I sat next to Derek on the couch in the loft with Peter on the other side of me and Braeden sitting in a chair on the other side of the coffee table. Derek had his head down and kept looking at his reflection in the sunglasses. I hand my hand on his bicep and my right hand on the back of his neck, running my thumb across his neck trying to soothe him. His pine scent filled my nostrils and I immediately felt intoxicated. Braeden kicked up her boots and crossed them on top of the coffee table.
"The table's Italian." Peter growled.
"So are these boots." Braeden retorted. I saw the corners of Derek's mouth lift up in a smile but immediately dropped down back into a frown. "Are we going to talk interior design and fashion, or are we going to talk numbers?" Peter sighed as he pulled out a piece of paper and wrote down a price and handed it to Braeden. Braeden crossed out the number and wrote down a new one underneath it before handing it back to Peter.
"We're hiring you to find Kate, not assassinate the President."
"I was hired by the Calaveras to find Kate. You're hiring me to find her first. Going against the Calaveras is what's going to cost you." Peter sighed as he wroted down another number and handed it back to Braeden. Braeden didn't even look at the new number. She held a steady gaze at Peter as she slid the paper back to him. He scoffed and stood up and walked away. Derek put down the sunglasses and reached past me to crumble the piece of paper.
"We'll pay." Derek assured her and his uncle looked at him like he was insane. "Just find Kate, that's all we want."
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"Are you insane?" Peter asked Derek as he closed the door behind Braeden.
"We didn't have a choice." Derek said as he placed his hands on the table next to the window with his back to Peter. I took the same stance except I was facing Peter. "We spent a week looking for her and came up with nothing.
"If we don't find out who told Kate about the vault, we don't get those bones back! What do you think I'm gonna do then, huh? Get a job? My resume is slightly out of date."
"That sounds like a personal problem." I sneered.
"We got robbed, Derek. Robbed!" Peter grabbed Derek by the shoulder to turn him around and I intervene and roared in Peter's face, eyes flashing red to warn him off from my mate. At the same time, Derek has turned around as well and roared too, his eyes still glowing yellow. Peter stood in astonishment at his nephew's new eyes. "Oh, that's a new look for you. What happened to your eyes?"
"I don't know." Derek snapped. "But I'm willing to pay to find out."
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"Of course you're still the team captain." Stiles reassured Scott as we walked out to the lacross field for practice. "You got your grades up just like Coach told you to, right?"
"Yeah, but he never told me I was back on the team." Scott said. "He just told me to show up at tryouts today."
"We got bigger things to deal with anyway." I stated. "Did you tell Argent yet?"
"Ah, I texted him but he didn't get back to me." Scott answered.
"You told him his sister Kate came back from the dead over a text?" Stiles asked.
"I didn't have the money to call France."
"Yeah, you think you got money problems? Try paying for an MRI and a visit to Eichen House."
"Another notice?" I inquired.
"Yeah, this one said, final." Stiles sighed. "Now, what the hell are we even doing here anyway? We got, like, one seveteen million problems and worrying about our status on the lacrosse team is not one of them."
"It is now." Scott said, looking past us. Stiles and I turned around to see what he was talking about. There were three guys out on the field, two field players and one was a goalie. The field players were throwing lacrosse balls with great speed at the goalie and the goalie was catching every single one of them with ease.
"Who the hell is that?" I growled. The goalie removed his helmet and smiled at his performance. He had sandy brown hair with light blue eyes.
"Nice, Liam." I heard Garrett praise him. "You might just be our first ever freshman captain." Liam chuckled at the statement.
"Okay, maybe we should just practice a little bit." Scott said and we headed out onto the field.
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After an exhausting practice, we made our way into the locker room and surrounded Liam. He looked at us with a worried look on his face.
"Hey, Liam." Stiles greeted him. "You want to explain what that was out there?"
"What do you mean?" Liam questioned him.
"That little display." I elaborated. "Your little circus act."
"What circus act?"
"You caught every shot."
"I was in goal."
"Yeah, but nothing, not a single shot got past you."
"Yeah, I was the goalie. You guys played this game before?" I grunted and rolled my eyes at him.
"You're a freshman, right?" Scott wondered.
"Yeah."
"But you weren't here last semester." Stiles stated.
"I transferred from Devenford Prep." Liam's heartbeat quickened.
"You transferred?" I asked.
"Yeah."
"No, you got kicked out, didn't you?" Liam stared at me in astonishment and I knew that I was right.
"All right, look, kicked out, transferred, what do you guys care? I came here to play lacrosse. The team could use a few good players, right?"
"No." Stiles said. "No, we don't need any more good players."
"Actually, we could sort of use a couple." Scott restated.
"Okay, how'd you get this good?" I inquired. "Have you always been this good? Or did it suddenly happen just once over night? Have you ever been out in the middle of the woods during the night of a full. . ."
"Calla." Scott interrupted me and I realized that I was babbling.
"Hmm."
"Look, I learned from my stepfather." Liam answered. "All right? He made team captain when he was a sophomore. Like you. And, yeah, I guess I'm just that good." The freshman grabbed his bag and walked out of the locker room with us staring after him.
"He wasn't lying that time." I said.
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"An axe murderer?" Kira asked us as we walked down the hallway, Stiles and I telling them about the new triple homicide.
"A family-murdering ex murderer." I corrected her.
"I already heard about it." Scott said.
"Wait." Stiles said. "What? You did? How?"
"My mom called me. She knew we'd see it on the news."
"Perfect." I said. "Let's go."
"Whoa, whoa. We've got econ in five minutes."
"Right." Stiles sighed. "Did you forget the part about the family-murdering ax murderer?"
"Did you forget that your and Calla's dad are part of the police force? They want us to stay out of it."
"Are you guys kidding me?" I growled in frustration. "There's a family-murdering ax murderer and we're not going to do anything about it?"
"Maybe we should just let the adults handle it." Kira suggested with a shrug of her shoulders. I looked from Kira to Scott and saw that they both were on the same page.
"So the two of you, you just want to stay here, school, go to class." Stiles said. Kira and Scott didn't say anything, they just continued to stare at us. "Never heard anything so irresponsible in my life." Stiles and I turned to head down the hallway to class.
"See you at tryouts!" Scott yelled after us.
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"It was our first kiss since our actual first kiss." Scott explained as we put our uniforms in the locker room. Scott had kissed Kira and just walked off to class and now he was freaking out about it.
"That's good." Stiles said. "You kissed her."
"I did. But I didn't." I looked at him like he was retarded.
"Scott, that makes no sense." I said.
"Come on, Calla, you're a girl."
"Oh, gee, thanks."
"No, I mean, help me figure if I did something wrong or not." I sighed and ran my hands through my white blonde hair.
"Was. . . was it on the lips?"
"Yeah."
"Was there tongue?"
"No. I. . . It was like how you kiss your grandmother when you're five."
"Oh, chaste." Stiles said. "You gave her a chaste kiss."
"Yeah, and now it's all weird. It's all completely weird and. . . I don't know what to do. Maybe I should text her."
"No." I snapped. "That is like the worst thing you want to do. No girl wants a text after a guy gives her a chaste kiss. Just no with the texts."
"Then what do I do, Calla?" Before I could answer, the coach blew his whistle and entered the locker room from his office.
"As a reminder, it's an open tryout today." Coach said. "All positions available. This is a rebuilding season, people. Jackson's gone, Lahey's gone. Greenberg, the one guy I actually wanted gone, was held back. Again. Get your asses on the field."
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My legs pounded into the ground, my muscles burning in my calves as I propelled myself forward, trying to keep up with Liam. The guy was so freaking fast and here I was trying to hold back from not using my alpha power to make myself faster, stronger, better. I past Coach to finish my last and fifth lap around the field, right behind Liam.
"Second place, Bryn." Coach called to me. I growled in frustration and watched as Liam went over and started to do some push ups. Scott came in fifth place and I could sense a growl harboring in his chest. Coach blew the whistle to signal people to hurry up with their lap or they were cut from the team. "Terrible. Horrifying. Pathetic. Unbelievably pathetic. Is that everyone?" We turned back to the finish line to see Stiles stumbling past Coach and onto the ground, out of breath and sweat dripping down his face. Scott and I rushed over to him and lifted him up, supporting his weight on us. "Yep, that's everyone."
"I got you." Scott grunted as he lifted Stiles up.
"Who came in first?" Stiles panted and we both looked over at Liam. "Is he even human? What is he, like, a were-cheetah? Does it even exist? Is that a thing?"
"I think he's just that good." I said.
"I'm gonna puke, take me somewhere."
"Okay, come on." We half carried, half dragged Stiles off the field.
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We lined up in the middle of the field to practice our throwing. Everyone laughed at Stiles as he struggled to scoop a ball up with his stick. He finally just picked up a ball and placed in his net. He threw it at the goalie and the goalie didn't even have to move at all. The ball landed right into the goalie's stick. Everyone laughed again as Stiles made his way to the back of the line to us. Liam was next up.
"You know, maybe he's only good in goal." Stiles wondered out loud. "You know, just totally useless on the rest of the field. Liam threw he ball with great speed and strength and it flew past the goalie's head and into the net.
"Yes!" Coach yelled with excitment.
"Maybe he's just perfect at everything. I hate this kid!"
"You don't have to hate him." I said. "The team needs new players."
"What about a new team captain?" Scott's face got hard and cold as anger washed over him. He rushed forward and took his throw, making the ball hit the side of the goal. Everyone broke out into laughter.
"Nice, McCall." Garrett sneered.
"Hey, Garrett." Stiles called to him. "Shut up!" I stepped up and took my shot and it went straight into the goal and the team broke into cheering. As I was smiling at my glory, Liam took another turn and he did twice as better. I growled and pushed the players back to redo my turn. My biceps burned as I tossed the ball as hard as I could and I could hear it whistling through the air and into the net. We went through our rounds of taking turns and every time I took a shot, Liam did twice as better. I yelled in frustration as I met Stiles and Scott, who haven't made any shots, at the back of the line. "Dude, what is going on with you?"
"I don't know." Scott answered. "I'm having a really off day."
"Off day? You were dying out there! I feel actual physical pain watching you."
"I didn't see you make any shots."
"Yes, that is because I'm terrible, though, Scott. You. . . you are the Alpha."
"Not on the field. I'm a human on the field."
"Well, human you is kind of sucking at the moment. So do you think that there is any way you can use just, like, a little tiny bit of wolf power?"
"It's cheating."
"I know it is! I just. . . I hate seeing this little freshman come in and steal all of your glory after you worked your tushie off. I hate it."
"He's not going to steal all the glory." I heard the net rattle and the players cheered and we turned to see Liam make yet another goal. Scott's jaw set and his eyes grew red.
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The coach blew his whistle and we all gathered around him to see what he had to say.
"Hustle!" Coach yelled at us. "McCall and Bryn, grab the long sticks. You're covering goal for two-on-ones." We grabbed the long sticks and took our places in front of the goal.
"We still don't know if he's a werewolf, too." I muttered as Scott put on his helmet. "And if he is, he'd just be cheating and we'd just be cheating the cheater."
"He's not." Scott said. "We'd know. We'd be able to catch a scent or something." I threw on my helmet and faced the players.
"Maybe we need to get closer."
"I think we're about to get our chance." Coach blew the whistle and Garrett rushed forward. His feet pounding on the ground pounded in my ears and I watched each step with care trying to predict what he was going to do. He tried to sneak past me and Scott but I jumped up and slammed my stick on his to knock it out of his hands. Coach laughed.
"That's my girl!" He yelled. Scott and I high fived each other and took our positions again. Stiles was up next. Scott and I laughed together. As soon as Coach blew the whistle, we lunged forward. Scott and I kept our bodies close to each other and Stiles barrelled right into us and flew onto the ground on his back.
"Better luck next time, Sty." I laughed, helping him up and pushing him to the back of the line. Player after player, we blocked them. They never made it within ten feet of the goal. And then he had to come and ruin the fun. Liam stepped up and grabbed a ball. The coach blew the whistle and the three of us moved forward together. I lunged at him but he moved swiftly around us and moved with agility around Scott too. He threw the ball into the goal and the players cheered.
"That was luck!" A female voice sounded from the stands and Scott and I turned to see Malia standing up in the stands.
"Oh, no, Malia." I heard Stiles groan from the back of the line. "Don't get involved."
"Do-over!"
"Sweetheart, there's no do-overs." Coach said. "This is a practice."
"Ten bucks on Scott and Calla."
"I'll take that action. Hey, get back in there, Liam!" Scott and I took our places again while Liam got ready.
"Don't let him get past us, Cal." Scott whispered to me as we crouched low to the ground and I looked at him, my alpha eyes glowing.
"I wasn't planning on it." I growled. As soon as the whistle blew, I didn't even have time to react before Scott let out a growl and charged forward as Liam raced towards us. Scott met up with Liam and slammed his shoulder into Liam's abdomen and flipped him over his back. Liam came crashing down behind Scott, his leg bending in an unnatural way. A loud cracking noise filled the air and I grimaced at the sound. Liam groaned in pain as Scott and I yanked off our helmets and stared in shock at Liam. I rushed over to Scott's side. "I thought we were just going to stop him, Scott, not kill him."
"I didn't mean to do that."
"Sure."
"Don't move!" Coach yelled as he came running across the field to Liam. "Don't touch him!"
"I'm okay, Coach." Liam groaned as he tried to sit up. "I'm all right." He tried standing up and when he put pressure down on his right leg, he cried out in pain and almost fell back over but Scott and I grabbed him and wrapped his arms around our shoulders. "I think it's my leg." I looked at him like he was stupid.
"You think?" I asked him, sarcasm dipping off of my tone.
"I think we better get him to the nurse." Stiles said. Coach nodded and stepped out of the way as we dragged Liam off the field.
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I bursted through the hospital doors, my face hard as anger clouded my soul. I just could not catch a break. I haven't seen my boyfriend and over a month and I was being dragged away from him every second of the day. I met up with Scott in the waiting room of the hospital.
"We need to find Sean Walcott." Scott said hastily.
"Why?"
"He was the only surviving member of the axe murdered family. Lydia called. Something's not right." I nodded and raced after him as we climbed the steps to the second floor of the hospital. As we burst through the doors to the second floor, a screaming sounded from the end of the hallway. Scott's claws extended and a growl rumbled in his chest as he recognized the scream from his mother. We rounded the corner to see a teenager with blood cloaking his clothes standing over Melissa. He had tousled red hair with small bright green eyes. But that didn't compare with rows of razor sharp fangs. I shifted and my nails clicked against the tile as I charged down the hallway and barreled into Sean and we rolled across the floor a couple yards from Melissa as Scott ran to check on her. My jaws snapped around Sean's arm and I bit down, blood trickling into my mouth. I had to let go to let out a howl of pain as his claws raked down my flank. While I was distracted he kicked me in the stomach and sent me skidding down the hallway while he got up and ran away. I scrambled back onto my paws and snarled as I chased after him with Scott behind me. I lifted my nose in the air and inhaled deeply catching the salty iron smell of blood as my paws pounded through the hallways of the hospital. I followed the blood to the staircase to the roof where groaning sounded on the rooftop. I cleared the flight of stairs in two bounds and charged through the open door to the roof to see Sean holding Liam by the throat right next to the edge of the roof. "Don't! You don't need to do this. Whatever it is, whatever you are, we can help you."
"No, you can't." Sean said as Liam struggled in his grasp.
"Let me help you."
"Wendigos don't need help. We need food!" Liam turned in Sean's grasp and struggled against him and while Sean was struggled against him, Scott and I rushed forward. As I leapt into the air, I shifted and shot out my foot, slamming it into Sean's cheek to knock him away from Liam as he tumbled over the edge of the roof. Scott grabbed Liam's arm before he could fall. I charged at Sean again and shoved both his hands into my chest and knocked me into a pillar, the wind knocked out of me. I crumbled to the ground as I breathed deeply in, trying to revive my crumbling lungs. He was strong. I underestimated me.
"Calla!" I shook my head to clear it and scrambled back to my feet to see Sean on top of Scott trying to stop him from saving Liam. Before I could rush forward to help Scott, something flew past my head and embedded itself into Sean's back. I saw the axe in Sean's back as he crumbled to the ground and I looked behind me to see a figure walk over to Sean and pull the axe from his back and began to walk away. Before he disappeared, he turned back to us and I gasped in shock and took a step back. He was bald and dull brown eyes but the thing that got me was that he literally had no mouth. It was just skin. He turned and disappeared. Liam groaning tore my attention from the horror and I turned to see him on the rooftop on his back, gripping his arm as blood trickled out between his fingers. I distinctively made out two indents between his fingers that looked like teeth marks.
"Scott, you didn't." I breathed. Scott turned to me, his brown eyes full of guilt and sorrow.
"I had no choice, Cal."