Invisible String {2} TW

Ch. 6 Orphaned

"Let go!" Ayla snapped, pulling at her bag. Lucifer's claws stayed stuck through the fabric of her backpack. "Give it to me! I have to go to school whether either of us like it or not. But if I go to school with a ripped bag, I'm shaving you."

The cat gave a hiss, before finally retracting his claws. Ayla sighed in relief as she saw that there were only a few very small holes in the fabric. "Furry demon," she muttered, scratching his ears. He hissed again, to which she just rolled her eyes. She slung her bag over her shoulders, before walking out of her room. She walked towards the doors of the loft, hoping to make a quick escape.

"You're not going to school," Derek announced before she could.

She sighed, turning to face him. "You can track the pack yourself, can't you?" she asked. He frowned, not meeting her gaze. "Okay, you have five seconds to start talking, before I walk out that door and you have to find someone else to help you."

"I'm losing my power," he admitted.

Ayla looked at him, trying to hide her concern. "Like your healing?" she asked.

"Like all of it. The healing, my strength, my sense of smell, my hearing. I'm losing all of it," he explained.

"Because of whatever happened in Mexico," Ayla guessed.

"Yeah," he told her.

The she-wolf sighed. "What do you want me to do?" she wondered.

"Get someone else to help you track the pack," he told her.

Ayla sent him a look. "In case you forgot, we have our wonderful, little loose-cannon named Liam who kind of needs twenty-four hour supervision. I can track the pack without him or Scott," she informed him.

"I never said it had to be a wolf," Derek replied.

Ayla frowned. "Leave Malia out of it," she told him.

"This is her pack. We are," he reminded.

"Yeah, but she's been through enough without being dragged into our family," Ayla told him.

"I didn't say she had to know. I just said you could use her help," he told her. Ayla sighed, knowing he was right.

|

Both Hales stood in the high school, waiting for Malia. Ayla could hear the werecoyote approaching. Malia came around the corner, looking at the Hales in surprise. "What's he doing here?" she asked Ayla, nodding to Derek.

"Brett's still out of it. I need to find his pack and warn them about the deadpool," Derek explained.

"And we wanted your help," Ayla added.

"What do you need me for?" Malia wondered.

"I know a little something about this pack. They have a kind of secret meeting place in the woods," Derek told her.

"And while I can track them once I catch a scent, no one knows the woods better than you," Ayla told the other girl.

"This is Brett's," Derek said, holding up the boy's green jersey. He tossed it to the werecoyote. "Breathe it in."