Dry leaves crumble beneath his feet and frustration is rolling off of the alpha in waves. It's somewhere between midnight and dawn and he's aimlessly wandering around Beacon Hills Preserve.

It's become a bad habit of his to spend the night (or is it morning?) there. When he was in the woods, it felt like he was temporarily free of the hunters chasing him, the people staring and his pack. So much is going on and Scott's feeling so hopeless and alone and scared.

Today Scott was meant to have started settling into UC Davis, maybe calling Stiles and talking about their new schools, perhaps listening to his best friend's excited rambling about the FBI.

Instead, he's still stuck (trapped) in Beacon Hills, desperately trying to protect his pack from the hunters, the humans. Stiles was long gone, probably getting his own updates about the town from Lydia or his dad but there was little chance he would come back.

Even then, Scott wouldn't want him to. Joining the FBI has been Stiles' dream and there's no way he should give it up for another issue at Beacon Hills.

A noise of frustration escapes his throat and he breaks into a run, the cool breeze stinging his cheeks and causing his eyes to water.

He doesn't know what to do.

Somehow, something or someone came back with them after the ghost riders invaded their world and hunters from all around the world were coming. Normal humans knew about the supernatural. People he used to sit in lessons with feared him and what he could do.

A bitter thought crosses Scott's mind. You'd think after all he's done to protect everyone, he'd receive a bit more gratitude. He's stopped a psychotic alpha, rid the town of a kanima, prevented human sacrifices, shut down a dead pool, protected the high school from a massive beast from ancient times and saved everyone from being permanently erased from history.

And yet…so many people (Allison) were lost. Beacon Hills has lost fathers, sisters, boyfriends, teachers and first loves to the supernatural. So of course everyone would be terrified of them – the people who seem to always come out of these events unscathed.

But they don't. Not everyone always comes back.

Scott's lost so many friends, brothers, lovers ever since he became a werewolf.

Allison. Her name still sends shooting pains of heartbreak through him and he misses her so much.

Erica and Boyd. Innocent teenagers who only wanted a better life and didn't deserve to die. None of them did.

Aiden. He seemed to be so tough and yet would be protective when he felt that his friends were being threatened.

Isaac and Derek. Both were still alive. But they weren't here anymore – they had left this life behind. (They had left Scott alone.)

Kira, too, was with the Skinwalkers. A sacrifice she had no choice but to make in order to save (Scott) everyone.

Even Jackson had become a part of the pack and he was off in England. Honestly, Scott had no idea how he was surviving.

The people of Beacon Hills may think that Scott's pack hasn't lost anything but the truth was that they've all made sacrifices. Every single one of them has lost something or someone. They've all lost their innocence.

Teenagers aren't meant to spend their years worrying about who was after them or grieving so many. They're meant to be thinking about college and studies and relationships.

The supernatural hasn't given them any room for that.

Scott's starting to feel like this is the end. It will be impossible to continue living here if everyone knows about his pack. Maybe he'll try to leave and live on the run until everything calms down (or maybe deep down he just wants to escape). Maybe if he disappears, the hunters will leave Beacon Hills to search for him and everyone else will just...stop.

He knows immediately that that's not how it would work. Once people find out who's supernatural, they'll try their best to drive them out. Scott doesn't even want to think about his mom and all the humans who know and help them. Sheriff Stilinksi and Parrish would suffer a lot if it were discovered that they have been covering it up.

He somehow makes his way to the side of the road and slows himself to a walk, his heart still pounding in his chest whether it was from the run or the panic, he wasn't sure. Since that night in the woods with Lydia and Malia, he's learned how to move around silently and be aware of possible traps.

Terror and nervous anticipation seem to be a constant companion, clinging to Scott and begging for attention. His chest was tight and he feels like he's suffocating in the tangible fear and whirlwind of problems.

Then he hears the rumbling engine of a familiar jeep gradually getting louder. At first he dismisses it as his own imagination, from the longing for his brother, the person who was always by his side, to return.

He knows it can't be real but closes his eyes briefly and lets himself relax, ignoring the glare of approaching headlights. It's a careless move but at this point he really can't be bothered too much. Stiles would kill him if he knew that Scott was being so willing to let go.

He's startled slightly when the vehicle stops and his heart skips a beat when he raises his head and meets the light brown eyes of Stiles Stilinski, wearing his infamous smirk.

"You didn't think you would be doing this without me, did you?"

There's laughter in his light-heartened tone and a grin on his face. Scott can barely process his friend's unexpected arrival when another figure steps forward. He's tall and broad shouldered with one of his rare smiles greeting the stunned true alpha.

"Without us?" Derek seems to have appeared from nowhere, probably getting out of the jeep to make some sort of dramatic entrance.

Scott's too shocked to even question why they're here. An unidentifiable noise escapes his throat and somehow that conveys all his emotions.

((Oh my gosh. You're back, thank God. I'm so happy to see you. I don't know how I was going to do this without you.))

His mouth is still opening and closing like a goldfish gasping for air while Stiles and Derek are sharing a smile so wide that he's pretty sure Derek's cheeks are hurting because he's not used to smiling so much.

Scott's mind is still scrambling for a reaction but he wraps his arms around Derek, surprising the Beta as Stiles looks on in mock jealousy.

"I missed you." He chokes out and pulls away to look at Stiles. "I missed both of you."

Stiles scrambles out of his car ungracefully, nearly hitting them with the car door in the process, and attacks Scott in a hug of his own. When they separate, they're still standing side by side as thought they were daring anyone to try and split them up again.

"Dude, I've only been gone for, like, a week." Stiles jokes, even though his eyes are watering too and he's been worried sick about Scott and Lydia and Malia and the pack.

Tears have already stained a path on Scott's face because the relief he feels is indescribable. It's as though he had been carrying the weight of the sky and then brothers who have been there since the beginning stepped in to share the burden.

He knew he should feel guilty for dragging them into this mess but he just knew he wouldn't have been able to manage the hunters without them.

And even though there are hunters after them and everyone in Beacon Hills is scared of them, at this time, in this moment, surrounded by his brothers, Scott feels at peace and happy. A small spark has been relit inside him and convinces him that he'll be able to face whatever the world has to throw at him.

Hope.

So I got way too excited after watching the Teen Wolf 6B trailer yesterday. This then resulted in:

1) A complete rematch of Teen Wolf (I've finished S1 and halfway through S2)

2) Insane ranting to basically all my friends (even the ones who don't watch)

3) Drawing my first fan art ever whilst watching Teen Wolf

4) Posting about it on all my social media accounts (and every Instagram account I have)

5) Writing this one-shot.

So as you can see, I'm a bit out of control. I'm not sure how I feel about this fic but I just know that I squealed when I watched the Stiles and Derek reveal. I might write another one on Jackson and Ethan. What do you guys think?

NINETEEN DAYS UNTIL 6B WHOOP WHOOP WHOOP!

Hope you liked it! Please review and hit me up if you wanna just talk about teen wolf :") (my IG is fandomwishes)

UPDATE: kinda annoyed because I just realised you can't do strikethroughs on sigh. So now everything is in brackets and italics. Quite annoying but oh well

xoxo

A