Invisible String {2} TW

Ch. 6 Orphaned

"I'm not good at that yet," Malia admitted.

"We'll help you," Ayla promised.

"Focus on the different scents. Some are tied to identity. Others give off an emotion," Derek told her.

Malia lifted the jersey to her nose, breathing in Brett's scent.

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The three shape-shifters got out of Derek's car and began their walk through the woods.

"Their alpha is a woman named Satomi. She's one of the oldest werewolves alive, and she's learned a lot," he told the werecoyote.

"What does that mean?" Malia wondered.

"She's a bitten werewolf. Learning control wasn't easy for her. She did something a long time ago that changed her," Derek explained. Ayla frowned as she remembered the story she had heard from Kira's mother. Satomi had burned a man alive seventy years ago. "The quote is a mantra. It helps them with control," Derek continued.

Both Ayla and Malia came a stop as they caught a scent. "What is it?" he asked them.

"Gunpowder," Malia responded.

"Quite a bit from the smell of it," Ayla added.

Derek knelt down, finding a shell casing on the ground. "If Brett's pack is out here, I don't think they're meeting. I think they're hiding," he told them.

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The three of them spent all of their day searching. They finally decided to give up once the sun had set. The three of them were now sat in Derek's car with Malia in the back. She leaned forward to talk to the two silent Hales. "I'm sorry," she said.

"It's not your fault. I couldn't catch a scent either," Ayla reminded.

"If they don't want to be found, then we're not going to find them. Some werewolves have an ability. A kind of mastery over their bodies where they can actually inhibit their scent," Derek told them.

"They can hide from other werewolves?" Malia asked.

"From anyone who's trying to find them," Derek said.

"So that's why nobody knew about Brett," Malia guessed.

"I thought it was just that I was focused on Liam," Ayla admitted.

"It was the same with DeMarco," Derek told them.

"Maybe we need to try something different. Maybe we need to think like Stiles," Malia told them.

"Like a hyperactive spaz?" Derek asked.

"No, like Velma Dinkley," Ayla corrected.

He sent her a look. "You've lost me," he told her.

"Like a detective," Malia explained.

Ayla grinned. "Piper did make you watch all of Scooby Doo," she realized.

"We only made it through What's New," Malia told her.

"Yeah, but that's like the best one," Ayla told her.

"Do you two have a point?" Derek asked.

"Yes," Malia said. "Look, if they're really Buddhists, then maybe instead of asking where werewolves hide, we should be asking-"

"Where Buddhists would hide," Derek realized. The former alpha thought for a moment, turning to look at the gauges on his car. It had a compass telling them that they were going east. "When Buddha sat under the Bodhi tree, he looked to the east for enlightenment," Derek told them.

"Is there some kind of eastern point in Beacon Hills?" Malia wondered.

"Lookout Point," Ayla informed them.

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They went straight to Lookout Point to see if they could find anything. They were standing together when Derek saw both the two girls' expressions change.

"Malia? Ayla?" he said, not sure what was wrong.

"You don't smell that?" Malia asked him.

"Derek, I think we're too late," Ayla told him. She wanted to gag at the smell.

The man frowned. "Wait for me right here," he told them, moving into the woods.

Ayla stood there for a moment. She didn't want to go closer. She didn't want to see. But she also didn't want Derek going by himself right now. "Stay here," she told Malia, before following her uncle into the woods.

She found him standing a few feet away from the first body. "Oh, God," Ayla muttered as she saw the lifeless bodies of Satomi's pack. Almost all of them were staring off with glassy eyes, covered in black blood and matching veins.

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Both the two Hales were still standing together, looking around in horror, when Malia joined them. "What happened?" she asked.

"I think they might've been poisoned," Derek told her.

"What kind of poison does this?" Ayla wondered.

"Great. If assassins with guns don't get you, then the ones with wolfsbane poison will. Or maybe one with no mouth. Maybe we should all be running from Beacon Hills. Running for our lives, as fast as we can," Malia told the two of them, before moving back towards the car. Derek moved to follow her, but Ayla grabbed his arm to stop him.

"I spell blood. Fresh blood," she told him.

Just as she said it, they heard someone struggling to breath further into the woods. "Someone's still alive," Ayla realized. Both her and Derek took off running, finding Braeden a few meters away. Her hand and shirt were covered in blood from the bullet wound in her side. "We need to get her out of here," Ayla told her uncle.

Not a super important chapter, but we got a little bit of family bonding in. And my favorite part, Ayla bickering with the furry demon known as Lucy. Do you guys love him as much as I do?

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