"Weaponized"
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Beatrice was helping Satomi and Deaton with bringing Reed Schall into the Animal Clinic, as she had extra strength that Deaton didn't, despite her small and thin build. Beatrice had missed most of the plague that had taken the pack, as she had been with Brett and Lori.
"How does it begin?" Deaton asked as Beatrice had helped get Reed into a chair and she was standing next to Satomi, swiftly now, watching the disease take over.
"With fever. Then our shifting becomes uncontrollable. Fangs, claws, even full, unwarranted transformations. We moved into the woods when that began." Reed was growling in the background of his alpha's words and Beatrice rested her hand on his arm, taking some of his pain in the only clue, that she knew a way to help. "Then it progressed faster and faster. They couldn't stand. But worse than all of that was this sudden blindness." Satomi explained and Deaton looked up at her.
"Total?" Deaton asked.
"They couldn't see a thing. From there, they only had a few minutes left." Satomi explained sadly and Deaton, he got up as Beatrice stepped back from taking Reed's pain and she nearly fell over.
"I'm going to be truly honest with you, Satomi. We need to get him to a hospital." Deaton admitted and Satomi's eyes widened a bit.
"That has never really been an option for our kind. Unless, you know something I don't." Satomi was correct on that and Deaton was shaking his head.
"Not something, but someone."
"Melissa McCall?" Beatrice guessed and Deaton nodded as Beatrice looked at Satomi. "We can trust her. Her son is Scott McCall, the True Alpha." She said and Satomi nodded.
"Back into the car." Satomi noted and Beatrice helped Reed quickly and swiftly, right back up onto his feet and they were getting out of the Animal Clinic as fast as they were able to.
||Beacon Memorial Hospital||
Casey had pulled up another chair now to sit down next to Derek, as they both watched over Braeden, who they had gotten to the hospital in time.
"What's that?" Derek asked.
"Naloxone, right?" Casey signed at Melissa, who nodded a little bit at the correct assumption.
"Exactly, Casey. Naloxone. We need to wake her up." Melissa explained and a moment later, Braeden shot awake with a shocked gasp. "Braeden, look at me. You were shot, but you're in the hospital now and you're fine. Do you understand?" Melissa asked and soon after, the mercenary nodded quickly.
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Reed died in the elevator and Beatrice's eyes glowed golden with grief, as she let go of Reed's hand and she looked at Satomi. "How many are left?" She asked quietly.
"You, Brett, Lori, four others and me." Satomi whispered and Beatrice was looking at her hands, which were not only trembling, but also her claws were exposed. "You must pull yourself back." Satomi reminded her and Beatrice shut her eyes, as she was focusing and her claws, they had successfully disappeared.
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"It is a new variant of canine distemper. A few years ago, an outbreak in Yellowstone killed 40% of the wolf population." Deaton was explaining and Beatrice was standing next to Satomi, while Casey and Derek had walked into the morgue as well.
"What's it going to do to our wolf population?" Melissa asked and the scent of her worry, it was quite, very nearly overwhelming now to the few werewolves in the room.
"Well, it's been altered to infect quite a bit faster." Deaton pointed out and Derek was shaking his head.
"You mean that it has been weaponized?" Derek asked and Deaton nodded.
"It infected my whole pack." Satomi explained as Derek looked at Beatrice, who was looking at the floor.
"Not entirely. You said in the elevator, that there was still more remaining. Where?" Deaton asked.
"I used my rather large part of the money that I got after the fire to build a series of underground units for our pack to hide, should there have ever been an occasion to use them. I got the healthy pack members, the few that are left into the bunker, that is nearest to Devenford. I came back to help Satomi, after I never appeared to be infected." Beatrice admitted as she looked up at her older cousin, whose eyes flashed.
"So, it infected your whole pack except for you and Beatrice. That's the real question. Did you two not get infected? Or are you immune?"
The alpha and her beta, they looked up at one another and they were both in stunned silence, as they never, they hadn't even thought about it that way.
"If your pack was infected, then who could have been doin' all the shooting at the entrance to the woods?" Derek asked and Beatrice shrugged.
"Apparently, it was another assassin on the hunt. Personally, I would much rather face a gun than a variant of smallpox." Satomi stated and Beatrice growled faintly in agreement.
"Sounds like you're going to get plenty of chances." Melissa reminded her and all of them, that she was there.
"Sorry." Satomi said to Derek, who was surprised as she had glanced at him. "I just noticed how much you remind me of Talia. Beatrice as well, but you more so."
"I was her niece, and not her actual kid. So, that makes sense." Beatrice murmured. "I'm just the daughter of her sociopathic younger brother." She muttered.
"I did use to visit her a lot, you know. Do you remember me?" The alpha asked.
"I remember the tea. You always brought that tea over, that smelled terrible." Derek admitted and Beatrice was smiling a little. "Beat, you remember that?"
"Most of you younger Hales, you all snuck into my room one night and you were absolutely stinking of it." Casey signed and Derek nodded.
"I brought that tea as a gift. Your mother loved it. And now, so does Beatrice." Satomi noted and Beatrice nodded.
"I still don't really like the smell though." Beatrice murmured and the words got a smile out of Derek as then Casey followed, with a small and slightly sad smile.
"What kind of tea?" Deaton asked.
"What?" Satomi questioned.
"The tea with the smell, what kind was it?" Deaton elaborated swiftly on his question and Satomi blinked a bit.
"Reishi. Wild purple reishi. It is very rare." Satomi explained and Deaton, he nodded slightly.
"It is also a very powerful remedy for sickness. Satomi, Beatrice, you two didn't get infected because you have already been inoculated." He explained and Beatrice's eyes flashed.
"Okay, okay. How rare is it?"
"The vault!" Beatrice yelped and the entire group looked at her. "Sorry, I'm just remembering that Aunt Talia, she always left some of it--"
"In the vault. Bea, you're a freaking genius. It's in our family's vault." He said and Beatrice shrugged a little. "I guess that it is a good thing, that you inherited a moral compass, right along with Peter's intelligence." He said and Beatrice nodded.
"It probably also helped that I didn't find out that he was my father, until I escaped the fire and Satomi told me. I was raised like your guys' youngest sibling, remember?" Beatrice asked and Derek nodded. "Satomi..." Satomi heard it too, as Beatrice's eyes glowed.
Beatrice reached quickly into her back pocket as she pulled out a spike weapon, a double-ended spike.
But Satomi had it handled, well in hand and Beatrice had just flattened herself against the wall, right along with Derek.
"I may have learned to control my anger, but I still know when to use it." Satomi explained as Casey walked out of the morgue as she looked at the dead assassin, and they all recognized the look on her face.
"Did you know her?" Derek asked as Casey nodded a little bit.
"Taryn Thomas. She was living on the Preserve in a trailer. I tried to help her, but she wouldn't let me." Casey explained silently and she crouched down next to her. Casey shut her old friend's eyes and she stood up again.