Despite the silence of Beacon Hills forest, it had never been so active. A hunt had never been so primal, so close to its source.
A herd of Doe dipped and dodged through the tall dead trees, fear written plainly over their silky black eyes.
Close behind, a collection of blurs followed. The largest at the back barked orders, keeping order inside the chaotic event.
"Stiles! Keep them away from the street!" Marco snarled.
Stiles pushed his legs faster than they'd ever moved, rushing past the herd of Doe, his claws ripped through the midsection of one of the larger runners guarding the weakened ones inside the herd.
Not enough the maim outright but enough to turn the herd back into the forest.
Marco and the others drifted through the dead leaves to follow.
"Start wearing them down!" Marco yelled.
Scott and Derek came in as Stiles slowed down, cutting at the back of their legs to slow them. All for one reason.
Marco leapt off the ground, soaring over Derek and Scott to crashing into the herd of Doe. His claws ripped through flesh and he bit down the necks of the nearby creatures.
Blood sprayed on the bark of the trees and the backsides of fleeing Deer. They didn't get far before Scott and the others took down the stragglers.
True silence fell at the end of the hunt. They'd run for miles upon miles, hunger building within them for the entire run. It was time to eat.
***
Twenty minutes passed since the end of the hunt. Since the end of their day of training before school on Monday.
Nothing but the bones of Deer lay in the middle of their circle. Some ate more than others. Some still had an aversion to the act of eating their kill raw.
Not Marco though.
With his sharpened canines he bit into a femur bone, snapping it in half to suck out the bone marrow. Liquid gold his sisters once called it. They could hunt Poachers for another full night without rest simply on bone marrow.
Derek, copied Marco, grabbing a bone to do the same. In his transformed state cracking the bone was easy.
His muscles bulged and flexed as he fiddled with it, staring down the object with his glimmering red eyes. He'd progressed the most out of them, almost having a fully synthesized form.
He was large, even as he sat crossed legged like the rest of them. Taller than his usual six feet and much wider. He abandoned his leather jacket, letting his leathery grey skin face the sun.
"Reminds you of..." Stiles started a whisper to Scott.
"Don't. Say it." Derek finished.
Marco watched the tension build in the silence. Almost like he didn't work to remove that with his actions yesterday.
"What? What's the issue?" Marco pressed.
Nobody.
Marco dropped the bone, "What!"
Isaac jumped.
Stiles rubbed his face and tossed the bone he was drumming on his shoes with. "I just can't help but think that these Fully Synthesized forms you keep trying to get us too are similar to Peter when he was the Alpha. He was a….. well, he was a Monster."
Marco's dark skinned face leveled as he clenched his square jaw. The yellow glow of his eyes faded.
"We are monsters, genius. To them that is."
Stiles didn't have an answer to that. None of them did.
"We are Monsters, but do we have to be monstrous?" Scott questioned.
Marco fought the urge to roll his eyes, "Do I seem monstrous and out of control? Am I not the one reminding you all of control? As this fully synthesized mirror image of Peter…. As you all say? Your kind has been misled here. I assume it's the Argents."
"What?" Scott perked up at the mention of the Argents.
"You're all missing centuries of information and history. Why do I know about more of the Wolves of the North as a halfbreed? That makes no sense." Marco explained.
Derek suddenly looked deep in thought as he shrunk down to his human form.
"The Argents. Not only do they hunt you, but they change what you know, force you into a weakened state through years of de-evolution. You didn't think you were at your best as you were, did you?" Marco questioned.
The question hit Derek the hardest. Marco could feel it in his silence. It was deafening.
"It's common for Hunters to do so. I just didn't know they'd done it so well until I saw you all in action. You're cut off from so much of your power simply because of your disconnection to that other side. You'll get there. And there isn't a thing wrong with i—"
Marco's words were cut short as a shrill scream ripped through the forest.
Everyone growled and grabbed their ears.
"Lydia?!" Stiles got to his feet instantly.
The others were up soon after. Marco's phone started to ring in his pocket.
He only had one contact.
"Allison?" Scott guessed.
"Here, talk to your lover." Marco threw him the phone.
Scott flipped it open—
"Marco—" Alison started.
"Alison it's me, it's scott, what's happening?!"
"Me and Lydia went to the Rave—" Her words were cut short by something crashing followed by people screaming.
"Alison!"
"I'm ok, I'm ok. There's a guy from school here. He looks like…..like a Kanima— it's weird. He's insane….. Scott he's trying to kill us. He's—"
"Scott! You dumb bastard you took it! YOU TOOK MY REVENGE WHEN YOU KILLED HIM!"
The phone line cut and Lydia screamed again. This time they didn't flinch in pain at the sound. They let it take them and transformed.
The Kanima's Master just revealed himself.