The Monster You Made
Chapter 2: The Pull
**Stiles**
The silence after my question stretched like a wire pulled too tight. Klaus looked ready to rip my heart out. Elijah had gone vampire-still in that pretentious way of his. But the three of them—Hope, Freya, Hayley—burned holes through me with eyes that made the dead space in my chest itch worse than before. It wasn't emotion. I didn't *do* emotion anymore. It was something sharper, like claws dragging under my ribs every time their gazes locked on mine.
Three separate hooks. One in my throat. One in my spine. One wrapped around whatever was left of my soul. I hated how good it felt. I wanted to peel it out and examine it until it stopped.
Klaus lunged first, hybrid fury in every line of him. "You dare come into my home and confess to slaughtering your own blood like it's conversation?"
I caught his fist before it reached my face. Siphoned just enough of his power to make my own wolf surge forward—eyes glowing red, fangs dropping. My magic flared outward in a lazy wave, slamming him back into the wall hard enough to crack stone. "I said I was bored, not suicidal. Though nothing can kill me, so feel free to keep trying. It might entertain me for five minutes."
The itch flared again as Hayley stepped forward, her wolf so close to the surface I could smell the shift on her skin. Freya's magic crackled like static. Hope's hybrid nature called to mine like a mirror. *What the hell is this?*
I rolled my neck, tasting the Hollow's power still settling inside me. "I'll ask again. Which one of you is going to entertain me first? Or should I pick?"
My eyes dragged across them deliberately. The pull sharpened. For the first time in months, the gray static in my head fractured with color—three distinct threads of it.
**Hope**
The bond screamed louder the longer he looked at me. Gold and crimson and midnight blue threads knotted tighter in my chest, pulling me toward him like gravity had changed direction. He had just thrown my father across the room without breaking a sweat, and all I could think was *mine*. Not the monster. Not the killer who swallowed the Hollow whole. *Him*. Stiles.
I felt Freya and Hayley's awareness spike through the new connection between us. We needed to talk—now—before Klaus did something that would force Stiles to kill him. Because he would. I could see the boredom in his eyes; he'd slaughter this entire compound if it cured his ennui for even a second.
My humanity-off mate didn't know it yet, but those three threads were already stitching themselves into him. The mate bond was a gift, ancient and rare. One man bonded to three? It explained the flickers crossing his face. Even without his emotions, the bond was forcing him to *feel* us.
I caught Hayley's eye, then Freya's. A silent agreement passed. We slipped back while Elijah tried to mediate. Ten minutes. That was all we could risk.
**Freya**
The courtyard tension crackled like my own magic. Stiles stood in the center like a black hole wearing Stiles Stilinski's face—beautiful, empty, ancient. When he caught Klaus's punch and threw him, the triple bond lit up inside me so brightly I nearly gasped. Each of us carried one strand, but they braided together into something unbreakable. A gift, I reminded myself. A gift that had chosen a man with no humanity left.
We met in the upstairs library, the three of us, wards raised so no one could hear. Hayley paced like her wolf wanted out. Hope leaned against the table, eyes bright with determination and something hungrier. I spoke first, voice low.
"It hit all of us at once. He's our mate. All three of us."
Hayley growled. "I felt it in my bones. My wolf recognized him before my brain caught up. He slaughtered his own pack and felt nothing, yet the bond is making him twitch when he looks at us. That's how strong it is."
"He has three because he's… more," Hope said quietly. "Upgraded Original. Siphoner. Werewolf magic of his own. The Hollow lives in him now and it didn't even fight. The bond is compensating. It's a gift, not a curse. People who receive it are meant to heal what's broken."
I nodded. "We don't tell anyone yet. Not Klaus, not Elijah. And not him. Not until we turn his humanity back on. He's going crazy from boredom and time slipping in his mind. We use the bond. We make him feel—pain, want, love, anything. We drag him back."
Hayley's smile was all teeth. "I'm not opposed to violence if that's what it takes. Or blood. He feeds. We can use that."
The three of us sealed it with a look. Love was already there, blooming unnaturally fast because the mate bond didn't wait for permission. He was ours. We would burn New Orleans to the ground to keep him.
**Hayley**
My claws refused to retract fully. The pull toward him was visceral, sexual, feral. I wanted to shove him against a wall and bite him until the emptiness cracked open and let us in. Freya and Hope felt it too—I could feel the echo of their need through the bond we now shared with each other because of him. Three mates. One monster. The universe had a sick sense of humor.
We returned to the courtyard separately so no one would suspect. Stiles was still standing there, head tilted like a predator listening to a heartbeat. Klaus was snarling threats. Elijah looked exhausted.
Stiles's eyes found me first this time. The itch in his gaze had grown. Good. The bond was working even with his humanity off.
"I'll entertain you," I said before anyone else could speak. My voice came out rough, wolf-gold flashing in my eyes. "But not here. Not with an audience."
His smile widened, empty and sharp and so fucking beautiful it hurt. "Careful, little wolf. I bite."
"So do I."
**Stiles**
Hayley's words sent another fracture through the static. The pull from all three of them at once was becoming impossible to ignore. It wasn't emotion. It was deeper. Like my own magic had decided these women belonged inside it.
I could smell their scents braiding together—ozone and wild forest and something sweet like hope itself. My fangs ached. My wolf stirred. The Hollow's power purred.
"Fine," I said, voice dropping. "Lead the way. But if this bores me, I'll slaughter half this city just to hear it scream. I've done worse to people I loved. Strangers don't stand a chance."
As I followed Hayley out, with Hope and Freya's eyes tracking every step, the fractured colors in my mind deepened. For the first time since I woke up empty, I wasn't sure if I was hunting them…
…or if they were already hunting me.
**