Just a Kid [Derek Hale]

Chapter Forty-One

Reaching across the bed, she held up the wolf toy for Talia trying to bite back a smile and a laugh. It had been a week since adult Derek Hale had been returned and whilst the majority of the pain was gone there was still a few traces of it inside her whenever an extraneous move was made which still included going up and down stairs and getting out of bed but she could now walk across flat land safely. Talia was lying back on the bed laughing every few seconds and it was a beautiful thing to watch.

Talia grabbed onto the arm of the wolf trying to shove it into her mouth and Hayley quickly reached out blocking it, "no, no, no, you can't eat that sweetheart," she laughed out in a gentle whisper as she guided it away from the child's mouth.

Feeling a hand on her ankle, she lifted her head up from the pillow looking back to see Derek, "you should be resting," he said, and she narrowed her eyes.

"I'm in bed," she reminded, "you just want to steal the child," she pointed out holding up an accusing finger to him, "no stealing my child."

"Our child," he corrected mimicking the words she'd used so often.

"You could always join us," she teased, but before it could be done the sound of the door opening was heard and he turned away leaving.

Sighing, Hayley pushed herself up to see who had entered. It was Peter and a woman who she didn't know. Picking up Talia, she winced as she climbed out of the bed walking over to the two of them, "what's going on?"

"Werewolf business," Peter said, and Hayley rolled her eyes at the words but hovered around them waiting to find out what was going on.

The woman took a seat on the sofa bringing her legs up and resting her feet on the coffee table. Both Hayley and Peter pulled a face at that the former because she was sick of people from the supernatural community having a blatant disrespect for everyone's property and the fact that it was incredibly unhygienic and she was going to be the one that ended up cleaning it. The latter because he didn't like anyone having no respect for him or the fact that it proved his power was fleeting.

"The table's Italian," Peter said.

"So are these boots," Braeden shrugged, and Derek smiled looking down to hide his amusement. Hayley narrowed her eyes as she watched him trying to see if he was interested in her or not. That seemed to be a trend: Kate, Braeden, Jennifer, all women who he showed potential interest in seemed to be some badass and powerful female. "Are we going to talk interior design and fashion, or are we going to talk numbers?"

She wrote down a number on a post-it before sliding it across the table. Peter looked at it before scoffing and changing the number pushing it back to her, "we're hiring you to find Kate, not assassinate the president."

"I was hired by the Calaveras to find Kate. You're hiring me to find her first," Braeden countered pushing the paper back to her, "going against the Calaveras is what's going to cost you."

"We'll pay. Just find Kate. That's all we want," Derek cut in, and Braeden looked at him before giving a gentle nod.

"Pleasure doing business," she mused pushing herself to her feet before she left. Hayley looked over at them before she stepped over to look at the number her face pulling into a pained grimace.

"That's a lot of zero's," she pointed out and Peter nodded as he looked over to Derek who pushed himself to his feet.

"Are you insane?"

"We don't have a choice. We spent a week looking for her, and came up with nothing."

"If we don't find out who told Kate about the vault, we don't get those bonds back. What do you think I'm gonna do then, huh? Get a job? My resume is slightly out of date! We got robbed, Derek. Robbed!" Hayley was about to speak, but Peter's words had annoyed Derek too much and he turned around his eyes yellow as he roared and both Hayley and Peter froze as they saw it although the action had caused Talia to start crying again.