Preface

"Looks like you found your anchor." Derek remarked, still securing the shackles, just in case. "What is it?"

Issac paused looking off, "My father," he said, his features still oddly calm despite their wolf form.

"Your father locked you in an ice chest in the basement as punishment." Derek stiffened with the memory of the night he discovered that little fact.

"He didn't always." Isaac smiled a bit to himself, remembering things Derek never took the time to ask about. The fishing trips and family outings, the father-son walks along the river, the life lessons shared over home cooked meals, things that stopped after his mom died. Things that hadn't happened in years. Things that would never happen again. Anger started to poison the memories that were keeping him human, the wolf inside him began to gnaw on them, leaving only the memories of pain and fear, the sounds of screams and broken glass, the smell of tears and blood.

Derek noticed Isaac begin to tense up, his fingers moved quicker to lock the chains to Isaac's cuffs.

"Isaac? What's happening, talk to me." Derek attached another chain.

"It's not working anymore...I can feel it taking over" Isaac strained against the urge to kill rising inside him. Derek jumped back as Isaac lashed out, biting the air where Derek's left ear had just been. He thrashed against his bindings in intermittent spurts fighting against his newly acquired nature. He was somewhere between man and wolf, and both sides seemed equally matched.

"Derek? What's happening?" He asked through gritted teeth.

"You have to find your anchor, it's the only way to fight the wolf inside you." Derek made no attempt to get closer to the struggling boy, but rather sat on top of a seat a few rows away.

"I did!" Isaac managed before a howl tore from his throat.

"You found a type of anchor, love is a very powerful tie to our human side. You just have to find the right love." Derek walked back to better secure Erica and Boyd.

"But, I've never been in lo-" Suddenly Isaac was still and silent. Derek turned.

"Isaac?" He walked back towards him, making sure to stay out of reach, "Are you..." Derek trailed off because sitting in front of him, with his eyes tightly closed, in the light of the full moon, was a very human Isaac.