𝐑𝐔𝐍𝐀𝐖𝐀𝐘 | stiles stilinski ³ ✔️

FORTY-THREE , THE BEAST

"Are you ready for school?" He asked softly.

"As ready as I'll ever be," Harper sighed, sending him a grateful smile as she picked up her denim jacket from the back of her chair.

As she slipped it on, Stiles moved to wrap his arm around her waist, practically glueing her to his side- not that she was complaining.

...

"Mason said it's not just a transmitted frequency," Liam explained from where he sat at the library table. "It's high-powered. Like it has to be a really strong signal."

Lydia frowned, "and that's causing it to shift?"

Of course, they were referring to the Beast- in fact, that was the only thing that they had been talking about all day. Harper was totally confused in places, having missed out on it all, so she kind of just hung around in the background and added comments or questions every now and then. She didn't really feel like talking most of the time anyway.

Now, Harper, Stiles, Scott, Lydia, Isaac and Liam all sat crowded around a table in the corner of the library. They were supposed to be studying, but they had more important things to worry about right now.

"Actually, I don't think it's just that," Scott admitted as he stood over the table, his hands resting on the back of an empty chair. "Last night Argent said that it's getting smarter. What if the Dread Doctors are trying to make the Beast grow faster?"

"With frequencies?" Stiles asked.

"No, by shifting."

Harper furrowed her brows. "So, like, the frequency triggers the Beast to shift, which makes it smarter every time it does it?"

Scott nodded. "Exactly. The important part is when it shifts into the werewolf."

"Like Peter," Isaac noted.

"Right," the McCall boy agreed, "when Peter was an alpha, he got stronger every full moon. Eventually, the burns healed and he went back to normal."

Liam's face brightened with recognition. "So the Dread Doctors don't want to wait for the full moon."

"They want the Beast to be as strong as possible, as fast as possible," Scott confirmed.

"Because of Parrish," Lydia sighed.

Harper crinkled her nose. "Wait, so if this is happening tonight, what are we going to do?"

"Oh, we've got one clue to go on," Stiles sighed from beside her, reaching into his backpack and pulling out a laminated photograph. "This came from the hospital. Whoever's lurking inside the Beast is wearing a size ten of indeterminate make."

The Empath stared at the photo of a bloody footprint with a tape measure beside it. It wasn't an animal's footprint though, it was the shoe of a human's. Most likely a male, considering how big it is.

Lydia raised her eyebrows. "Indeterminate?"

"Means it's a partial print," Stiles explained quickly, "basically, it was all we were able to get considering all of the fire, blood and carnage."

"How many size tens are out there?" Isaac asked.

"Only one with Parrish's blood on the sole," replied the hazel-eyed boy.

Harper had noticed a subtle change between the two boys. Stiles and Isaac no longer constantly bickered like they had been doing for the past couple of years, it was like after them both hating Theo and Isaac helping to save Harper from Eichen, Stiles and Isaac had learned that each other were more alike than they thought.