Pack Mentality // s. stilinski

Twelve ✔️

Boots clicked on the linoleum tiles of the school halls, their pace quicker than those around them. Cadmus Argent was about to wear the soles of his shoes thin as he scuffed around the halls, his hands wringing nervously together. Alongside him, was somebody he never thought he'd see in public again, or at least for a very long time.

"Derek is oh so curious about you," Isaac persisted, leaning forwards ever so slightly so he could catch the panicked expression on his companion's face. "What are you, Cadmus Argent?"

"I'm nothing," Cadmus blurted under his breath. His answer was too fast, and Isaac barely needed his heightened hearing to tell that the other boy was lying.

"We both know that's a lie," Isaac drawled. His head fell to the side in mock amusement.

"Look, I really don't have time for this," Cadmus told Isaac, shoving his hands both angrily and nervously into his pockets.

"What the hell are you hiding?" the lighter haired mused, pressing a lanky finger to his chin. "Are you the kanima?" he wondered.

Cadmus tensed, giving the other a glare. "I was there at the pool last night," he reminded him. "Of course I'm not the kanima."

"Then what are you?"

"I'm not anything!" Cadmus whined desperately. "I'm just a normal human being with no powers or- or anything not normal."

Isaac laughed out loud this time, his head falling back and his shoulders shaking, his eyes crinkling as he boomed out a hearty laughter. It lasted for only five seconds, but Cadmus found himself wishing that it wouldn't stop- that Isaac would laugh like that all the time. That he wouldn't be cold and threatening, and that maybe there was some of the boy that he had been before still left in him. "That's ridiculous," Isaac told him. "You are utterly terrible at lying. We saw how beat up you were after the ice rink... and when you came to school to school the next day, you were completely unscathed."

Cadmus bit his lip so hard that he drew blood, and immediately found himself subconsciously thinking of Stiles- he seemed to be the only person that had anything to do with him being able to trigger this odd ability of his. The skin on the inside of his lip laced back together, sealing off the wound without him even realizing what had happened. He sighed a wiped his tongue along the inside of his bottom lip, ignoring the odd taste of blood he received when he did so. "Even if I was something, or even if I knew what- why would I tell Derek?"

"Because he's an alpha," Isaac replied simply as if that should be the answer to everything.

Cadmus narrowed his eyes. "Well thank God he isn't my alpha, I think I would kill myself before I let that psycho control me." His gaze flickered over Isaac's thin figure for a moment, and he couldn't decide whether it was distaste or pity he felt. Maybe both. "I guess I can't say the same for you."

"I had my reasons," Isaac defended himself, and suddenly he didn't sound so cocky anymore. He sounded defeated and weak, and it caused the taller boy's eyes to soften. Something flickered inside him, but it wasn't there long enough to be identified. But suddenly something inside him was seeing Isaac Lahey in a new light and he understood a few things; his life had been bad. The bite had been his desperate measures.

"Isaac-" Cadmus began, and the look in the beta's eyes told him that he shouldn't continue. He sighed.

"Derek still has that favor," Isaac reminded him quietly. "He could cash it in in exchange for information."

"There are some things a petty favor can't get from me," Cadmus fought back. He watched Isaac tug on the sleeves of his leather jacket, almost self-consciously. "Isaac," he said again, this time, his tone firmer. The blonde boy looked at him. "What are you doing?" He didn't want to do this, he really didn't. Isaac was his enemy, right? No. He had to. "You're a werewolf, dude. You could take down a grown man with a single swipe of your claws. Act like it."