Howling to the Heart || Isaac Lahey

23.

Stiles' POV.

I should've stayed with Riah. I should've chased after her when she walked away from me. I should've told her how I felt. But I stayed frozen, watching her walk away from me like a complete idiot and now it was biting me in the ass.

Jackson filled me in on what happened to him, on what he knew only seconds after Riah had brushed past him. I couldn't think when I ran out of the school. I don't even think I was breathing properly. All I knew was that Riah had left the school crying, and I didn't stop her.

"Lydia! Run!" I heard Riah shout at the top of her lungs in panic as I ran toward the lacrosse filed where I could see her starting to run toward Lydia and Peter with lights blaring down on them.

"Riah! Don't!" I yelled, feeling my heart threatening to give out as she ran to save the girl she barely liked.

My warning was too late. Peter attacked Lydia and she dropped to the ground as Riah jumped over her, transforming into...a black wolf. How the holy hell?

I kept running though, almost reaching them when Riah took down her own dad, snarling in his face, sending a small amount of fear through me.

Peter threw her off like she weighed nothing, and she rolled a few times before getting back on all fours, growling with her blue eyes flashing.

"You don't want to do this, Neriah," her father warned angerly, and I slowed down, glancing between him, Lydia covered in blood, and Riah's wolf form. "I don't want to kill my daughter."

Riah didn't listen, didn't care. She ran at him, snapping her jaws around his arm and pulling him back down to the ground as he yelled in pain.

"Neriah!" he roared, his claws flicking out of his nails before he stabbed them into her side and she wailed, letting go of his arm.

"Don't hurt her!" I shouted, feeling my heart cave in my chest and the world crumble under my feet. "Please, don't hurt her!"

He ignored me, his red eyes focused on her and then he howled, and I dropped to my knees, covering my ears. Riah whimpered, sounding like a broken toy as she backed away before laying on her side with her front paws covering her ears.

I blinked in shock and when I opened them again, she was back to her human self in a fetal position with her back to us. I scrambled to my feet, not giving a damn about her father as I rushed over to her, ripping off my jacket.

"Riah?" I said gently, laying it over her bare body while keeping my eyes up. "It's Stiles." My hands shook and my head was spinning with worry and concern for her state. I'd never seen her in her wolf form, and I'm not even sure she knew she could transform like that.

"It hurts," she panted, taking the jacket from me and I looked down to see her slipping her arms into the sleeves of my jacket. "My side hurts."

"I warned you, Neriah," her father said from behind us, and Riah slowly sat up, sending a death glare to her father who crouched over Lydia. "This is what happens when you disobey me."

"You're a piece of shit, you deadbeat," she spat, getting to her feet with my help and my jacket tightly wrapped around her. "Don't kill her." She looked at Lydia and the blood all over her.

I stayed close to her side, keeping quiet as she walked toward her father with her usual brown eyes, still bright blue.

"Hmm," her dad hummed. "Of course not. Just tell me how to find Derek."

"W-What?" she stammered, halting near him and throwing her arm out to stop me.

He dragged a finger down Lydia's face, staring at us with a vicious grin. "Tell me how to find Derek Hale."