Chapter 3

The school was crowded as Cora took the turn to the parking lot, positioning her Chevy a good space away from the school's main entrance. After all she wanted to remain inconspicuous as long as possible before she decided to reveal herself; that was if she decided to reveal herself after all.

Her plan was to stay unnoticed by most until she had figured out what her next step would be. Maybe visiting the school would be enough to get all the information she needed to get her job done, but it could just as well require more commitment. She had pretended to be a new student before, signing in with a fake ID, going to classes with her suspects, spying on them and their closest environment to target the object of concern and eliminate it – one way or the other.

Cora got out of the car and took in a deep breath. Being a werewolf certainly had its benefits. While other hunters had to find their prey the Sherlock-Holmes-Way, she simply took an educated sniff and was already light-years ahead of them.

The air around the school smelled as if someone had put smells from all over town and even further into a mixer, now it was Cora's task to find that certain scent in this jungle of aromas that she was searching for.

The most dominant smell around was the scent of cars, exhaust, paint, leather, cheap polyester seat covers and many more. She could smell over 30 different kinds of perfume and deodorant mixed with even more different kinds of human sweat. Heck she could even smell the pheromones that all these pubescent teenagers gave off when their little heartthrobs came into view.

Cora couldn't help but smirk about this, remembering the times when she was crushing on some boy in her school she knew she would never have a chance with – not only due to her werewolfness, but who would want to be dating the almost-invisible, kind of weird girl in quire? Back then being unpopular had made her a little sad and sometimes she had wished she would have as many friends and suitors as the 'cool' girls, but now thinking about the old days made her laugh. She had had REAL friends, not many, but they were loyal and honest, something she appreciated all these years, especially after she had left them without a word 5 years ago. There was nothing else to say about it – even though she was a werewolf, she had a great childhood and youth, as long as it lasted.

But with all these scents of perfumes, cars, people, food and materials, there was this one scent she had been searching for: the scent of another wolf. He, it was definitely a male, was in the building, so she had to enter the school to get to him. She was certain that it couldn't be an Alpha and she assumed that it had to be a young wolf, since the events in town didn't lie too far back. Hopefully this would help her getting close to the wolf before he could identify her.

She made her way over to the main entrance of the building and followed the scent through the school, careful not to come too close too soon so she wouldn't be exposed.

Finally her targets settled in the cafeteria, a place where she could easily be eavesdropping on him for a while, and, if necessary, confront him without risking escalation or being watched.

Waiting outside the cafeteria doors, Cora listened to a conversation between the werewolf and someone else. Judging by their voices they were both young, around 16 she would guess. It made her sad that someone had to endure this burden at this age while he could just be having fun being an ordinary teenager.

But she had to focus on the conversation. She heard a lot of words that triggered her. They talked about an Alpha who was about to create his own pack, a hunter family and a funeral, about at least two more students that had been bitten and apparently that young werewolf was in a relationship with an "Allison", and not any Allison, but the one Allison Argent, daughter of the hunter family that had moved to town.

Of course Cora knew about the Argents. It was common that among hunters you know each other. Hunting was a business that made it especially important that you knew your allies as well as your enemies. So of course Cora knew who the Argents were. They were hunters like her. Well, not quite like her, because for one, she was a supernatural creature herself, and second because while she was hunting any supernatural creature that meant harm to its surroundings, this family was solely after werewolves.

They said they were having a code that said just to kill adult wolves harming humans, but history proved Cora differently.

The Argents were dangerous for werewolves, that much was certain, and by dating a hunter's daughter, this young wolf was getting himself in a life threatening situation.

Having heard enough, Cora decided to confront the werewolf which she assumed was named "Scott" after his friend hat addressed him with that name.

Scott was a quite handsome teenager she noticed. He had dark hair, dark eyes and a muscular built. All in all, he seemed like a pretty boy – even though she couldn't miss to notice that his jaw line seemed a little uneven, but that just made his face more interesting. She couldn't yet see the friend's face he had been talking to since he had his back on her. He had short brown hair and was wearing some kind of flannel shirt it seemed. If she didn't know better she would think she was looking at two perfectly normal teenagers pondering over something during their lunch break.

As Cora was just about 8 feet away from the two, Scott's head shot up and his eyes locked with hers. He had noticed her and he knew what she was.

While the other guy seemed confused and was looking around, trying to find the source of his friend's distracter, Scott kept his eyes locked with Cora.

"Hello there, it's Scott, right? I'm Cora. I'm not here to kill you, hurt you, harm you, or any of your friends. I just want to talk." Cora said and put a smile on her face, showing her teeth.

The boy seemed uncertain and maybe even a little intimidated, but the past had taught Cora that this was not always the worst thing in the world. Situations sometimes got out of control, so it was better to dominate it from the beginning on.

"How do you know my name? What do you want from me and why are you here? If you're searching for trouble, this might not be the wisest place for it." He answered.

Damn, that boy had balls. She liked that. It surely was far too early to think that he was OK, that he was morally and had good intentions and views and everything, but she liked his attitude.

"Ooh no, I'm not searching for any trouble. Don't you worry" she chimed. "Well, actually I am searching for trouble, but I don't want to be the cause of it. You two" she said, looking both of them in the eye before continuing, "know that there are some things wrong in this town. And that is not OK. Lives are in danger and a war is about to break lose and that is not acceptable. I'm not here to mess around or anything, I'm here to prevent the bloodshed and to keep more innocent people from being pulled into this. May I sit down by the way?" Cora said and grabbed a chair, sitting at the end of the table so she could look at both boys at the same time.

"Wait, what? What are you talking about and what have you got to do with all of this?" the other boy now interfered.

"Oh, that is pretty easy to explain. I'm a hunter." She explained and smiled to both of them, noticing a shade of fear coming to Scott's eyes.

"Don't worry; I do not intend to kill you, like I said before." Cora reminded.

"But you just said you were a hunter. Like in hunters-that-kill-werewolves hunter." Scott now threw in.

"Yaaaaay, I am a hunter, but not a 'hunters-that-kill-werewolves hunter' but a 'hunter-that-killes-every-supernatural-creature-that-won't-stop-endangering-humans hunter', you know, what I mean?" Cora explained as happily and friendly as she could. It didn't have to start as a fight from the beginning. Her fight would start soon enough.

"I don't understand" they both said in union with puzzled looks on their faces.

"Well, I hunt what is a threat to the public. I don't want anything or anyone to be killed, I want to protect life – every life. We all know that sadly enough that does not always work out and someone dies nonetheless, but I am eager to prevent this here." She said before turning to Scott.

"I can fully understand that you want to live a normal teenager's life, and I hope that we can make that possible. Being a werewolf can be annoying, but it's like a light Asthma or something, it does not necessarily exclude you from everything, you just have to be more careful." She said sympathetically.

"But that does not mean I would not come for you if you don't control yourself anymore and actually kill someone, am I clear there?" Cora continued with an exaggerated smile.

"All right…" Scott answered confused and a bit scared. "But you are not here because you wanted to tell me that, right?"

"No." Cora answered, now serious.

"I'm looking for the Alpha."