Courageous

38

Scott returned and Stiles said, "I think Kinsey and I might have found something."

"So did I," Scott replied.

He led them to a den and Stiles said, "It's a coyote den."

"Werecoyote," Scott corrected.

"You see this? This is Malia's. Remember, it's the same one as she was wearing in the photo," Stiles said, pointing to the clothes and toys in the photo he'd taken.

Kinseu glanced around. "Um, guys, we shouldn't be here."

"What do you mean?"

Scott let out a sigh. "She's not going to come back now. We just invaded her home. Our scent's going to be everywhere."

Stiles frowned at his friend's words. "If she's not going to come back here, where's she going to go?"

Scott shook his head. "I don't know."

Kinsey frowned as she glanced to her friend. "Can you track her scent?"

He turned to her. "Maybe. But I'm better at this when I'm a full wolf. And I'm still worried that if I do it, I won't be able to turn back."

Stiles sighed. "The door's still open."

"If I can't get to Derek, we're gonna have to find someone else to help. This is basically a crime scene, right? I think it might be a little out of my boss's league."

"And more in my dad's," Stiles realized, widening his eyes.

Stiles called his dad and when he arrived, he asked, "You're sure it was her?"

Scott nodded. "I looked her right in the eyes. And they glowed just like mine."

"It makes sense, Dad," Stiles said.

The sheriff frowned at his son's words. "But it wasn't a girl. It was a four-legged coyote, right?"

Kinsey shrugged. "Technically yes, but like Scott said, her eyes glowed. We're sort of still working on figuring it all out ourselves."

Scott glanced to her as he said, "Okay, but if it was a full moon and she did change while her mom was driving, then anything could've happened."

"Horrible things could've happened. Ripping, shredding, tearing things," Stiles added.

Kinsey nodded. "Which could have caused the accident."

He turned back to his father. "Think about it, Dad, all right. They're driving, Malia starts to change, she goes out of control, the mom crashes and everybody else-"

"Except for Malia," Scott said.

Stiles shot his friend a look before continuing. "She blames herself, all right, goes off running into the woods and eventually becomes trapped inside the body of a coyote."

"That makes sense," the sheriff said.

Kinsey glanced at Sheriff Stilinski, hoping he believed them, though she didn't think it likely.

Sheriff Stilinski finished his thought. "In a Chinese folklore. Boys, Kinsey, this is, this is insane. I need this kept quiet. The three of you, not a word. I don't want anyone hearing about this. I especially don't want Mr. Tate hearing about this." Scott was staring blankly into the air and the sheriff called, "Scott? Scott!"

Scott shook his head and came to. "Sorry. What did you say?"

Kinsey glanced at him worriedly. Everyone kept saying they were fine, but it was obviously far from the truth.

---

During school the next day, Stiles showed Allison what they'd found. "Here's what we found in the den. It's right in the middle of the hiking trails."