ROOOOOOOOOOOAR!!!
The roar was strong enough to shatter the night's silence.
The sound hit Davyd and Derek's ears, and they both instinctively brought their hands up to their ears. The sound made their heads throb.
The dizziness was quick, just a brief second of vertigo that made them blink in confusion.
When the roar finally stopped, the forest fell silent again. They lowered their hands, their hearing returning to normal.
The creature, or whatever it was, was no longer there.
"Well, very good..." Davyd clapped his hands as if he had just enjoyed a spectacular show.
"The bastard just came here, made a dramatic entrance, screamed like a bitch, and then vanished."
"He didn't come here to put on a show," Derek said, his voice low and grave. His eyes scanned the dark forest. "He came to give us a warning."
But Derek's mind went further than he cared for.
Another Alpha in Beacon Hills... The thought made his stomach churn.
Alphas don't appear out of nowhere. Especially not in another Alpha's territory. Could it have something to do with Laura's disappearance?
The memory of his sister was a stone in his chest, and anger burned along with the distrust.
Davyd stopped appreciating the moonlight. Turning to Derek, he asked, with a sadistic smile on his face:
"So... want to pick up where we left off?"
===
A while before the roar...
A light blue Jeep pulled up sharply and stopped at the entrance of the preserve.
Two teenagers stepped out of the Jeep.
"Are you sure we should be doing this, Stiles?" Scott asked, pulling on his hoodie.
"I mean, it's late. I was trying to get a good night's sleep before practice."
Stiles rolled his eyes, already halfway to the chains across the entrance. "Relax, Scott. We don't need rest since we're going to be warming the bench all season anyway."
Scott frowned, hurrying to catch up. "No, I'm playing this year. First line. I planned on it."
"A pathetically unrealistic dream," Stiles mocked as they slipped under the chains.
"Look, my dad, and literally the entire Beacon County Department plus the State Police, are crawling all over these woods."
He dropped his voice to a conspiratorial whisper as they started into the darkness.
"They're searching for a body. Two runners found only half of a girl, probably around twenty years old, and the officers are searching for the other half."
Scott stopped abruptly. "And you think that's a good reason to be out here?"
"It's the best reason! We're talking about a corpse!" Stiles exclaimed, pulling a flashlight from his pocket. "It's a chance to see history happen!"
As they started to climb the embankment, Scott fell behind, his breathing growing strained.
"Dude, wait up," Scott gasped. He reached into his pocket and pulled out the inhaler.
"I'm a severe asthmatic, remember?"
Stiles just waved him on. "Just one more hit and you'll be fine. Don't be such a wuss! I'm going to check out the scene!"
Scott took a shaky dose from the inhaler.
They climbed a small embankment, and suddenly, Stiles stopped.
At the top of the embankment, he saw lights from flashlights, several of them, and also scent dogs.
Stiles's heart froze when he realized they were his father's police officers.
Stiles quickly pulled Scott to the ground, and they both hid behind some bushes.
Stiles got up and, his voice low, called Scott.
"Come on, run!"
The two started to run, but amid the darkness and panic, Stiles tripped and crashed into one of the officers, who detained him.
Seconds later, a familiar voice sounded in the darkness. "Stiles!"
"Dad?" Stiles turned and was faced with his father, Sheriff Stilinski.
The Sheriff sighed, looking annoyed. "Stiles! What the hell are you doing here?" he asked, pointing the flashlight at him.
Before Stiles could even think of an answer, the Sheriff continued:
"Where is your partner in crime?" He pointed the flashlight between the trees.
Scott, hidden behind a tree, held his breath.
The Sheriff yelled Scott's name, but he didn't move.
After a few seconds looking into the darkness, the Sheriff sighed and turned to his son. "I don't have time for this. Let's go, Stiles. I'm taking you back to your Jeep."
Scott watched the light from the Sheriff's flashlight and Stiles's flashlight move away. The forest was silent again.
He was completely alone.
He then continued walking in the forest.
He took a few more steps, and his breathing became short.
He reached into his pocket and pulled out the inhaler.
"Just one dose... and I'll be fine..."
But before he could use it, the sound came.
A roar.
The sound made the hairs on the back of Scott's neck stand up, and panic began to settle in his chest.
Then the ground began to tremble. The sound of hooves and cracking branches grew stronger.
A stampede of deer, eyes wide with pure terror, burst through the forest.
They ran desperately, seeming to be fleeing from something.
The first wave passed so close to Scott that one deer actually hit him.
He fell to the ground, protecting his face with his arms, while the animals passed over him.
When the sound of the hooves finally went away, Scott was panting, still lying on the ground.
He got up, confused and feeling his legs shake.
Reaching into his hoodie pocket, he searched for his cell phone. When he grabbed it, the screen's brightness lit up the ground.
He used it as a flashlight, trying to find his missing inhaler.
He didn't find it. But what he saw made his body freeze.
There, before him, was the upper half of a girl.
"A-ah... ahh!!!" Scott screamed, terrified.
He backed up, lost his balance, and fell down an embankment.
THUD!
Groaning, he got up. But then, a low growl echoed behind him. He turned and saw.
A huge, wolf-like creature, with glowing red eyes, was staring at him.
Scott broke out in a cold sweat, his heart beating so hard that it seemed like it was going to jump out of his mouth.
The creature didn't give him time to run or scream, attacking Scott and knocking him to the ground, then biting him hard.
"AHHHHH!" the scream echoed as he rolled away.
Scott got up and ran blindly through the forest.
But the creature did nothing but watch him flee.
Auuuuuuuuuu!!
The creature howled and vanished into the night in the forest.
Then it soon started to rain.
A good while later, two silhouettes could be seen at the top of the same embankment where Scott had fallen.
Derek looked at the mutilated body. A low growl escaped his throat, almost inaudible.
His fingers clenched with such force that his nails dug into his palm, to the point of bleeding.
His eyes shone in an intense shade of blue, reflecting the contained fury.
But, besides that, he did nothing. He stood motionless, just staring.
Laura... The name echoed in his mind, loaded with pure sadness.
"So this is your sister?" Davyd asked, with a small smile and in a neutral tone, breaking the brief silence.
Or at least what was left of her, Davyd thought, looking at the half of the body.
"..." Derek remained in silence, but don't confuse his silence with peace.
Inside him was a mixture of emotions: rage, hatred, frustration, and pure sadness.
Even in this sadness, he didn't shed a single tear, unless the rain concealed it.
With the same neutral tone, Davyd asked: "What are you going to do now?"
Derek picked up his sister's body and got up. He walked past Davyd and replied:
"I'm going to bury her," in a solemn tone.
"Hmm..." Davyd made a single sound, arms crossed, leaning against a tree.
"You also sensed—"
"A human smell along with the Alpha's!" Derek completed, turning to Davyd with a neutral look.
Even though the smell had weakened and the wet earth made it difficult to track, Derek could still recognize the human trace.
Hmm... So this strange smell is from a human? Davyd thought, scratching his chin. What was a human doing here?
As much as he looked for answers, he didn't find them.
Meh, it's not like I can do much now, since the bastard's smell is disappearing! Davyd thought, giving a shrug.
"Do you think this person and the Alpha are together?" Davyd asked, looking at Derek.
"..." He remained silent for a long time, until he spoke:
"I don't know, but I find it hard for that thing to be together with a normal person."
But then something came to his mind, making his eyes widen slightly.
The earlier howl... wasn't just a warning, he thought. It was a call. A call for his new Beta.
That's why everything seemed so strange, he thought. There's no way that thing is working together with a normal person.
No, the new certainty hit hard in his mind. He was hunting. Looking for a pretender to be his Beta!
He turned to look at Davyd.
That look put an even bigger smile on Davyd's face.
"You've figured something out, haven't you?"
"..." Derek said nothing, only nodded and turned to leave the place.
Davyd was not frustrated with Derek's lack of response. But he was frustrated about something else.
He looked at his own legs, which were exposed a few good centimeters above the hem of the jeans.
Seriously, did he get this in the children's section? Davyd internally grumbled, adjusting the collar of the tight shirt. This damn thing barely covers my belly button.
The clothes he wore were Derek's. In fact, they had come from a not-so-friendly agreement they had made.
And how did they reach this agreement?
Simple. Davyd had just been reborn and was weakened.
Despite being twice as fast and strong as Derek, he didn't want to waste time on him.
After seeing the Alpha, he became interested in its soul and also wanted information about where he was, some clothes, and food.
He could kill Derek and take everything, of course, but he doubted that even torturing that grumpy guy would make him talk about the location. Besides, he would waste too much time.
Therefore, they reached this brief agreement.
Davyd was practically naked when they met, and the situation bothered him more than he wanted to admit.
Tall, six-foot-six, with muscles carved as if sculpted from marble, he looked more like a Greek warrior than someone who could easily blend in among humans.
Because of this, Derek's clothes barely fit him, short in the arms and tight across the chest.
In the old Hale house, Derek only had a few changes of clothes stored in a suitcase.
There was no food, no water.
When Davyd heard this, he made a strange expression, almost laughing alone, wondering how that guy was living there without basic necessities.
He even considered whether Derek was doing his business in the forest and surviving like a damned termite, gnawing on the wood of the house, which would even make sense considering the ruined state of the place.
Derek cut off his imagination by simply saying that he had arrived in the city that same morning, and that he was looking for a person.
On the way towards the Alpha, Davyd insisted on asking who it was.
To shut the bastard up, Derek replied dryly:
"It's my sister."
The goals of each were clear.
Davyd had discarded the idea of being careful, all he wanted was to confront the Alpha and take its soul.
He would use Derek as bait to test the waves and measure the strength of the new adversary.
Despite being a demon, Davyd hated cowardly tactics; however, that was a unique opportunity.
Derek, in contrast, sought only one answer: did the Alpha have a connection to his sister, Laura's, disappearance?
Instead of finding the Alpha and answers, Derek found his sister. Dead.
"Heh~... But who would have thought that destiny had such a twisted sense of humor." Davyd said, with an ironic smile.
Davyd also thought that Derek's sister had been killed by the Alpha or something else with large claws in that place.
From what he had seen, the body had claw marks.
The condition of the body, however, was the strangest.
He pushed the thought away. "Not my problem," he murmured.
Before he started walking, something caught his attention.
On the ground, a small plastic object shone in the rain. He bent down and picked it up.
It was an inhaler.
Davyd twirled it between his fingers, then brought it to his nose.
SNIFF...SNIFF
A fresh human smell permeated the object.
He narrowed his eyes.
This is the owner of the smell that was mixed with the Alpha's scent...
His gaze shifted to the dark forest. The Alpha's trail was getting weaker and weaker.
If he went after it now, it would be useless.
He would just run around like a headless chicken.
Furthermore, he was still weak. His rebirth left him unstable, and he needed more power before facing the Alpha.
His regeneration and deeper senses were malfunctioning, operating at reduced capacity.
He also realized that his [Extra-sensory Perception] was not working, and he could only rely on basic heightened senses for tracking.
But the Alpha... the Alpha was something he wanted.
"..." Davyd ran his tongue over his teeth, a slow smile appearing.
That guy's soul... it wouldn't be a delicacy, but it would make a nice snack.
He put the inhaler in his pocket, still reflecting on whether he should track the human or not.
"Heh... what an interesting dilemma," he murmured, running his hand through his wet hair.
---
until the next chapter...🫡