Pack Mentality // s. stilinski

Thirteen ✔️

Cadmus was pulled into a side office during passing period by a frantic Scott, he himself having barely made it out of the chemistry room before being tugged away by the werewolf. Allison was with him, and Stiles was already in the room, having walked ahead of the trio.

"Derek's outside waiting for Lydia," was what Scott lead with, earning an almost indecipherable look from Allison.

"Waiting to kill her?" she asked. Her voice was quick and careful. Cadmus couldn't help but wonder if it was a result of the cameras that were lined along the corners of each hallway. As much as they liked to think they were getting something over the heads of the adults, their little posse of supernatural creatures was not as stealthy as the might have hoped they were. They certainly weren't great at avoiding issues, much less 24/7 cameras. Whatever this meeting was, or was going to turn into... game plan or briefing or contingency theories, it would have to go faster if they wanted to avoid an upper eye catching them in their little act.

"If he thinks she's the kanima then yes," Scott said and Allison heaved a sigh. Cadmus watched her but didn't move for the sake of her comfort. "Especially after what happened at the pool."

"It's not her," Stiles argued pointlessly. The real danger wasn't in the room.

"Stiles she didn't pass the test, man, nothing happened," Scott tried. His voice sounded as strained as Allison's had, but at least he managed to conjure up some sort of consoling tone that he laced into his words.

Stiles fixed his best friend with a look that Cadmus had never seen him send to anyone. "It can't be her," Stiles muttered loudly, shoulders slumping despite his determined efforts. His eyes and words were aimed at someone else, and Cadmus took a silent, distracted moment to wonder why it still made him feel like his insides were being scooped out with an extra large ice cream spoon. He knew what it was in the back of his mind, but the reasoning behind everything was muddled in his mind and Stiles clearly wasn't thinking what he was right now and so to keep himself in check he stiffened his back and torso and told himself he was worried for Lydia. For his sister, for his friends. But he definitely wasn't jealous.

"It doesn't matter if she's the kanima or not," Allison argued, her head tilting. "Derek thinks it's her, so she's in danger either way."

Cadmus caught on fast, nodding through his stony gaze and crossed arms. He ignored the look Stiles gave him, instead focusing his eyes on Scott. "There are two choices then: convince Derek he has the wrong person or find a way to protect her."

"I don't think he's gonna do anything here, not at school-"

Cadmus cut Scott off with the opening of his mouth. "What about after school?" he asked. "You know as well as I do that her purse-dog won't be of much help against an alpha and his ragtag team of wannabe Lon Chaney's."

Allison looked at her brother harshly and he realized that sarcasm wasn't lifting any burden. He'd just pressed the weight of the problem fast onto her shoulders in a way she didn't know how to cope with yet. "What if there's a way to prove Derek wrong?" she asked desperately. There was a new type of sound in her voice, and Cadmus didn't like it.

"By three o'clock?" Stiles asked disbelievingly.

"There could be something in the bestiary," Allison argued back at his hopeless tone.

"Oh, you mean the nine hundred page book written in Archaic Latin that none of us can read?" Stiles spat. Allison glared at the pale boy and her brother, clearly upset that both of them were using sarcasm in such a time. They didn't react to it.

Allison paused for a moment. "Actually, I think I know someone who might be able to translate it," she said.

When Scott spoke, he seemed shockingly hesitant. "I can, uh... speak to Derek, try to convince him to give us a chance to prove it's not her."