Mara stormed through the hospital doors, her pack in tow. Peter dragged the witch along by the arm directly behind her. Leila followed next, doing her best to conceal the witches bound arms from the few staff fleeting around with her body. Derek closely mirrored her, blocking Jennifer in from the back.
Scott was at the back with Stiles, who'd brought a metal bat to her amusement. At least he was smart enough to come armed. They'd have to equip him with some weapons that worked on the supernatural.
Leila had asked that Allison take Lydia to the next closest hospital due to the evacuations. The other girl hadn't seemed happy. Her eyes had flitted towards Scott briefly, but she'd ultimately agreed to Mara's surprise.
A few steps in the door, a nurse headed for them. Mara contined without another look in the woman's direction. She listened as the woman tried to stop Scott and Stiles frantically. His mother, she assumed.
"Scott! Scott! What are you doing here? The hospital's evacuating."
When Mara heard the footfalls behind her stop, she whipped around with a tinge of annoyance. Time was not on their side. She didn't like standing around.
"We're here for Cora." She cut in, drawing everyone's attention.
The nurse looked along the whole group, her eyes catching on Peter, to her further irritation.
He'd answer for that look of recognition she'd given. The woman, Melissa if she recalled from the kids, regarded them with wide eyes, before they settled on her own son once more.
"What, all of you? Why does Stiles have my bat?"
Scott took on a lower tone, so he wouldn't alert anyone around them.
"Mom, just trust me on this. You need to get out of here. Right now."
Melissa understood clearly, leaving them with a quick response, before disappearing with the other medical workers.
"The building is supposed to be clear in 30 minutes. We've got two ambulances that are coming back. One's 10 minutes out, the other's 20. Cora needs to be on one of those. They'll be picking up in the basement garage."
"Got it. Okay." Scott replied more to himself, as his mother was gone.
Mara turned and continued, not stopping till she found the rest of her family. She walked in the open door.
"Cole."
It was a greeting, as well as a warning. Her little sister whipped around from where she stood over her cousin. Mara locked eyes with her, seeing the brief moment of relief. It ended as soon as she took in the rest of the group. A deep scowl set in on her features. Mara continued before anything could escalate and Derek moved towards the bed.
"We have to get Cora out. Ambulance is going to meet us downstairs."
Cole watched with narrowed eyes as Derek lifted his only living sister out of the bed, his eyes trained on her as her head lulled against his chest. She'd become more clammy, her skin barley retaining more colour than the moonlight. Not that they could compare.
The building outside storm had obscured every inch of the sky in thick dark clouds.
Derek moved for the exit, and everyone parted to let him past. Cole followed closely, to Mara's dismay, her expression never changing. Mara simply followed after her, back into the hallway.
She was stopped short, running into Cole's frozen form. Mara began to utter her disparences as she felt the witch bump her from behind. She suddenly realised the reason for their sudden halt.
The Alpha hybrid stared down the long hallway at them, low snarls now emitting from its hulking form.
Derek and Cole began to back up slowly.
She whipped around when she felt a hand on her shoulder. She knew it was Peter. He looked down on her with hard eyes. She knew what he would say. She shook her head before he even started.
"I won't leave you." She stated firmly, holding his gaze. He didn't waiver to her dismay.
"I'll be right behind you." He flashed his eyes at her, Cole and Derek behind them now. The deep red shone with certainty. She scowled at him, shrugging his hand off.
She wished she could be so certain. At least there was a very minor chance of death at the hands of the teens.
"You better be. Or I'll bring you back to kill you again." She promised, before taking Jennifer by the arm, and giving Derek a push forward. If Mara didn't know him better, she'd think the brief look he'd given Peter was one of thanks.
The others followed after him and Cora. Cole took the opportunity to take over with Jennifer, the witch crying out as Cole wrapped her clawed hand around her with a satisfied grin. Cole pushed her along, Leila watching her back.
Mara looked back once more as she released the woman from her grip, and Peter turned his head to meet her gaze. His eyes flash once more, this time accompanied by his fangs and claws. She could hear her group turn the corner, and it was then he added his cocky grin and a wink. Her brows furrowed.
When he turned back, letting out a visceral snarl at the other alpha, she realised his transformation hadn't stopped. His fangs continued to grow, and his face further elongating. His growl evolved into a roar.
Hair continued to sprout, covering all the visible skin on him. His shirt began to stretch and tear as his body grew, muscles bulging through the shredded fabric inhumanly. His face was more wolf than human. His brow slanted downwards as his jaw crackled forward into the narrowed snout.
Her eyes were wide now, her mouth hanging agape. Even the Alpha hybrid looked on in awe.
Mara knew Peter had evolved to a new form the first time he became Alpha. She didn't know he was such a… beast.
She didn't get to watch the end of the transformation. Leila's voice called her name, and she quickly turned to follow.
Mara ran after them, trying not to think about the vicious showdown beginning behind her.
She met them in the hallway, slowing her pace to match theirs.
"I'm sure Kali isn't far behind." Leila said as soon as she'd reached them. Mara huffed tiredly. The kid was right. They needed to be ready.
"Can you carry your cousin?"
Leila didn't wait for a response, moving forward to the front where Derek was. He didn't bother arguing as Leila took Cora from him. He knew he needed to be able to fight.
Stiles' voice broke her from her thoughts.
'Are they…"
"Still fighting." She replied, trying to keep her tone light. It didn't work. She couldn't stop thinking about the monstrous beings tearing each other to bits. The boy nodded at her slowly.
"Anything else you can hear?"
"Maybe if you shut up." Derek snapped from the front. Stiles didn't take it well. Mara supposed everyone had a bone to pick with her nephew, and times were tense.
"Me, shut up? Me, huh? Are you telling me what to do now?" Stiles prodded, throwing his hands up. "When your psychotic, mass murdering girlfriend... the second one you've dated, by the way... has got my dad somewhere, tied up, waiting to be ritually sacrificed?"
To Mara's surprise, Leila didn't flinch at the mention of her… DNA doner. Much like Cole, she looked after Stiles with a surprised, sympathetic expression. Mara regarded him the same way.
All Stiles had left was his father.
Mara understood losing everything. There were times she ached to call her mom. When Cole and Leila hit landmarks in their life, she always felt the growing emptiness where their family had once been. She wouldn't allow anyone that suffrage if it was avoidable.
"Stiles, he's still out there. We'll find him. " She stated firmly. He was quiet now, energy gone. Her heart hurt seeing the resigned look in his eyes.
"You can't." The witches' annoyingly nasal voice came, prompting Mara to whip around with a scowl. The woman faltered, but ultimately held her ground. "Only I can. I can save her, and I can tell you where Sheriff Stilinski is. But there is a pack of alphas in this hospital who want me dead. So I'll help you... but only when I'm out of here and safe. Only then."
Mara heard Derek behind the witch. A low growl emitting, but his movement forward was stopped. There was what looked like a bruising grip on his arm, courtesy of Cole, who's expression gave Mara chills.
"If you want to show you're one of the good guys, then heal her." Scott suggested, motioning at Cora's pale slumped form. Mara thought his naivety was laughable. She wished it was that easy.
"Not until I'm safe." She reiterated, as expected. Cole stepped in front of Derek, grasping the Witch by her arm once more, digging into the wounds she'd already created. Jennifer let out a cry as Cole gave her a shake.
"I'd like to volunteer a different method of persuasion. Let's torture her."
Mara frowned immediately, faster than Jennifer. She wasn't okay with how easily Cole had suggested such a thing. Her little sister eyed the woman in her grip with a look Mara didn't recognize on her face.
Without Peter to look to, she found herself searching for help from Derek. She should have known better. Without a look in her direction, he replied.
"Works for me."
It was Leila who diffused their little tyrade.
"You two are really thick sometimes, you know that?" She hissed from behind them, quiet as though not to disturb her older cousin she held. Cole and Derek whipped around towards her with a scowl, the witch groaning as she was pulled along.
They were all torn from the situation as their stomachs dropped at a familiar voice on the loudspeakers. The woman from the front hall. Scott's mother.
"Um, can I have your attention? Mr. Deucalion... excuse me, just Deucalion... Requests you bring the woman calling herself Jennifer Blake to the E.R. reception. Do this, and everyone else can leave. You have ten minutes."
"-You have ten minutes."
Peter stopped in his place, his hulking form huffing in the middle of the silent corridor as he detransitioned. There wasn't really any way to get used to the feeling of the bones inside your body breaking and reshaping themselves. It was a small sacrifice for a shift powerful enough to take on two other alpha's.
The twins lay somewhere in the halls behind him, having been torn apart at his hands, and forced into opposite walls. They'd be down for a while, enough for them to get Cora out, he hoped.
He could have killed them. He should have really. It would eliminate any risk of their return to the fight. Save them a lot of energy.
He really wasn't feeling the no murder kick they were on.
Peter did not like what he'd heard on the PA. If Deucalion convinced Scott to make this trade, they would be seriously disadvantaged. Deucalion needed Scott in his pack, so he'd never really hurt Scott's mother. He needed the leverage. She was simply a tool to get to the teen. At least Peter had been nice enough to treat her to dinner when he'd done it.
If they lost Jennifer however, their options for saving Cora were not ideal.
He'd read it was something only an Alpha could do, and with good reason. Normal wolves never abandon an injured member of the pack. They cared for it. They'd bring it food from a kill and then regurgitate it into the mouth of the injured wolf. They'd even give it physical and emotional comfort by intensely grooming it. In a way, it did more than just ease pain. They could be instrumental in healing their own.
Alpha's had that bit of extra. That spark intensified the color of their eyes from a bright yellow into a searing red. That power made an Alpha. When they drew pain from someone, the person drew on the power that provided those special gifts. The power that heightened senses, strength. The power that transformed his own body. It could go further than healing just pain.
At the cost of extinguishing that spark.
It also didn't work every time. It could just as easily kill the Alpha.
He knew Derek would do it, regardless of the cost. Derek would do anything to save his sister. So would he, but at the cost of another Alpha right before a big fight, it was nonsensical. A last resort. Especially considering the witches' obsession with Derek. Peter understood it now. Derek could end up being their leverage.
Peter hadn't taken the Sheriff's information lightly. It was his missing piece. He'd been stewing on the fact all night until it fit.
They'd always known the Darach was a scorned emissary. He'd been around when the other bodies were discovered, coincidentally around the time Paige died. Derek never knew the significance of the root cellar he'd hidden her in. Peter hadn't found out untill after.
He inadvertently scowled at the thought of the Nemeton, and his gaps in memory.
When Derek put the poor girl out of her misery, he'd unknowingly given power to the ancient oak. It would have been all too easy for the alpha's to dump their victims in the wrong place without a thought. The Nemeton would offer just enough power to keep her heart beating. Just until the Sheriff stumbled upon her mauled form.
She'd survived, and she attributed it to Derek.
She also began to use the tree once more. It had to be where she was committing the sacrifices. Leila had shown him the five fold knot they'd discovered in Argent's research. An old and well known ritual. Not an easy one, but Jennifer was only two groups away from completion.
He couldn't fault her mission, really. He'd done the same thing, albeit much cleaner. Which is why it was in her best interest to heal Cora, and forget her strange attachment to his nephew. He could care less if she wanted to kill Deucalion and his pack, the man had grown overconfident anyway, challenging them in their territory.
He'd offer to help, had she not poisoned his niece, and made an attempt on his daughters. For that, he'd make sure it was his claws that tore out her throat. He'd save her for last, just like Kate.
For now, he needed her.
Peter continued stalking in the direction of the many pounding footsteps that had left him.
He supposed he hadn't knocked the twins out as hard as he thought as their roar could be heard accompanied by a female's. Kali. Clearly Mara had come to the same conclusion as him, and convinced the teens to escape anyway.
His speed increased exponentially. He had no doubt they could take the three Alphas, but it would take all five wolves. Peter expected they'd pass Cora off to Stiles, leaving the crafty ex druid to her own devices.
As if to answer his suspicions, when he turned a corner, she was bolting in his direction. Jennifer ran forward with her head thrown over her shoulder, checking for her captors. She clearly didn't expect to run straight into one's chest. She let out a squeal to his amusement as she stumbled back. He grabbed her harshly by the arm.
She winced under his grip, fear overtaking her expression as she realised who'd found her.
"Good. You should be scared."
He shoved her into the closest room, shutting the door behind them carefully. When he turned to face her, she winced from her position against the uncomfortable metal bars of the hospital bed.
Peter stalked towards her with his claws extended. Her eyes became wide, and she began to scramble as best she could. She managed to get around the bed, but she'd only backed herself into a corner. His slow approach never faltered, his face twisted into a snarl as he bared his teeth with a growl. He let his eyes remain their cool green as he stared down at her, his hand coming up and closing around her throat.
Being stuck with them through the night had probably put a pause on her plans. If she didn't have her sacrifices by the eclipse, she was screwed.
Peter saw the double entendre of guardian. The sheriff had been meant to mislead them. She was after parents. Peter happened to know of one running around the hospital alone.
Deucalion must have known. Perhaps that's why he'd used Melissa. He was probably still waiting in the ER, knowing Scott would come eventually. If Jennifer took his mother, he might be desperate enough to go with Deucalion.
He didn't want to lose Scott, but if they found his mother, he would return to them. Perhaps it was questionable to trade one life for another, but he justified they'd have until the third one was taken to find the sacrifices. Cora might not make it the night.
It was better than murder, at least.
"We're going to make a little deal. You have the option to accept, or have your throat ripped out. I personally hope you choose the second one."
Hope you enjoyed! I got a new job so hopefully in the next two weeks i can finish the sequel or prequel at least and get things ready since theres only 18 chapters left in this.
