The Hunters

Prologue

Scott McCall was reading a book in his living room when the doorbell rang. He opened the door to reveal his beta, Liam, who had his hands in his pockets, "Hey, Scott. Are Corey and Mason here yet?"

"Nah, it's just Theo, but they should be here any minute," Scott said, stepping back to let Liam in. 

Theo, having heard the doorbell ring, came downstairs from his room and smiled when he saw Liam, "Hey."

"Hi," Liam said kind of awkwardly. "So, where are we going again?"

Theo shrugged as they all went back into the living room, "Beats me. You're the one who let Mason and Corey decide."

Liam rolled his eyes, but he was smiling. After the battle with the Anuk-Ite, Liam forced Theo to confess that he had been living in his truck all semester. Though Mellissa was definitely not the president of the Theo Raken fan club, she had offered him Isaac's old room which he reluctantly agreed to. 

Although Scott wasn't sure what to expect from living under the same roof as Theo Raken, it was actually pretty okay. Theo always made his bed, kept his room clean, helped out around the house, and had even agreed to go back to school, since he had missed part of his senior year due to being, you know, dead-ish. 

"Hey, you picked last time," Liam said defensively. Theo, Liam, Mason, and Corey had been going out every once in a while, hoping to have a normal summer before going to UCLA, where they had all been accepted for the fall semester. 

"Yeah, and it was awesome," Theo smirked, loving how easy it was to annoy Liam. 

"Falling on my face every two seconds at the skate park was not awesome," Liam blushed at the embarrassing memory.

"It was for the rest of us," Theo laughed. "You'd think out of the four of us, the werewolf would be the best at sports, but even Mason was better than you."

Scott smiled fondly at the two bickering friends. Theo had come a long way, and Scott knew he felt awful about what he had done. Theo still had nightmares about his Tara taking her heart back. Scott always tried to wake him up before it got to the part where Theo tells her not to stop because he deserves it.

Scott jumped slightly as his phone rang. He glanced at the caller ID and went into the other room so the Sheriff wouldn't hear Liam and Theo as much. 

"Hey, Scott, have you heard from Stiles yet?" the sheriff asked.

Stiles was supposed to get back in town for the summer that day. He was planning on stopping by the station before he, Scott, Malia, and Lydia went out to catch up. The girls were supposed to show in a few hours, but Stiles should have gotten to the station by now.

"No, I thought he was supposed to meet you at the station," Scott said, cringing as he heard Liam raising his voice in the background and Theo laughing as he got worked up.

"He should have been here an hour ago," Stillinski said. Most parents wouldn't be too concerned if their 20-year-old son was only an hour late, but this was Beacon Hills. Stiles knew to call if he was going to be late.

"You want us to go look for him?" Scott asked. "I'm not doing anything and Theo and Liam are just waiting for Mason and Corey to come over, but we can ask them to help."

"Thanks, Scott," Stillinski said. "The Jeep probably just died again."

"No problem," Scott said. "Call you when I find him."

Scott hung up the phone and walked back into the other room just as Liam took a swing at Theo who simply ducked, "Okay, that's enough, guys. Call Mason and Corey. Stiles should have been back an hour ago and Stillinski wants us to see if we can find him."

"Is he okay?" Liam asked as Theo pulled his phone out.

"Yeah, the Jeep probably just broke down somewhere and his phone's probably dead," Scott said, hoping that it was true. 

Little did he know that he wouldn't see a single trace from his friend for over three months

*****

"Okay," Theo said, turning his phone off after texting Mason and Corey. "They're going to drive along the road towards the airport and see if they find anything."

"So, where are we going?" Liam asked, turning to Scott.

Scott had already thought this through, "I was thinking we might try the gas station or the auto shop?"

Theo shrugged, "I guess."

Scott drove his bike behind Theo's truck as they drove past the auto shop that was closed for the day. They were nearly halfway to the gas station when Theo pulled over. Scott got off his bike and knocked on Liam's window.

Liam rolled down the window and the two listened as Theo was talking on the phone to Corey.

"-just outside of the city limits," Corey was saying. "It's just sitting here."

"No scents or anything?"

"None that I can sense. It's got Stiles's scent inside, but nothing around. He's been here recently, though. Within the past hour. You know my senses aren't as heightened as your's though, so why don't you guys come and look around."

"Okay, we'll be there in about five minutes," Theo hung up the phone and turned to Scott and Liam. "They found his Jeep on the side of the road just outside of Beacon Hills."

Scott was getting concerned now, "And Corey can't catch his scent?"

"No, but you know your senses are better than chimeras', so let's just head over and you two can try," Theo shoved his phone into his pocket and Scott stepped away so Liam could roll the window up again. "Maybe he ran out of gas and walked to the gas station."

Scott couldn't shake the sick feeling in his stomach, especially when he realized that Mason and Corey should have passed Stiles on their way if that were true.

*****

"You're not getting anything either, are you?" Scott asked Liam as the two were circling Stiles's Jeep, trying to catch a scent that indicated where he had gone.

"Hey, guys," Scott and Liam looked over to where Theo was crouching in the overgrown grass with Corey while Mason stood nearby. "Look at this."

The two joined the others and looked to see what they had found.

Scott caught a metallic glint before he really saw what they had found. It was a set of keys on a ring that Scott immediately recognized Stiles's keychain.

"That's Stiles's, isn't it?" Liam asked.

Scott said nothing but picked up the key ring and tried to catch a scent other than Stiles's. For the first time, Scott caught the faintest whiff of another person. Their scent was almost sour, like the chemicals in the science lab at school.

"There was someone else here," Scott said.

"So what happened?"Mason wondered out loud.

"I don't know," Scott stood and faced the others. "But we're going to find out."