—
Ryder stuck her hand out, passing her shirt to Isaac from behind the wall.
The Lahey frowned, "What am I supposed to do with this?"
"Fold it!"
Isaac did as he was told, doing the same thing when she passed him her jeans.
While he wanted to feel awkward that she was undressing from behind a wall he was far from it, he was actually perfectly fine. Eighth grade to beginning of sophomore year Isaac would have been frozen in shock, face beet red, while he stuttered out random words.
He winces at the sound of her bones popping, moving away to place her clothing in the backseat of Argent's car, tapping the back to let the man know he could drive away.
When he walked back, he was more than surprised to see Ryder in her wolf form. It always amazed him, no matter how many times he's seen it. He went to run his hand through her white fur, only to pull back when she snapped her jaw at him.
"Alright, my bad." He raised his hands in defense, "Let's go."
•••
"You didn't have to follow me home."
"We really didn't." Austin said, standing near Lydia's bedroom door, feeling like he would somehow be disrespecting his relationship if he walked in.
"You could have stayed in the car." Stiles told him.
"Well, yeah, but then i'd be alone with my thoughts, that's never good for anyone."
He never really had any bad thoughts, which he was truly thankful for. But it did get out of hand when Ryder left him alone for ten minutes when they hung out and he started thinking about three am shower thoughts mid day.
Stiles sighed, turning to Lydia, "I just wanted to make sure you got in okay."
"I had a police escort." The strawberry blonde pointed out to him.
"I know the inner workings of that force, all right? They're not nearly as reliable as people think." He said.
Lydia raised her brows, "Well, you also didn't have to follow me into my room."
"Well, I... uh, yeah, I don't have an answer for that. I can leave."
"Good, let's go." Austin whispered.
"Are you really gonna go without asking me the question that you've been dying to ask me?"
"Well, I'm not... I haven't been dying to ask anything. I... no questions here for Stiles. Nothing." Stiles spluttered out.
"I can see it on your face."
"I see it too, you have a distinct look." Austin said, leaning against the doorway.
"Wha—?"
"It is a distinct look." The Martin girl agreed.
"Maybe my face just has, like, a naturally interrogatory exp... expression." Stiles defended himself.
Lydia sighed, "Well, your interrogatory expression is getting on my nerves."
Austin chuckled a bit.
"The answer is, I have no clue how I ended up finding that body.I didn't even know where I was until I got out of the car."
"Yeah, but the last time something like this happened..."
"I know. Derek's Uncle. Ryder's dad."
"Peter."
"Uhm, actually. Ryder would prefer if we didn't refer to Peter as her dad." Austin quickly corrected them, "Aaron is."
"Right." Lydia nodded, "Sorry."
•••
Austin had been stuck following Stiles all day.
He was seriously beginning to regret not driving his own car, maybe then he'd actually be able to spend time with Ryder like the Stilinski had been promising him all day.
The only thing that slightly brought up his mood is when he saw his girlfriends dad when he and Stiles walked into the hospital. The man was walking up to them, Melissa McCall in tow.
"Hey."
Stiles nodded, "Hey."
"Over here. And if you tell anyone that I showed you this, I swear to God, I will kill you painfully and slowly." Melissa threatened the teens.
"That's violent."
"Seriously." Aaron pointed, "It's already risky that i'm allowing another doctor into my patients room, i don't need you two doing anything stupid."
"Yes, sir."
"Why do you want to show me a body I've already seen?" Stiles asked.
"Because you haven't seen everything." Melissa told him, gently pulling the cover off as soon as Aaron shut the door, "See this around his neck? That's a ligature mark. That means that he was strangled with something, like cord, rope—"
"Ah, okay, wait a second." Stiles stopped her, "What kind of werewolf strangles someone? You know, that's not very werewolf-y."
"My thoughts exactly. And then there's this."
"That's disgusting." Austin groaned, turning his eyes away from the hole in the teens head.
"God, man, what is that? Is that brain matter? Yeah, it's brain matter, of course."
"See the indentation?"
Aaron put on gloves, pointing his finger around the area, "He was hit in the back of the head, hard enough to kill him. In fact, any one of these things could have killed him. I mean, someone seriously wanted this poor kid dead."
"All right, so then this couldn't have been Boyd or Cora, you know? They wouldn't have done all that. So maybe this is just one murder. I mean, maybe it's just a random coincidence."
"There's no way this was a coincidence." Austin said.
Melissa shook her head, "I don't think it was just one."
"How come?" The boys wondered.
"Because that girl over there, she's got the exact same injuries." Aaron finished.
•••
Ryder and Isaac ran to the other side of the school after the Lahey and Scott forced the doors open. Scott had ran towards Argent, leaning the other two to watch out for Boyd and Cora.
The blue eyed teen stood still as a low growl was heard. He looked down at the wolf next to him, watching her head turn behind her.
Isaac sighed in defeat, tilting his head to the side as he turned around, "Oh, great."
•••
"The M.E. said this one wasn't just strangled. Whoever did it used a garrote, which is a stick that you put through the rope, and you just kind of keep twisting, and—"
Austin cleared his throat, stopping Melissa from speaking. He looked down at the girl on the table before turning to Stiles, seeing the tears forming in his eyes, sending him a look of sympathy.
"Oh, my God, did you know her? I'm so sorry. I didn't even think." Melissa rushed out, quickly covering Heather's body.
"I was... We were at her party. It was her birthday. Her name is Heather."
Aaron nodded, "Okay, you need to call your father, 'cause you're a witness."
"Stiles?" Austin frowned at his friends odd behavior, "What's wrong?"
"Has anyone else been through here tonight? Any... any other bodies, or even anybody missing?"
"Uh, no, no bodies, but, um..."
"What?"
"Two girls. They brought the first one in, Caitlin, for a tox screen, and then I overheard that her girlfriend, Emily, just disappeared. I mean, they were out in the woods and—"
"Nobody's found her yet?" Austin frowned, mostly feeling bad for the girl rather than being entertained with what Stiles was saying.
Melissa shrugged, "I don't know."
"Okay, first one."
"Caitlin."
"Okay. Is she here? Is she here right now?"
Melissa and Aaron shared a look, "I think so."
Stiles continued to push it, "Okay, where?"
"Okay, okay, wait. Just wait a minute." Melissa tried.
Stiles stepped past Aaron, "I have to talk to her."
"Why?"
"Because I think I know what's happening."
•••
"The red doors, someone has to get them open."
"Someone has to drive them inside." Derek ran off into the school at the words.
Argent looked at them, "I'll go."
"No." Isaac shook his head, "I'm faster."
"Where's Ryder?"
•••
Ryder let out a low growl, the sound catching the attention of Cora. The Hale teen turned to her, barring her teeth threateningly, taking a step back as the large wolf moved closer to them, forcing their backs against the brick wall behind them.
Boyd and Cora waved their claws at her, missing her face by an inch. Ryder's ears perked at the sound of footsteps, thinking that maybe Isaac or Scott had come to help her.
She was let down when a bright flash blinded her, making her turn away from the two beta's. Soft whines escaped her lips as she looked down to avoid hurting her eyes more.
When the flashes finally stopped, she sees Isaac locking the doors, making her assume that Boyd and Cora were trapped inside.
She looked up towards the buses to see Allison Argent standing there, a proud smile on her face before she ran off.
She made a noise, the sound causing Isaac to turn to her,
"Don't you dare say anything."
She huffed, flashing her eyes at him before she walked off.
•••
"We weren't doing anything that bad. I mean, I've camped out there plenty of times."
"Right, but why tonight?" Stiles asked.
"We wanted to be alone for one night. Emily lives with her mom, and I have three roommates. Not exactly romantic settings, you know?"
Austin stepped up, "Can i ask how long have you two been together?"
"Three months." She told him, lips turning upwards as she bought about her girlfriend.
Austin couldn't help but smile softly.
"And you wanted to make it romantic."
"Yeah, you know, because..."
Stiles looked down sadly, "Because it was her first time."
Caitlin looked up with teary eyes, "They're gonna find her, right? Aren't they?"
•••
Scott narrowed his eyes at Derek, "What are you doing?"
"Close the door behind me and keep it shut." The Hale man demanded them.
"You go in there alone, and you're either gonna kill them, or they kill you."
"That's why I'm going in alone."
Isaac shouted in panic, "Scott, The sun's coming up!"
"There's a teacher. I'll take care of her."
•••
"So Boyd and Cora might not have killed anyone?"
"I told you." Ryder mumbled, gripping tightly onto Austin's hand as they looked down at Heather's dead body.
"You're gonna wish they did."
Scott made a face, "Why?"
Stiles began to go into deep explanation, "I'm not exactly sure yet. the other girl who was out in the woods, Emily? Eventually they're gonna find her. She's one of them. Emily, Heather... That guy Lydia found at the pool. All three were virgins... And they're all gonna have the same three injuries... strangled, throat slashed, head bashed in. It's called the threefold death."
"So if these aren't random killings, then what are they?"
"Sacrifices. Human sacrifices."
—
A/N: how much would you guys hate this book if i made my husband Austin supernatural??