The Hellhound's Mate

Chapter 61

They had been too late to stop Jordan and Douglas from entering The Hunt but they'd been early enough to stop Malia, Scott, Liam and Lydia from being taken.

Peter had though. He'd given himself up to save his daughter and his niece, allowing himself to be taken by the ghost riders once more.

They'd completely lost today. Completely and utterly had their asses kicked as Angie now sat at a table in Scott's house, a blanket wrapped around her body as she told Scott what happened to Chris and his mother. The true alpha was now constantly dialling his mother's number only to hear the automated message that the number was disconnected. Over and over again he did this as he sat at the table, his friends scattered around the kitchen as they thought about all that happened. Malia was actually the one that walked over to Scott and placed a hand on his shoulder, assuring him that even though his mother was gone, she was alive and ok as she pulled the phone away from him.

"What do we do now?" Liam asked.

"We can't hide from them," Malia said.

"What about Lydia?" Liam suggested.

"What about Lydia?" Angie asked.

"The ghost rider was afraid of her," he answered as the two of them sat at the table, though Angie was sceptical of his answer considering they'd thought the same about Jordan and to say they were wrong would be the understatement of the century.

"It wasn't fear," Lydia said as she sat. "It...it was almost reverence."

"Doesn't matter," Scott piped up, his first words all evening. "The rift is gone. We're the only ones left in Beacon Hills."

Silence was the only sound left in the room for the slow minute between Scott's last words and the back door opening.

Angie was relieved to see her father, to know that he was ok and still here at the very least, but before she could get up and hug him, he started talking.

"I have a son," he declared and she sat up straighter as Lydia glanced at her. "His name is Mieczyslaw Stilinski, but we call him Stiles. I remember," Noah said, his eyes never leaving his daughter's, almost as if she was his anchor as he recalled what really happened to Claudia. How Stiles' room appeared but then disappeared when Claudia had stepped inside, but it came back. It came back when he held a picture in his hands. A picture of both of his young kids as they sat at their mother's bedside.

They both couldn't stop talking that day. It was Claudia's last good day with her dementia. And for one moment, a single small moment, they had their mother back. Stiles fought sleep for so long before the two women eventually lulled him there with a lullaby, his favourite lullaby that his sister still often sang to him when he had nightmares.

Claudia had tried to convince him otherwise, to get him to believe that she was real, but he knew she wasn't. And she'd vanished as Noah stood in his son's room, alone.

And Angie stood as she wrapped her arms around her father, the blanket cocooning them both with warmth they both needed.

"When Stiles was a little kid," Noah continued as he pulled away but his arm stayed wrapped around Angie. "He couldn't say his first name. Not sure why. It pretty much rolls off the tongue," he remarked, and his daughter laughed as tears lined her eyes.

This is what she wanted. This was what she needed for the longest time, and she just didn't know it. And she needed it now more than ever now that Jordan and Peter were lost.

"But the closest he could get was mischief. His mother called him that until..."

Noah trailed off as Angie rested her head on his shoulder.

"But you, after we got you back, that name stuck like glue. It was your contact name for him. Because he was the Mischief to your Angel, because that was the closest he could get to your name."

Both of the Stilinskis had red eyes as they tried to hold back their tears.

"I, uh, I remember, when Stiles first got his Jeep," Noah went on. "It was his mother's. Angie was supposed to have it but before she went missing, she said she didn't want it. She had more time with Claudia, and she wanted her little brother to have something of their mother's. But the first time he got behind the wheel. He went straight into a ditch. I gave him his first roll of duct tape that day."

They were all silent, listening intently as Noah continued.

"He was always getting into trouble, but he always had a good heart. Always. And we're all here tonight, not just because my daughter decided to date a werewolf when she was in high school," he said as Angie chuckled as she shook her head. "But because my goofball son decided to drag Scott, his greatest friend in the world, into the woods to see a dead body."

"How did you remember?" Scott asked, his eyes also lined with water.

"It started with Stiles' jersey. Then I found the red string for his crime board," Noah answered. "Finally, his whole room came back and all the memories. And then the strangest thing happened."

"What happened?" Angie asked worriedly.

"I thought I saw him. It was like something opened right there in the middle of the room. Just for a moment. And then it was gone."

"A rift," blurted Scott.

"I thought there was only one rift?" Malia said. "We saw it disappear."

"You remembered Stiles and then a new rift was created," Scott put together.

"If the Sheriff can do it..." Malia began.

"Maybe we can," Lydia finished.

"But the rift closed," Liam pointed out.

"Then we'll open it again," Scott responded.

"How?" Angie asked.

"By remembering Stiles. We have to remember everything," Scott urged.

"But what about the ghost riders?" Liam asked, still thinking about how he'd lost both Mason and Hayden today.

"You have to buy us time," Lydia said. "As much time as you can so we can remember Stiles."

"I can help," Noah insisted.

"Dad-"

"I'll be alright, sweetheart," he promised.

"Still, you might need more help if you plan to take on all of the ghost riders," she pointed out.

"Aren't you going to help?" Liam asked Angie who shook her head.

"I'm going after Jordan. I'm the only one that can break Douglas' control over him. I can stop him from getting in and out of The Hunt."

"What about Theo?" Malia suggested. "You could use him as bait," she defended herself after receiving some weird looks at her idea.

"It actually sounds like a good idea," Scott said.

"Then we have our plan," Angie declared. "Tomorrow... tomorrow we get Stiles back."