Cole arrived feeling late, as everyone else stood around talking when she finally joined the group. Their pack, as well as Derek's and other associates all stood together, aside from Leila and Peter who she assumed were most likely remaining at the loft to play mothership.

"This doesn't make any sense. The public pool is all the way on the other side of the woods. We haven't tracked them anywhere near there." She hears Derek say.

"Derek, they killed someone." Her eyes were drawn to Scott, his voice quiet. Guilt was evident.

"We can't be certain of that." Mara cut in. Cole came to a stop beside her sister.

"How are they moving so fast?" Derek muttered, ignoring Scott, eyes still pointed away.

"Derek." Scott said more forcefully.

"But they can't be that fast on foot" Derek continues speaking to himself.

"They killed someone. Some totally innocent kid is dead... And it's our fault." Scott snapped at Derek

"It's my fault." Derek responded, finally turning and acknowledging him.

"We need help." Mara interrupted again.

"We have Isaac now." Derek replies, with a more aggressive scowl than usual as he gestured at Isaac. Cole looked at him curiously.

"She means real help." Cole said, giving Isaac a once over, ignoring his offended expression and looking fairly underwhelmed.

"They're too fast for us, for all of us. They're too strong, too rabid." Mara continued pointedly, holding Derek's glare, with a challenging look.

"We'll catch them." Derek grits out.

"What happens if we do?" Isaac finally jumped into the discussion, looking around at everybody "We just gonna hold them down until the sun comes up?"

"At least someone in your pack has a brain." Mara said directly to Derek, nothing but bite in her tone. Scott and Isaac both were now looking between the two adults in confusion.

"Maybe it would be easier just to kill 'em." Derek snaps back, just as hostile. Both of them were getting on Cole's last nerve.

"Hey!" Cole cuts in, grabbing everyone's attention. She looked between both alphas, arms crossed, looking unimpressed. "I don't know what your deal is, and I don't care. Cut it out. Keep it at home."

Mara's angry glare softened, and Derek turned away, still scowling.

"Killing them isn't the right thing to do." Scott added, tentatively breaking back into the conversation.

"What if it's the only thing to do? If we can't even catch them, what else do we do?" Isaac replied, sounding fairly defeated.

"Find someone who knows what they're doing." Scott stated, brightening up. He looked over at Cole and she began to catch on, an unhappy look taking over her face.

"Who?" Derek asked, suspiciously. Their idea suddenly dawned on Mara.

"Someone who knows how to hunt werewolves." Mara answers, disdain filling her voice. Good thing Leila had stayed home.

"Do YOU think this is going to work?" Isaac asks from behind the passenger seat, leaning forward and watching with the rest of them, as Chris Argent whips around further down in the parking lot, pointing his cocked gun at Scott.

"No." Derek replied, looking out the window of the chevy on the other side of the back seat.

"Yeah, me neither." Isaac mutters, looking back out his side and relaxing back. They sat in silence for a few moments, watching Argent and Scott talk.

"So your, uh... your sister…" Isaac started, turning back towards Derek. Derek turned towards him, brows raised with a genuine surprised expression, though still displeased. Both Mara and Cole turn towards the back, mirroring Derek's expression. "Sorry, yeah, it's... It's bad timing, I'm sorry." They all turned back and relaxed in their seats. Isaac said the last part under his breath.

"I'll ask later. It's fine." They all turned back towards him again, and he looked around wide eyed. "Or never. Yeah, yeah, I'm good with never."

Scott and Chris came to some type of conclusion, as both got into the older man's car. Mara followed behind quickly. They ended up at the pool where Lydia and Stiles remained, until Chris felt guilty enough to help, and they returned to the reserve.

"You're tracking them by print?" Chris asked, loading his pistol.

"Trying to." Scott replied, scanning the forest floor.

"Well, then, you've been wasting your time." Chris stated, clearly unsurprised by their lack of skill.

"There's only one creature on earth that can visually track footprints, and that's man. And if you're not trained like me, you have no idea that this print is Boyd's and these…"

"are Cora's." Isaac interjects, sounding quite confident.

"No." Mara cuts in, looking a bit annoyed. "They're yours. You trampled Cora's as soon as you walked over here."

Chris looked fairly impressed, but her sharp glare turned him away.

"Listen, I know the five of you are focusing half your energy on resisting your own urges under the full moon, but that puts you at a severe disadvantage to Boyd and Cora, who have fully given in. They put the pedal to the floor where you are barely hitting the speed limit."

"So what do we do?" Isaac asked.

"Focus on your sense of smell. Actual wolves are known to track their prey by up to a hundred Miles a day by scent. A trained hunter can use scent to track them. If the wind is with them, wolves can track a scent by a distance of two Miles, which means we can draw them to us... Or into a trap." Chris explained, beginning to put a plan in place.

"Full moon does give us one advantage. They'll have a higher heat signature, which makes them easier to spot with infrared." He held up a few pairs of high tech goggles.

"Thanks," Cole snorted, her brow cocked. She taps her temple. " but I've got my own."

Chris looked a little affronted, but nodded.

"Just remember, we're not hunting wild animals. Underneath those impulses are two intelligent human beings. Don't think they can't rely on that human side." He sweeps the whole clearing with his gaze.

"It's suppressed, but it's there, reminding them how to mask their scent, how to cover their tracks, how to survive. When's the last time you saw your sister?"

Derek's expression faded, when the older man surprised him with the question.

"Nine years." He replied almost softly. "I thought she died in the fire."

"Between the three of us we've got a lock on her scent." Mara answered knowingly, looking at Cole with confidence.

"Scott, how confident are you in your skills?" The hunter asked, turning towards the omega.

"Honestly, most of the time, I'm trying not to think about all the things I can smell." He replied, scratching his head.

"All right." Chris nodded slowly. He thought for a moment.

"The problem is when they breach the woods and hit the residential area. Once they're past the high school, they're right in the middle of beacon hills."

"They're not gonna kill everything they see, are they?" Isaac asked, eyes darting between the adults.

"No. But there is an important difference to recognize. Wolves hunt for food. At a certain point, they get full. But Boyd and Cora are hunting for the pleasure of the kill, apex predatory satisfaction that comes from the ripping of warm bodies to bloody shreds. And who knows when that need gets satiated?"

"We can't kill them." Scott reiterated, looking between them as well.

"What if we can't catch 'em?" Derek shoots back, hostility failing to cover the fear Mara could see in his eyes.

"Then maybe we just need to contain them."

The all stood silent for a moment.

"There's no one in the school at night, is there?" Mara asked, directed to the teens, cutting through their thoughts.

"You want to trap them inside?" Derek asks her incredulously, crossing his arms over his chest.

"If there's somewhere with a strong enough door, no windows or access to the outside." Chris said, shrugging towards her.

"What about the boiler room? It's just one big steel door." Isaac cut in. They all nodded in agreement.

"You're sure the school's empty?" Chris asked again, staring intently between the teens.

"It has to be. There can't be anyone there this late, right?" Scott looked around at everyone, who all seemed to be in agreement.

They watched as Chris pulled something out of his duffle bag from behind him. He held up a porch light looking silver device.

"These are ultrasonic emitters. It's one of the tools we use to corral werewolves, pushing them into a direction we want them to run. Gives off a high-pitched frequency that only they can hear."

He flicked it on for a moment.

"God, no kidding!" Isaac's hands shot to his ears as well as Cole, who let out a disgruntled 'GAH' while also trying to shield her eyes. The adults merely flinched. Scott tried to hold his expression, but was strained.

"These are gonna drive them to the school?" Derek asked, carefully eyeing the now disarmed tool as it caught the light of the moon. Chris nodded again.

"And then it's up to you to get them into the basement." He gestured widely at the group, as he passed the devices along.

"Does anyone else want to rethink the plan where we just, uh, kill 'em?" Isaac joked weakly, rubbing the back of his head.

"It's going to work. It'll work." Scott reassured the other teen, and most likely himself as well.

They made a game plan. Once everyone was ready, they set off in teams. The rest of the pack was off setting up emitters. Mara and Derek headed straight for the school.

"What are you doing here?" Mara called out, in an annoyed tone, squinting into what appeared to be shadows. Derek jumped at the sudden break of silence.

"Hunted becomes the hunter." Peter's voice echoed teasingly through the clearing as he materialized from the dark tree line. "You really think a few high-tech dog whistles are gonna help?"

"I don't see you offering a hand." Derek snapped at him, crossing his arms over his chest in irritation.

"Personally, I'm trying to cut down on futile endeavors." Peter replied with his ever sarcastic tone.

"Cora's alive." Derek threw in, watching for Peter's reaction. Peter cocked a brow.

"I heard. Let's throw the reunion party when she's not an unstoppable killing machine."

Derek shot Mara a look and she shrugged.

"We can stop her." Mara insisted, as if it wasn't the first time she had the argument.

"Sure you can." Peter said, walking towards them. His expression got more serious.

"By killing her... Which happens to be the point of this little exercise. Deucalion wants you to kill them. He wants you to get rid of his baggage, making it easier for you to join his pack. The fact that it was supposed to happen in the vault, and not up here, out in the open, doesn't change his plan. It just means that Boyd and Cora are gonna kill a few innocent people first."

"And I should just let them? I should be okay with innocent people dying?" Derek snapped back, as Peter came to stand on Mara's other side.

"Unless you're okay killing your own." Peter shrugged, looking between his nephew and his wife.

"We can catch them." Mara reinforced, looking fairly irritated with Peter. "Why did you even come here?"

"Oh, come on. How much damage can they do? So they off a few homeless people, a drunk stumbling out of a bar too late. So what?" He waved his hand in a dismissive manner, his tone getting serious once more. He focused on Derek, ignoring Mara's now burning glare.

"Let Scott deal with it. Let him be the hero of his morally black and white world. The real survivors, us, we live in shades of gray. Then again, even if you did kill them, you're still an Alpha. You can always make more werewolves."

Mara shook her head in disbelief.

"This is what you call doing everything we can, huh?" She snapped angrily, staring him down. He opened his mouth to answer, but she quickly shut him down. She didn't want to hear him go on with excuses.

"Derek might be thick sometimes, but at least he isn't a coward. You're always trying to make an excuse for saving your own skin. You aren't going to convince us to join you and prolong your fantasy that somehow you're the good guy for coming to say this. Go hide in the loft, the big dogs will handle it." She snarked at the end, turning on her heel. She stormed off, Peter glowering after her. Derek followed behind suite.

"Stilinski?" Cole spoke into her phone, drawing Isaacs attention for a moment. Isaac turned back to the sonic emitters as she heard a response.

"I couldn't get a hold of Scott." He grumbled, as if to explain why he would have called her.

"What is it?" She replied, rolling her eyes at his tone.

"The lifeguard from before, Melissa just told me he was throttled and beaten. Not by a werewolf."

Cole sighed, rolling her eyes dramatically longer than before, grabbing Isaacs attention once more.

"What is it?" Isaac started to move over to her, having finished setting up.

"Mara was right. The body Lydia found was murdered by a human."

Before Isaac could even react, his phone started to ring, causing them both to jump. He fumbled to get it out of his sweatshirt pocket, Chris' number flashing across the screen. He answered and put it on speaker.

"Activate it. Then get to the school."

"Do you see that?"

Chris' voice rung out, breaking her focus on the large brick building. Mara looks over to him, following his gaze out of the foliage, into the parking lot.

"Yeah," She turned her attention back to him, brows raised and blinking slowly. "It's a firefly."

"No, no, I know, it…" He trails off, attention still focused on the small light.

"What?" She asked, tilting her head towards him, watching his expression suspiciously.

"It's very unusual. The, uh, California fireflies aren't bio-luminescent." His attention turns back to her. "They don't glow."

"Does that mean something?" Mara asks, tone sounds rather tired, before being interrupted by the sound of two pairs of feet hitting the blacktop.

They shot around towards the sound, watching two figures dart from the field into the parking lot. Mara heard the click and static of Chris' walkie talkie.

"They're here. Move in."

Mara slammed the heavy metal door shut as Derek and Scott came running back out of the boiler room, and Cole slid the deadbolt into place. Derek and Scott both leaned into the wall, panting heavily.

"Did that actually just work?" Scott huffed out, hands resting on his knees. Mara let a small smile escape as she pat Scott on the back.

"Yeah it did." Derek replied, looking between them all, before he settled on Cole. She had her head tilted up towards the shut room, brows furrowed in confusion. He got a bad feeling from her expression.

"What, what do you hear?"

Scott, Mara, and Isaac all turned towards him, then followed his gaze to Cole.

"Heartbeats." Cole stated slowly, holding Derek's gaze as she continued to listen.

"Both of them?" Mara asked almost hopefully. Cole's face dropped suddenly, and her eyes went wide, still locked on Derek's.

"No, three."

There's a pause, too long, while everyone processed what Cole was saying.

"What are you doing?" Mara demanded as Derek went for the door.

"Close the door behind me and keep it shut." He demanded, sliding open the deadbolt. Mara grabs his arm, locking eyes with him, her expression dead serious.

"You go in there alone, and you're either gonna kill them, or they kill you." He held her gaze, and his eyes flashed for a moment. His hand moved to cover hers.

"That's why I'm going in alone."

Mara's hand fell away and Derek pulled the door open. As soon as he stepped through, they slammed the door behind him. Almost immediately after they heard a foreign scream, and feral roars. They all flinched, the scent of blood piercing the air, along with the thump of bodies being thrown. The sounds made the wait all the more painful.

They all jumped when they heard a yell from the top of the stairs.

"The sun's coming up." Someone called to them from above. Isaac.

"Scott! The sun's coming up!" He came running, reaching the bottom of the stairs to find the rest of them had already shot through the door.

Mara stopped suddenly, Scott and Cole hitting her outstretched arms as they also skidded to a halt at the scene before them. Both Cora and Boyd are on the ground, unconscious, but breathing. Derek was between them, on his knees, bloody and beaten. His head slowly rises to look at them.

"It was a teacher." His tired voice spoke out to them. "I'll take care of her. Get them out of here."

They moved forward somberly, Isaac now with them. Him and Scott picked up Boyd, and began to pull him away. Mara and Cole each pulled one of Cora's arms around their shoulders, following them.

"Stiles, you better have a good reason for calling me here after the night we had." Cole griped, stalking towards Stiles with Scott close behind her. Stiles was quick to jump up from his uncomfortable chair at the sound of her voice, as she came into the hospital waiting room.

"Very important." His voice was intense and serious, the complete opposite of him. He turned the opposite way, and took off. They followed him down the hall,much to their confusion through the doors labeled "Morgue". He drew their attention to two bodies only covered from the shoulders down.

"Both of them had their throats sliced by cords, not claws." Stiles stated, eyes drawn towards the girl.

"So Boyd and Cora might not have killed anyone?" Scott asked, looking down at the wounds on the man. Stiles' face remained dark.

"You're gonna wish they did." He replied, finally looking up at his friend.

"Why would a human do this?" Cole asked, grip on the side of the table turning her knuckles white.

"I'm not exactly sure yet." He shook his head as he continued to ramble. "The other girl who was out in the woods, Emily? Eventually they're gonna find her. She's one of them. Emily, Heather... That guy Lydia found at the pool."

"What do you know, Stiles?" Cole dark tone cutting his tangent. He turned to her.

"All three were virgins... And they're all gonna have the same three injuries... strangled, throat slashed, head bashed in. It's called the threefold death." Stiles said, watching the other two's reactions carefully. Scott bore his predictable wide eyed shock, while Cole continued to watch Stiles, her expression unchanging.

"So if these aren't random killings, then what are they Stiinski?".

Stiles continued to hold her gaze. She was clearly waiting for him to confirm her own suspicions by her knowing tone. He did just that.

"Sacrifices. Human sacrifices."

Thank you for reading. The announcement of the movie has me very excited and im over 10 chapters ahead so I think I'm finally going to finish a story I'm happy with. Are y'all excited about a TW movie? I have to catch up on the last season tbh but its gonna be sick. Let me know if you enjoyed, or why you didn't. Have a good night folks.