Chapter 9 Statuses

"-Scott," Allison called his name, getting his attention after the meal, "Dad was just on the phone. He's pretty pissed. The Calaveras have a bounty out on Kate. Which means that they knew she was back and didn't tell us. What makes it worse is the bounty has been up for a couple months. So he thinks that they're the ones who've been keeping Kate's werewolf-ness hushed up. I agree, if anyone had the resources to keep Kate a secret for years it would be them."

"Ok," Scott said processing the information. "Do you think she was 'la loba' they were looking for before?"

"It would make sense. That's probably when they first lost her. She's slippery." Stiles commented coming in from the kitchen.

Lydia frowned and glanced around the room. She then decided to air her thoughts on the matter, "Stop me if I'm wrong but isn't Braeden a bounty hunter?"

We all groaned of course Lydia was right. "Two guess were where she went, and the first one doesn't count." Genim put his two cents in.

"Derek is not going to be happy." Isaac was sporting a frown of his own.

"Why, because the bitch betrayed him?" Erica crudely asked. "You would think he was used to it by now."

The pack took in a collective gasp. That was a low blow. Derek had the worse relationship karma in the world. His first girlfriend died and it was all Derek's fault, then Kate used him so she could kill his family, and the one before Braeden turned out to be the Darach.

Silently Scott cursed; he knew he had to be the one to break the news to his former alpha. He was by no means looking forward to that conversation. However, Scott ordered the group, "No one says anything to him. Let me handle it." Totally unexpected; but definitely gratifying, Boyd gave Scott a nod of approval.

Scott quickly got up from his place at the head of the table. He'd been relaxing after the late lunch thinking about all the things that still needed to happen before they started college. He went out to the Camaro, where Derek had gone to get his uncle.

Derek was taking extreme glee in wrapping the still unconscious werewolf in what appeared to be an entire roll of duct tape. The only sign that gave away the Sourwolf's exuberant mood was a twitch in the corner of his mouth. It was like Derek was involuntarily smiling but he was trying to keep his stoic deadpan face. Another odd aspect of the whole situation was that werewolves could easily break free from duct tape and they mostly just used the mountain ash ropes. Plus where did he get the roll of duct tape.

"What are you doing?" Scott asked his former alpha, honestly curious.

"Torturing Peter." Derek replied actually smirking. Scott nodded as if that was the most normal thing in the world. There was something wrong with the Hale family, he decided. Every single member that he had the fortune to meet was at least a little bit warped. Laura was so far the most normal of the bunch. And she had come from another universe.

"I can't believe he's been out this whole time." Scott commented trying to avoid the subject he'd come out to talk about.

"Oh, he hasn't." Derek informed the young alpha.

"He hasn't?"

"Nope," Derek said moving from the now empty roll of duct tape to the ash ropes. "I had to knock him out again when I got here.

"Oh." Scott replied completely at a loss of words.

"Yup." They sat there in awkward silence until Derek finish trussing up his uncle and asked Scott. "You want to grab his feet?"

"Sure." Scott replied. The two werewolves carried Peter back up to the room they had confined him to previously.

"Umm Derrek?" Scott asked tentatively after they dropped their burden to the floor.

"Yeah," Derek replied dusting off his hands preparing to leave.

"We have to talk."

Derek glanced up to meet his alpha's eyes. He stilled, knowing that tone of voice. "That's never a good sign."

"It's about Braeden." Scott told him.

"Is she ok?" Derek tensely asked, concerned.

The emotion in Derek's voice made Scott's heart hurt. Damn, he didn't not want to be the one to tell Derek about his most recent bad luck with women. "We think so."

"What is this about, Scott?" Derek asked closing in on himself.

"We think the Calaveras hired her to catch Kate." Scott finally said in one breath.

"That's it?" Derek asked unimpressed.

"That's it?" Scott was confused. "What do you mean, 'That's it?'"

Derek rolled his eye and replied very slowly. Scott hated how everyone talked to him slowly when he asked a question. It was demeaning. He wasn't stupid. "Braeden is a bounty hunter."

"Yeah, I got that." Scott said frustration creeping into his voice.

"Kate is a mentally unstable, undead ex-hunter, were-whatever. She's been around in some form at least since the full moon after her death and she isn't the nicest of people. I figured someone was out there looking for her. Since we didn't know about her sooner there had to be someone keeping her locked up." Derek explained his reasoning.

Scott nodded following so far, "And?"

"Someone had to untie the two of them and not break the barrier." Derek continued. "She's been missing since they escaped. Did you honestly not notice?"

"I noticed. But you're not surprised." Scott asked incredulous.

Derek actually laughed. "Dude after my past luck with women, you don't think I wouldn't do a background check. I knew what I was getting into."

"Huh." Scott grunted, he was impressed despite himself. "And you are alright with it."

"Yeah," Derek said shrugging, "It's just business, and it's not like she hurt the pack. She'll undoubtedly come back asking my forgiveness. I'm mad she didn't tell me but it's whatever. It's not like I'm perfect either."

"Wow." Scott felt like he'd just glimpsed a bit of the secrets of the universe. That was some really sage relationship advice in a fucked up sort of way. Who'd have figured he get relationship goals from Derek Hale. Scott floated back downstairs lost in thought, waiting for the world to turn itself back to right-side-up again.

"Scott."

"Scott," Stiles said again waving his hand in front of his face. "How'd it go? What happened man? All you guy's kind of just zoned out." He gestured to the room full of dazed werewolves and frantic humans. Apparently Scott wasn't the only one who had their mind blown. It served them right for being nosey.

Scott told Stile about the conversation he'd just had with Derek. Because of his lack of super senses he hadn't been able to hear it firsthand. Stile only comment about Derek's paranoia about Breaden was, "Total batman status." Scott frowned at his best friend. Stiles held up his arms in defense gesturing for Scott to hear him out. " Look if Derek keeps his guard up then he won't be taken surprise by another Kate or Jennifer… whatever her name was. It's like how Lydia hooks up with douchebags; Derek's type is homicidal, serial liars." There were a lot of growls at this pronouncement throughout the house and an indignant Lydia.

Stiles went back to carefully mapping out the "situation", as they knew it on his see-through white board. Scott hated the thing because it gave him headaches. He had problems focusing on Stiles' awful hand writing and not whatever was behind the words. Regular whiteboard seemed much more practical and Scott was convinced that the only reason Stiles had even got the clear type was because he'd seen it in procedural cop dramas and now it had the "cool factor." He didn't even know how they had fit the thing in the car. Scott stopped to consider what Stiles had said. When put like that, Scott could see the need for background checks for everyone. "At least this one hasn't tried to kill us. Yet."

"See buddy, there you go. That's looking on the bright side of things." The sad thing was, for them, they actually were sincere about her lack of attempted murder being the bright side.

Scott continued the story and at the end of it Stiles made the same impressed "huh" noise and said, "Relationship goals."

"I know right." Scott agreed emphatically shrugging his arms as if to say, "Who knew?"

"Well," Allison said, coming over earlier to hear the gossip, "I think it's sweet."

"Definitely," Lydia agreed with her best friend, "Relationships take understanding and hard work."

"I hope I can have that one day." Danny said gazing at his boyfriend, who blushed.

Kira entwined her fingers with Scott's and gave him a shy smile. He gave her back one of his signature dopey grins. His girlfriend was awesome: pretty, caring, intelligent, and a badass. And the best part of all was she was the least likely of the girls to go serial killer on them. Scott was a lucky dude.

"Alright, enough with the fluffy stuff." Genim said obviously not feeling the vibe, "Let's get down to business."

"To defeat the Huns." Stiles sang the next line. Everyone turned to look at him. "Sorry, sorry. Sometime my mouth says things without listening to my brain." At odd times throughout the rest of the meeting different members of the pack would hum the song. It was quite catchy.

"Ok Isaac, what did you and Laura find?" Scott asked the blond.

Isaac stood up and said "We followed her scent about 5 miles south of town and then it stopped. There looked to have been a fight with one of the werebear's bodies nearby and tire treads leading away further south. The werebear was filled with wolf's bane bullets so it was definitely hunters who got him. We assume they took the other werebear, along with Kate."

Laura stood as well and continued the narrative, "We went back to get the car and took the body to Deaton's where he has the other one."

"Thank you," Scott said formally as he waved them it sit back down. Scott was a little disturber that they had stood to tell him what was going on. It was like when you had to give reports in English class. "How about you Jackson?"

"We didn't find anything to the west. There isn't much out that direction." Jackson said fidgeting.

"That's alright," Scott said. he hadn't expect much after what he had heard from Stiles earlier. "Derek?"

Derek explained how he and Malia found Peter and Kate's sent all over the Hale vault under the school and tracked him to the abandoned train station. Malia then told everyone how she had called Scott for back up and then Peter had attacked them.

Scott gestured for Genim to continue. He told the pack about the run in with Peter at hospital. Scott ended the tale with how they confronted the second Peter and helped Derek and Malia subdue him.

"So he really is here." Lexie whispered tears leaking down her face. Laura went over to comfort the girl.

"What did the research group find?" Scott asked uncomfortable with crying girls.

Lydia gave him a look like she knew just what was bothering him, but she was the one who answered first. "The bestiary was quite helpful. We cross referenced it with what Alpha Satome said about Jaguars in Southwest America. To the southeast of us there happens to be a Native American city called la Iglesia, the church, which heavily depicted were-jaguars which are called nagual by the Aztecs."

"Actually all of you and even Kira would be considered nagual. Essentially they're any type of shape shifters. Due to local religion, they mostly took the form of jaguars or puma." Allison said taking over where Lydia left off.

"Danny and I searched the interwebs while the girls were hogging the bestiary." Stiles told the pack, sending the girls a glare.

"Can you read Ancient French?" Lydia asked him copping an attitude. "No? Then I suggest you shut up about it."

Stiles rolled his eyes, opening and closing his hand to trivialize what she was saying. Danny buried his face in his hands embarrassed by his "teammate's" behavior. Alison like Lydia was shooting daggers at the spaz. Kira was pinching the bridge of her nose suggesting that it was an old argument. Scott hid a grin. He could just imagine Stiles irritating the girls in his boredom, trying to look at a book he couldn't read while they were trying to translate it.

"Anyway." Stiles finally continued sticking up photo's on the not-whiteboard, "As I was saying. We looked up werebears on the internet and found adorable stuffed monsters from the 80s. While less cute and cuddly, but wildly more informative, we learned about Berserkers from Scandinavian tradition. They are said to be men who went into a battle frenzy and they became stronger, faster, and more animalistic. Sound familiar? Also naked. Apparently that's why some entomologists think that they are call berserkers. From 'berr,' two R's, as in bare naked. In the snow. I don't know about you but I feel like I'd miss certain body parts if I ever did that." Luckily Stiles chose not to illustrate this point with a photo.

"Stiles!" Lydia snapped at him trying to get his ADHD mind back on track.

"A less popular myth says they are men who can turn into bears." Stile said actually listening to the tiny red head. "An interesting point of fact; there are said to wear the skins of wolves. Dun-Dun-Dun. Okay, I'm done now."

"The Bestiary confirmed that there is such a 'monster.'" At this Danny used air quote. He was quite the supernatural-rights activist after what happened with Jackson. "While they tend to be specific to certain areas, I guess due to cultural norms, other were-creature have been known to turn up in different locations around the world."

"That is why these guys look like they're Native American?" He looked at Genim to make sure he was using the right term. Genim just laughed at him. This made Scott a little worried that he had screwed up again. He knew he should have called them Indian.

"Yeah, looks like they came from the same ruins down south that have the Jaguar legends." Kira confirmed.

"Ok, what does the book say about weaknesses?" Scott asked.

"Same old, same old. Hunters deal with everything the same way. Shoot first, ask questions later." Stiles answered his best friend.

Scott suggested to Allison, "It might be a good idea to get some of your dad's guns and wolf's bane ammo."

"Aye, aye, captain." Allison said giving a two fingered salute. Not for the first time Scott wondered if his pack was making fun of him. He was seriously getting suspicious.

Erica was practically bouncing in her seat waiting to be called on. So Scott did so. "Willy's a dimension traveler." She told them without preamble.

"What?" Scott asked what was on everyone's mind.

"Willy, the guy who owns the bar." Erica explained still excited, "He said he came from an alternate universe."

"Interesting." Scott said. "Did you get anything else from him.

"Well," Erica said drawing out the word. "He said that he came from a world infested by vampires where the girls who are given super powers to beat them up and protect humanity from the supernatural. If you ask me that kind of makes her a little supernatural too."

"I meant did you get how he got here?" Scott asked her.

"Oh yeah." Erica continued, "He said it was a fairly easy ritual. The only problem is you have to find a weak point in the fabric of reality."

Boyd pulled a piece of paper out of his pocket. "I wrote the ritual down."

"Thanks Boyd." Scott said accepting the paper. He looked down at the contents and it looked like gibberish to him so he passed it along to Stiles. He and Lydia hovered over it whispering theories back and forth. Where there was likely a weak point, ingredients, and theories on how to narrow a choice through the multiverse to find exact criteria on who you were looking for. Scott would be the first to admit what he overheard was way over his head so he went on with the meeting. "Ethan what did you get?"

"We hit a few places but the most we found was at Eichen House. The psychics in lockup were buzzing about two worlds colliding and one of the nuts was talking about 'Someone' looking for power he was not meant to have and how it will bite him back. My guess is Peter did it." Ethan informed the pack.

Aiden next told them about the wendigo, "I know you don't like other predators on pack territory. Especially, wendigo's, nasty pieces of work. But he was right there in the open. It wasn't like he was looking for family or anything, there were no other's locked up at Eichen. After some our recent run ins I thought we take out anything that was too dangerous and unstable. I think it's that damn tree again."

"I've been feeling like there is an itch that I just can't scratch and the last time I felt that was when you woke the Nemeton up." Ethan said backing up his brother.

"But the psychic said it wasn't the tree." Kira pointed out.

Derek came forward, "I feel it too."

"Your parents said that the sensitives didn't think the pulse came from the tree." Malia argued.

"Like it or not the trees been 'on' for a couple of years now. We still don't know what exactly it does." Isaac pointed out.

"Is that what that is," Genim asked. "The girls and I thought was because we were from another universe and didn't belong. The Nemeton is still silent where we come from."

"Well I'm not getting anything." Lydia said, "So no one is going to die anytime soon."

"That's good, I guess." Scott tried to settle the pack down.

"Do you think it could be like the other weird random creatures popping up occasionally." Kira asked. They all shrugged. Over the past year they had the odd run in with supernatural creatures. Most didn't quite match the descriptions in the bestiary.

"Has Peter said anything else?" Laura asked Scott.

Scott shot a glance over at Derek. "He was still unconscious when we put him in the room."

"Can't be our Alpha then." Lexie concluded, "His powers would have had him back up long before now." Scott frowned knowing that Peter had recovered earlier.

"It is getting late." Boyd pointed out. It was a sudden change in topic but true nonetheless. It was a school night and they had curfew. Erica's and his parents had gotten more over-protective of their children after the Alpha pack had kidnapped them.

The pack had to tell their parents something about why they were missing for a couple months. So the working story was they were abducted by a gang and the two of them were able to escape with another abductee, Cora, with the help of Isaac and Braeden. Isaac had never stopped looking for them and Braeden, when she resurfaced, was 'contracted' to find the people responsible for the deaths of several missing children. This helped cover the Darach mess as well.

The pack also played off Aiden and Ethan as similar missing teens with Stockholm's syndrome who had been brainwashed into the violent cult. The result was they all had to go to the school counselor, Ms. Morell a few times a month. Derek adopted the twins like he had Isaac and his sister Cora. Some Beacon Hills' community started looking at Derek funny after he took in all these kids. He explained that he knew what it was like to be an orphan. Of course now he had periodic drop-ins from Child Services and they kept wanting him to start a group home. Suffice to say that Derek was in their parent's good books while the sheriff, who hadn't caught the responsible party, was not. It wasn't like the sheriff could take the bodies of dead werewolves to court.

This meant that most of the pack had to get home, preferably before dinner was put away. The girls had decided to ride home with Allison. Jackson, who was living with Danny's family before going off to college, was going to drop off Boyd. Liam and Brett were already accounted for, as they were already spending the night at Mason's house. This made Scott think about what they were going to do when Brett's little sister, Lori, decided that she wanted to be in Scott's pack. Ito had adopted the two of them after their parents were slaughtered because of the dead pool. He supposed Derek could adopt them too, what was two more anyway. Maybe Derek should open a group home, only for werewolf children. Derek had done an ok job so far and plus he'd have a steady income that way.

Speaking on which; Cora, Isaac, and the twins already lived in the house with Derek. All they had to do was put up their three guests. Scott didn't want to leave Derek alone to handle the visitor as well as his uncle. But Derek just waved Scott away saying he had it covered.

Sorry that it has taken so long to update. I have a few chapters saved up. I am no longer using a beta so I'm sorry if there are any spelling/grammar errors. My plan is to finish the story for Nanowrimo so it should be done by the end of November. Please leave a review telling me what you think. Constructive criticism is always welcome.