While Corrine held Deaton and Bella hostage, Malia was on the hunt for her mother, the Desert Wolf.
Scott needed help and right now, and he could think of only one friend left right now that could still give him some kind of help. As soon as he pulled his bike in front of the Tate house and was yanking his helmet off, Malia was stepping out of the front door.
"Scott, you didn't have to come all the way out here."
"You weren't answering your phone."
Malia cast a nervous look back inside her house and she shook her head. ". Not right now."
"What if I told you that you're the only one I have left."
It was true. Malia seemed to be the only member of the pack left that hadn't gotten hurt or tried to hurt him.
"You're not going to want my help," she said stiffly.
Scott was wondering if maybe he had spoken too soon. Was Malia angry about what happened between him and Stiles? He knew that Lydia and Liam had been.
"Look, anything that's happened with us-"
"I'm not talking about something that happened," Malia cut him off. "I'm talking about something that's going to happen. Something I'm going to do and you're not going to like me very much after I do it."
What was she going to do? He then saw her cast another nervous look back into her house. He focused and heard something off.
"Does this have to do with why there are two heartbeats in there?"
"Scott, you should go home."
Scott's face fell but he then went to back away and head off for his bike. As he sat down, he noticed that Malia was pushing back the nearby window curtain and watching him with a sad look on her face.
As Malia watched on, Scott threw his helmet back on, started up his bike and then rode away. She then straightened herself and gave a sad and solemn look. It lasted for a moment before Malia narrowed her eyes and then turned to look back into the room.
"Did you get anything out of him?" she said in a hard and impatient tone.
Malia said looking back at the sight of Braeden struggling against a thick set man with a knife.
"Not yet," she grunted as he tried to get free from her grip.
Malia jumped forward and grabbed the guy before she and Braeden moved to shove him hard against the opposite wall.
"You think you can make me talk?" he spat at them.
"We have nothing but time," Malia growled at him.
"You waste it. I am Spetsnaz. Soviet Special Forces. In battle, we kill our own wounded." That made Braeden add pressure to her elbow as it pushed against his neck. He didn't even flinch. "You can tear out my fingernails, cut my lips with razors, I still say nothing," he said smugly.
Braeden pushed him harder into the wall. "Correct me if I'm wrong but your section is out of work and broke, right?"
"You won't get a word out of me."
"What if we paid you $10,000?" she growled.
Soon enough, the Spetsnaz was sitting down as he calmly was counting the wad of cash in his hand. Malia was still glaring at the man.
"Guess the surefire way to any scumbag's heart is through his wallet," he muttered to the girls.
The Russian didn't seem fazed though for as soon as he finished counting, he began to talk, while fondling his newly acquired cash. "The Desert Wolf was last seen close to the Canadian border. She won't travel by plane. She'll stay away from surveillance cameras when she can."
"So she can't have gotten too far then," said Malia.
Braeden nodded.. "We still have time."
"There is another reason she won't fly," continued the Spetsnaz. "She isn't traveling alone."
Braeden was surprised. The Desert Wolf always traveled alone.
"What do you mean?" asked Malia.
"She has hostages," he answered. "An animal doctor and a girl."
"Deaton," Malia realized. "But who is the girl?"
The man didn't know.
Braeden was reaching out to some of her contacts to watch for the most obscure and stealthiest ways that the Desert Wolf might cross the country's border with her hostage. Once they found where she was coming in from they could then move in and go after her before she could get too far.
Braeden insisted that it shouldn't be too long before she found out what they needed to know. Malia insisted on coming along with them. Braeden of course argued against this as the Desert Wolf was more dangerous than any rogue shapeshifter they had come across here in Beacon Hills. But Malia didn't care.
Malia stepped up to the front door of the animal clinic where she saw the Closed For Renovations sign taped up on the door. She went and found the spare key that Scott and Deaton left hidden for the pack and let herself in.
Going into Deaton's office, she started digging through anything that she thought might help with getting Deaton back from her mother. Some of the special defenses and countermeasures that the vet kept to use on shapeshifters. Maybe even something that would tell them where the Desert Wolf would take him.
According to Braeden, her mother would be among the most formidable enemies that they had ever come across and there was no such thing as being over prepared when it came to her. They needed every advantage that they could get. Judging from how the bodies looked in that photo of her mother's message to her, Malia wasn't going to argue.
They would only get one shot at this and they wanted to get it right. Yet, it looked like this move was turning out to be a bust. There didn't seem to be any mountain ash powder or even Kanima venom to find. The papers that were scattered about also didn't seem to hold anything useful either.
"Trying to find Deaton, right?" she suddenly heard behind her.
"Probably don't even know where to start."
Malia slowly let herself turn around and look over at Theo.
"Let's face it, he's probably already dead," he told her, calmly. "How do you think Scott will react when he learns that it's your fault? I mean he dropped Stiles over Donovan, over Deaton you- "
That was enough to make any restraint Malia was holding vanish and the next thing either knew,. Theo was thrown off to the opposite wall and the force actually made a dent in one of the supply cabinets as he fell to the floor. He was down for a second before he was picked up and forced back into the wall as Malia went and threw a hard punch across his jaw.
"I should kill you," she growled at him, keeping a firm hold on his throat.
Theo let his face look back at her, his smirk not lessening in the slightest. "Yeah, but you won't. You like me too much."
That only served to give him another punch, this time across his jaw, giving him a cut lip. He didn't have time to adjust when Malia went and threw him against the wall again before throwing and flipping him onto the operating table, flat on his back. Theo grunted from the impact but then let out a small groan of pain as she twisted his arm. Malia then let herself kneel over him, yanking him up by his hair as she moved to give him a hard punch at his face with her other hand.
Malia tightened her grip on his hair as he tried to recover through her punch. His great hair, she had once called it, to Stiles.
On top of his perfect body. You should definitely feel threatened. That was what she had said to him.
She had only been trying to be funny. It wasn't supposed to mean anything. But Malia had gone and let herself be taken in by Theo's great hair, his perfect body and his alluring smirk. Little by little, until it all came to a head when he came to her at her den.
She moved to throw more punches, across Theo's jaw. She gave him two whacks but Theo moved to keep smirking and even laughing in amusement through his bleeding teeth. Malia growled at the sight. All she wanted now was to keep hitting him as many and as hard as it took to finally take that damn smirk off his face. Maybe ripping his face off would finally do the trick?
"I wouldn't," he said, pointing his finger over at her as she started moving for him again. "Not when I can help get you what you want."
That made Malia step back. "What are you talking about?"
"I wasn't lying, you know. Back at your den," he further explained. "I told you that I wanted to help you. And I really do want to help you, Malia."
"Help me with what?" she spat out, seething.
"Your mother," he answered firmly. "The Desert Wolf. Her and Deaton and that girl, I can help you find them."
Malia let her eyes widen for a moment before she shook her head. "No, you're lying."
"I told you, I'm not."
"How could you know where they are?"
"The Dread Doctors. I know how they found everyone that they were looking for. So I know how to find your mother, the girl and Deaton."
The next day, Theo was standing outside the animal clinic's back entrance waiting. He was happy to see Malia had come
"Why'd we need to meet here?" she went and asked him.
"Well, I would've asked to meet over at the school. But, I'm kind of wanted by the Sheriff's station and the place is swarming with deputies."
"And I'm sure you did nothing to warrant that, huh?" Malia asked him sarcastically. "Now, what's this big lead of yours?"
"Well, I don't have it on me. But, I can take you to it. Well, take you to it," he said, looking straight at Malia.
"All right, let's go."
"But first," Theo cut in. He pulled out one of the Doctors' medical syringes. "I need to inject you with this. Don't worry, it's just a tranquilizer."
"Is this your idea of a sick joke?" Henry hissed at him.
"You want to find Deaton or not?" he asked them.
"How is that supposed to help find him?" Malia asked him.
"Oh, no. This is going to knock you out so I can bring you to where the real thing that's going to find him. But I can't have you knowing where that is."
"Why not?" Henry spat out.
"It's the only way to be safe. For both me and you."
Malia narrowed her eyes. "Have you ever heard of a blindfold?"
Malia then walked over and braced herself for what was to come. Theo nodded at her before he went and jammed the needle into her neck and pumped the tranq into her. She grit her shifted fangs as her blue eyes started to burn through the pain before everything went black.
When Malia came to, she found herself looking right up at an overhead light. She tried to move but found herself bound and tied to a medical chair. Everything quickly sobered up and she found that she was in some dark medical type room and spotted Theo over to the side at some workbench.
"What the hell's this?!" she spat at him, making him turn around.
"Safety first," he said calmly and cockily. "I said I was going to help you find the Desert Wolf, I never said it was going to be easy. The restraints are to keep you from hurting yourself. Or me."
"And stabbing me in the neck?!" she cried out.
Theo shrugged. "Sorry, but that was for my protection. I can't have anyone else know how to find this place."
Malia grit her teeth in annoyance as her eyes scanned the room. The walls, the damp looking floors, the mixture of scents, it was all familiar. She was snapped out of her musings when Theo came over and brought before her.
"Oh come on," she said, rolling her eyes.
"This is what the Dread Doctors used to keep track of the chimeras. It seeks out and hones in on different frequencies. They gave the chimeras their own unique vibration."
"So how is that going to help me find Deaton?"
"It won't. It's going to help you find a werecoyote."
Now Malia understood. "My mother."
"Supernatural creatures also have their own frequency."
"Are you going to teach me physics or are you going to put your little torture device on me?" she spat impatiently. "Can we get this whole thing started?"
"Alright," he said, his usual smirk creeping up on him. "What you have to do is concentrate on exactly who it is that you want to find. You have to make a connection to her through a memory."
"But I don't know a thing about her."
"Then, think about the crash. Think about her gun firing at the car. Anything that brings you back, okay? Now, this is going to hurt."
"I don't care."
With that, he placed the goggles over her eyes and Malia was then violently assaulted with images and sounds. The pain she felt made her claws shift out and dig into the armrest her hands were bound to while she roared out in hard agony. Yet, in the midst of the pain, she saw them. Saw Deaton. And saw his captor. Her mother. Corrine, the Desert Wolf. And....Bella. She saw her sister tied up to a chair.
She could dimly hear Theo telling her to open her eyes or herself telling him that she couldn't. What she did hear clearly was Deaton telling her mother that it had to be the full moon. Behind them, she saw a sign that read Fort Jewett.
Suddenly, everything faded for her and she found herself back against the chair, her eyes wet with tears of blood.
"I know where they are," she gasped out. "She's in Beacon Hills. And I know who the other hostage is."
"Who is it?" Theo asked with curiosity
"My sister."