My reflection in the bathroom mirror stared back at me as I tied the classic red and black flannel around my waist. I swiveled around on the toes of my sneakers, checking out the outfit I built together with the aid of Stiles' clothes. The option to stop at my house for a quick change wasn't possible—
A loud thud sounded from down the hall near Stiles' bedroom. My mental thoughts ceased as I froze in front of the mirror. I wandered out of the bathroom and back to Stiles' room. A small, amused giggle caught in the base of my throat when I returned back to his room and spotted him on the floor by his bed, limbs tangled in the dark blue comforter as he fought to free his body from the blanket.
"Uh, did you fall out of bed?" I asked him and leaded against the door frame with my arms folded over my chest.
His head snapped up from the floor when he heard my voice across the room. "What— Have you—" Stiles pushed himself up on his elbows to peer at the bed, taken aback by the emptiness. "I thought you were next to me."
A second laugh escaped from my lips. "I woke up about thirty minutes ago to get ready," I explained to him.
Stiles rose a brow. "Ready for what?"
My cell phone on the bedside table caught my attention as I walked over to it and plucked from his charger. I lowered myself into a crouch next to his body while I unlocked the screen and searched through my messages. I twisted the phone around in my hand to show Stiles the recent messages from Scott.
Stiles adjusted himself on his elbows and squinted his eyes at the screen.
"He has a plan to find the Benefactor," I told him while he read the messages. "We're supposed to meet at his place in twenty minutes."
"Why didn't you wake me?" Stiles' eyes darted from the screen to my face.
I flashed a mischievous grin. "I was waiting until after I ransacked your clothes."
The answer took Stiles by surprise as he shifted his attention away from my face to the black Star Wars logo shirt I wore with the flannel tied around my face. The left corner of his lips tugged upward in a smile. His eyes stopped traveling down my body when he recognized the black leggings I kept on.
"You should wear my clothes more often," he responded in a softer voice and a twinkle in his eyes.
My own lips transformed into a coy smile and my cheeks grew warm at his genuine declaration. I tapped his chest twice. "You should get ready," I swiftly changed the subject. "Scott needs our help."
Stiles took half the time I took to get ready this morning before we climbed into his beloved Jeep and headed to Scott's house. While I struggled to decide on an outfit with help from his wardrobe, he simply threw on a pair of dark jeans with a green plaid shirt over a brown shirt. He barely even checked to make sure he would match when he pulled the clothing materials over his body.
The atmosphere was quiet within the confines of the jeep. The radio was lowly playing, despite the static of the station going in and out of range. Things were better between the two of us after we talked last night. He explained how he was left in a state of shock after I believed he was my father and how he didn't want to worsen the situation, so he distanced himself immediately.
We talked everything through to the point where we were hiding nothing from each other anymore. Not that we had secrets before, but after that traumatic experience, we wanted to make sure we understood how the other was feeling.
Stiles even explained what happened after he fled from the vault with Isaac. They didn't have a plan, but once they discovered how Finstock was infected by the virus, the evil mastermind himself made an appearance with a gun in hand. There were various parts of me split up with different emotions; fear, shock, frustration for not realizing it was the SAT instructor, Simon. The man was in front of us the entire time and we didn't even realize it.
"You okay?" Stiles asked with his hands on the wheel, glancing in my direction while also keeping his eyes on the road.
"Yeah." I smiled at him in the driver's seat. "Sorry, I was thinking about how you had a gun pointed to your head yesterday. I never would have forgiven myself if something would have happened to you."
Stiles removed his right hand from the wheel and placed it on top of my left thigh, rubbing his thumb over the black cotton material of my leggings. "Your brother made sure nothing did," he reminded me. "After he fell to the ground, claiming he couldn't see, I thought I was on my own. I think he could hear when Agent McCall entered the room and tackled me to the floor before he fired his own gun."
"Isaac didn't even tell me any of this when we left."
"He probably didn't want you to worry," Stiles stated.
x
A deep breath escaped from my lips as I assessed the situation the pack currently found ourselves in. Never in my life had I ever expected we would be doing something to this extreme nor did I ever want to. This was way worse than any of our other plans we had come up with in a time of need.
Best case scenario, we catch the Benefactor and found out who is behind all of this. Worst case scenario, Scott dies.
The entire pack was furious when Scott announced the plan when we all arrived at his house. He knew the plan was a risk, but painted it to be our only option. All of us rose our voice at one point, hoping to talk some sense into Scott until we eventually realized this was the best option we had.
My heart plummeted to my stomach and the blood immediately drained from my face when Scott told us in important role in the plan. I felt sick at the thought, fearful of the consequence of what would happen if we failed. The words flew off my tongue before I had the conscious thought to think them through when I offered to switch places with Scott.
Isaac and Aiden were quick to deny that option before anyone could consider it. A pure look of terror flashed across Stiles' face when he heard my idea. According to the rest of the pack, there was a greater risk if I were to switch roles with Scott. They needed my extra strength and senses for whatever was to come.
Four closed laptops laid on top of the kitchen table with the pack surrounding them on each side, equally terrified for the plan that was soon to unfold. The entire kitchen reeked of anxiety and fear as the feelings radiated off of everyone in the room. We made our opinions on this plan quite clear, yet we continued to move forward with it.
Kira eyed the laptops with a worried look. "Is four enough?" She tentatively questioned.
"Depends on how many cameras they have, but I think so," Stiles answered next to me.
My hands tightened around the edge of the table. "Four laptops mean we can cover sixteen cameras," I added, bringing her attention onto me. I shot her a tight lipped smile. "We should be okay."
She weakly nodded to herself.
"Are we really doing this?" Liam asked, worriedly, sneaking a glance at everyone at the table.
"We're doing it," Scott glanced at me on his left before he nodded at Liam across from him. "Tonight."
Liam stared down at the floor by his shoes, clearly unnerved by our plan. "But isn't it kind of dangerous?" He glanced at me from his peripheral vision.
"Liam, you don't have to do this," I softly told him with my arm extended to place over his hand on the table.
He locked eyes with me.
"It's incredibly dangerous and borderline idiotic," Stiles responded with a small bounce of his right leg. Anxiety was eating him alive on the inside.
Isaac scoffed from his position behind me. His arms were folded over his chest as he shared a quick look with Aiden beside him. "No, I think we passed idiotic when we all decided to kill Scott in this plan."
My grip on the table tightened. "We're not killing him!" I snipped, refusing to believe we would technically be murdering Scott.
"We kind of are," Aiden muttered.
My head marginally shook at his comment. This plan terrified me. If we didn't get back to Scott in time to restart his heart to his normal beat...I couldn't even finish the thought of what would happen.
Liam nervously glanced at Scott and myself. "Have you guys done something like this before?"
I grimaced.
Stiles squinted his dark eyes. "Something dangerous or something idiotic?"
Aiden walked a few paces over and placed his hands on Liam's shoulders. "You should hear some of our stories," he exclaimed.
Liam swallowed as the hands dropped from his shoulders. His attention shifted back to me with his icy blue eyes filled with fear he struggled to suppress.
"I think it's a yes to both," Kira intervened with her own look of panic present on her face.
"You don't have to be part of it if you don't want to," Scott directed at our youngest beta.
I gently squeezed his hand. "We'll completely understand if you want to sit this one out," I reassured him with a kind smile.
A strong part of me actually wanted Liam to agree the plan was too much for him and decide to sit on the sidelines. There were too many people involved in this plan that I would gravely be worried about. The last thing I wanted was for Liam to be caught in the middle of assassins and potentially the Benefactor again. I'd never forgive myself if anything ever happened to Liam.
"I'm not scared," Liam countered.
Stiles stretched out to clamp his hand on his shoulders. "Then you're borderline idiotic," he sarcastically congratulated Liam with a quick wink.
Aiden heaved a sigh from where he perched himself against the kitchen counter by the stove, arms crossed over his chest. "You need fear when you're going into a plan like this. It keeps you from being reckless," he shared.
Stiles dropped his hand from Liam's shoulder and twisted his body back toward Scott. "If we do this, we don't know what's coming for us. You know that, right?"
"How do we even know something's definitely coming?" Kira asked, flicking her gaze between the three of us.
"Because the tape from Garrett's bag said visual confirmation required."
Isaac nodded. "I remember Simon saying the same thing."
"He couldn't get paid by the Benefactor until he had proof you guys were dead," Stiles finished his train of thought.
"So, the idea is," Scott prompted, "What if you kill someone on the Deadpool, but you can't send the proof?"
Kira shook her head. "You don't get paid."
Scott's eyes moved around the table. "He still needs to know if the target is really dead."
I nervously swallowed.
"Especially if it's someone high on the list," Isaac added.
Liam nodded to himself as he took the information in. "So, if he wants visual confirmation..."
"He's going to have to come get it himself," Scott concluded.
My head cocked to the side as I sighed, "That's not even my least favorite part of the plan."
XXXX
Hi hello. Welcome to a new update on this story.
I must say social distancing is a wonderful time to write. I've been very motivated this week and honestly, it keeps me distracted from my anxiety. I'm going to do my best to update this story again some time this week. My wifi has been really bad lately, so hopefully it allows me to update.
Chloe is feeling really uneasy about this plan. Looks like we will see how it goes. I might change a few things, not too crazy. I wouldn't stress about it.
Question: How do you think the next chapter will go? Is there anything you want to happen?
So, yeah!