[ BOOK ONE ]
Daisy Fulton was not the girl to stand out in a crowd. Never the one to take chances. But when her best friends, Scott McCall and Stiles Stilinski, drag her into the Beacon Hills Preserve to find a dead body, her life shifts in a new di...
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THE DARK LANDSCAPE of the Beacon Hills Preserves sent a chill down Daisy's spine. As soon as Stile's powder blue Jeep rolled to a stop, the boys jumped out of the front seats, giving her enough room to climb out from the back. Her tennis shoes crunched on the dead leaves that blanketed the ground as she hopped from the vehicle.
"We're seriously doing this?" Scott questioned from where he came to stand beside Daisy.
Stiles pulled a flashlight from his jacket pocket and clicked the button, forcing a bright beam to illuminate the darkness around them. "You're the one always bitching that nothing ever happens in this town," he quipped, starting through the towering evergreens that spread out in all directions.
Daisy hugged herself as a cold breeze swirled across the preserve. Her cotton hoodie did little to keep her warm, forcing her to huddle close to Scott's side. Aside from his body heat, she stayed near him out of fear that Stiles leave her out there if something happened. It wouldn't have been the first time he left Daisy behind.
After all, Stiles did abandon her inside a corn maze when they were twelve. And that didn't include a late night romp through the woods to find half of a dead body.
"I was trying to get a good night's sleep before practice tomorrow," Scott said, shoving his hands into the pockets of his red jacket.
Daisy nodded in agreement with his statement. "And I need to study. You know Mr. Harris will skin us alive if we don't pass his next test."
Stiles scoffed as he trudged on into preserve. "Right, 'cause sitting on the bench is such a grueling effort," he quipped to the McCall boy, before he glanced back to the Fulton girl. "And you need to loosen up.
Daisy rolled her eyes, while Scott defended his reason for waiting to head home.
"No, because I'm playing this year. In fact, I'm making first line."
"Hey, that's the spirit. Everyone should have a dream, even a pathetically unrealistic one," Stiles exclaimed, hopping over a fallen tree in his path.
Daisy produced a fake pout and voiced, "awe, is that how you excuse yourself for being on the team?" She smirked when Stiles glared her way.
For the next few minutes, the three friends weaved through the moonlit forest in silence. Those last months of winter meant there were few bugs left alive to annoy them, but they had to be wary of the various other animals that lurked somewhere in the darkness.
If Daisy could forget why they were out there, she could almost enjoy the sense of peace that fell over her only in the middle of the preserve. But that meant forgetting that they were on the lookout for half of a dead body.
