CHAPTER 121

The full moon came and passed without much fanfare, unless for those who had to be extra careful with their emotions throughout the day.

Emotions were abstract concepts humans embodied and so it was factually impossible to have complete hold over one's emotions. Not allowing emotional outbursts to affect your clear mind on the other hand was very possible and easy with consistent practice, which was what werewolves learnt in order to safely tide over a full moon.

In regards to the full moon concerning Malia, she easily brushed off the violent impulses, having had great success in the practice over the years as Tristan was always at her side through each and every one of them. The only time she'd ever lose control during the full moon is if she was triggered, which was something all werewolves, or werecoyote in her case, became easily susceptible to, even Alphas. So it all came back down to how good your control was.

"Are you going somewhere?" Tristan asked curiously after seeing Malia coming out of the bath, so early in the morning at half past eight, and was getting dressed.

Malia nodded and while sifting through clothing articles on her drawers. "Yeah, she came back last night, remember?"

Tristan let out a silent 'ah' as he remembered that little bit the last time they talked a few days back. "Right, that happened. Are you girls going out or are you just going to her house?"

Malia grinned as she picked out the perfect combo and laid them on the bed before losing the towel covering her body to apply a light lotion before putting on her clothes while Tristan silently watched on.

"Hah! I don't think her mom has warmed up to me that much to be cool with me coming over so we're hanging out in Lydia's house instead." She answered and showed Tristan her short jean shorts, camo tops, a large jean jacket over it and a beret hat to top it off, all atop high length boots.

Tristan nodded at the end product. "Great." Malia nodded in satisfaction and walked over to give him a series of deep kisses before finally leaving after Tristan got a fill from drinking her blood. Staying any later after that would have canceled her day out by at least a few hours if not the whole day.

With Malia gone, Tristan pushed himself off the bed and got to work. First, cleaning the house, prepping lunch or dinner before finally separating himself from the chores.

He trained a bit in the woods near his house, making sure his blood control didn't drop until it became second nature to him. The only weapon he had apart from his blood control was his venom which felt as if it was heightened a few notches after drinking Jackson's blood before ripping out his heart.

With that done, he rounded it up and turned to leave to take a shower but something caught his attention.

A crow.

They both stared at each other in some sort of transfixed state that every slight tilt of Tristan's head was perfectly mirrored by the crow. The same thing happened to Tristan with every slight movement the crow made.

They were both aware of their actions, at least Tristan was, but what made him so drawn in was not knowing if he was the one copying the crow's movements or it was the crow copying his, or both of them doing and matching similar actions without pause or slight lag.

Wanting to test it out, Tristan slowly raised his hand towards the crow which it once again perfectly raised its own wing at the same time.

Tristan had wanted to see if he could command the crow's actions but before he had the chance, the forest trees ruffled and drove flocks of birds into the air which startled Tristan and the crow out of their trance as the former watched as it flew away to join the moving flock.

"That was weird, nothing else said." Tristan mumbled, keeping the experience aside to ponder on later knowing thinking too deeply on it now will bring nothing.

...

Tristan tried looking for Erica in his spare time but his yields were the same as Derek and his pack's ardent search for Erica - nothing.

He wasn't too worried because he knew they'd find her sooner or later, the problem would be if they arrived a bit too late.

Between Stiles Stilinski, McCall, Isaac and Derek, it would be an unbelievable story if they failed to find her.

His brain dance was cut short as the attention grabbing call ringtone from his phone sang out which he deftly answered after seeing the caller.

"Kinda busy right now. Anything I can help you with in between?" He said without even giving the caller the chance to get a word in.

"I highly doubt that. Busy doing what?" Boyd's highly skeptical voice came through.

Tristan held down the highly irritated sigh that wanted to run up his throat and instead gave a stressingly tersed reply. "Busy doing something."

Boyd apparently had little to no strength to argue today and quickly gave up. "It's nothing much but I've been talking to Erica for a while now until she just went off the grid. None of her lines are going through. Do you know what's up?"

Tristan was perplexed and confused at the same time, not understanding where his presence came in the middle of all that. "…. And?"

Boyd's heavy long sigh bled through the speakers, a result of being completely fed up which usually happens when someone, him, talks to Tristan on his worst days.

"I figured since you guys have some sort of after-school circle which I'm not a part of, and I ain't sayin 'nun about that, so I thought it's better to call you to find out what's up than calling Isaac or Allison. I'm kinda worried, man."

With how concerned Boyd sounded through the phone, Tristan reckoned that they had been talking for quite some time now, probably before or during the exams, which he had absolutely no idea about.

Or at least he would have been content with remaining blissfully ignorant if only Boyd could have just chosen to call anyone else besides him.

"Tristan?"

"Mmn, I have no idea where she might be or how she's currently doing. Maybe you could try asking Isaac since they're basically best friends or something like that, I don't know." Tristan spoke truthfully in a way that was easily understood and just as easily for Boyd to misinterpret.

"Really? You seriously got no idea whatsoever?" Boyd asked again yet Tristan's answers were the same. "Okay cool. Catch you later."

"Please don't. Do that when school resumes." Tristan said before cutting the call.

...

[Derek Hale POV]

"I've been trying for days on end but I still got nothing yet. I think my spleen might be made up from Adderall at this point." Stiles said and whined consistently much to Derek's annoyance.

Derek has never been pissed off at any point in his life than at this point right now. The direct cause of it was because this was the second time his betas were targeted in a bid to coerce his submission.

Derek was utterly furious and Stiles seemed to be the only person not being able to understand his mood with the sarcastic and humorous comments he'd drop every now and then.

"Isaac?" He turned his focus to Isaac who the boy just shook his head slowly with a hardened expression on his face.

"Have you guys checked the old railway?" Stiles asked but Derek shook his head, not understanding why they needed to check there. "I used to live there. Any reasons why we should bother checking it?" Derek then asked to which Stiles slapped his head in exasperation.

Stiles then slowly and tentatively explained. "Even if it's not a choice any of you want to take, the chances of us finding Erica is higher if we find the Alpha pack instead. It's way easier to look for a group than a single person." He pointedly hammered out.

They all understood his point, Derek included, but he didn't get where the old railway came in. "And the railway?"

"Is an underground shortcut to different parts of Beacon Hills. We might be able to find Erica if we look at the places connected to the railway and filter it down till we find anywhere that looks like it could be used as a holding cell for Erica." Stiles expanded further.

"But that's easily tens of locations we have to check out." Isaac pointed out but Stiles' cocked brow and sarcastic reply left him quiet.

"Yeah, so what? You got anything else important planned out, or a plausible suggestion perhaps? Yeah, thought so."

Even if he hated Stiles on more occasions than he could count, Derek could admit that the boy was scarily smart, more so than any teen his age, which also included Tristan and Lydia.

"We don't have a choice except checking those places and if Stiles is right, we might end up finding Erica-" Derek said to Scott and Isaac only to have Stiles smoothly cut in at that point.

"-or run into a pack of Alphas. That's like a 50% odd just waiting to happen an-"

"Stiles we get it." Derek said and patted the boy on his shoulder comfortingly for how good a job he had been doing. "Try and get some rest, okay?"

"Yeah.. Yeah, that sounds like a good idea."

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