Howling to the Heart || Isaac Lahey

36.

Stiles' POV

"Get up!" I shouted at Derek, pulling on his arm outside of the pool.

Riah took off, giving us sometime, but it wasn't enough. The creature came back just as we made it to the edge, leaving us stuck in the pool. And when I slipped under the water with Derek, completely exhausted, Scott arrived, yanking us out. Somehow, with a reflection of glass, he managed to scare the creature away. But I didn't care.

Where was Riah?

"I can't walk!" Derek growled, sending me over the edge.

I grabbed his collar, yanking him onto his knees. "Get the fuck up, Derek, before I kill your paralysed wolf ass."

"Stiles," Scott exclaimed, grabbing my arms and pulling me back. "What the hell are you doing?"

I shoved him off, anger and worry taking control of me. The creature came back before, but there was no sign of Riah. So, where the hell was she? I knew she wouldn't just leave, which meant something happened.

"Riah distracted the creature for us, but she never came back," I explained, still fuming and Scott's face dropped. "She wouldn't leave us. Scott, somethings wrong."

Derek weakly got to his feet beside us, shaking his head. "Riah can't die. I already told you this."

"Then where the hell is she?" I seethed, just about ready to punch him. Alpha or not.

"I'll find her scent," Scott said, throwing Derek's arm over his shoulder. "We'll find her," he promised me.

I only nodded, waving my arm out for them to hurry up.

"What the hell happened?" Erica asked, getting to her feet with a groan across the room.

"Shut up and follow us or go chase a bird," I snapped, following Scott and a limping Derek. I was not in the mood for anyone's shit, not until I had Riah in my arms again.

"Damn," Erica drawled, following behind us. "Why are you in a mood?"

I cracked my knuckles, trying to calm myself down. "Riah risked her life to save us, but she never came back," I said flatly, and for the first time ever, Erica stayed silent.

Scott and Derek sniffed the air, starting to walk quicker. Derek even pushed Scott away, seeming to get most of his feelings back in his legs.

"Somethings wrong," Scott mumbled, starting to jog with us behind him and concern covering his face. "T-There's so much of it," he stuttered, and my heart dropped.

"So much of what?" I asked dreadfully, the four of us jogging out the doors leading to the car park.

Derek looked back at me with sadness before taking off toward the lacrosse field, leaving us behind.

"Scott, what can you smell?" I asked him, speeding up my pace into a run with my heart beating in my chest.

"Blood," Erica barely whispered, her face pale as she ran past us.

I felt my heart lurch out of my stomach as we ran on to the empty lacrosse field. If Riah was bleeding and they could all smell it, then that meant there was a lot. Which meant Riah was in serious trouble.

A deep, bone shaking roar shook me to my core when we ran up to the tree line of the woods. It was then that I knew whatever Derek found, was Riah.

"Stiles," Scott murmured, casting a look at me. "It's bad."

I shut him out, full on sprinting past him and coming to a skidding halt at Derek's figure ahead, his back to us as he sat on his knees, holding something. Erica was near him, a hand covering her mouth with her body shaking.

"No," I breathed, freezing in place. It had to be Riah. "No." I shook my head, refusing for it to be Riah.

Scott stopped beside me, his face pale and turning green. "Oh God."

Erica let out a strained cry. That was what got my legs moving and my heart stopping.

When I stopped behind Derek, my world shattered. I felt it, the agonizing wound slicing deep into my heart. My lungs caved in, barely moving. My eyes filled with tears like a dam ready to explode. My mind went completely silent.

There, in Derek's arms, was Neriah Hale covered in her own blood, her stomach ripped up like ribbon and not healed, her eyes open with a distant glaze.

Riah was dead.

The girl I'd seen my whole future with. The girl I couldn't remember my past without. She was dead.

My Neriah was dead.

But she couldn't be. It wasn't possible. She was Neriah. A fighter. A protector. A jokester. A lover. A warrior. A best friend.

Mine.

"Riah..." I said above a whisper, falling to my knees as my heart dropped, splattering on the ground. "Oh, Riah," I mumbled, staring into her dull brown eyes.

Where was the light? Where was her fire? No, no, no, she had to be alive. She survived a fire and her dad and hunters. She couldn't die now.

"No!" I shouted, shoving Derek away without a care for him before pulling her limp body in my arms. She was still warm, still smelling like cinnamon, even past the strong smell of iron. "Wake up!" I shouted, cradling her head to my chest as tears streamed down my face. "Riah, wake up! You had a plan! A future to take over the criminal world! You can't give that up!" I rocked her back and forth in my arms, praying to anyone who could hear me to bring her back.

"There has to be something we can do!" Scott shouted at Derek. "She's a werewolf! She can't die!"

I felt the cruel world bash against my body as I sobbed, holding her tighter, begging for her to rise her chest with a sudden breath.

But she didn't.

"Riah, come on!" I yelled at the top of my lungs, laying her back down. "You aren't leaving me!" I pressed my hands on her stomach, trying to hold her together while her blood covered my pale hands. God, her usual tanned skin was pale as paper.

"Riah, wake up, please," Scott croaked, dropping on his knees across from me with tears down his face.

"Derek, what do we do?" I asked him frantically.

He only shook his head. "We can only wait."

"Wait? What the hell are we waiting for?" I shouted furiously.

Derek grabbed Scott's shoulder, pulling him back before picking up Riah off the ground and out of my reach. "She's not dead. Riah can't die."

"You said that already!" I snapped, getting to my feet. "Tell me what the hell that means or I'll call Allison's fucking grandfather myself!"

Derek sent me a death glare, before looking down at Riah with...care.

"She's not a werewolf," Derek said quietly and my face dropped.

Of course, she was a werewolf. I've seen her turn into a black wolf. I've seen her with claws, blue eyes, and fangs. Riah was a werewolf.

"Did you hit your head?" I threw my arms out. "She's clearly a werewolf, fuckhead!"

Derek looked around at us for a long moment, debating something in his head before his eyes landed back on me and his next four words knocked me off my feet.

"Neriah is a Hybrid."