CHAPTER 198

A/N: I'm back! Whew. Exam was a bitch. Let's start right off from where we left off.

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Two girls were walking through the woods and chatting freely as they did, one with a bow and a quiver of arrows strapped to her back while the other had nothing on her.

Allison's phone beeped as they walked, brows raised as she showed Malia the text Tristan had sent.

"Don't worry about him. He's still got Boyd." Malia waved her hands dismissively and Allison shrugged nonchalantly in agreement.

"Normally, I'm the one on the hunt so this will be the first time I've ever let myself be willingly hunted." Malia said when they came to a stop.

Allison took out her bow and nocked in an arrow, replying to Malia as she did. "Well, I need my practice and let's just say that Tristan is the most infuriating target practice ever."

Malia snorted amusingly, silently agreeing with Allison. Training your skills against Tristan wasn't exactly thrilling when you know that in truth he could easily kill you with even trying.

"So traps?"

Allison shook her head and replied, "Hunters don't always have the luxury of setting traps for werewolves. I'm using this as a pseudo simulation of the closest thing to a real hunt that I can get."

Without saying much, they both separated and put a sufficiently large distance between them. And that was when the hunt started.

Malia started sniffing Allison out as soon as the five minute countdown hit zero. With her enhanced senses, she quickly sniffed out Allison to the back of a tree but when she made to attack she found that Allison had used her jacket as a decoy.

SWOOOSH.

She jumped back to dodge an arrow shot at her from behind with a grin on her face.

"Found you."

She followed the path the arrow flew in from with her eyes and nose peeled to pick up any of Allison's scent.

With her speed and enhanced sight, she instantly noticed Allison's heat signature and tackled her to the ground from behind.

"It's like you aren't even trying, princess."

"I know. I'm not."

"What do y—"

BANG!

Malia staggered backwards with shock and confusion boldly written across her face as she looked at her bleeding stomach that Allison just shot.

"What…"

"Well I had to make it as casual as I could or you'd have easily caught on." Allison commented offhandedly as she patted the dirt off her clothes and hair.

"Surprised? Shocked? Don't worry, it'll only take a moment before the anger kicks i– whoops, looks like it's already here." Allison chuckled as she saw the scathing death glare Malia was sending at her.

She scoffed and drove a kick into Malia's stomach, on the same spot she shot her.

"Cured silver bullet covered in a more potent species of wolfsbane. I'm sorry, sweetheart, but I'm afraid you're not shrugging that off anytime soon."

She fished out a taser from her pockets and tased Malia until she started spasming. "You know, I really had a hard time deciding if to kill you at once or let you stew in pain and kill you at the last moment when Tristan tries to save you. You really should appreciate me more, Malia."

She dragged Malia off by her legs deeper into the forest until they came across a burnt down old house. The old Hale House.

At the side of the house, there was a metal gate that led to a cellar under the Hale House, which was where Allison took Malia and tied her up.

"I'll… fucking kill..." Malia's balored breaths made her words nothing more than hushed whispers. Against the warnings of her body, she struggled to lift her head and glare at Allison.

Allison sighed dramatically and gently caressed her cheeks. "Trust me, those are googly eyes compared to how they'll look when I'm done toying with you and Tristan."

She took a picture of Malia with her own phone and sent a text with an attachment image to Tristan, chuckling to herself at the chaos that was about to unfold.

...

[POV: With Tristan]

Because of how excited Kira had been when she discovered how easy it was for her to channel lightning, she ended up pressing Tristan into making another sword to spar with her after she rested for a few minutes.

The adrenaline rush was unlike anything she's ever experienced and it didn't take much for her to get swept away from how hooked up she was on the feeling.

"Why are you so impossible?" She asked incredulously. It was as if he never got tired even when she had to stop for a second to catch her breath.

"Just because you can throw around lightning doesn't mean you've automatically leveled the playing field. If anything, I just have to put in a little bit more effort to avoid them." Tristan replied easily while watching Kira struggle to calm the loud gulps of air she was inhaling.

"How about we stop here for today?" Tristan finally said after they've been going at it for over an hour.

Kira nodded shakily. "G-good idea, hah!"

When they arrived at Tristan's house, Kira excused herself to take a quick shower because of how badly she smelled.

Tristan on the other hand wanted to call Boyd because his so-called best friend didn't show up when he needed him the most, but held himself when he saw a text from Malia.

{Malia>: Boyd is currently dangling off a rope in some closed room and our little puppy here isn't getting any better. I would let you choose but we both know your choice, so how about this: kill the Argent and bring the young fox to me, then I'll let you look for Malia and won't kill her in the next two hours.}

Tristan had to read the message three times before his brain slowly started comprehending what the text and the picture entailed.

The Nogitsune had Malia.

The Nogitsune had Malia?

…

THE NOGITSUNE HAD MALIA!

Tristan stared dumbly at his screen, staring fixedly on the text that was sent a little over an hour ago. He wanted to lash out so wildly but for some reason he just felt cold.

His choice felt very obvious but his mind was focused on the other part of the text: how would he find Malia?

His priority was Malia, no doubt about that, but it also gave him two hours to bring Kira and kill Argent. That worried him a bit.

He tried calling Malia, Allison and Boyd but none of them picked up which meant it was likely that it currently held all of them as hostages.

The problem now was that he had no idea where to look with how big Beacon Hills was.

He could call for a large search but he felt, no he knew, that doing that was just arming the Nogitsune with more leverage against him.

'It could also be possessing either Boyd or Allison since it didn't send any picture concerning them… but I can't say for sure.'

"Tristan, is something wrong?" Kira who just came out of the bath felt uneasy when she saw Tristan's severe expression.

Her eyes widened in shock as before she could let another word out, Tristan was already in front of her with darkened eye sockets and protruding fangs that sunk into her neck without hesitation and paralyzed her.

He didn't bother catching her as she fell to the ground as his head was still muddled up.

"RARGHHHH!" His tails whipped out and slashed wildly across the room, destroying everything it came across.

In his state of rage, he failed to notice that his skin was progressively getting paler to an almost ghost white with branches of black vein becoming more prominent over his body.

Luckily for Kira who had been rendered unconscious from shock, force and paralysis that suddenly assaulted her, she was spared the traumatic experience of witnessing Tristan's current state.

One of his tails wrapped around Kira's neck and brought her to his growling face that showcased rows of lethally pointed fangs.

In his blinding rage, Tristan also paid no mind to the murder of crows that was now flying both inside and outside the house.

"Find Malia!" It was an instinctive order to anyone who might have been listening, and as if acknowledging Tristan's order, the crows cawed loudly and flew away in a small black cloud.

In his rage he had destroyed his phone but that wasn't what was on his mind right now. All his thoughts centered on finding Malia's location – every other thing was inconsequential.

In a gust of wind, Tristan and Kira were gone from the destroyed living room.

…..

Chris rubbed his brows as he tried to vent the building frustration on his mind concerning the current Nogitsune incident. His only source of good news so far was that Deaton was returning tomorrow having procured the special lichen he went to obtain.

He was in his office when he suddenly felt the temperature dropping so fast with goosebumps appearing all over his body.

He tried reaching for the gun just in case, but the moment he grabbed it a force grabbed him by the neck and whisked him away from his office.

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