Later that day Imani got the call that she could help out at Beacon Hills High School cross country team. She beamed and raced over to her dad who had gotten home early and hugged him tightly.
"Woah there! What's all the love for?" He asked smiling.
"I got it! I got the job!" She cried jumping around slightly. He frowned a little bit. She saw his confusion. "The helping out at the high school job!" She said.
"Oh that one! Well done sweetie." He said hugging her.
"I have to go and meet the coach and if it goes well then I start tomorrow!" She said quickly grabbing her keys and leaving waving to her father.
She arrived at the school easily finding a park. She got out and headed to the front office, she saw an older woman behind the counter.
"Hello I got a call about starting a part time job helping out the cross country team?" She asked politely. The woman nodded and reached over grabbing a few papers on a clip board.
"Read and sign these. I'll let the coach know you're here." She said reaching for the phone. Imani nodded and sat down on one of the chairs grabbing a pen and started going through the papers. It was mostly 'have you been arrested for anything?' 'do you know basic first aid?' and questions and what her experiences were. She worded them in a way that made her a good candidate but wouldn't raise extra questions.
"Done." She said handing the papers back.
"The coach should be here any minute. Word of warning he's a little bit... intense." She said pausing trying to find the right word to describe the loud man. Imani nodded.
"Thanks for the heads up." She said and returned to her seat. Not even a minute later a tall man with black hair entered the office.
"Right where's the new part timer?" He asked loudly although Imani suspected that was his inside voice. She dreaded to think what his coaching voice was like.
"Here Coach." She said standing holding out her hand "My name is Imani Stilinski-Potter." He stepped over and firmly shook her hand.
"Stilinski? You related to Stiles?" He asked.
"Yes I am." She nodded he chuckled.
"And you're here to help the cross country team? Sports?" He clarified.
"Yes."
"But Stiles isn't-"
"I'm not my brother Coach. Before you judge just how athletic I am why don't you see what I can do?" I asked. He was taken aback slightly. He nodded and showed her the way to the fields.
"Alright show me what you got give me 3 laps." He said and brought out a stop watch. She smiled and started running, having worn a loose shirt, . When she finished the coach as surprised at the times she'd gotten and it looked like she had barely broken sweat.
"You're starting tomorrow right?" He asked.
"Yeah." She nodded.
"Good I've made it compulsory for the lacrosse team to be on the cross country team to keep em in shape for next season."
"Sounds like a smart idea." She said smiling knowing Stiles would hate it.
"See you tomorrow Imani." He said shaking her hand and headed back into the school as she head to her car. She'd also received her badge.
The next day Imani headed off before Stiles. She'd made her father swear not to tell Stiles that she was helping out at the school. She was outside waiting for the cross country team and coach to come out of the locker room. She was more than happy to remain outside. The last thing she needed was to see her brother changing.
As the players came out all of them paused seeing her in knee length black leggings, a maroon tight fitting tank top and sneakers. She smiled with her pony tail over her left shoulder.
"Hi boys." She said. Her voice made Stiles snap his head up, his conversation with Scott temporarily ceasing.
"Imani?" He asked.
"Hey Stiles."
"What are you doing here?" He asked going over to her. She checked off names on her clip board.
"I'm helping out with the cross country team."
"Yeah I can see that but why?" He asked quietly.
"Because I quit my diner job not wanting to be stuck there my whole life and because I was lets say an athlete at my boarding school and I miss it." She said looking into Stiles eyes. He opened his mouth and closed it again before giving a nod and going over to Scott. They started talking, Imani knowing Scott was asking why she was there.
"Now we have a new assistant coach this year. Imani Stilinski-Potter. If I hear about any of you block headed idiots being your usual hormonal selves around her you'll receive detention for rest of the semester." Coach said speaking to the lacrosse team, Imani was a little stunned but shrugged it off. "Now here's the course it's been marked out, Imani will be running with you to help you stragglers." Coach said. The team got ready at an invisible line waiting for the Coach to blow the whistle.
"Pass yourselves! Come on!" Coach yelled as they set off running. As Imani started her jog she saw Scott check on Isaac, Isaac seemed really on edge and angry. He then took off after the twins who were already way ahead of everybody. Imani so wanted to stretch her legs and run to the best of her ability but like coach said she was there to help those at the back. To her surprise Stiles was actually doing quite well. She fastened her pace to catch up to him.
"You're doing well little bro." She smiled. He looked at her and rolled his eyes. She laughed and back off slightly. It was then she heard a scream and raced as fast as her legs could carry her. She raced passed Stiles stunning him with her speed. It wasn't werewolf speed but it was close. She reached a tree seeing what some of the students saw; a young man tied standing to the tree dead. She stopped and turned trying to block the view and get the students to step away before they disturbed evidence.
"It's him isn't it?" She heard Stiles ask. Someone had gotten out their phone and was calling the police, her dad undoubtedly on his way.
"Hey get of out the way. Get back!" Her dad said "Get this area cornered off before they trample every piece of evidence."
"Back up! Everyone back!"
"Get these kids out of here!" Her dad yelled. She was currently trying to get the kids to back off thinking of the evidence.
"Dad just come here. Look, look. Look at it. It's the same as the others you see?"
"Yeah I see that." He sighed "Do me a favour go back to school yeah? Coach can you give us a hand here?" Her father asked turning to the coach.
"You head the man nothing to see here!" He yelled "Probably just some homeless kid."
"Coach." Scott said quietly.
"Yeah?"
"He was a senior." Scott said.
"Ohh..." Coach sighed covering his mouth so he didn't swear "He wasn't on the team was he?"
"Kyle! Oh god Kyle!" A girl came screaming Imani took a step towards her and grabbed her before she could ruin evidence. A deputy came over to help her. "Oh god."
"Go on. Go." Her dad said giving her a pleading look of 'get the team out of there.'
"Come on everyone!" She called and ushered the team away from the body. She saw Stiles, Scott and Isaac talking. She over heard some of it and heard her brother state the 'lack of werewolfitude' in the murders. The word he created made her scoff which she covered as her clearing her throat before asking once again for the students to move away back to the school.
They eventually all made it back and she felt her wand pick up something from the listen tin device she'd planted at Derek's loft. She secretly touched the handle and whispered the incantation to listen in reaching fro her phone as if she'd gotten a call. She could hear gasping.
"Everybody done? Because just listening to that was exhausting." She heard a man with an english accent say "So let's chat." Imani resolved to head over as soon as she could. "Sorry about this Derek. I asked Kali to be gentle but-"
"This is me being gentle." She heard a voice she recognised as the lady from the diner. She heard groaning.
"Let- let her go." Derek gasped.
"See? We're not unreasonable."
"What do you want?" Derek asked "You want to kill me?"
"You really think I'm that boring? Don't throw me in with sociopaths like your Uncle I'm a man with far more vision than simple murder. In fact I'm here to show you just how much vision a blind man can have." She heard the english voice say calmly. She frowned blind?
"You're killing him!"
"Not yet little sister. But I could. Who knows if it's five minutes or five hours before it's to late to take this thing out but just to be on the safe side. Duke you might want to get to the point."
"Now you see the one problem with being in an alpha pack. Everybody wants to make the decisions. Me? I'm more about discovering new talents... like you."
"Not interested."
"But you haven't even heard my pitch."
"You want me to kill my own pack." Derek gasped out.
"No I want you to kill one of them. Do that and I won't have to ask you to kill the others. You'll do it on your own. I did it. Ennis did. Kali did. Tell him what it's like, Kali. To kill one of your own."
"Mmm liberating."
"Listen to me Derek. You really want to stay beholden to a couple of maladjusted teenagers bound to become a liability? And believe me they will become a liability. In fact I have a feeling one of them is getting himself into trouble right now. See the reason I'm always invested in new talent is simple. We all know a pack is strongest due to it's individual parts. The stronger the individual parts, the greater the whole. When I lost my sight one of my betas assumed I wasn't fit for my role anymore. He tried to take it from me, killing him taught me something about alphas I didn't know they could do. His power was added to mine. I became stronger, faster, more powerful than I'd ever been. I tested this new ability to subsume the power of your own by killing another one. In fact I killed them all, I took the individual parts and became a greater individual whole. You're right Kali. He looks like his mother. You'll get to know me Derek, like she did."
"I know you. I know what you are. You're a fanatic."
"Know me? You've never seen anything like me. I am the alpha of alphas. I am the apex of apex predators! I am death, destroyer of worlds! I am the demon wolf!" Deucalion yelled (Imani had figured out it was him), his voice changing towards the end to become deeper and more powerful. "Hate it when that happens." Deucalion's voice had returned to normal. She heard footsteps leaving and disconnected to the device and put her phone away.
She walked away mulling it all over and headed to Coach's office to put away the papers she had. She was headed to the office when she heard Scott yelling Isaac's name. She ran around the corner to the janitors closet and stopped in her tracks and backed up seeing Isaac on the floor returning to human form with Scott subduing him and Alison holding her arm. Imani quickly realised what had happened. She backed off seeing everything was under control, or so she thought. She'd just finished for the day and was about to leave when she heard a motorbike... in the halls of the school. She arrived just as Isaac flipped over one of the twins and secretly join the crowd of students as they arrived. Imani's eyebrows raised as the English teacher stepped forwards. Imani chuckled seeing the twins faces when they looked at Alison, Scott and Isaac.
She walked off going passed of the music rooms when she peered into one of them seeing Lydia, Stiles and Deaton. The hallway was pretty quiet so she stepped near the door and listened in.
"Each grouping of three would have it's own purpose it's own type of power. Virgins, healers, philosophers, warriors-"
"Wait, wait, wait, wait. Warrior could that also like a soldier?"
"Absolutely." Deaton said and Stiles held up a photo of what appeared to be a teacher in a military uniform.
"Kyle was in r.O.T.C. with Boyd." Stiles said.
"That's got to be it. That's the pattern. Where's Boyd?"
"He's probably home by now. I'm gonna try and get him on the phone."
"Lydia? Something wrong?"
"No it was... I mean- I just thought of someone else with a military connection." Lydia said.
"Who?" Stiles asked.
"Mr Harris." Lydia said. They headed for the door and Imani ran behind a corner waiting for them pass before following them at a distance. But Deaton seemed to know something or someone was following them. They entered Mr Harris's office to find him not there.
"This is just one of many possibilities. He could have simply left for the day."
"Yeah well not without this." Stiles said holding up the teacher's bag. Stiles put it down and started rummaging on his desk before frowning at a paper.
"What?" Deaton asked.
"This test is graded 'r'"
"This one's a 'h'" Lydia said holding up another one. Deaton grabbed both tests and placed them on the desk looking at the ones. His face changed from confusion to almost fear.
"Stiles you remember I told you 'druid' is the gaelic word for 'wise oak'?" Deaton said
"Yeah."
"If a druid went down the wrong path, the wise oak was sometimes said to have become a dark oak. There's a gaelic word for that as well...Darach." Deaton said looking down at the tests. Imani's eyes widened she'd heard about Darach's in history of magic. It was touched on lightly but it was clear it wasn't good. Imani had read up on it and wasn't a fan of them glad to know one hadn't existed in ages. She backed up and ran to get her bag and raced to her car leaving before Stiles found out she was still at the school. Once she got home she got out the car and headed into the woods turning into her snow leopard trying to get Mr Harris's scent. She didn't know the man very well but had met him and thought she could find him. Once it started raining though it got infinitely harder.
She sniffed the now damp air and lost what little scent she had and resorted to listening for his voice if he was even conscious. She faintly heard his voice pleading for whoever it was to stop. Her ears perked in that direction and she ran towards it not sure what she would do when she got there. She just hoped she could stop the man from dying and break whatever pattern the Darach had. The teachers voice died down and Imani knew she was to late. She slowed in her running being quieter hoping now to catch whomever it was that was murdering people. Again Imani resorted to sniffing the air and eventually caught the smell of blood and followed that.
She was met by the grizzly sight of Mr Harris tied to a tree. Throat slit, head bashed in and garrotted. Imani staid in the shadows looking around and attempting to catch the scent of who did it but the rain made it impossible. Defeated Imani turned and headed home keeping an eye out for another person in the woods just in case. She reached home and changed forms soaking wet. Imani didn't care and apparated to her room. She grabbed a towel that was on her desk chair and got out of her wet clothes drying herself before changing into pyjamas.
She headed down stairs to get something small to eat claiming she'd been having a shower after a long day. She looked in the freezer and saw a small tub of ice-cream. She grabbed it and a spoon before heading up to her room and grabbing an old history of magic book to read up more on the Darach seeing as the library was closed.