Destiny [D.H.]

05

Stiles once again pulled me into a crime scene. This time, at a video store.

I huffed. "Don't you have anything better to do with your time?"

He shook his head. "Not really, no."

Something caught his attention and he asked, "Oh, whoa, is that a dead body?"

Sheriff began ushering people back. "Everybody back up. Back up."

He noticed Lydia and immediately ran to check if she was okay.

I walked up to Jackson. "What happened?"

He looked up at me. "I'm not sure if I believe it."

"Try me."

"Uh, there was this beast-like thing. It walked on two legs. It killed the store owner and did something to me."

"What'd it do?"

"Dug its claws into my neck," he said quietly.

"Let me see."

"No."

"Jackson, let me see."

He relented and I looked to see obvious claw marks. This is not good.

I noticed Derek and Scott and joined them, accidentally looking down and breathed heavily as I stepped away from the edge.

"Ella?" Derek asked.

"I'm okay," I replied.

He nodded and turned to Scott. "Starting to get it?"

"Uh," Scott began, "I get that he's killing people, but I don't get why. I mean, this isn't standard practice, right? We don't go out in the middle of the night murdering everyone, do we?"

"No. We're predators."

I look between them. "But we don't have to be killers. I've learned that in 16 years."

"Then why is he a killer?" Scott asked.

"That's what we're gonna find out."

As we made our way to Derek's, Scott asked me, "Have you been home?"

I scoffed. "What do you think?"

"Ella, you should go home."

My eyes flashed and I warned, "Careful, Scott."

We reached Derek's house and Derek began walking up the stairs as Scott said, "Eliana and I have a life, too."

I shook my head. "I haven't had a normal life for six years, Scott. You're well aware."

Scott turned back to Derek. "Yes, I do! I don't care what you say about him making me, us, his pet--"

"Part of his pack," Derek corrected.

"Whatever. I have homework to do. I have to go to a parent/teacher conference tomorrow because I'm failing Chemistry."

"You wanna do homework? Or do you wanna not die? You have less than a week until the full moon. You don't kill with him, he kills you."

"Derek..." I warned softly.

Scott scoffed. "Okay, seriously, who made up these rules?"

"It's a rite of passage," Derek explained.

"You know what else is a rite of passage? Graduating from high school. And you don't have to kill anyone to do it! Why can't you just find him yourself? Or let Ella find him? Why can't you just sniff him out when he's a human?"