Chapter 36: Codominance part 2

Liam was sitting on the steps in the library, letting his eyes wander around the room. The few people that were there moved about the room so obliviously to what had happened there barely a week ago. Liam couldn't help but envy them. His mind kept flashing back to the night of the Supermoon, when he had tried to kill Scott here. He could still hear Scott's pleas and attempts to try to get through to him while he yelled that all he wanted to do was kill him.

"What are you doing?" she asked stopping in front of him.

He sighed. "Trying not to get involved."

"Does that include with me?" she asked, moving to sit beside him.

"Maybe," Liam shrugged.

That caused Hayden to sigh. "Look, I know how you look up to Scott, how all of you feel about him, but he just can't protect us the way that Theo can." Liam's expression turned hard at that, which made her look away from him. "My sister-"

"Your sister is the Sheriff's deputy. She looks like she could take care of herself."

"Stiles' dad is the Sheriff. He looks like he could take care of himself too. Now he's in the hospital."

"Yeah, because of Theo."

"That wasn't him," she tried to defend. "That was that Noah guy."

"Is that what you really think? You know, you don't have to do this. Look, whatever you think you owe him-"

"My sister," she cut in. "I was dead. We had already lost our parents and then she had lost me too. There is no way my sister would've survived that. It would ruin her. Do you get it now? Theo made sure she wouldn't have to. That's what I owe him."

Liam looked down to his hands, making them fold into each other. He didn't want to admit that Hayden actually had a good point there. Hayden loved her big sister. Her last wish to him that night was that he get her as she didn't want to die alone without her. Hayden went to put her hand over them, making him look softly back at her. The two of them began to lean in a bit and were close to kissing when they pulled away as they heard a crashing noise echo in their ears.

Hayden started to ask "Did you hear-"

"Yeah," Liam answered, jumping to his feet.


Mason was moving down the length of the boy's locker room until he came upon where Corey was changing. He let himself have a moment to check him out as Corey took his sweatshirt off. Corey turned his gaze over and spotted Mason looking, which made him sharply turn around, unsuccessfully trying to act like he hadn't been watching him.

"Want to do something tonight?" Corey asked him.

Mason turned to look back at him with a confused look on his face. "You want to go out again?"

"Yeah," he nodded.

But Mason shook his head. "No, no way."

"What? Why not?" Corey asked, surprised.

"You have to actually ask, 'why not'?"

Corey moved to put on his new shirt. "You like me, right? So, go out with me."

"But you're still with Theo. You're with the bad guys."

"There are no bad guys," Corey tried to argue.

"Uh, there are definitely bad guys. Some of the bad guys are called Dread Doctors. You don't get a name like 'Dread Doctors' and not get classified as the bad guys."

"That's what none of you get. There aren't going to be any good or bad guys. It's either gonna be dead or alive. I want to be alive. Don't you?"

"Not if I'm left standing with the bad guys," Mason said, resolutely.

"How about with me?" Corey then moved to go closer to Mason. "Stay alive with me."

With that, he leaned in to give Mason a soft kiss which Mason eagerly returned. It lasted for a moment before Mason broke himself away and gave Corey a soft smile.

"Fine," said Mason with a contented sigh before his lips curved into a soft smirk. "But, I'm not going out with you again."

Corey smirked back as he moved to kiss him again. Their hands reached and pulled at each other as it grew a bit more intense than their last one. It lasted just a bit longer before it was Corey who broke himself away this time.

"We're going to be okay," he tried to reassure him. "I know that you don't want to believe it but Theo is looking for the exact same thing."

"You mean the Last Chimera?"

"That's not what he's calling it."

"What's he calling it then?"

"The Beast."

Mason's eyes narrowed. "Gevaudan?"

That made Corey taken aback. "How do you know that name?"

"I just finished doing research on werewolves just a couple of weeks ago. The monster of Gevaudan popped up on almost every other thing I read."

Mason could still remember doing all that research for Stiles. He had asked him to focus on the word "Beast" and Gevaudan seemed to follow it on nearly everything he could find.

Corey straightened up a bit. "Why were you researching werewolves?"

"Uh," Mason paused for a moment. Corey seemed a little too eager for his explanation. "Because my best friend is a werewolf and is part of a pack of 'em," he said like it was obvious, deflecting. "At least, he was," he quickly added, which made Corey deflate a bit in shame. But Mason realized something. "Wait, are you telling me that was the Dread Doctors' plan? To make one of their own?"

"No, not make one, bring one back."

"Well, who is it?"

Corey shook his head. "We don't know."

"And Theo hasn't said anything?"

"No, he doesn't know either."

"Really, the guy worked with the Dread Doctors and he doesn't know who they took for all their experiments?"

"It wasn't like that. Theo wasn't working with the Doctors because he wanted to. He didn't have any choice. Just like us."

"Is that what he told you? Do you really believe that?"

Mason and Corey just stared at each other for a moment until a loud noise sounded off from the hall.


Lori thrown off and hit against the lockers in the hall before she fell to the floor. Theo only had enough time to glare at the fallen girl before her brother went and gave him a hard punch across the face. Theo flinched but quickly moved to grab at him, pull him down and drove his knee right into Brett's chest. That made the beta grunt before he pushed at him and drove Theo's back into a glass display case. The glass shattered and the framed photos and trophies started to fall on them as Theo pried Brett up and kicked him away.

Brett steadied himself while Lori got to her feet and moved to stand side by side with him, both glaring Theo down together. Theo was staring them down as a trickle of blood was running down just above his hair line and down his far left cheek. The siblings started to move for him again but they were soon blocked off by the arrival of Liam and Hayden.

"Brett, Lori," Liam gasped as he moved to stand in front of them.

"Get out of the way Liam," Brett said, not taking his eyes off Theo.

"Calm down Brett. You're not thinking straight."

"Oh, I couldn't be thinking more clearly."

"We don't want to have to hurt you Liam," Lori said, actually looking over at him. "Don't make us."

"Lori," he started.

"No," she cut him off. "He has to pay for what he's done. And he's going to pay now."

Theo just went and smirked at them. "Sorry, don't carry much cash on me."

"With that, he broke into a hard run and that spurred everyone else into action. Hayden moved to try and block them, but she was tackled by Lori which gave Brett an opening to keep going after him. Liam stayed behind as he tried to pull the two now wrestling girls away from each other.

"Stop! Hayden, Lori, don't," he said as he struggled to separate them.

He managed to wrap an arm around Lori and then pulled her away from Hayden. With her off, Hayden moved to run off leaving the two of them there.

Lori turned and pushed at Liam before she went to give chase. But as Lori moved to try and follow down the same hall that Hayden ran into, she saw that there were a couple of other students there moving in her direction.

"Are you serious?" asked one of them passing by.

"Yeah," said another. "There's some kind of fight over at the lacrosse field."

"Let's go."

By the time she got passed them all, Hayden was gone. She let out a frustrated huff just as Liam came over to her.

"Thanks a lot Liam," she heatedly hissed at him.

"You're mad at me?" he asked incredulously. "You and Brett were the ones that came and picked a fight with Theo in the school. Did you two really think something like that was going to work?"

Lori let herself settle a bit. "No, but then it wasn't just the two of us."

Liam rose his eyebrows in shock.

The doors to the field burst open as Theo threw himself through them as he tried to run out and get away from here. While he was safe when it was just Scott and his friends here to deal with, he was a sitting duck with Satomi's betas. Brett burst through the doors not two seconds after him and was hot on his trail. Theo made it to the field just as Brett threw himself at him and managed to grab at one of his ankles, sending tumbling down. Theo grunted as he used his free leg to send a kick right at Brett's face. He hit him three times until Brett loosened his hold and Theo pulled himself free. He let himself let a smirk loose as he stood up to look down at Brett until he felt himself yanked back.

Brett looked up in time to see Theo thrown off to the side by Trey. "Impeccable timing Trey," he grunted out as he pushed through the pain to try and pick himself up.

Trey moved to grab at his arm and lift him quickly to his feet. "Well, you and Lori took your sweet time luring him to us."

"Yeah, well the bastard tried being cocky instead of running right away like we thought."

Trey let a smirk come up as he directed their vision to where two of their fellow betas were now kicking at him. "Doesn't seem so cocky right now." He and Brett then moved over to join them.

Theo tried to fight back against the assault but whenever he tried to go for one, one of the others would grab him and throw him to the ground, hard. He was punched, stabbed, and clawed from all sides by the four betas that were crowding him.

"Trey," Brett called out suddenly.

Trey and the two other betas looked over to see that they had started to draw in some students left in the school after hours that had caught on to the commotion they were making. They moved to try and block the sight of Theo from their approaching direction and quickly shifted their werewolf features away.

"It's only a matter of time before one of the teachers still here comes by and complicates this."

Trey nodded. "Okay, well we've had our fun anyway. Let's grab him and take him back to Satomi for the whole pack to deal with."

The four of them turned to see that Theo was back on his feet and was being helped up by Corey. He spared them all a nervous last look before he activated his cloaking ability and made both him and Theo disappear.

"What the hell?" Brett gasped. "Where'd they go?"

"That must've been one of those chimeras he recruited," Trey seethed out. He then closed his eyes and sniffed the air. "We might not be able to see them but we can still smell them."

They went to try and follow after them but a familiar voice made Brett freeze.

"Corey!" he saw that it was Mason.

Brett then looked over and saw that Liam and his sister were making their way over. He looked over at his running packmates and weighed the option before he went and headed for his sister. As for the others, they tracked the scent and they followed it over towards the front school parking lot. Trey narrowed his eyes as he made out Theo being helped into a truck by two others, the boy from before and a new girl. He then made out another boy over in the driver's seat, urging them to hurry up. Two more chimeras. The three of them broke into a hard run but the chimeras took off in the truck and sped on out of the lot, escaping them. Trey let out a frustrated inner growl as he saw the truck get farther and farther away.

"Lori, are you alright?" Brett asked as he came over.

She nodded. "Yeah, what about you?" she asked, seeing the bruise forming on the right of his face.

"Nothing that won't heal after an hour or so," he shrugged off. "But we had him, before that chimera helped him get away."

"That chimera is Corey," Mason told them firmly.

"Yeah, well Corey is helping that bastard so what happens to him will be his own fault. Same with Hayden," he said, turning to Liam.

"Watch it," Liam warned, stepping up to him.

"Alright, enough," Mason said, giving the crowd ahead a nervous look. "We better get out of here."

The four of them broke into a run, going off to try and catch up with the others. They met Trey and the others over at the parking lot.

"They got away," Trey told them. "There were two more with them.

That made Liam and Mason share a knowing look.

"Tracy and Josh," said Mason. Liam nodded.

"Well it doesn't matter how many lab freaks that bastard has with him, we'll still tear him to pieces. And all of them too."

"No," Liam said to Trey. "Hayden...she's just scared."

"Corey too," Mason said in Corey's defense. "Theo is manipulating them."

"That doesn't matter. If they get in the way again, then they will be dealt with," Trey warned.

"But-"

Lori cut Liam off. "Theo killed Wilson Liam." That made both him and Mason look over at her.

"Yeah, you remember him, don't you?" asked Brett a bit savagely. "The two of you toasted his memory with us."

Liam narrowed his eyes. "You don't have to tell us that. We were there. We remember. And you're not the only ones that care about him or hate Theo. Okay, we do too."

"Then act like it," Brett spat at him.

"It's just...its complicated right now."

"No, it's simple," Trey spat. "Theo killed Wilson. Our pack's second, in cold blood. We will avenge him and anyone that tries to stop us or help his killer get away with it, they will share in his fate. Tell your beloved Hayden and Corey that the next time you see them. Just like we just told the two of you."

The threat was clear in his final words there. That extended to them too.

Brett looked over at the school. "I hear some people. We better leave before anyone else sees us."

With that, they all moved to take off. Brett and Lori lingered behind a bit, giving Liam and Mason some mournful looks. Brett's lasted for a moment before he narrowed his eyes and turned away. Lori lingered for a bit, meeting Liam's gaze, before she turned and hurried on after her brother and packmates.

As Liam and Mason looked off after them, around a parked minivan, Hayden poked her head out as she continued watching them, with a scared but sad look on her own face.


As Kira let her mother look her over and finish cleaning the last of the dirt and dried blood that clung to her, she felt her mother's hands quickly pull away.

"You've already healed."

Kira softly sighed. "I know."

Yes, she could feel all of her wounds had closed up already. Kira had never felt herself heal up that fast before. Whatever was happening, it seemed like it was already changing her. The trick was being able to still have full control of herself and not let the fox take her completely over.

Noshiko could read the tension and anxiety beginning to rise up in her daughter. "Kira, you're going to be fine," she said, reassuring her daughter that she believed in her.

"Would you really leave me here, with them?" she asked in a small voice.

"If it's the only thing that saves your life...then yes."

Kira nodded in response. "What if I can't pass their test? What if I fail?"

Noshiko was tired of listening to her daughter doubt herself. She grabbed her sword and brought it out in front of Kira. "Don't fail," she told her firmly, her eyes narrowed and hard.

Kira took the sword from her and she let her grip on it tighten a bit, as she stared out at the desert beyond the tent flap. She went and stepped out of the tent and strapped her sword to her back. As she adjusted it, Kira let herself go off a few steps before she turned back to look at her mother. She was watching after her with a twinkle of pride in her eye. The anxiety she was feeling began to ebb away and slowly turn into resolve that grew with each step she started taking, away from it. Her mother was right. This was a test that she wouldn't fail. She, and her friends, couldn't afford her to.

It was dark by the time the time she found herself where she needed to be. Yet, there was no sign of the skinwalkers anywhere. She was sure that the test was supposed to be there. Before she knew it, a thick mist started to envelop the area and though she couldn't see anyone, Kira knew she wasn't alone. She then faintly heard a soft, clicking sound nearby; one that she immediately recognized. It had been a year since she had heard it but the memories were still fresh. She swiftly drew her sword as her senses sharpened up and went on high alert as she turned side to side, trying to be ready for what was out there. Kira heard the sound again, from her right, much louder than before and moved her sword to intercept what came out of the mist.

Her blade clanged up against the other blade, of the Oni that tried to attack her. As it pushed against her, it let out that clicking sound that would still haunt her nightmares. Kira pushed and the Oni went to back away to disappear back into the dark mist. It seemed that the test was starting.


Zach was dragging his feet through the trees, but stayed within seeing distance of the road, spitefully kicking at stray stones that came into his path. He made sure not to stray too far away from the garage and let himself just walk around in big wide circles, back and forth, up and down the path.

His thoughts were all focused on what they said to him back there and keeping the fuse lit within him, burning off fumes. Both Stiles and Virgil were making it look like he wasn't trying as hard as he could with learning how to bring out his wings. Yeah, it might have been easy for those other chimeras to get the hang of their shifts so fast but that didn't mean he was supposed to be just like them. Or was going to be. He didn't ask to be turned into a supernatural freak of nature, or was jumping to join any packs and help deal with all the crap that seemed to be going down in this town. He just wanted to be out of this god forsaken place.

These thoughts kept playing in his mind again and again until his stomach let out a small growl. Being pissed and walking off steam had built him up an appetite. As Zach let himself wonder how long he'd been out here, he finally noticed that the sun had just set and there was hardly any real light.

"Great," he mumbled to himself.

Stiles was probably wondering where he was and would probably lay it on him again. He might as well get moving and head back. Not that he wanted to even if he didn't. Zach could make out some light in the distance and guessed it was from the lights surrounding the garage so he should make it back in a couple of minutes. But a sudden rustling sound made him stop. It sounded like someone running and it came from off to the side but it was too dark to make out anything. Zach's breathing started to get a little heavier as he started getting a little nervous. He moved to head back again, and picked up the pace a little but just managed to get a few more feet away when he heard it again, this time at his opposite side. He then heard it again, behind him. He turned just before he heard it behind him again. Now fully freaked, Zach broke into a hard run, trying to get himself out of the trees and get to the road.

He could make out the pavement of the road ahead and let himself feel some relief swell into him until he felt something blindside and knock him down onto his stomach. Zach was dazed until he heard a deep growling from behind him. It had to be the Dread Doctors' monster.

"Somebody! Stiles! Virgil! Help!" he cried as he tried to get back to his feet to bolt out of there.

But he was grabbed at his feet and then was starting to get dragged off. Zach dug into the dirt, impulsively bringing out his claws to try and dig into the earth and better his grip, but that only seemed to slow the pace of him getting dragged off, leaving thin trail marks in the dirt.

"Help!" Zach tried again.

Surely Stiles would be able to hear him cry out. He hadn't gone too far from the garage. Not to mention that he must've heard him with his wolf ears. But he wasn't coming. Why wasn't he coming? Unless the two of them decided to leave when he stormed off. That meant he was alone and if so, he was screwed. The monster then stopped dragging him and he suddenly felt a great deal of weight go to the small of his back as it felt like he was being stepped on. He was still as his spine chilled when he felt claws start to press into the back of his neck. Zach could just feel it. He was going to die.

I just want to stay alive!

Those had been the words he had shouted at Stiles before he left the garage. Both he and Virgil had argued that he wasn't tapping into his full power. He had bitched that he didn't need it but now, that was what he wanted more than anything. Virgil's last comment about him bitching also came back to him. Zach didn't want to bitch anymore. What he wanted to do right now was live, and if fighting was the only way to do that, that was what he would do.

Zach moved his arms to begin to try and push the creature pinning him off. However, the monster on top of him just went and put more force into keeping him pinned as a response. As his face fell into the dirt, Zach let out a frustrated growl before he lifted his head and revealed his eyes that had started to burn with a golden yellow glow. He grit his teeth and pushed even harder, letting out a hard roar as he did. The next thing he felt was pressure leaving his back. So did the monster as his two feathered wings sprouted out, tearing the back of his sweater and launch his attacker off. Zach shot to his feet and leapt up into the air, and hovered about ten feet into the air. His wings were flapping calmly behind him as his gold eyes scanned the darkness for his enemy. There wasn't any sign of him.

"What?" he gasped out.

That's all he could managed before he heard a rustling from behind him and he turned himself just in time for a figure to bounce off a nearby tree trunk and shoot right for him. He grabbed him at his arms and they fell to the ground, with Zach taking the brunt of it. Zach blinked as he finally got a good look at his stalker and gasped as he saw that it was Stiles. He was fully shifted, his face animalistic and his bright blue eyes were glaring menacingly down at him. He then raised his hand up to show his extra long and powerful claws.

"Stiles! Enough!" Virgil cried out as he ran for them. That made Stiles turn to look at him. "Zach did it! He brought out his wings. You could stop!" He was breathing heavily, holding a thick monkey wrench in his right hand but his left was out in a calming gesture. "You can stop," he said, lighter. It was like he was trying to soothe a wild animal. Which, essentially, he was. "Stiles-"

"Stiles-" he heard echo in his ears, but it wasn't Virgil's voice, but his dad's.

That made him blink his blue eyes away and move to pick himself off of Zach. Stiles took some deep breaths before he just went and started walking off, with Virgil and Zach looking off after him.


Malia stepped up to the front door of the animal clinic where she saw the Closed For Renovations sign taped up on the door. She went and found the spare key that Scott and Deaton left hidden for the pack and let herself in. Going into Deaton's office, she started digging through anything that she thought might help with getting Deaton back from her mother. Some of the special defenses and countermeasures that the vet kept to use on shapeshifters. Maybe even something that would tell them where the Desert Wolf would take him.

According to Braeden, her mother would be among the most formidable enemies that they had ever come across and there was no such thing as being over prepared when it came to her. They needed ever advantage that they could get. Judging from how the bodies looked in that photo of her mother's message to her, Malia wasn't going to argue. They would only get one shot at this and they wanted to get it right. Yet, it looked like this move was turning out to be a bust. There didn't seem to be any mountain ash powder or even Kanima venom to find. The papers that were scattered about also didn't seem to hold anything useful either.

"Trying to find Deaton, right?" she suddenly heard behind her. "Probably don't even know where to start."

Malia slowly let herself turn around look over at Theo.

After escaping from his earlier run in with Satomi's betas, Theo decided to try and lay low for a bit at the animal clinic. It had it's walls lined with mountain ash so it should help provide some help in keeping them off. He wasn't expecting for Malia to be there, but he was happy that he was. He'd been meaning to track her after before he was...sidetracked. He couldn't help but be amused how things tended to still fall his way. Despite the tears and holes spread about his jacket and spots of dried blood on his cheek and neck, he didn't let it dampen his confidence facing her. Even though he could feel her anger spike at the sight of him.

"Let's face it, he's probably already dead," he told her, calmly. "How do you think Scott will react when he learns that it's your fault? I mean he dropped Stiles over Donovan, over Deaton you- "

That was enough to make any restraint Malia was holding vanish and the next thing either knew, she pounced. Theo was thrown off to the opposite wall and the force actually made a dent in one of the supply cabinets as he fell to the floor. He was down for a second before he was picked up and forced back into the wall as Malia went and threw a hard punch across his jaw.

"I should kill you," she growled at him, keeping a firm hold on his throat.

Theo let his face look back at her, his smirk not lessening in the slightest. "Yeah, but you won't. You like me too much."

That only served to give him another punch, this time across his jaw, giving him a cut lip. He didn't have time to adjust when Malia went and threw him against the wall again before throwing and flipping him onto the operating table, flat on his back. Theo grunted from the impact but then let out a small groan of pain as she twisted his arm. Malia then let herself kneel over him, yanking him up by his hair as she moved to give him a hard punch at his face with her other hand.

Malia tightened her grip on his hair as he tried to recover through her punch. His great hair, she had once called it, to Stiles. On top of his perfect body. You should definitely feel threatened. That was what she had said to him. She had only been trying to be funny. It wasn't supposed to mean anything. But Malia had gone and let herself be taken in by Theo's great hair, his perfect body and his alluring smirk. Little by little, until it all came to a head when he came to her at her den. The look on Stiles' face when he left her at her house, after she told him everything that happened. She could still remember the oozing scents of pain and betrayal layered on top of it.

The memory of it all made her start seeing red and she moved to throw more punches, across Theo's jaw. She gave him two whacks but Theo moved to keep smirking and even laughing in amusement through his bleeding teeth. Malia growled at the sight. All she wanted now was to keep hitting him as many and as hard as it took to finally take that damn smirk off his face. Maybe ripping his face off would finally do the trick?

Yet, she didn't get the chance to try as she felt a hand latch onto her wrist just as she raised it to extend her claws. Malia turned around to see Tracy there, her face half scaly with fangs spread about her lips. She then felt another set of hands grab her from behind and helped pull her off and keep her restrained up against the opposite wall. Her blue eyes looked upon Josh as he and Tracy kept her restrained against her attempts to break herself free.

"You going to kill me now!" she growled out.

"Relax," Theo calmly said, sitting himself up and moving to wipe the blood off his mouth with his jacket's sleeve. "Let her go," she told Tracy and Josh.

"What?" Tracy said in confusion.

"It's okay," he told them. They slowly released her but stayed in restraining distance of her. "Where's Corey?"

"He decided to wait at the truck," Josh told him.

"Maybe he had the right idea," said Theo, straightening himself back up.

With that, Theo gave them both a hard look that clearly said 'You could go now'. Josh got the message right away and he moved to head on out of the room. Tracy lingered for a moment before she sighed and followed Josh but not before baring her teeth over at Malia, in a last ditch effort to intimidate her. Malia just glared at her back as she left her and Theo alone in the room.

"Quite the bitches you got now," she grunted.

Theo shrugged. "Yeah, not what I really wanted but...they'll do."

"They would do better if you didn't send them away but I'm still going to rip you apart."

"I wouldn't," he said, pointing his finger over at her as she started moving for him again. "Not when I can help get you what you want."

That made Malia step back. "What are you talking about?"

"I wasn't lying you know. Back at your den," he further explained. "I told you that I wanted to help you. And I really do want to help you Malia."

"Help me with what?" she spat out, seething.

"Your mother," he answered firmly. "The Desert Wolf. Her and Deaton, I can help you find them."

Malia let her eyes widen for a moment before she shook her head. "No, you're lying."

"I told you, I'm not."

"How could you know where they are?"

"The Dread Doctors. I know how they found everyone that they were looking for. So I know how to find your mother, and Deaton."


Stiles was letting his feet drag a bit as he walked down the road, not really thinking about where he was going. He had nearly lost it back there. In the beginning, he was fully in control but as soon as Zach started to fight him back, Stiles felt himself slip into a frenzy. All he could think about was the satisfaction he would have to tear Zach apart, ripping his wings off with just the bare of his teeth. Stiles hardly ever let himself lose control of himself like that.

It wasn't just that. He was starting to black stuff out. First it was the night of the Supermoon. He had been stuck behind the mountain ash line, desperately trying to get to his father, and the next thing he knew, he was lying on a couch in Virgil's apartment. Then again early that morning, when he found himself at an alley, two blocks away from when he had fallen asleep, naked. What if he hurt somebody next time? Or worse, what if he already did and no one has just knew about it yet?

His wolf, no, the Beast. That what Stiles had become now. It was starting to change him, from the inside out. His anger, his rage, they were so much stronger now. Stiles was no stranger to feeling those things, especially approaching over the last year and a half. But it was different now. Before, he had gotten so many anchors to try and push it all back and reign it all in. Those being all of his friends and fellow packmates. The ones that he had gone through all this with, learning and navigating their changed worlds together. But since that night that Scott had thrown him out of the pack, he felt those anchors slip away from him. He still had his dad though, his very first anchor, but Stiles was starting to doubt if it might be enough now. He might be getting too strong for it to work much longer.

Stiles rose his right hand as he moved to bring out his claws. His new claws. They were longer, sharper, and much more deadlier than his old ones had been. And he had nearly used them against Zach without even thinking. He was thankful that Virgil helped to snap him back to his senses before he did. But what would happen the next he brought them out against somebody?

Yet, despite all that, Stiles knew he still needed them. And the growing Beast inside him. Whatever the Dread Doctors had been trying to re-create or resurrect, it was stronger than anything Stiles and his friends have seen before. He had been standing in the ruined garage just over an hour ago, remnants of that thing's rampage. Not to mention the Doctors themselves who took down members of a whole pack one by one. They were all going to need the Beast. Stiles just hoped that he could find a way to not lose himself in the process.

Just as Stiles was starting to let himself cringe at all the deadly scenarios if that ever happened, a pair of bright headlights shined on him and he turned to see a Sheriff's station van head for him. It stopped right next to him and Stiles saw that it was Deputy Parrish.

"Hey Stiles," he said to him. "Been trying to find you all night."

"Parrish, how did you find me?"

He just shrugged. "I don't know, guess I just got lucky."

"What's up?"

"It's your dad." Stiles' eyes widened with panic but he quickly shook his head. "No, it's not like that. Word just came in over the wire. He's being released from the hospital."

"What? I thought they said that they still had to keep him for a few more days."

"I guess they changed their minds. C'mon, I give you a lift."

Stiles eagerly hopped into the van and let himself feel relaxed for the first time that day. He missed the flash of orange that passed through Parrish's eyes as he moved to pull the van out as they headed off for Beacon Memorial.


Dawn had started to break as Kira was walking off to meet with her mother, who had been waiting for her all night long. Noshiko could make out Kira having a hard but determined look on her face as she seemed to be carrying something in her hand. When Kira got close enough, she moved to reveal that the object in her hand was the head of an Oni as she held up high.

"I won," she called out in relief. "I passed the test."

Noshiko gave Kira a prideful nod which Kira returned with a small smile. But their high spirits vanished as the ground quaked and a skinwalker appeared behind Kira.

"Passed, yes! But not you!" the skinwalker chief proclaimed as her fellow skinwalkers appeared with her by her sides. "The Fox."

Kira narrowed her eyes. She was confused. "What are you talking about? I beat it. I won. Now, show me what I'm supposed to do."

"You wield the sword, but the fox wields you."

"What the hell does that mean?"

"It means that you have no control," said the second skinwalker.

"No hope," said the third.

"Without us," finished the chief.

"It means that you will stay and become one of us."

With that, the chief then slammed the butt of her spear down on the ground and made a fissure start to open up in the ground, heading right for Kira to swallow her into the earth.

"Mom?" Kira cried out as the fissure only got closer to her.

The skinwalkers kept hitting the butts of their spears to the ground, making the fissure bigger with each hit. The ground started shaking harder and the fissure growing wider each passing moment. Noshiko moved to grab at her hand, trying to settle her down before she moved to grab Kira's sword.

"Kira, get in the car," she told her daughter.

"Mom?"

"Go!" she firmly ordered her as she marched to face the skinwalkers.

Kira ran off for the car but one of the skinwalkers threw her spear and it found its mark on one of the tires. Kira froze in shock as the earth spit up another spear, up into the hand of the skinwalker that threw the first one.

"She stays with us," she said after she regained her weapon.

That only made Kira grit her teeth as she yanked the spear off the tire and moved to face down the skinwalkers. Noshiko went and spun her daughter's sword as she went into a fighting stance.

"I'm a kitsune of 900 years. If you want her, you'll have to go through me," she firmly told them as Kira stopped right at her side.

The skinwalkers readied their own weapons but they moved their eyes over to the left when a car pulled up and stopped just a few feet away. All five of them looked over as Scott threw himself out of the driver's seat and jumped over to stand right at Noshiko's other side, growling and displaying his shifted eyes and fangs.

"You'll have to go through me too," he spat at them.

With everything that has happened, with Stiles, Lydia, Malia, Liam; Scott wasn't going to come out of this without getting one of his pack back.

One of the skinwalkers moved to throw her spear at Scott but Kira spun her spear as she moved to deflect it away from him.

"Go, run!" Noshiko told them.

Scott moved to grab Kira's wrist as he pulled her for the car. As Kira opened the door for the passenger seat and Scott threw himself over the hood, going for the driver's side, another one of the skinwalkers tried to threw her spear for the car's tire, like before. Noshiko however, covered her daughter and Scott and moved to meet the spear with a slice of Kira's sword and split it right down the middle. Scott moved to put the car in drive and moved them so that they were right behind Noshiko and she went and threw herself into the backseat as Scott pressed the gas and sped them off as far from the skinwalkers as possible. The three of them didn't give chase. They just watched as the three of them rode on off.

Noshiko was looking out from the back window, observing the skinwalkers' figures get smaller as they put distance between them. When they were gone from sight, she let herself settle down and look on over to the front to thank Scott but the words were caught in her throat. He and Kira were kissing quite intimately as Scott kept the car moving straight forward. Noshiko wasn't sure if she wanted to be annoyed or amused at this. She let it go on for about a moment later before she cleared her throat and making them break apart.

"I'm sure they'll be plenty of time for that later," she told them.

"Uh, yeah," Scott said, blinking rapidly as he tried to put his focus in getting them on their way back to the interstate.

Kira ducked her head with some red coloring her cheeks but she was still smiling contently. As for Scott, he was feeling like his old self for the first time in what felt like forever. He let his free hand go over and take Kira's. his thumb rubbing affectionately across her knuckles, as her grip on him tightened. When they finally made it back to the main road, Kira was resting her head on Scott's shoulder, letting herself get some rest. Scott took comfort in the weight pressed against him as he started the trek to take them back to Beacon Hills.


It was dark as Lydia was walking through the empty streets, not really sure where she was going. It was so empty that her shoes clicked loudly against the pavement and so chilly that she could see the mist puff from her mouth with every breath she took. Before she knew it, she came up to the Beacon Hills High, letting her eyes pass over the school sign on the front. Lydia moved to take a step closer to it when she heard a floppy sound instead of the usual click. She looked down to see that she was stepping in something. Her breathing quickened when she saw that it was blood. She was stepping in a puddle of it and it made a trail that led deeper into the quad. Lydia carefully but firmly went to see where it was all coming from and she was soon heading over for the lacrosse field. It was dark and she couldn't see a thing. As she moved to stop, suddenly the field's floodlights started turning themselves on, one by one. As they flicked themselves on, Lydia looked off and her eyes widened as a gasp seemed to be caught in her throat.

Bodies. The field was littered with them. More and more became visible with every light that switched on. There was splattered blood on every single one of them. Some she could make out had deep claw marks cut into them. Others were ripped and torn beyond recognition. When all of them were on, Lydia saw that it wasn't just the field that was covered, it was everywhere. There were bodies spread out over the stands and she could make out mounds of corpses just barely seen out of the frame of light beyond the field. It was truly horrifying.

She turned around to try and get away but stopped as she saw Jordan standing there. He was shirtless and wearing in half burned pants as there was red glowing lines burning out through his flesh. His eyes were glowing orange as he stared down at her.

"What happened here?" she gasped to him.

"Death," he answered, somewhat robotically to her. "And this is only the beginning."

"The beginning of what?"

"More death."

Lydia then felt a cold chill run down her spine and it made her turn back around as she noticed a pair of glowing eyes, shining through the dark, beyond the range of the lights. It seemed to be moving closer until it let itself become visible and she saw what seemed to be something from out of the darkest of nightmares. A beast, a monster. It snarled over in her direction before it looked over to the side. She then saw that there were another pair of eyes, glowing through the dark some distance away. It also started moving closer until it let itself step into the range of the light. It looked different from the first one but no less menacing and terrifying as it snarled and moved to lick its chops, tasting the blood scented air.

Both of the monsters then started to run over in her direction. Jordan moved to pull her back as he ran for them, his body becoming engulfed in flame. The three of them then leapt in the air, moving to attack one another. Before they could collide, Lydia went and let out a hard scream.

There was then some shaking felt in the halls of Eichen House's 'special ward' and two nurses stopped in mid-walk as an alarm started to sound.

"Did you just hear that?" the first nurse asked her co-worker. "What the hell was that?"

The second nurse blinked. "Sounded like a scream. I think it came from the Martin girl's room."

Over in Lydia's room, she was thrashing quite violently in her bed as a small group of orderlies were trying to pin her down and restrain her to the bed.

"Get the sedative," one of them grunted as he tried to use his weight to force her to the bed.

The nurse standing to the side reached into her coat pocket to pull out a case of syringes and ready a needle to inject her. Lydia then pushed herself into a sitting position as she let out a scream that sent out another shockwave from her mouth. It pushed the orderlies restraining her off into the air while it made the glass injection bottles and syringes the nurse was holding crack and shatter. It lasted for a moment before Lydia seemed tapped out and then collapsed back into the bed, returning to her fugue, catatonic state. The orderlies shook themselves out of it as they moved to try and tie her back into the bed.

Over at the door stood Valack. He had been watching the whole thing and he let himself crack a very satisfied grin.


A/N: Things are starting to heat up with the pack, aren't they? I hope you like the new twists that have come to Liam and Hayden's relationship. He still has feelings for Lori and now she and Hayden are on opposite sides and Liam is in the middle. So is Mason, with Corey on one side and his friends Brett and Lori on the other. As for Stiles, he's starting to lose himself little by little. Maybe there is cause for concern given Lydia's little night terror.

The next chapter will have us back with the Hales as Cora comes face to face again with someone that has a lot of explaining to do. Scott confronts Satomi for what her betas tried to pull at the school while he was away but he gets more than he bargained for. And Stiles forms an alliance with an old friend, and learns he may need the help and guidance of an old enemy.