Give Me Courage (Give Me Series #4)

12 - Dead Pool

The trees and houses zoomed by and my eyes couldn't focus enough to pay any more attention to their blurred shapes. The music in the jeep was playing quietly in the background, too low for me to figure out what song it was and I didn't really care either. There was too much on my mind to pay attention to these little details when the weight of the supernatural in Beacon Hills was on my shoulders.

The night of the full moon, Lydia discovered a dead pool of supernatural creatures with prices of how much they were worth, that would all add up to 117 million dollars. The exact amount that was stolen from Peter Hale before I even arrived back home. She was able to find out about the dead pool with her banshee abilities, learning Allison’s name was used to crack the code. There was only one part of the dead pool that has been cracked, which meant there were possibly two other parts we needed to figure out.

So far, the list only contained of four people we knew and the Walcott family, the ones who were wendigos. Their deaths made sense now, randomly attacked in their own home, and then Sean was killed on the roof of the hospital by some man with an axe and no mouth. That man was an assassin. The assassins, who received their own dead pool list were already in Beacon Hills.

“Are you okay?”

Too lost in my own thoughts, I barely heard Stiles’ voice in the jeep. Scott and I nearly failed at being Liam’s Alphas on the first night. If it hadn’t been for Argent, there’s a good chance Liam could have harmed someone innocent. We didn’t know what we were doing. Now, with the new problems surfaced, we definitely had no idea what we were going to do.

Lydia, Scott, Kira, and Derek were all on first part of the dead pool. Unfortunately, due to him being a true Alpha, Scott was worth twenty-five million dollars, which was the highest price we’ve seen so far. The fear of knowing I was probably worth the same amount or more seeped through every crevice of my brain, terrifying me to no end. Not to mention, I had no doubt that Isaac and Aiden would be on another part of the list.

“Chloe?” This time, Stiles’ voice caught my attention.

I pulled my focused gaze away from the window, craning my head to the left, where Stiles sat beside me in the driver’s seat. “What?”

Stiles kept one hand on the steering wheel and glanced from the road to me. “I asked if you’re okay. You’ve kind of been staring off into space ever since I picked you up.”

I pushed a strand of hair out of my face. A sigh floated off of my lips and I readjusted myself in the passenger’s seat, unable to fully tear my gaze away from the trees we passed. “I don’t know anymore.”

My eyes drifted to the car behind us in the side mirror. Aiden and Isaac chose to drive themselves to the Sheriff’s station instead of riding in the jeep. They probably just wanted to be able to leave when they wanted to, instead of waiting on Stiles.

“We’re going to figure this out. Lydia has been at the lake house all weekend, trying to crack the second code.” Stiles pressed down on the brake at the sight of a red light up ahead. He turned his head toward me when we came to a complete stop.

“But there’s assassins out there that want to kill us.” I waved my hands around in front of me.

“We don’t know if you’re on the list yet.”

I lightly scoffed, “I’m a werewolf hybrid that just so happens to be an Alpha as well. I’m pretty sure I’m on the list.” I hit the back of my head on the seat twice. “Sorry,” I grimaced, apologizing for my snappy attitude. “I’m just freaking out over everything.”

“It’s okay.”

I bit down on the inside of my cheek as the jeep lurched forward once the light turned green. “Lydia asked for me to come back because of everything that was going on and, at first, I thought I’d be able to handle it, but now, how am I supposed to help with a dead pool and assassins? And dealing with the joining of our two packs and our new beta.”