Derek almost lost his temper when he walked into the Argents' spare room. They had sent the kid in to take care of the Alpha, not sleep with her. He changed his tune when he saw the manila folder lying across the boy's chest. They had been talking about the contents of that folder when they had fallen asleep. Stiles was nosy so it would make sense that he would go to someone who might know more than they did.
The werewolf remembered Scott had said something about human sacrifices. He hadn't believed it at first because he was dead set on the Alphas or Cora and Boyd doing the killings. But when the ways they were killed were explained to them, he agreed they weren't killed by werewolves. He was a little surprised Lydia was involved again, but the girl had survived a werewolf bite. They had no idea what abilities she could have.
He sighed as he looked over the folder. For the last few hours they had been worried about the Alphas. They had bested them once again. The first tie had been when they trapped Boyd and Cora in the boiler room at the school. Deucalion wanted them to kill each other so they had been planning how not to kill anyone they came in contact with. But what if these two cases were connected? What if Deucalion had humans working for him and they were killing teenagers for the wolf.
The planning for the next Alpha attack was like planning when Stiles would shut up. It was very rare. Terrene was getting nervous. It had never taken them this long to pinpoint the location of their target. Then again there were five target and they tended to separate, except for the twins.
The night had gone by really slowly. With seven werewolves arguing with six hunters and a human girl, tempers rose. He had tried to get into the middle of all it but Ryn, Dallas, and Terrence knew way too much. They played dirty with the Argents. Chris and his team had stories about the werewolves. The werewolves had stories on the Argents, and some weren't so nice. Dallas even brought up Kate Argent's excursions outside the sanctioned hunts. The werewolves had so much dirt on the Argents that there was no refuting half of it and Chris knew it.
Watching someone go toe to toe with the Argents gave them faith. Scott was nervous being around the hunter because he was still in love with his daughter. Peter still wasn't at his best even after four months being in the land of the living. Isaac was a little skittish around the hunters. They tried to kill him and he was still having nightmares about being tortured. Derek knew Allison and Chris were still sore on the fact that Kate and Victoria's death. Allison knew the truth about her mother but it still didn't ease the pain.
Their plan had included Derek and Thierry staying home with Allison, Lydia and Stiles. Allison hadn't been too happy, but there was one person who was going to be angrier than the teenager. Stiles would be fine because he was hanging with Lydia but Lydia was livid because it wasn't Terrence. They had sat so close together on the couch Derek had thought they would be all over each other in a second. He wondered how Terrence felt when he saw his sister with him.
Derek memorized the file as quickly as he could. Then using Stiles' laptop he looked up anything that could link the murders to other murders in history. The only things he found were ancient rituals that used things like that. A word he had never heard before popped up on the screen. 'Threefold Death' stared him in the face. He looked in the computer's recent search engine and found that Stiles had been looking up the same thing.
If Stiles knew, then things were about to get really bad. The kid had a bad habit of knowing things before the rest of them. He spent way too much time on the computer looking things up. Then again they needed someone to always be informed. Unfortunately, it would get him seriously hurt one day.
He was so engrossed in his research that he didn't hear the change in breathing him.
"Derek?" He turned around as Stiles scrambled from the bed. "I didn't… I mean we… Nothing happened. Not a thing."
"I know," he replied. "You don't smell like her."
Stiles nodded and looked at the person in question. "What happened?"
"The twins ripped her shoulders out of socket. She nearly took my face off. You were the only one who is immune to the dominancy so it only made sense that you'd stay." He looked past the teenager. "How did she sleep?"
"Not very well. She's only been sick for a little bit. How was the meeting downstairs?"
"Insane. No one wanted to listen. It was Lydia who finally called the meeting to order. It was pretty funny to watch. I think she and Terrence are forging a closer bond than any of us would like to admit."
Stiles watched the man as he stared. The fight between Terrence and Thierry about Lydia had been a hard one to witness. Terrence was in his mid twenties and Lydia was a teenager. That was punishable by jail time. Thierry had started calling Lydia jailbait and her brother hadn't liked it. He had said something about the thing Thierry had going on with Derek, but Derek wasn't a teenager so there wasn't a prison sentence at stake.
"If you're thinking of killing me because of this, do it before I lose my nerve," Stiles said, effectively drawing the other man's attention.
Derek frowned. "What are you talking about?"
"Well, you early went wolf on me because you saw me here. You care for her more than you let on, just like Terrence cares for Lydia more than he lets on. I can see it from both of you. But you think you're too screwed up to do anything about it. It's was easy to tell from right here." Stiles watched as the man didn't answer. "What did you feel when you saw what they did? Was it like when you found Laura dead?" Derek shook his head. "Then what was it?"
"It was much worse. I felt helpless. The snapping was sickening. Then Terrence forced her to change so she could heal. I thought the Argents were going to kill her right there."
"You know what they call that emotion, don't you?" Derek looked up at him. "They call it love, Derek. You will do anything for the person, even die. I bet if you asked her, she'd tell you the same thing. That's why she's so hard on Lydia. It has nothing to do with the fact that she's younger. It's just to see if she will be as loyal as a wolf is."
Derek let what he said sink in. Stiles was usually right because he had a tendency to see things no one else did. Like the first time they got locked in the high school. They had barred themselves in the cafeteria with a twenty foot wall full of windows. The Alpha could have come though those windows with ease. No one had heard him when he was trying to tell them it was a mistake to stay in the cafeteria.
"Come help me understand this," he said when he didn't want to talk about the topic at hand anymore.
Stiles smiled and moved across the room. He explained everything that he thought was going on. He even said what he had learned from Thierry the night before. He pointed out the threefold death markers. Derek knew that part because Stiles had clearly marked that out, but what Thierry had said was something new to him.
The guys were so engrossed in their discussion that they didn't hear Thierry wake up. She opened her eyes and tested her shoulders. After shifting, food and a good night's sleep, she was fully healed. She sat up and looked around, smiling when she saw the guys deep in talk. She listened in as they talked about the murders and the Alphas. They couldn't connect the murders with the Alphas because they weren't connected. It was something completely different.
She got up and rummaged through the bag again. There were a more clothes in the bag. As quickly as she could, she changed clothes. She was stuffing her feet into her boots when Derek and Stiles turned around. They gaped at her. She figured it was because of the clothes. A form fitting tank hugged her upper body and black pants gripped her hips then cascaded down shapely legs into her leather boots. She followed their eyes then shrugged when they made their way up to her face.
Derek got up and walked over to her. Without a word, he lifted one arm then the other and worked the muscles in her shoulders. When she didn't flinch, he rubbed his hands down her arms. Stiles made a face then turned his head away from the scene in front of him. Luckily for him, Thierry put an end to the lovey dovey act and walked out of the room. Stiles laughed at the response.
"Have I mentioned that I like her?" he asked. Derek glared at him. "Yeah, I thought I did."
He gathered his stuff and stuffed it into his bag. They followed the woman downstairs. Breakfast was simmering in the kitchen. When Thierry walked in, all motioned ceased. Allison was the first one to move. She walked around the island and grabbed the other woman in a tight hug. Terrence gasped but when his sister didn't say anything, he settled down.
"What did I miss?" Thierry asked when Allison let go.
"Well, they ran off. Chris wanted to go after them but Ryn told them no. I had to force you to shift," Terrence replied. "We brought you back here because Allison was in trouble but Dallas helped them out. Apparently your dominance doesn't bother Stiles."
"Yeah, I figured that out when I was hearing him yammer in the room." She smiled at Stiles and he smiled back. Apparently he was happy about that. "Anyway, what's been planned?"
"You're not on this hunt anymore," Ryn said. She looked at him. "The twins know your wolf now so it will be easier for them to track you. We've decided that you'll help the kid with the murders." He waited for the anger to take effect but nothing came out. The three Omicron looked at each other. "You're better suited sniffing out details that hunting right now."
"Speaking of the murders, why don't you tell them what you told me," Stiles said.
"We think the murders are all connected. Actually they are all connected. They have the same three injuries. Here's the kicker. They were all virgins."
Terrence and Ryn let out a slew of curses. Dallas covered her mouth and stared at her friend. Everyone but Stiles was at a loss. He'd heard the whole story last night and he knew something the others didn't. He looked at Thierry and she met his gaze. They shared a nod and went back to the business at hand.
"What's your plan?" Terrence asked. His voice was thick with emotion. He knew what was coming.
"I'm going to the morgue to look at the bodies. Maybe I can get something off them." She looked at them. "What are you going to do when they recall you?"
"How do you they're going to do that?" Chris asked.
"The pack doesn't deal with ritual murders. It happened once and six of us were killed. Since then our Alpha has said that if we suspect ritual murders, we have to go home."
"That means you'll be leaving as well," Scott said. She didn't say anything and he tilted his head. "What is it?" He followed her gaze when she turned to look at Derek and Stiles. "Stiles?"
"We have a legend in the packs," Terrence said. "There are regular mates and there are soul mates. Regular mates are the mates that our wolves chose. Soul mates are the people nature chooses. It's twisted I know but that's the way it was worked."
"How does it work?" Allison asked.
Ryn shifted subtly. "Mates are the people we marry and have children with. Soul mates are the people our dominance has no effect on." Every head went to Stiles. The guy started to look like a guppy as his mouth worked. "It seems the kid is the soul mate to Thierry."
"Dallas, is he telling the truth?" Thierry asked.
Her fiend nodded. "Yeah, he is. We all have two people. It's rare to find both of them at the same time, though. Usually the mate or the soul mate comes first. It's usually a best friend who's the soul mate though. I would expect Stiles to be Scott's, not Thi's."
"You said both," Terrence said. "What do you mean both?"
"You can't sit here and tell me that you don't feel it."
The older twin shifted his head. "What?"
"Your sister is the mate to the Alpha here. It means once Joseph finds out that both are here, he's going to make sure she stays here."
"No, he won't."
Dallas threw her hands up. "Terrence, he's not going to split up mates. It doesn't matter if they're soul mates or mates. He will either make Derek and Stiles come with Thierry or make Thierry stay here. It doesn't matter what you think. What he says goes and your sister won't go against him."
"Why don't you ask the woman what she would want to do?" Chris said. They all looked at him as if he had grown a second head. "It would make sense. Wouldn't your Alpha ask her what she wants to do?"
Everyone's attention shifted to the woman in question. Thierry was flanked by Derek and Stiles. She looked between the two of them. Derek was the werewolf who could run with her during the full moon. Stiles was the one she could be herself around. In the last few weeks she had gotten to know the kid. He made her forget she was a werewolf that could rip him open if she lost her temper. Strangely enough that hadn't happened much.
She met her brother's eyes and made a face. He knew instantly what her choice was. She cocked her head to the right as she looked between him and Lydia. Now that she understood what was going on with her crazy senses, she could see what was clearly going on with his. A smile spread across her face slowly. Dallas and Ryn looked from her to him, smiles mirroring hers. Terrence looked scared.
"What?" he asked.
"You're talking about your sister leaving when you yourself have your own mate right here," Ryn said. Terrence looked a little confused. "Lydia is your soul mate, doofus." Stiles gasped and Thierry elbowed him. When his cousin just stared at him, Ryn went to town singing. "You can't always get what you want."
The room burst into laughter, including Lydia. She knew Terrence didn't want to admit they had something between them, but now that his sister had pointed it out there really wasn't a reason to deny it. She looked at him and bit back another laugh as he looked so helpless.
"What are you going to do, big brother?" Thierry asked.
"You're obviously staying here and becoming part of Derek's pack." He stopped and looked at the guys, one teenager and one twenty something. "I guess this means I have to stay as well. We're a package deal after all."
She smiled then looked at Chris. "I have a plan that doesn't involve me. Well it does but I won't be fighting."
"What is it?" he asked.
"Use me as bait. They know my wolf and my scent. They'll come to finish the job. You can run them out of town for the time being. It will give us time to check into these murders."
He didn't look convinced. "What's your plan?"
"I go to the Hale House and drop my blood. They'll find me. I'll lead them to you where you can chase them from the city. It will give us all time to figure out what to do."
Derek nodded. "It might work. Whatever will make it easier on us. We also need to check in on Boyd and Cora."
Stiles nodded. "Thierry and I will check on them when we come back from the morgue."
She looked at him. "Who said I was taking you?"
"Come on. You don't find out you're the soul mate to a wolf every day. I'm going with you. Let's go."
Stiles grabbed her arm and started dragging her from the room. Thierry turned around and shrugged. It was an amazing sight to see a werewolf being dragged by a human but here they were watching it. Derek couldn't even huff up because it was an interesting sight.
When they were gone, everyone else sat down and made plans. They were going to fill the other two in when they returned.
