☏ 𝓜𝓮𝓼𝓼𝓪𝓰𝓮𝓼 ☏
"Hey Brooke, it's Scott. Which you already know. If you get this please call me back. I'm so, so sorry. I'm the most sorry I've ever been in my life. And I know that doesn't make up for it and I know how much what I said hurt you but Brooke, I love you. I really don't want to do this over voicemail so please call me or text me so we can meet up. I need to make everything right."
Brooklyn sighed as the voicemail finished. She had five more where that came from and a bunch of texts and missed calls. She'd be lying if she said she didn't want to call him because she did. She so badly did. But she had other, more important things to deal with right now than her relationship.
Turning off her phone, she walked back into the examining room of the animal clinic from the reception area and peered down at the six black and white aerial photographs on the silver table. They were of Fort Jewett where Deaton and the Desert Wolf were. Where they planned to attack. Malia glanced up from the pictures and looked at Braeden who was loading bullets into her shotgun. "What's the problem?" the werecoyote asked.
"Besides the fact that I've never seen this place beyond a few aerial photos and were basically going in blind?" Braeden aimed her gun at Theo, "Him."
"Would you mind not pointing that thing at me?" the boy asked innocently.
"Yeah, no one likes him." Brooke shrugged.
"He's coming with us." Malia stated.
"He tried to kill Scott." Braeden replied.
Theo glanced up with a small, smug bring on his face, "Technically, I did kill Scott." Brooklyn clenched her fists to restrain herself from doing something stupid.
"I should kill you." Braeden fired back.
"Won't happen with a shotgun." Theo affirmed.
"Stop. Both of you." Malia ordered making the mercenary lower her gun.
"Plus, Braeden, if I could kill him I would've done a long, long time ago. But, unfortunately, he is the slightest bit helpful so, unfortunately, we need him." the healer put in. Malia glowered at her.
Theo ignored the Hale's comment and said, "I did what I had to do to survive. The Dread Doctors wanted everybody dead. I convinced them that it could just be Scott."
The mercenary turned to the two cousins. "You could still tell Scott." she told them.
"When we have Deaton back." Malia assured.
"He's not going to blame you for the Desert Wolf taking him." Braeden predicted.
"But he might stop me from killing her." the Tate girl articulated. "Theo won't."
"Actually, I'm planning to help." the boy interjected, moving away from the counter he leant against to come closer to the three girls.
Braeden rose an eyebrow at the werecoyote. "Don't be so confident. She's know to carry pretty heavy firepower."
"But, what would a werecoyote need with guns?" Theo asked.
"There's a story." the mercenary began, "I don't know all the details, but something happened a long time ago. Somehow, she lost part of her power. She's not as fast or as strong as she used to be. But she can still pull a trigger, and she's a perfect shot."
The last part was obviously meant to scare Malia but the girl was unfazed. She shrugged, "So is Brooke." The healer looked over at her cousin confusedly. What? She wasn't a perfect shot. She was good, at most. Brooklyn opened her mouth to protest but before she could Malia spoke again. "Have you ever missed a shot?" she questioned.
"Uh..." the Hale girl thought about it for a moment. Had she ever missed a shot? She shuffled through her memories but couldn't come up with a time the bullet hadn't landed exactly where she wanted it. "Well... no." she confirmed quietly.
"Exactly." the werecoyote stated.
"Malia-" Braeden warned.
"The sun's going down. We need to go." the Tate girl responded nonchalantly. "You coming or not?"
Braeden clenched her jaw but nodded silently and grabbed her ammo.
✄ ✄ ✄ ✄ ✄
Brooklyn looked through the scope of her sniper, while Braeden looked through some binoculars, as they checked over the outside of the building. The four of them were now stood outside of Fort Jewett at night preparing to go inside. The place was very industrial looking and not homely at all.
It seemed to be completely empty. No cars, vans trucks or motorbikes decorating the car park at all. It was engulfed in complete darkness as well, only adding to the fact that it looked like no one was there. But they knew otherwise.
"No guards. No lights. This place looks complete abandoned." Braeden remarked.
"That should be easier for us, right?" Malia questioned.
"Not necessarily." the mercenary told her, "Especially if she knows we're coming. You're sure this is the place you saw?"
"Unless there's another Fort Jewett." the Tate girl quipped.
"Maybe she left." Brooke suggested.
"Maybe Deaton's already gone." Theo put in.
"I'm not walking away on a maybe." Malia affirmed.
"I'm with Malia." Brooklyn announced.
"And I'm not walking in on so much uncertainty." Braeden countered.
Malia drew her eyebrows together at the mercenary, "You said you've been after her for years."
Braeden turned to her, "And why do you think it's been years? Because she knows what she's doing. She took Scott's boss for a reason. We don't know what it is. We don't know if she's back in Beacon Hills because she's missed you all this time and can't wait for a mother-daughter reunion or if she's planning to put a bullet in your head. We don't know anything."
"We know one thing." Malia huffed, "We know where she is." They all turned back to look at the building. Like her cousin, Brooklyn wasn't prepared to walk away and have Deaton suffer because of it. They had to get him back. Or else they'd forever carry the guilt. "I'm going in. I have to." Malia said as she took her first step towards their target. Brooklyn quickly followed her, however the other two, shared a concerned look before reluctantly going after.
❃ ❃ ❃ ❃ ❃
The four of them had managed to enter the building unnoticed and uninjured. They now crept slowly through a garage type area as they approached where they thought the Desert Wolf would be hiding. Malia had taken lead with Brooke behind her, then Braeden and then Theo. The middle two girls held tights grips on their guns, keeping them poised and ready.
They rounded a dust-covered military vehicle and were met with absolute silence. Not even a tumbleweed blew past. Malia eyebrows pulled together as her brown eyes surveyed the area. "There's something wrong." she whispered.
Braeden got slightly closer to the girl and at the same volume asked, "Is it a scent?"
"I don't know." Malia replied unhelpfully. The four of them carried on walking and moved past another vehicle when they spotted something. In the large gap between all the trucks, the end of the room was illuminated by a single light. Under that light, was a chair and tied to that chair with fabric covering his mouth was Deaton.
The four of them moved out into the middle and began to slowly get closer to Deaton, still aware that the Desert Wolf could attack them at any given moment. When the sound of fighting reached Brooke's ears she expected to come face to face with the woman but it was actually Theo and Braeden.
The mercenary put up a good fight against the supernatural however Theo kicked her to the floor before taking the shotgun right from her hands and slamming it onto her head so that she fell unconscious. Acting swiftly, Brooklyn fired two shots at the boy which landed one on each of his shoulders. Theo groaned but instead of going to fight her like he did Braeden, he retaliated by firing twice at her.
Brooke stumbled back into one of the vehicle's huge tires and slid to the floor. The right side of her torso, just under her ribcage, throbbed in pain. She heard another gunshot making her flinch though no more pain came to her. Her eyes were purple and glassy as she watched Malia also fall to the floor clutching her stomach.
Releasing the gun she still held, Brooklyn pressed her own hands into her wound as she felt blood stains her clothes. She whimpered as it only hurt more but she knew it was vital if she didn't want to die. The healer was in the most pain she ever had been and despite having sustained many injuries, nothing, nothing came close.
She bit down on her lip as a few tears dropped from her eyes. She could hear Theo taking to Malia yet she wasn't focused on that. She was focused on the Desert Wolf who had just walked in. The woman chucked a jar of glowing blue talons like the ones of the guy Brooke and Scott had fought on the night of senior scribe and Theo caught it effortlessly.
A small smirk on his face, the boy looked down on Brooklyn and Malia who were gasping in pain. "You should've listened to Braeden." he tutted before walking out.
The Desert Wolf then turned to her daughter who was still on the floor. "You know, your real name isn't Malia." the woman taunted as she came over to the Tate girl and grabbed her by her neck, "You don't have a name. Talia Hale took you away from me before I could give you one." As she said that, the older werecoyote glanced over at Brooklyn in disgust.
She looked away and hit her daughter across the face with her gun and stood over her. Malia fell back onto her back and groaned. Brooke had never felt so angry and annoyed to be injured before. If she could, she would so be shooting the woman until she ran out of ammo and the Desert Wolf looked like a dot-the-dot.
"What you do have is power." the older werecoyote continued, "Strength, speed, and the capacity to heal. And you know where you got it from, Malia? You know where you stole it from? Me." She then stood up and pressed her boot clad foot into the Tate girl's stomach. "Tell me when it hurts." she ordered, adding more pressure. Cracking noises sound as she only pressed harder, "Tell me when it really hurts."
Malia screamed out in agony making the woman take her foot off. She grabbed her daughter by the back of her neck and flicked her claws out. Just as she was about to swipe at the younger werecoyote, Deaton managed to free mouth from the cloth. "Corinne!" he shouted. "You can't get it back like this. It has to be a full moon. You kill her now you get nothing."
The Desert Wolf gazed at her daughter with wide, contemplative eyes. Her clawed hand was still ready to go but the sudden breaking of the lights in the room had her moving back. Malia geared into action. She quickly sent a kick to her mother's stomach and pulled herself onto her feet with help from one of the military vehicles.
The mother and daughter roared at each other, both of their eyes steel blue. Brooklyn watched with shaky breaths as the two swiped and kicked at each other. The right side of her jeans and top were completely covered in red and it was still spreading. Brooke would be lying if she said she wasn't scared that she was going to die. She couldn't heal like Malia, she couldn't just shrug off a couple bullets to the torso.
She was still in immense pain and it was only getting worse. She craved relief but she knew that relief was death so she couldn't grant herself the satisfaction. Her teeth gritted and her hands pressed further into the two bullet wounds. She couldn't die like this. She couldn't die while her and Scott hadn't spoken. She only wished now that she had given him a call. That she had made everything right.
The Desert Wolf sent her daughter stumbling into the bonnet of one of the trucks. Malia swivelled back around and avoided the oncoming kick by moving aside. "I killed them because of you." she told her mother, "I killed my own family."
"Your adopted family." the woman corrected. "I'm your family, sweetheart." Malia roared at her and swiped at her. The Desert Wolf was able to grab her arm and send her a few punches before sending her into the bonnet once again. "But if it makes you feel any better, I didn't care about them. I was just trying to kill you."
The two girls stopped fighting as the wall behind Deaton suddenly cracked and broke. The tiles and concrete smashed to the floor as a large creature with glowing whiteish-blue eyes loomed through. Brooklyn's mouth hung open. What in the hell is that?
The ginormous beast crumbled up more of the wall. "Malia..." Deaton shouted. He was sat right in front of the thing and unable to move because of his binds. Malia looked between her mother and the veterinarian who was being pulled back by the creature and made a decision she hoped she wouldn't regret. She ran over to Deaton as the Desert Wolf made her way out and swiped through the duct tape on his ankles as the the chair he was upon began being lifted up.
The Tate girl got rid of the tape on his wrists as well which allowed him to get off the chair and away from the beast. The two of them ran over to Brooklyn and Braeden who was stirring awake. The veterinarian and werecoyote helped Brooke up from the floor while her hands still pressed into her wounds and helped her run away from the creature with Braeden beside them. "Come on!" Malia shouted.
The four of them loaded into their car. The two cousins were in the back while the other two sat upfront and Braeden drove as fast as she could. Malia removed Brooklyn's hands and pressed her own into the girls wound as she had more strength. The healer looked up to her cousin and just barely rasped out, "M-Malia... you h-have to tell.... to tell Scott..."
"No." the Tate girl cut her off as her eyes began to water. "You're not going to die, okay. We're gonna get you to the hospital and then you can tell Scott yourself. You're not dying."
"Please, Malia." Brooklyn pleaded as blood began to coat her lips a sickly red. "You, you have to t-tell him. You gotta tell Scott that... that I-I didn't mean it. Th-That I didn't mean it. That I... I lo-love him."
And with that said, she passed out.