Disclaimer: I do not own Teen Wolf

Two-Pack III

The early morning sun was filtering through the trees as Cole McNulty, a man in his sixties, hummed to himself, parking his boat in the middle of the river. A fine day for fishing, he thought to himself, readying his fishing rod. He had earned this, working as a trucker all these years, no family other than his sister in Oregon, who he hoped to go and see next week. And, he thought to himself with a chuckle, if he could bring a massive salmon up for dinner, so much the better, his sister was a damn fine cook. He hummed idly to himself, casting his line into the water, the deep water of the river lapping at the side of his boat.

As he hummed to himself, right in the middle of the river, he was unaware of a large, dark shape coming towards his boat from behind. The water got a little rough for a second, and Cole held a hand on the side of his boat, thinking he must have caught some bizarre riptide. However, after the little bit of turbulence, the boat evened out again. Dismissing it, he contemplated his flask of coffee, hoping for a bite, and wondering if he should have a wee hit of coffee, get rid of the last of the cobwebs from being up so early. His boat suddenly lurched again, and Cole hesitantly got to his feet, peering over the side, into the dark depths of the river, which after such bizarre weather recently, was quite high.

What the hell? There was something dark under his boat, in fact, whatever the hell it was, it was bigger than the boat. And the shape under the water moved, and then, to Cole's horror, it demonstrated that it had two glowing pale green eyes, with narrow reptilian slits for pupils.

And those eyes, along with dozens of serrated, yellowing teeth, were the last thing Cole ever saw, as the shape sprang out the water, the teeth crashing shut around him, his boat and his flask, Cole screaming hysterically as it happened, and a second later, it was over, as the boat, ripped in two, floated lazily towards the edges of the river, as the river went red with blood.

XX

"Morning honey," Isaac said playfully as Scott, dressed in a blue tshirt and his brown jacket, entered, and Scott smiled, still delighted that his boyfriend was home, wrapping his hand around Isaac's neck and pulling him into a lingering kiss.

"Morning, so glad you're home." He said happily, and Isaac smiled as he passed Scott his cereal, and set about making the coffee for the two of them, as Melissa was asleep.

"Me too. So, what are we going to do about our creepy new flying friend?" he asked in an undertone, sitting beside his boyfriend at the gleaming new table, and Scott frowned as he considered it.

"Well, I don't want to cause a panic, maybe wait until we find out a little bit more. What are you doing today, working?" he asked, but Isaac shook his head.

"No, Charles and Opal let me have the whole time off since I was in New York for most of the holidays anyway. I'll go and give the sheriff the knife, see if that gets us anywhere. Can't believe you're working, I'd have like to have you to myself today as well." He teased, and Scott let out a little moan, but no, he couldn't take time off work, besides he had lost enough wages as a result of Agravaine nearly killing him.

"Well, I didn't know you were coming back today did I? Not that last night wasn't great," he said in a sultry voice, gently stroking his leg up Isaac's (no mother or grandmother at the table meant he could play footsie with his boyfriend with impunity) "but yeah, it would have been nice to spend today together too. But I'm only working till lunch, so I'll meet you at the mall with the others?" he asked excitedly, grinning enthusiastically, and Isaac nodded.

"Sure, so I'll drop the knife off, head home and unpack, then meet you. And I agree, we'll keep it to ourselves for now, at least till lunch time. Besides…" he commented idly, his eyes dancing with mischief, "I need to deal with Stiles and don't want to ruin the surprise that I'm back."

Scott grinned, wondering just how involved in that oncoming little drama he should be. Meh, not much, Stiles was kind of asking for it, and the fact that he was still low-key terrified of Isaac was just a bonus.

Scott was about to ask Isaac if he wanted to head out with him to work after they cleaned up when his phone buzzed, and curious, Scott looked at it to see that he'd received a message from his new boss, Dr Finch.

"Huh…she wants me to meet her and Dexio in the preserve." He said in confusion, and Isaac cocked his head curiously as he looked at his boyfriend's phone.

"Field trip?" he asked hopefully, but both he and Scott had a horrible feeling that whatever she wanted to meet him in the preserve for, it wouldn't be good.

"With our luck, in this town? Doubt it. I better go." He said, kissing the top of Isaac's head as he did so.

"Still don't know what to make of her huh?" Isaac asked with a slight smirk, and Scott frowned, contemplating the thought of his new boss.

"No, not really. But we're doing well, it's been a couple of months and other than an overtime shift, she hasn't manipulated me, and hasn't tried to kill me at all, which is a bonus. See you at lunch!" he said, heading for the door, only for Isaac to quickly jump to his feet and grab his shoulder, pulling him back and pressing his lips hungrily against Scott's, his Alpha's knees going a little weak as he did so.

"Bye honey." He said in a husky, cocky voice, and Scott grinned, heading out the door, feeling ever so slightly punch drunk.

As Scott headed to work, Isaac contemplated his knife upstairs, now soaked with yellow blood. That thing, whatever the hell it was, was creepy. Hmm, he had more than enough time to investigate a little before he took the knife to the sheriff. He snuck into the living room, not wanting to wake Melissa, and headed to the book stand that Melissa had found at an antique shop when she had gone shopping with Rakaisha not long after the living room had been finished off.

On the stand was the Bestiary, which had been painstakingly translated by Scott's grandmother after her discovery of the supernatural. Bound in leather at her own expense bless her, it had now been embossed on the cover with the two circles that made up the symbol of Scott's pack. The Bestiary was the collection of all the information of the supernatural world that had been assembled by the Argent family over the generations, and had been rather a godsend, especially since it had been translated. Furthermore, it had also been illustrated a fair bit by both Isaac and Lydia since their defeat of the dogs, and Isaac had found the book thoroughly interesting as he had read through it, and numerous other pack members had also contributed to it, adding their own experiences with creatures such as the Nogitsune, the Darach and Djinns.

Opening the book, Isaac began to flip through it, to see if he could find any sign of the creature that had been spying on them. After a while though, he had begun to dismiss it as a bad job, until as he turned a page…

"Hello…" he whispered, looking at the entry, which was marked 'Popobawa'.

He traced his finger down the page, his brow furrowing as he did so, and suppressed a tired sigh. This didn't sound good, not good at all. Typical, he'd had his holiday and it looked like all the supernatural crap was starting up again.

He should have stayed in New York.

Closing the book tiredly, shaking his head in bemusement, he headed through to clean up the kitchen before taking the knife to the sheriff. And naturally, the book hadn't mentioned the yellow blood, so the chances of that not being some other nice surprise?

"Here we go again." He grumbled, finishing the dishes, then picked up the knife as he headed to the sheriff station.

Well, if their days were about to get worse, he was damned if he was letting them go through that alone, the sheriff could suffer too. Grinning slightly, he headed off to ruin the sheriff's day.

XX

Scott arrived at the place where Dr Finch had asked him to meet her and Dexio, a felt a sinking feeling in his gut as he saw the numerous police officers milling about. Sighing, resigning himself to the worst, he trudged through the trees towards the river, the frost covered ground crunching underfoot as he saw the various police officers, looking grim and a crime scene sealed off.

"Morning Scott," the sheriff said tiredly as he approached, and over by the river, something (oh let's face it, he was in Beacon Hills, it was a body) was covered in a sheet, however to Scott's surprise it wasn't a coroner of a CSI standing by the body, it was actually Dexio and Dr Finch.

Dexio had been hired by Deaton a few months previously, with the young man joining the Beacon Hills practice for his probationary year to fully qualify as a vet. A few years older than Scott, he had recently cut his shoulder length hair that had hung down to his shoulders, and his hair was now styled into a neat side parting. He had a small amount of stubble on his face, similar to Derek, and was wearing a tan jacket over his medical scrubs, and he grinned up at Scott in welcome as he approached.

However, it was Dr Finch who attracted Scott's attention as he approached the two of them, ducking under the crime tape lifted for him by Strauss to get into the crime scene. A handsome woman, she had arrived in Beacon Hills a few months ago, summoned by Deaton who had needed someone to watch the surgery for a while.

The cause of this had been his constant manipulation and lying to the pack, and the rather unforgivable oversight of not telling Scott that Stiles was working with Agravaine, albeit undercover which nobody had known at the time. Finding out his role in the entire debacle following the Battle of Eichen, Scott had furiously banished from the town, sick of his former mentor constantly using and manipulating him. His crimes to date included keeping Malia's true parentage secret (though they had understood that), getting Scott to break up with Isaac (Isaac still wasn't over that), keeping the information about Stiles apparent defection to himself (which had naturally made everything worse when they had discovered that Stiles, unknown to them at the time, was still on their side), leaving Stiles stumbling in the dark for the most part when it became apparent he was being possessed and also having Scott, Allison and Stiles perform a druidic sacrifice to empower the Nemeton and find out where it was, when as a Druid, Deaton had known full well where it had been all along, and had done so in order to further his own agenda.

No longer able to trust the vet, Scott had banished him. He had messaged Deaton several times, not to apologise, but to talk, and Deaton had admitted that he had done wrong, and that Scott had deserved better from him, and that he had failed Scott, and let him down just as thoroughly as Scott's own father did. He said he was travelling, and didn't know when he would be back, but he hoped that when he returned, the two of them could have a long talk.

However, that had been two months ago, and Scott hadn't heard from him since.

As a result, Deaton had asked Dr Finch to assume command of the vet practice. Scott still didn't know what to make of her. Part of the reason of that was she was a very private woman, and hadn't given any clues as to whether she was supernatural or not, or even indeed if she knew what had gone down between Scott and Deaton. As such, Scott wasn't sure if she was supernatural, on side, or what. However, what he did know was that she was an extremely capable vet and biologist, and had easily taken the practice in hand, quickly catching Dexio up on parts of his paperwork that he had fallen behind on due to Deaton's unceremonious departure, and had also helped coach Scott with his biology homework and was happy to help Scott with any veterinary questions and queries he had. Scott found her a very good teacher, but despite the help, her professionalism, he still wasn't entirely sure where he stood with her. Sadly though, if this was the start of something else, some other fresh supernatural hell to plague Beacon Hills he had a horrible feeling he would soon be finding out one way or another.

"Morning Scott, sorry for the little change of pace this morning, but the sheriff requested my expertise, so I asked if I could bring my two assistants to the crime scene for some on the ground training," she explained, beckoning him closer, and he approached her and Dexio, as she indicated the body under the sheet, "you see Scott, vets are occasionally called upon by local constabulary forces as I'm sure you know. An area like Beacon Hills has the occasional death caused by a cougar, but it is still down to the vet to identify the creature that is responsible for a person's death. As such, a vet has to be proficient enough to give the police an idea of what sort of animal they might be dealing with, which brings us to this unfortunate fellow. Sheriff?" she asked, looking at Stilinski, who nodded to Strauss who pulled back the sheet the poor victim was under, and while Scott just frowned, as it was hardly his first rodeo, Dexio did look a little squeamish.

After flashing Scott a quick look to check he was alright, to which he received a slight nod in response to (Scott could feel Dr Finch's eyes studying him as he looked at the body), the sheriff explained.

"Victim is Cole McNulty, 67, formerly a trucker, was out here for a spot of morning fishing only for the poor sap to fall victim to whatever…did this." He explained, gesturing at the dead body.

Well, that was if you could call what was left of the unfortunate victim a body. His legs were intact, as was his waist. However, where his stomach and the majority of his chest should have been, there was nothing left but torn flesh and shattered bone. Essentially a massive half moon had been ripped out of the poor man, leaving only his left arm and a sliver of his chest, connecting his shoulders to his waist, and the right shoulder just had the top of his arm attached as the bottom of his right arm was also making. The man's grey bearded face was splattered with blood, his mouth open in horror, and once they had surveyed him, Strauss grimly closed the man's eyes as Finch prowled the edge of the area that had been closed off, while Scott and Dexio, both pulling on gloves, got a little closer to the poor victim.

"You sure they're ready for something like this?" the sheriff asked in an undertone, and she leaned back a little.

"That's what I want to find out, Dr Deaton's reports of their practice were exemplary, but I don't know how they do with field experience. Scott seems…unperturbed by this." She commented idly, and the sheriff hesitated a little.

He knew Scott was still on the fence about where he stood with Dr Finch, and while the woman seemed to be a consummate professional, there was still the fact that she had been asked to come here by Deaton, so the whole pack was on the fence about her. Added to the fact that they didn't yet know if she was supernatural or not, he elected to keep his counsel, at least on everything else that wasn't public record.

"About six months ago, Scott and his friends were attacked. Scott's first girlfriend was killed in the attack, and two months ago, Scott was there when a psychotic madman who escaped during the jailbreak," (that was the official story for Mason's death anyway) "killed another of his friends, poor kid's been through a lot." He told her grimly, and she sighed sadly, shaking her head in pity as she looked at her assistant.

As the two talked, Scott and Dexio surveyed the dead body, both putting their heads together.

"Well, the flesh is torn, by the teeth not by claws, and the fact that it was done in the water and took out the boat means we can rule out a cougar," Dexio theorised, to which Scott nodded in agreement.

"Yeah, and both a bear and a wolf are unlike for the same reasons, not to mention the way its been ripped, that was all done in one fell swoop, not multiple ones, like they would all do." Scott agreed, and Dexio frowned as he considered the problem, surveying the body.

"So, we're looking for something big enough to do this, and also take out the boat in the process…so let's face it, it's likely to be a shark, gator or croc. And I reckon we can rule out shark." He mused, and Scott nodded, thinking it over.

"The river's fresh water not salt water, besides it would take a hell of a lot of effort for a shark to get here, even if they could do it at all. So that leaves us with a croc, or an alligator, and both would explain the boat being totalled as well. No way of knowing for sure which one it is, but at least it's a start." He concluded, and as Dexio beckoned Dr Finch and the sheriff over, he sighed a little to himself.

Great, a crocodile or alligator going around now. Mind you, he hoped grimly, maybe it was just an actual alligator or crocodile that had escaped from some nutter's bathtub, but if they did have a werecrocodile on their hands, this was most likely going to get ugly fast.

Ugh, it was a mark of how used to the supernatural crap in this town that his first thought was that it was some new monster that had come to town.

"Well boys, what do you think?" Dr Finch asked as she came over, and Scott looked up at her, his boss' face betraying nothing.

"We reckon either an alligator or a crocodile. We ruled out bears, wolves, cougars, the damage is too extensive for that, plus the fact it was in the water, and it's fresh water, so we ruled out sharks as well." Scott explained, and to his great relief, she gave him a small, proud smile and an approving nod.

"That was also my hypothesis, there you have it sheriff. Thank you for allowing the boys to test their veterinary CSI skills." She said, and the sheriff sagged a little in defeat.

"Great, a crocodile now…alright!" he called to the other officers at the crime scene, "who had crocodile in the bingo?" he yelled, and Strauss put up his hand excitedly.

"Ooh, I did, me!" he replied, and the sheriff cursed under his breath.

"Damn it, now I'm going to have to give him a day off, I guessed a shark…what? With the amount of trouble we have in this town, I need something to motivate my officers to actually attend crime scenes where it's not readily apparently what happened," he defended grimly, correctly deducing Dr Finch's less than impressed look, but she did nod, conceding the point.

"Anyway, we're glad we could be of assistance, thank you again sheriff. And now lads, Mrs Montague awaits, with Capulet, the depressed cat." Dr Finch told them, and Dexio groaned, and Scott suppressed one of his own, as far as they were both concerned, poor Capulet was only depressed because Mrs Montague was, well, that and the fact that as a person she was boring as watching paint dry.

As they started trudging back to the edge of the river and their vehicles, Stilinski grasped Scott's shoulder, and beckoned to the body as the coroner's started taking the poor man's body away.

"What do you think?" he asked in an undertone, and Scott frowned, shrugging.

"It would be nice if it was just a one-off, maybe someone's tried to keep one in a bathtub and let it loose, but with our luck, combined with the disappearances, and the bat thing," he said, and the sheriff looked at him in alarm.

"Bat thing?" he demanded in a hiss, and Scott realised he'd kind of put his foot in it.

"Yeah, a bat thing, ask Parrish, Isaac was taking him evidence," he told the sheriff, who seemed to sag in defeat and Scott smirked a little in amusement, "but between everything happening…yeah, I'm beginning to think it is something to do with us. I hope I'm wrong though!" he told him brightly, and Stilinski smiled and shook his head, clapping his shoulder.

"That's what I like about you Scott, always the optimist. Let's just hope you're wrong." He told him, and Scott nodded, but as the sheriff walked away, allowing Scott to head to his bike, he had a horrible twisting in his gut as he recalled Lydia's prophetic warning the night before that something was coming.

Seriously, why did they have to come here? There was a perfectly good freeway outside town, couldn't they just follow that and go and annoy someone else? San Francisco, Portland, hell, follow it and go and annoy New York? Grumbling to himself, and seeing a text from Isaac on his phone updating him on his mission, and also on his outfit for Camden's party (he was looking forward to seeing his boyfriend in that), he headed off to the surgery with a little smile on his face, deciding until whatever the trouble was reared it's ugly head, he would go about enjoying his holidays and making the most of the fact that his boyfriend had returned.

XX

Natasha dropped her bag on the sofa of the apartment she was renting, hobbling a little. The damn centicore she had been hunting had moved a bit faster than she had thought, and it had thrown her and she had sprained her ankle when she had landed. She had still been able to shoot the damn thing in the head and put it down but still, the damn thing had a bit of audacity, hobbling her in this way.

She yawned, stomping over to the fridge, a beer was what was needed, purely for medicinal purposes. The lights flickered as she did so, and grabbing two beers from the fridge with a slight smile, she turned and threw a bottle to the visitor who had just materialised behind her, who caught it deftly.

"Welcome home. I see the beast humbled you a little." They said in amused disdain, and Natasha glowered at her visitor.

"The centicore was a bit more boisterous than I anticipated. How are things here?" she asked, flopping down into a seat and crossing her long leather clad legs, wincing as she propped her damaged foot up a bit more, while her visitor sat down in their own chair.

"Things are progressing, and will soon do so apace. Want me to look at that?" they asked, in slight concern as they looked at Natasha propping her leg up, but Natasha shook her head.

"Not much even you can do for a sprained ankle. You realise the local pack will get in the way?" she asked, and her visitor nodded, a chilling smile on their face as they did so.

"My dear Natasha…we're counting on it. By the way, there was a grizzly murder this morning, nothing to do with us. It could be some form of crocodile or alligator from what we've heard." They explained, and Natasha smiled, that sounded like her kind of hunt.

"I'll look into it. So, when can I expect the fireworks to start?" she asked, sipping her beer, and her visitor sipped their own beer, a smile on their face.

"Oh I doubt it'll be too long. In fact, we're cooking something up as we speak. We'll see what this pack is made of." They said with relish, the dark smirk on her visitor's face filling with Natasha with excitement.

Yeah, just because she worked with the pack to bring down the dogs didn't mean she didn't want them all wiped out. And with the help of her visitor, the thing that her father had long sought after, the utter eradication of all supernatural life, was finally within their grasp.

XX

Argent frowned as his buyer made good their exit. The deal itself didn't bother him quite so much, that was the nature of the business, there was always a lot of people you dealt with who you weren't quite so keen on, and who you weren't quite sold on the idea of giving weapons in the first place. But something about that guy, well it was making him uneasy. Not to mention business seemed to have had an uptick recently too, which was also rather unsettling.

And it wasn't the only thing that was making him so uneasy. He had heard tell from a friend of his up in Ontario, that there had been a small skirmish between a conclave of druids and a werewolf pack. That was precisely the last thing they needed, both sides seemed to be getting more and more antsy recently, a fact that had been exacerbated with Scott's defeat of the Ghost Pack.

Being a British pack, officially they were technically the Fivefold's problem due to them being British citizens, however they were all creatures, which meant the jurisdiction of the Ghost Pack was torn between the Fivefold and the Beasturo. The chaos the Ghost Pack had caused, the deaths they had caused, had reflected badly on both sides, and the fact that it was the pack of the unaligned True Alpha who made his home in the location of the only empowered neutral Nemeton in the world, it had further raised tensions among the two sides, as each side was blaming the other for the Ghost Pack's reign of terror with neither side wanting to admit to any form of responsibility for the whole thing.

And now the Artemisia was starting to take more of an interest in Beacon Hills too, Argent thought with a slight sigh.

Before he had left on his business trip, he had noticed another hunter passing through town, and he was fairly certain that he was casing the joint, and though he had been spotted by Argent and had made himself scarce, Argent suspected that it wouldn't be long before the Artemisia also started to stick their nose in.

The Beasturo was definitely in the area, the two bizarre agents who had helped in the final battle with Agravaine were proof enough of that at least, and their skill and the fact that they had cleaned up the extent of the mess Agravaine had made over night was the clincher in that regard.

Now all they needed was an actual Fivefold agent, and they'd have the full set.

Musing on his past customer, and the fact that both sides seemed to be getting more determined to start sabre-rattling as there had been reports from other hunters across the world that had been making him a bit more alarmed, he was so lost in his thoughts that he didn't even realise his phone was ringing until it nearly went to answer machine before he jerked out of his reverie and answered.

"Hell-hello?" he asked, and he felt a smile grace his face as an old friend's voice answered.

"Hello Christopher, how are you getting on?" Maggie's voice came, and he smiled.

Maggie was a British hunter, and the work of her and her protégé/bodyguard had allowed Argent to alert Scott that someone had been murdering Prime Betas in Britain, which Scott had realised was actually Peter. Maggie was a veteran hunter and knew more about weredogs than anyone else, she was like the dog version of the Argents were for wolves, and as such her information had been instrumental in defeating Agravaine.

"Maggie, great to hear from you, how have things been?" he asked, watching as the guy he had done business with got into his car and drove off, still not sure he was entirely happy about having done a deal with him in the first place.

"Well enough, things have quietened down a little, but things are still a tad tense, how are things your end?" she asked, and Argent beckoned the waitress over, and she smiled as he gestured and gave a thumbs up for another coffee as he replied.

"Alright mostly, there's been some disappearances have been plaguing the town, we're no further in figuring them out, but so far as I know, everything's fine, I'm out of town on business, up in Portland. Scott was getting ready to host his first summit when I left." He said in mild amusement, and she chuckled.

"My my, he is doing well isn't he, Satomi I assume?" she asked, and he thanked the waitress as she came back with another coffee.

"Yeah, she's the one who's closest, respectfully kept her distance so far, so he had a summit with her. He's had a few encounters with Jacqui, but strangely she seems to have gone a bit quiet." He mused, and she hissed through her teeth on the other end of the line.

"Hmm, interesting. I wonder if it might also tie into the rumours I've been hearing, which might also link into your disappearances. Crockett is meant to be in town." She warned darkly, and Argent, who had just picked up his complimentary biscuit to dunk into his coffee, dropped it into his cup in shock, prompting to curse under his breath and resentfully have to fish it out with a spoon.

Ignoring Maggie sniggering on the other end, as she had likely deduced what had happened, he fished the biscuit out before turning his attention back to the matter at hand.

"This isn't funny Maggie, I've got floaters in my coffee now!" he complained as she sniggered, "what do you mean Crockett's in town?" he demanded, continuing trying to fish chunks of biscuit out his coffee.

"I heard rumours that he's been sighted, big jobs too, and definitely around California, so I reckoned if he was to go anywhere, it's likely to be Beacon Hills, you know, True Alpha and all." She explained darkly, and Argent growled.

Crockett was a hunter, but only technically. Hunters were generally divided into two groups: those like Argent who hunted to protect others and to make sure the supernatural didn't get out of control, and then others who hunted for the enjoyment of it and enjoyed the killing, of which Kate had been part of. But there was another peripheral group among that latter group: a group that hunted creatures for no other purpose but money, and didn't care what got in their way, and would essentially be supernatural bounty hunters who were essentially only after the scalp to get the cash for it.

Crockett wasn't a hunter, he was a poacher, and if Maggie was right and he was in California, chances were he was indeed after Scott. After all, the shadowy and dark networks that Crockett reported to had utterly no morals or qualms even by their usual standard, and Argent shuddered as he wondered exactly how much money Scott's hide would fetch on the dark web.

"Thanks for letting me know Maggie." He said, gesturing for the bill, and she sighed.

"Don't mention it. Just…be careful. Things might be settled, but…I'm worried this could be the calm before the storm. The two sides are getting fidgety, and even the Artemisia is looking into stuff now, and the Ghost Pack causing havoc in Beacon Hills, complete with unknown Beasturo operatives, let's just say, none of it did any of us any favours. And since your pet pack is the True Alpha, complete with a pet Nemeton-" she warned, and he nodded to himself grimly.

"Don't worry, I won't let them down, and I'll keep an eye out, and check into Jacqui's pack too, if things are about to go to hell, I'd rather Scott had a good number of allies around him. Thanks for the warning about Crockett." He said, and she made an impatient noise.

"Hey, if you come across him, thank me by knocking his teeth out, he always was a scumbag. Good luck Chris, keep in touch, and if you need a bit of help, you know where Amanda and I are." She told him, and with that, she hung up.

Argent mulled it over in his head. The three great leviathans of the supernatural world seemed to be edging ever closer to conflict, and it seemed as if everything that was cropping up recently just added further fuel to the fire. Disappearances plaguing Beacon Hills, and now rumours that Crockett, the most infamous poacher of them all, was heading to town. Was it all connected?

Smiling grimly to himself, he got to his feet, left a tip for the waitress (he left a bigger one than intended, as, bless her, she'd brought him an extra biscuit with a wink when she saw what had happened to his last one), he figured he wouldn't get much done here in Portland, no, he was bound for Beacon Hills, and to see what fresh hell awaited them all this time.

XX

Since coming home after being mistaken dead for years, Camden had become a fast friend of Parrish, in fact the three of them, Camden, Parrish and Derek had all formed quite a good friendship between them. However, that didn't mean that while fond of Camden's brother though he was, that he appreciated being given this newest conundrum.

Isaac had passed Parrish one of his knives (which was bad enough as he technically shouldn't have it anyway) but the fact that it was covered in yellow blood had done nothing to improve the stakes at all, in fact, if he'd had any sense, the yellow blood should have been a deal breaker. But Isaac was right, if this creepy thing was spying on them, chances were they were about to see a lot more of the damn thing. So he supposed so. Vowing to get back at Isaac later, and Camden too for good measure, he ran the blood through the system, rolling his eyes with bemusement about how bizarre his life had gotten since coming to Beacon Hills.

In fact, things had gotten more bizarre recently, ever since the dogs, or more specifically the Berserkers that had shown up had attacked the town. During the climactic battle with Ifrit, Parrish had become host to a sort of strange energy, which had allowed him to rip open one of the Berserker's skull masks and vanquish it and its partner. Ever since, there had been no sign of whatever the hell had caused it, but Parrish was…worried to say the least about whatever the hell was going on with him. He hadn't confided in the pack, it had only happened once, and he was hoping that he could put it down to a last-minute surge of adrenaline. But he was concerned about it to say the least.

Wait, that was interesting…

"Hello Parrish. Strauss won the bingo, I owe him a day off now." The sheriff grumbled by way of greeting as he entered the crime lab which had been installed in the last couple of months, replacing one of the rooms that had been blown up when the Nogitsune had bombed the place.

"Hi. Didn't he guess a crocodile?" he asked, and the sheriff nodded, looking fed up.

"Yep, so we're now looking for a crocodile, which will hopefully just be an escaped one from some lunatic's private collection, but let's be realistic, undoubtedly it's some fresh hellish monster. What's this all about…why is this blood yellow?" he asked in dismay, and he sounded so dispirited and defeated that Parrish sniggered.

"Isaac brought me it, fresh from some bat monster apparently," he explained, and Stilinski groaned tiredly, "so he wondered if we could get anything from it, you know, other than the fact that it's yellow."

"And did we?" he asked, pouring them both a coffee, and Parrish nodded, as he pointed to the file that had flagged up on the system.

"Clive Mariner, known sex offender." He said, and the name stirred something deep in the echelons of Stilinski's memory as he peered at the screen.

"Wait, Mariner…now isn't that interesting? Clive Mariner was the sex offender who we thought was something to do with the disappearances seventeen years ago, which are nearly identical to the ones that are happening now." He explained, looking at Parrish significantly, and Parrish's eyes widened in realisation.

"There's no way that's coincidence, but how has he vanished for seventeen years?" he asked, and John frowned at the screen.

"Because we thought he was dead, if I remember right, we chased after him after the disappearances of the kids culminated in the disappearance of three new-borns vanishing and he came off the road at Devil's Corner, we never found any sign of him, or of the kids, we assumed he'd gone into the ravine in the centre of the preserve and that we never found his body. And now he's some…bat monster?" he asked darkly, and Parrish nodded, looking intrigued.

"Well, a bat monster with a hole in it since Isaac got it with his knife. So, if he was always a bat monster…" he theorised, and the sheriff nodded.

"Then that could explain how he vanished. But if he wasn't…what the hell does that mean?" he asked grimly, his mind abuzz with the possibilities as Parrish began to read Mariner's file, an unsettled feeling developing in his stomach as he read up on the man, as more and more insidious implications began to run vividly through his mind.

XX

It was lunchtime, and the pack had taken over the corner table in the food court at the mall, and they were just waiting for Scott to arrive. While some people were sending them dirty looks since so many of them were in the mall and taking up so much space, they were rather impotent to do anything about it, especially when the twins and Derek were in charge of glowering at people to dissuade them from bothering them.

"Wait, how do you figure that out? Isaac isn't back for another few days, and even our rather oblivious leader will know when his boyfriend is coming home…I think." Ethan defended, trailing off hesitantly as the others snickered.

"I'm telling you, Isaac came home last night." Liam insisted, while Garrett looked at him sceptically.

"All because you and Kira got a bit frisky? I don't know dude." He said uncertainly, and Liam glared at him, but yeah, he and Kira had gotten a bit frisky last night admittedly…

"What, last night? Aww that's cute, mind you we-" Aiden began excitedly, before a slightly alarmed looking Lydia put her hand over his mouth, blushing as she did so.

"Quiet you!" she hissed, and he pouted beneath her hand, though winked at Ethan, who rolled his eyes.

Mind you, he and Danny had also had a rather, interesting, night, but to assume it was something to do with Scott and Isaac…

Jackson looked at Melody, who blushed a little, and she suddenly became a lot more interested in Liam's theory.

"So, what, you think Isaac came home and it sort of spurred all of us on?" she asked curiously, partly for her own personal interest but also out of academic curiosity, after all, as True Alphas were usually dead within a few weeks of being discovered, there was very little information on them.

"Well, yeah, think about it, if Scott roars, we all feel it. So, if Scott feels really happy, like he would if Isaac came home, don't you think we'd get some sort of emotional backlash?" he reasoned, and she frowned as she considered the question.

He wasn't wrong, she supposed. Scott did have greater influence over his pack than most Alphas did, partly due to his natural charisma and leadership abilities. And Liam did raise a good point about the whole thing, perhaps so much so that he wouldn't notice how much of a point he raised: the pack was an odd one in terms of their relationship with Scott. Scott had an inordinate effect on his pack, she had observed that a lot since her arrival in town, the likes of Jackson, the twins, Derek, even Isaac and Liam to an extent. Scott was able not only to control them and reel in their more belligerent personality aspects, and many of them followed his lead as a result. The others all put it down to the fact that Scott had essentially tamed them all, which was technically true, but it was like…like they echoed Scott, that he influenced them in ways that none of them were consciously aware of.

And by the same token, and coming back to Liam's original point, they all felt when Scott exerted his power, his anger like when he battled Peter and Agravaine for example. So yes, it would stand to reason that if Scott was extremely happy, like he would be if Isaac had actually returned, then his intense feelings, a happy one for a change, would filter through to his pack and…spur them on as well, as she and Jackson had discovered last night.

"Hey, what we talking about?" Stiles asked as he and Malia sat down at their table with their own tray of food.

Unnoticed by either of them, Liam's face brightened and he nudged Garrett, who looked at what he was, scowled and slipped his brother five dollars, and as Melody also saw what was distracting the youngest pack member, she realised that he may well be onto something about Scott's happiness and arousal being able to affect the entire pack. How interesting, and also, slightly unsettling, their love lives being dictated by their Alpha's power.

"Say, Stiles, out of interest, since you're terrified of him," Garrett asked mildly, trying not to smirk, which many of the other pack members were also now trying to avoid doing as well, "what are you going to do when Isaac comes home and finds out you were making Scott think he might cheat on him?" he asked with interest, and Stiles, about to tuck into his food, waved his hand airily.

"Please, by the time Isaac gets back and has his happy reunion with Scott, he'll forget all about what I said, Isaac will never know." He assured him, spreading ketchup on his chips.

"Or maybe," Isaac breathed in a deadly, silky voice, as Stiles froze and went white, "he already knows."

Stiles then bolted up, screaming and vaulted away from the table, running away from Isaac, who gave a playful snarl and ran after him, while Scott sighed a little before flopping down into the seat opposite Liam putting down the tray with his and Isaac's food on it.

"Are you going to do something about them?" Melody asked, as Stiles ran down the escalator to get away from Isaac, the Prime Beta hot on his heels, Stiles still crying in terror.

"Nah, serves him right for winding me up. I've got presents!" he told them, and he suddenly became keenly aware of what his mother meant when she said giving the pack anything was like feeding a tank of piranhas as they all dove for the bag he had been trying to put in the centre of the table.

Checking to make sure that his overzealous pack hadn't maimed him, he did a head count and was pleasantly surprised to see that all of the pack was here, even Derek, in the far corner, looking broody as usual as he contemplated his Taco Bell.

"So what was the thing in the woods?" Malia asked with morbid interest, and Scott frowned as Isaac came back up the stairs sniggering to himself, and Scott filled them in on the crocodile.

"A normal crocodile, or a werecrocodile?" Garrett asked with interest, while Derek pursed his lips.

He knew Garrett was quite enjoying apprenticing under Argent, and was naturally curious about the whole supernatural thing but if it was indeed a werecrocodile of some sort, they were in trouble, as they had already learned when fighting Jackson, a werereptile was a nightmare as it was, let alone if it was a durable and most likely highly vicious as a crocodile would be.

"We're hoping that it's some idiot who's been raising one in a bath tub that's let it out. Um, what did you do with Stiles?" Scott asked Isaac as he sat down beside him, and Isaac grinned.

"He ran into the toilets to get away from me, unfortunately he ran into the wrong one, an old woman's now hitting him with her stick, serves him right. Did everyone get their stuff?" he asked, and the pack all caught him up on everything he had missed when he was away, and he told them what happened in New York.

"Oh so it's an engagement party now too?" Lydia asked with interest, and Aiden groaned and hung his head.

"No, please, not another costume change!" he whined, and she sent him a dirty look while the others sniggered, as Stiles came stomping back up the stairs, wincing a little as he did so.

"Thanks for abandoning me dude, she kept hitting me round the shins with her stick!" he grumbled, and Isaac sent him an innocent look.

"Well, don't get my boyfriend all wound up and paranoid thinking I'm going to cheat on him. Anyway, is everyone ready for Cam's party, well, other than you two having yet another last minute costume change?" he asked with a grin, while Aiden shook his head in despair.

"Don't worry honey, we're not changing again, I'll just need to get a card that's all, well, that and a gold headband to finish off my costume. Are you staying the night?" she asked Scott, and he nodded excitedly.

"Yep, and I've somehow been roped into helping decorate too." He teased, and Isaac grinned and kissed his cheek.

"It should be fun, if for no other reason than we get to see Derek dressed up in costume!" Ethan crowed, and Derek glowered along at him from his place at the table.

"You know, if we lived on a boat, what you two unnatural little freaks and Braeden did to me in getting me to agree would be classified as a mutiny." He growled, and the twins sent him a winning smile apiece, and Violet looked at him curiously.

"Wait, so you actually do have a costume ready?" she asked, and he rolled his eyes, but did nod, grinning a little as he did so, not that he would admit it, but he was kind of looking forward to it.

"Yes actually, just need to get one thing." He said, and Kira frowned as she considered her own problem.

"Actually, I only need one thing too, but I've no idea where I could get one." She complained, but Liam's face then lit up.

"I forgot to tell you, I took the wrong street after I picked up Garrett's comics the other day while he tried his luck with that Chrissy girl a few streets over from us," he said pointedly, and Garrett rolled his eyes, wasn't like he had made any progress anyway, "and I saw a shop that might work." He told her, and she beamed at him.

"Ugh, they're so sweet it's revolting," Melody muttered under breath to Jackson, who hastily started to choke on his lunch as he tried not to laugh, "anyway," she said louder so the others could hear as Kira kissed Liam's cheek, "we're ready I think, though I am on the lookout for new shoes, I never actually replaced the ones I ruined the night Agravaine attacked the lacrosse game."

As the pack filled everyone in on what stages their costumes were all at for Camden's party, Stiles, who had been looking around to make sure the old woman who had assailed him didn't come back for round two, had his gaze drawn to someone looking about the food court, and they had stole a gaze over at the pack's table, and when they saw Stiles looking over at them, they blushed and hastily looked at one of the menus at one of the restaurants across the food court.

"Hey, who's that?" he asked the group at large, as the kid was about their age and he had never seen him around at school.

Curious themselves, the entire pack, showing as much subtlety as a bus crashing through a window, all looked at the kid, who looked positively mortified and quickly disappeared towards the far end of the food court out of their line of sight.

"Oh, that must be Neo!" Lydia exclaimed in realisation, and the entire pack looked at her in shock.

"How on earth can you possibly know that?" Danny demanded, and she grinned.

"Hey, mom's the principal now, and she leaves all her crap lying around, obviously I'm going to peek! By the way, Kenny Roberts is the one who set off that stink bomb in the toilets the last day of term, he got caught and is getting suspended when we go back, just FYI, but anyway, yeah, Neo, he's new, he's just moved here from South Africa." She explained, and Scott looked a little overwhelmed by this deluge of information.

"Yay, we won't be the new kids anymore!" Kira told Liam excitedly, while Scott, still processing the point about the kid with the stink bomb, looked at her curiously.

"From South Africa?" he asked, and Jackson gave him an obnoxious smirk.

"Yeah, that's in Africa." He said as though he was talking to a child, but Scott didn't rise to his bait and just gave him the finger.

"Why come here?" he asked in slight concern, alarm bells starting to ring a little, and Lydia groaned.

"Aww what, you reckon it's to do with the damn Nemeton? Typical," she grumbled, but she pushed on ahead anyway, "anyway, that aside, he's here with his dad, he's going to be working at the hospital, he's a doctor." She explained, and Scott nodded, his mother had mentioned a new doctor was starting after all.

"So, we reckon he's supernatural?" Violet asked, and Isaac shrugged.

"Even if he's supernatural or not, he'll be involved with whatever the next major problem is, chances are he's here to kill us, or be part of the solution, that's usually how it works, either problem, or solution. Look at us, Stiles for example, is the problem!" he said brightly, and Stiles glowered at him while the others sniggered.

"So, he's new?" Stiles asked with interest, ignoring Isaac, and Malia smiled encouragingly.

"Like what you see? You still need a date for Camden's party after all since I'm going with Nathan." She said, and Violet smirked.

"My god, you two are finally grasping part of the friends with benefits thing." She taunted, only for Malia to give a slight warning growl, and a rude hand gesture to boot.

Scott and Isaac exchanged a significant look and smiled.

"Ask him to Cam's party, Malia's right." Isaac suggested, and Stiles shot him a horrified look.

"What? No!" he protested, and Scott waved his hand airily.

"Why not? He's cute, don't look at me like that Garrett, we've previously established I have a thing for blond guys," he warned loudly, as Garrett looked as though he was about to interject, and the trainee hunter grinned while Liam and Violet sniggered, "and like Isaac says, chances are we're going to get to know him anyway when he tries to kill us all or save us all, whichever side he's on, so why not?"

Stiles looked at him in shock, hardly daring to believe his ears.

"Wait, you want me to ask out some complete stranger, who we don't know which way he swings for a start, to a party when he just got to town?" he demanded, and Isaac shrugged.

"Well, why not? Even with the supernatural stuff aside, he's just moved thousands of miles, and doesn't know anyone here. He doesn't know anyone, and from the looks of him he'll be in our year or their," he said pointedly, gesturing at the younger kids, "year. That's pretty daunting. Ask him to the party, least he can get to know people, and if he is a potential bad guy, we're all there, including Cam with his guns and Kaisha with her powers too. Better finding out if he's something there where we all are instead of down some dark alley." He reasoned, and Stiles looked at him, nettled.

"Yeah, but we're still overlooking a vital part of the problem dude, we don't know if he's into dudes!" he hissed, and Scott looked at him with an amused, pitying look.

"Dude, you are the hot nerd who's also a genius, the hot best friend of the hot girl, and the one who's tolerated by the hot guy," he explained with a slight grin, ignoring the confused looks of the other pack members, while Stiles and Isaac did smile at the memory, "which means you will eventually get a really hot guy or girl of your own. And besides, just invite him to be friendly, if it turns into something, fair enough, but if not, least you've met someone new and made him a little less anxious." He explained sweetly, and Lydia caught the proud, soppy look Isaac was giving him, god, he really was a perfect boyfriend and Alpha, and best friend, he cared so much about everyone (which, she thought ashamedly, she had been one of the ones who had forgotten that, though less so than the others, during their war with the dogs).

"Maybe…" Stiles mumbled, and got up, heading in the general direction that Neo had went in.

"Ok, let us know how he gets on, we're on the hunt for a golden hairband." Aiden said, pulling Lydia to her feet, and she trotted off beside him after bidding them goodbye.

"Come on Kira, I think I can find that place again." Liam insisted, taking Kira's hand, and she smiled as he dragged her along, and Garrett looked at him with slight trepidation.

"Text me if you do get lost!" he called, and Liam's only response was to roll his eyes back at Scott, who sniggered, Garrett could try and play it as cool as he wanted, but ever since he had officially become Liam's big brother, he had become a bit more of a mother hen to his younger, adopted sibling.

"Yeah, I need to put the finishing touches on my costume, come on Jackson, do you still need something too?" Melody asked, and he frowned as he thought.

"Don't think so, but I'll check my list, just to be sure. You know, its actually nice, all of us to be able to go to a party and not worry about anything trying to kill us for a change, just to be normal teenagers." He commented, to Melody, Danny and Ethan's fervent nods.

"Ooh, is Kaisha making those lamb kofta things?" Ethan asked excitedly, and Isaac grinned and smiled.

"Yeah, she is." He confirmed, and Ethan let out a cheer before dragging Danny away for a haircut.

Isaac shook his head. Kaisha was actually quite a good cook, though had admittedly learned the hard way that one should serve quickly when one was serving a hungry pack of werewolves, she claimed she still had nightmares that Ethan was going to eat her he'd pounced on her koftas with such gusto.

"You know…this could actually be quite a fun night." Derek mused, just enough for Scott to hear and send him a delighted smirk, which he scowled in response to before heading off himself.

The others all drifted off, leaving just Scott and Isaac at the table.

"He is right you know, it will be nice to have a night of just fun, and I think everyone's quite excited for the party too." Scott said, cleaning up the mess his errant pack had made, and Isaac nodded.

"Yeah, it is, and Cam's really excited, obviously he's wanted to do this for years, but dad wouldn't allow it, and the Taliban aren't exactly big on parties. So, I take it we're keeping Man-Bat quiet?" he asked worriedly, and Scott nodded, mulling it over but deciding after everything, his pack deserved at least one more night of relative quiet.

"Yeah for now. Hey, how did it go?" Scott asked as Stiles reappeared, and his best friend flashed a wide grin,

"Well, I said that a few people would be going he'd see at school, and that we just want to get to know him, especially since you adopt any waif and stray you come across," he said with a smug smirk, to which Scott looked quite offended by, especially when Isaac sniggered (till Stiles pointed to him, indicating he was one, to which he got a growl in response), "and he's a little shy but he said he'd come!" he told them proudly, and they grinned.

"Aww you got yourself a date." Isaac teased, and he blushed, but shook his head.

"No, not a date, just inviting a new guy to town to his first American party." He insisted, and Scott grinned.

"So, it might become a date, if you find out if he's bi." He wheedled, and Stiles went scarlet and told Scott to do something rather rude, which made the other two grin all the wider.

"Ok, your date aside, how are you for your costume? Do you need to do any last minute shopping?" Scott asked innocently, and Isaac flicked a pitying glance Stiles' way, who groaned, there was no way Scott was asking that 'innocently'.

"Well, I have had two costume changes already," he pointed out, to which Isaac glowered at him.

"Yeah, well, your ideas for your costumes were Hush or the Joker, you can see why Aiden took rather a dim view of those choices." He told him tartly, and he had to admit, he had a point there, he hadn't really thought that one through, old wounds, nasty accusations and all that.

After discovering the ideas he had floated, Aiden had 'persuaded' him quite…effectively, and he had since changed to another one.

"Well, yeah, not my best idea, but my costume's done. Why?" Stiles asked suspiciously, and Scott grinned.

"Oh nothing much, just one of the benefits of being one of my second in commands. Come on, we'll explain on the way." He told him, throwing an arm around his shoulder, and Stiles felt the high he had gotten from asking Neo to the party deflate ever so slightly as the other two filled in on their creepy, one-eyed voyeur.

XX

"Savannah!" Nalia screamed, just before their attackers electrocuted her with a cattle prod, the Mali screaming in agony as she dropped, twitching to the ground, unable to transform.

They had suspected for some time now that they were being followed, and had moved through town, when Savannah had originally planned to stop and pay respects to the local Alpha. However, there had been signs that their little family, or pack for want of a better term, had attracted someone's attention, just little signs, like broken twigs slightly away from their own trail, shadows late at night, sounds of someone following them that stopped as soon as they checked to look at the source of the noise. Slightly rattled, Savannah had led her pack deep into the preserve, to an overcropping that looked down into the water at the bottom of the ravine that ran through the centre of the preserve, hoping to try and ambush whoever or whatever was following them, only for the tables to be turned on them.

They had taken down Cockburn first, and as one of the most dangerous members of the pack his loss had put the rest on the defensive, but at a greater disadvantage. Then, with their cockatrice down, these hunters or whoever they were, had moved out of the shadows of the trees, opening fire on the entire pack and herding them into a killzone, into which they had thrown smoke grenades. Blinded, the pack had lost Nile, their korio next, and with him blinded and also out of the battle, the advantages that the bird like werecreature would give them were now rendered null and void. Mala had tried to run, only to run headlong into one of the hunters, who had proceeded to electrocute and subdue her, and with half the pack down already, Savannah had gone off on one, and as she had torn two hunters in two, she had demonstrated why she was the leader of their little group.

One hunter had then tried to get her to back off by threatening Tyrin, however he had learned the hard way that a chimisit was a rather too ferocious creature to provoke, but it was then that their leader had entered the battle, firing numerous rounds into the young man and dropping him like a stone. Savannah and Nalia had then tried to attack the leader, this dark man, however, with expert precision, he had shot out Nalia's knee and she had thudded to the ground, and that only left Savannah and her young charge, Brooke. Trying to get the girl to safety, as Savannah treated her like a daughter ever since she had recruited her into her pack, that was the situation the two now found themselves in since Nalia had also been taken down.

"Brooke, get out of here!" Savannah commanded urgently, before giving over the last of her self-control and turning into her full form.

Savannah was a handsome woman, originally hailing from Zimbabwe before her arrival here in the States. Her head was shaved, however that only enhanced her beauty. She gave a savage roar, slipping out of the grip of her attempted captor and transforming into her true form, one of the most dangerous werecreatures that existed in Africa, if not the world.

Any other time, nobody would guess exactly what Savannah was, she was usually so kind and modest, so caring and calm, so collected and level-headed. However, now, in the full form as a nunda, she was totally different.

Her skin was now covered in spotted dark fur, with lethal looking quills spiking through it. A tail had sprung from her body, with sharp looking fronds like a cactus. She had long, curved razor like claws. Her face had developed a muzzle, with two long protruding sabre like fangs complete with the rest of her lethal looking fangs. Her shaved head was now framed by a fleshy looking mane, also covered with lethal looking quills, and purple smog was emitting from her mouth. Her eyes were a glowing feline yellow, a wicked colour which was so vastly different from her usual warm, brown eyes.

"Christ!" one of the hunters screamed as the noxious purple breath emitted from Savannah's mouth, the man screaming as his face was melted under the noxious fumes.

"GO!" Savannah bellowed in a terrible, beastly voice, but as she did so, the leader of them brought a different gun to bear as she leapt onto another hunter, a stream of quills emitting from her body and puncturing all over their body, the hunter dropping to the ground and convulsing, foam coming from their mouth and blood streaming from their eyes.

"Please," the leader said in a soft, malevolent voice, "like I don't know how to bring down a nunda." He sneered, and fired the weapon.

Savannah screamed in pain as a harpoon punctured into her. Snarling furiously, she tried to slice apart the harpoon cable, but the leader then triggered the weapon and electricity crackled through it, highlighting her skeleton through her skin, the leader of the pack writhing in pain as she collapsed to the ground, and the leader smirked malevolently.

"That's enough electricity to bring down a herd of elephants, beast. Did you catch the other one?" he called, and Brooke struggled against her captors, only to be brought before the leader, who pulled her hair, Brooke crying out in pain as she did so, and he smirked.

"A good haul, the famous African pack, and I see they've developed a native addition too. Stick them in the cages, keep an eye on the nunda just because she's down doesn't necessarily mean she's out, start plying her with the drugs our employers gave us. Once they're squared away, I'll contact them and see about delivering the packages, and then we can get our next list. And unless I miss my guess," he purred as Brooke glowered up at him, "our next target will be the True Alpha and his pack."

Brooke blanched in panic as she and her adopted family were bundled into cages, and the others were all injected with some cocktail of drugs. Meanwhile, the leader opened a briefcase which had an old-fashioned computer within it, and he sent her a malevolent grin as he sent a message.

"Job done, please send funds now. See love," he called over to Brooke, "for tonight's work, we're now fifteen million bucks richer, and once we've brought down the True Alpha, we'll all have enough to buy our own islands." He told her, picking up another cocktail of drugs and she glowered at him.

"You're not hunters, you're poachers." She spat, and he grinned, nodding.

She finally got a good look at him, he looked like an ordinary man with dark skin, his black hair cut very close to the wood, and a small goatee, dressed in a dark plaid shirt and jeans. However, the ruthless intelligence in his black eyes made her shiver.

"Yep, see I've always thought, if you're good at something, don't do it for free. Nighty night love." He said, injecting her with the drugs and she groaned a little as they overcame her.

Crockett stretched as he got to his feet, noticing the dead bodies of five of his compatriots, three of which had been brought down by the nunda. Good, more money for him. Looking around, he smirked, this area would be quite useful as a base of operations, far too far out for anyone to randomly come across them, they could quite happily keep their victims here till the Directive was ready to collect, and they could use the time to prepare their plans on how to go after the True Alpha and his pack, because if Crockett was right, it was them next.

"Alright, let's get settled in, we've got a bit to wait till the Directive are ready to take delivery, remember, need to keep them nice, mellow and sedate, lots of money riding on this one, and this is a stepping stone to the big time. Up next, the True Alpha, and then," he said smugly, smirking at his colleagues who all responded with greedy smiles of their own, "easy street."

XX

"Excellent, our agents have acquired us more specimens to play with." Valack said into the intercom as he read the message that had been pinged to him.

Crockett was one of their best agents, a sort of hired mercenary for the Directive. These agents went out into the field, either identifying supernaturals that they could move against themselves with Ouroboros, or, in the case of the better trained ones like Crockett, captured them themselves, got paid then handed the creatures over to the Directive, and were then dismissed until they were needed again.

"Ooh, did they capture the African pack? They will be very interesting to experiment with." Urbaniak said with cold delight, sighing as he experimented on Donovan Donati, who had just let out another scream, which changed into a cry of pain when an audible thump was heard on the intercom.

"Yes, the African pack, saved us some money too, the nunda in the pack killed a few of the poachers, much tidier." He said with some satisfaction, after all, these bounties were expensive, the less money they had to pay they better off they would be.

"The African pack will be of great help towards our research, particularly that of Project Typhon. It'll be something of a homecoming for it." Turnbull purred into her own one, before a scream from whichever victim she had in with her blared through the speaker.

"Can't we have a civilised discussion without our guests making such a racket?" Valack asked wearily, and Urbaniak chuckled.

"I know my friend, it is quite wearisome. Silence Donovan, hmm, I think you'll like this, it's a new strain in preparation for Operation Cloudburst. Hold still boy!" he snapped, Donovan screaming in terror as he worked on him.

"Gabriel, it occurs to me that if you are right and our oncoming confrontation with the local pack is in the offing, perhaps we should budget their section of the Deadpool?" Turnbull asked pointedly, however, Valack didn't respond, his middle eye was glowing, and he closed his eyes as his third sight, the strange ability he had developed after performing trepanation on himself all those years before.

His thirdsight was a unique ability, unmatched by any of the other Dread Doctors. Through it, he could see things at great distances, spy on others, and perceive events of the past, the present, and the future, which of course made it invaluable. His knowledge of his thirdsight had gained them many test subjects over the years, identified weaknesses in their enemies, hell it had even saved Penelope's life after her encounter with the Alpha pack a few years ago.

Eddies and currents swirled around him, and he relaxed into it, knowing that fighting it was ill advised, that led to issues, not to mention rather a killer headache. The pack of Beacon Hills, the pack of the True Alpha, had been on his mind of late, knowing that as time progressed, and as they got closer to unleashing Project Typhon and exterminating each and every single supernatural being in existence, they would undoubtedly encounter the group of meddling kids.

Hmm, a party, that was no use to anyone, he had never went to parties in his youth, he wasn't going to care about them now at his age, so why-? Ah, the boy, the True Alpha, his eyes glowing red…the boy? The youngest one, why…ah! Walking his girlfriend (the kitsune, yes, she would be fun to experiment on, they hadn't had a kitsune in some years) home, ah, he was chivalrous, good lad, nice to see chivalry wasn't dead, so he's dropped her off and is now alone…ah, yes!

"Gabriel? I'm talking to you, can you hear me?" Turnbull asked waspishly, and he leaned into the intercom.

"Yes, my dear, in fact I was using my thirdsight. We have all been eager to begin our experiments on the True Alpha, and now, I perceive our time has come. I have the perfect experiment in mind, one that will see exactly what the True Alpha is made of…and if his unique nature to the cosmos can possibly be replicated." He told her, and he heard both of his colleagues start whittering as he signed off the intercom.

The problem with his thirdsight was that it didn't account for emotions. He had learned that the hard way several times, however he felt the little experiment he had in mind had very little degree of risk. In fact, in the general scheme of things their presence in the whole affair should be relatively minimal, after all, only one of their agents would be needed. And then it would be curious to see exactly how the Alpha would act, and as both responses would be entirely emotional, Valack couldn't perceive it.

But either way, it would be a highly interesting case study.

"Belasko?" he called, and his pet approached from the shadows.

A hulking brute, Belasko was Valack's pet project, his one of the four unique creatures that the Dread Doctors and Colonel Skinner, the leader of Ouroboros, had as their pets. Belasko was tall, muscular and menacing, but to outward appearances, he was just an ordinary werewolf, kept under control, just as all their pets were, by administration of Lotusium, a concoction of Urbaniak's design. However, unknown to even the other Dread Doctors, there had been a specific reason that Valack had wanted this beast to be his own personal pet, and if the others had guessed, they had never said as much.

Belasko was essentially a normal werewolf, complete with glowing blue eyes. Strangely enough however, his right hand didn't have werewolf claws whereas his left hand did. His right hand's claws had been replaced by five different talons, five thick long claws double the length of his werewolf ones. His five claws glowed a vivid, electric blue, and as a result, when his eyes shone their blue colour, there was a very discreet but still noticeable circle of fire around the iris'. Belasko was highly unique, and Valack had spent a lot of time searching for him, and upon finding him had sacrificed over a dozen men from Ouroboros to seize him so he could put him under his control.

After all, should Project Typhon fail, however unlikely that might be, there would need to be a backup plan, a way to achieve their aims, a way of bringing about the Final Solution.

And Belasko was the key to the whole thing.

"Yes sir?" Belasko asked, and Valack smiled indulgently as the beast stood to attention.

"I have a mission for you my dear Belasko. A mission of vital importance to me, and hence, the Directive. What say you?" he asked, and obediently, Belasko grinned, his eyes managing to look empty and lifeless despite the ferocity therein, and nodded.

"By your command." He replied, and Valack smiled, and told his pet exactly what he wanted done.

XX

Scott wasn't happy. After leaving the mall, he, Stiles and Isaac, after filling Stiles in naturally, had gone around all of the pack's homes, to look for more evidence of the presence of the creature, which Isaac had identified as a Popobawa. To his great dismay, they had discovered more evidence, at Lydia's, at Jackson's, Danny's, even the loft where Derek stayed with the twins, and the flat underneath where Isaac lived when he wasn't with Scott, with Camden and Rakaisha. There had been numerous claw marks on tree branches that were close to each place, and some on the roofs of some buildings to afford a look into each pack member's window.

"You're kidding, the damn thing has been watching all of us! I feel violated!" Stiles whined, and Isaac frowned thoughtfully as they pulled up at Liam and Garrett's house, where, thankfully, there was nobody home.

"Truth be told I'm more concerned that Malia didn't smell anything, she's got the best nose in the pack, if the damn thing has been watching us and essentially getting free porn and a jolly," he said, feeling sick just thinking about it, the damn thing had most likely been watching them all, let's face it, they were all horny teenagers, so he'd had the view so they could likely add paedophilia to his crimes, "and if she couldn't smell him, how long has this been going on?" he asked worriedly, shuddering, and Scott gently hit Stiles on the arm.

"This is your fault!" he complained, and Stiles looked at him in outrage.

"How is this my fault?" he demanded furiously, and Scott shot him a smug look.

"Well, if you two grasped the real meaning of friends with benefits, she might have smelled him sooner." He teased, and Stiles looked at him in outrage, muttering about his best friend under his breath as they stopped at Liam's.

"So why do we have a sex offender monster watching all of us get off?" Stiles asked, gesturing to Isaac, who groaned, he didn't want to climb the tree, but he supposed it was his turn.

"I don't know, but whatever the reason is, I don't like it. It's been watching us for a while judging by all the claw marks we've seen, and if I hadn't noticed it last night who knows how long this would have gone on? So, the real question is, how long has it been doing it, and what's it doing it for?" Scott asked, allowing himself a small smile as he watched Isaac climb the tree, affording him a very nice view of his boyfriend's rear.

He noticed Stiles also checking it out, and permitted himself a slight warning growl, and Stiles shrugged and sent him an innocent look, blushing a little as he did so.

"What, he's nice to look at!" he whispered defensively, and Scott grinned.

"Yeah, I know he is, but he's mine to look at." He purred happily, and Stiles grinned and rolled his eyes.

"Yeah, I know, it was one time, and I was possessed! And besides, if I do wind up dating Neo, it's not like you won't have a look, he's your type." He whispered, and Isaac called back as he climbed up to the tallest part of the tree with the biggest branches.

"Um, you know I can hear you both right?" he asked pointedly, arcing an eyebrow and giving them a grin, and both of them went red as they looked up at him as he checked the branches.

"Anything? Please say no." Stiles begged, and Isaac sighed as he was on one of the branches.

"Unfortunately not. There's claw marks up here too, which means we can definitely add being a pedo to the list, since Liam's the youngest, this is disgusting." He spat, his stomach knotting in disgust, and Scott growled.

This Popobawa was spying on all of them, in their own homes, in their own houses.

"You should have aimed for it's eye, when I find it…" he growled, until a voice piped up from behind him.

"Um, what are you guys doing up my tree?" Liam asked in concern, appearing behind them, and Isaac, up said tree, froze, and Scott and Stiles also went rigid.

"Who was meant to be keeping watch?" Stiles muttered under his breath, and Scott rolled his eyes.

"We both were, we were too busy watching Isaac," he hissed in a violent whisper, before turning with a smile to face the youngest member of the pack, who was looking at them as though concerned for their sanity.

Scott hated lying to Liam, but he didn't want to cause a panic, they all deserved one night off, and he was going to give his pack that if it killed him!

"We're changing it to metric." He explained plainly, astonished with how easily the lie came to him, and Liam looked at him in confusion.

"Changing it to metric?" he asked, looking lost, and Stiles cottoned on while Isaac watched the two of them in astonishment, the two of them really were a bizarre unit, they weren't wired together right.

"Yeah, it's illegal to have a tree in feet and inches nowadays, so we thought we'd change it for you." Stiles explained easily, and Liam grinned.

"That's really nice of you, thanks!" he exclaimed, bidding them goodbye and heading into the house.

Well, Isaac thought with some resignation, at least Liam was also wired together the same bizarre way, bless him.

"I seriously wonder about you two, I mean," Isaac asked, leaping down to the ground and landing catlike before fixing the two of them with a disbelieving smile, "how are you two wired together? Changing it to metric?" he asked, sniggering, and Scott grinned.

"It was an excuse we used to use for old man Keepler down the road when we climbed his tree, always used to work too. Come on, let's go before he realises he's been had." He said, climbing into Stiles' jeep with the others, and drove off, thankfully, without any indication that Liam had figured out that he'd been lied to.

"What do we do about our creepy stalker monster?" Stiles asked worriedly, and Scott frowned, kneading his temples.

"Nothing yet. It hasn't attacked us yet, just been watching us, I'll try and get them all to shut the curtains at night if nothing else. Besides, Isaac wounded it, so hopefully it'll be out of the picture for a while at least. Let's go to the party tonight, have fun, relax. We can worry about the creepy pedo monster tomorrow. Now," he said happily, turning to look at Isaac, "we've got a party to decorate for." He said, and Isaac grinned, and nodded.

"Yeah, and this time, you're going up the ladder." He purred, and Stiles shook his head.

"I am here you know! Still can't believe that Liam bought that." He admitted with a chuckle, and Isaac nodded, patting him on the shoulder.

"Yeah, it's nice to know that between the three of you, you have to make at least an imbecile together." He said sweetly, and Stiles nodded, smiling.

"Yeah…hey!" he exclaimed in outrage, and Scott also turned an irate look onto his boyfriend as well, who burst out laughing in the back.

XX

"Ugh, it looks like it's going to chuck down." Kira complained as she pulled on her top hat, checking her reflection in the window as she did so.

"With rain?" Garrett asked, coming through and Kira turned to look at him, the weather temporarily driven from her mind.

He was dressed in a Captain America costume, complete with shield, his hair styled appropriately and she nodded, impressed.

"You look great!" she exclaimed, and he grinned.

"Right back at you, you really suit that look." He told her and she grinned.

She was clad in fishnet stockings, long knee length black boots, a white shirt with a bow tie, a black tux and a top hat, and her cane was off to the side.

"Thank you, surprised my mom let me out the house wearing just underwear, and not going to lie, it's a tad chilly, but yeah, I thought Zatanna would be cool to go as!" she said excitedly, and Garret nodded, he doubted many other people would come dressed as her, if anyone.

"You realise he's probably taking as long to get ready as you did," he complained, indicating the closed bathroom door where Liam was still getting ready, "anyway, is it rain do you think? Or that thundersnow we had last week, that was not fun." He grumbled, he and Liam had been at the movies, where it had been sunny when they went in, and by the time they had come out, it was a thunderstorm complete with a snowstorm on top of it, they were both frozen solid by the time they got home.

"Hopefully neither, but the weather's been so weird recently, that lightning storm the other day with the creepy green lightning was weird too, I heard the news fired the local weatherman since his predictions have all been so wrong recently." She told him, and Garrett frowned, the weather had been weird recently, unseasonably cold, gales, a mini tornado at one point, thunderstorms, torrential rain, hail, a random blizzard, thundersnow…if he didn't know any better, he would have suspected Isaac was behind it to drive scarf sales (not to mention he had been looking extremely smug the last day before school had broken up for the holidays when they were all standing outside in the cold, snow falling all around them, while he looked very content in his scarf mocking them all).

"It's weird, it's only actually Beacon Hills that's being affected, which means it's likely a you know," Garrett said in an undertone as Jenna went past the door with a load of washing in her arms, singing Proud Mary to herself, "us problem."

"That's what I'm afraid of." Liam said as he emerged from the bathroom at last, and Garrett grinned appreciatively while Kira whistled.

"That better not be funny business I hear!" Jenna called up the stair good naturedly, making Liam go scarlet.

"Mom!" he whined as the other two laughed.

Liam was dressed in a black and red suit, with a red cape and yellow belts strapped across his waist, with a black face mask on and his hair spiked up, and admittedly, he really suited his chosen character.

"Red Robin." Kira greeted, offering him her hand, and he grinned proudly, taking it and kissing it.

"Zatanna." He responded, and Garrett rolled his eyes, it wasn't that he begrudged Lim having a girlfriend, but really they were both so…sweet, it was nauseating.

"Ok, you kids ready? Wow, you all look great, a fancy-dress party in my day was a different shirt and an afro wig." David mused as he looked in on them to give them a lift, and Jenna then appeared at that moment, camera in hand.

"Mom, no!" Liam protested, and Jenna waved her hand irritably.

"Oh come on, I rarely go out to party…a few weeks ago aside, that was a great night, bad rest of the week," she lamented darkly, and they all grinned, yes that night had gone down in pack history for many a reason, "and you all look great, it would be a shame not to get your photo. And if you let me take a picture, I'll show you your dad's afro pictures when you get home." She promised, and David looked at her in outrage.

"You told me you dumped them!" he protested, and she cackled.

"Got to have some insurance! Come on kids, let's get your picture, then you can go to the party." She chided, and Liam rolled his eyes.

"Ok, but only because I want to see dad in an afro!" he insisted, and David grumbled.

"'Go on a date with her', they said, 'she's got a cute son', they said, lies, all lies." He complained as his wife started taking photos of the kids, and the two that were his flashing him evil grins as she did so, yeah, he wasn't going to hear the end of this any time soon.

XX

Crockett paced the edge of the encampment, taking stock. There were nine poachers left including himself from the group he had assembled, which meant there would be a greater share of funds from the Directive apiece, and the money they would get for the African pack would be significant.

He watched as some of his colleagues injected the captives with sedatives. He had sent the message, and the Dread Doctors had responded with their congratulations, and a promise that they would be in touch soon to acquire their prizes. Crockett sighed, while the Directive was a very good employer, the transactions were a pain admittedly, it took them a while to collect their prizes, and hence, a bit longer for the poachers to get paid. However, their money was good, and seemed more, legitimate he supposed was the best word, than some of his other clients, usually eclectic personages with an awareness of the supernatural, shady warlords or criminals one of which he suspected was on the Beasturo's most wanted list, or people traffickers. He just wanted the Directive to get in contact, then he could turn his attention to the biggest hunt of his career: the fabled True Alpha.

"Hey, she bit me!" one of his colleagues cried out, and he turned to see Brooke, the youngest member of the African pack dart out of her cage, her lithe, fluid and graceful form allowing her to twirl herself, taking the legs out of several of the poachers and crashing them to the ground as she darted towards Savannah's cage, who like all the others, was still unconscious due to the amount of drugs in her system.

Crockett rolled his eyes at the incompetence of his colleagues, and pulled his custom-made gun from his belt, taking aim at the young girl, yes, almost, she was nearly there, nearly at the cage…

He squeezed the trigger.

The custom-made bullet ripped into her, shredding through the skin of her stomach. Brooke cried out in pain, staggering away from Savannah's cage. As she stumbled away, Crockett snarled in contempt, shooting her again. Brooke staggered away, bleeding heavily, trying to staunch the flow as she looked in terror at Crockett, getting perilously close to the edge of the precipice overlooking the ravine.

"You know, when I get the True Alpha, I reckon I can afford to lose one of you. Should have just kept your head down kid." He sneered, and shot her in the chest.

Brooke gasped in pain as it ripped through her, the pain preventing her from even trying to avoid it, and she then toppled over the edge of the precipice, plummeting down into the ravine below.

Crockett blew air out of his nose in annoyance, that was a pain, but, it was a calculated risk. As he'd shot her with his own gun, his unique bullets meant they would be able to track her. If she was dead, then so be it, the Directive would still pay, though considerably less for a dead body but it still went to them to autopsy, but if she was alive, there was a chance that she could lead them to the local pack. And then, he grinned as he walked over to his colleagues, then they could lure them all into a trap and be captured all at once.

"Crockett, she got the better of me, no, wait, no!" the one who had allowed Brooke to escape begged as he struggled to get up and away, only for Crockett to pump a bullet into his skull, his body crashing back down to the ground.

"More cash for the rest of us!" he crowed, and the others cheered, though some looked a bit concerned and nauseous as Crockett kicked the dead body off the edge of the precipice into the ravine, and nodded in satisfaction as he saw it had gotten stuck on one of the rocks, food for the crows.

Crockett headed to the old computer system that the Directive had gifted them, and sent them a message to update them of the new circumstances, and the death of one of the claimants. And while the message sent off, he hooked up his own laptop, bringing up the GPS system, and smiling as he saw that the girl was moving, most likely in the current of the river.

Now all he had to do was wait.

So, on top of the Dread Doctors, there's some other nasty beasty loose in Beacon Hills, and a bunch of poachers now to boot

On top of that, Stiles has got himself a date? with the new guy, if anyones forgotten, he came out as bi at the end of the first Two-Pack. I enjoyed writing the party scene, and deciding who everyone is going to be

I love Liam, he's so cute, extra kudos to anyone who guesses what Scott and Stiles little lie came from

And just what exactly does Valack have planned?

Read on to find out and please and review!