𝚍𝚛𝚞𝚐𝚜 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚖𝚘𝚗𝚎𝚢 | 𝚝𝚎𝚎𝚗 𝚠𝚘𝚕𝚏 [1]

soft as cotton

—

Despite the pounding of her heart and the blurriness from the tears in her eyes, Ryder ran as fast as she could in her human form. She definitely could have fully turned and caught up to both Boyd and Cora, but her mind was too clouded with the thought of her best friend being alive to even think of that.

She huffed out a breath as she met back up with Scott, watching the teen pull his phone out to call Derek, making sure to put in on speaker so she would hear.

"You lost them?"

Scott tilted his head, "Yeah, I kind of had to."

"Wasn't exactly the plan."

"Can you stop complaining?" Ryder snapped. The poor girl was stressed out of her mind. She had been hearing his voice since he had yelled at Allison for breaking the mountain ash seal that got them into this mess in the first place.

Yeah, she completely understood that he was going crazy because he just found out that his little sister hadn't died in the fire that killed most of their family, but that didn't mean he needed to take out any anger on them.

"I know, which is why I think that we should stick together. Trust me, he's too strong, too fast, and way too angry for one person to handle. We've got to do this together."

Derek held in a groan, "Look, I'm at the trails by the entrance to the preserve. Can you guys meet me here?"

"Yeah."

Ryder look over to the two kids that stood behind Scott with tears in their eyes. She wasn't a huge fan of children, despite absolutely loving her little sister, children weren't her favorite thing in the world.

The same couldn't be said for Austin. There have been plenty of times where she caught him making funny faces at kids they ran into at their ice cream shop. He never failed to make them laugh or smile. She could admit the sight made her heart flutter, but she hoped he didn't expect her to pop out a mini them at any point in their relationship.

"Just got to drop something off first."

•••

Looking down at the faint footprints in the ground, Ryder squinted.

"Is it them?"

Derek hummed, "We're not the only ones that decided to stick together."

"That's cute." Ryder commented, walking a bit ahead of them.

"Is that gonna make it easier or harder to catch them?" Scott asked.

"I don't know."

"It depends, really. I mean, it's an advantage on both sides if truly think about it." Ryder said, stepping over a large stick.

"How so?"

"Well, there's no telling if they're stronger together. They've been locked in the same room for four months with nothing to do, I'm sure they've formed some type of bond. And for us, it makes it a bit easier since we won't have to run around looking for them." The Miller girl explained, she turned to Scott with a teasing smile, "And get this, Derek already said he'd risk his life, so we're in the clear when it comes to death."

He rolled his eyes playfully, looking over at the older man, "Derek... I saw Boyd try to rip two little kids apart. Are they gonna do that to everyone they find?"

"Everyone and anyone."

•••

Ryder could hear the sound of high pitched screams. Her head snapped in the direction of the sound, thinking that maybe someone had found big foot and it wasn't that big of a deal. However, she had gotten her hopes up when a low, wolf like, growl followed after.

She ran off into the direction, coming to a stop as she saw Cora Hale cornering a girl. She watched the Hale's head snap in her direction, a growl leaving her lips.

Ryder took a second to stare at the girl. Ideally, this wasn't something she should be doing as she was risking the life of the poor girl sobbing on the side, but can you blame her for wanting to make sure this was real?

Her voice was as soft as cotton as she called out to the girl, so soft that it shocked herself, "Cora."

The girl in question huffed, fully turning to face Ryder, head tilting as her barred teeth slowly began to pull back in.

Just when she thought he had her, Scott rushed onto the scene, gripping Cora by her upper arms, throwing her as far away from the human girl as possible, roaring threateningly in her face.

"Are you okay?"

"What?"

"Are you all right? You need to get out of here, okay? Get out of the woods. Get out of here as fast as you can."

Ryder waited until the girl followed his instructions before she found herself shoving him back.

"What the hell is your problem?"

Scott looked at her confused, "What are you talking about?"

"I had her, you asshole!" She snapped, "Why you do you and Derek feel the need to ruin every god damn thing?"

"Ryder, what are—?"

"Shut up!" Her about had echoed through the woods, unbeknownst to her, she had caught Derek's attention. She raises a hand, fully prepared to hit him, only to scrunch her fingers in anger, hair flying behind her as she ran off to hopefully catch up to the girl.

•••

"Lydia? Lydia? Lydia, are you okay?"

Lydia nodded, shaky breaths leaving her lips, "I'm okay. That, over there... Not okay."

"Oh, that's a dead body." Austin let out a breath, squeezing his eyes shut as he stepped back more than a few steps.

Stiles scrunched his face together in disgust, "Yeah, all right. I'm gonna call my dad."

Lydia stopped him with a shake of her head, "I already called 911."

"You called the police before you called me?"

"I'm supposed to call you first when I find a dead body?" Lydia frowned. Austin was also wondered the same thing. Because as much as he adored Ryder, she definitely wouldn't be the second person he'd call if he found a dead body, the police being first.

Supernatural cause or not, a dead body is a dead body.

"Yes!"

Austin let out a soft sigh, still keeping a good distance from the body in the pool as he pulled his phone out, "I'll call Ry."