『Act I • Side A』

CHAPTER FOUR

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June's life has always been pretty straightforward— little to no events took place in her life, everything was bland and dry like a deserted island. Her parents were boring but passionate doctors who never cared about her daughter's life as much as they should have. And that was what June's life was supposed to be— normal. Werewolves and witches, that wasn't normal at all.

Scott heaves out a sigh of relief with June's approval of the supernatural, gleefully grinning. The others however didn't look as convinced. Deaton narrows his beady eyes at June, choosing his next words carefully. "Are there any questions that you had?"

Hell yeah they were. But June breathlessly says, "No."

It doesn't sound believable in the least, but the bunch of supernatural in the room share knowing looks at each other. June ignores it, turning around to meet Stiles who still holds June's forearm protectively. "Are you. . . too?" She slowly asks, her eyes rising to meet Stiles's. He looks at her skeptically, cringing at the thought. He looks at the others in the room for help, but no one responds to it. "Nah," He says apathetically shifting his hands into his pockets, "I'm just like you. I'm me, actually. Just plain old boring Stiles." He throws on a comforting smile for himself more than her, but June just frowns her eyebrows more. "But I'm a witch, right?" She looks back at Deaton with confusion, eyebrows furrowed. He nods in confirmation, but in only makes June more confused. 

"June, you know what?" A new voice speaks softly. Lydia pushes Stiles behind her, holding  her hands while plastering a wide smile on her face. "Let's just get you home safely okay?" As much as June appreciates the redhead's offer, fear overtakes that. "Safely?" She repeats, her eyes so wide open. She slowly turns around to meet Scott's eyes. Her heart thuds faster whenever their eyes met, why does that keep happening? "Werewolves." She says bluntly to herself, nodding her head as though she is trying to accept it. "I'm a witch." She whispers to herself before immediately shaking her head. She looks back at Lydia, raising her shoulders uselessly. "Let's go, I guess."

The redhead reluctantly agrees, and holding June's hand, they both walk out of the clinic. The dark haired girl heeds the invisible magnet that drags her head towards the boy across the room, his own eyebrows furrowed confusedly. Her heart gallops in her chest upon looking at him but she is used to it by now, even though she doesn't know that Scott can hear her heartbeats racing as fast as his. Or that he is as confused about why it happens only when she is around. The two poles of the same magnet obliviously continue to look at each other and as soon as June leaves, there's no more strange attraction or fast heart beats for Scott.

The remaining members look at each other, assured that trouble will follow their way no matter what. "How do we know which coven she's from?" Maeve is the first one to break the silence, thoughtfully drumming her fingers on the steel table. Deaton nods slowly, "I've called for someone. A witch from the fire coven— the Agni coven." He shifts his eyes to Scott who has been thinking intently, "A junior, from your school."

This takes Stiles by surprise as he raises his brows, scratching the back of his neck. "Wait what?"  He asks pessimistically, "There's a witch just walking around our school and we have no idea about her?"

Deaton raises his eyebrows, "I was told to keep it a secret. It was not my place to rat her out."

"Then where is she?" Derek inquires, his bulky arms folded. "Why hasn't she helped us yet?"

"It doesn't matter!" Scott exclaims suddenly, taking them all by surprise. "We have to protect June." He states firmly, waiting for everyone else to agree.

Derek scoffs, "Why?" 

This gets Scott fuming in anger, his eyebrows contorted towards each other. "What do you mean why? She could get hurt." He protests, frowning disappointingly at Derek. Everyone is surprised by his sudden outburst, but they all know that he lives by the statement of helping and protecting others first. But to Scott it feels like something more.

Derek rolls his eyes annoyingly at his retort, shaking his head. Maeve, who looks unhappy with Derek's uncaring reaction, steps away from him. The sudden absence of warmth next to him causes the Alpha to turn around. His inky brows bend towards each other in confusion, as though asking Maeve what was wrong. The cherry-lipped girl ignores it. "We have to protect everyone, including ourselves." She says in a voice that clearly says that's the end of that conversation.

The others don't disapprove, nodding their heads silently. Scott clenches his fist unbeknownst to the rest, his mind uneasy about his dream about Juniper Tanaka. It returned last night, the fear he felt in the dream still stings him overly. June's state in it doesn't feel right, he feels the need to protect the girl and he doesn't know why. He finds ruby semicircles dug into his palm when he opens it. 

"Scott," Deaton's voice pulls the Beta out of his thoughts. "Can you tell us about your dream again?"

His heart races in his chest as Scott sucks in a sudden breath, recalling the dream, recalling June's bewitched face. "Uh," he hesitantly starts, knowing all too well that Derek is listening to his swift heart beats. "It was a full moon night, in the woods. I was able to control myself from turning, but I was so afraid."

"Do you remember why you were afraid?" Maeve asks, her eyebrows furrowed. "Anything that you didn't notice earlier?"

Scott shakes his head, his breath hitching. Derek stirs from his position, listening closely to the Beta's heart beats that is rapidly beating. "No," Scott says in a raspy voice, meeting eyes with Deaton who looks back at him intently. "She's the only thing I noticed." He pauses, waiting for the others to say something but Deaton nudges for him to go on. "It was June, definitely her. She was floating in the air, even her hair was. It was like she was defying gravity. Like there was no gravitational force around her. Whatever she is. . . it's powerful. And she was looking at me."

The room is tense now. Derek looks at Deaton for any kind of explanation but gets nothing out of him. The Alpha lets out a huff, turning to Maeve instead. "Do you know anything about this?" The honey skinned woman turns to him, shrugging her shoulders nonchalantly. "It definitely sounds like a witch. But what coven could she be from?" The question is indicated to Deaton who just shakes his head, looking only at Scott.

"What were the colour of her eyes you said?"

Scott swallows nothingness, clenching his crooked jaw before meeting his boss's eyes. "Purple."

The next moment Derek's phone begins to ring, distracting the conversation away. Derek frowns his eyebrows as he looks at the text in his phone. He passes a knowing look to Maeve. "It's Cora," He groans irritably. "She and whatever's remaining of my pack are alone with Peter. She's getting impatient."

Maeve covers her forehead with irritation, sighing aggressively. "He should've just stayed dead."

Derek ignores her comment, nudging at Deaton and Scott. "You two figure this out." He commands, and along with Maeve leaves the clinic. Derek doesn't fail to bump into Stiles on his way, causing the latter to groan and Maeve to chuckle.

With Scott and Stiles alone with Deaton now, the space is more comfortable and relaxing. "Purple." Deaton repeats what Scott informed a few minutes back, begging for the Beta's confirmation. Scott slowly nods, dazing into his dream once more.

"Please don't tell me that my best friend is a new villain," Stiles cries from opposite to Scott, eyes wide pleadingly. "And don't tell me that she's responsible for all the human sacrifices."

Deaton doesn't meet the human's eyes when he replies, "I can't confirm anything. Except one."

Both Stiles and Scott's chest get heavy as they fearfully wait for Deaton to elaborate. Stiles nervously plays with the zipper of his hoodie, but the others pay no attention to that. "There is one more coven, a secret fourth one." They teenagers look at the adult dubiously, holding their breaths to grasp the information. "And I'm afraid that according to your descriptions, June has to be one of them."

"Why-why are you afraid?" Stiles fiddles nervously, shaking his voice.

"Because it's the Lunar coven."

Chills. The word alone sent chills down their spines and Stiles is able to let out the breath he stored. "The moon?" Scott smartly suggests, his eyes searching around the room as though he can find the answers to the dozen questions buzzing in his brain.

Deaton nods, "That's right Scott. The Lunar witches have control over the moon."

"That makes sense," Stiles hastily nods. "Because his dream happened in a full moon night. But how does that guarantee she's a moon witch? Her eyes?"

Deaton exhales, "Yes, her eyes." He looks at Scott, who's eyebrows are furrowed deeply, mind roaming aimlessly but his thoughts land on June nevertheless. It only makes his heartbeats grow faster. "Scott mentioned they were purple, you know what else is purple?"

Realisation dawns over Scott as he snaps out of his daze, mouth agape in shock. "Wolfsbane."

Stiles breathes heavily, a hand landing on his mouth, his eyes are wide with shock. He looks at Scott who has the same clueless but shocked expression on his face, looking at his hands like it has the answers. The claw marks from his palm have subsided but the constant fear lunging at him hasn't still. For some reason, he doesn't think that it would anytime soon.

"Lunar witches are living and breathing wolfsbane." Deaton continues, his voice is steady unlike the remaining two. "I understand why she would have dreamt of an Alpha, what I don't get is why you would dream of her in her true form."

Scott looks at him warily, his breath totally lost. He swallows again, but nothing draws inside his clogged throat. "I don't know, either." Scott's voice shivers so much that he has to clear his throat before going on, "I just know that we have to save her."

Deaton furrows his eyebrows, clearly dumfounded. "Scott, the only person that needs to be saved is yourself. There's no other reason for you to dream of her. She is wolfsbane. That means she can kill you."

"No one's killing anyone, okay?" Stiles implores with his own shaky voice, for the moment acting as he is the authoritative figure. "They are both my best friends and they're not dying."

Deaton doesn't reply immediately, but huffs out a tiring breath. "You do know why I haven't spoken about this in front of Derek?"

Stiles nods slowly, not meeting the veterinarian's bold eyes. "He would've killed her."

Deaton nods, "Derek isn't a big fan of threats. Especially with his sister coming back, he will let no harm come their ways."

"So what do we do?" Scott asks, hopelessly looking at his mentor. The dark skinned man wears a soft smile, as though to comfort the boys with a good news. "One advantage we have is that she has no idea what she is. Unless she is pretending, but that's doubtful." He looks at Stiles for confirmation.

The scrawny boy hurriedly shakes his head, "No, no she's not pretending. I know her."

"Then good," Deaton urges. "That means she doesn't know the extent of her powers, she's like a new Beta."

A new sense of hope fills in Scott's chest. "So she's good?"

"She is, but it's like a werewolf on a full moon." Deaton explains, "Even though she means no harm, she doesn't have control over her powers."

"She needs an anchor then. Easy." Stiles concludes, but Deaton eyes him, silently asking him to shut up. "She does," Deaton agrees anyway. "But it's different from the case of werewolves. For you, the anchor is an emotion, a memory, anything. That's not the case for witches, their anchors are actual living things. It holds on to all her powers, like a loyal pet. But if something is to happen to the anchor, her power will be unleashed and she would have no control over it."

Stiles and Scott share a look, as though the same thought is running in both their minds. "So we just need to find out who  the anchor is?"

Unfortunately, Deaton shakes his head. "No, the anchor will find her. It's the first indication of her power. We're safe until the anchor finds her, otherwise there may be no way to stop her."

There's silence after, none of them know what to say. "There's one more thing that doesn't add up," Deaton is the one to break the silence. "Witches are hereditary. So if she's a witch, it means that—"

"—that her parents are witches too." Stiles completes, mouth slightly open with the information he gathered in such a short period. "Lunar witches." Deaton corrects. "Experienced ones."

"Now that's one hell of a bombshell." Stiles says sarcastically. Scott and Deaton don't acknowledge that. Suddenly, a violent rattling sound bellows from somewhere. Stiles turns around to face the door behind, from where the noise echoed. It was the room where the animals were kept— either waiting for their owners to collect them or abandoned homeless ones. Deaton cautiously steps towards it, as the veterinarian he's used to the chaos. The boys step back as he pulls open the door. The rattle has ceased but there is one thing that catches the druid's eyes. Bending down, he picks up a metallic cage, now almost torn to shreds. He points it towards Scott. "The weapon of choice was clearly its claws." He remarks, showing the cage to the boys. "Scott, whose animal was in here?"

Scott's eyes widen, a sudden realisation stabbing him. "It was a stray cat." He says ominously. "A stray cat that kept following June."

With the last sentence, Deaton's and Stiles's eyes widen like him, the very same realisation nudging them. It was Stiles who managed to say it out. "June's anchor."

A/N:

this chapter was more centered on scott, as you may have noticed. it's because his character arc is a little different from here than the canon (not much tho) because of the soulmate concept that applies strongly on him. to understand their connection better it's important for y'all to understand the story from both perspectives! i hope this chapter helped to clear a few extra things about the witches, including scott's dream. every detail in this chapter is imp so i hope you paid attention lol. ALSO the witch from the fire coven that was mentioned here is stiles's love interest! you can check out the act i divider for more information.

let me know what you thought of this chapter!!