𝚍𝚛𝚞𝚐𝚜 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚖𝚘𝚗𝚎𝚢 | 𝚝𝚎𝚎𝚗 𝚠𝚘𝚕𝚏 [1]

alarming texts

"And more in my dad's."

•••

The Sheriff walked up to them, cloth in hand, "You're sure it was her?"

"I looked her right in the eyes. And they glowed just like mine."

"And Ry's." Austin cut in, reminding them that it wasn't only Scott.

"It makes sense, Dad."

"But it wasn't a girl. It was a four-legged coyote, right?" Noah looked unsure.

"Well, okay. But yeah, see, that's the point that we don't exactly have figured out yet."

"Okay, but if it was a full moon and she did change while her mom was driving, then anything could've happened."

"Horrible things could've happened. Ripping, shredding, tearing things."

"Which is probably what caused the accident." Austin said.

"Think about it, Dad, all right. They're driving, Malia starts to change, she goes out of control, the mom crashes and everybody dies—"

"Except for Malia."

"She blames herself, all right, goes off running into the woods and eventually becomes trapped inside the body of a coyote."

"Funnily enough, I would do the exact same thing."

"We know, Ry."

"That makes sense." Noah let's put a breath, "In a Chinese folktale. Guys, this is this is insane. I need this kept quiet. The four of you, not a word. I don't want anyone hearing about this. I especially don't want Mr. Tate hearing about this."

"Who are we going to tell?"

The group looked over to see Scott zoned out,

"Scott? Scott!"

"Sorry." He snapped out of his thoughts, "What did you say?"

"You need to pay attention."

"Oh, hell. Mr. Tate."

The teens looked over to see the man in question speaking with Scott's dad, letting a shaky breath escape his lips as Noah walked up to them.

Mr Tate's eyes filled with tears, "It's hers."

Agent McCall held back a groan, "All right, wait here."

"Dad."

"Okay, i'm ready to go home." Ryder dropped her arms, "This so called 'mission' was a total bust, by the way."

•••

"Here's where we found the den. It's right in the middle of the hiking trails."

"Well, that could narrow it down. Coyotes travel in fixed trails. But I think you're right about her not going back to the den. Coyotes don't like wolves."

"Then why was she so calm around Ryder?"

"Was Ryder in wolf form?" Allison asked.

Stiles shook his head, "No."

"Then that's probably why." Allison brushed it off, "Anyways, they're also really smart. If they don't want to be heard, they actually walk on their toes."

"Coyotes tip-toe?" The Stilinski looked astonished by the fact.

"They tip-toe." The Argent deadpanned.

The bell rang before they could finish their conversation.

"I got to go, but send me the pinned location."

"Okay."

•••

Austin walked into History class with a content look on his face.

After bringing Ryder to her respective class, he made sure she was okay before walking to his own. She hadn't spoken much, but he just assumed the girl was tired. He didn't want to push her into giving him a response and risk angering her.

Walking to his desk, he got caught between a desk and Scott, moving past him to get to his seat.

"Hey. I'm Kira. You knew that. I knew you knew that. I don't know why I just told you that again. Anyway, I have something for you." Kira Yukimura smiled politely at Austin before she began talking to Scott.

"For me?"

"Yeah. About the bardo. My explanation was sort of all over the place, so I did some research and I printed it out for you."

Scott chuckled, his cheeks reddening a bit, "Ah, you didn't have to do that."

"It only took a couple of hours."

"Hours?!" Austin mouthed to Stiles with wide eyes, his friend sharing the same look.

"Wow. Then you really didn't have to do that."

Kira rummaged through her bag in search for papers, "I swear I printed it out."

"Kira." Mr. Yukimura called out, gaining both her and the three boys attention, "You forgot all the research you did for that boy you like."

Austin's eyes grew large, his head falling to his desk in second hand embarrassment. He loved his mom with all his heart, but if she dared did something like that, he was convinced he'd wouldn't speak to her for at least a month.

"All right, everyone. Let's get started. We were just talking about internment camps and prisoners of war. There's a passage in our reading that I'd like to go over in more detail. Who would like to come up and read aloud for us? Mr. Stilinski, how about you?"

Stiles perked up, glancing around nervously, "Oh, maybe someone else could."

"Everyone participates in my class, Mr. Stilinski."

"I can go." Austin raised his hand.

"Thank you, Mr..."

"George, sir. Austin George." He smiled brightly.

Kira couldn't stop herself from smiling at his happy behavior. She could feel it in her bones that he could be a good friend to have.

"Thank you, Mr. George, but i'm sure Stiles could read a bit."

"Okay." The Stilinski sighed, getting up from his desk, making his way to the podium.

As Stiles whispered words of encouragement to himself, Austin looked down at his phone as he had gotten a message.

Ryder's freaking out.
Like, seriously freaking out.
She just ran out of class.

His back straightened at the row of texts he was receiving from Lydia. If it wasn't for her precise punctuation and spelling, he probably wouldn't have known it was her, as he didn't have her number saved.

His heart pounding ferociously in his chest, the sound drawing Scott away from the sound of Stiles' heartbeat.

"Hey, what's going on?"

Austin didn't respond, jumping up from his seat at the last text.

I think she's turning.