Never Let Me Go (Derek Hale Fanfiction Book #3)

Chapter Twenty-Five: Promised Land

                                  As if every muscle, every nerve, every cell, every gear and twitch in my body had come to a screeching halt, I remained, staring up into Derek’s red-rimmed green eyes for an immeasurable amount of time. Neither of us said anything more after I spoke; there were no words that could possibly begin to encompass the joy I was feeling. All the guilt and misery I’d been feeling for the past few weeks took a backseat to the absolute elation that I was struggling to wrap my head around. I’m...human again. I’m a human. I’m not a werewolf anymore, I’m actually a human. I’m me again, I’m Christina Laymen, the girl who dragged her injured best friend’s rain-soaked ass down the side of the highway over a year and a half ago. I’m finally myself again.

                                 When the cut on my palm began to scab over and the dried blood on my forearm began to itch, the first few tears fell from my eyes. I knew Derek had been waiting for the breakdown, but strangely, I didn’t feel like crying anymore. The voice was still there, reminding me of how selfish I’d been and how Aiden’s death was all my fault, but at that very moment I felt...empowered. Like my best friend had died to give me a second chance, like he’d sacrificed himself to let me start over, and for the first time since I’d looked into that mirror and watched my eyes glow yellow, a small part of me reawakened. The part of me that had frozen it’s ass off every day for months on the bench at lacrosse practice, watching my best friends hopelessly try to play a sport that they both sucked at. The part of me that had thought polka dots and cheetah print and sequins all belonged in one outfit. The part of me that had listened to Katy Perry ritually for three years, the part that had been raised by it’s older brother and who had adored him above all else. The part of me that had died the day I’d been turned into a werewolf. And, if I’m being honest with myself, the part of me that had begun to die the day I fell in love with Derek.

I’d lost myself and my way sometime in the past year, but thanks to Aiden, I had a chance to get it all back. I had a chance to get my life back. Not just my humanity. My life. And I’d be damned if I was going to let that go to waste.

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                    “And you’re sure you’ll be able to handle it?” Derek asked for the billionth time as he poured himself a cup of coffee and leaned his loosely jean-clad butt against the counter behind him.

“Only one way to find out, right?” I retorted with a grim quirk of my lips, grabbing my own travel mug of decaf coffee and rooting around in the fridge to find something for breakfast. Clocking in at 22 weeks pregnant, my little werewolf fetus was not happy with three meals a day, which meant that I’d been eating like I was trying to move up a weight class. In the past week, I’d picked myself up by my bootstraps and started implementing some serious changes to my life. I wanted to live in a manner that would make my best friend proud. Much to Derek’s dismay, however, my first change had come six nights ago, when I’d left the house after realizing I was human again and hadn’t told him or anybody else where I was going. But since then, I’d been moving forward in my life, taking control of who I was and who I was becoming. After missing two weeks of school unexcused ( murdering my werewolf best friend so that I could become human again wasn’t exactly an excuse I could give the front office), Ms. Trabil had regretfully informed me that I would be unable to graduate early unless I put in some serious time and commitment.

               “That means coming in for classes on Saturdays and before and after school, you understand?” she’d told me, and I’d agreed despite the odds. For Aiden. I’d also told Derek about how awful the new pack acted towards me, and he’d been doing his best to get them to like me. At the very least, they were no longer openly hostile to me, mostly because Derek hardly let me out of his sight when I was at home. And at school, well...I had Stiles and Lydia to back me up. But after some serious effort on my part, I’d finally been able to reconcile with Scott.