chapter thirty one
"the puppy trio"

      "SHE DOESN'T LOOK VERY HAPPY, does she? Do you think she'll rip our heads off?"

      Lynn accusingly glanced over her shoulder with a sudden annoyance crossing her face, and slightly cringed up her nose in distaste over to Stiles — the one who had dropped the comment in the first place. It seemed like he had just actually whispering to Scott beside him, but of course with werwolf hearing, she easily heard the questions.

      "No, Stiles, I am not happy," Lynn said through gritted teeth, practically seething as she rubbed her temples with two index fingers. "And yes, I will rip your head off if you keep talking."

Currently, the puppy trio that consisted of Lynn, Scott, and Stiles were roaming the halls of school while heading to the library. Lynn had come up with the name for the trio of best friends because of course she and Scott were werewolves, and then decided that it would still count for Stiles due to the fact he looked like an adorable puppy — which made him blush for half and hour.

"What's made you such a sourwolf?" Stiles teased with Derek's usual nickname, but once he saw the threatening glare covering Lynn's face, he quickly shut up with the joking tone.

"Derek interrupted my beauty sleep for training," grumbled an annoyed Lynn as she crossed her arms over her chest, recalling the countless times she crashed on her ass during the two hours of training this morning at six am. "Why are we heading to the library anyway?"

"I'm showing Derek the bruises on Allison and Lydia's arms."

Lynn bobbed her head up and down while her mind wandered to last night at the party — after she disappeared from Brendon's room to go back down to the party, but instead of finding her boys, she found the girls instead. She had to admit, the bruises on their wrists did seem a bit odd, but she couldn't see anything herself, so Lynn wasn't sure what Scott was expecting from Derek.

And before she knew it, she had already been walking into the library behind Scott and Stiles, finding that both Lydia and Allison were already here. Then, she spotted Derek hiding away in a nearby corner, and their eyes met for a moment. Even though he had completely and utterly worn her out from the working out this morning, she still couldn't help but smile when she saw him.

"So, why exactly am I here?" Derek questioned with a bit of annoyance laced in his thick, attractive voice, and then his eyes landed over towards Lynn, as if he was expecting the answer from her and sorely her. When she didn't speak up, he pointed a slender finger towards the two two standing in the middle of the room. "I don't see anything."

"Look again," Scott commanded, taking a few more steps into the library as both Allison and Lydia lifted their wrists again, and Lynn tilted her head off to the side in hopes of maybe seeing something on the bruises, but still nothing.

"How is a bruise gonna tell me where Boyd and Erica are?"

Lynn followed closely behind Stiles as the two headed over to the librarian desk, which was of course void of all people, and Lynn sat down on top of the desk, making some papers fall to the ground. Stiles flashed her a warning look, but she just responded with a perked eyebrow, almost taunting him.

"It's the same on both sides," argued Scott, and Lynn glanced back over to the bickering werewolves. "Exactly the same."

"It's nothing," Derek huffed while he folded his arms over chest with distaste.

"Pareidolia, seeing patterns that aren't there," Lydia explained, and when she noticed that everyone seemed to be confused by her words, she continued. "It's a subset of apophenia."

Ignoring the comment from Lydia, Scott turned to Derek with a pleading expression. "They're trying to help."

"These two?" Derek slightly scoffed, pointing over towards the girls, firstly landing on Lydia, followed by Allison. "This one, who used me to resurrect my psychotic uncle, thank you. And this one, who shot about thirty arrows into me and my pack."

He does have a point...

"Okay, alright, now, c'mon. No one died, alright?" Stiles spoke up from beside Lynn, and she almost flinched forgetting that he was standing near her. "Look, there may have been a little maiming, okay, a little mangling, but no death. That's what I call an important distinction."

"My mother died."

Lynn sighed a little when Allison brought up her mother, and her eyes wavered down towards her abdomen where she could almost feel the slick blade that Allison's mother had stabbed her with. She shook the cold feeling with her shoulders, and when she glanced back up, she noticed the way Derek was looking at her.

Like he knew Lynn was recounting the time she almost died due to the woman's hands.

"Your family's little honor code killed your mother, not me," countered Derek, turning his attention back to the hunter.

"That girl was looking for Scott," Allison answered, a very straightened out expression covering her face, and Lynn could damn near feel the tension growing in the room. "I'm here to help him, not you."

"You wanna help?" Derek narrowed his emerald green eyes in Allison's direction. "Find something real."

And with that, Derek turned on his heels without another word, and without another glance over towards Lynn — which almost seemed to disappoint her, but she knew it was because her guilt tripping expression would change his harsh and mean demeanor.

"Well, that went smoothly."

———

      "A vault! It's a bank vault!"

      Isaac jumped out of the shivering cold water with hundreds of ice cubs as he pointed out his slender index finger over towards Derek, the one who had just been shaking him to get some answers out of him. His heart rate was soaring through the roof — with concerned on-lookers such as Derek, Deaton, Scott, and Stiles.

      No Lynn though, she had been a no-show.

The werewolves, and the animal doctor, backed away from the tub full of ice cold water as Isaac threw his legs one by one over it, placing his wet body now dripping onto the floor of the clinic.

"I-I saw it, I saw the name," Isaac said in between chills as he was trying to adjust to the now warmer air compared to the water, and he was suddenly pleased when Derek and Deaton started to wrap a dry towel around his exposed body. "It's, uh, B-Beacon Hills First National Bank. It's, um, it's an abandoned bank, and they're keeping them locked inside, inside the vault."

But Isaac stopped his rambling when he noticed the scared, majorly concerned expressions covering everyones face, and he confusingly looked around until his eyes landed on Stiles, who massively sighed.

"What?" Isaac questioned, his breath rather shaky still, and worry was rumbling in his gut due to the not knowing.

"You don't remember what you said right before you came out of it, do you?" Stiles asked, and Isaac shook his head repeatedly. "You said you heard some woman's voice, but didn't see her."

Stiles bottom lip quivered as he shallowed some nervousness growing in the back of his stomach. He glanced up to see if anyone else would spill the dreadful news, but when everyone else was silent, he continued.

"She said Evelynn Kennedy was going to be dead by the full moon."

a/n: AH CLIFF HANGER teehee