Chapter 10:

The first thing Astrid heard when she woke up, was a heart monitor. The constant beeps an agitation to her ears.

Astrid opened her eyes with a groan of pain, before blinking a couple times at the lights and then squinting until she was used to it.

"Hey, hey, hey!" She heard someone protest as a large, warm and gentle hand touched her shoulder and held her down when she tried to sit up. "You need to take it easy."

"Who..?" She questioned squinting at the black blur that slowly formed into Derek. "What happened?" She asked.

"Shh…" Derek told her, holding a finger to his lips. "Visiting hours are over." He whispered. "Gotta stay quiet."

Astrid nodded. "Okay." She whispered back, she noticed the pain had eased and she could see black veins pulsing up Derek's hand and arm. She pushed it to the back of her mind, and focused more on his presence. "How did you..?" Astrid asked, unsure of how he came to know she was here.

"The Sheriff called me, since you have me listed on your phone as your emergency contact." He explained. "What do you remember?" He prompted. "Sheriff Stilinski told me what Stiles could see, but other than that…" He trailed off.

"How's the mechanic?" She deflected.

Derek's face shuttered. "He... didn't make it." He said. "Even though you'd pulled him out a bit, which would have left him crippled, his throat was slashed. You the only one who was close enough to have possibly seen who it was."

"So, I didn't help at all. I just made it so he suffered longer." She said, her voice clogged with sadness. She pursed her lips and furrowed her brow whilst turning away from Derek.

"Hey!" He demanded, grabbing her chin gently and pulling her face towards him again, forcibly meeting her eyes. "This isn't your fault. You did what you could in a bad situation."

"Kay." She said. Derek didn't look convinced, but let it go.

"They found a paralytic venom at the garage." He informed her as he sat back and crossed his arms. "It was on the handle, which is why Stiles collapsed." Astrid nodded. "There was also traces of it in the scratches on the back of both your neck and the mechanic's and the pricks circling yours. The Sheriff had it sent off to forensics, but they won't be able to identify its source."

"Because it's venom from a supernatural creature." Astrid finished.

Derek nodded. "Exactly." Astrid let out a sigh and closed her eyes, not noticing as she faded back to sleep, and only vaguely aware that Derek stayed with her.

Astrid was made to sit out on training when she was released from the hospital the following afternoon, so she watched from the stairs, where she sat next to Boyd. Watching Isaac and Erica try to beat Derek over and over, only to fail to beat Derek over and over, was funny. Even Boyd thought so.

It wasn't so funny when Derek began to lose his patience with the lack of improvement. Derek stalked across the floor with a tight look of agitation. "Does anyone wanna try not to be completely predictable?" He'd barely finished asking the annoyed questioned when Erica jumped him.

As they were making out, Astrid jokingly asked. "Do you think I could take credit for that move? I am the, possible, Succubus after all." She grinned cheekily when Boyd rolled his eyes just as Derek threw Erica away from him and onto the floor, next to a downed Isaac.

Boyd walked over to stand behind Erica and Isaac. "Don't ever do that." Derek ordered, pointing to Erica.

"Why?" She sassed. "Because I'm a Beta?" She mocked.

"No." Derek stated with raised eyebrows. "It's because I have somebody else in mind for you."

Everyone looked confused with Derek's statement. Until Isaac spoke up. "Are we done?" He huffed, pulling himself up. Astrid made her way over to them. "Cause I have a hundred bones that need a few hours to kill." Astrid could hear the strain in his voice.

Derek looked at Isaac whilst tilting his head, watching as Isaac rubbed his wrists, before nodding and stepping forwards to crouch down as he took Isaacs arm in hand, stretching it out. "Here?" He asked. Isaac nodded.

"Are you going to teach them that pain-removing trick?" Astrid asked from behind Derek. He froze momentarily before looking over his shoulder at her briefly.

"You noticed that, then?" Derek questioned.

Astrid nodded. "Yep!" She popped. Derek nodded slowly, and turned back to his Betas.

Black veins pulsed up his hand and arm as Isaac let out a sigh of relief as the pain receded. "How did you..?" Isaac questioned.

"You just do." Derek said, before breaking the bone in his arm. Isaac screamed in pain as Derek flipped him onto his back. "I'm not teaching you how to fight, I'm teaching you how to survive." Derek told them, watching as Isaac panted in pain. "Breaking a bone, will jumpstart and speed up the healing process." Letting Isaac go, he turned to Erica and Boyd. "See if one of you can take his pain." He ordered before turning to pace.

Erica put her hands on Isaac's arm and focused on trying to remove his pain, Astrid crouched down next to him and helped to hold him up. "If they wanted us dead, why aren't they coming for us now!?" Isaac demanded as Derek looked away. "What are they waiting for?"

Derek faced his Betas again. "I don't know." He admitted. "But you, especially, know that's not our only problem." Derek said walking forwards. "Whatever that thing is that killed Isaac's father, I think it killed someone else last night. I think it's the same thing that put Astrid in the hospital." He said roughly. "And until I find out what it is, you all need to know everything I know!" Derek turned away again, heading for the cart. "As fast as I can teach you." He finished saying over his shoulder before opening the door and going inside of the cart.

"I think he's worried." Astrid told the other three. They sent her looks of disbelief. "What?" She demanded indignantly. "He already lost one pack, he obviously doesn't wanna lose another. And yeah," Astrid nodded, considering. "He may be a little rough around the edges and go about some things wrong, but, you know. He's trying." She said, shrugging awkwardly.

"I'd appreciate it if there was less pain involved." Isaac told her.

"That might be how he was taught." Astrid said. "I mean, he was born a wolf, maybe the training was rougher than what we would expect, having been raised as humans."

Before they could reply, Astrid's name was called from inside the cart. "Astrid! Come here!" Derek called.

"Gotta jet." She told them as she headed into the train cart. "What's up?" She asked, sitting down opposite Derek.

"I need you to tell me what you can about the creature that was at the mechanic's last night." He told her, leaning forward and resting his elbows on his knees as he looked up into her eyes.

Astrid nodded. "I didn't get a great look, but I can tell you what I did get." She told him.

"That's all I'm asking." He assured her with a nod.

"It was kinda like a giant lizard." Astrid started. Derek nodded for er to continue when she paused. "Scaly. Green. Claws. Its eyes were yellow and slitted." She told him. "I didn't see much else." She told him. "Technically I didn't see the claws either. Them I felt." She finished, pursing her lips and furrowing her brow as she bobbed her head.

"Okay. Thank you, Astrid." Derek told her, looking into her eyes earnestly.

She smiled. "No problem."

"Also," Derek started suddenly, looking mildly apologetic. "I'm gonna need you to kiss Boyd too. So you can track him." He shrugged with a slightly amused smile.

Astrid rolled her eyes with an exasperated sigh. "No problem."