[Sterek] Sink Us to Swim (boyxboy) (complete)

Part 59

She dozes fitfully for awhile, until she gets five text notifications in a row. Rolling over, Stiles grabs her cell off the bedside table and blinks blearily at the screen.

Six bodies in the woods. More info later. is the first message from Laura – she must have not heard that one; the timestamp reads from 45 minutes ago. You didn't think it was important to tell me Lydia Martin was having a party tonight?? is the follow up. Oops.

Of course, that means there's a message from Lydia, too, reading Seriously, dead bodies out back of my house? Your mountain lion problem is ruining my social life. Stiles can read between the lines enough to know that Lydia is probably freaked out and trying to cover. And Scott had an asthma attack when the cops showed up, but he's fine. Allison actually seems to be charmed by it. HOW.

She types out a quick reply, It's a mystery to us all.

As if Stiles can figure it out. At least Scott is okay and will be happy. The last message is from Laura again. Derek says your dad is still safe. Don't leave your room. We'll talk tomorrow.

As if that's not ominous. Okay. Sorry I forgot to tell you about Lydia's thing, she texts back. Honestly, she's had a lot on her mind.

Stiles stands and walks to the window, pulling the curtain back to peer out at the darkened street. She doesn't know what she expected to see, but there's nothing out there. The other houses have their lights off, and the streetlights cast a few bright puddles on the sidewalks but don't illuminate much else.

Still, she feels antsy, unsettled, like her skin is too tight. Looking down she can see goosebumps forming along her arms. She peers back out into the dark and squints at the tree line. Of course Derek and Laura had to get a house near the preserve. Of course they did.

And there, tucked between two houses and mostly out of sight, she can see two glowing red eyes in the shadows.

"I'm not afraid of you," she says steadily, and is surprised to find she means it. She knows he can hear her. "You should be afraid of me, because I'm going to do everything I can to make sure you never hurt anyone else again."

The Alpha creeps out from between the two houses, down the thin strip of grass separating their driveways. He's big, bigger than she remembered, like a misshapen, overly large wolf. Even his gait is strange and wrong, like his bones aren't put together right. He steps brazenly right into the bright pool of light from a streetlamp and stares up at her intently. Now she can see that his fur is wet around his muzzle and paws. slick in the light and dark, matted.

That's blood, she realizes suddenly, and her stomach gives a lurch. The Alpha drops his jaw in a broken mimic of a grin. Even his teeth are stained with red. She feels sick until she thinks of Derek and her father downstairs, one of them exposed outside of her mountain ash line, the other one probably raging inside a cell.

"Crawl back to wherever you came from," Stiles spits, newly determined, "because I don't care what it takes – I'll take you down with my bare hands if I have to."

He tilts his massive head to one side almost consideringly before turning and disappearing into the dark, completely calm as if it was his idea.

Her heart pounds in her chest, but she stands tall at the window and watches steadily for long minutes until she's sure he's gone.