20: The Bigger Things [4]

Support me and Join Patreón to read chapters ahead.

Patreón: patreon.com/Darkwolfest

Join my Discord to see the character images.

Discord invite:

https://discord.com/invite/YEDCfCKs

Enjoy.

Also make sure to read the Note at the end of the Chapter.

-------

"To sum it up in one line, you got bitten by a werewolf, who you think is also a murderer, and you've been dealing with the consequences for the past week." Tara concluded with a narrative tone.

"That's an extremely oversimplified version, but yeah." I shrugged.

Tara remained silent, her expression as neutral as ever, which made me increasingly nervous. Unable to contain it any longer, I spoke up.

"Look, I know it sounds crazy, unbelievable, like something out of a fantasy novel, but it's the truth." I said seriously.

"I believe you." She nodded.

"Uh… you do?" I asked, scratching my head awkwardly. I hadn't expected her to accept it so quickly.

"Yes, it all makes sense now." She replied, starting to elaborate. "Why Scott was acting like an absolute moron at Lydia's party—"

"Ouch." Scott muttered under his breath.

"—and your sudden interest in monster lore. It all just fits."

I nodded along with each of her points.

"Great, so what's our next move?" Scott asked, capturing both of our attention.

"We know he buried the other half of the body on his property." I summarized.

"Which means we have proof that he killed the girl." Scott added excitedly.

"I say we use it." I smiled, spreading my hands as if about to deliver a speech. "Ladies and gentlemen, be ready to get your hands dirty because we're about to throw a rabid dog in its cage, and we're gonna need shovels."

--------

We waited patiently, watching Derek's car slowly roll away from the house.

I turned on my Jeep, making sure to keep the headlights off.

We'd been waiting for an hour now, from a considerable distance of course, I knew that if Scott could smell a buried body, Derek would be able to track us in the blink of an eye.

My Jeep came to a stop in front of the house, which looked even more menacing and ominous at night.

We grabbed our shovels and jumped out of the car.

"Wait, something's different." Scott said, sniffing the air. I, too, caught a whiff of blood, but it seemed somehow different from the scent of the corpse at the morgue.

"Different how?" Tara asked.

"I'm not sure." Scott shrugged before plunging his shovel into the damp sand. "Let's just get this over with."

We began digging fast, knowing we had no idea when Derek would return and needing to uncover the truth before then.

The owls hooted as they watched us dig for an hour, the moonlight casting an eerie glow over the pit as we dug deeper.

"This is taking way too long." Scott muttered, wiping sweat from his chin.

"Just keep going." I replied.

"What if he comes back?"

"Then we get the hell out of here."

"What if he catches us?"

"I have a plan for that." I said nonchalantly, pulling out clumps of dirt with each thrust of the shovel.

"Which is?" Scott asked.

"Tara and I run one way, you run the other. Whoever he catches first, tough luck." I shrugged.

"That sounds great." Tara said.

"I hate that plan." Scott grumbled.

Scott thrust his shovel into the ground once more, and this time it hit something solid.

"Okay, stop, stop, stop." I said, halting our work and pointing to what looked like a cover.

I tossed aside my shovel and began sifting through the sand. Soon enough, we found an old sack buried with countless knots tied around it.

"Hurry." Scott urged as he began untying the knots.

"Use this." Tara said, tossing me her pocket knife.

"Thanks." I said, catching it and swiftly slicing through the knots.

"Okay." Scott sighed as we undid the last of the knots. He slowly pulled open the sack, and as he did, he gave me a look that said, 'brace yourself.'

"Whoa!" we both exclaimed, jumping back from the pit.

Instead of finding the body as we'd expected, we found a wolf's. Its eyes were dead silver-gray, its pale tongue sticking out from its open mouth and dried blood stained its sharp canine teeth.

"What the hell is that?!" I yelled.

While Scott and I recoiled in horror, Tara stayed calm, crouching down to inspect the body.

"It's a wolf." Scott answered.

"Yeah, I can see that." I replied. "But I thought you said you smelled blood? Human blood?"

"I told you something was different." Scott said.

"Maybe he expected this and changed the body's location. The scent of the wolf's blood must have mixed with the body's to confuse you." Tara analyzed as she climbed out of the pit.

"Maybe." I muttered.

"We've got to get out of here." Scott urged.

"Yeah." I nodded in agreement. "Help me cover this up."

As much as I wanted to find the other half of the body, I needed to make sure Tara was safe. I didn't know how Derek would react if he found out that another person knew his secret, and I didn't want to stick around to find out.

Just as I picked up my shovel, something caught my eye—a gleaming violet flower planted a few feet away from the pit.

"No way." I muttered as I identified it. I'd been researching the same stuff online for the past week, so it wasn't hard for me to recognize.

"What's wrong?" Scott asked.

"Do you see that flower?" I pointed at it.

"What about it?" Scott questioned, completely oblivious.

"I think that's Monkshood."

"What's that?" Scott asked, clueless.

"It's Wolfsbane." Tara answered, earning a point in our impromptu monster quiz.

"Haven't you ever seen 'The Wolf Man'?" I asked Scott, who shook his head.

"Lon Chaney Jr.? Claude Rain?" Scott sighed, unable to keep up.

"The original classic werewolf movie?" Tara chimed in.

"No, what?!" Scott exclaimed.

"I can't believe how unprepared you are for this." I grumbled as I headed toward the flower.

I knelt down and inspected it, checking for any bloodstains. The last thing I needed was to get cursed or something for touching it.

After confirming that it was clean, I gently plucked it, only to discover that a rope was connected to its stem.

I slowly began to pull the rope out of the ground and followed its length. It spiraled around the pit before disappearing into it.

"Stiles!"

Just as I was about to finish pulling it out, Tara called out, pointing at the pit. I furrowed my brow and looked down.

"Whoa." I muttered as the body of the wolf had vanished, replaced by the bare torso of a young woman.

I tossed aside the rope and knelt down to inspect the body. Her face looked familiar.

"He didn't switch the bodies. This must have been a ritual to cover it up." Tara concluded.

"Ritual? Like with magic?" Scott asked, his mind clearly blown by the idea of magic being real.

"More like runes, I believe." Tara replied.

"No fucking way." I muttered in disbelief, suddenly recalling where I'd seen her before—from one of my dad's old case files.

"Stiles, what is it?"

"I know who she is." I said, looking at Tara. I read that file recently to learn more about a certain creep.

"What? Who is it?!"

"Her name is Laura." I said, closing my eyes and taking a deep breath. "Laura Hale."

Scott blinked in confusion, while Tara seemed to have already understood what I was hinting at.

"Hale? As in Derek Hale?" I nodded in confirmation, answering his doubt.

"She's Derek's sister."

-------

[A/N:

First off, I have to say 'Yay! We have crossed 200k views!!'

And second of all, I know some of you have doubts about the 'Harem but not exactly Harem' thing.

I can't really comment on it much as it would spoil some stuff but let me just say, it is kinda Harem. It's Semi-Harem. Yeah, let's just use that word.

And finally. A sad news. No! No! don't spam the droopy puppy face gifs in the comment.

You guys have been reading for the past 10 chapters and by now you could kinda understand I want to be consistent with my chapter publication.

But by doing that, I have been kinda limiting myself to just the next and suppressed my writings.

So...I have decided to take a month break.

I need to upload more chapters on my Patréon as to make sure I do get some side income. Please understand.

There is a free membership on my Patréon account, where you can see me upload my chapters and make sure to follow this story.

Today is Feb 11 and I would upload the next chapter on Mar 12.

Be sure keep a reminder and come back to check out this Fic.

Untill then, my dear readers.

Farewell.

Support me and Join Patreón to read chapters ahead.

Patreón: patreon.com/Darkwolfest

Join my Discord to see the character images.

Discord invite:

https://discord.com/invite/YEDCfCKs