True North

35

Scott, Lydia and Liam attempted to find 'Stiles' and 'Lena' in the dictionary. All they found was 'Stile'. They did find 'Lena', but it wasn't what they thought.

Scott read the definition aloud. ""Stile, an arrangement of steps that allows people, but not animals, to climb over a thing.""

Lydia frowned. "Yeah, somehow I don't think this is the Stiles we're looking for."

Liam looked up Lena and said, "It's a "river about 2700 miles (4345 kilometers) long in eastern Russia in Asia flowing from the mountains west of Lake Baikal northeast and north into the Laptev Sea through a wide delta." I don't think that's the Lena we're looking for."

Scott looked at his friends and beta hopefully. "Maybe Malia's found something."

Lydia shook her head. "No, Malia's been in a make-up test all morning."

They heard howling and Lydia sighed. "I don't think it's going well."

The teens made their way to the basement.

Scott said to a shifted Malia, "Malia, it's okay. You're safe. I'm not gonna hurt you." She growled.

Sheriff Stilinski glanced at Scott. "Maybe you should growl back? Scott, you're the alpha. Can't you just make her a little docile?"

Lydia looked between her friends. "Back up, guys. She isn't the problem. We are. We're in her space. This is her territory. Let's get out of here."

They backed up and Lydia raised her voice. "Malia used to come here to get through the full moons, before we started using the lake house."

Ms. Martin narrowed her eyes at her daughter. "I thought you said a wild animal got in the lake house."

Lydia shrugged. "Just be happy about all the things I don't tell you."

Malia let out another small growl and her coyote form stalked towards the group as she shifted back into a human. She smiled lightly. "It's all right. I'm okay."

Ms. Martin handed Malia her clothes as the sheriff asked, "Any idea what made her shift?"

"She's under a lot of pressure," Scott replied. "School, her life after graduation."

"Her mom trying to kill her," Lydia added.

Scott glanced at her. "That shouldn't make her shift."

"Could it be connected to Stiles and Lena?" Liam asked, smiling faintly at the latter's name.

Scott shrugged. "Hard to tell since we don't know what a "Stiles" or a "Lena" is."

"It's a "he"," the sheriff said. ""Lena" is what my brother would have named a daughter if he'd had one."

"Who?"

"Stiles. It's a family nickname. I never used it, but, uh, my father did."

Scott, Lydia and Liam made their way to the sheriff's house to speak to the sheriff and his wife. The sheriff grabbed a photo from the mantle and held it out to the teens. "He was an Army engineer. Ended the war one bridge at a time."

"And he went by Stiles," Scott said, reading the name in the corner of the picture.

"So what's all this got to do with the Wild Hunt?"

Liam looked up at the sheriff. "We think two someones were taken from us."

"Any idea who?"

Scott shook his head. "Uh, the Ghost Riders would have erased our memories."

"Well, now, that's convenient."

Liam fiddled with his hands nervously. "We did find a couple clues. The words Stiles and Lena."