Silvern | Stiles Stilinski (Book 2)

Chapter Fifty: After Images

"What the hell's going on?" I asked as I rushed towards Scott, Malia and Lori.

Scott sighed, "It's Brett, he's missing. Lori found blood on his lacrosse stick"

We raced through the woods, following the scent of blood until we found Liam stood near a tree. "Here," he said as he pointed to an arrow embedded in the trunk, "I think he set a trap"

"He's fighting back"

"And now we know he's alive" Malia nodded.

Lori pulled the arrow out of the tree, staring at the blood that had coated her fingertips, "But he's still hurt. We need to find him, he needs to know we're here"

She opened her mouth, preparing to howl, but Malia stopped her. "You want the hunter to know we're here, too?" she snapped.

"He's new, we can take him" Liam shrugged.

"What if Brett howls back?" I sighed as I looked around at everyone, "He'll lead the hunter right to him"

Scott shook his head, "No, we could find him first. There's no human that can track sounds faster than we can. And we've got the advantage, we've done this before. We know what we're doing, guys"

Malia frowned, "How come I can't catch his scent?"

"He's masking it" 

"Can someone tell him not to?"

Liam stared at a footprint in the mud, "He went this way"

"The trail's gone" Malia frowned as we stared at the ground.

"Uh, maybe he just stopped bleeding"

Liam huffed, "I think we should split up. Lori and I go this way, you guys go that way"

The girl shrugged, "Or maybe we go in five directions?"

"We should stick together" I folded my arms as I glared around at our surroundings.

"We have the advantage, it's five against one" Liam argued.

Malia folded her arms, "Not if we split up"

Liam glared at her, "Right, I've been doing this the past three months without your help. I think I can make a decision"

"Well, if you're deciding to do something stupid and die, then go ahead"

"It's one hunter, one amateur who doesn't know what they're doing"

The werecoyote rolled her eyes, "Scott?"

Scott paused, brushing aside some leaves on the ground to reveal a footprint. "The hunter, he's covering his tracks" Liam realised.

The Alpha moved some more leaves to uncover a second, smaller foot print, "There's another"

"Two of them?"

"Maybe more"

Lori glanced at us anxiously, "How many hunters have you seen out here before?"

I shrugged, "A lot. Still wanna split up?"

"We can deal with it. We just need to find Brett's trail"

"No, we don't," Lori called, pointing to a stack of rocks on the ground, "Rock balancing, Satomi taught us. It's him and I know where he's going"

——————

We followed the young werewolf through the dimly lit tunnels, our footprints echoing against the damp concrete. Lori crouched down and dipped her fingers in a puddle of oddly coloured blood, "He's been poisoned"