...

Alan fixes a needle to give a little dog some medicine. The doggo's owner grimaced over the object. "It's not gonna hurt him, is it?" He asked the vet.

"It's just a little pinch, Kyle. Nothing to worry about." Y/n assured him with a pat on the shoulder. She vaguely knew the highschool senior from the advanced art class she takes with his girlfriend, Ashley.

"I usually find that it's the owners..." Alan gives the pup the shot and Kyle winces. Alan gives him a smile. "Who feel the most pain. All right. Well, we'll just check the stool sample fo parasites, but my guess is that he probably just ate something he shouldn't have." Y/n went over to the table with Alan to help him while Scott picked up the little dog and sat him on the ground, him and Kyle crouching down to give the little guy some attention.

Scott noticed the dog tag naming him as Bullet. "Got a cool name." Scott complimented.

"He's got two brothers at home named Beretta and Trigger. Military family." Bullet lays on his back, letting Scott have access to his belly for scritches and rubs. "Looks like he knows who the alpha is." Scott looks up at him with a slightly startled look before chuckling. Alan glances thoughtfully at the wolf before sharing a look with Y/n who raises her brow in intrest.

Kyle takes Bullet and leaves the clinic while Alan gave Scott the duty of seeing if there was anything amiss in the sample. He donned gloves and examined it with a pair of tweezers. He does indeed see something when he picks something out. "Found something."

"Rinse it off." Alan instructs and Y/n sets a water bottle next to her friend. Scott does as asked as the two watched over his shoulder.

Y/n frowned a bit as she subconsiously leaned away from the white berry Scott found. "What is it?" He asked Alan.

"Definitely poisonous... For the dog. Actually, for you as well."

"Wolfsbane?"

"Mistletoe." Y/n said and Scott looked at her small frown. "That is as harmful to my kind as woflsbane is to yours." Scott raised his brows at this new information.

"What happens?" He asked in curiosity.

She huffed a small breath. "I mean, I've never experienced it myself, all I know is what's in my grimoire, but, in small doses, I wouldn't be able to use my magic and I'd have considerable fatigue and weakness."

"That's just in small doses?" She nodded. "What happens if you get more than that?"

"Death." He seemed surprised by this. "I told you, Scott. Mistletoe is like the witches version of wolfsbane." They lapsed into silence when Alan asked them to clean up and close up for the night. Y/n had been putting a bottle into a cupboard when she felt it again. That heavy feeling that's become a shadow on her back. And it was right outside. She dashed out and Scott went to ask her what was wrong, but Bullet's barks reached his ears and he ran out too. Y/n reached the alley, but didn't see anything until a little shape scampered to her. She crouched down and picked up Bullet with a coo. "What's wrong, babes? Where's Kyle?" She looked around with Scott, but he was no where to be found, Bullet and his car left abandoned. Y/n frowned and couldn't help the idea of looking through Bullet's eyes to see what he saw. She held Bullet to where he faced her and her eyes glowed, the color reflected lightly in the dog's eyes. Her eyes closed as she put her head to his.

Bullet didn't want to get into the car when his owner wanted him to. There was something wrong. He ran down the dark space and sat across from the big metal bin. His owner called after him and followed him. A sound came from under the bin. It sounded like him, but it wasn't. His owner got down on all fours and reached under. He wanted to call out, say "it's not me!", but nothing would come out. His owner pulled back when the bad thing bit his owner's hand. That's when his owner noticed him sitting nearby. This time he was able to whine out a warning but his owner didn't listen as he looked under the bin again. The bad thing called out to his owner. He blinked and his owner was gone. He wasn't sure how much longer it was until the nice lady came and held him.

Y/n's frown deepened when she pulled away and her eyes dulled. Bullet didn't see what happened but he could sense it, and it was the same thing she's been sensing for a while now. The person- the thing- that has started making sacrifices. And it appears Kyle is the next one.

...

"We looked everywhere." Scott explains as he and Stiles get changed for the cross-country. "It's like he just walked away. Left his car, his dog."

"Okay. Was he, like- could he have been a virgin maybe? Did he look like a virgin? Was he, you know, virginal?" Stiles asks.

"No, definitely not. Deaton makes me and Y/n have sex with all of his clients. It's a new policy." Scott seems very amused with his joke and chuckles while Stiles is very unimpressed. Scott's smile fades. "No, I don't know if he was a virgin. And why are you talking like he's already dead? He's just missing."

"Missing and presumed dead because he's probably a virgin, Scott."

"Why are you panicking so bad? You're safe at least, aren't you? I mean, I assume you and Y/n have...?" Scott trails off in question and Stiles can't help the tiny smile.

"Yeah, yeah, we have." Then he snaps out of it. "But that's not the point. Point is, a lack of sexual experience is probably a threat to some people's lives." (I know, no iconic "someone needs to sex me right now" and "I like to cuddle" scene, but, unfortunately, that scene has no place in this universe)

When the run is about to begin Isaac is fixing his shoes when he senses the Alpha twins as they pass him and he insantly is angered. Coach blows the whistle and everyone starts to run. Isaac went to follow the two, but Scott stops him. "Isaac!"

"It's them." Is all he says and roughly shrugs Scott's hand off of his shoulder.

"Ah, shit." Y/n grumbles from next to Scott.

"Isaac, wait! Isaac!" Isaac doesn't listen to Scott as he chases the two, and Y/n follows Scott as he chases the fellow Beta. The twins break away from the group knowing Isaac is following them. Isaac loses sight of them around a bend and he slows to a stop to look for them. They catch him off guard and shove him to the ground. Aiden grabs Isaac's right arm and pins it behind his back while Ethan holds the other out behind him, both of them holding him on his knees.

"Ethan, I always forget, how many bones in the human body?"

"I don't know. Let's count." Suddenly Ethan is decked by Scott, dislocating his jaw.

"That's one." Scott counts.

Y/n surprises Aiden and grabs his wrist, twisting it over his shoulder and using his momentum to send him near his brother, smirking when she hears the crunch of his wrist breaking. "And that's two." The twins get up and pop bones back into place as they heal rapidly. The wolves, well, wolf out, eyes glowing, claws out, and teeth bared, ready to attack. Y/n's fingers twitch, ready to use magic to defend her friends, that is, until a scream rips through the air. She's the first to run back with Scott on her heels. They come to a stop beside Stiles and find a horrible sight. Kyle is strung up to a tree with a leash around his neck, blood soaking his clothes from the cut below the leash and the head wound in the back.

"It's him, isn't it?" Stiles asks, but he already knows the answer. However the answer Y/n wanted wasn't quite as obvious. The virgins were already taken, so what archetype was Kyle?

Pretty soon the Sheriff is rushing over and he's alarmed to see so many people around. "Hey, get out of the way. Get back. Get this area cordoned off before they trample every piece of evidence." He instructs his deputy who instantly starts to direct the crowd around her.

"Back up! Everyone back!"

"Get these kids out of here!" Noah gets closer to the body and Stiles is quick to point something out to his dad.

"Dad, just come here. Look, look. Look at it. It's the same as the others, you see?"

"Yeah, I see that. Do me a favor. Go back to school, yeah?" Stiles huffs when Noah turns to Coach. "Coach, can you give us a hand here?"

"You heard the man. Nothing to see here. Probably just some homeless kid."

Y/n glared at the teacher in disbelief and Scott called to him. "Coach."

"Yeah?"

"He was a senior."

"Oh." Coach sighs and is quiet for a moment. "He wasn't on the team, was he?"

"Are you serious right now?" Y/n asked incredulous and Coach looked at her, not fully understanding what the problem was. Normally Coach was a cool guy, but sometimes he could be a little too brash.

"Kyle!" A girl screamed and Y/n's glare faded to sadness when she saw Ashely being grabbed by the deputy to keep her from going to his body. "Oh, God, Kyle! Oh, God!" She was practically being held up by the deputy at that point.

"Go on. Go." Noah gently urged his son and the other two.

Isaac joined the three as they walked away, glancing at the twins as they looked at the body. "You see the way the twins looked at him?" He asked.

"Yeah, you mean like they had no idea what happened?" Stiles said.

"No, no, they knew."

"The kid was strangled with a garrote, all right? Are we the only ones recognizing the lack of "werewolfitude" in these murders?" Stiles gestured to himself and his girlfriend.

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

"Isaac, wolves kill with their claws and fangs." Y/n spoke up. "This is something more sinister. This is something a human would do. Or a witch that's gone dark. But this wasn't a witch. I would have felt her."

"Is there a name for that? A dark witch?" Stiles wondered.

She lightly shrugged. "Bitch."

"Fair enough."

"Scott?" Isaac looks for the teen's opinion as they stop walking. "How 'bout you?"

Scott looks between the two boys who are looking at him expectantly. "I don't know yet."

"You don't know yet?" Stiles repeated.

"Well, he's got a point. Seriously, dude, human sacrifices?"

"Scott, your eyes turn into yellow glowsticks, okay? Hair literally grows from your cheeks and then will immediatly disappear, and if I were to stab you right now, it would just magically heal, Y/n can literally do magic, but you're telling me that you're having trouble grasping human sacrifices?"

Scott sighs and looks at Isaac. "That's a good point too."

"I don't care." Isaac concludes. "They killed that kid, they killed the girl that saved me. And I'm gonna kill them too." Isaac walked off and Y/n huffed.

"You need to try and reel in your Beta." She said to Scott to which he frowned in confusion.

"My Beta? What?"

"You heard me." She then grabbed Stiles' hand and they walked away.

Later Stiles is trying to be sneaky as he peers into the window of one of the offices, spying on his dad, his dad's deputy, and Ashley. Y/n just watches him, unimpressed with his 'stealth'. He flails when the deputy leads Ashley out to the hall. "Wait right here, okay?"

"Okay." Ashley nods and sighs when the deputy leaves.

"Ashley." Y/n stands from her seat and moves closer to the girl. "I know we don't know each other that well, but I just wanted to say I'm very sorry for what happened."

Ashley gave her a wobbly smile with a small nod. "Thanks."

Y/n returned it with a small one of her own and a gentle pat on the shoulder before stepping away, only to be replaced by Stiles. "Stiles, what-"

"Um, hi, Ashley. Hi. Can I talk to you just for one sec?" Stiles directed her away from the door a bit. "Sorry. I just need to ask you something really quick, and it's gonna sound really unbelievably insensitive, so I apologize in advance." Y/n's jaw drops in shock. He's really not gonna...? "Um..." Oh, God, he is.

"Stiles, don't." But it's too late, the question slipping past his lips, completely avoiding the speed bump between his head and mouth.

"Was Kyle a virgin?"

"What?" Ashley asks confused.

"Your boyfriend. Was he a virgin, or did you guys... You know what I mean-" And then he's cut off by Ashley slapping him. He seems a bit shocked by her action and Y/n is instantly by his side, looking at her classmate apologetically.

"I'm so sorry about my boyfriend. Sometimes he doesn't think before he speaks." Y/n glared pointedly at the boy for the last part. The deputy rushed over, leading the angry girl away, but she turns back to look at Stiles.

"No. He wasn't a virgin." And then she walks away.

Noah soon comes out, looking after Ashley and then giving Stiles a look. Stiles went to explain but Noah didn't give him the chance. "Have you completely lost your mind? I've got four murders, Stiles. You see those men in there?" He gestures to the office he was in. "That's the FBI. They're pulling together a task force to help because it looks like we've got a full blown serial killer on our hands." His tone lowers with that statement so no one would over hear and panic. "You get that?"

"Yes, dad. I get that."

"Then what are you doing?"

"I'm trying to find a pattern." Noah leaves and Y/n drags him down the halls and away from that area. He broke away from her for a bit, spouting stuff about trying to find a pattern. He had visited Kyle's locker where a little memorial was already being added to and he bumped into Boyd. After a not so great talk with the teen he ended up finding Y/n again and he followed her down the halls.

"I could have told you Kyle wasn't a virgin. Or, at least, that wasn't why he was sacrificed." She said as they walked.

"What? How?"

"The three virgins have already been taken. Kyle was from another grouping."

"What would that be?"

"Well, there's-"

"He had a little dog!" He cuts her off suddenly and she gives him a look.

"What?"

"He had a little dog. Maybe that's important? Who else has a little dog?"

"What? That makes no-" He spots Lydia and rushes over to talk to her. "Wait- no- Stiles!" She follows him with a huff.

"You know that there's a temple in Calcutta where they used to sacrifice a child every day? That's every day a dead baby, Lydia, every day! 'Hey, you wanna know what today is? It's Dead Baby Day. Oh, no, wait, that's every day, because every day is Dead Baby Day, yay'!"

Y/n groaned. "Stiles. Why?"

"Why are you telling me this?" Lydia questioned.

"Because Scott is dealing with the Alpha twins." Stiles answered and she paused to look at the couple.

"You didn't know that about the twins?" Y/n asked.

"Alphas?"

"Ethan and Aiden."

"Oh, yeah. Yeah, I knew about them." She played it off as she started walking again.

Y/n snickered. "No, you didn't." Lydia gave her a small glare, but Y/n just smiled at her as Stiles continued.

"Anyways, so the murders are coming in threes. That's what Y/n is suggesting. Ancient people love things in threes, right? So maybe first it's three virgins, and then, I don't know, maybe it's three people who own little dogs." This made Y/n roll her eyes. If her wonderful boyfriend would just stop and listen to her for a second she would tell him the other four groups that this thing is looking for.

"I own a little dog." Lydia looked at him. Stiles sighs. "I am not getting rid of my dog!"

"Would you just think about getting rid of your little dog?"

"No."

"Stiles, that makes no sense." Y/n said. "What use would this person have for killing three people with a little dog?" He opened his mouth to answer but swiftly closed it because he couldn't. "Exactly."

"And by the way, you cannot discern a pattern by a single data point, so stop trying." She advised Stiles.

"Wha- okay, so what, I'm just supposed to wait around for someone else to die, then? I'm just supposed to sit there and watch them die? Just wait for them to wither up and die right in front of me?"

"Wither?" The girls chorused together in confusion.

"You know what I mean. Die, in just a hideously awful, strangulating, head-bashing, throat-cutting kind of way."

"Maybe it's not your job." Lydia concluded. "You said it youself, they were strangled with a garrote. That's a human thing to do, so... Maybe just leave the figuring it out part to someone human."

"You mean someone like my dad?"

"No, I mean your dad. The Sheriff!" With that Lydia walks away leaving Stiles disatisfied with her answers.

Seeing his frown Y/n huffed. "If you'll let me talk, I can help you with your pattern search." He furrowed his brows at her. "Each group of three is going to have it's own type of gift that can be acquired from the sacrifice. Virgins, warriors, scholars, healers, and guardians. Check virgins off the list and you have four others to choose from."

He gave her a wide eyed look. "Why didn't you tell me before?"

"I tried but you started rambling about little dogs."

"How do you know all of this?"

She learned a lot of this from Alan, him being a druid and all, but he's kept it to himself for years. It's just not her secret to tell. So she says the next best thing. "Not all witches are good, Stiles. Unfortunately some in my line had done some pretty bad things and they've made their pages out of it." What she read in her grimoire is what lead her to asking Alan about it and he shared the darker part of his people. Y/n looked up when the bell rang. "I've got to get to art class. I'll see you later, yeah?" He nodded and smiled when she gave him a kiss. "Try not to think about it too much. Your brain might melt." She joked and then she was walking away.

He watched her go until he couldn't see her anymore. What she told him added some pieces to the puzzle, but he needed more. Then he got an idea of who could give him more. Y/n probably wouldn't be very happy if she knew who he was thinking of. But he had a free period so he decided to use it. He walked into the clinic and Alan smiled at him. "You're out of school early." Alan noted.

"Yeah, free period, actually."

"Is Y/n with you?"

"Uh, no, she's got art right now. Um, I was just headed home to see my dad. He's, uh- you know, I guess you probably heard people are kind of getting murdered again."

Alan nodded. "Yes. Y/n's mentioned it."

"It's his job to figure it out."

"I gathered as much from the 'Sheriff' title."

"Yeah, um... You know, but it gets kind of hard for him to do his job when he doesn't have all the information. And we all know he's missing pretty much half the story here, right? So then I started thinking, and I remembered someone who does have a lot of information. I mean, Y/n knows quite a bit, but that's kind of expected seeing as she's a witch and all. But there is someone who always seems to know more than anyone else around here." Alan's smile had slowly fell as the teen spoke, already knowing what he was hinting around at. "You." Alan looked away and made a small gesture for Stiles to follow him into the back room as he continued to ramble. "All these symbols and things- the triskeles, the bank logo, the mountain ash- all of it is from the Celtic druids. And anyone who has ever looked up human sacrifice before knows that the druids had a pretty big hard-on when it came to giving one up to the gods." Alan moved to stand in front of his tray of jars while Stiles stood on the other side of the table from the man. "You ever hear of the Lindow Man? 2,000-year-old body found in England? He was found strangled, head bashed in, throat cut. Threefold death. They also found pollen grains in his stomach." Alan grabbed a jar. "Guess what favorite druid plant that was."

Alan pulls a green sprig from the glass. "Mistletoe."

"I'm just telling you everything you already know, aren't I?" Alan sets the plant down and closes the jar, putting it back in it's place. "Then why aren't you telling us?"

"Maybe because when you've spent every moment of the last ten years trying to push something away, denying it, lying about it, it becomes a pretty powerful habit."

"All right, so this guy- is he a druid?"

Alan shakes his head. "No. It's someone copying a centuries-old practice of a people who should have known better. Do you know what the word 'druid' means in Gaelic?"

"No."

"'Wise Oak'. The Celtic druids were close to nature. They believed they kept it in balance. They were philosophers and scholars. They weren't serial killers."

"Yeah, well, this one is." Stiles' phone rang and he almost panicked when he saw who it was. He answered a bit hesitantly. "Uh, hey, babe, I can't talk right now."

"This is important. Lydia found out that the music teacher didn't show up for class." Y/n rushed out.

"Wait, what?"

"He's gone."

"Yeah, are you sure he's missing?"

Lydia held onto Y/n as she held her phone on speaker. "Not just missing." The strawberry blonde said. "Taken." She flipped down the cover on the piano and they stared at the ugly red splotch on the otherwise pristine black finish. The heavy feeling was ghosting at Y/n's neck. Stiles rushed over with Alan (Y/n ignored this because what's happening was more important) and Lydia played the recording she found for the vet.

"Can we get a copy of this?" Alan asked Lydia and she nodded, taking the found device and tapping on it.

"Hey, doc, any help would be, you know, helpful." Stiles commented as he ruffled through the paper in the desk.

"As I'm sure Y/n has mentioned, each grouping of three would have it's own purpose, it's own type of power. Virgins, healers, philosophers, warriors-"

"Wait, wait, wait, wait. Warrior, could that also mean soldier?"

"Absolutly."

Stiles held up a photo of the teacher in his military uniform at his wedding. "Kyle was in R.O.T.C. with Boyd."

"Warriors." Y/n said. "They're warriors."

"That's the pattern." Alan agreed. "Where's Boyd?"

"He's probably home by now." Stiles fishes out his phone to try and get a hold of the wolf. "I'm gonna try and get him on the phone."

Lydia made a little noise as she thought of something and Y/n noticed. "Lydia? What did you think of?"

"Um, nothing really- I mean-" She took a breath. "I just thought of someone else with a military connection."

"Who?" Stiles asked.

"Mr. Harris."

They rushed to the Chemistry classroom, but the teacher wasn't there. Alan held a plaque that was on the desk. A cadet will not lie, cheat, steal, or tolerate those who do. "This is just one of many possibilities. He could have simply left for the day."

"No." Y/n shook her head. "Whoever is doing this, I've been feeling them. Each time they take someone there's a darkness in the air. It's heavy in here."

"He also wouldn't of left without this." Stiles held up the teacher's abandoned bag. Y/n frowned at Alan. Sure, she couldn't stand the man, but he didn't deserve to have something like this happen to him. Stiles looked at the tests on the desk, seeing something strange.

"What?" Alan asked him.

"This test is graded 'R'." He showed off the paper and Lydia found one graded 'H'. Alan went over and took the papers from the teens. Y/n stood next to him and looked over his shoulder as he set them down and laid them in a certain order with four other papers. Her stomach sank at the word he made.

"Stiles, you remember I told you 'druid' is the Gaelic word for ' Wise Oak'?"

"Yeah."

"If a druid went down the wrong path, the Wise Oak was sometimes said to have become a Dark Oak. There's a Gaelic word for that as well."

"Darach." Y/n said, the word leaving a bitter taste on her tongue.

~~~
Published: 4/21/21
Edited: 4/12/22