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CHAPTER ELEVEN
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"ALPHA PACT"
OPEN WOUND - BOOK 2
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CHRIS woke up with a groan, his body tied with rope and blood dripping from the side of his face.
"You okay over there?" He heard the sheriff's voice, but he could barely focus on his surroundings.
"Chris? It's Chris, right?" Melissa asked him, her arms leaning on her knees.
"Yeah..." Chris nodded, his head falling leaning against the pillar he was tied to. He looked around him, a feeling of despair filling his body as he recognized the place. "Ohhhh..."
"Is it just me, or has somebody been here before?" Noah said aloud, hoping he had some idea about this place.
"Years ago." Chris grimaced before he tried to grab the hidden knife attached to his ankle, "Hate to disappoint you, but we watched her take your ankle knife."
"...And the knife that's in your sleeve."
"...And the switchblade in your other sleeve."
"And the taser in your jacket pocket." Jennifer swung open the doors and made her way down the steps, "Argent... The French word for "silver."
She took out a white cloth and wet to touch Argent's forehead, but he moved away from her, "Ah, ah, ah...Interesting how truth becomes altered by legend... when it's not actually the metal silver that kills Werewolves, but the family. What's the Argent Code again? "We hunt those who hunt us?" I hope you don't mind if I borrow it for a little while, since I've been hunted myself."
"Don't pretend like we have the same cause. I don't kill innocent people." Chris glared at the woman in front of him.
"That's why they call it a sacrifice. And I wish it worked another way... But think about what you're doing! You are making this town-- even this world--safer for your children." Jennifer said in frustration before she let out a chuckle and looked behind her at Melissa, "Well, most of them."
Jennifer stood to her feet and made her way back towards the stairs when Melissa called out to her, "Wait."
Jennifer looked at her but didn't say anything, allowing Melisssa to question what confused her since Jennifer brought Chris here, "Where's Charlotte?"
Jennifer smirked as if she was waiting for someone to ask about the blonde therapist, "She has other places to be at this moment."
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The woods were starting to become a familiar place to Blaze. The number of times he found himself trenching through this place made him want to roll his eyes. One year ago, you'd never find him in the woods. Ian and Amelia hated him playing in them despite his love for it now he felt like he was in them too much and never for a good reason.
His feet came to a stop as he looked up at the firefly above his and Scott's head, "It's a firefly."
"Unusual for this region." Deucalion mentioned from beside them.
A night stroll in the woods while Ethan, Aiden, and Kali chased their guidance teacher down was not how Blaze intended to help their parents.
"It's because of Jennifer, isn't it? Just before all this started, a deer crashed into Lydia's car, the cats went crazy at the animal clinic, and birds flew into the high school... That was all her?" Scott asked him and that made Blaze raise an eyebrow at him.
"Were we meant to question that? I thought it was obvious?" Blaze lightly shrugged.
"They say animals can sense natural disasters when they're about to happen. Maybe they can sense supernatural ones as well." Blair nodded as Deucalion smiled at her agreeing with her words.
"Does she scare you?" Scott asked the other man beside him.
"She concerns me if she's willing to kill that many innocent people for her cause-- people like your mother, Stiles' father, and Blaze's therapist, well now mother," Deucalion said.
Blair and Blaze shared a look as Scott spoke up. "Are you willing to kill innocent people?"
"I'll kill any living thing that gets in my way." Deucalion's words made Blair shove her hands in her pockets and look down at her feet.
"We should go. They got her." Blair started walking away causing the others to follow after her where Marin had trapped herself in a circle of mountain ash forcing the others away from her. It was smart and Blaze had to hide a grin at the sight. Something about Marin he liked, and it had nothing to do with her being a guidance teacher.
"How did you know, Marin, that we'd come for you?" Deucalion came to a stop in front of the circle.
"Because Jennifer and I are the same...And I know you've always been suspicious of us, of what we can do." Marin spoke. These women seem to hold no fear towards the alpha pack, more cautious than anything.
"With good reason! We know you sent that girl-- the one who helped Isaac." Kali snapped at her.
"What was her name?" Deucalion asked.
"Braeden." Marin stated as she turned around to face Kai who was circling her, "And I sent her to do what I've always done-- maintain the balance."
"What do you know about Jennifer?" Deucalion got to the point of why they wanted Marin.
The women turned back around. "Nothing more than you know. This isn't you, Scott. Go back to your friends. Both of you including Blair."
"They can decide what's right for themselves." Deucalion spoke up for them.
" Not without all the information! Have you told him everything you've done? How you've piled up bodies in a narcissistic and psychotic effort to form your perfect pack? Bodies that include Ennis, by the way. My brother saved him-- he was alive when Deucalion went in to see him. He wants you to go after Derek, Kali, to force his decision. If Derek joins the pack, it paves the way for Scott. Blair being a part of the pack already paves it for Blaze." Marin informed the pack.
"The lies people will tell when they're begging for their life..." The blind man said almost amused.
"The lies people will tell to get what they want." Blaze scoffed, side-eyeing Deucalion. He already believed Marin; he'd believe anyone before he believed the "demon wolf".
"Ask him," Marin said before Deucalion sent a spear from the end of his cane her way, stabbing her in the side causing her to step back, breaking the barrier, and causing her to fall.
The alphas went to attack her when the three teenagers jumped forward and got to her first, "Back off." Blair snapped at him as Scott and Blaze caught the injured woman.
"I'm not going to let them kill you. But, if you know something, if you know where they are--" Scott reasoned with the older women.
"The Nemeton... You find that, you'll find Jennifer... Find the Nemeton..." Marin told them sternly.
Blaze looked up at Blair, both of them thinking the same thing. Right now, they needed their father more than anything. Blaze had been at the Nemeton but with no memories, he was useless.
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Scott, Blaze, and Blair met up with Deaton and Stiles who had a plan to save their parents, "How'd you guys find out?" Scott asked the pair who also knew about the Nemeton.
"Lydia. You?" Stiles asked them.
"Morrell. None of the other Alphas know where it is, either." Scott informed them.
"So, if this works, are you gonna tell them?" Stiles asked him.
"We can't stop Jennifer without them." Blair sighed. The last thing they wanted was their help but with lives on the line they needed whatever help they could get.
"Why did she take Argent? She already has three of them. That's the part I don't get." Stiles frowned. He's been trying to wrap his brain around why she would take four guardians when she only needed three.
"My sacrifice was failed. Maybe she took Argent as a precaution this time." Deaton offered an answer before moving on. "How about we concentrate on finding your parents first?"
"What's the plan?" Blaze asked the duo.
"Essentially, you, Allison, and Stiles need to be surrogate sacrifices for your parents." Deaton's words made Blaze's stomach drop.
"Fuck no."
"We die for them?" Scott asked stunned by the plan, "And what about Blaze, wouldn't he have to for Charlotte?"
"How about we don't we this at all and we just do to me what we did with Isaac? The place of the Nemeton should be in my memories somewhere, right?" Blaze suggested not wanting his friends to do anything like killing themselves.
"It wouldn't work. You were too young when it happened, and it could do more harm than good, and besides it will work better with you three since they're your biological parents." Deaton shook his head.
"But he can bring us back! ...You can bring us back, right?" Stiles asked the doctor.
"You remember the part where I said it was dangerous?" Deaton asked him with a blank face.
"If it goes right, the three of you will be dead for a few seconds... But there's something else you need to think about. This is a dangerous ritual for more reasons than one. You'll be giving power back to the Nemeton, a place that hasn't had power for a long time. This kind of power is like a magnet-- it attracts the supernatural, the kind of things that a family like the Argents can fill a bestiary with. It will draw them here, like a beacon." Deaton informed them.
"Doesn't sound worse than anything we've already seen..." Stiles shrugged.
"Doesn't sound good but do we really have a choice?" Blair bit her lip. They didn't have time to figure out another plan. They needed to find this place and do it as soon as possible.
"You'd be surprised at what you have yet to see," Deaton told the Stilinski boy.
"Is that it?" Blaze asked. Everything in him was hoping they wouldn't go through with it but with those life was on the line; how could he tell them not to do it?
"No. It'll also affect the three of you. You won't be able to see it, but you'll feel it... every day, for the rest of your lives. It'll be a kind of... darkness around your heart, and permanent, like a scar." Deaton grimaced as he explained it.
"Will it make Scott less heroic and let a few people he doesn't know die because if so, I think that would be a good thing for him?" Blaze asked with a small hopeful tone making Scott elbow him in the side.
"Like a tattoo," Scott muttered, ignoring Blaze's words like usual.
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Blaze's foot tapped against Scott's bedroom floor. He sat on the edge of his bed, staring down at his hands as he waited for Scott to grab something meaningful to his mother to help with the sacrifice. His thoughts circled the idea of what could go wrong during this and there were too many things that could go wrong to make him feel at ease.
"Hey, I got it." Scott walked into the room, a small watch in his hand making Blaze stand to his feet.
"Scott, are you sure this is a good idea? So many things could go wrong and—" Blaze tried to argue with him but Scott sighed.
"I know, and I don't like it either. There's a chance one of us will come back and the others won't, and I don't want anything like that to happen but unfortunately, the world is against us as always and we have to do this to save them." Scott said, glancing at the watch before looking up at Blaze who had stood in front of him.
"I know," Blaze muttered, still not okay with it but he wasn't going to ask him not to do it. No matter how much he wanted to knock him out and lock him in a closet until this was all over.
"I will be fine. We've survived everything this for and we'll survive this too. Remember what I said about having Hope. Try not to think of the downside of this and think more about when we find your mom and she'll be home and safe because of this." Scott smiled at him reassuringly.
"Scott—" Blaze starts as if he wants to say something important but changes his mind last minute and settles on kissing him instead. Arms wrapping around one another as they let their worries and problems disappear for a quick moment to bask in the comfort of one another.
Pulling away, Scott let his forehead rest on Blaze's who muttered his next words, a small moment of vulnerability slipping through, "Promise you'll come back to me?"
"Always."
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"All right. What did you bring?" Deaton asked the three as everyone stood around the clinic. Three large baths filled with water and ice just as it did when Isaac did this.
"Um, I got my dad's badge. Jennifer kind of crushed it in her hand, so I tried hammering it out a little bit. Still doesn't look right." Stiles frowns as he stares down at his hand.
"Well, it doesn't have to look good if it has meaning," Deaton told him.
"Is that an actual silver bullet?" Issac asked, looking at what Allison was holding.
"My dad made it. It's kind of a ceremonial thing. When one of us finishes learning all the skills to be a Hunter, we forge a silver bullet as a testament to the Code." Allison explained, the bullet in between her fingers.
"Scott?" Deaton looked at the boy he thought of as a son.
"My dad got my mom this watch when she first got hired at the hospital. She used to say it was the only thing in their marriage that ever worked." Scott almost chuckled and Blaze placed a hand on his arm.
"At least it's pretty," Blaze muttered with a small shrug making Scott crack a smile. The boy beside him never failed to make him smile in such terrible circumstances.
"Okay. The three of you will get in. Each of us will hold you under until you're essentially... well, dead." Deaton blankly stated.
"My god." Blaze breathed out, "A part of me is glad I'm not doing this since I have a fear of drowning."
"But it's not just someone to hold you under-- it needs to be someone who can pull you back, someone with a strong connection to you. A kind of emotional tether." Deaton make sure to make that part clear.
Scott and Blaze looked at each other, a flushed look on their face before they looked away from each other.
Blair went to stand beside Issac as she wasn't exactly needed for this when Deaton stopped her, "Blair, you go with Stiles."
An awkward silence filled the air as Stiles and Blake looked at each other. Blaze almost smirked as he knew something was going on between them. Although he had been rooting for Lydia and Stiles, Stiles seemed to be happy with Blair and from what he's heard from Blair's life, she could use someone like Stiles.
Allison, Stiles, and Scott took off their coats, sweaters, socks, and shoes before stepping inside the baths, the ice-cold water hitting their skin immediately causing them to shake and shiver as they slowly lowered themselves down.
"By the way, if I don't make it back and you do, you should probably know something..." Stiles's voice shook as he looked over at Scott, "Your dads in town."
Scott's eyes widened in surprise before he took a deep breath feeling Blaze's warm hands on his shoulders, he could practically feel the heat coming from the boy behind him.
"There's something else you should know, just in case you know—" Blaze whispered in his ear. He never got to do this with Ryle, he was too late, and he regretted it every day and he wasn't about to do it again, "I love you."
Scott's breath hitched as he was not expecting that out of all things from Blaze, he couldn't even allow himself to enjoy it as he was about to kill himself to save his mother.
"Say it again when this is over," Scott whispered back to him without turning around before his body emerged under the water and his world became a void of darkness.
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Authors Note:
my babies omg. I can't wait to write their happy eras together because my babies deserve it after all this angst.
I hope you guys enjoyed this long-awaited chapter; the next one is even longer awaited but I will update the last chapter tomorrow >3