Only three episodes to go

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The next morning we did just as Scott said we would. The two of us and Isaac drove down to the clinic in the Jeep to meet with Liam, Mason and Theo, who were already there waiting for us.

Scott got right into it, revealing a phone that he and Malia had found yesterday when searching for the Primal pack. Putting it on the table, he hit play on the new message that had most recently been left on the phone.

"Hey, it's me again. I, uh, don't know why you can't call me back. Maybe it's because you think you're punishing me. But this is too long. I-it's too much. And it's not about us. Something's happening in Beacon Hills; to the people here. I just. . . I just, I need to know everyone there with you is okay, so can you just, please, call me, please. 

"One call, that's all I'm asking for, and if you can't call me back, then I'm going to get my answer, anyway. That means I'm coming up there myself. If I don't get a call from you, I'm coming up there. So just try. . . try to remember, it's my pack, too."

"You pulled this off of one of the bodies in the woods?" Theo asked as Scott picked the phone up and closed it.

"Malia did," Scott clarified. "Yeah, there were six dead bodies, and one of them had no face."

"Okay, so the one with no face, you think that's the woman on the phone?"

Scott shrugged as he leaned against the table behind him. "Maybe."

"It's the same thing that happened to Aaron," Mason pointed out. "It took over his body, basically stole his face and his DNA. So that means whoever this woman is, she could be the other half of the Anuk-ite."

"Which means she's only half of the problem," Theo grumbled. "The other half we already know about - Aaron."

"That's great and all, but we don't actually know where he is," Isaac reminded the chimera.

"Aren't we supposed to keep both apart?"

I ran a hand through my hair, sighing, "That's going to be hard if we don't know where one is, or who the other is."

Theo shrugged, "Well, we know about one, so why not just go after that one."

"I'm not agreeing with Theo, but I do think it'd be easier to track Aaron over a voice on the phone," Mason said almost cautiously.

We all looked at him, more than surprised that he was siding with Theo. No one was more frustrated by this than Liam, who clenched his jaw and pointed between the boys, "That's agreeing with Theo."

"Yeah," Mason dragged. "But I thought I'd try to soften the blow."

Theo's brows pulled together, offended by the insinuation. "Is everyone completely shocked that I might be right?"

"No, we just don't like it," Liam mumbled.

"Well, I for one was shocked," Isaac said from beside me. 

Scott stood up straight, turning the phone in his hand. "Maybe we're all right, maybe we should be looking for both. Aaron and the woman on the phone. And since you guys agree.-"

"Wait," Mason said, cutting him off, pointing between himself and Theo. "You mean, me and. . ."

"Him?" Theo completed, just as shocked by the idea.

"Yeah," Scott nodded, before turning to Isaac and me. "We're splitting into groups of three, so one of you is with them."

"Dibs not," Isaac and I both said at the same time.

Isaac held out his fist, indicating he was wanting to challenge me to a round of rock, paper, scissors over who had to go with them. Instead, I crossed my arms in front of me.
"He buried me alive."

"We're still on that?" Theo grumbled.

I glared at him over my shoulder, "Yeah, we're still on that."

"Fine," Isaac sighed, lowering his hand.

"Alright," Scott nodded. "So Isaac, Theo and Mason will find Aaron. Riley, Liam and I will try to figure out whose voice is on the phone."

Liam moved forward to stand beside Scott, "If we find either half, maybe we don't have to fight at all."

"That would be a nice change of pace," I stated.

The beta nodded, "Stop the Anuk-ite-"

"We stop the war," Scott completed.

♧♤♢♡

Isaac, Mason and Theo left not long after that, leaving Liam, Scott and me at the clinic with the phone. So far, all they had done is stare at the object, one of them occasionally touching it.

We all stood around the table, probably hoping that it would call or just somehow tell us the name of who we were looking for. Unfortunately, that didn't happen.

Growing impatient, Liam picked up the phone, flipped it open and hit the redial button. As soon as it began to ring, Scott ripped the phone away from him and shut it, effectively ending the call.
"Do you even know what you're going to say?"

"'Hello?'" Liam answered.

"We might only get one shot at this. What are you gonna tell her?"

The beta went quiet for a moment, realising that he hadn't actually thought the idea through. Eventually, he said, "I'm gonna try to get her to meet us somewhere."

"Maybe that might not be the best idea," the Alpha responded.

I sighed, leaning against the table, "Well, Scott, I don't think any plan to do with the Anuk-ite is going to sound overly exciting."

"Exactly," Liam agreed. "At least this way, we'll know who they are."

"And they'll know who we are," Scott pointed out.

The phone began to ring in Scott's hands, all three of us looking down at it. It continued to ring, Scott not making any move to do anything.

"Answer it," Liam told him.

Scott frowned, "You're the one who wanted to make the call, you take it."

When they both just stood there staring at each other, I rolled my eyes and reached over, snatching the phone from Scott's hands. "Werewolves my ass," I muttered as I flipped open the phone.

Unfortunately, I was a second too late and the phone went to voice mail. I didn't waste any time asking Scott or Liam for their opinion as I went into the call history and redialled the number.

Turning it onto speaker, I sat it on the table so that we could all hear whoever answered the phone. We waited anxiously as the line ran until someone finally answered.

"Beacon Hills High School," the voice greeted. "How can I-"

Liam quickly scooped up the phone and hung it up before the person on the other end of the line heard any of us.
"It's someone at school."

"Why am I not surprised?" I stated. "At least that means we might know who they are."

Liam was staring off into the distance in thought before his eyes seemed to widen slightly. He opened the phone once more to listen to the message that had been left. Scott and I gave him a moment, not wanting to interrupt whatever thought process he was going through.

About halfway through the message, Scott took a step forward. "Liam?"

The beta turned back to face us both, a solemn look on his face. "I think I know who it is."

♧♤♢♡

We ended up at the school per Liam's request. He told us that he believed the voice on the phone belonged to our old biology teacher Mrs Finch. 

I remembered her. She was strict, but a good teacher nonetheless. She was one of those ones that were firm in order to help her students achieve their full potential.

"Mrs Finch? You're sure?" Scott asked Liam sceptically as he pulled the Jeep over in the school carpark.

Liam nodded in the backseat, certainty on his face, "It was her on the phone."

"Okay, well, that still doesn't prove that she's the Anuk-ite, or even that she's one of us."

"It was still her," Liam shrugged.

"Whoever was on the phone said that it was their Pack too, so that makes me think that she probably is, Scott," I told him.

"Okay," Scott said, thinking to himself. "Well, we need to get closer then; see if we can get her to expose her supernatural side."

"How are we gonna do that?" Liam asked.

Scott glanced at me, before looking over his shoulder at Liam, "You're gonna do it."

"What?" Liam gaped, shocked. "Well, what about the hunters, and the Nazi student brigade?"

"We're going to go in with you," I assured him. "But remember, we're not supposed to be here. So, get in there, find out if she's supernatural, then get out."

Scott got his bag from the backseat and grabbed out a few things for Liam to take into the classroom to test Mrs Finch. We just hoped that at least one of them worked.

Liam frowned, "But I hate biology."

I scoffed with a laugh before opening my car door.

♧♤♢♡

Once it looked like all of the students had filtered into the classrooms, Scott and I snuck into the school. We walked through the halls quietly until we were outside of our old biology classroom, hiding slightly behind the stairs.

"I hope this works," I said quietly.

Scott nodded, "We need it to. We're running out of options."

We both fell silent as the bell rang and all of the classes begun so that we could listen to what was going on in the classroom.

"Liam. I didn't think we'd be seeing you again," Mrs Finch stated.

"Can't let my GPA go down just 'cause I got beat up in class," Liam told her.

"Yes, well, I. . . Gabe, I said no phones."

I glanced at Scott, "We are so screwed if he texts Monroe or anyone else."

"Hopefully Mrs Finch took it away before he could do anything," Scott said.

Suddenly, the sharp sound of one of Argent's hunting tools came from the classroom. I put my hands over my ears, watching as a student ran from the classroom doing the same. Another werewolf.

When the noise stopped, Scott spoke to Liam. "Anything?"

"No. No reaction at all."

Scott sighed, turning to face me. His eyes widened when he did so, and I spun to see what had him surprised. A shadow was walking by the window, which didn't seem like a coincidence after we heard that Gabe had been on his phone.

"Hey, Liam?" I said quietly.

"What?" the boy replied

"Did Gabe manage to text anyone?"

There was a moment before Liam spoke back, "I don't know."

Scott grabbed my hand, pulling me to stand behind the half-wall that went up beside the stairs, pushing me behind him before ducking so he couldn't be seen.
"Ri, get down," he told me in a whisper.

I did exactly that, watching as the door rattled loudly, the person on the other side attempting to get inside. I gathered the air around me just in case, preparing for the person to enter.

As the door opened, Scott jumped up and went to lunge forward. He was quick to stop when he noticed that the person entering the building was only a maintenance worker. The man gave him a strange look before walking down the hall.

Scott and I looked at each other, sharing a relieved sigh as we moved back into our hiding spot. Taking a breath, I spoke to Liam again, "Whatever you're doing in there, you need to hurry up. I think we're running out of time here."

We listened patiently, hoping for some sign of her supernatural side to show. When we heard her beginning to take strangled breaths we thought we had her. That was until she sneezed.

"That's it for today. Class dismissed," Mrs Finch suddenly said.

I glanced at Scott to make sure I had heard her right. Mrs Finch had never ended a class early, not even during the last week of our senior year. So, what happened?

"Not you, Liam. You stay put."

Ah, of course.

Scott and I quickly turned and pretended to be in deep conversation as the students walked out, hoping that none of them would notice us. Thankfully, they all seemed to care more about getting out of there before Mrs Finch was able to change her mind.

"I get it," Mrs Finch said once the rest of the class were gone. "I know what you're trying to do."

"You do?" Liam asked, just as confused as Scott and me.

"You're upset and you want to get back at me," she said simply.

"Upset?"

"Because I stood by and I did nothing; for what Gabe and Nolan did to you. I'm your teacher and I should've protected you."

Not exactly the answer we were looking for.

"No!" Liam said quickly. "No, I mean, yeah, but, not, that's not why I'm here. I know about your pack."

"My what?" Mrs Finch asked, the confusion clear in her voice.

"I know what you are."

"Liam, I-"

"You're a werewolf," Liam cut her off, not wanting to beat around the bush.

The woman laughed almost mockingly, "A what?"

"A person who turns into a wolf on a full moon?"

"Oh, God. Yeah, right," Mrs Finch said, her amusement still lining her voice. "And I can probably only be killed by a silver bullet."

"No, no, that's not totally true," Liam corrected, remembering what we had taught him when he was first turned.

"Are you on drugs?" the teacher asked, her tone turning serious to show she wasn't joking now.

"Huh?"

"Well,  I know your father's a surgeon at the hospital."

"No, I'm not on drugs! Mrs Finch, you're a werewolf."

"Hydrocodone?"

"You have a pack."

I turned to Scott, mouth set in a line, "This isn't working."

"I know," he replied quietly, thinking.

"Oxycodone?" She tried again.

"You said it on the phone."

This seemed to set off an idea for Scott. "Time to try something else," he said, grabbing my hand and walking over to the classroom."

"That's enough," Mrs Finch said growing frustrated.

"You can't hide what you are," Liam told her.

"I don't know what you're talking about, but you really need to go, now. You need to leave this classroom right now," she instructed, but Liam didn't move. "You have to leave my class. Go!"

As we walked into the classroom Scott had taken the phone Malia had found out of his pocket. Walking down one of the aisles slowly, he hit play on the message.

'Hey, it's me again,' Mrs Finch's voice said over the speaker. 'I, uh, don't know why you can't call me back. Maybe it's because you think you're punishing me. But this is too long. I-it's too much. And it's not about us. Something's happening in Beacon Hills. To the people here. I just. . .'

Mrs Finch came over and snatched the phone away from Scott, closing it and effectively stopping the message from continuing.
"Where did you find this?" she asked softly, finally giving up the ruse.

"Mrs Finch, we need you to tell us the truth," I told her.

She was beginning to lose what little patience and calm she had as she looked at Scott and me. "The truth? What. . . I don't even know what the two of you are doing here? You graduated."

"Mrs Finch, we're searching for something called the Anuk-ite, and we found that phone out in the woods when we were looking for the Primal pack," Scott explained.

"Anuk-ite? I-I don't know what that is," she stumbled.

"Okay," I nodded. "But you know something. 

Mrs Finch's breathing was beginning to become more frantic as she thought, shaking her head. "I told you, I don't know what the problem is. I don't know what an- an Anuk-ite, or whatever, is. I, I was just trying to call my daughter."
She turned to Scott angrily since he had been the one with the phone. "Where did you get this?"

Scott's head lolled to the side slightly. I couldn't tell what he was thinking. I, myself, was just confused as to why she was still trying to act like she had no idea what we were talking about.

"You said you were in a pack," Liam stated, getting the woman's attention. "That was you on the phone, that's what you said."

Mrs Finch turned to face her student, "And I don't know what business it is of yours my personal life. I am the teacher, you are the students. I don't go digging into your personal lives outside of these walls, you shouldn't be digging into mine."

"Mrs Finch, we wouldn't normally be doing this, but we didn't have a choice," I told her calmly. "This has something to do with your pack."

When it seemed like she might be listening, Scott finally spoke. "Did you reach any of them before they died?"

The woman seemed taken aback, the angry demeanour slipping from her face. "What. . . what are you talking about?"

Scott's brows pulled together in confusion as he glanced down at me before we both realised the mistake we'd made.
"Oh. . . Mrs Finch, I'm sorry, but your family, they were attacked, and they're dead."

Mrs Finch was shaking her head, eyes beginning to tear up. "Dead? They. . . no, they can't be dead because. . . they were just, they were - they were in the woods, they were- they're hiding out. They're scared."

My heart sunk at the look on her face and the tone of her voice. I couldn't imagine finding out that my entire family had been killed. 

"We found that phone on a body," Scott explained. "Three men, two boys."

"What about my daughter?" she asked.

"Well, there was another body, but, uh. . ."

"But what?"

I didn't envy Scott at that moment at all, and from Liam's face, I could tell he felt the same. But out of the three of us, Scott had been the only one present when they had found the pack, so we weren't really in the position to give her the information she needed.

 Scott swallowed heavily, knowing that the information was going to hurt her deeply. "We couldn't identify it. The skin was skinned down to the muscle. There was no DNA. Pack tattoo was still there."

Mrs Finch threw her hands up, her breath hitching as she tried to breathe normally. "Okay, sorry, but this. . . um. . . no, this doesn't make sense. I mean, this isn't how biology works."

And now on top of finding out her family had been killed, she was being told that something she had studied probably half of her life was being thrown out the window with this creature.

"That's what the Anuke-ite does," Liam explained. "It finds a body and it takes its face. It takes the whole identity of that person."

"Not my daughter," the woman replied on the verge of tears. "No, not my daughter."

Gentle sobs escaped her as she walked past Liam, taking a seat at the front of her classroom. Her hand was on her chest as tears fell down her cheeks.

Scott, Liam and I walked over so that we weren't as far from her.

"There's a way to find out," Liam told her. "Call her. Get her to come here. You're her mum, you'll be able to tell if it's her or not."  

The woman stood up and went to lean against her desk, shaking her head. "I won't do that."

"Just call her and tell her not to go anywhere near the school. Tell her that there's someone or something hunting for someone like her."

Mrs Finch shook her head again, "You have to stop talking about this."

Scott decided to have a go at trying to convince our old teacher. "If she shows up, at least you'll know what happened to your family, what happened to your daughter."

"Wouldn't you rather be sure?" I asked her softly.

She looked between us all, turning the phone in her hands slowly as she turned the phone in her hands. It wasn't a choice she was making lightly - calling her was going to confirm whether or not she'd lost her whole family or not.

"I'll do it for you," Liam offered, holding his hands out slightly.

This seemed to make it a bit easier for Mrs Finch. She opened the flip phone and went through her contacts before placing the phone in Liam's hands. Once she did, she stepped past him and put her hands on one of the lab desks, steadying herself.

Liam's eyes narrowed as he read the screen, quickly looking up at his teacher. "That's her name? That's your daughter's name?"

"Quinn," Mrs Finch nodded. "My daughter's name is Quinn."

We all immediately recognised the name. Quinn had been the girl shot by the deputy who we had protected. We never did find out what happened to her after she left that night. 

I guess now we knew.