Chapter 14

Stopping the car, she looks around at the downtown area of the town with a careful eye. The place doesn't seem to be much of anything, but she has read the reports and she knows that appearances can be deceiving. Just because it doesn't look like anyplace special or worthy of attention, things are happening here and people want to know what's going on. She doesn't have too much time to spare, but then she rarely needs that much time to find what she needs, especially when no one is expecting or concerned that she is around.

Looking around she spots the building she was looking for and confidently walks up to the main doors. She walks in easily enough, a town like this, even with everything going on here, doesn't have security like in big cities, even in the seat of the county's government. She pauses at the directory to locate her target and heads for the stairs to the third floor. A few minutes later and she is walking in the doors to the Mayor's Office.

"Hello" she says with a smile at the woman at the reception desk, her name plate saying 'Mary' clearly displayed. "I was hoping that I could speak with Mayor Roberts if he had a moment?"

The older woman looks at her, easily assessing her attire and more specifically the high quality and cost of her outfit and quickly becomes much more welcoming. "I am sure the Mayor would be able to spare a moment if you can wait a second?" she asks.

Nodding she sits down in one the chairs obviously designed for waiting guests and sets her portfolio in her lap and opens the screen which lights up with the newest tech. She pretends not to notice Mary's eyes widen at the sight or the way she starts typing something on her computer. Seeing the tech, plus the clothes, sends the exact message she wants, and she is certain that Mayor Roberts will be coming out rather quickly.

"We have this section of the hospital closed off. Operating room 4 is set up and we have established a recovery room immediately next door. After that we can move him to examination room 8 which has been converted to a patient room. This way we never have to remove him from this hallway and we will have no other patients or guests in the area. Your deputies can secure this area right?" Melissa asks looking at Noah.

"Yes. I have gotten four deputies from Beacon Valley on loan to add to our numbers and we will always have two deputies stationed here. I also have gotten permission from the mayor to temporarily enlist several of Chris' guys to provide some additional coverage in a less conspicuous way. During the transport in and out and during any major moves I will have at least four deputies here" Noah sighed unhappily. Melissa had handled it professionally when he told her at the hospital about McCall's actions but that night she stopped by and had let it all out over several drinks. He had offered wine but she went straight to Noah's good Scotch and he couldn't blame her. It also took about 12 hours before the entire hospital had found out about her ex's actions and Noah was fairly certain that Raphel McCall should definitely avoid any injury because if he set foot in the place, Noah doubted that he would enjoy the experience.

"Are we still on schedule?" Melissa asks again looking determined not to let things rattle her.

"Yes. He will be transferred tomorrow at 9:30am from Eichen under police escort. Once here, there will a full crew during surgery and recovery. According to the doctors, it should take about 1-2 hours for the procedure depending on circumstances. Then 2 hours for recovery and two days before he is transferred back" Noah recites what they both already knew.

"Will he be here?" Melissa asks the question she had been holding back every since this all started. She can handle her ex, but she definitely wants some time to prepare.

"Apparently not" Noah replies and sees the look of surprise on her face "it seems that he has some important work in San Francisco to attend to and he feels that we can manage it here without him." He watches her face as Melissa processes this.

"So after all his maneuvering the FBI won't even be here to help?" she finally asks looking pissed.

"Nope" Noah replies feeling about as annoyed as she looks. Agent Jones had even called to apologize again but it seemed that McCall had some powerful friends up the chain of command. She had pretty much been shut down when she tried to get him transferred out. Seems that someone in DC was in his corner and supporting his actions though she couldn't figure out who. Noah had been surprised by her candor, but she had made it clear she didn't like the situation at all and felt that something was rotten.

Melissa finally sighed but nodded. She would be sure that they were ready. Her team was great and after everything else they had been dealing with, she felt they could handle it. She resolved that maybe it was time to talk to Noah, Stiles, and Derek about bringing in some others on the hospital staff about what is really going on like they did at the Sheriff's station. She could definitely use some back up with all the crazy.

Derek and Stiles had pretty much finished up speaking with Beverly and Vorgin in their official role as herd Elders. Derek had easily agreed with Stiles' decision to bring them here and after learning of Stiles' ascension and role as Arcanist, they were very hopeful to be permitted to stay in Beacon Hills and establish a permanent range. Stiles had asked about what they would do and how they would live, and it turned out that the Centaurs were historically teachers, trainers, artists, and builders. In fact, Daython, Charyl's mate, was an architect and offered to assist with the new sanctum house. It seems that Centaurs were highly sought-after craftsmen.

"My hope is to establish a formal school" Stiles explains to Beverly as they talk on their own as Daython and Vorgin have both taken Derek aside to discuss working on the new house. "I can't leave my territory and Lizzie suggested I stay inside Beacon Hills for at least a year to avoid causing issues."

Beverly laughs. "The ley lines have been shifting slightly around you, difficult for any to truly tell, but there if you look at it. Once you settle down, they will as well and they you can travel more freely. Not to mention you could probably astral travel without complications."

Stiles looks gobsmacked. He hadn't thought about that! But he met Stephen when the sorcerer was in his astral form. If he could learn how, then he could do some traveling as well. It wouldn't be the same as actually going there, but it would be something. "We would be happy to assist with teaching any you wish" Beverly continued. "You are correct that many will seek to come here. Having a formal system in place would make things easier."

Stiles smiled and was about to ask about training when he heard the sound of tires squealing. He frowned. They were nowhere near the main road and while there was a small track that the rangers used sometimes, he didn't expect anyone to be around, especially now. A quick check and he relaxed. It was Erica and the girl they had all met…the one he had sensed around town with her mother. He glanced over and saw Boyd and Isaac moving towards the trail head looking worried. He stood up "pardon me Matron…one of our pack is coming" he said and she just nodded at the scene.

Suddenly Erica came bursting through the woods, fully wolfed out and looking terrified. She was making a beeline for Boyd and in seconds had wrapped herself around him and was grasping him tightly. Stiles immediately went on alert and with a glance he saw Derek moving towards the betas. Just then Kira came out of the woods looking scared, nervous, and totally lost and then she froze as she spotted the herd. Stiles could see her lips move but even though his hearing wasn't as good he was fairly certain that she wasn't actually speaking. He headed over but Lydia and Allison got there first.

"Kira…are you okay?" Allison asks very gently, speaking carefully as if she was afraid of scaring the other girl.

Kira finally managed to look away from the centaurs and actually see Allison and was suddenly looking relieved. "Allie?" she whispered. Allison stepped forward and Kira jumped into her arms holding on tight like Erica had and Stiles could see she was shaking.

"Erica!" Lydia called out looking very unhappy. She had wanted to ease the girl into things but obviously seeing the beta transformed had trashed that plan.

Erica pulled herself away and stared at Lydia for a second before she looked over as Stiles approached and suddenly she looked angry as well as frightened. "This is all your fault!" she yells at Stiles causing him to falter and look shocked.

"Me? What did I do?"

"We saw a spider!" she wailed and buried her face in Boyd's chest. The other beta suddenly looked like he understood. Lydia didn't.

"A spider?" Lydia's voice was eerily calm.

"She really doesn't like spiders. I mean seriously doesn't like them" Boyd explained slowly.

"All this over a bug!" Lydia growls.

Erica turns toward the redhead looking furious. "It was bigger than my car!" she screams and everyone freezes.

"What?" Derek asks into the silence.

"It was also glowing…and green" Kira adds in a small voice and everyone stares at her before all of them turn and look at Stiles expectantly.

Stiles looks flustered. "What?!? How the hell should I know about that?" he defends. "I haven't found anything about…oh, wait..." he trailed off.

Lydia, Allison, and Derek all groan at once. Kira and Erica whimper and Stiles is certain that he hears someone snicker and he would be willing to bet it is Jackass. "Stiles," Lydia's voice is deathly quiet "is there something you want to share with the group?"

"Not…exactly" he says slowly. "I have been reading up on things that might show up, but the only spider tales are ones where it is a major monster or…" he goes quiet.

"Or what?" Allison asks seeing the uncertainty on Stiles' face.

"or a Goddess" he finally says.

Everyone looks skeptical at that but Lydia, who looks like she is actually considering it. "You have to be kidding" Scott says looking around at everyone. "A Goddess?"

"Well" Lydia says with a thoughtful expression. "Native American myths tell of Spider Woman and there are some Asian myths as well and I think there are some African ones too that all speak of Spider deities. It could be that those old myths are based on a magical being. We were warned that things thought lost might return."

"But it's probably a monster" Scott asks looking actually hopeful for that outcome.

"There were also other beings as well" Beverly says into the silence causing everyone to look at her. "In the times of the Greeks there was both Arachne who was turned into a spider by Athena and of course the Moirai, or the fates, who were often depicted as spiders spinning the threads of life." She pauses for a moment "But the Moirai would probably fall under the Goddess category" she admits.

Everyone is quiet for a moment before Stiles looks confused and turns to Erica and Kira. "Wait a second. You saw this spider? What happened?" he asks an both girls look at each other for a minute before something unseen passes between them and Kira sighs.

"Okay, but afterwards, someone needs to seriously explain all of this because I am seriously thinking we were in a car crash and this is all a dream."

"Erica!" Kira yells out, rubbing her chest where the seatbelt had cut into her. "What happened?" she looks over and sees the blonde, hands clenched on the steering wheel, pale faced and trembling looking terrified.

"Erica?" she says a lot more timidly not sure what could cause this reaction. She glances out the windshield, thinking that maybe it's a deer or something, but there is no deer and she starts to look back at the other girl when she freezes. Turning very slowly she looks back out to the road in front of them.

At the edge of the road, just leaving the trees is the largest spider she has ever seen. It was at least eight feet tall and twelve feet long, it's legs taller than their car as it casually walks out of the woods and starts to cross the road in front of them. Looking at it, Kira is certain that the spider is large enough to take up both lanes of the road. It is a milky white in color, but there is a phosphorescent green glow, hard to see in the daytime, that reminds her of those glowsticks on Halloween. The spider's body is covered in white hairs and the eyes on its head have a blue-black color.

The spider pauses in the center of the road, half of its body still on the grassy strip and the head slowly swivels around until it is staring at them and their car. A sudden whimper is the only warning Kira has before Erica's hands on the steering well, currently griping with a white-knuckle grip, sprout wickedly looking sharp claws. Gasping in surprise, Kira looks at the blond whose eyes are now glowing gold, her face is animal-like, and she has suddenly gained some very sharp looking fangs. She lets out a peep of surprise when Erica takes a sharp breath, her eyes focused on the spider, when Kira looks back and sees the giant turn towards them and she can't hold it back anymore.

She lets out a scream, immediately joined by Erica who's scream is as loud as hers. The spider's pincers shimmer a bit and then it turns and walks, not scurries, it is definitely walking as if it hasn't a care in the world, across the road and into the deeper part of the preserve and in seconds it is gone from their sight.

Both girls are breathing heavily and Kira looks back at Erica, who looks like something from a monster movie and screams again.

"What? Did it come back?" she snarls looking around frantically.

"You! You are a…What are you?!" Kira yells and Erica actually looks embarrassed and suddenly looks completely normal, no fangs or claws anywhere.

"Sorry" she says looking embarrassed. "Werewolf."

Kira just stares for a few seconds at the girl she thought she was becoming friends with. "You are a…werewolf?" she finally manages.

"Yeah…sorry about this, Lydia wanted to ease you into it" she apologizes.

"Lydia is a werewolf too?"

Erica snorts. "She wishes. No, she is not a werewolf."

"Oh" Kira says looking a bit relieved.

"She's a banshee."

Kira looks at the blonde but she looks serious. "A banshee?" she croaks. "Allison?" she whispers.

"Human…well sort of. She is human and all, but she is hunter."

"A hunter? What does she hunt?" Kira asks.

"Werewolves."

Kira stares at her in disbelief. "Oh, come on. You are telling me she hunts werewolves, but she hasn't found you?"

Erica frowns. "Let's not go there. Look, Allison is from a family of werewolf hunters, but they only hunt those wolves who have lost it and hurt people. My pack doesn't hurt people, so we all get along."

Kira doesn't know what to say to that. Then she remembers "Banshee? And you said your pack?"

Erica suddenly starts and looks out the window. Suddenly she looks a lot more dangerous. "We need to get to the others. Here, take my phone and text Boyd, ask where he is", she says as she tosses Kira her phone and starts moving the car. "So, Lydia is a Banshee, Allison is a Hunter, the boys are all wolves, well, except for Stiles."

"The boys?"

"Scott, Isaac, Boyd, Jackson, and Derek. Oh, Peter too, he's Derek's uncle but you probably haven't heard about him."

"So is Stiles a hunter too?" Kira asks, head spinning.

"Stiles?" she snorts. "No. He's magic. Like serious magic. I mean Merlin like magic" she says and looks over at the girl who is looking a bit shell shocked. "That's how we knew you weren't human either."

Kira sputters at that. "What do you mean I'm not human. I am totally human!" she declares.

Erica sighs. "Lydia would really be better at this. Okay, sorry, but you aren't. Stiles discovered that you and your mom weren't human not long after you arrived, but we didn't know it was you. Then when Allie and them met you at the coffee shop, the boys smelled that you weren't human. Stiles has been meaning to talk to you mom about it and we were gonna keep an eye on you until we realized that you had no clue about it. So we didn't worry and by then Allie, Lyds and I all liked you so…" she shrugs.

"But ever since Stiles did his magic thingy in the woods, crazy things have been showing up and making everyone weirded out." She shudders "I really hate spiders and I just know that Stiles is somehow to blame for this.

Kira opens her mouth to respond when Erica's phone vibrates in her hand. She looks down. "We are with the herd. Stiles found more." She reads aloud sounding confused and Erica let out a bit of a yelp.

"Hold on. We are going to have to go off-road" she warned and sped up. It took another 10 minutes before Erica suddenly turns on a dirt road and they have to go a lot slower. During the ride Erica started telling Kira the whole story and she just listened in shock. Her mom wasn't human but apparently her dad was. This was so weird, but it also made a strange kind of sense. She always felt her mother was different from other girls' moms, but she always just thought it was because she was Japanese. As they get closer, she notices that Erica is starting to wolf out a bit more and by the time they stop she is fully transformed and takes off the second the car is stopped. Kira gets out and races after only to break through the trees and stop at the sight of everyone in the clearing surrounded by a herd of Centaurs?! Oh god, it's all really true!

Stiles walks back into the house and heads for the kitchen to start making dinner. The last few hours had been good ones, emotional, but definitely good. The herd was getting settled in and working with Derek on identifying a place to set up their homes. Lydia, Allison, Scott, and Jackson had taken Kira under their wing and was giving her the full story about things and planning on inviting Kira to attend Derek's next training session. Allison and Scott were also going to stop by and visit Kira's parents and invite them to meet with Derek and Stiles in a few days.

Isaac and Boyd were staying with Erica who was still freaking out about the Spider. Which Stiles still can't figure out what exactly it was. He had tried locating it on his mental map but he wasn't able to spot anything. He had noticed that there were some 'cloudy' areas that were making it hard to identify what was there. He also realized that with all the new folks arriving it was getting harder to narrow down individuals as they tended to all blend together. At least his connections with the pack were getting stronger so that was good.

Martinique and the others had headed back home but both Kiran and Gabriel had made plans to visit again and were very excited about the sanctum. The witches were returning to report to their covens and Martinique to confer with the High Witch and to extend Stiles invitation to visit. And based on the way Kiran was behaving, Stiles had the feeling that the monk might be looking to move to Beacon Hills and establish a new temple here.

Then, Peter still hadn't called in yet but Derek wasn't too worried as he had gotten a text from the man saying that he was pretty sure that he was in the Alvarez pack's territory and that he would take a day or so to make his approach. Stiles had also had a really good conversation with the Centaurs about the plans for the Sanctum and they had contacts with several gnomes, elementals, and wood nymphs who all specialized in magical dwellings. Daython had looked over the initial plans with Derek and was going to make some suggestions and improvements.

"Stiles?" the sheriff's voice called out? Stiles looked up from the stove and saw his father walk in looking tired.

"Hey dad. Everything okay?"

Noah just sighs and sits down at the table heavily, not bothering to take off his belt or jacket which tells Stiles that he isn't planning on staying long. "The Barrows thing is tomorrow and I wanted to let you and Derek know so you could be prepared."

"Are you expecting trouble? I mean the guy is crazy but he's still human…isn't he?

Noah nods. "As far as we can tell and nothing about him really seemed right but there was nothing unusual except his claims about his targets. Besides, I am sure you all could handle it if he was but I just wanted you to know because the department will be focused on the hospital tomorrow."

Stiles nodded and set down a plate. He knew he would be heading out again to finish preparations. "Anything I can do to help tonight? I could come back to the station with you" he offered.

"No Stiles. You are not getting involved. Besides, the only thing I am doing tonight is meeting some corporate bigwig who met with the Mayor today. Apparently, she wants to meet me to discuss the crime rates and Roberts is drooling over the woman. Wouldn't say who she was but he did say that her company was looking to build a facility here that would bring in some serious money to the area. Also warned me that it was ultra-top secret…whatever that means" he says with a shrug and spears a roasted potato.

Stiles frowned. He knew that they would see magical impacts, but he wasn't expecting any economic ones. But…Lizzie did say that the land would become energized. Was it possible that the work he was doing was going to affect regular people too?

"What do you have planned tonight?" Noah asks as he finishes up his plate feeling guilty that he has to leave again so soon.

"Well, Lydia is coming by in a bit and we are having a conversation about Pack business" he admits. "Oh also, we now have a herd of 26 Centaurs living in the Preserve."

Noah slowly lowers his glass and stares at his son who is looking almost angelically innocent. Nope. No. Not going to go there and fate is on his side for once as the doorbell rings before he can respond. "And that is my cue to leave" he says happily and heads out greeting Lydia as she walks in the house with a smile and is walking to his car. Centaurs?