The trees and houses zoomed by and my eyes couldn't focus enough to pay any more attention to their blurred shapes. The music in the jeep was playing quietly in the background, too low for me to figure out what song it was and I didn't really care either. There was too much on my mind to pay attention to these little details when the weight of the supernatural in Beacon Hills was on my shoulders.
The night of the full moon, Lydia discovered a dead pool of supernatural creatures with prices of how much they were worth, that would all add up to 117 million dollars. The exact amount that was stolen from Peter Hale before I even arrived back home. She was able to find out about the dead pool with her banshee abilities, learning Allison’s name was used to crack the code. There was only one part of the dead pool that has been cracked, which meant there were possibly two other parts we needed to figure out.
So far, the list only contained of four people we knew and the Walcott family, the ones who were wendigos. Their deaths made sense now, randomly attacked in their own home, and then Sean was killed on the roof of the hospital by some man with an axe and no mouth. That man was an assassin. The assassins, who received their own dead pool list were already in Beacon Hills.
“Are you okay?”
Too lost in my own thoughts, I barely heard Stiles’ voice in the jeep. Scott and I nearly failed at being Liam’s Alphas on the first night. If it hadn’t been for Argent, there’s a good chance Liam could have harmed someone innocent. We didn’t know what we were doing. Now, with the new problems surfaced, we definitely had no idea what we were going to do.
Lydia, Scott, Kira, and Derek were all on first part of the dead pool. Unfortunately, due to him being a true Alpha, Scott was worth twenty-five million dollars, which was the highest price we’ve seen so far. The fear of knowing I was probably worth the same amount or more seeped through every crevice of my brain, terrifying me to no end. Not to mention, I had no doubt that Isaac and Aiden would be on another part of the list.
“Chloe?” This time, Stiles’ voice caught my attention.
I pulled my focused gaze away from the window, craning my head to the left, where Stiles sat beside me in the driver’s seat. “What?”
Stiles kept one hand on the steering wheel and glanced from the road to me. “I asked if you’re okay. You’ve kind of been staring off into space ever since I picked you up.”
I pushed a strand of hair out of my face. A sigh floated off of my lips and I readjusted myself in the passenger’s seat, unable to fully tear my gaze away from the trees we passed. “I don’t know anymore.”
My eyes drifted to the car behind us in the side mirror. Aiden and Isaac chose to drive themselves to the Sheriff’s station instead of riding in the jeep. They probably just wanted to be able to leave when they wanted to, instead of waiting on Stiles.
“We’re going to figure this out. Lydia has been at the lake house all weekend, trying to crack the second code.” Stiles pressed down on the brake at the sight of a red light up ahead. He turned his head toward me when we came to a complete stop.
“But there’s assassins out there that want to kill us.” I waved my hands around in front of me.
“We don’t know if you’re on the list yet.”
I lightly scoffed, “I’m a werewolf hybrid that just so happens to be an Alpha as well. I’m pretty sure I’m on the list.” I hit the back of my head on the seat twice. “Sorry,” I grimaced, apologizing for my snappy attitude. “I’m just freaking out over everything.”
“It’s okay.”
I bit down on the inside of my cheek as the jeep lurched forward once the light turned green. “Lydia asked for me to come back because of everything that was going on and, at first, I thought I’d be able to handle it, but now, how am I supposed to help with a dead pool and assassins? And dealing with the joining of our two packs and our new beta.”
Stiles’ face fell a tad before he mumbled, “Do you wish you hadn’t come back?”
“No, of course not.” I responded without a moment of hesitation. “Stiles, I wanted to come back. I just- I wasn’t aware of everything that would happen once I did.” My head rolled around on the seat before it landed back on the window. “I just don’t want to disappoint anyone when I wind up being a failure.”
“Chloe, you’re not in this alone. No one is expecting you to solve all of our problems on your own. We’re all in this together.”
“Stiles, now is not the time to be quoting High School Musical.”
We turned our heads in each other’s direction with serious expressions on our faces. Only a few seconds passed before hints of smiles were tugging at our lips, neither of us willing to be the first one to break. A soft giggle busted from my lips, unable to hold it back for any longer.
What was once a serious conversation easily changed into one filled with silliness and laughter. My mood felt better just from talking to Stiles, instead of letting it all build up in my head. Our laughter died down after a few seconds and I found myself watching Stiles’ drive to the Sheriff’s station.
“Chloe, you’re staring.” Stiles stated after a couple of minutes. He pretended to be annoyed by it, but the boyish grin on his face proved otherwise.
“Sorry,” I laughed before I brought my attention to the road.
His ringtone went off on his phone from his jeans’ pocket. With one hand on the wheel, Stiles fished his phone out of his pocket. “It’s Scott. He’s probably wondering where we are.” Stiles pressed the green button on his phone before he pressed it to his ear. “Yo, Scotty...Yeah, we’re on our way right now...Okay...Okay...Yeah.”
I covered my mouth with my hand when I saw Stiles roll his eyes. He hung up the call before Scott could utter another word. From what I heard, Scott was talking about how we need to inform Mr. Stilinski about the dead pool, which we already planned on doing. This whole drive to the Sheriff’s station was for that exact reason, meaning Scott was telling him everything we already knew.
Stiles dropped his phone back in his lap. “I already told him we were on our way when I picked you up.”
“I think he just likes to repeat things and make sure we understand everything.” I suggested with a small shrug.
“Yeah, well, I wish I could mute him, sometimes. He’s my best friend, but a mute button would be great at times.”
“Scott McMute.” I chuckled at the nickname. “Kind of has a nice ring to it.”
Stiles laughed. "McMute." He turned the steering wheel and pulled into the parking lot of the Sheriff's station. He sighed before he met my gaze after parking and shutting off the jeep. "You ready to do this?"
The mood changed again. We knew what we had to do today. Mr. Stilinski had a right to know what was happening in Beacon Hills, so he could be prepared for whatever may come our way. Several assassins in Beacon Hills was definitely something to worry about. I nodded once before the two of us climbed out of the jeep, reuniting with Aiden and Isaac outside of the building.
The four of us made our way inside, not surprised to see Scott already in Mr. Stilinski's office, waiting for us to begin our explanation. I leaned against the front of the wooden desk, nodding at Stiles for him to start. Mr. Stilinski knew we came here to tell him about the supernatural, which he responded by closing his office door.
"So, the Walcott's were the first," Stiles began to share with his dad. He glanced at the rest of us in the office, spread out in different places.
"At least, the first we know about." I added with a small hand wave.
Stiles nodded in agreement. "Four murders. Sean, his brother, and their parents. They were killed by a professional assassin called The Mute. Weapon of choice, a military tomahawk. But then, The Mute was killed by Pete Hale after he tried to blow up Derek with a Claymore mine. Next was Demarco. He delivered a keg to the party at Lydia's lake house, and got decapitated outside his car."
Scott handed the list over to Mr. Stilinksi, who raised a brow at the names printed on the paper. "It's a dead pool," Scott informed him. "A hit list of supernatural creatures. This is only part of it. The rest still has to be decoded."
"Who found this list?" Mr. Stilinski asked, reading over the names.
"Lydia." Aiden answered.
"How?"
"She wrote it--"
I cut Stiles off, correcting him, "Actually, she transcribed it without realizing it."
Mr. Stilinski's eyes darted to his son's, raising his brows as he asked, "Banshee?"
"Banshee." Stiles confirmed.
"Beautiful." Mr. Stilinski uttered under his breath. He gestured to the dead pool list in his hands. "All right, what are these numbers next to the names?"
"We're getting to that," Stiles replied. "First, you need to know that the code was broken with a cipher key."
Aiden and Isaac moved around in the office, choosing to stand on either side of me to lean against the desk. Aiden was the only one in the room when Lydia transcribed the dead pool. He called me after it happened. Scott and I had to make sure Liam would be okay until morning before we could meet up with the rest of the pack, and discuss what happened.
Liam was exhausted by the time morning rolled around. We kept him in the boat house, just in case he lost control of himself again. Luckily, he never did, but none of us got any sleep. It wasn't until around three in the morning that Lydia kicked everyone out of the lake house, declaring the party was over. Everyone was exhausted. I don't think anyone has slept at all.
"Wait. You mean, like a...keyword?" Mr. Stilinski questioned.
Aiden folded his arms over his chest. "It's actually a name."
"Allison." Scott spoke with a tinge of sadness laced in his voice.
"Her name broke a third of the list." I copied Aiden's actions by crossing my arms.
Isaac nodded along. "And now, we think there's two other cipher keys."
"Which will give us the rest of the names." Mr. Stilinski said out loud, trying to keep up to date with the whole situation. "Okay. So, how do we get the cipher keys?"
“The same way we got the code.” I informed him.
All of this new information must be a lot for him to handle. When we met back up at the lake house to talk about everything, I felt overwhelmed by from all of it. I went from being worried about Liam to finding out there was a dead pool out there with most of my friends on it. If Scott, Kira, and Lydia was on the list, then I was sure everyone else would be on it, including myself. The one one to be safe would be Stiles.
“Lydia.” Scott stated with a glance in my direction.
“She’s been out at the lake house all weekend trying to find the other two keywords.” Aiden reached for his phone in his pocket, checking to see if he had any new messages from our strawberry blonde friend. He had been at the lake house quite a bit this weekend to try to help her, along with Kira and Malia.
Mr. Stilinski’s hand dropped down to his side after he switched the list into his other hand. “You didn’t know about Demarco or Carrie.” He waved his hand at the other names. “And what about these other two names on the list? Uh, Kayleen Bettcher and Elias Town. They werewolves, too?”
I shrugged my shoulders. “We don’t know.”
“But Deaton said that the Nemeton would draw supernatural creatures here.” Scott added.
Mr. Stilinski quickly glanced at everyone in the room before he asked, “Here being Beacon Hills? Or Beacon County? The population of Beacon Hills is just under thirty thousand.”
“And dropping.” Stiles commented, sarcastically.
I slapped Aiden’s arm, knowing he would understand what I wanted him to do. Like I wanted, he slapped the back of his hand against Stiles’ chest. Stiles jumped, surprised by the blow. I shot him a glare about his sarcastic comment.
Mr. Stilinski ignored the childish behavior and continued, “But if we’re talking Beacon County then you’re looking at close to five hundred thousand. Look, how many werewolves, banshees, kitsunes, hybrids, and whatever the hell else is out there are we talking about?”
I half raised my hand in the air. “Pretty sure I’m the only hybrid. We are pretty rare.”
Mr. Stilinski gave me a look, like I wasn’t helping him right now.
I nodded once. “Right. Sorry. I’ll shut up now.”
“And what if the next cipher key uncovers not twelve names, but one hundred?” He continued, like I never interrupted him.
Stiles shook his head. “We don’t think there would be that many. There’s a limit.”
“Because of the numbers, we think that once we decode the names, the numbers will add up to 117.”
“117 what?” Mr. Stilinski frowned.
“Million.” Isaac answered.
“117 millions dollars, Dad. Stolen from the Hale vault and is being used by someone to finance all these murders.” Stiles stressed to him.
“Someone who wants every supernatural in Beacon Hills dead.” Isaac straightened up from where he had been leaning against the desk.
A deep sigh came from Mr. Stilinski. “So, the coded list goes out and, somehow, these professional assassins get that list.”
“And a cipher key.” Stiles added with a head nod.
“And then they go after the names on the list. They being killers with no mouths, tomahawks, thermo-cut wires that can take your head off.”
Stiles motioned for Aiden to step out of his way as he approached the desk. He stood beside me while searching through the crime pictures from everyone who has been killed so far. "Let me see." Stiles picked up a photo that was a stab wound from Carrie. "Carrie was, also, stabbed." He tapped the picture. "What's this mark?"
Mr. Stilinski peered over his son's shoulder. "We're not sure yet. We're still waiting of the ME's report. There's one other thing I don't get. How did this new assassin know that Demarco was going to be at the lake house?"
My brother shrugged his shoulders, nonchalantly. "Everyone knows he delivers kegs to teenagers for a little extra cash." Isaac seemed entirely too calm about the fact he just told Mr. Stilinski about Demarco's side job. Of course, none of that matter now that he was murdered this weekend.
"Ah," Mr. Stilinski made a noise of realization. "So, whoever ordered that keg killed Demarco."
"Yeah, it was someone at the party." Aiden commented. "A student."
XXXX
Here is a rather long chapter for you guys. I hoped you liked it. I knew this chapter was mainly all about them informing Mr. Stilinski, so I really wanted to have Stiles and Chloe have some sort of conversation ahead of time. That's how the beginning of this was made.
I liked all of the cute, little moments between Chloe and Stiles.
I believe the next chapter will be with Liam and Derek. You know, when they are in the boy's locker room. Chloe will be there with Scott since she's Liam's Alpha as well.
Question: Do we have a ship name for Chloe and Stiles?
So, yeah!