The Stella Argent - Stiles Stilinski {Book 2}

Chapter 43

We all had our own agenda that night; mine was to become a hunter again, which meant I would have to start training. I got into my car, started the engine, and put it in reverse. As I looked back, I suddenly slammed on the brakes.

"Lori..." I sighed as I put my car back in park. I got out, and she looked uneasy. "Hey, are you okay?" I asked her. She handed me what looked like a broken-off lacrosse stick with blood at the end.

"I found this. It's Brett's, and he's missing, and I heard gunshots," she rushed out to me.

"How do you know this is his blood?" I asked her.

"Because he's my brother. It's mine, too," she answered back.

"Hey, it's okay. We're going to find him!" I brought her into a hug.

"I can't lose him; he's all I have," she sniffled into my arms.

"Yeah, I know the feeling. Get in the car; I'm going to make a few calls," I told her. She nodded her head and wiped the tears off her face.

I pulled out my phone, texted the team, except Lydia, who told me she was going on one of her banshee moods, so I decided not to bother her. I mainly needed to get Malia; she had the best nose in the business.

I took a sniff at the blood and realized he was masking it. Luckily, I trained in situations like this, trying to unmask his scent, which wasn't easy. I jumped in the car and pulled out of my driveway, rolling down my window to get a better scent. I started driving around areas, with Scott following behind me. I pressed on my brakes when I got a lead in scent. It wasn't strong, but it was something.

Scott, Malia, Liam, and Lori were all following behind me until I lost the scent.

"Over here!" I heard Malia yell up ahead.

We circled around the location.

"I think he set a trap," Liam said, pointing at what could be Brett's phone.

"He's fighting back," Scott said, trying to give Lori some hope.

"And now we know he's alive," Malia looked over at Lori, but she wasn't fully convinced yet.

Lori pulled out the arrow from the tree. I could smell the blood on it. "But he's still hurt. We need to find him; he needs to know we're here." Lori was about to roar, but I stopped her.

"You want the Hunter to know we're here, too? I get you want to find your brother, but we can't make a mistake," I sternly told her.

"He's new. We can take him," Liam said.

"What if Brett howls back? He'll lead the Hunter right to him," I told them.

"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," Scott encouraged us.

"How come I can't catch his scent? But Stella can," Malia asked.

"He's masking it. When I became a werewolf, Chris and Derek taught me how to unmask it, but I never fully got it down, so I can't tell where exactly he is," I sighed, disappointed in myself. I remembered getting so frustrated about not being able to do it; I just let it go and gave up.

"He went this way," Liam said, pointing in a direction.

"His trap didn't work," Malia stated.

"Maybe this Hunter is not such an amateur," Scott said.

"Or maybe he's learning." Malia was right; this person is learning very quickly to be on their own.

Since I couldn't get his trail, I just used basic hunting skills, looking for weird placements in the ground, shuffled-up leaves, or branches.