't you find the Alpha by yourself? Why can't you just sniff him out while he's in human form?"

"Because his human scent could be completely different from his wolf one!" Derek replied angrily. He was growing tired of Scott's seemingly endless list of questions, they had better things to do than talking. However, he needed Scott if he ever wanted to face the Alpha and stand a chance of winning, so he calmed himself down and actually explained the situation, "It has to be you. You're his beta, you have a connection with him! If I can teach you to use your abilities, you can find him."

"So if I help you, you can stop him?" Scott asked almost timidly. 

"Not alone. We're stronger in numbers. A pack makes the individuals more powerful," Derek explained.

"How I am supposed to help if I have no idea what I'm doing?"

"Because I'm gonna teach you!" Derek was growing seriously tired of repeating himself, couldn't Scott get it? God, that kid was dense, he though. "Do you remember what happened that night when you were shot in the arm? Right after you were hit?"

"Yeah, I changed back," Scott replied, not knowing where this line of questioning was headed.

"And when you were hit by Argent's car, the same thing happened, right?" Derek said, making Scott nod. "What's the common denominator?"

Scott was impressed, in this moment Derek was looking very teacher-like. However, the teen had no idea what he was supposed to say. He shrugged and looked at the other werewolf, his eyes full of questions. But Derek wasn't the type of person to just give answers away, Scott had to earn them. And so, he grabbed the teen's arm and twisted it.

Scott cried out in pain, scared his arm was going to break. If Derek was a teacher, he had unorthodox methods.

"What the hell are you doing?" Scott managed to ask. Was this his punishment for not answering? What kind of education did Derek have if that's how he thought teaching worked?

"It'll heal," Derek deadpanned like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"It'll hurt!" Scott yelled back.

"And that's what keeps you human. Pain."

Derek finally released his hold from Scott's arm and after one last look at his pupil, climbed down the roof. Scott was left alone on top of the building, staring at the purple bruise on his forearm. As the older wolf had said, Scott's bruised arm healed almost instantly but his ego would take longer to recover. He didn't like being manhandled, it made him feel weak. 

And all these talks of Alphas and supernatural things, it made him want to hide away and forget about this part of his life. He wanted to have a normal life, one that didn't involve running from nightmarish predators. So that day, that's exactly what he would do.

Homework first, then hunting an alpha werewolf.