Chapter 37

The warehouse looked completely ordinary – not like a huge, life-changing and possibly life-ending fight was about to go down inside.

Of course, Stiles hadn't expected it to look anything but ordinary, but it still felt somewhat grotesque to him that the question of their survival would be decided in an abandoned warehouse that didn't even stand out from the other ones around it. When he looked at Scott next to him, he saw the same weirdly distant fear he was feeling on his best friend's face. This whole thing seemed unreal.

Isaac, on the other hand, looked like he was barely keeping it together when he emerged from the jeep. Stiles tried his best to give his reassuring smile but he was pretty sure he failed miserably.

The girls arrived just a few minutes after them. Allison looked fierce, with her crossbow slung across her shoulder and a determined look on her face, while Lydia was utterly unreadable.

After their earlier visit at Skye's, she had seemed troubled, almost desperate, but she had refused to talk to him and frankly, he hadn't felt much like talking either, not after Skye's reaction. She had pretended to be completely unruffled by the fact that a banshee had predicted her death, but Stiles could read people well enough to be at least ninety percent sure that it had been an act. And accepting that she was right, that there was nothing they could do about it – well, that wasn't something he was particularly good at.

Even though he'd only known her for a few days, he didn't want to just give up and risk her death, and he also couldn't deny that he was worried about what it would do to Derek if Lydia's prediction came true. He'd have to be blind to not notice how much the former Alpha cared about Skye, and Lord knew Derek had lost enough people he cared about. Stiles had seen the look on his face when Boyd had died, and he feared that Skye's death would break him once and for all.

His troubling thoughts were interrupted by the twins' arrival. They parked their fancy motorcycles next to the jeep and walked up to them. Neither of them looked too worried, but Stiles wasn't sure if they were really that confident or if it was just a well-studied act.

"Well" Aiden said sarcastically "this sure looks like a party." Neither of them answered. They were all way to tense for joking.

"Should we go inside or wait for Derek and Skye?" Isaac asked nervously.

Before Scott could answer, an unmistakable black Camaro pulled up in front of the warehouse and Derek emerged. His jaw was clenched and he looked like he hadn't slept all night, but from the lack of pain or desperation in his eyes Stiles concluded that Skye really hadn't told him. His even under the circumstances exceptionally bad mood probably still resulted from the fall-out with Skye they had witnessed yesterday when he had mentioned that Ford guy. Well, she had seemed very pissed.

His gaze darted quickly across all of them and Stiles was pretty sure he knew who Derek was looking for, because disappointment briefly appeared on his face before he gave them a slight nod and silently stepped up to them.

There was no time for much talking because only a few moments later an old, run-down Dodge parked next to Derek's Camaro and Skye got out. Holy shit, had he said that Allison looked fierce? Skye looked absolutely terrifying.

She was dressed completely in black, with heavy combat boots and a holster containing two guns across her chest. There were various knifes strapped to her thighs, spare magazines to her belt and something that looked like two steel batons to her back, and her face was a cold, unmoving mask. She looked like she was absolutely ready to mercilessly slaughter anyone that got in her way, and for a moment Stiles felt strangely reassured.

Skye didn't even so much as look at Derek when she walked over to them, so their fight had probably been even worse than it had seemed yesterday.

Now that Stiles thought about it, what Lydia and him had told her this morning was probably also a big reason she was so cold and reserved. That would likely be his strategy of dealing with that kind of news too – try to pretend to be totally unaffected, and also try to keep people her cared about as far away as possible in hopes of not hurting them any further.

Scott interrupted his thoughts. "Okay then. Let's set up. We still need to find a way to block the second entrance and we have to find Allison a good spot. We don't have any time to lose."

Wordlessly, they got to work.

The Captain parked the dark SUV a few blocks away from the warehouse the McCall pack had holed up in and Raina emerged from the passenger seat with a smile on her face.

At first, she hadn't liked the fact that they were giving the pack time to come up with a defense strategy instead of taking them out one by one, but the Captain had suggested waiting for the night of the full moon to attack and she had come to see the advantages of it.

The full moon would strengthen her fighters while it would make the inexperienced fighters of the McCall pack more impulsive and thus easier to beat – not that she was worried about them. One touch from her and any threat they might have posed before would become void.

The only piece on the board that she couldn't control was the Abernathy girl.

Raina had hoped that Victor Ford would be here by now to take care of her, but the leader of the Guardians was taking his sweet time. When she had contacted him, he had been in Asia on some business he wasn't willing to disclose, and apparently his organization's funds had been so diminished by Skye's attacks that it took him a few days to move his troops back to the States.

As irritating as that was, there was nothing Raina could do about it. She would have to take care of Skye herself, which was why she was completely geared up, her trusted whip wrapped around her waist.

Usually, Raina didn't like to join the fights – it was much easier to just let her loyal soldiers do all the dirty work – but she wasn't stupid enough to underestimate Skye. That girl had taken out a majority of the Guardian's bases all on her own. There was no doubt she was a great fighter, probably matching most – if not all – of Raina's soldiers.

It was a pity she could not bend her will. Skye would've been a valuable addition to her army.

Honestly, she didn't even know why the girl was still sticking around. It would've been so easy for her to get out of Beacon Hills and avoid the fight altogether. She had to know that Raina wouldn't come after her, that she had no use for her, but nevertheless she was still here, getting ready to fight alongside the pack, which could only mean one thing – she cared about them.

Raina scoffed. Stupid girl. Getting feelings involved was the one mistake you could never afford to make. Feelings were messy and complicated while a mission was clear and structured, and mixing the two was a recipe for disaster. Well, Raina wouldn't complain. That would only make it easier to take Skye of the game board.

And of course, there was still the lesson she wanted to teach Derek Hale for what he'd done to Dmitri.

Eli had pulled through against all expectations and was back to fighting shape, but Raina was still furious with Hale. No one broke her soldiers and got away with it, and if there was one thing she had learnt when he had been in their custody, it was that Skye was Hale's weak point.

Whatever feelings had lead Skye to stay and put her life on the line for him were mutual, and so killing her would not only rid Raina of the only opponent who could actually be a danger to her, but it would also give her the revenge she was yearning for.

She glanced over to where her soldiers were gathering. The Captain was going over the plan with them again and arming those who didn't have claws and fangs of their own.

A content smile grazed across her face. Recruiting the Captain had been one of her best ideas in a while. Initially she had been skeptical about what a human possibly had to offer, but now she couldn't imagine her army without him. He was a brilliant strategist and their raids went much more smoothly since he was the one planning them.

Raina couldn't suppress the grin that was tugging at the corners of her mouth. The McCall pack stood absolutely no chance against them. She would get what she wanted. She always did.

I hope you're ready to die, Skye, she thought.