Sound of Thunder - A teenwolf fanfiction:

Chapter 2 - Eyes of Fire and Scent of Earth


"How the hell did you come all the way from your flat, and to Beacon Ridge without a car, and in the middle of the night?" Stiles asked incredulously. "I swear, this magical mumbo jumbo is starting to get really old."

Lydia glared at him, her eyes wide and lips pouted. She was perched on the passenger front seat of Stiles' jeep, bare legs curled up under her, in attempt to keep her feet warm. Parrish stood beside her, arms crossed, his eyes still burning with yellow flames, intent on Lydia's face. The hellhound had not released him yet.

"You think?" she said, annoyance clear in her tone. She pulled Parrish's jacket closer around her, taking comfort in its warmth. She had been close to freezing when he arrived, and so grateful for the fact that he only burst into flame when actual dead bodies were involved, which meant that he had had a jacket for her to borrow. "Did you find anything yet?"

"Nothing yet," Scott said, returning from his run. His face was still twisted in the werewolf transformation, his eyes red, but they were softly fading into his human features. He and Malia had only brought four of the betas to make sure there was space for Parrish and Lydia in the cars on the way back. Isaac, Hayden, Liam and Theo- The oldest of the pack. Derek had promised to stay with the rest of the pack, to make sure they were all okay. They had learned the hard way to never leave their home unprotected. "Malia and the betas are on your track and will let us know if they find something- It seems like you've been walking for a while. It's a wonder your feet aren't hurt."

"They hurt," she told them, eyes daring them to feel sorry for her. Scott met her stare squarely. "But they aren't bleeding, no."

A howl from a good distance away sounded, catching their attention.

"They found something," Scott commented, eyes gleaming red again. "You guys should head back to the Wolf Den. Get Lydia warmed up. We'll see what's going on and meet you back there. Save some food for us, won't you?"

Lydia rolled her eyes.

"Like you'd run out at the puppy pile," she grumbled. "It's all family dinners with you and the pack." But her eyes softened and a small twitch at the corner of her lips betrayed her fondness for the place. Scott grinned, cheered by her lightened mood, and gave her shoulder a squeeze. The hellhound's eyes flickered to him at that, but otherwise its attention stayed on Lydia.

"I'll see you back there." The Alpha's face once more morphed into those bestial features that were so familiar to them all, and he started off in a jog, slowly leaning into the long steady lopes of a wolf-run.

Stiles sighed heavily.

"You heard the man," he said to the unmoving hellhound with that sardonic humour of his. "You better get in the car, if you don't want to run back."

As Stiles himself went around the jeep to the driver's side, Lydia reached out to Parrish's shoulder, a softness in her green eyes.

"Please get in the car," she whispered to the hellhound. "I'm safe now. You can go back to sleep."

And in the back of Stiles' jeep, yellow flames slowly paled to grey. Wordlessly Lydia met Jordan's eyes in the rear-mirror, before glancing away. If Stiles noticed, he did not say anything on the drive back to the old factory.


.o.O.o.


The hoofprints were deep and big. Bigger than any horse Scott had ever seen, and like most of the ground, it was wet and musty smelling. The entire forest had the heavy scent of rain to it, the trees standing too close for the sun to have banished it.

"There's a cliff a small distance from here," Malia told him. "Just like Lydia said."

"I can't scent any blood," Isaac added. He had the best sense of smell, so more often than not he was first runner when they were out tracking. Scott watched him carefully though. After the harrowing- the battles with the dogs of war- he had not expected Isaac to stay with them. Isaac had left Beacon Hills once, to get away from the memories of Allison. But he had chosen to stay for the pack. "Lydia's scent was vague because of the rain, almost gone when we got here."

"I got it," Scott said, nostrils flaring. "This scent though-"

"Old soil," Isaac specified.

"Something the horse stepped in?" Malia asked.

Scott rose from his crouch, frowning at the tall pine trees surrounding them. Walking a bit away, he turned over some of the dirt with his claws and shook his head.

"It's not the same."

He looked up, and the other two werewolves looked in the same direction, as they heard Hayden and Liam return. They had been sent to follow the hoofprints wherever they went, while Theo had gone in the opposite direction to find where they came from.

"Hoofprints end by the river," Liam informed them. "There's no blood there either."

"It smells odd though," Hayden added. "Like something was dug up, but we can't find anything."

A cold gust of wind wove through the trees, rustling the branches and the leaves. It brought with it more of that musty scent and the hair on Scott's neck stood up in response to it. Something was out there, he felt. Though he did not know what, he felt the threat.

"We should go get Theo."


.o.O.o.


"So bloody hoofprint, and a shadow by the cliff," Stiles repeated the main points of her story. "And then nothing until you woke up a mile from where Parrish found you."

"The hell hound found her," Parrish corrected him and looked out the car window.

Lydia tried to catch his eyes in the rear mirror, before turning her eyes back to Stiles.

"That's what I said. Twice!" She sounded impatient with him. "Can we let it rest for a bit? I'm tired, I'm sore, I'm cold and I'm covered in mud. And apparently, I didn't get a lot of rest last night."

When they pulled up in the parking lot, Lydia stepped out of the car. Her legs shook under her and she frowned at them in annoyance. Before she knew it, Parrish had lifted her off the ground and was carrying her towards the entrance to the puppy pile.

"Hey!" she scolded, although her next words sounded half-hearted at best. "I can walk."

Stiles followed them, and Jackson opened the door before they reached it, giving Lydia a fond smile.

"Hey Trouble," he greeted her, eyes quickly glancing over her to ensure she had not been harmed, despite Stiles' call to inform them of the opposite. "You okay?"

"Hello, Saint Sebastian." She smiled sweetly at him, as Parrish set her down, eyes wide and innocent, as always when she as being especially snappy. "I'll be better than okay as soon as I get a damn shower."

"Already put out clean towels in the upper floor bathroom and filled the tub, so you can soak if you want to," Jackson said. "I know how you feel about the shared showers. And if it's okay with you, I can get some clothes from your room too, but I didn't want to do that without your permission."

"Thank you." She kissed him on the cheek, fingers clutching the jacket she was still wearing. "Just get me a robe and I'll see to the clothes myself."

"Deal."

The hall itself and the rooms on the lower floor had common changing rooms, bathrooms and showers, meant for the former employees to arrive and shower in. The upper floor, which was much smaller and wrapped around the hall itself, had been for offices and management, and as such it held two bathrooms. Scott had had both converted so they lined up with some of the bedrooms up there and added showers and bathtubs to them. A lot of the renovations to the puppy pile had been paid for with their shared money or done by the pack itself.

After all. Supernatural strength did help with construction work.

"Do you want somebody to-" Stiles started asking her, but was interrupted.

"I'll go with you and find that robe- There'll be one in Malia's closet, though I don't think she's ever used it," Mrs. McCall said, stepping into the hall. In her hands she had a mug of hot tea, and a platter with a few waffles and some fruit. "You can drink and eat a bit while you soak."

Lydia nodded, taking the mug from Melissa, savouring the warmth already seeping into her hands. Just holding it made her feel better. More connected to the living world.

"And the rest of you, get inside and eat your waffles. Cora reheated them once we knew you were coming back, and you haven't had any real breakfast yet," Melissa continued, giving Stiles and Parrish a pointed look. "Besides, Lydia doesn't need you right now, she just needs some peace."

Placing one hand on the young woman's back, Scott's mom led her down the hall and away from the three men.

At least two of them followed her with their eyes, before turning and doing as they were told.

Melissa found the robe where she said it would be, explaining that she gave it to Malia as a Christmas gift a few years back, mostly in a vain hope that Malia would wear it. The older woman shook her head smiling at that, as she took Parrish's jacket from Lydia.

"I'll make sure he gets it back," she said. "And that none of them boys come knocking on your door till you're ready or Scott gets back, is that okay?"

"Thank you," Lydia said, smiling tiredly.

Melissa's expressive eyes met hers, understanding and empathy mingling in their depths. She gave Lydia a soft hug.

"You take your time," she repeated, and left Lydia alone to shower in private.

The warm water washed off the mud and grime as she shampooed her hair, with what she assumed was Hayden's soap. It had a light lavender scent, so as not to assault the werewolves' senses. When she had gotten the worst off, she stepped out onto the towel. Glancing at herself in the mirror, she twisted a towel over her hair and put it up on top of her head before getting in the bathtub. The water was hot enough that she hesitated slightly before lowering herself down into it. Everything but her hands, kneecaps and head covered, she reached for the tea.

Leaning her head back, she closed her eyes.

The way Parrish eyes had burned when he had slowed to a walk a couple of feet from her, how the hellhound had walked up to her and stopped right in front of her, played on the inside of her lids. He always came when she called. Always. And every time, Jordan would stop looking at her.

And then there was Stiles. What had happened between them during the war… And after

Why had everything gotten so complicated?

And if this new thing, those hoofprints in the forest stirred things up again, how was she supposed to deal with it all? Things had finally started to feel normal again. Her and Stiles were talking, acting like they always had. She was getting better! The visions of her had stopped and… A sob caught in her throat at the thought, and she frantically breathed in the scent of the tea, fighting back the memories.


.o.O.o.


"Something is going on in Beacon Hills," Scott said when they were all gathered at the dining table. "I don't want any of the pack alone until we know what it is, so from now on, you move in pairs or more."

"Maybe it's the Wild Hunt," Mr. Stillinski suggested. "They rode horses, didn't they?"

Scott shook his head.

"It doesn't feel like them. The hoofprints are too big for their mustangs, and the scent is wrong," he explained. "And I think… I think Lydia and Parrish would feel it, if it was them."

"I haven't felt the call of the hunt," Parrish said. "The hellhound was asleep until Lydia called it. It's resting now. There's nothing tugging at it." His jacket hung on his chair, where Melissa had hung it when she returned it. Even from where Scott stood, he could scent Lydia on it, and he wondered how Parrish was dealing with it.

"It felt like rain," Lydia followed up. Freshly scrubbed, cheeks red from the warmth of her soak, she was huddled in long sleeves and pants, curled up on a chair closer to the end of the table, where she could look at Scott without seeing Stiles or Parrish. "Even before I was in the forest, I kept hearing water falling, like a heavy downpour, and then I found the prints. By then the thunder broke and there was actual rain."

"Thunder?" Scott asked, frowning. "You didn't mention that before."

Lydia rolled her eyes.

"I thought it was obvious, what with it being so loud last night, I could hear it clearly over the rain."

"We were out for a pack run last night," Malia told her. "We ran through the first light rain to get home before it really broke loose, but there wasn't any thunder last night. Not even a little bit, and we would have heard."

Lydia was quiet for a few seconds.

"So it was part of the vision."

"Something with hooves that smells like old earth and might have something to do with rain and thunder," Chris said. "I'll check our records and ask around, but you might want to ask your business partner, Scott."

"I'll call Deaton as soon as we're done here," Scott agreed. "But there's still a long time till I can be an official partner."

The war had put the brakes on all of their educations. Even throwing some off completely. Stiles had only made it back into the feds with the help of Scott's father.

"I'll check the library," Mason added. "There might be something in one of the books on ancient mythology and legends."

"I'll go with him," Corey quickly said. "And he can stay in my room till we know what's going on."

"Good. I don't want anybody out there alone." Scott rose from his seat, dragging his phone from his pocket. "I'll send out a message when I know what's up. Those of you who live far away, I'd like for you to stay at the factory for a while." He looked at his mother.

"Mom?"

"I'm staying," Melissa said firmly. "Don't worry about that."


.o.O.o.


Last edited on September 21st 2022