CHAPTER 150

Tristan and Malia zoomed through the dastardly damning forest at full speed as they looked for a dried out stump of a tree – the Nemeton.

They perched atop a tree with a high vantage point but there was hardly anything to see as green leaves covered everywhere.

Malia sniffed the air while Tristan tried to tug on any feeling he might be having but so far nothing.

Dropping down from the tree that was easily over 50 feet, they picked a direction and started moving towards it.

The direction they were going was somewhere both of them were intimately familiar with – Malia's cave during her time as a coyote.

This wasn't the first time they've been here over the years, but it wasn't a place they frequently visited.

Tristan's reasoning for going there was to see if they could get a sense of the direction their younger selves went that day. It was unlikely that they'll get anything but it was the only good starting point they had. Either that or aimlessly running through the woods and hoping to come across a random tree stump.

They arrived at the site of the car crash and Tristan stopped as he sensed Malia stopping. It was one of the reasons why they rarely ever came to this side of the woods.

It was also the reason why Malia refused meeting her father, even after all these years.

She probably might have done so if she was the only one Satomi had found that day, but fortunately or unfortunately, it wasn't so. Tristan's presence felt more like home than her father's house would ever feel, she thought.

Even if she went back to her father, she had no way of explaining where she had been for years, 8 years, and also explaining what happened that night.

"Let's go, Trist. This place makes me feel a particular way I don't like." At the end of the day, she's come to accept her past long ago.

They continued for a few seconds and soon arrived at the cave they both used to stay for a while.

Oh, those cold and warm nights.

For them, those times were the highlight of their lives. The peaceful nights they'd spent in each other's warmth, lukewarm fur against soft warm skin.

"It keeps getting smaller every time we come here," Was Tristan's offhand remark upon their arrival.

Malia only let out a soft hum, looking at one of their hiding spots growing up. More than a few times did she drag Tristan with her to this cave to hide from everything; hiding from her fears and insecurities of the outside world.

"Got anything? Another baseless instinctual thought to go off on?" Malia asked as she casually looked around.

This place had slowly started losing its appeal as they grew up. Neither of them were one for huge sentiments and while they did cherish their past, they never let it gain any substantial hold over them.

They were still together and that was all that mattered.

Tristan knelt down with closed eyes and touched the ground, focusing on trying to get any feeling that told them if they were on the right path or not.

Despondently shaking his head as he got up, he looked at Malia and jabbed his finger in a random direction. "Got nothing. Let's just pick a random direction and go from there. It shouldn't be that far given how slow I could walk and run back then."

Malia let out a wistful smile that quickly faded into a normal smile. "Now that's an idea. Who knows? Maybe this tree is the coven of our scary druid."

"How can a tree stump be a coven?" Tristan asked confusedly as they broke off into another sprint, a slower one this time.

Malia gasped in faux shock at the ignorant words Tristan had spoken. "Don't tell me you still think that way? She's a witch, you know. Having some kind of evil lair of corpses and death under the tree is directly up her alleyway. It's their shtick."

Shaking his head laughingly because he couldn't actually come up with a reply so he just enjoyed Malia's humor as they continued their search.

Midway through their slowed search, his phone rang and upon seeing that the caller ID was Isaac, he ignored it, except that it didn't stop.

"Why not answer it? It could be something important."

He took out his phone after Malia pointed that out and saw 8 missed calls and 3 texts, all from Isaac, with another coming in before he could check the texts.

"Please, make it quick." He said as soon as he answered the call.

"I'm sorry, it's just that I don't know where to go or who to call except you-"

"Whoa, slow down a bit, yeah?" Tristan hurriedly spoke as he heard how fast and anxious Isaac was speaking.

"It's the twins! They are fighting Derek and Scott. We wanted to help but Derek said we shouldn't, because he was there to kill us. Please man, I'm with Erica and Cora and I have no idea where to go."

"Where are you right now?"

"We are at your house but there's nobody in."

Hearing Isaac's trembling voice, they both looked at each other, with Tristan taking a second to think about it, before turning back towards where they parked their car.

"Give us a few minutes and we'll be there. Deucalion, was he there?" Tristan asked with a growing suspicion but Isaac's reply was that only the twins attacked them.

It took them less than two minutes to get to their car, and exponentially less than that to get the car speeding in the direction of their house.

"Derek and McCall, think they're still alive?" He asked his second sitting beside him.

Malia nodded without any hesitation. "Derek's an Alpha and Deucalion seem to have a boner for you and McCall. I doubt he'd kill them now when he's two Alpha short." She speculated.

Tristan added. "And who knows if Deucalion will go after the others at home if we turn to Derek's location. He'd know that Derek would send his betas away in the face of an Alpha if he has the choice, so why not show up to stop Derek from doing that? That blind man is definitely up to something."

Not caring for the speed limit, Tristan pressed down on the pedal as they hurried home to try and prevent a likely bloodbath should Deucalion show up there.

He had no illusions of Derek and McCall winning over Aiden and Ethan. Two Alphas.

One was more than enough to hold back Derek in all his strength and the other would make quick work of Scott if they were there to kill.

"Why would he even go after Derek now when he should be focusing on the druid?" A bewildered Malia shouted rhetorically in frustration.

They both hurried out of the car as they got to their house, only sighing in relief when they found out that Isaac had forced his way in after tweaking the door a little bit, without Deucalion in sight.

"Hey guys. I'd say some tasteless joke but the bland look on your faces tells me not to." Malia blurted out as soon as she saw the looks on Erica's and Cora's faces.

"Tristan, you're an Alpha too, right? Please, help my brother. He can't survive against two Alphas!" Cora shot up from where she sat and grabbed Tristan by his shirt, watery eyes filled with hopeful pleas underneath.

Even without reading how she felt, just the look in her eyes told him just how desperate the young Hale before him was.

"Calm down, Cora. Derek's not dead yet. Deucalion wouldn't kill him now, not when he'll need Alphas to go against his psychopathic druid. He's still alive, but probably in Deucalion's hands."

He articulated his words slowly so that the shaken girl could hear it clearly and it worked as she somehow calmed down and loosened her grip on his shirt, but still held onto it.

"But we can all go there and check, right? Maybe they are still fighting but with you there, the Alphas wouldn't be able to take him."

Her suggestion was highly probable but the problem remained Deucalion and how no one knew his whereabouts. Not to mention the Darach who could be watching and just waiting to snipe off one Alpha off her tail.

"Please! Derek said we could ask you for help if we are ever in a bind, so I'm begging you. Help my brother."

Seeing how hopeful she looked upon him made it abundantly clear what Satomi had told him a while back.

He was no longer a fledgling vampire.

He was now a vampire's equivalent of an Alpha.

Only an Alpha could fight an Alpha, and he was more than any regular Alpha.

He looked at Malia and the look she gave him was one that said she was fine with whatever he chose.

For the first time, at this moment, Tristan felt the spark of what it really meant to be an Alpha.

Leading a pack of betas who were putting their hopes on him – it was a very small spark but the electrical jolt that surged through Tristan's body due to it was the impetus of a budding change.

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