A Hope Through Time: AnOtHeR WeReWoLf!?! Really? (Book 2)

Chapter 16

Hope moved into the sparse parking lot and smoothly parked Allison's car a few spaces away from the bus. The four girls sat in the car for a moment longer, watching as the students groaned, finally being able to free themselves off the confines of the bus and stretch their legs for the second time in nearly 12 hours.
The Tribrid looked at the motel with a disturbed look on her face, however her attention was quickly diverted to Lydia as she heard the Banshee's heartbeat speed up. Hope wasn't the only one who picked up on Lydia's discomfort.
Both of the girls in the back also picked up on strawberry blonde's silent yet overwhelming fear.
Daphne tilted her body around the seat in front of her and placed a soft hand on Lydia's shoulder. "Lyds? Are you alright?"
Hope didn't see Lydia move at the unexpected touch from Daphne's chilled hand, instead the Banshee was fully focused on the building in front of them as she whispered. "I don't like this place."
"I don't think anyone likes this place." Hope instantly retorted back before murmuring another little snarky comment. "Hell... I don't think the people who own this motel like this place."

Allison on the other hand could only feel the immense tension that has built up in her car as she glances between the 3 supernatural passengers and the building that is concerning her best friend and her two soulmates.
Although the ravenette couldn't stop the amused smirk that crossed her face at Hope's addition. "It's only for one night girls."
A double dose of disbelief coursed through Allison's soulbond and received a 'really' look from the blonde beside her. Allison felt slightly offended as she didn't think that both Hope and Daphne would simply ignore her optimism so easily.
"A lot can happen in one night." Lydia inputted through the silent car as Hope bobbed her head up and down in agreement.
Hope sighed as she switched off the headlights before turning the key as the car's engine came to a stop. The Tribrid was the first to open her car door and pull herself out of the car. Once Allison had climbed out of the car Hope held her hand out in the ravenette's direction and she blinked in confusion at the sudden arm in front of her until she saw a flash of metal dangling from her fingers. Her keys.

Allison chuckled to herself as she gratefully accepted her keys from the brunette. "Thanks... And thanks for driving... Even though we are following my ex on a gut instinct."
"It's fine Allison. I'm just glad that you were willing to bring us along with you rather than going off by yourself." Hope replied diplomatically with a little bit of scorn in her voice that had Allison looking away from the Tribrid in guilt.
Meanwhile Daphne had opened Lydia's door and offered her hand out for the Banshee to take. The strawberry blonde was shocked out of her stunned state at the sound of the door opening and observed Daphne's chivalrous behaviour and moved her hand into Daphne's cold hand, allowing the Ice Witch to help her out of the car.
"Who knew the Pureblood Princess lowered herself to helping those who are from a lower class than herself?" The strawberry blonde remarked with a sassy smirk.
Daphne scoffed as she released Lydia's hand with an eye roll. "Be grateful that you are one of the few people that I'm willing to be teased by Lydia, otherwise you would find yourself with a nasty case of frostbite tonight."
Lydia's eyes widened as she fiddled with her fingertips as she tried to rub some warmth into her hands at the descriptive manner of Daphne's light threat.

"Daph!" Hope called over the car in feigned offense.
The blonde rolled her eyes again as she used her height to her advantage and wrapped an arm over Lydia's shoulder and pulled the strawberry blonde into a half hug. "You forgive me, right Lyds?"
Lydia groaned a little but allowed the affection from the taller girl as she noticed Stiles motioning towards them with his calculating and suspicious furrow as he spoke to Scott. "Do you know what they are talking about?"
Hope and Allison had made their way over to the other pair on the other side of the car. The Tribrid tilted her head to the side ever so slightly before looking at them as she reiterated what she heard from the two boys.
"Stiles says that he has 6 suspects on who the Darach is, although he originally started with 12 but apparently he had Derek written on this list twice. Scott and Stiles' first suspect is Harris."
Lydia nodded in agreement. "Just because he's missing doesn't mean he's dead and he wrote down the word 'Darach' before he was taken. He obviously knew something."

"Now they are arguing about a guy called Matt. Stiles is saying that he guessed that Matt was a killer but no one listened to him." Daphne added as she watched the boys flail around as they argued.
Allison blinked a couple of times as she blurted out. "I thought that Stiles was just naming anyone who came to mind. The only time we considered him a little further was when I found his camera."
Lydia opened her mouth to make a sarcastic comment as Allison knew it was far worse than that. Especially since he was the one stalking the archer but before she could say anything she saw the narrowed glare from the Huntress and immediately shut her mouth with a clink as she turned back to Scott and Stiles in an attempt to look innocent.
Hope and Daphne turned to Allison with raised eyebrows as the Tribrid quietly pointed out. "Ally... We know that Matt was stalking you and I for one, am glad he is dead but whenever you are ready to talk about this we'll be there to listen and hopefully guide you through any residual fear or hatred you might still feel towards him."

"Oh... So who are the other suspects?" Allison gaped at the other two girls before swiftly redirecting the subject back to the original question.
Hope and Daphne shared a quick glance to one another but let the subject slide as Allison obviously didn't want to discuss this now.
The brunette listened back into the conversation over with the two boys. "Derek's sister, Cora is the second, mainly because no one knows anything about her and that she's Derek's sister. Third is Scott's boss."
"I can understand Cora to some degree, but Dr Deaton... I don't know. He seems to know a lot more than what he tells us but if he was a suspect... Why would Stiles bring him to the school and confide in him?" Lydia frowns slightly at the thought.
"Who are the final three?" Allison wondered.
The Witch pair scoffed in thinly veiled amusement as they both overheard the next two names.
"The two of us." Daphne indicated as she motioned her hand back and forth between herself and Hope.

Allison and Lydia glanced at each other as they appeared exasperated at the other two girl's nonchalant attitude to being called out as suspects until both of the girls frowned as they both narrowed a dangerous glare in Stiles' direction.
"What?" Lydia queried as she noticed the distinct change in their stances while Scott whacked Stiles' arm and pointed towards the four girls and the lanky boy paled at the death glares from the blonde and brunette.
"Who's the last person? Me?... My dad?" Allison suggested with a playful roll of her eyes.
Lydia shook her head as she saw the undeniable guilty expression on Stiles' face as he tried to avoid her gaze. "No... Not you Ally. Me."
The strawberry blonde moved out from under Daphne's arm and turned to face the two supernatural girls. "Why would they think it's me? Because I spend too much time with the two of you?"
Hope exhaled a deep breath as she shifted her gaze back to the distraught Banshee. "It contributes to it but mainly Stiles was more concerned by the fact you were controlled by Peter."
Lydia's heart jumps a beat at the former Alpha's name as she mutters out a quiet and sad sounding noise. "Oh."

The ravenette was about to follow after the Banshee but Daphne stopped her and the Tribrid trailed after the dejected strawberry blonde instead of the Huntress.
"Lyds?" Allison questioned with a hint of sadness in her voice as she tried to move towards her friend but was pulled back into a comforting hug by her blonde soulmate.
"Darling, let Hope have a go at calming Lydia down. Hope is used to this kind of discrimination due to her family. Hope might even be able to help Lydia. Just give her a chance please?" The Ice Witch whispered quietly into the Huntress' ear before pulling away after a few moments.
"In the meantime, let's get a key or two from the Coach." Daphne offered placatingly with the ravenette as she guided the other girl away from Lydia and Hope.
"How long do you think it will take for Scott, Stiles, hell even Derek to stop treating us like the enemy?" Allison pouted as she moved forward to take a key from the Coach as there was only one remaining in his hand.
The PE teacher originally blinked at Allison as he wondered what she was doing here but he recalled that the raven haired girl was incredibly athletic if the rock climbing exercise last year was anything to go by, so it's very likely that Miss Argent was on the bus and he just didn't notice her.

When Allison returned back to Daphne's side, the blonde sighed as she answered her soulmate's earlier question. "As long as it takes... Although it looks as though Scott has calmed down a bit since our earlier stop at the gas station."
Allison smiled as she nudged Daphne's shoulder playfully. "That's good to hear. Healing him probably helped gain a bit of his trust."
Daphne let out a quiet chuckle as she shook her head slightly. "That may be true but to someone like Stiles, it looks suspicious and I can somewhat understand why Stiles would consider myself and Hope as suspects. Witches and sacrifices kinda go hand in hand when you think about it."
The Huntress narrowed her russet brown eyes at the blonde who was already smirking at the annoyance on Allison's face. "Relax a little, darling. Hopefully one day soon we can put all of this distrust behind us whenever we finally talk to Scott and Stiles for real without any immediate discrimination. Until then, there's not a whole lot we can do about it Allison."

"You do realise that you and Hope could've been the first to tell your side of the story and maybe Scott and Stiles would be a bit more understanding." Allison pointed out with a raised eyebrow which Daphne simply shrugged.
Allison rolled her eyes at the Ice Witch as she handed off the key to Daphne. "I assume that you'll be sharing a bed with Hope?"
"Actually I was kinda hoping that we could switch it up with the beds, Have Hope or I with either you or Lydia... Like Lydia said, 'A lot can happen in one night' and I would feel better if there was a magic user in each bed. This place gives off some really disturbing vibes." Daphne stated as she turned the key in her hand a couple of times in disgust as she read the name tag on the keychain 'Glen Capri'.
Allison stopped as she pivoted on the spot to face Daphne and groaned painfully in the back of her throat as she gritted out. "I hate when you or Hope say things like that."
Daphne snorted before chuckling to herself. "You have no idea how frequently I have said that exact same thing to Hope. It was very annoying to begin with when Hope did this to me but within a couple of years it became something of an early warning system."

"... Fine. But you or Hope will be telling Lydia about our sleeping arrangements and one of you will be telling us what is going to happen tonight." Allison agreed, but not without making a condition of her own.
"Very well. I'll get Hope to tell you and Lydia later when we are all in the same room... Oh, hi Alexandria." Daphne responded with a small smile as they climbed the stairs to the second storey of the motel only to be greeted by the golden bird sitting patiently on the railing, waiting for one of the Witches to join her as she wanted to perch on one of their shoulders after the long flight.
Daphne offered her arm for Alexandria to hop onto and casually walked up Daphne arm until she was perched on Daphne's left shoulder.

Allison watched the Thunderbird make her way up the blonde's arm and couldn't help but wonder. "Why does Alexandria always move to the left shoulder to perch?"
Daphne shrugged slightly as she considered the question as she ran a couple of fingers along the fine feathers on Alexandria's head as she preens happily at the sensation. "I'm not 100% sure. Hope has a Familial Phoenix back in my universe from nearly the exact moment she appeared. Myrddin had taken up residence on Hope's right shoulder and Alexandria took the left shoulder. I think they just automatically move to their designated shoulder."
Alexandria lets out a small whistle of acknowledgement as she bobs her head at the explanation that Daphne gave.

"Also I never got to thank you." Allison softly mentions as she put her key into the door and unlocked the door before opening the door.
Daphne was highly confused as she followed Allison into the room. "Whatever for?"
"For helping Scott. Healing him. You didn't have to do that Daph but you did anyway. So thank you." Allison clarifies for the blonde with a small smile as she brushes some of her hair behind her ear.
Daphne was about to speak but Allison was standing right in front of the Ice Witch with a genuine look of gratefulness. The Huntress placed a calloused hand against Daphne's cold cheek, halting any thoughts that the blonde had to say.
The archer leaned into Daphne with relative ease due to their similar heights as Allison's free hand rested on Daphne's hip for both stability and to draw the slightly older girl by a mere two weeks closer to herself.

Allison considered her actions for a few moments as the events of the last few weeks passed through her mind before steeled her resolve and pressed a soft kiss against Daphne's slightly chilled lips.
Daphne's eyes slowly slid shut as she became pliant in Allison's hold but moved her hands to cradle the Huntress' face.
Alexandria managed to abandon her post from Daphne's shoulder without interrupting the moment as she silently flew over to the bed closest to the door and kept her gaze focused on the window as though it was the most interesting thing in the world.
Allison felt as though there was nothing more perfect in the world than the taste on the archer's lips: snow, oranges and a hint of parchment or old books overloaded Allison's senses. The Huntress was so invested in the kiss that it deepened into something more and she walked Daphne back until the blonde's spine hit a wall with the soft thud and a vexing groan left her soft lips at the sensation.

- - -

Hope had to speed up her movements to catch up to the discouraged Banshee. Once she reached Lydia the Tribrid threaded her arm through Lydia's arm as she pulled the other girl around the corner for some privacy.
The brunette shifted her body around and pulled the nearly stoic strawberry blonde into a hug. "I know that Stiles suspecting you of being the Darach isn't something that you expected from him but I also know that this isn't the only thing bothering you. You've been off since the beginning of our road trip. What's going on in that massive brain of yours?"
Lydia pursed her lips together tightly as she shook her head in annoyance but responded to the Tribrid's affection as she wrapped her arms around Hope's waist and buried her face into Hope's neck. "I really hate that you've learned how to read me so well after only a few short weeks."
Hope chuffed out a small laugh at Lydia's exasperation. "I think it's more due to being able to hear your heartbeat–"
"And that you have Alexandria spying on me?" Lydia cut in with a raised eyebrow as she pulled out of the hug.
"Ah... You noticed. Of course you did... Although to be honest with you, I had Alexandria trailing your mother, not you. So, what happened?" Hope amended before locking eyes with the younger girl meaningfully.

Lydia paced back and forth for a few moments as she considered her options. The strawberry blonde came to an abrupt stop before dropping her head and turning into Hope and reburying her face into Hope's neck.
Hope froze for a moment as she wasn't expecting that reaction from the Beacon Hills resident genius. The Tribrid was expecting a diversion tactic or some kind of deflection rather than an immediate breakdown from the Banshee.
The brunette responded after a couple of seconds and wrapped her arms around Lydia gently. Hope remained silent as she held Lydia close, unwilling to hurt the younger girl more than she already was from the distrust the boys were treating her with.
Lydia cried on the Tribrid for nearly 5 minutes as Hope started rubbing soothing circles on the area between the Banshee's shoulder blades. Hope adjusted her grip slightly to ensure that she wasn't suffocating the strawberry blonde as Lydia's nose was pressed up tightly against her neck and the collar of her mum's vintage leather jacket.

Eventually Lydia was finally able to cry out a sentence that broke the Tribrid's heart and made it stutter in fear. "My mum has been in contact with multiple mental health houses, specifically Eichen House. I actually overheard a couple of conversations where I had gone there a few years ago and she asked if those doctors who worked on me before to make me forget about all the strange occurrences that happen in Beacon Hills... If they could do it again. Make me forget."
"I'm afraid Hope. I'm scared of going home to that house and I can't even find sanctuary with my father as he agrees with mum about taking me to Eichen House." Lydia sobs as she digs her sharp manicured nails into Hope's upper back.
"Lyds... I won't let that happen to you. I promise..." Hope assured the younger girl.
"When we get back to Beacon Hills I need you to find any and all documentation in regards to yourself. If you can prove neglect or abuse then you have the right to try for emancipation... Or alternatively, I could compel your mother to give her consent to apply for a more legal form of emancipation that won't tarnish your mother's public image or force you into your father's home instead." Hope promised before offering a couple of options for the Banshee.

"Where would I go? I would need a place of residence otherwise emancipation would be pointless." Lydia countered with a shake of her head.
"Come stay with Daph and I, Lydia. We have room." Hope stated with such ease that it shocked Lydia enough for the strawberry blonde to pull back in surprise and look at the Tribrid in utter fascination.
"Are you serious? Hope... You and Daph have only known me for a month! That's hardly enough time..." Lydia tried to backtrack as she wasn't sure if Hope understood what the Tribrid was offering.
Hope gave a polite smile as she laid a hand on Lydia's shoulder. "We know enough Lyds and the offer is absolutely serious. But take your time. You don't need to answer just yet."

Hope's body jerked slightly before freezing for a moment as her jaw dropped open in shock. Lydia blinked as she waved her hand in front of the Tribrid a couple of times before calling out Hope's name.
"Hope? Hope? Yeah, she's gone. Come on Queen Wolfie. Snap out of it." The strawberry blonde snapped her fingers a few times in front of the Werewolf.
The Tribrid's hand shot out blindly and gripped Lydia's arm making the other girl jump as she wasn't expecting Hope to move that quickly.
"Oh my God! Lydia!" Hope practically squealed as she gripped Lydia's other hand and brought both hands in front of them as the brunette was basically bouncing up and down on the spot.
"What?! What? You're starting to freak me out! I don't think I've ever heard that noise from you before!" Lydia exclaimed as her jade coloured eyes widened while she stared at Hope like she's lost her mind.

Hope didn't give Lydia any notice as she pulled the Banshee close and rushed them up the narrow stairs with her Vampiric superspeed. Lydia came to a sudden stop with a powerful whoosh of her strawberry locks smacking her in the face as she simultaneously smacked Hope's hands away and blew her own hair out of her mouth.
Lydia was seconds away from giving Hope a piece of her mind but the words in the back of her throat were silenced as she watched Allison pull away from Daphne with a large smile plastered on her face as she ran her thumb over Daphne's kiss-swollen bottom lip.
"I certainly want to do that again but for now, I need a cold shower." Allison murmured as she pressed another light kiss on Daphne's cheek before walking directly into the bathroom without looking away from the blonde as she ran her calloused fingers along Daphne's fair skin.
Daphne's entire attention was fixated on Allison as she watched the ravenette walk past her with the most goofy smile on her face. That smile didn't even disappear after the door closed with a soft click and the water started to run in the shower.

Hope was staring at Daphne with a proud look on her face and one of the largest smiles on her face. All the while Daphne was still looking towards the closed door as the blonde ran a couple of fingers over the tingling sensation that remained on her lips from the kiss she received from the Huntress.
Daphne turned slightly from her spot, finally noticing Hope and Lydia at the door. Daphne's lovesick smile only increased in size as she saw Hope leaning against the doorframe with her arms crossed over her chest in pride.
"You lucky Witch." Hope grinned.
"She kissed me." Daphne replied with a dreamy expression gracing her artistic facial features.
"You're damn right she did!" Hope confirmed proudly with her family's signature smirk plastered in her face.

Lydia's brain took this small interaction between the universal travellers to reboot as she wasn't expecting to be moved around at superspeed only to be dropped before her best friend kissing one of her current crushes while Allison's other crush watched on.
"Okay... You two are coming with me. Somewhere very far away from a very naked Allison, so both of you can stop snooping on Ally with your supernatural senses while she's having a shower. Now let's go, girls. Move it!" Lydia practically demanded as she pulled both of the girls who appeared to be running on happy fumes out the door with relative ease since Daphne was distracted and Hope was more than happy to follow the blonde out the door as she planned to tease the hell out of the Ice Witch.
"Pair of horny hound dogs." Lydia muttered under her breath as she guided the girls downstairs only to see Boyd staring at the vending machine but somehow looking far off into the distance. Stiles was next to him trying to make some small talk with the dark-skinned Beta but Stiles was ignored for the most part.

The sound of a broken glass snapped Hope and Daphne out of their sweet reprieve as she turned to face where sound came from only to see that Boyd had punched through the glass of the vending machine. Boyd took one of the snacks from the machine and walked away as though he didn't just break private property.
Stiles stared at Boyd's back for a moment in disbelief before shaking his head slightly and reached in to snatch up a few snacks as it was the original reason he came downstairs to begin with. As Stiles turned around he froze as he saw Hope, Daphne and Lydia. The latter was watching him with a disappointed look on her face and Stiles opened and closed his mouth a few times like a fish out of water as he didn't know what to say.
Lydia just shook her head and took off towards the main reception area. Hope and Daphne glanced back at the sound of the strawberry blonde walking away from them and turned to follow her like a pair of protective shadows.

Hope was immensely curious as Lydia walked into the reception area and cleared her throat slightly, hoping to gain the attention of the receptionist behind the counter.