CHAPTER SEVENTY-ONE:
WERECOYOTE

THEY PULLED UP TO THE Tate residence, Elaine had been holding Stiles' hand as the boy drove his jeep, staring blankly out the window. She only looked away when Noah opened his car door and got out of his car, heading up to the man's front porch. That was their cue to get out and sneak into Malia's room, trying to help Scott find something that might actually be useful.

"All I'm getting is some animal smell." Scott huffed.

"What kind of animal?" Stiles whispered.

That's when Scott froze, looking in the doorway. "Dog." Elaine and Stiles both turned their heads to see a dog standing there, causing both of them to freeze as well.

"Hi, puppy." Stiles looked at the dog, not moving his eyes from the creature as he talked to Scott. "Get rid of it."

"Me?"

"Yes, you. Glow your eyes at it, something, be the alpha." The dog snarled at the three teenagers.

"I can't." Scott muttered. "I don't have control."

"Okay, buddy, you're going to have to try something."

Scott swallowed before slowly holding his out towards the dog. "Nice doggy. . ." But that's when the dog started barking.

"Apollo!" Mr. Tate yelled the dogs name. "Apollo, shut up! Shut the hell up!" And then the dog suddenly stopped, turning around and running away from them. Elaine let out a breath of relief whilst Stiles handed Scott a book, but all that Scott could smell was the dog. That's when Stiles noticed a picture, causing the boy to pull out his phone and take a picture of the picture.

"I'm sorry." They all stood outside with the three walking towards Noah and Scott shaking his head. "I tried as hard as I could. If it wasn't so long ago, I might have been able to do it."

"It's okay. It was a long shot." Noah shook his head. "In fact, it was a pretty terrible idea. I think I just ripped a wound open in that poor man. I should have never brought you guys here. I don't know what I was thinking. Thanks for trying, alright?"

"Yeah." Scott nodded as Noah patted the boy's shoulder before getting into his car. "See you at home." And then they watched the man drive off.

Scott then turned towards Stiles. "Aren't there a lot of cases that go unsolved?"

"Yeah, I just think this is one he felt like he could've figured out right now."

"Why is it so important now?"

"He wants to be able to solve one more while he's still Sheriff."

"Still Sheriff? What do you mean, he is still the Sheriff, unless he's retiring or something?" Elaine frowned, furrowing her eyebrows. Stiles opened his mouth before sighing and then explaining what it was their father was doing.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" Elaine was the first one into the house. She didn't even bother using her hands to unlock the door, she just shoved her hands out and the door went flying open, startling Rafael. "Is this why you're here? To destroy everyone's lives?"

"This is about Stilinski." Rafael sighed.

"Yes it fucking is! What is wrong with you? You can't just come back into town to pull shit like this. I demand to know what it was that was going through your head when you decided to fire Stiles' dad." The argument lasted for what seemed like hours, with Scott and Elaine yelling at Rafael and Rafael trying to explain to them what happened.

"That doesn't make any sense, dad! Who are you helping?" Scott snapped at the man. "Just get out."

"Scott. . ."

"Oh don't pull that." Elaine growled. "I can't believe you did this to not only Scott's best friend, but to my boyfriend!"

"I'm not doing anything to your boyfriend."

Elaine let out a laugh. "Really, Rafael? You're firing his dad from his job! How the hell is that you not doing anything to him? Listen to what someone's told you for once in your goddamn life and get the hell out of our house!"

"Elaine, watch your mouth." Rafael warned the girl.

"Oh, no, you don't get to pull that shit. You can't pull the dad card on me because guess what Rafael, you're not my father! You never have been, and you never will be. So don't start trying to reprimand me like a child when you never did it to me when I actually was one!"

"Can somebody tell me what the hell is going on?" Melissa had just come home from work, looking between her children and ex-husband.

"This is why I'm never around you, because you pull shit like this." Without even glancing at her mother Elaine quickly went up to her room and slammed her door closed before letting out a scream of frustration, her hands clenched along with her jaw, and suddenly everything around her went flying. Her mirror broke, picture frames fell on the ground and shattered, books went flying off the shelves, and Elaine could feel herself losing control. She let out sobs, sitting on the floor as she pressed her hands into her head. It hurt, everything hurt.

It wasn't until a little while later when Rafael had left the home that Scott knocked on Elaine's door before entering the room. He stopped, looking around at her destroyed room before noticing the girl in the middle of the floor, staring numbly at the floor. Scott closed her door before making his way over to her, kneeling down in front of her. She shakily looked up at him, and he could see the horror that danced in her eyes. He knew that one of her biggest fears was losing control of her powers, and it seemed like that had been exactly what had happened. Scott hugged her and Elaine held onto him as she softly cried in his chest.

It wasn't until later that night that the two had went to Stiles' house, opening the door to Stiles' room causing the boy to sit up from where he had been laying on the bed. He looked between the two with furrowed eyebrows.

"Hey, what's going on?"

"You and me, we're going to go find a body." Scott answered. "A dead body."

"And this time, I'm coming with." Elaine nodded. And not a second later Stiles was standing up and throwing his shoes on before the three went for a hike in the woods, stopping only when they came across the crash site. The car had been completely demolished and turned upside down. It made Elaine wonder if someone could have really survived such a crash, but then again nothing in Beacon Hills seemed to surprise her anymore.

"Why wouldn't they move it? Isn't it evidence?" Scott questioned.

Stiles held the flashlight, carefully pointing the flashlight towards the car as he kept his distance, looking inside of the crashed vehicle. "Probably too much of a pain in the ass to tow out." That's when Stiles spotted something. "Look at this." Scott and Elaine carefully followed him closer to the car, look at the claw marks that were ripped into the metal. "See those? Animal claws would be closer together, right? A lot closer."

There was a pause as Scott inspected the markings before saying, "Then it was a werewolf."

"So, my dad was right." Stiles breathed before kneeling down and inspecting the inside of the car even closer. Elaine and Scott were leaning over something before Elaine spotted something Stiles had grazed with his light.

"Hey, what is that?" Elaine questioned, pointing towards the object. Stiles looked at it before pulling it out to reveal a baby doll. Elaine scrunched her nose up, she wasn't a fan of dolls. Stiles held it, shining the light on the thing before it talked.

"I'm hungry." Stiles let out a scream, throwing the baby doll to the ground, and bringing himself down to the ground, breathing heavily as the two siblings looked down at the boy. He swallowed thickly.

"I think I just had a minor heart attack."

That's when growling could be heard, grabbing the trio's attention. "Hey, Stiles, Elaine. . . please tell me you see that." Stiles stood up from the ground, joining Elaine's side before they narrowed their eyes on the animal that was not too far from the car.

"I see it." Both of them nodded. The animal was quick to turn away and Scott was quick to run after it, ignoring the calls from Elaine and Stiles. The two exchanged quick glances, before quickly running in the direction that Scott had went and in the process they had managed to find what seemed to be a coyote's den. They ran through the trees, their sight being only that of Stiles' flashlight. They continued only for Stiles to let out a scream along with Scott to scream before the duo realized it was each other.

"How many times you plan on screaming tonight?" Elaine questioned, raising an eyebrow at the boy.

Stiles ignored the girl before looking at Scott. "I think I found something."

"So did I." Scott responded.

Scott followed the duo as they led him to the den, entering to reveal the stuffed bunny rabbit they had found already placed inside. Stiles was the one to speak. "It's a coyote den."

"Werecoyote." Scott corrected.

Stiles moved forward, picking up what seemed like a jacket. "You see this? This is Malia's. Remember, it's the same one she was wearing in the photo."

Scott moved forward and grabbed the bunny before suddenly saying, "We shouldn't be in here."

"What do you mean?" Stiles frowned.

"She's not going to come back now. We've just invaded her home. Our scent's going to be anywhere."

"If she's not going to come back here, where's she going to go?" Elaine asked.

Scott sighed. "I don't know."

"Can you track her now? You think you got her scent?" Stiles urged.

Scott sniffed the air before saying, "Maybe. But I'm better at this when I'm a full wolf. And I'm still worried that if I do it, I won't be able to turn back."

"The door's still open," Stiles muttered.

"If I can't get to Derek, we're gonna have to find someone else to help." Scott paused for a moment before turning towards Stiles. "This is basically a crime scene, right? I think it might be a little out of my boss's lead."

"And more in my dad's." Stiles caught on.

They called the man and he brought himself along with a few other cops and inspected the den. The three teenagers anxiously waited outside before watching Stiles' dad climb out of the den, looking at the three with something in his hand. He walked down to the three before quietly speaking to them.

"You're sure it was her?"

"I looked her right in the eyes." Scott nodded. "And they glowed just like mine."

"It makes sense, dad." Stiles urged.

"But it wasn't a girl. It was a four-legged coyote, right?"

"Well, okay. But yeah, see that's the point that we don't exactly have figured out yeah."

"Okay, but if it was a full moon and she did change while her mom was driving, then anything could've happened." Scott continued.

"Horrible things could've happened." Stiles included. "Ripping, shredding, tearing things."

"Which is probably what caused the accident."

"Think about it dad, alright? They're driving, Malia starts to change, she goes out of control, the mom crashes and everybody dies. . ."

"Except for Malia."

Elaine stood there for a moment before asking, "Am I the only one that's still a little queasy when it comes to death and dead bodies?" She looked between Scott and Stiles before nodding her head. "Apparently so."

Stiles was quick to continued his point. "She blames herself, alright, goes off running into the woods and eventually becomes trapped inside the body of a coyote."

"That makes sense." Noah nodded. Stiles and Scott both let out a sigh of relief. "In a Chinese folktale! Boys, this is insane." Elaine watched the look that crossed Stiles' face, one he had seen right before yelling at his dad in the hospital about how he didn't believe him. She reached over and squeezed his hand, smiling at Noah's next words. "I need this kept quiet. The three of you, not a word. I don't want anyone hearing about this. I especially don't want Mr. Tate hearing about this."

That's when Elaine noticed Scott looking at something, following his eyeline only to see nothing there. She frowned before grabbing onto her brother. "Scott? Scotty?" He snapped his head back towards the group.

"Sorry." The boy apologized. "What did you say?"

"Oh, hell." Noah groaned, making the three turn to watch another cop car pull up. And what a surprise it was Rafael. Elaine backed away immediately, making Stiles look at her.

"I can't be near him." Elaine whispered. "I lost control last time, I can't do that again." The three nodded towards the girl before she quickly ran away from the scene, glancing back just in time to see Rafael's eyes on her retreating figure.