CHAPTER 139

Deucalion stood against the two last Alphas of his pack and none of the nervousness and uncertainty that plagued the twins affected him.

"Are we still doing this? We haven't found her yet and Ennis and Kali are dead." Aiden complained, his worry laid bare for them to see.

Instead of answering, Deucalion tilted his head to give him a lopsided stare and asked a question in reply. "Are you scared?"

The twin bristled at the stare while the main recipient, Aiden, shifted uncomfortably in his position.

"No." He ended up saying.

"Good." Deucalion nodded good-naturedly to himself. "Fear isn't something we feel as Alphas, because the only thing that can make us afraid is when we are close to death."

Needless to say, his words didn't do much to help the mental state of the young twins. Another grim fact of the matter was that there was nothing either of them could do.

They had enemies everywhere, even here in Beacon Hills; the dark druid who was hell bent on killing the whole pack, and the worrying alliance of three Alphas between the Buddhist Pack and the Hale Pack.

The worst part was that they were the ones who stoked the flames that were now their enemies.

It wasn't something they considered when they were the feared pack of five Alphas, but now that they were down to just the two of them, the pressure they were feeling pressing down on their lives suddenly magnified.

"So what are we to do from now on?" Ethan asked.

The lopsided stare Deucalion gave them turned into a contented smile.

"Easy. We go for the witch. Everything else can come after that."

"And the vampire?"

"We'll get him when we need him. No need to rush, after all, it's not like he has that much of a choice." His words were both ominous and cryptic, but neither of the twins bothered asking him for an explanation.

Of all the avenues they had, Deucalion was the safest to be by considering that they were blood enemies of the two resident Alpha Packs in Beacon Hills.

"Concerning the witch, how do we find her?" Ethan asked, changing the subject to something he was more comfortable with.

The person he was asking the question continued tapping his cane against the ground with the same tempo as a ticking clock, which only served to terrify the twins more.

"Why, we will follow the trail she leaves, of course."

"The rituals?"

"Hmm."

....

[General POV]

"So it's called a 'Threefold death' ritual?" Tristan asked, promoting the four people around him to nod. "And you think they are targeting virgins only? I don't think so."

Stiles banged his head against a pillar in frustration. "Oh, come on! It's gotta be, right?"

"The only thing we have correct is the method the killer is using, and I doubt the music teacher who got his throat slit was a virgin." Allison pointed out, earning nods from Malia and Lydia.

"It's five people dead so far and from what we know, only the first three were virgins. I think it's safe to assume that the 'Threefold death' is the method while the main sacrifice is something else." Allison added.

"Maybe at least try to find out the similarities between the last two sacrifices, that might give us a clue on what the new criteria is." Lydia said.

"I think your best bet would be asking the vet if he knows anything about the sacrifices." Tristan suggested. In the first place, he had no idea why Stiles came to them with this.

"Ughh! If I'm right and someone demented is out there killing innocent virgins, I'm not dying, you hear me?" Stiles informed passionately as he left them to find another avenue to secure his poor innocent virgin life.

"Things are kinda getting scary, don't you think?" Lydia said, asking no one in particular.

"Scary was like five months ago, Lydia." Allison remarked and then turned to Tristan. "Why the vet? If he knew something, wouldn't he have said so? Satomi met with him, right?"

"Yes, but he didn't say anything he knew. The important bits at least. He's an expert in avoiding telling the truth."

"Why would he do that?"

"Hell if I know. What's important isn't the method of the sacrifice, but the patterns it is carried out in." He elaborated.

Lydia pursed her lips at Tristan's choice of words. "What makes you so sure that it'll follow a pattern?"

Tristan paused and looked between Allison and Lydia, briefly wondering why he had to be the one to point it out when they were the two smartest people he knew in his friend group.

'They are just getting me to talk at this point.'

"Probably because that's how sacrifices are carried out. The methods are crucial but different types of sacrifices are done for different things-"

Lydia snapped her fingers and wore a 'mystery solved' smirk. "That means if we figure out the pattern then we can find out what kind of ritual this person is performing. Right?"

Tristan jabbed a finger towards the direction Stiles left in. "There's no 'we', as in me or Malia, in that statement. If you want to figure that out, you should have followed Stilinski."

"Seriously?" Lydia looked in between shock and disbelief, "You're not even remotely curious about who's causing the sacrifices and why it's been done?"

Tristan only had so much as to say to a frequently repeated topic that he didn't bother explaining his reasoning to Lydia and just left.

"Something up with him?" Allison directed at Malia who just shrugged in response. "Honestly, I expected it, but I thought you guys would be more, I don't know, gung-ho about finding out the root of all this given tension between the packs here in Beacon Hills."

Malia gave Allison a half-lidded glare which made Allison confused. "What?"

"You know, for all the socially awkward vibe he has going on, Tristan has his own way of caring and it just so happens that no one knows when he does it."

Others might be oblivious to it but how could Malia be? Tristan being an Alpha only made the complications worse, much worse for him than anyone had an idea of.

The saying that there cannot be two kings of the mountain rang truer here than anywhere else.

'It could be my misconception but that hag is really trying to make an Alpha out of Tristan, isn't she?'

Truthfully, it wasn't anything that serious as kicking them off the pack or anything of that nature but neither of the both of them really embodied the aspect of the Buddhist pack. Not even a smidgen of it after years of living with Satomi.

A case could be made in Tristan's case, but then his passiveness could be attributed to a learned habit, something he was now growing out of.

"I know that. It's just that it's sometimes hard to picture him that way with how he normally reacts. Isn't that right, Allison?" Lydia asked Allison who could only absentmindedly nod her head as her thoughts went over Malia's words.

….

Upon leaving the girls, Tristan made his way to the guidance counselor office and knocked as he got to the door.

"Yes, come in." He heard from the other side of the door. "Mr. Hayes, what a pleasant surprise. Do you need me for something?"

"What are you?"

"Excuse me?"

"A supernatural. What are you?"

An abrupt confrontation, one that Marin Morrell never expected. And the worst part was that she couldn't play it off with a riddle or a clever retort, not when Tristan's red eyes were staring at her.

"And might I know what brought this passive-aggressive confrontation on?" She closed the folder she had been working on and returned Tristan's stare.

"You know too much," He said, coming to stand in front of her, "and I don't."

She folded her hands and replied Tristan with the same seriousness as his eyes went back to normal. "That doesn't say anything."

"It shouldn't, because I'm saying it. What do you know about the sacrifices?" Tristan asked again.

This was one of those times where Tristan was prone to act without thinking. Right now, his acclimation as an Alpha was taking a completely different route that anything he had expected and coupled with the obvious convergence of recent events to a focal that he would no doubt be at the point of, no one could really force him for trying to deviate in a way from his usual thought processes and actions; his own unique way of teenage rebelliousness, so to speak.

Seeing the steel eyes the young teen looked at her with, Marin Morrell sighed and gestured to the door behind them. "Mind closing it before you take a seat? I assure you, I don't know much more than you already know, even less sure about some of the things I know."

Tristan took his seat in front of her, his eyes never leaving hers for even a moment. "So what are you sure of?"

"Two things: one, I am not your enemy." She said with a little smile and held her fingers up in gesture. "And second, I am not the one behind the killings."

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