Chapter Text
Derek ran through the woods as fast as he had ever ran a day in his life. At this point, his legs were on autopilot and he was running before he could tell himself where to run. After being found by the hunters, Derek did what his mom and big sister taught him. He ran. Whenever they were caught by hunters, every werewolf that came from the Hale bloodline was taught to run and not fight back.
Lately, it had gotten worse. The hunters were always any and everywhere. There had been more werewolf's coming and going from their small town, which mostly explained the determined look in all of the hunters eyes. They were all probably on the lookout for a werewolf who hurt or possibly killed one of theirs. Whatever werewolf was stupid enough to cross the Argents hunting crew, it was not Derek.
The Hales liked to teach their kids peace and verbal communication to face challenges. So instead of staying behind and being put in the immediate danger by trying to explain, it was better to steer clear by running. They had a truce with the Argents after all, seeing as the werewolf's have claimed Beacon Hill's. The hunters wouldn't be going after any of the Hales, so long as no member of the Hale pack injure or threaten their hunters. Seeing the result of this pact, the Argents obviously didn't hold up their part of the deal.
Derek was flying through the woods at what had to be faster than any animal roaming the woods this late at night, when he went head first, tumbling down a grass hill. He came face to face with one of the Argents many transmission devices, used to lure the werewolf's into one spot, rather than chasing them through the whole town. Derek hopped up and started running again when he crashed into another werewolf, based off of the boy, who looked around his age, scent.
The boy examined him for a minute before he spoke up, "You're a Hale, aren't you?" He asked, chest heaving, probably having been running for a while now. Derek nodded, and the boy just looked at him blankly.
"You have to run, and get back to your pack. It's not safe out here for one of Talia's kids. Especially with Gera-" Derek gasped when the boy who was warning him out of the woods, gets an arrow shot straight through his throat. The hunter who shot the teenage werewolf stepped out from his spot behind the tree and aimed his crossbow right at Derek. Derek stood there, his eyes having not seen the arrow aimed straight at him.
The arrow shot out and was flying at an insane speed straight for his chest. It was stopped by his uncle who was now beside him, holding the arrow that was just about to be shot into him, with his eyes glowing yellow.
Peter grabbed Derek by his arm and the pair took off running, into the dark. With their heightened senses, they were able to see better than the hunters at night. They continued to run until they found the tree stump that their older sister had shown to them, in case they needed anywhere to lay low, seeing as if you were a regular human, you wouldn't be able to see the entrance to the secret cellar.
Under ground, they stayed. Their chests heaving and their hearts beating faster than ever. They just had to wait for this to pass so they could get back to their mom and siblings. Peter was sure of it, therefore making Derek sure of it.
"They stayed there for two days," Cora explained. "Hiding. Healing. Waiting. Things were taught to do when running from hunters." She stood in Derek's loft, looking out of the foggy window with her arms crossed.
"So should we expect him to be gone for two days, or is he on a cut vacation in Hawaii?" Stiles paced the stairs, his arms moving at the same pace as his mouth.
"Why do you even care?" She turned around to glare at him.
"Why do I care?" Stiles scoffed, "Lets see, in the span of two weeks, the werewolf's of the pack have tried to kill themselves, Deaton was nearly ritually sacrificed, Boyd was almost killed by alphas, Derek is being sought after by before mentioned alphas, do you want me to keep going?"
"Okay, and what?" Cora walked towards him, "You think Derek can solve any of those problems?" She now stood in front of him, her brown eyes looking up at him, and if his eyes wandered to her plump and pink lips, they didn't speak about it.
"He's the packs alpha, Cora. He has to at least try. He cant keep running away from these things after HE decided to start his own pack by biting three teenagers."
"I have noticed," Cora started, making Stiles raise an eyebrow as he waited for her to finish. "He's different. Then how he used to be when we were kids. He wasn't like that."
"How was he?" Stiles whispered, the two moving away from each other when they could sense Peter's presence in the room. Peter descended the staircase like the true drama queen he was and inserted himself into the conversation.
"A lot like Scott. It's a little creepy how similar they are. Y'know, the usual. Conceited, Athletic, undeniably romantic."
"Then what changed him? Why isn't he the same?" Stiles asked, sitting himself down on top of the table.
"What changes most young men? A girl." Peter says, in a bored tone. Stiles and Cora exchanged a glance at that and Cora went to sit on a chair at the table.
"So a girl broke his heart and that's why Derek is the way he is now?" Stiles crossed his arms, not truly believing of the story. Derek, of all people was the last person Stiles thought could have been changed by a girl. Seeing as he was, it had to have been something extremely bad and heartbreaking.
Peter looked to Cora, "Do you remember Derek before he became the big, bad alpha? His blue eyes? Do you know why some wolfs have blue eyes?"
"Is it not just genetics?"
"If you want to know why Derek Hale is Derek Hale, you need to know what changed his eye color."
Stiles knew that tone from Peter, and it meant nothing good was going to come from this conversation. Whether it was going to be Peter lying or Peter blabbing about things Derek doesn't want to be reminded of. Something negative is bound to come from this conversation.
On the other side of town, Allison and Scott were on their way to the rehab center where Allison's grandpa was staying. Everything that has been happening, like the alpha pack and the Darach, considering how long Gerard had been a hunter, he had to know something about what had been going on. Allison told Scott what her grandpa wanted in exchange for his knowledge, and he hesitantly agreed. He had never been a big fan of the man, but they needed to know what he knew.
Allison pushed open the door to his room, and stood in the doorway. Gerard was facing towards the window, blowing his nose. He sensed her presence and smiled slightly.
"Did you bring him?" He asked Allison, who was holding the door open for Scott, who slipped past her and walked into the room.
Gerard turnt himself around in his wheelchair to get a good look at the boy. He hadn't seen him since that fateful day that he was given the bite.
"Oh, please do come in, Scott. Give this old man a little something for his pain." Gerard said, staring at Scott and holding his bare arm out for Scott to grab.
Allison let go of the door handle and watched as Scott walked a little further into the room, "You don't have to do this if you don't want to, Scott."
Gerard scoffed, "If you're expecting me to talk, yes he does." Scott narrowed his eyes and walked forward, lifting his sleeve.
Scott glared, "I do this in exchange for everything that you know. Everything." The old man growled, but still nodded his head in understanding.
He pushed his hand closer to Scott's, expecting Scott to reach forward. He did. He reached forward and started pulling the pain from the old man. It was already unpleasant enough to take pain from someone he loved or a nice stranger, but for someone he didn't even like? He was very tempted to pull his hand back and leave the old hunter in pain.
Thick, black veins started shooting up his forearm, leaving Gerards, allowing the hunter to let out a sigh of relief. He squeezed his eyes shut and groaned as the veins traveled from his forearm to his neck. When the veins reached his head, it hurt so bad it made his eyes glow their golden color. Allison took a step forward to grab onto Scott so he wouldn't fall after he pulled his hand away. He grabbed onto her and kept his eyes shut as he let the pain simmer down.
"You okay?" She questioned, sitting him on the bed behind where they were sitting.
He nodded, "Just need a second."
"It started how most high school love stories do. In school." Peter explained to them.
Paige sat in the music room as she usually did during her lunch, practicing on her cello. This was the state in which she was most calm. Doing what she loved surrounded by a reminder of her passion for music. She had her eyes closed and her fingers were moving on autopilot, already so used to playing cello for hours at a time. She was shaken from her calm state when she heard the continuos sound of a basketball bouncing from outside of the music room.
She sighed and prepared to start playing again, but she couldn't. After already being distracted by the heinous sound, she couldn't continue playing how she did before. She set her instrument down and walked out of the classroom, to see a few boys in the same hallway, obnoxiously playing basketball.
"Do you guys mind? Im trying to practice. We have a recital coming up." The guys with Derek laughed, and Derek turnt to look at her.
"What if we're trying to practice too?" Derek asked, dribbling the ball, before holding it.
"Well I am practicing in the music room, where the music belongs. Im pretty sure basketball practice belongs in the gym." She glared, moving her arms as she talked.
"Basketball practice can happen wherever you got a basketball. We're state champs and we have a game coming up." His teammates behind him nodded their agreements.
She rolled her eyes, "Whatever, I dont have time for this." She turnt around and started walking back to the music room.
"Hold on." Derek called for her, before she could reach the door. He ran up to be in front of her and held the basketball up. "We will stop if you can take the basketball away from me."
She turnt to face him and raised one of her eyebrows. The teens behind him started laughing and muttering how it would he impossible. Derek stared into her eyes for a second too long before she started talking.
"No." She deadpanned and moved her face closer to his, basically whispering. "Grow up." She turnt and walked into her class, saving herself the embarrassment of trying to take the basketball away from the team's captain, who had led them to their championship win.
His friends laughed and started walking away, probably walking to the lunch room. He stayed in his spot and stared after the girl. She was different. She was beautiful. Her hair was brown, matching her eyes. She had a mole under her right eye and her lips were plump.
She wasn't like most of the girls at their school. They had never talked to him like that. Whether it was because he was team captain, or they were intimidated by all of the people he hung around with, no one had tried talking like that to him before. Surprisingly, he admired her for it.
Paige sat back down at her seat and huffed, picking her instrument back up. Why did teenage boys have to be so stupid? To think she actually thought he was cute, even as he stood, trying to embarras her. She ignored what just happened and just started playing again.
The doors opened to the music room and the same boy spoke up, halfway out of the room in case she yelled at him to get lost. "Im sorry about that, I don't know why I let those guys turn me into a jerk."
She shook her head, "It's whatever." She turnt away from him and looked back to her instrument, expecting him to walk out.
"Hey, whats your name?" Derek asked, figuring he was safe to walk in if she didn't yell at him as soon as she saw him.
"Y'know, im trying to practice. If that wasn't clear when I asked you to move your basketball practice elsewhere."
"I deserved that," He smiles. "Ill leave you alone then..."
She nodded and put her attention back to her cello. "After you tell me your name." He finishes, making her slightly bite her lower lip.
"I'll tell you my name, if you can play one instrument in this room." She said challengingly, not expecting him to know how to play anything.
"One?"
"Just one."
"Any of em?" He asked, and she raised her eyebrows, wondering if maybe me might actually know how to play something.
She played her cello as she waited for him to come back with the instrument he would attempt to play. Even if he couldn't, it would he funny to laugh at him. He stepped back to his spot, smiling the smuggest smile she had ever seen, with his hands behind his back. He moved his hands from behind his back and pulled the triangle and beater into Paige's eyesight, before hitting the beater against the triangle. She scoffed at the cleverness of it, and at his audacity all at the same time.
She smiled and looked at the wall in front of him. He stood looking at her, with his eyebrows raised and a smile etched on his face.
"My name is Paige. Now go, so I can finish practicing."
"My name is-" He starts, but Paige cuts him off.
"I know who you are." Somehow, his smile turns even more smug and he nods, before turning to walk out of the music room.
"So, a third body was found?" Gerard inquired, his arms resting on his lap.
"Another doctor. Right after Scott found Deaton." Allison answered.
"Right after? Almost as if he was expected to survive."
"What is that supposed to mean?" Scott asked, rubbing his wrists.
"It only means, how do you know your dark druid isn't your wise veterinarian?" Gerard raised a napkin to his nose and scrubbed the remaining black, dried snot away.
Allison and Scott glanced at each other, both wondering if that could be an actual possibility that they would have to worry about.
"Maybe he knew he was bound to be found, maybe he planned it that way. His pieces are falling into place, if thats the case." Scott's thoughts turnt to the day Deaton went missing. The cryptic call he had shared with Scott and Stiles. He told them to find him.
"Deaton would never let innocent people die," Allison argued against her grandpa, "That isn't the kind of person he is."
"You can never be so sure who to trust Allison. Another lesson you haven't quite got the concept of yet. You kids would be surprised how far someone would go to get rid of someone like Deucalion."
"Or someone like you?" Allison crossed her arms over her chest. He chuckled and turnt to Scott, rather than talking to his granddaughter.
"You know, Scott, you have turnt me into something of a celebrity here. Im a medical mystery. The cancer is virtually undetectable, but nobody has no clue as to why my body keeps ejecting this stupid black fluids." Gerard glares and cleans his nose area with a tissue, before throwing it on the floor to join the others.
"I held up my part of the deal," Scott changed the subject. "Your turn. How do we beat him?"
Gerard laughs, "You can't. Believe me, I have tried."
An idea popped into Allison's head and she winked at Scott, wanting him to play along. "Then this has been a complete waste of time. Sorry I pulled you into this. Lets go."
Scott pulled himself up and started following Allison out of the room. Gerard stared after his granddaughter and decided to stop her.
"I can tell you one thing. Deucalion may have lost his eyes, but he is not always blind." Allison smiled slightly before turning back around to look at him once more.
"If Derek was a sophomore back then, how old does that make him? How old were you? How old are you now?" Stiles questioned.
"Not as young as we could have been, but not as old as you may think." Peter answers, propping his arms up on both side of the couch. Cora rolled her eyes and wiped some dust that was collecting on the table, with her finger.
"Okay, that was extremely vague." Stiles hopped off of the table, before looking at Cora. "How old are you?"
"Im 17."
"That right there, Peter, is an answer. That's how you should answer people." Stiles explained, pointing back at Cora to make his point.
Cora tilted her head and her fingers stood up. "Well, 17 if you're measuring in years."
"Okay, im just gonna drop it all together." Stiles closed his eyes and brought his hand to his forehead. Cora smiled when he wasn't looking, and Peter raised an eyebrow at her.
"Whatever, what happened to Derek and this Paige girl?" Cora asked, wanting Peter's attention off of her.
"What else? They were teenagers, one minute its, "I hate you, go away" and the next their making out wherever they can sneak off to."
Derek held the hand of a giggling Paige as they ran off to the abandoned distillery workshop. They were now both laughing at the thrill of it all. They climbed up the small hill to get to the door, still hand in hand. Derek walked up to the door and slid it open, allowing Paige to walk in first. He smiled and leapt forward to start kissing her, to which she immediately reciprocated.
"Hang on, creeper-wolf. How do you know all of this again? Were you spying on teenagers even back then?" Stiles narrowed his eyes at Peter, accusingly.
Peter rolled his eyes, "Back then, I was Derek's best friend. I was his closest confidante."
Paige pulled away, immediately wanting to lean back in, but she pushed herself.
"Whats wrong? You wanna stop?" Derek asked, putting her hair behind her ear.
"Why do you like me?" She asked suddenly, Derek blinked in response.
"What do you mean by that?" Derek asked, standing straighter.
"Why do you like me?" Paige repeated, putting her head down in embarrassment. Derek grabbed her chin and made her look up at him.
"Why do you think I like you?" Derek asked, curious as to what her answer would be.
"Well.." Paige looked up in contemplation, trying to find the right words. "At first I thought you liked me because I didn't like you. Not like every other girl did."
Derek smiled softly. "And now you're worried that I wont like you anymore because now you like me?"
She scoffed and punched him on his shoulder, "Don't get to ahead of yourself buddy, no one said I liked you"
Derek raised an eyebrow, "Oh, no?" He questioned with a sly smirk and leaned down to leave gentle kisses on her neck. Paige leaned her head back in order to give him more access.
Derek pulled his head away and smiled at her. "You don't like me?"
"Just shut up and do that again, Derek." She blushed and went to push his head back into her neck.
He laughed and looked at her instead, their eyes locking. "I could never stop liking you, Paige."
"I like you, Derek. As more than a friend." She admitted, before leaning up to bring their lips together in another kiss.
This time it was Derek pulling them apart when he heard a banging in the distance. He could now differentiate between the sound being close and far, and the banging sounded like it was getting closer. He instinctively pulled Paige closer to his chest.
She gasped and leant against him after noticing him tense up. "Derek, whats wrong? What do you hear?"
He looked away from the entrance and took a second to check his surroundings, now thta his concentration wasn't on Paige, the bitter and iron smell of blood overwhelmed his senses.
"Something happened here."
"What? What happened? How do you know?" Paige asked worriedly, taking her turn to look around, and finding nothing.
"I caught the scent of blood." Now, he could hear the leafs on the floor being stepped on, approaching the entrance.
"Thats not good, we have to go." He said, pulling her arm when she stopped him.
"Derek, whats going on?"
"Do you trust me?" He asked, wanting to pick her up and carry her away, but Derek knows better.
She nodded almost immediately and let herself be pulled along as they ran out.
Derek got her out at the best possible times, as now the different packs that were currently in Beacon Hill's intruded into the warehouse. Ennis walked angrily, his pack taking his lead. They walked until they saw the rope hanging from the roof.
He growled, "They dragged him here. Hung him up, shot an arrow through him, and then split him in half. They killed one of our own, we cant let them get away with it."
Kali scoffed and looked at her nails, "One of yours, not one of ours. What the hell did he do to the Argent's anyways? They have a code."
"Why did they kill him?" Deucalion asked, his accent thick.
"Because the stupid beta killed an Argent, so they killed him. Simple enough." Marco all but growled at Ennis. "And now you think we're gonna get all of us killed for his stupidity?"
"Marco." Deucalion warned him, and Marco stood down.
"They were all there- Deucalion, Ennis, Kali. With their own packs before they decided to kill everyone and form their stupid alpha pack." Gerard rocked back and forth in his rocking chair.
"They all lived here?" Allison questioned.
"No. There was an exceptionally powerful alpha that did reside here. She could shape-shift. It's extremely rare with you and your kind." Gerard explained, looking pointedly at Scott when he brought up the shape- shifting.
"That made her somewhat of a lead. Someone everyone ran to when they had a problem. Someone like you, Scott."
All three packs looked out into the surrounding trees after hearing Talia's howling. Ennis stood down from his glaring at Marco just to look over at the lady. She walked into the warehouse, still in her wolf form. Deucalion watched in awe as Talia's black wolf disappeared and she was back to her human self.
Her female pack members walked forward to her to wrap a cardigan around her, covering her naked body.
"Talia Hale. The only full forming wolf there was for centuries." Gerard explained, making Allison and Scott share a look of surprise. Hale?
"It's their right, Ennis. We aren't the only ones to adhere to rituals thousands of years old." Peter was sneaking around from outside of the warehouse, where he had been watching and listening since Derek and Paige.
"They ripped his claws from his fingers! This is a useless debate. Im done discussing."
"Don't start this war, Ennis! This wont just be an eye for an eye, this will only end in bloodshed, from which side is not clear yet." Deucalion tried, but Ennis didn't listen and used his claws to embark a symbol on the wall. Revenge.
"And, where do you get to the point where this has to do with Derek?" Cora sassed, making Stiles smile.
"I have been on that subject. It's not just one event that has that much hold over him, its the buildup of things that build until they crumble."
"I looked at Ennis and I saw loss and grief. Derek saw opportunity." Stiles looked over to Cora, who looked away from his guiltily. So, they had both heard the jump in his heartbeat then. Why was Peter still trying to lie? What would he have to lie about?
"To never lose her." Another jump.
"Okay, Peter, Im gonna stop you there. Why are you lying to me?" Stiles pinches his forehead, shaking his head.
Peter, deciding not to lie as Stiles was a werewolf and could hear his heartbeat, simply stayed quiet. Cora just stared at him, of course she had heard his heartbeat but she wanted to believe that her uncle wouldn't lie to her like that.
"Whatever, don't answer me, I don't care. i'll ask Derek about it, since obviously you aren't a reliable source" Stiles snarled and stormed out of the loft, after glaring at her uncle Cora decided to stand and head up to Allison's loft, where she was staying, needing to be away from Peter.
Stiles ended up back at his house, the house was completely empty. Mellisa was probably still working, his dad too, Scott was who knows where and Stiles couldn't smell Isaac in the house. He went up to his room and collapsed onto the bed, head first.
"Something wrong, Bambi?" Isaac joked, from the dark corner in Stiles' room, effectively scaring him.
"Isaac!" Stiles yelled, grabbing his chest, his heartbeat going crazy.
Isaac just laughed and pushed Stiles over, hopping in bed beside him.
"What are you doing here anyways? Shouldn't you be with your boyfriend?" Stiles teased him about Scott, but a smile grew on his face when Isaac said nothing and just turned slightly red.
"Huh. That's new." Isaac shoved him with his shoulder and huffed.
Sure, Stiles had noticed how close Isaac and Scott were. He just kinda assumed that was like a pack bond. Whatever, as long as his brothers were happy. Okay, now that sounds creepy. Brothers, but not biologically, and he was pretty sure the two did not see each other as brothers.
"Shut up, nothings new!" Isaac defended himself, crossing his arms.
"Yeah, you got a big fat crush on Scotty, Isaac?" Stiles laughed, as Isaac started wrestling him, defending what little dignity he had.
"Your secrets safe with me, bud." Stiles said softly when they both separated and calmed down some. Isaac smiled.
"So, what you're saying is the packs lured the hunters in and attacked all of them?" Scott asked, disbelief dripping from his words.
"We were ambushed." His heartbeat was perfectly normal, too perfectly normal.
"and then, what? You stabbed his eyes out, defending yourself, so you say, and then he goes crazy and kills his pack?" Allison repeats his story summarized.
"He sees as a wolf?" Scott asked, leaning forward.
"Deucalion is not always blind."
"Maybe we can use it against him." Allison says, and Scott nods. They both stand up to leave.
"Scott." Gerard stops him before he could walk out, holding his bare arm towards Scott. He steps forward and starts pulling pain from Gerard, wincing quietly, secretly.
"This whole little story-time, i've been listening to your heartbeat. Never went up, never went down. Perfectly steady."
"Because im telling the truth."
"Im gonna give you the benefit of the doubt, but if anybody gets hurt or killed because you decided to lie to me, next time, ill be here to pull more than just pain out of you." Scott bent to Gerard's eye level to threaten him, still gripping his arm tightly. He snatched his arm away and walked out of the room, Allison following after him.
Scott walked into the house after a long day, sighing heavily. He was completely confused. He had no idea what to think, he had just been told a story by Gerard of all people, probably one of the most unreliable narrator in the history of all unreliable narrators. Then, after it all, he dropped Allison off and she gave him a kiss on his cheek and a thanks. He wanted her, so badly.
He was even more confused because he started feeling a weird way towards Isaac. Not in a mean, not liking him kinda way, more like an awkward crush way. He didn't know what to think about that, he never felt that way for a boy before. Let alone for a boy and a girl at the same exact time. He decided to push the confusing thoughts away for now at least.
He walked up the stairs and decided he would check up on Stiles before he headed to bed. If he was actually home and not at Erica's or Boyds house. He opened the door to Stiles room, the lights were off, a movie was playing, and Stiles and Isaac were both laying on the bed, shoulders touching, faced towards the TV, asleep. Scott felt something weird in his chest that wanted him to jump right in between, to separate the two. He ignored that feeling, knowing the close friendly bond the two shared, he reluctantly walked away, going to get ready for bed.
It was a confusing day.