Chapter 18:
Who Is The Beast?
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The night after they had rescued Lydia, the guys had gone with Argent to follow Parrish who wondered what it was he was doing when the hellhound took control of him. The guys aside from Liam had been shocked by the size of the beast.
Even with them following Parrish, they had lost sight of the creature and couldn't find out who the beast was.
With their night cut short, the guys headed home except for Scott who had given Malia and Braeden the use of the house considering Malia's mother was still after her. Melissa had used mountain ash to keep the girls protected before she had left for work. With the mountain ash barrier up, Scott and Isaac couldn't get through. That left them no choice but to go to Imogen's house.
The three were in the kitchen, Isaac was finishing up the last of the pizza while Imogen was helping Scott finish up with his homework. The hybrid glanced away from her boyfriend who was still writing and looked at Isaac with a curious look. The beta who was in the midst of chewing felt her gaze on him and looked at her, "What?" He asked once he swallowed the last bite.
She rested her head on her hand as she asked, "What's going on between you and Malia?" She hadn't been the only one to notice the strange tension between them but she was the first to ask. While she could tell they like each other, it seemed like something had happened.
He flushed feeling Scott's gaze on him as well. "Do we really have to talk about this?" He rather just not talk about it with his alpha in the room.
"He already knows about liking Malia." She said nonchalantly.
His blue eyes widened briefly and Scott pointed at his nose, "Your chemosignals are obvious."
Isaac groaned, feeling embarrassed that the whole pack was probably aware of his crush on Malia. "Okay, fine. She kissed me!" He snapped, his whole face red.
The couple's eyes brightened as if pleased by his progress with the werecoyote. "That's great!" Imogen grinned.
He sighed, "It would be great but she hasn't brought it up since it happened." That caused their smiles to drop as he continued. "I mean, I'm happy she kissed me since it means she does like me back but even though I want to ask her out... I think it would be better to wait until her mother is dealt with."
Scott noticed the concern in his betas gaze for the werecoyote. "You really do like her don't you?" It seemed that the crush Isaac had was more deep then either he and Imogen first thought.
Isaac thought of Malia and about his previous crush on Imogen. While he had liked Imogen in the past, the feelings he felt for Malia were stronger than he realized. "I don't think I love her at least not yet." He confessed aloud causing the couple in across from him to share smiles. When he realized what he said aloud, he flushed red. "Okay, that's it. I'm going to sleep!" He got off the stool and rushed up into the guest room.
Imogen and Scott shared a laugh. She leaned against his shoulder, peering up at him. "Want to go upstairs?"
He blinked, it took him a few seconds to catch on to why she wanted to head upstairs already. He kissed her forehead, "Alright." He had already finished his homework anyway and her bedroom was soundproof so they didn't have to worry about keeping Isaac or Omar up.
The couple didn't waste a second rushing upstairs to enjoy their night together.
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The next day at school, Mason told Liam about how he was sure the beast would show up during the lacrosse game which was going to be broadcasted on tv. This led to Stiles, Scott, Imogen, Lydia, Liam, and Allison to gather in the library. Isaac, Kira, and Malia were in class so they couldn't join them but they would be briefed later.
"Mason said it's not just to transmit frequency. It's high powered. Like it has to be a really strong signal." Liam explained.
Lydia frowned, "And that's causing it to shift?"
"No. I don't think it's just that. Last night Argent said that it's getting smarter." Scott said, glancing at them, "What if the Dread Doctors are trying to make the Beast grow faster?"
Stiles furrowed his brows, "With frequencies?"
"No, by shifting." The alpha said, "The frequency is just the trigger. The important part is when it shifts into the werewolf."
Imogen looked at him, "Like Peter."
"Right." He nodded, "Yeah, when Peter was an Alpha, he got stronger every full moon. Eventually, the burns healed and he was back to normal."
"So the Dread Doctors don't want to wait for the full moon."
"They want the Beast to be as strong as possible, as fast as possible."
"Because of Parrish."
"So if this is happening tonight, what are we going to do?"
Stiles dug into his bag and pulled out a photo. "Uh, we've got one clue to go on. This came from the hospital. Whoever's lurking inside the Beast is wearing a size 10 of indeterminate make."
Lydia's brow raised upward at her boyfriend, "Indeterminate?"
"Means, it's a partial print. Basically, it was all we were able to get considering all the fire, blood and carnage."
"How many size 10s are out there?" Scott questioned, they couldn't waste time searching every single person with a size 10 shoe.
Stiles pursed his lips, "Only one with Parrish's blood on the sole."
Liam looked between them with a nervous look, "So are we going to try to get the game canceled?"
"No, no, we're going to play, but we're just going to hope really hard that it doesn't turn into a blood-soaked massacre." Stiles said sarcastically. Lydia and Imogen rolled their eyes at him.
The beta ignored his sarcasm as he looked at his alpha, "Okay, but, um... Aren't we kind of missing out on a chance to catch this thing? We don't have the "who," but we have the "where" and the "when.""
"There's too many people." Imogen reminded him, they couldn't risk the beast showing up and massacring everyone in the stands.
"And we still don't actually know if it's going to happen. It just might end up being a regular lacrosse game." Lydia said optimistically, "It's possible, right?"
Stiles looked at his girlfriend, "That's absolutely possible." He said, pretending to actually agree with her.
Liam realized that they were right to be worried and sighed, "So we're still getting the game canceled?"
"We're getting the game canceled." Scott confirmed and they all stood up to head to their next class. Once class ended, Scott decided to go with Stiles to bring coach Finstock back so he could cancel the game since the substitute coach was someone who went by the books.
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It was the night of the game and unfortunately instead of forfeiting the game, Coach decided he wasn't going to. Allison went with Lydia so Parrish could get help from both Chris and Gerard. Malia was in charge of taking down the news so they could avoid the beast from showing up. While Imogen and Brett's sister Lori checked the bleachers if they could find someone with Parrish's blood on their shoes. The rest of the guys and Kira were on the field playing.
Not too long into the game, it seemed that Kira was getting too aggressive on the field and Brett had to get himself hurt in order to get her out of the game. Scott sent his girlfriend a worried look as she went after the kitsune.
Imogen was caught off guard when Kira started throwing fists at her. As much as Imogen didn't want to fight her friend, she had no choice but to fight back. The hybrid could hear her boyfriend's panicked voice in her head and told him that the fox had taken control over her again.
Whenever she got close enough to grab Kira's head, the girl would swipe at her. She needed to touch her in order to knock her out. The only other option she had is if Scott was here to use his alpha roar.
She let out a groan when the fox kicked her harshly in the stomach, knocking her back onto the ground. Deciding to use magic instead, she had Kira lifted in the air and brought her close to herself. She used her other hand and put two fingers to her temple and whispered a spell.
Kira's eyes rolled back and she was now unconscious. She brought the girl into the chemistry room, ignoring the mess that was in the hall and the locker room. "Im!" Scott yelled, having expected to find her still fighting Kira but instead found her with the kitsune lying on the table unconscious. "You stopped her."
"Yeah." She sighed, glancing at her friend. "She's going to freak out when she wakes up."
He approached his girlfriend and wiped a small bit of blood on the corner of her lips. "You okay?"
She hummed, her eyes softening for a moment before realizing that he wasn't on the field. "You should've stayed on the field."
"I got worried." He mumbled. While he trusted her to be able to take care of herself, he couldn't help but feel concerned whenever she got hurt. "I should probably go back."
"Yeah." She muttered, before grabbing his arm to stop him. "Hold on."
He looked at her, "What is it?"
She frowned, hearing the sound of screaming in the distance, "Do you hear that?"
He listened and the screaming wasn't the sound of cheering but the sound of terror. He swallowed, "That's not good." They froze when they heard students rushing in. They were screaming in fear.
Scott quickly shut the door when he heard the heavy stomps of the beast as it rushed by the room. In that moment Kira who had awoken, let out a startled gasp. "What was that?" She questioned, glancing at them with unease on her face.
"The beast." Imogen told her quietly as Scott opened the door. They saw large claw marks on the door across the hall. Before she could get a word out, Sott had rushed out after the beast. Imogen quickly went after him so she could both help him fight and keep the other students safe.
They were both injured but Braeden, Isaac, Liam, and Malia showed up to help them in the library. When the beast fled out the window of the library, Scott had quickly followed it's scent with Liam following behind him while the rest made sure that no one had been hurt.
Scott and Liam found out that Mason was the chimera they were searching for. They didn't get a chance to question him as Corey fled with Mason.