Summer was almost over, lacrosse practice was starting again, and Liam did not want to go to it.
Mason and Corey did everything they could to convince Liam to get out on the field. Practice had started already and their friend was not even in his uniform. Scott, the new assistant coach was getting impatient and had started texting Mason and Corey to hurry up and drag Liam out of the locker room.
"I can't handle this," Liam wailed.
"Yes, you can, and you've handled so much worse than this. You're practically the Alpha now," Mason said as he pulled Liam into a sitting position on the locker room bench.
"I'm nothing without her," said Liam.
"Liam, can you help me with this, please," said Corey trying to help Liam into his lacrosse gear.
"Hayden left me," Liam said.
"She moved to protect her sister, it's not like she dumped you or anything," Mason said, trying to encourage his best friend.
"Why is your arm so heavy?" Corey asked randomly.
Just then, Mason's phone vibrated. "Okay, Scott said Coach is losing it."
"Scott's leaving, too!" Liam exclaimed. He felt like everyone in his life was leaving him.
"Going to college is not leaving, okay? It's called growing up and we're all going to be going to different colleges eventually," Mason said.
"I thought we were both applying to UCLA?" Corey asked Mason while Mason tried to signal him to cut it out.
"You guys are going to the same college?" Liam asked both of his friends with a betrayed look in his eyes.
"That is not the point!"
"What is the point?" Liam asked as his friends started dragging him across the locker room.
"The point is that summer's almost over, we're about to be seniors, this is about to be the best year of our entire lives, and you're still captain of the lacrosse team, so come on, you've got to-" Mason was cut off as Liam's lacrosse stick got stuck on the door and him and Corey both fell over with Liam on top of them.
While still on the floor, Mason got another text from Scott.
"Coach is making Diaz captain!"
That got Liam's attention.
He rushed out onto the field in about the time it took just for Corey and Mason to get off the floor. He was just in time to block a ball from heading straight into the goal. Overwhelmed by the awesomeness of that save, he did not notice the rival player heading towards him as he ran down the field. Liam was promptly tackled and flipped over by the other teammate. Liam was enraged by the surprise tackle and felt his control slipping.
Scott blew his whistle and ran out to Liam trying to get him to calm down and control himself before he turned into a full-blown werewolf in the middle of the lacrosse field.
After noticing the shocked look on everyone's faces, Scott noticed the actual real-life wolf on the field. After following the wolf back into the forest and seeing all the other dead wolves, Scott and Liam knew there was something weird going on yet again in Beacon Hills.
The next day was class registration for senior year. After that was over Mason and Liam tried to find books on mythology to see if they could find any clues to the weird event that happened the night before. However, once they got to the mythology and superstition section, they noticed that all the books had be cleared out completely.
"Maybe someone is writing a paper on mythology and superstition or like a hundred papers," Mason said.
After hearing a scream, Mason and Liam rushed into the classroom of its origin and said what had to be hundreds of rats scrambling around the floor.
"Looks like we're going to need a book on rats, too," said Mason.
Mason and Liam decided to investigate further and look for the source of the rats. They ended up in a series of tunnels connecting to the school's air and water systems. It looked awful down there and smelled even worse. They came across a disgusting sight, Mason called it a rat king. It was a bunch of rats with their tails all intertwined, they were all dead and bloody. After consulting Malia, they knew that these rats smelled like fear. What they feared, Liam and Mason did not even want to know.
Mason thought it would be a good idea to take one of the dead rats to Mrs. McCall to hear her thoughts on what happened to it. Liam went along with him. Once they got to the hospital, there was already a massive amount of people there. They did not know why all the people were there, but clearly, Mrs. McCall was too busy to help them out.
She was in the middle of trying to stop two patients from fighting when Liam decided to help her out. Getting in between the two men, Liam tried to push them apart only to be punched directly in the nose by the man he was facing. This was the second time recently that Liam was losing control of the werewolf side of him as his eyes turned yellow and his claws dug into his palms, making them bleed.
He quickly rushed away from the scene as to not be noticed by any innocent bystanders. As he made his way into an elevator, he had no idea that he was being chased by an unknown enemy, but luckily, the elevator doors closed before the strange man could get to Liam. Liam could safely calm himself down in the elevator. Repeating his mantra, "the sun, the moon, the truth," he could feel his claws turning into to normal finger nails again.
After the incident at the hospital, Liam and Mason headed to the school. As they were walking through the halls, Liam thought he could hear voices. One of the voices sounded like Parrish, but he did not recognize the other voice.
Parrish's voice became clearer as Liam got closer.
"Okay, so what are you here for? What are you protecting? Or is it something you're hunting, something that got away?" Parrish asked whoever was with him.
Just then, Liam and Mason burst through the door leading into the hallway Parrish was in. There was a strange man with him that neither of the boys recognized, but Liam thought he smelled slightly familiar. The newcomer looked at Liam and Mason and growled.
"Something you let out. It must be stopped," he said ominously.
"Is he talking to you?" Mason said to Liam.
"I hope not," Liam said and swallowed loudly. He did not know what the strange guy was talking about but he was staring at him and it creeped Liam out. Not a minute later, the stranger's eyes started glowing fiery red. Liam knew what he was now, he was another hellhound, just like Parrish.
Before he had much time to process the new information, both Parrish and the new hellhound burst into flames. Liam moved to get in front of Mason to protect him as both hellhounds started fighting. They were going at it mercilessly, crushing lockers and school equipment in their wake. Growls could be heard everywhere and sparks flew off them wildly.
It looked like the new hellhound was getting the upper hand as he slammed Parrish onto the ground. Picking him up with his claws, the stranger flung the deputy across the hall and through the outside doors into a brick wall. Parrish's flames went out as he was knocked unconscious. Liam hoped he was only unconscious.
With a look of victory, the new hellhound turned to Liam and Mason.
"Run!" Liam yelled at Mason. He knew his human friend stood no chance against a hellhound. Liam did not know if he even stood a chance but he was going to try and fight the enemy anyway. His eyes turned yellow as he embraced his werewolf side and roared at the hellhound. Liam ripped a locker door off its hinges and swung it at the man. He hardly flinched at the attack and soon slammed Liam up against the lockers.
"You were supposed to stay where you belong," the hellhound roared at Liam. Then the stranger paused like he was listening for something.
"No," he growled, "No, it's not you, but you reek of it."
Liam had no reason what the man was talking about, he thought he was crazy or something.
The hellhound reached his hand up, looking like he was going to claw Liam's face off right then and there. Just when Liam thought he was done for, Mason came up from behind the hellhound and swung Stiles' baseball bat at the enemy. However, the new hellhound was too quick and he grabbed the bat and quickly melted it. He flung Mason away from him and knocked him out, but while he was distracted, Liam was able to get free and he started attacking the hellhound again.
Going at the enemy with all his strength, Liam could barely keep up with him. Liam clawed the hellhound, and the hellhound clawed him back. Liam's chest burned in agony but he knew he had to keep fighting. Liam was finally able to get the upper hand as he jumped up and punched him with all his power. The hellhound fell to the ground laughing.
"It won't stay hidden. It must be stopped. Nothing else matters," the strange hellhound said.
Liam could hardly pay attention to what he said, he was in so much pain. He closed his eyes and repeated his mantra as Mason woke up and sat next to him. When Liam opened his eyes, the hellhound was gone, leaving a bloody stain behind.
He had to call Scott and tell him what happened. Liam did not want to call him because he knew Scott and Lydia were leaving for college that night, but he figured a new evil hellhound in town was probably a good enough reason to delay his Alpha. Liam sent Scott a quick text, "Meet me at the school ASAP, it's an emergency."
Mason was bandaging up Liam's injuries in the boy's locker room when Scott, Lydia, and Malia arrived.
Scott being the normal worried Alpha he is rushed to Liam after he saw that he was hurt.
"Liam, are you okay? What happened?"
"There's another hellhound. I injured it but it got away. It knocked Parrish out," Liam explained.
"Yeah, and he was saying some weird stuff," Mason added.
"What kind of weird stuff?" Malia asked.
"He said like, 'You let it out, it must be stopped,' to Liam," Mason said.
"Wait, that's exactly what I heard in my vision," Lydia exclaimed.
"What?" Scott asked.
"I had a vision while I was at your house and I heard a voice say, 'You let it out.' I don't have any idea what the 'it' it's talking about is though."
"The hellhound thought it was me at first but then he said I wasn't it but that I smelled like it. I don't understand this guy at all," Liam said.
"Parrish thought the new hellhound was hunting something, something that got away," Mason said.
"Do you think he is talking about the Wild Hunt? A lot of people escaped from there, maybe it's hunting one of us that got out of the Wild Hunt? Oh no, what if he's after Stiles?" Lydia questioned.
"Why would I smell like Stiles?" Liam asked.
"I don't know, it's just a thought. Another thing I heard in my vision was that we opened a door to another world. Maybe the hellhound is after what came out of the other world."
"But if he's talking about the Wild Hunt, we all came out of the Wild Hunt, wouldn't he want to attack all of us then?" Scott said.
"Guys, I think I know what he's after," Liam said. "I think he's after Theo."