Grievances (Book Three Of Hale Wolves For Teen Wolf :))

Ch. 21: The Fox and the Wolves

I sat on Scott's bed next to Scott as Kira paced back and forth because of a picture taken way back when had a girl in it that looked just like her.

A girl named Malia had come from Eichen House to give it to Scott and give him a message.

"This looks just like me," Kira said as she stopped pacing, flipping it over to see the date that said 1943. "This has to be my grandmother."

"You remember when I told you about Malia?" Scott asked. "She's the last one that saw Stiles at Eichen House."

"This picture and this . . . " I trailed off, grabbing the sword inside it's sheath. "They found it with a body buried in a wall. The same backwards five the oni put on us was on the wall. It sounds like it all goes back to your family. Your mother, your grandmother . . ."

Kira's phone vibrated. She picked it up to look at the text, then looked to us.

"What is it?" Scott asked.

"My dad," she answered.

Stiles had gone after him. Well, not the real Stiles, but the Nogitsune.

*

Scott and I pushed the doors to the school open, us and Kira running down the hall to her father's classroom with her father and mother inside.

Her father was on the floor gagging, choking as her mother knelt next to him, the instant she saw Kira she was asking, "Kira, did you bring it?"

Kira knelt next to her and her father as she handed the tube to her mother. "You going to tell me what it is?"

"Reishi."

"You're not seriously giving Dad magic mushrooms?" Kira asked what sounded like a statement.

Her mother put one in her father's mouth. After he swallowed, he took a napkin and coughed blood and a fly inside.

He started to stand as Kira's mother asked, "Are you okay?"

He barely moved his head in a nod as she stood and he sat against his desk.

"Stiles did this?" Scott asked.

Kira's mother turned back to us. "He wanted the last kaiken." She held out the dagger that was a physical representation of her tail. Her last one, apparently. "I've kept this near me ever since your friend disappeared."

"You've gone to extremes to try to kill the Nogitsune," I remarked. I gestured to the kaiken, then put my hand back at my side. "If that's the last tail, it means it's the strongest."

"Yes," she answered, seeming surprised that I even knew that.

I had Laura to thank for all of the things I knew.

"Mom, you need to tell us everything," Kira said.

She nodded, Scott handing her the picture. "Where did you get this?",

“Is it Grandma?" Kira asked.

"No," her mother answered. "It's me."

*

"If that's you, then you'd have to be, like, 90 years old," Scott said.

"Closer to 900," Kira's mother answered.

"Okay, sure," Kira said. "Why not?" She looked at her father. "Dad, how old are you?"

"43," her father answered. "But I've been told I look mid-30s."

Scott leaned closer to me as he whispered in my ear, "Did you know kitsunes could age like that?"

"Why do you think I know everything?" I replied just as quietly.