┌─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───┐
chapter eight!
BAIT
└─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───┘

( unleashed, pt. i )

∘₊✧──────✧₊∘

BEACON HILLS HIGH School is infamous for two things: lacrosse, and also their lack of an all-girls lacrosse team. Vera isn't sure if it's due to an absence of interest or the fact that the administration simply doesn't want to make a team, but Vera has been the only girl since her freshman year. Coach Bobby Finstock had agreed to let her try out when she'd shown up in his office irate and appalled there wasn't a team for girls. What she lacks vertically allows her to weave in and out of hulking male players like water slipping between rocks. Not to mention that all of her training with the Hales had made her quick on her feet. She'd made the team, made it again sophomore year, and is hoping for a third round this spring.

But one downside to the off-season for lacrosse is that all players are required to run cross-country. It's not that Vera minds running. It just seems more like a nuisance with an Alpha pack on the loose, virgin sacrifices occurring, and whatever demonic hell-born nightmare Beacon Hills can lure into town next.

"Pérez?" Coach Finstock calls from outside the women's locker room, which is empty except for her. All of the other female cross-country runners had already gone outside. The result is an echo that sends the man's naturally angry tone reverberating through the air, bouncing off the walls and hitting her eardrums more times than she'd like. "You still in there? I legally can't come in, so..."

"Yeah, Coach," she says, tightening the laces on her black sneakers. "I'll be out in a second."

"Hurry up," he urges. "Most of the team is already out there, and I don't need any harassment from the cross-country coach that my lacrosse players are slow."

Vera rolls her eyes at Coach's overly-competitive disposition and sets her foot on the ground from where it had been propped up on a bench, now satisfied that her shoes won't fly off as she's sprinting through the woods. She grabs her water bottle and heads out of the school through the back door.

The crisp air hits her as soon as she opens the doors to the outside world. This early in the morning, the sun has just started to rise, spilling warm colors across the terrain and making the grass shimmer from the dew collected on the ends of the blades. What isn't touched by the first rays of the sun is bathed in shadows. The exposed skin of her neck is covered in goosebumps due to her ponytail. She's grateful that she'd chosen to wear a long-sleeved shirt; the olive-green material, as well as her leggings, will keep her warm.

It's not difficult to find the other players once she reaches the practice trail. She first notices Dominic — he's a couple of inches shorter than most of the other guys, so locating him in a crowd is easy — and sighs in relief. Her friend has been running since he was in diapers. His mother often tells stories of chasing him down the sidewalk after he'd broken free from the baby gate, his chubby legs taking him faster than a toddler should be able to move. That talent has stuck with him throughout his career in sports. While his winters are occupied with ice hockey, his autumns are booked with cross-country and his springs involve track and field.

As she gets closer, she notices how stiff Dom is. His normally loose posture is rigid, fists curled at his sides. She also realizes that Scott is standing in front of him as if the placement is purposeful. Stiles stands awkwardly to Dom's left, completing some sort of uneven triangle that seems off-putting and unnatural.

"Hey," she greets the trio when she finally reaches them so they now form a diamond, turning so she can see Dom's face. His expression is as dark as his black sweatshirt, mouth twisted into a furious frown and stare locked on something past Scott's head. He doesn't seem to notice her presence.

"Hey, look at that! Vera's here!" Stiles exclaims pointedly. Vera's eyebrows crease at his suspiciously eager tone. "Vera, please tell our friend that murdering someone during cross country practice would probably put an ugly stain on his permanent record and should, therefore, not be on today's to-do list."

Her eyebrows crease even further. "What?"

She follows Dominic's line of sight and immediately understands the rage spilling from him like oil. Aiden and Ethan Steiner, the Alpha twins, have apparently joined the cross-country team as well. It doesn't seem like a coincidence that they're following her, Scott, Isaac, Stiles, and Dominic. Rather, judging by the insulting smirk that Aiden tosses Dominic's way, and how Ethan is staring at Isaac like he wants to kick him to the ground, it seems that they're just where they want to be.

Wrath churns in Vera's gut, rising the foulest of emotions to the surface and twisting her face into a hate-filled sneer. Perhaps she'd been incorrect before by saying she only hates Peter. Those Alpha twins have smug faces that are begging to be punched.

"Stiles, you shouldn't have said anything," Scott groans upon detecting the chemosignals now radiating from Vera as well. He knows firsthand how terrifying angry Latina women can be, and it shows in the dismay on his tanned face.

"I won't kill them— I have a moral code," Vera says. "But if you find Ethan with a broken face, don't tell Coach it was me."

She starts to stalk forward, but stops when Scott takes her bicep and holds her in place. Her glare snaps to him. It's a stark contrast to the softness in his eyes, the innate goodness exuding from him that could probably turn the devil back into an angel.

"Vera, you can't," he says firmly. She rolls her eyes in response, about to tug away, but he steps closer and barrels on with his reason and logic. "Stay off their radar. Don't give them a reason to come after you— they can tell Deucalion, and then you'll be on his trail again."

Vera had roughly explained her history with Deucalion to her other friends, figuring that it was best for them to know. Any missing information could result in another person's death. Now that Vera's ugliest secret isn't hidden to them anymore, she hopes that the others will come forward with whatever new leads they find as well.

"Maybe if I rough them up a little, it'll show Deucalion not to mess with me," she growls, eyes shifting to a milky white as she moves away from Scott again.

"Listen to me," he begs, gently pulling her back. Her eyes turn back to their normal brown as she's forced to take a step toward him. "You know that's not true. Be smart."

Vera huffs through her nose, her rage boiling in her gut and setting her heart ablaze as she catches the predatory glance Ethan sends toward Dominic before flickering his eyes away. But Scott is right— as usual. She forces rational thoughts to break through the barrier that had clouded her head with nothing but anger. Pounding the daylights out of the twins with her fists will result in nothing but giving them a reason to fight back themselves or get their leader to do it for them.

She checks to make sure nobody is looking their way before turning her left arm transparent and phasing it out of Scott's grip. His face falls, thinking she's going to give in to the fury anyway, but she merely heaves a sigh of relent and tears her glare away from the Alphas.

"Fine," she spits in agreement, crossing her arms over her chest.

"Great!" Stiles cheers with a clap. "Now all we have to do is keep an eye on Dominic."

"And Isaac," Dom points out, his voice a low rumble that he forces through gritted teeth. The three other teenagers turn to see the curly-haired boy crouched down to tie his shoe. Aiden and Ethan appear behind him, their voices indistinguishable to Vera, but judging by their taunting expressions, they're trying to goad him into picking a fight. Isaac is predictable. His anger often goes unchecked, acting on whims and impulses rather than logic, much like her. And he doesn't have much to lose by giving in.

She sighs. It's going to work.

"I've got him," Scott says. "Stiles, Vera, watch Dominic."

Vera doesn't know if her friend would actually act on the betrayal and hurt still plaguing him. He's done an impressive job at avoiding Ethan for the past week, masking his scent with his dad's cologne and stealing his brother's socks. It had worked enough to confuse any signals Ethan had been receiving, but now, when they're relatively unsupervised while on the course...

She turns to Dom, hoping sarcasm will work in her favor. "You have to stay alive so you can keep watching Hades. And because your mother will resurrect you and kill you again if you die out here."

Dominic does not respond. There's no hint on his face that he'd even registered her words.

Coach's whistle slices through the brisk, early-morning air. "Line up!"

The four of them obey Coach's orders and take their places with the rest of the team at the invisible starting line on the dirt. The heights of those nearby prevent her from seeing where Isaac is. As a fellow pack member, she has to make sure he doesn't get himself killed. Derek would be very disappointed.

The whistle blows again, signaling the start of the race. Coach's voice calls out, "Pace yourselves!" but Aiden and Ethan utterly ignore the order. Instead, they sprint as fast as they can, their legs turning into blurs, until they round a curve of the trail and disappear from sight.

Then she almost trips over Isaac's form, still crouched on the ground, barely managing to catch herself before she eats dirt. Scott surges forward to grab Isaac's arm before he can chase after the twins.

"Isaac," he warns, but the taller boy's expression is already warped with wrath.

"It's them," he hisses, tearing himself away from Scott's grip and chasing after the Alphas. He can't move as quickly as them, but his enhanced speed is still enough to carry him to the front of the crowd within seconds.

"Isaac, wait!"

Scott follows, zipping through the tangle of runners with supernatural speed. Vera hasn't even started running yet. She's still recovering from almost falling on her face, hands placed on her knees and back hunched. It only takes a quick scan of the other participants for her to realize that Dom has blended in with the crowd. Briefly, she wonders if he's choosing to stay out of the Alpha's business or if he's planning something deeper.

The shriek of Coach's beloved whistle pierces her ears again, making her wince. "Stilinski! Pérez! This practice isn't optional. Get your asses moving!"

Vera turns to see Stiles watching her like a hawk. She doesn't give him a warning before taking off, feet flying on the tightly-packed dirt quickly enough that she gets ahead of him but not at full-speed, so she lags behind the majority of the other runners. She waits until she completes the first curve and is therefore out of Coach's sight. Then, while Stiles is still struggling to catch up, she vanishes from sight.

His panicked voice gives a strangled-sounding yell from behind her. "Vera, no!"

She's not going to hunt down the Alphas, but he doesn't know that. She merely wants to make sure that Isaac's impulsivity doesn't cause her to lose another pack member. Them running in front of everyone had surely been bait, and Isaac is going to fall for it hook, line, and sinker.

Boys. So predictable.

Vera lunges off-course and barrels into the trees to cut them off at the next turn. The foliage is thick, branches scraping the exposed skin of her face and snagging themselves in her ponytail. Luckily, her leggings and long sleeves protect most of her body, but she's certain she'll come out of this with a few scratches on her face and hands.

Eventually, the shrubs become too dense for her to brush past with minimal effort. A leaf gets caught in her hair, prickly sticks barricading her from the opposite end of the thicket. She forces herself to concentrate and focuses on intangibility. For a few precious seconds, she only hears the distant sound of Stiles' swearing and the thudding of her own heartbeat. Soon, her limbs turn transparent and she no longer feels the suffocating pressure of the plants around her. As she resumes her desperate sprinting, she doesn't leave a trace behind to be seen with the naked eye.

Vera bursts out into the open to find disappointment. The first curve is devoid of all werewolves. She knows she couldn't have gotten ahead of them already, so she cuts through the next chunk of greenery, legs moving so quickly it almost seems like her feet aren't touching the ground. And then she realizes why— her feet aren't touching the ground. For a few, short bursts at a time, she shoots right over the dirt and seems to hover just a few inches above it before hitting the dirt again.

Partial flight? This is new.

She doesn't have time to dwell on this newly-discovered ability. Instead, she uses it purely to her advantage, moving even faster toward her targets. She propels herself over stones and twigs that would have otherwise impeded her movements. Eventually, she reaches a point where she can hear their voices and determines that she'll reach Isaac and the twins by the time she emerges onto the next turn.

And she does. Isaac is on his knees, dried leaves clinging to the front of his shirt that suggest he'd formerly been stomach-down on the ground. Aiden has his arms locked behind his back while Ethan's hand is wrapped around his throat from behind. The position of his claws serves as a reminder that if Isaac tries to fight back, his nails are just a kill away.

"Ethan, I always forget, how many bones are in the human body?" Aiden asks with a taunting lilt to his voice, brown eyes alight with a disturbing amount of bloodlust.

The other twin has a sadistic, serpentine grin on his face as he replies, "I don't know. Let's count."

Just as he lifts his foot to bestow a grueling kick to Isaac's gut, Scott appears out of nowhere and punches Ethan's face so hard, the twin goes sprawling backward with a grunt and barely manages to catch himself on the grass. The sickening sound of cracking bone fills the otherwise quiet air, making Vera cringe.

Scott turns to Aiden with a challenging expression. "That's one."

Isaac twists himself free and jumps to his feet. A warning growl escapes from Aiden's mouth, his teeth already elongating to razor-sharp fangs. Ethan's bones crunch as he sets his dislocated jaw back into place with a deadly glare. Vera becomes painfully aware that a werewolf smackdown is about to ensue, and yet she still has the element of surprise because they're all too focused on each other to notice an extra heartbeat.

Roars rumble from deep within their throats. Still invisible, Vera carefully maneuvers herself so she's facing Aiden's back in case she needs to intervene. But her entire plan of being backup goes to shit when he abruptly whirls and sprints toward her so quickly she doesn't have time to restore her intangibility before he seizes her by the throat and lifts her off of the ground.

Vera's hands instinctively reach up to claw at his fingers as her concentration breaks, snapping her back into sight. Her lungs begin to burn from lack of oxygen when he adds more pressure to his hand. Aiden tilts his head to the side and bares his fangs at her, seemingly delighted in the way her eyes are watering. 

"Did you really think you could hide from us, Pérez?" he sneers, words slightly slurred by his sharp teeth. "Your little invisibility tricks don't work on us."

Vera responds by gathering her bearings, becoming intangible so she drops out of his grip, and returning to a solid form just quickly enough to bring her fist down to her navel, propelling it upward so she strikes him hard in the jaw. His head snaps back. The rest of his body moves with it, legs quickly skittering backward to maintain balance.

Her lungs still burn too much for her to smite him with a witty comeback. Instead, she greedily gulps down air, using the moments that Aiden is recovering to her advantage. Her trachea thanks her for it. The oxygen gets lodged in her spasming throat, causing a sputtering cough to erupt from her mouth as she hunches over.

Before either of the twins can retaliate, a girl's scream pierces through the air and causes all of their actions to come screeching to a halt. The Alphas race toward the source without looking back. Conversely, Scott rushes toward Vera, his expression a mix of concern and I-told-you-so as he loops her arm around his shoulders to help her walk. The height difference between them makes for an awkward situation; Vera's shoes hardly touch the ground.

"I told you to stay out of this," he says.

Vera can feel her face returning to its normal color with every intake of air. Even so, she still needs to reply slowly, her throat aching with each word that passes through her lips. "I.. would have... if he hadn't... been stupid enough... to follow them." She jabs a finger at Isaac at the word he, then gulps in more oxygen before continuing. "Besides, it doesn't matter. They already knew."

They reach the source of the scream to discover a true crime scene. The rest of the cross-country team is crowded around a singular tree, which seems normal from a distance. However, the closer they get, the more something uneasy settles into Vera's gut. The wrinkling of Scott and Isaac's noses further convinces her that something is wrong.

And then she sees the body. A young man, maybe young enough to be a senior at their school, is tied to the trunk by a dog leash wrapped around his neck like a makeshift garrote. But that's not all. His throat had also been slashed, causing partially-dried blood to gush down the front of his body until his leather jacket and dark jeans are soaked, as well as his sneakers. It had also leaked from his ears. The sight makes her stomach lurch, her eyes quickly averting from the gruesome murder.

They stop beside Stiles and Dominic, who are standing a safe distance from the boy and also from the rest of the runners who are gathered on the opposite side of the tree. Dom casts Vera a concerned glance when he sees Scott helping her walk. She shrugs it off, slipping her arm from around the werewolf's shoulders and choosing to stand on her own.

"It's him, isn't it?" Stiles asks Scott lowly.

Vera doesn't know what he's talking about. She's never seen the boy until now, but judging by the despondence lurking in Scott's almond-shaped eyes and the tension in his crooked jaw, he has.

She puffs out a sigh from the corner of her lips. Why is it, when something terrible happens in Beacon Hills, it somehow always involves one of them?

— ✯✯✯ —

It takes ten minutes for the Sheriff to arrive. Vera hears him before she sees him, immediately recognizing the voice that commands, "Hey, get out of the way. Get back! Get this area cordoned off before they trample every piece of evidence."

"Back up!" the female deputy who'd arrived with him orders, blocking others' view of the body. "Everyone back!"

Stiles starts forward to tell his father something, but Stilinski holds an impatient hand out to stop him. He turns back toward the deputy. "Get these kids out of here!"

"Dad, just come here," Stiles says, grabbing his father by the shoulder and leading him closer to the boy's body. He points at the slash on his neck and the blood leaking from the back of his dark head of hair. "Look. Look. Look at it. It's the same as the others. You see?"

"Yeah, I see that," Stilinski confirms in a slightly exasperated tone. He's used to his son's constant inputs on nearly all of his cases, and it seems that, as things get weirder around town, the less inclined he is to pay attention to Stiles' theories. "Do me a favor: go back to school, yeah? Coach, can you give us a hand here?"

The short, stocky man usually doesn't take orders from anyone, but the County Sheriff is a different story. Coach Finstock's hawk-like, hazel-eyed glare cuts across the sea of half-intrigued, half-disgusted students still swarming the surrounding area. "You heard the man! Nothing to see here. Probably just some homeless kid."

"Coach," Scott says slowly with a slight cringe at the man's insensitivity, "he was a senior."

"Oh," Coach says with a long exhale that he half-muffles by covering his mouth with his hand. Vera is almost surprised by his showcase of grief that he ultimately ruins two seconds later by asking, "He wasn't on the team, was he?"

Vera shoots him an incredulous expression at his lack of empathy.

"Kyle!" a blonde girl shrieks, appearing out of nowhere and darting toward the boy. The deputy seizes her around the middle before she can get too close. The girl's face is stricken with horror and anguish, fighting to get closer even as she's pulled away. Sobs wrack her thin frame.  "Oh, God. Kyle!"

Dominic has been strangely silent this entire time. Vera follows his heat-filled stare to see him once again observing the twins. Their expressions are unreadable, but judging by the way they glance at each other, they appear just as clueless as everyone else. The keyword for anything involving two murderous Alphas is appear. Vera isn't sure how to feel about their supposed innocence.

Sheriff Stilinski ushers them away so he can do his job. Vera rubs at her throat while she walks between Dom and Isaac, testing the level of pain by carefully swallowing. All that's left is a slight ache– Aiden hadn't been aiming to outright kill her on the spot, or she's sure it would have hurt more. Or that she would have been dead already.

"You see the way the twins looked at him?" Isaac questions nobody in particular as they head down a slight decline of dirt that leads them back to the school.

"Yeah, you mean like they had no idea what happened?" Stiles questions with his usual amount of erratic hand movements.

"No, no," Isaac protests with a thoughtful shake of his head. "They knew."

Stiles raises his eyebrows at his insistence. "The kid was strangled with a garrote, alright? Am I the only one recognizing the lack of werewolf-itude in these murders?"

"Oh, you think it's a coincidence they turn up and then people start dying?"

"Well, no, but I still don't think it's them."

"I hate them, but they wouldn't kill a guy and then leave the body on the same trail they knew we'd be running the very next day," Dominic adds, absentmindedly straightening out the strings of his sweatshirt. "The Alphas are smarter than that."

Stiles points at him. "See? Thank you for the reasoning, Dominic."

"Plus, since I'm not a virgin, this entire scenario doesn't apply to me."

Stiles' expression of gratitude morphs into one of disbelief, then annoyance, brown eyes rolling so dramatically the motion is almost audible. "Your display of concern for your sexually inexperienced friends is very heartwarming."

Vera doesn't know what to think. Stiles is right– the murders haven't been consistent with how werewolves usually kill, and she's been around wolves long enough to know the difference. Then again, it could have been done on purpose. They might be trying to wean suspicion off of their trail. Why would werewolves bother with a garrote if they could easily slash a throat or pierce a lung?

"I think they're worth keeping an eye on," she says. "I don't think they're as clueless as they're letting on."

"Scott?" Isaac questions as they come to a stop on level ground, causing them all to turn to the one person who hasn't voiced their opinion yet. "How about you?"

Scott inhales deeply and shoves his hands into the pockets of his zip-up hoodie before replying, "I don't know yet."

Stiles, arms crossed over his chest expectantly, raises his eyebrows. "You don't know yet?"

"Well, Isaac and Vera have a point. Seriously, dude, human sacrifices?"

"Scott, your eyes turn into yellow glow sticks, okay? Hair literally grows from your cheeks and then will immediately disappear, if I were to stab you right now, it would just magically heal, and don't even get me started on Vera, but you're telling me you're having trouble grasping human sacrifices?"

Scott sighs and turns to Isaac with his lips pressed into a line. "That's a good point, too."

"I don't care," the Beta growls, ice-blue eyes harboring a promise of bloodshed. "They killed that kid, they killed the girl that saved me, and I'm gonna kill them, too."

The four remaining teenagers share mirrored expressions of exasperation. Vera puffs air out of the side of her mouth and watches the lanky boy storm back toward the school, his broad shoulders tense with hatred. With a ticking time bomb like Isaac in her pack, it seems that her job of damage control is never finished.

_________

a/n:

this chapter was kind of a pain to write because it was too important to skip but also included a lot of just... running... so i tried to spice it up with some interesting points. vera's new abilities! dom's feelings toward ethan! vera *ahem* listening to scott! i'm really excited for the next chapter, though, because the pack vs the twins was hilarious to watch.

fun fact: my parents went to see one of orny adams' comedy shows when i was a freshman in high school, and when i SCREECHED to them about him being in teen wolf, they told him about me, took a photo with him, and got me a signed shirt that i still have. i don't wanna include the picture with him because,,, my parents,,, but here's a pic of the shirt!

it's my prized possession and i haven't worn it because i don't want to ruin it with sweat, so it's been hanging in my closet for 5 years lmao

+ thank you so SO SO much for 11k reads!!! that truly means so much to me and i hope you guys are enjoying reading this book as much as i enjoy writing for it :)

—kristyn

( word count: 4.5k )