It was supposed to be a simple kill. The pack was after an omega that had fallen off the beaten track, and had decided to come to Beacon Hills to kidnap a human. Stiles insisted on eliminating the threat to save the soon-to-be victim, who happened to be a six year old girl.

"Clearly the guy is taking humans. This is the third one he's taken since he got here." Stiles said to the group in Derek's loft. "You guys saw him on the night of the full moon, clear as day. You gave him the chance to leave and get out, but he just had to be stupid. He's taking kids, and it needs to stop."

"It doesn't make sense." Scott mumbled.

"What?" Stiles responded, quieter than he had been before, after realizing his friend was deep in thought.

"Why would he take kids after we asked him to leave? He's one wolf against a whole pack. I agree with you: I think he's the person who took the girl. I mean, he's been taking the same kind of people each time, so he matches the pattern. The part that confuses me is why? You know?" Scott met the eyes of each of boy. Suddenly everything wasn't so black and white. Scott was right. Something was off.

"Either way, we should get rid of him." Stiles said simply, not seeing another way to make the kidnappings stop. "I don't like the idea of him taking people under the age of ten. It's sick. It's vial-"

"It's a trap." Derek spoke up, standing from his seat on the table in the middle of the room.

"Okay, Admiral Ackbar, what makes you say that?" Stiles asked.

"He wants us to have to find him." Derek explained coldly.

"Why?" Stiles asked, as if the idea was ridiculous. "Why would any omega want that?"

"That's kinda what we're sitting here trying to figure out." Isaac chimed in, sitting in a chair with his elbow on his leg and his chin in the palm of his hand as it cradled his head.

"Thank you." Stiles said sarcastically, raising his eyebrows and pursing his lips.

"Guys," Scott interrupted their quibble. "look, the next full moon is in a few days. Either we wait and give ourselves some time to figure things out, or we decide that we've given this guy long enough."

"That girl may not last the night." Isaac stated. "We don't know if the other two are already dead. I say we don't give this guy anymore time to mess things up." He stood.

The pack nodded in agreement.

"Then it's settled." Derek said. "We leave tonight to find him. We last saw him in the woods where the old Smith house used to be, before it got demolished. We'll start there."

That night, the boys met up exactly where Derek had said. "I smell him." Scott stated firmly. "He's been here… A lot."

The woods were dark, but the moonlight reflected off of the dew soaked leaves below them. They had fallen from the trees for the winter, making it easier for someone to seek out another living thing through the bare branches, if need be. "Hey, not to rush the werewolf senses or anything, but could we find him ASAP, because I'm freezing here." Stiles said, stuffing his hands in his pockets.

Isaac took a few steps from the spot where everyone else was standing before walking in a circle with the same distance around them. "His scent is lost this far out." He finally spoke. "It's like he's right next to you guys."

Everyone glanced at each other with confused faces, before Stiles's went limp with realization. "What, Stiles, what is it?" Scott asked, causing the others to stare intently at the boy.

"T-This used to be an old house, right?" Stiles asked the group. "I mean, of course it got demolished, but it didn't burn or anything. It was just torn down, right?" Derek and Isaac looked at Scott, as if he was the only one able to speak his friend's language.

"Yes" Scott confirmed his facts. "but what does that have to do with-"

"He's not next to us." Stiles said quickly, taking a step back before scanning the ground around them. "He's below us. There's gotta be a basement door somewhere, one of those old ones that pull up."

Everyone's eyes widened, and they all began to search the ground and brush leaves out of the way to find the door. "I found it." Isaac said, after a minute, holding onto a metal handle that was connected to a square door. The pack huddled around it as Isaac slowly pulled upward, opening the it to reveal a set of stairs.

Three young girls stood at the bottom, vanishing fearfully into the darkness of the underground room as soon as the door opened. "Hey, it's okay." Scott told them. "We're here to take you home, alright? You can come out now. We'll bring you to your parents." One girl emerged from the darkness hesitantly, and eventually she, as well as the other two, exited the room.

"Look." Isaac said, once the children had filed out. "They're not injured at all." It was true. All three girls stood in a line on the leaf-covered soil, and they were completely fine. It was as if nothing had happened, and they had simply wandered off.

"Stiles, take the girls back to the police station." Scott directed. "We'll find the omega." Stiles nodded, guiding the girls out of the woods and toward his jeep. The other three boys descended down the stairs, entering a four meter by four meter, concrete room. Isaac twitched slightly. The only reason anyone could even see anything was because there was a small, battery operated lantern in each corner of the room. That was all.

Immediately, the omega jumped out from under the stairs, catching the boys off guard. His mouth and nose were covered by a doctor's mask. "Pretty soon, I'll be the only werewolf in this town." He proclaimed, his eyes grinning impishly.

Derek lunged at him, fatally wounding the omega in the chest with his claws. "Are you so sure?" He asked.

"Well…" The werewolf said, making his way up the stairs, while holding his chest. "At least… I can be… the last." Before anyone realized what he was doing, he exited the room and slammed the door shut.

"Tell me that door didn't just lock." Isaac said nervously. "For the love of God, tell me we can get out of here."

"We'll get out." Scott promised. "It could be unlocked."

Derek was already on the case, rushing up the stairs and pushing on the door with all his might. His eyes glowed red with his force. "No, it's locked." He said, slumping on the stairwell, his eyes returning to their normal hue.

It wasn't long before Isaac began hyperventilating. His chest was rising and falling at an unsteady rhythm, and he felt cold sweat begin to drip down the back of his neck. He paced the room, looking for a way out, searching, hoping, praying.

"What's wrong with him?" Derek asked, suddenly concerned.

"He's claustrophobic." Scott answered. "He has been since childhood. He's freaking out. He can't take being in here much longer." Derek stared at Isaac, unsure of what to do in a situation like that. Scott, however, attempted to soothe the fearful boy, telling him they'd get out and that it was only a matter of time.

After a few minutes, Isaac surprisingly appeared to be calming down, bracing the wall with his hand as his heart rate slowed. "See? It's alright." Scott said reassuringly. "Nothing's going to happen to you. We're all okay."

"Scott…" Derek said, approaching the boys slowly. "I don't think that's a good sign."

"What do you mean? His breathing and heart rate are slower. He's not panicking." Scott listed. "These are signs of improvement." Derek took Isaac's face his in hand, evaluating it with his eyes.

"No." Derek disagreed, letting the beta go and instead lifting one of the lanterns and walking around the room's center with it. "I've seen that look on a werewolf's face before."

The light revealed a horrifying secret. In a spiral on the floor, was shredded nordic blue monkshood, a deadly form of Wolfsbane, enough to add up to hundreds of flowers. Everything began to make sense: the doctor's mask, the reason behind not hurting the girls at all… It truly was all a trap.

If stepped on, the flowers' dust would inevitably fly into the air and be inhaled. It had, of course, already been stepped on numerous times.

"Yeah, that's a problem." Scott said, more scared than he was letting on. "I-I'll try to text Stiles to come back and get us." He whipped out his phone and began typing, knowing well and good that the lack of signal would render a phone call useless; they wouldn't be able to hear each other.

Out of the blue, Isaac began to sway, stumbling back as his arm buckled under his weight. "Hey!" Derek caught him and pulled him into a standing position before the boy had gotten a face full of the poisonous flower dust. "Isaac's little panic attack probably caused him to take in more Wolfsbane than you and I have. Space out your inhales. Only breathe if you need to." Derek advised. He slapped Isaac lightly, trying to provoke a reaction. Nothing.

"Is he breathing?" Scott asked apprehensively.

Derek was quiet for a bit, before answering. "Yeah, he's breathing." The alpha grabbed Isaac around the waist, setting his body at the top of the stairs, farthest away from the dust. "Did that text go through?"

It took Scott a little while to fully understand the question. "...Yeah." He responded, after fifteen seconds or so. "Stiles didn't respond yet, though."

Derek eyed him skeptically. It wasn't that he didn't believe him. It was that he didn't think the boy was going to stay standing much longer. "Slow breaths." He reminded, walking over to Isaac to try to keep him alert. Derek shook his shoulder. "Come on." He mumbled frustratedly.

Isaac then sat up slightly, groaning. "Stay awake." Derek commanded.

"A-Are we still in that room?" He asked wearily, his eyes still closed.

"We're getting out soon. Stiles is on his way." Scott answered.

"You shouldn't lie." Isaac recommended with a smirk, just above a whisper. "It doesn't suit you. You suck at it."

"Thanks." Scott smiled slightly, leaning against the wall.

Ten minutes passed, then fifteen, then twenty, and the boys were in bad shape. Even Derek, who had been taking breaths within such large time frames of each other that he began to get a headache, was experiencing symptoms of the poison that polluted the room with each small movement that anyone made.

Scott's eyes began to close against his will, and he felt his back slide down the wall until his jeans hit the concrete floor.

"Scott!" Derek said, lifting him back up. "Don't…" He didn't finish, instead he stood beside him, leaning against the same wall and staring across the room.

"How long… do you think we have?" Scott asked him, shifting his gaze to Isaac's body. "He doesn't look good at all."

Isaac was pale, and his eyes were tightly shut. His body rattled with each shiver that ran through him. Even with just the light from the lanterns, a thin sheen of sweat could be seen on his forehead, dampening any strand of hair that dared to touch his skin.

"We have time." Derek said, not moving his eyes. "We all do."

Scott reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone, checking for messages. "Omw now. Had to answer dad's questions." was sent from Stiles phone ten minutes before, but that was it. He hadn't texted again.

"You don't have to keep checking." Derek told him. "He said he was on his way, so he's on his way."

Isaac's body unexpectedly lurched forward, interrupting the conversation. Black liquid began to spue from his mouth, and soon afterward, he fell forward, tumbling down each step, and falling onto his back at the foot of the stairs. "Isaac?!" Scott and Derek exclaimed simultaneously, kneeling beside him and helping to pull him up. "Set him on the stairs." Derek ordered. They lowered him onto the bottom steps, and Scott listened for the boy's heartbeat.

"Derek…" He said quietly. "I can't hear his heart."

"We need to get him out of here." Derek said, right as Isaac began to convulse. Black liquid exited his lips as he shook, and both Scott and Derek had to hold him down to prevent further injury.

There was suddenly a sickening squeak of rusty hinges, as the door began to open above them. "Holy…" was all Stiles could get out before Scott and Derek shouted "Move!"

They carried Isaac out of the room, placing him on the ground a few yards away. "Come on. Come on. Not like this." Derek said, still having to hold the boy's right side down, while Scott held the left.

"I think… I think we have to bring him to Deaton." Scott said tiredly. His eyes closed almost instantly, and his body followed their lead, going limp.

"Crap!" Stiles yelled. "Don't you go too." He told Derek, whose eyelids were beginning to droop as his skin drained of its color. "I need you to help me carry them." His commands went unnoticed though, because like Isaac and Scott, Derek fell unconscious too.

After an agonizing few minutes of getting the boys into the jeep, Stiles drove to the "Vet". He called in advance and met Deaton outside, where they both helped to bring the boys into the back room.

"You're going to want to wait outside." Deaton suggested to Stiles. "This isn't going to be pretty."

Despite his wanting to be by the pack's side, he agreed to stay in the waiting area.

One by one the hours ticked by, and he was nearly asleep when Deaton opened the door. "Stiles, they're stable." He said.

"All of them?" He asked, rising from his seat in disbelief.

"All of them." Deaton confirmed. "It wasn't easy, but they're going to be okay."

Stiles slowly made his way into the room, where the three boys were sitting on the table, looking worn out and downright exhausted. All three of them were wearing only the blue scrub pants that doctor's usually wore. "Uh, where are their-"

"Clothes?" Deaton finished the sentence. "Those will never be seen again. They were covered in more Wolfsbane dust than I had ever seen. It was like it had snowed."

"Well, aside from the near-death experience… are you all okay?" Stiles asked. They collectively groaned in response. "That's good to hear." He nodded. "That omega died, by the way. I saw him a little ways from the room's door. He didn't make it too far."

They all nodded, spacing out, and silence fell over the room.

"Thanks for coming to get us, man." Scott finally spoke up, running a hand through his hair. "We woulda died if you hadn't."

"I came late." Stiles said, disappointed in himself. "You guys almost died-"

"But we didn't." Scott shut him up. "You came in time to keep us alive, so thank you."

"It's nothing," He shrugged. "But next time, you guys should probably notice the mask on the guy's face-" He smiled as Derek smacked him upside the head.

A near death experience, not the first, not the last, but one that was going to be remembered. Despite their methods, the boys were safe, the children were safe, and Beacon Hills had one less monster to worry about. That's what I call a job well done.

Thanks, y'all! Please review.