Malia scowled as the solid heels of her boots thudded on the pavement, this was a necessary evil unfortunately, she did not want to be walking down the street in the warehouse district after school every other day to go and see Derek. Derek was the Alpha who'd roared her out of her full coyote state because Scott had been under misconceived notion that she was going to kill people. She'd had no intention of killing people, but Stiles had stolen her little sister's doll, the fact that she'd accidentally nearly killed him trying to get it back was a completely different matter. She wouldn't have killed him, definitely not, but the fact that every time she had seen him since her heart rate had spiked and she still hadn't felt anything changing had indicated that something was wrong. 

The problem was that since being roared back she hadn't been able to change, not even on the full moon, it was like it was before her abilities had surfaced. She hated it. She couldn't smell things like she used to, and staring at the boards at the front of classrooms had given her a headache, she was really not in the mood for this. She pulled open the front door of the building and stomped up the stairs, adjusting the backpack on her shoulder as she did so. 

Eventually she reached the top of the stairs and grabbed hold of the handle to slide the door open. "Derek. I'm here, let's get this train wreck on the tracks." She called as she dropped her bag just inside the door.

Derek wasn't entirely sure why he had said yes to this, helping a were-coyote be able to turn back again. Well, of course he did have a hope of adding to his pack, but he wasn't just going to replace Erica and Boyd and forget about them. He felt like his resources were better used on them right now, but Malia needed help to be able to turn back, and to control her powers. It wasn't something that could just wait, and he knew he was the best one for the job. Though he had to admit that Scott was capable of it as well, he couldn't roar her back if things went wrong. Even though he felt like he has messed up a whole lot as an alpha, he knew it still made him needed. Scott and his friends needed him, Isaac needed him. And he was certain that Boyd and Erica needed him, wherever they were. 

The door sliding open brought him out of his deep contemplation, and he looked up as Malia stood in the doorway, demanding they get started. "Hello Malia, nice to see you to. I take it you're ready to begin." He moved to the middle of the room, waiting for her to join him. He knew it would be another trying experience with the girl. She didn't have a lot of patience, a bit of an attitude and generally just seemed to be angry at the world. Some, like Stiles, would point out that it sounded a lot like Derek himself, but he would deny it. "Any progress? Claws, fangs, eyes?" 

Malia rolled her eyes, they both knew that neither of them enjoyed this and that both of them were getting extremely annoyed at her lack of progress. She knew that once she was able to change again she would have a whole world of control issues, but she didn't care, she felt lost without her powers and it was driving her insane. She walked down the steps and into the middle of the room to join him. She looked up at him when he asked if she'd managed to make any progress on her own.

"Yeah because practicing with my Dad in the house and no Alpha to roar at me if things go wrong is going to go so well." she retorted, more than a little bit irritated. "If I thought I could do this on my own, I would be." So maybe she'd admitted a little more than she'd been intending with that last sentence, but it was too late now. She'd admitted that she needed his help and until she could transform back and forth without help they were just going to have to live with this arrangement.

She sighed and tried to relax, tried to focus on the task at hand, the fact that staring at chalkboards all day had given her a headache really wasn't helping the situation, but she had to make the best of it. Despite the fact that Derek was a pessimistic sour puss with a bad attitude, he was her only hope. "What insightful genius are you gonna impart to me today Mr Alpha?" she asked with a fake smile.

Derek raised his eyebrows at her response. "So you haven't tried," he stated more than asked. Not that this was necessarily a bad thing, it could go very wrong, but he didn't think it would pose too much danger for her to try and get in touch with the coyote. Her added comment told him why she hadn't tried though, she didn't think she could keep herself under control at even the slightest change. He supposed he couldn't blame her for that, given that she had killed her family the last time she turned. She had been a kid back then though, and even though she wasn't used to the change she had spent a lot of time in touch with the animal side of her. 

He returned her fake smile with a smirk, lightly shaking his head. "Lets try the claws. You seem to be in the right mood to want to rip something apart." He nodded towards the edge of the room, where he'd set up an old punching bag he didn't mind having ripped to shreds if she should succeed. He holds up his hand, a quick movement to flick his claws out. He knows it won't be that easy for her, he's just showing her the technique. "Now, close your eyes, try to just focus on the wolf, well coyote, inside. Don't be scared of it, you'll learn to control it eventually.  Don't overthink what you're trying to do, its a natural instinct, you just need to stop blocking it." He waits for a moment. "Now, try." 

Malia narrowed her eyes at Derek’s eyebrow raised statement, that was what she’d said after all but the tone he’d used sounded accusatory and she wasn’t sure she liked that. Despite the fact that she really wanted to get her powers back she was a little anxious about it, she didn’t want to lose control where she could hurt anyone. She’d done enough of that, her mum and sister for starters, she didn’t want to hurt her Dad too. He was only a human, unlike Derek would heal and he could roar her back if he had to.

She cocked an eyebrow when Derek smirked back at her, but almost laughed when he said she seemed in the right mood to rip something apart. Well he wasn’t wrong there, but she doubted he’d appreciate her gouging holes in the boards at school and knocking out the fluorescent lights. Turning the light off to go to sleep was bliss even if she did miss the sound of the wind rustling the leaves. She watched as he flicked his own claws out with ease, she scowled, it was alright for him, he’d had years of practice at changing, she’d changed once in her entire life and it had taken her 8 years to change back and even then she hadn’t done it naturally. Still, she did as she was told and focused, almost trying to feel her way back into the coyote’s body. She was grateful that he’d paused in talking to give her a moment to try and focus, but it was difficult.

At his prompt, she flicked her wrist, and felt a pressure on her nails, but it didn’t feel right. She opened her eyes and as she looked down at her hands a growl of frustration rose in her throat, nothing had happened and because of that she forgot that she’d felt something. Even a different feeling as she did it was something. She looked across at Derek, feeling almost desperate for any small hint she could get. She hated feeling so vulnerable, so human. Not wanting to sound like a whiny teenager, she didn’t say anything but focused on the punching bag, she shut her eyes, she tried to clear her mind. She flicked her wrist again, this time the pressure was slightly more intense but when she opened her eyes, still nothing.

With a cry of anger she swung at the punching back with her fists, instinct took over and at the last moment her wrist flicked, out popped her claws and the tearing of leather almost echoed around the sparse room. Her mouth dropped open as she stared at her claws, turning her hand over so that she could see them better. She grinned.

Derek stayed quiet, watching her intently as she closed her eyes to focus. His eyes narrowed just a little when she opened her eyes, immediately looking towards her fingers and a look of disappointment crossed her face. It seemed like she had felt something, judging from her reaction. That was good. He met her eyes when she looked towards him, and he could sense a familiar frustration from her. With eyebrows raised he gave her a small nod. "Again." 

Malia's second try didn't give any more success, but her frustration grew. As she latched out at the punching bag, Derek was about to sigh and tell her to try again, when the sound of ripping leather made him stop. Malia looked almost shocked, and Derek couldn't help but smirk, especially as she grinned. "Good. Now calm yourself down and retract your claws, and try again. For now the anger is helpful, but you have to find a way to do it without it." 

Derek knew he was a demanding teacher, but coddling her and praising every little progress wouldn't work, and he was hardly the type for it. But even though he didn't let it show, already today had been a massive step in the right direction. Somehow it was getting through to her. Though the progress also meant it was even more necessary for her to learn control quickly. 

Malia glanced up at Derek, still grinning, to see a smirk on his face, it seemed that her bad mood had helped a little bit, but she knew she couldn't rely on anger to make this work every time. He'd told her enough for her to know that at least, and she knew enough by her own experience to know that anger followed by guilt and fear could have disatrous consequences for her personally. She'd seen Scott change and had never seen him turn into a wolf completely, she'd been an actual Coyote for years, which was weird in itself. She nodded when he told her to try and retract them by calming down, taking a deep breath as the grin faded into a look of concentration.

She appreciated the fact that he wasn't the babying kind of teacher, she didn't think she'd have appreciated every little thing being praised to the heavens. She was a very down to earth, keep things simple kind of person and she wouldn't be happy with real praise until she'd achieved what they came here to do. Until she could turn as naturally as he did. She knew it would take a while to get that far, but she needed it or she was going to go insane.

Breathing slowly helped, as well as the thrill of having actually achieved something and she watched as her claws retracted to leave human fingernails behind. She closed her eyes, trying to do the focusing on her inner coyote thing again rather than just getting angry. She flicked her wrist, again the pressure, but no result. She forced herself to stay calm, trying to block out the headache and the annoyance, but she'd never been a particularly calm person to start with. Trying to force herself to be calm, was in the long run just getting her more annoyed than the lack of results they'd been having up till now. Again she tried flicking her wrist without being angry and still the funny pressure with no result. She opened her eyes and looked at Derek. "What if I can't do it without getting angry, what if that's just not me?" she asked him, wanting an honest answer. If the fact that she had to get angry to make this work was a problem she needed to know sooner rather than later, although she couldn't imagine a lot of situations where she'd want to do this when she wasn't already angry.