The Final Fire || Stilinski || Book Five - BONUS

Three

MALIA DIDN'T UNDERSTAND THE CONCERN.

For eight years, living as a coyote taught her that sometimes bad things happened: shelters were ruined, food escaped and allies passed away. However, that was a part of life. There wasn't always a substantial reason, and a supernatural reason at that, behind every animal occurrence in Beacon Hills.

Sierra, standing at the foot of Malia's bed, listened to her relay this information but couldn't agree with her. She hadn't seen the insects crawling across the ground, practically in-sync, or felt the fear wafting from the wolves' collapsed bodies. After further and careful observation with Scott and Stiles, they also noticed how patches of fur blended with the leaves on the ground. The exposed skin on the wolves? Completely burned.

There wasn't enough evidence to directly connect the incident to the murders going across the county, but the trio strongly believed -- and feared -- they were not isolated events. Stiles brought up his Darach theory, recalling at the beginning of their junior year, a deer ran into Lydia's windshield, and ravens attacked the school. Wild wolves showing up at the lacrosse field fit in the same category.

Malia called him crazy.

Granted, since he was with Scott and Liam trying to get the true alpha packed for the trip, Malia didn't say it to his face, but Sierra knew she would. Besides herself, Malia had been the most excited to go to Paris since she had never traveled out of the country before. It made sense why she was praying for these weird occurrences to simply be coincidences. She wanted to have a regular trip with her abnormal friends.

Lydia, though, leaned more toward Sierra's rational thinking. She didn't want another life-threatening emergency, not after high school trauma and then having two normal years at MIT. But, if there was a supernatural problem occurring, the McCall pack was the best equipped to handle it -- even if Sheriff Stilinski didn't want them involved.

And since being at Malia's house, they discovered a storm blowing in that held potential to disrupt their flight in just over a day, so what was the harm in trying to help why they were there?

"Look, our flight hasn't been canceled," Malia argued, laying on her back with a Paris travel guide held up in her hands. "And the boys are literally still packing, so why worry? You said they were wolves, not werewolves. Which means it's not my territory and not my problem."

Sierra sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose. "Mal--"

"I have never been to Paris," Malia continued. "You've never been to Paris. Therefore, we should go to Paris."

"Technically, I have been," Lydia interjected, lifting her hand from her side. When Malia shot her a glare, she awkwardly let it fall back down. "It's true," she muttered.

"Why don't you ask Derek to check it out?" Malia asked Sierra. "He's more wolf than the rest of us."

"Because I really don't want to drag my brother-in-law and, therefore, my sister and my baby niece into something when they don't need to be."

"See, you just said something that time," the werecoyote pointed her finger at her friend. "Not supernatural."

Lydia and Sierra exchanged annoyed glances. It was evident this conversation was nowhere near done.

Across town, in the McCall house, Liam agreed with Scott, Stiles, and Sierra that there was potential for the wolves to be dangerous. "I mean, we've dealt with smaller things that ended up being pretty big," he said, helping his alpha close his suitcase on his bed before he flitted his eyes between the two college students. "Right?"

Scott snapped the final lock on his suitcase and straightened his back. "Right," he agreed. "Which is why I might call Deaton after we get the rest of my stuff packed. He might be able to help me clarify if it could be botflies or something like a parasitic infection. It can happen to people, too."