CHAPTER 130

Whether it was Tristan, Malia, Allison or Scott, they all patiently waited for the closing bell to sound before they all drove off to their targeted locations.

Allison rushed home to tell her father, immensely worried about Tristan and Malia trying to fight off five Alphas while trying to rescue Erica at the same time. 

Tristan, Malia and Scott on the other hand hurried to Derek's location as fast as they could. 

Tristan had Malia call Satomi and tell her what happened just because he didn't want his grandma to talk him out of his current mindstate. Thankfully, she couldn't convince Malia otherwise with her only concession being that she was making her way over as soon as possible. 

Arriving at the location Derek had them, they saw Derek and Isaac standing there waiting for them. 

"Are we going now or are we waiting for nightfall?" Tristan asked as soon as he stepped out of the car. 

Derek replied, "We're going now. Might as well take all the advantage we can even if it amounts to it being inconsequential. Anything I might want to know?" He directed at Tristan, subtly asking of Satomi's reaction. 

"She'll be there. Maybe the Argents too." Tristan said and got back inside the car as they drove off. 

The place Erica was held in was inside a bank building that was shutdown years ago. 

"There are definitely some presences inside but something is blocking me from knowing how many they are but I can tell the general location." Tristan said as soon as they arrived. 

"A barrier? Mountain ash probably." Derek said. 

They hurried inside the building with Isaac and Tristan guiding them to a bank vault. With the two of them pushing open the vault, they found out that they couldn't proceed even when Erica was but a few meters away from them because of the ash circle inside the vault. 

"A conundrum. So close, yet so far away. The truth of reality is always such a cruel thing." A voice echoed behind them, drawing their attention and forcing them to turn towards it. 

"Deucalion." Derek growled out. 

Just at that moment, the other four members of the Alpha Pack showed up bearing ferl grins on their faces. 

"Now then, Derek Hale, what will your answer be? Are you going to continue remaining a fool and face the harsh truth of reality, or will you make the correct choice?"

"Let them go first, then we'll talk. How about that?" Derek asked back. 

They stood off against the Alphas; An Alpha, a vampire, a werecoyote and two beta werewolves - a lacking lineup against the opposing group of five Alphas, but none of them took a step back. 

Deucalion slowly shook his head as he spoke with regret in his voice. "You are just as stubborn and naïve as your mother, Derek. And I don't think any of us need a reminder of what that resulted in." He then took his gaze away from a seething Derek and glanced between Tristan and Scott. 

Tristan was a bit surprised seeing the old man he and Boyd had helped cross a road, but that was it. A brief moment of realization. 

"Now then, I sincerely hope that the both of you are wiser than Derek Hale so I'll ask; join me and all the powers you want will be at your fingertips. You need not fear the Hunters no more or constantly watching your backs. Join me and evolve."

Being near the mountain ash, Tristan could feel them clearly now - two girls - in extremely weakened states, extremely feral too. 

He looked at the Alphas before them and just seeing those four pairs of glowing red eyes made all the hair on his body stand on their ends and sent an irritating crawling sensation all over his body. 

They were strong, extremely so. Especially Deucalion. 

As far as Tristan's instincts were concerned, the blind elderly man was no wolf but a demon instead. 

He was way above whatever Tristan thought was the height of an Alpha's strength. No one here was winning against Deucalion, not even if they attacked him together – was the feeling he got from the seemingly harmless blind man. 

While Scott declared his refusal and choice to continue sticking with Derek, Tristan's response was a pair of freezing cold blue eyes. 

And that was the spark that descended everything into chaos. 

In response to his blatant provocation, the Alphas roared and attacked them. 

Derek found himself embroiled with a vengeful Ennis who went in straight for the kill with a momentum only a physically strong Alpha like him could move with. 

Tristan let out a silent breath when he noticed that Deucalion wasn't interested in joining in. Thinking fast and relying on his instincts, Tristan quickly judged who he felt was the strongest of the remaining three and threw himself at Kali who had been making her way towards Isaac and Scott. 

"Out of my way, kid." She growled irritatingly. 

Instead of answering her with his words, blood encased his fingers, hands and feet, while four blood red tail-like appendages sprouted out from his back waist bone. 

Kali was taken aback with surprise when she saw Tristan's change while Deucalion's eyes behind his glasses gleamed as his senses painted Tristan's change in his head. 

Soon Kali's surprise turned into a bloodthirsty grin. She stepped out of her shoes, allowing Tristan to see the black claws on her hands and feet that were longer than a usual werewolf's claws, Alphas included. 

"Since you barred me from my preys, try to make this a little bit enjoyable for me." She licked her lips dangerously and lunged at Tristan. 

Two of his tails crossed in front of him as Kali brought down her hands in a slash which forced Tristan to jump back as her claws easily slashed through them. 

"You're full of surprises. No wonder Deucalion wants you with us." She sounded impressed, more so at his quick, almost instant, reflex and how the slash she gave those tails disappeared just as quick. 

With a quick glance around, he saw Malia fighting one of the twins while Isaac and Scott fought off the other, though they were getting beat up. 

Tristan did a backflip and shot a sharp solidified tail at Kali as he twisted midair before landing. 

While Kali's overall speed was on par with his, he had the edge over her in agility with his nimble tails and his natural flexibility. Yet the problem remained her reaction and reflexes. 

It was nothing to scoff at, reminding Tristan once again that he was fighting an Alpha. A very experienced one to boot. 

"You jump around too much." She complained irritatedly as she dodged a bloody skewer and sliced through the two bloody darts Tristan shot at her. 

Tristan wracked his mind on how to gain an advantage over Kali, with the only answer he came up with being getting close to her and engaging her directly. 

He couldn't waste his own blood too much as it'll dull his movements and senses so he refrained from sprouting out more tails and letting Kali cut through them. 

"So you finally stopped running around, eh?"

"Your words are annoying." Tristan said and dashed towards her, not minding the fact that he just opened himself to getting severely injured. 

And it came just as quickly as he thought it'd come. 

With the greater reach of his tails, he formed one into a serrated blade's edge and tried to sever Kali with it only for the highly adaptable Alpha to drop down to a split and narrowly avoid getting cut. Not that it stopped her from slashing her claws unforgivingly at Tristan's exposed midsection. 

She wanted to go for another slash but was forced to dodge as two blood tails in the form of spiked branches were directed at her. 

Tristan followed after her evasion, already having congealed the blood around his wound to stop the bleeding. 

Kali rolled on the floor as she avoided three tails that attempted to pierce through her and pushed herself off the ground to gain an upright balance, but Tristan was already on it. 

With the three tails pinned to the floor, he used it to pull himself forward towards the rebounding Kali like a catapult and dug his claws straight for her heart, which she blocked at the last second. 

Instead of clawing out a huge lump of flesh over where her heart was, Kali shifted her body slightly and Tristan's claws dug into her shoulders and ripped down four deep nasty lines from her shoulder to her elbow. 

"Arghhh! You filthy bastard!" In a show of superhuman reflexes, the crazy Alpha grabbed Tristan's hands with her other one and drew him towards her while using her leg's claws to slash open the first wound she had given him on his stomach. 

Tristan shot backwards and crashed into the ground with his hands clutching his stomach while he groaned in pain. 

Standing a few meters away from him was Kali with one limping shoulder as she held her furiously bleeding arm. 

At this moment, the hate she felt towards Tristan surpassed whatever she felt towards Stiles and Scott, or even Chris Argent who shot her. 

"I'll make sure to have fun when I start ripping out your flesh from your bones." She cackled darkly with red gleaming eyes that promised a tortured ending to Tristan by her hands. 

"I guess the feeling is mutual then. Though I'm more of a suck-your-blood-dry type of guy." For the first time, a bloody grin marred Tristan's face even as he faced his prospective death.