The Wolf Amoung Us

Summary: After having lost Peter to his obsession with power, Sydney was sure of one thing and one thing only: she needed to pull her life back together. With unexpected news that will change everything, will she become the strong alpha that she desires so much or will she struggle to keep it together until it's too late? Season 5: Peter Hale/OC

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters of Teen Wolf, Sydney however is all mine.

Chapter 1:

It had started off slow: the agonizing pain, the never ending sweats, paired with her body temperature dropping significantly, not to mention the chills that caused her body to shake so hard that it ached.

Sydney hadn't been entirely sure what she was expecting when she left Beacon Hills but to be up most of the nights from the nightmares and being so cold she feared she'd never be able to get warm again, that definitely wasn't part of it. There was something wrong, something much deeper going on and Sydney could only conclude that since Peter Hale had his hands in her life, that he was most likely part of it.

Aidan and Ethan had been great to her so far, Aidan being the one too often rushing into her room in the middle of the night to pull her out of her hellish nightmares. He'd hold her while she fought off the tears and he'd draw out whatever pain he could. Ethan was constantly offering to make her tea or something to eat, and when it started getting even worse, he had divulged particular information that he thought might help Sydney get over whatever was going on.

Together, the two boys had found the location of someone rather knowledgeable with the werewolf lifestyle. Sydney had objected at first, there was no way she was going to go to some human doctor to see if he could diagnose her with something, anything that might clue her in to what was happening, but gradually everything became worse.

The nightmares turned even darker and on more than one occasion she had watched not only Peter die, but herself as well, and when she woke up, she had needed ample time to calm down because, being so many miles away, she never really knew what was going on with Peter. Was he suffering just the same as her? Was he constantly kept drugged and compliant within Eichen house? Was he even still securely locked away from the rest of the human population?

With those sorts of questions flooding through her head, Sydney had taken matters into her own hands. She had sent Aidan and Ethan out to see if they could find some strong sleeping pills and a hefty bottle of vodka. Yes, she could fight this thing on her own; she didn't need a doctor, not even one that moonlighted as a supernatural medical practitioner. She was an alpha, she had her pack, and that was all she'd need.

It didn't take more than a night for Sydney to realize that sleeping pills and booze weren't going to cut it, in fact, her nightmare that night had been particularly awful and when she woke up, she knew that this wasn't just going to go away.

In her dream, Peter had handed her over to Kate Argent and taunted her as she died but with her last little bit of life, she then watched Kate execute him, sending his limp body stumbling to the floor next to her.

Aidan had spent hours reassuring her that Peter wasn't dead, that she'd feel something inside of her breaking had his death really occurred, but Sydney wasn't able to relax, not even as the sun rose outside the house.

Everything had become too hard, too much for her, and it was when she started getting nauseous and was unable to keep food down, that she had reluctantly agreed to see this 'Doctor Steve' that the twins raved about.

There had been a young girl sitting behind the glass windows acting as a receptionist when she wandered into the doctor's office. Sydney had immediately picked up on the scent, this girl was a wolf, and by the look in her eyes, Sydney knew that this girl was aware that she was one too.

When the girl behind the window's eyes flashed gold, Sydney replied quickly with a flicker of her own eyes, her vibrant red alpha eyes. That was another thing that she was losing control over, she was finding that she was unable to hide her red irises behind the blue eyes of a killer, which worried her almost more than the other symptoms.

"How are you today?" The girl behind the window asked politely and made quick work of gathering up a few sheets of paper before clipping them to a board and sliding them through the bit of open space at the bottom of the window. Sydney took hold of the board and glanced at the first sheet, immediately catching some of the ridiculous questions.

"I'm good." Sydney replied back slowly.

She had never really been to a doctor before, not in the human sense. She had seen Deaton a few times and there might have been a doctor on her long list of full moon companions but that had been more roleplaying than anything. No, this was her first trip to a real doctor's office and she knew that no matter how hard she tried to hide it, the werewolf behind the desk could hear her heart pounding against her chest.

"Hey, you don't have to be nervous." The girl murmured softly and Sydney watched as she handed her a pen, motioning for Sydney to have a seat in the waiting room, which was thankfully empty.

Sydney remained right where she was standing though and made no move to take the pen from the girl. She looked to be about Stiles' age, maybe a little older, but definitely younger than her. Sydney leaned her elbow against the edge of the counter and stared at her, wondering how big of a threat this girl was and if the doctor was some sort of supernatural creature himself.

"What's your name?" Sydney asked in a low tone and tried to keep her urge to growl at bay.

"Charlie." The girl nodded. Charlie, well, Sydney wasn't about to drop her guard against this Charlie, even if she did have golden eyes. It was always the innocent ones who she had to watch out for. "And you?"

"Sydney, Sydney Vance." Sydney responded and stole another glance at the forms that she had been given to fill out.

She wasn't sure that the doctor was going to be able to figure out what was wrong with her, it seemed that during the day she was much less prone to her intolerable symptoms, aside from the nausea anyways. There were no cold sweats, no nightmares obviously, and she rarely shook unless she had been sitting still for too long. Anything that would suggest there was much wrong with her at all only seemed to happen to her at night.

"Vance, that sounds familiar." Charlie mulled over her name and smiled brightly at Sydney. "Are you from around here?"

"I grew up here." Sydney answered, trying to keep it vague but giving the girl enough of an answer to satisfy her.

"Did you become an alpha here?"

Sydney clenched her jaw at the question and slowly shook her head no, "California actually. I have people there."

"Like your pack?" Charlie leaned forward and lowered her voice. Sydney wondered if she was fearful of another werewolf hearing them from somewhere else in the building.

"No." Sydney shook her head again. "Most of my pack is here."

"Right, Ethan mentioned you."

Sydney hadn't been aware that Ethan was conversing with a young woman, then again, the more she thought about it, the more she wasn't surprised, especially considering this young woman was a werewolf. The twins easily could've run into Charlie on their way to Sydney's grandparents' house, maybe there was no reason to worry, not until she knew more.

"Where's your pack?" Sydney questioned, her tone matching Charlie's.

"Oh, well, here's the thing, I uh, I don't really have one at the moment-"

"Omega?" Sydney cut her off with a growl. "What happened to your pack?"

Sydney leaned even closer to the glass, trying to intimidate the girl residing at the desk. Charlie barely flinched though and when Sydney made a move to touch the glass with her hand, she saw it glimmer, forcing a small shock through her system.

"Look, I don't want any trouble." Charlie pleaded. "My dad said that there's something in the glass that will protect me from enemies, I can't remember what he said it was…"

"Mountain ash?" Sydney threw the words out and shook her head, letting out a low growl of frustration. "Is your entire office surrounded by mountain ash?"

"Huh, that sounds about right." Charlie nodded to herself with a pleased look on her face. "Anyways, you asked about my pack, well I'm currently an omega, just like you said, but that doesn't mean I'm weak or defenseless."

Sydney nodded her understanding. It wasn't worth fighting with this girl, not here, not now. Until Charlie gave her a reason to go after her, maybe Sydney could use her. She could befriend this young wolf, create an alliance with her. If Charlie was even half as good as the twins, then Sydney had just locked her sights in on a potentially valuable pack member.

"Sorry." Sydney ground the word out. "For-"

"No worries Sydney Vance." Charlie smiled at her. "If you could just take a seat and fill those out, I'll go let the doctor know you're here."

Sydney did as she was instructed and clutched the clipboard in her hand while she scooped up the pen with the other. Glancing around the waiting room, Sydney locked her eyes on a seat tucked away in the corner, not like she needed the privacy, there were no other patients around, but that didn't mean she'd be the only one for the rest of her stay.

Sitting down, she made a mental note that Charlie had disappeared from behind the desk. With a lame attempt to get comfortable in the hard, metal chair, Sydney settled in and scanned her eyes over the forms. Sure she had never been to a real doctor's before but it didn't take a genius to figure out that these were unique forms, most likely meant for the supernatural.

Without putting it off any longer, Sydney began to answer the questions laid out in front of her.

She hadn't even had time to finish the last page before Charlie called out to her, the girl back behind the desk. When the doorway near the window opened up, Sydney locked her eyes on the older man standing there in a white lab coat, black dress pants and a nice dress shirt on underneath it.

"Come on into the back." The man welcomed her cheerfully and Sydney cautiously made her way to her feet, holding the pen and clipboard in one hand as she headed towards the doctor, following him down a narrow hallway, cupboards and shelves adoring each wall.

When the man waved her into what Sydney could only assume was an examination room, she felt her body tense. It wouldn't take too much for this man to hurt her, to kill her even, and it wasn't like the twins would be able to get past the mountain ash barrier, so what had she been thinking, agreeing to meet with a complete stranger. Maybe all she needed was stronger sleeping pills and something better than vodka.

"I should maybe just go." Sydney managed to get the words out but the man had pulled the door almost all the way closed, leaving it open only a few inches. She took her bottom lip in between her teeth and remained absolutely still, gauging this man's threat level.

"Relax; I'm not going to hurt you. I'm Doctor Steve; you're Sydney Vance, correct?"

"Uh, yes." Sydney nodded and clutched the pen in her fist, trying to fight back the wolf inside of her that was trying to get out now.

"I knew your father."

Her heart picked up in pace and her eyes widened in shock. This man, this 'Doctor Steve' was claiming to know her father? Was there any sort of proof? Had this man played a part in her father's life after he had been bitten? Did this man know her mother too?

"I'm sorry, what?"

"Your father, Mason Vance, he is your father, right?" Doctor Steve asked, tilting his head to the side. He waved at the examination table and Sydney didn't know what other choice she had, especially not if she was going to get information on how this man knew her father.

"He was."

"He was?" The doctor was unrelenting with the questions and Sydney sucked in a breath before hauling her butt up onto the edge of the table.

"He um, well he died about fifteen years ago." Sydney said softly and bowed her head. "He and my mom were attacked in their home."

"Oh gosh, I'm so sorry to hear that. He was a good man, a really good man."

A silence fell over them and Sydney set her hands on the edge of the table, gripping tightly. It had been a while since she had been able to talk about her parents, and now she was sitting in the office of a man who had known her father but hadn't known that he had been dead and gone for nearly fifteen years.

"I grew up with your dad; we played on the high school football team together." Steve cut in and took a step towards her, cautiously lifting his hand up and resting it gently against her shoulder in an attempt to comfort her.

"Football." Sydney echoed the word. "He played football?"

"Oh yeah, damn good player too."

Sydney forced a smile onto her face and straightened up on the table, even relaxing her grip slightly. Steve lowered himself onto a nearby stool, complete with wheels, before taking hold of her almost filled out forms and sliding across the tiled floor to come to a stop in front of a computer screen. She kicked her legs out and watched as the man began entering her information into the computer.

"So Charlie's your daughter?" Sydney asked softly and Steve gave a nod of his head, too focused on the screen to actually use his voice. "Was she born or bitten?"

"Bitten."

"May I ask who bit her?"

"You can, but they're long gone by now. They did it as a favour to me, see her and her mother were in a car accident when she was just learning to walk. It was too late for her mother but not for her."

"So you got this alpha to bite your daughter in order to keep her alive?" Sydney asked, more for confirmation than anything.

"Yes, I help out a lot of creatures in the area, in return they protect me, not that I need it."

"Yeah, you're entire building's mountain ash, right?"

"It sure is. A friend of mine gave me the idea."

"A friend?" Sydney narrowed her eyes on the back of Steve's head.

"Yeah, he's got a vet clinic in California-"

"Deaton?" Sydney asked, cutting him off effectively.

Steve paused in his typing and glanced back at her, tossing a smile in her direction. Sydney shook her head but remained calm. Seconds later, Steve resumed his work on the computer, letting Sydney sit in silence behind him.

"My daughter lost her pack not too long ago, they were taken out by hunters and she was the only one who managed to get away. I figured that I needed to step up and protect her, hence the mountain ash."

"Hunters are here? In Colorado?" Sydney asked him softly.

"My inside information was that they were just passing through but they targeted her pack. Apparently her alpha, not the one that bit her, had quite the reputation. I've only heard rumours but everyone thinks they've moved on." Steve explained. "Plus there was a big uproar about some sort of hit list, any of my known hunter contacts were too busy dealing with that to be concerned over my daughter and her omega status."

"Let me ask you something." Sydney instructed and Steve turned right around on his stool, looking directly at her. "Ever heard of the Hales?"

Steve's eyes widened slightly at the mention and he carefully nodded his head yes.

"I've heard of them, don't know much about them. One of them was an alpha, that's basically all I know, and I was seriously considering contacting him about my daughter. I think I overheard his name was Derek."

"Derek Hale would've been a terrible choice for alpha." Sydney found herself smiling slightly for the first time in days. "He's my best friend and not a very good leader. You saved your daughter a lot of trouble by not getting her involved with him and his pack."

"Okay well, who's your alpha then? I know this might sound like I'm being too forward but Charlie can't be an omega for the rest of her life. It's way too dangerous for that."

"I'm the alpha." Sydney nodded. "Maybe we can work something out. I could use another pack member."

"And also an examination?" Steve teased and waved around the room, implying that she was in the doctor's office for a reason. "Why don't we start with you telling me what's going on then?"

Sydney sucked in a breath and crossed her arms over her chest, trying to remain calm. She didn't know what was going on with her and she wasn't sure that this man would be able to tell her either. Being sick was terrifying and it had easily reminded her of the times where she hadn't been healing because of the nogitsune.

"Well okay, I guess, at night I have these awful nightmares, I wake up from them and I'm just so cold, like my bones feel like ice and I shiver so bad too."

"Okay, well, first question I have for you then, do you have a mate?"

"Yeah, uh I do." Sydney nodded. "Is that what this is?"

"Well hang on; is he with you here in Colorado?"

"No." She said softly, sadness lacing her tone. "He's in California."

"So he's not with you then? Ever?"

"Recently he was taken into custody." Sydney answered without getting into too many details.

"So you've been separated from him then? For how long?"

"A few weeks or so." Sydney answered.

"Have you been through a heat cycle since you've been mated?"

"Yeah, just once though."

"Right, okay." Steve hummed. "Are there any other symptoms that you've been experiencing aside from the nightmares and chills?"

Sydney took her bottom lip between her teeth and let out a small sigh, "I've been throwing up a lot lately."

Steve took her words to heart and contemplated his next move. It wasn't anything entirely new to him, he had seen how mates react when forced apart and it wasn't pretty. Sydney seemed to be in the early stages of withdrawal and if he left her untreated for too much longer, he knew it'd be nearly impossible to bring her back.

"Here's what I'm going to do, I'm going to send you for a blood test, you can do it anytime but the sooner the better, and I'll have Charlie set up a follow up appointment so that I can go over the results with you."

"Wait, a blood test? What for?" Sydney drummed her fingers against her arm.

"I want to cover all of my bases here, right now I'm thinking that you're going through withdrawal, mates don't do well without the other nearby, but I want to make sure that it's not something more serious before we go any further."

"What would be 'more serious'?" She widened her eyes at him, even bringing out her alpha reds. She knew she was edgier without Peter around but lately she had been noticing that she was getting angrier quicker.

"Well there are a number of things a blood test can tell us; it might be a simple vitamin deficiency, maybe an underlying mental issue. We also check to see if there's a chance you may be pregnant."

"There's not." Sydney shot back but her façade faltered. "Is there?"

"Anything's possible; we just want to make sure." Steve said calmly.

"Okay." She breathed the word out. "Well, what happens if I am pregnant?"

"We start you on our expectant mother's program, as well as discuss other available options." Steve answered and flashed her a reassuring smile. "Remember, the sooner you get the blood drawn, the faster we can get the results."

"Okay so what if I went and did it right now?"

"I can have Charlie request a rush on the tests, I'm sure we can fit you in tomorrow. How's that work?"

Sydney clamped her jaw shut and tried to wrap her head around what the doctor had just said. Withdrawal, yes, that part made sense, she hadn't known how she would be without Peter but she did know that it wasn't going to be easy, but pregnant, no, they had been careful, he had turned her down while she was in heat, there was just no way it was possible.

But then Steve had said anything was possible.

With one final forced smile in his direction, she took hold of the blood test request sheet and dropped her feet down to the floor. The doctor ushered her out of the room and back down the hall, letting her back into the waiting room where a card was waiting for her on the edge of the desk. Charlie looked up at her and smiled while Steve leaned down and whispered in her ear.

"Does the same time tomorrow work for you?" Charlie questioned once her father had wandered away.

"Yeah, that's fine." Sydney said quietly and clutched the sheet of paper in her hand. Charlie pulled the card back and scribbled the time of her appointment on the back of it before sliding it back out towards Sydney. "Thanks."

"No problem, I'll see you tomorrow." Charlie waved at her and without looking back; Sydney made a move towards the door.

As soon as she was back outside in the parking lot and standing right beside her car, she collapsed against it, letting out a growl of frustration.

No matter how far away from Peter that she tried to get, he'd apparently still have a hold on her. Now all she had to do was pray that she wasn't pregnant.

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Sydney hadn't been scared of the actual blood tests, nor was she afraid of getting her blood drawn, what she was terrified of was what the results would say. Certainly she'd know if there was something like a pregnancy going on with her body, wouldn't she? Wasn't that part of being a mother, the maternal instincts would kick in?

As much as the idea of motherhood didn't scare her as much as it used to, that didn't mean she was prepared to be a mom, not at all and especially not now that things had gone south. She didn't have Peter with her and she didn't know that she ever would.

He had promised her that he'd get out of Eichen House and maybe one day that'd actually happen but she knew that he had hurt a lot of people, his trip to the insane asylum was completely warranted and there wasn't a damn thing she could do about it. The idea of raising a baby alone, if she was actually pregnant, did cross her mind but then again so did other options.

Doctor Steve had said that they could discuss other available options and it didn't take a genius to figure out that he meant adoption or abortion, things like that. Adoption, sure that was possible but Sydney didn't know if she could do that to a child, nor could she do that to Peter. He had already lost out on Malia's life because of adoption; she figured he wouldn't really approve of losing out on another child's life. Abortion was lingering in her mind, maybe getting rid of it before anyone else knew was the best way to go but then again, Sydney wasn't entirely sure she could handle keeping the secret and it wouldn't take much for Peter to see, all he'd need to do would be to get his claws into her neck and dig up the memory from her mind.

Well, that is if he ever got out of Eichen House.

On her way back to the house after sticking around the building to get her blood drawn, she had stopped at the grocery store and nabbed a few groceries for dinner, as well as a pregnancy test. Sydney didn't know if she could wait until the next day at the doctor's to find out for sure and what did she have to lose, if it said positive then they'd confirm it the next day, if it said negative, well maybe she'd be able to get even just a few hours of decent sleep that night.

Her heart hadn't stopped pounding since she left the medical building and even when she pulled into her own driveway, she still felt it hammering against her chest. Sucking in a deep breath and holding it, Sydney tried to calm down, surely Ethan and Aidan would be able to pick up on her erratic heartbeat, they weren't oblivious, and talking to them about what was potentially going on wasn't really something she wanted to do just yet.

After sitting in the car for a few minutes, she felt her heartbeat slow down just enough so that she could play it off as simple excitement at being home. Climbing out of the car, Sydney wandered around to the passenger side and popped the door open, gathering up the few bags of groceries but pulling the pregnancy test out and slipping it into her jacket pocket. She didn't want the twins finding it by accident, not until she knew for sure.

Kicking the door shut with her foot, Sydney quickly made her way to the front door and pushed it open, stepping inside and heading right for the kitchen. The twins had a nice set up at the kitchen table, each of them with a laptop as well as a few old books open and Sydney knew immediately what they were doing.

She had taken it upon herself to familiarize herself with as much of the supernatural world as she could while she was no longer in the thick of things. She had brought the twins on to help her as she created her own little personal bestiary, which was an ongoing project. It involved spending days flipping through books and webpages searching for information on the various supernatural creatures that she was already aware of, as well as looking into other creatures that she wasn't entirely familiar with.

"We ordered an old mythology book today." Ethan announced, not even bothering to peel his eyes off the screen. Sydney wandered towards the fridge and set the bags of food on the counter nearby.

"Did you find anything more on werejaguars?" Sydney asked him, knowing full well that there wasn't a ton of information out there that they had been able to find on whatever the hell Kate Argent was.

"No but we got a ton more information on phoenixes." Aidan piped up and waved Sydney over.

She hesitated and set her hands on her hips, feeling the pregnancy test box brush against her wrist as she slowly made her way over to the table and took up a stance between the two twins. Her eyes fell down onto Aidan's laptop screen and she scanned over the pages and pages of information that he had copied and pasted from the internet. Now all he had to do was clean it up and organize it.

"Good, that's awesome." Sydney remarked and moved away from him, heading back over to her groceries residing on the counter.

She made quick work of putting all the groceries away before making a move to the hallway in silence. There were a lot of things weighing heavily on her mind and taking the test was the heaviest of all. Ethan tore his eyes off his laptop and looked at her, Sydney tossing him a smile.

"You okay?" He asked and tilted his head to the side. "How'd the doctor's go?"

Sydney stopped and leaned her back against the kitchen wall, "good I guess. I have to go back tomorrow to go over the results of my blood test."

"Blood test?" Aidan joined the conversation and looked at her too.

"Yeah, he thinks it's just withdrawal from being away from my mate but he wants to make sure." Sydney was quick to answer. "Anyways, I'm going to go have a shower and then I'll make dinner, how's that sound?"

"Sounds awesome!" Aidan grinned and immediately went back to work, Ethan flashing her a similar grin and following his brother's lead.

Sydney walked out of the kitchen and jogged up the stairs, heading right for her room. She bypassed her half made bed and continued right on through to the adjoining bathroom, peeling off her jacket as she entered. Pausing only to shut and lock the door behind her, Sydney fumbled to get the box back out of her pocket and when she did, she ripped the end open and dumped the contents onto the counter, fighting off the growl she could feel growing in her gut.

This wasn't supposed to be something she would ever do yet here she was, getting ready to pee on a stick. With a quick read of the instructions, Sydney set to it and did exactly what it said to do. Once the pee stick was safely tucked under a washcloth on the counter, she stripped off her clothes and climbed into the bathtub, letting the water run out of the faucet before pulling the lever for a shower.

There was no washing involved, no suds on her body, no, Sydney merely stood under the scalding hot shower spray and let the water warm up her body. She let her mind drift to the past few nights where she had woken up from a terrifying night terror only to be consumed by the cold. She felt her muscles relaxing under the hot spray and once she was almost too hot to take it, she turned the water off and stood in the shower, air drying slightly.

Reaching out and taking hold of her fluffy blue towel, she wrapped it around herself and let her wet hair hang loose. Gathering it up at the side of her head, she pushed her hair behind her shoulder and sucked in a breath, hoping that the pregnancy test read negative. Holding her breath, Sydney reached her hand out and gently took hold of the stick between her index finger and thumb, her eyes going right to the spot on the side where a little plus sign could easily be seen.

"Shit! Shit, shit, shit." She mumbled to herself and sat down on the edge of the tub, her eyes still locked on the plus sign. "What am I supposed to do?"

Dropping her head into her hands, she let out a low growl and considered her options once again. There was still a slight possibility of a false positive but Sydney knew she wasn't going to be that lucky.

In a time when her life was falling apart minute by minute, it was only logical that things would be getting worse.

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So...what do you guys think?