Hiraeth //S.S.// ➸ Book 2

Sacrifice

"You might want to tell your mother to skip her shift at the hospital tonight. Liam and his friends are there now. Optimistic of them, but woefully ill-advised. This is how you wage war Scott. A strategic positioning of your army against theirs. Which is why you will come to me. You will try to save as many as you can and you might even save a few. But your limited resources will be spread thin. Ultimately you will fail. The dogs of war, Scott. They're coming for you."

We made our way to the vet clinic, keeping our tracks clear and making sure it would be as safe as it possibly could be. 

"It was literally day one of my internship, and up comes a slide about this guy that they've been chasing in the woods in North Carolina," Stiles said as he looked towards Derek.

"I thought you were in South America?" Lydia asked. 

"I was." Derek continued. "The bodies of werewolves I told you about? They blamed me." He glanced around the room, as if he was watching for a change in our emotions, but none moved. Stiles kept his eyes intently on Derek as he continued his story. 

"So I learned that the FBI has cornered this feral mass-murdering unsub, I found a group of hunters gathering in a meeting place. I was trying to get information." He explained while Stiles was nodded along in the corner. 

"Well, the FBI found out about it too and they were planning a SWAT assault to take him down. Dead of alive. And, as we know, though, with Derek, it's preferably dead." He paused, glancing over towards Derek, giving him a curt nod. 

"Preferably." He added as I furrowed my eyebrows. Sometimes I honestly wondered why I was dating Stiles and how he got into the FBI in the first place.

"So, I convined them to take me on the Field Op." He stated, causing me to raise my eyes. Then again, Stiles was extremely good at convincing people to do things they know they shouldn't. 

"So you're telling us that you, an intern, convinced the FBI to take you on a dangerous field mission," I asked him as he proudly nodded. Derek let out a quiet chuckle as he shook his head. 

"I'm surprised he didn't convince them he could lead it." Everyone laughed, minus Stiles who stood there with a serious expression planted across his face as he waited for silence. 

"I tried, didn't work. Anyway, long story short, I basically, you know, had to save his life." He smiled at us while Derek shook his head in the background. Clearly, Stiles was manipulating the story, just a little. 

"That's not how it happened." Derek bluntly stated as Stiles cheaply nodded.

 "I may have left out a detail, but that's the gist of what happened. It was the essential essence of it." He avoided eye contact with any of us as Derek sighed, pressing his palms against the table. 

"You couldn't walk." I quietly sighed, shaking my head as Stiles tried to defend himself. 

"I was limping." He admitted, but we all knew that it was worse than that.

"You couldn't walk and I know that because I was carrying you." I quietly chuckled picturing Derek dragging Stiles out of the door while he was crying like a baby. No offense to Stiles, but he wasn't the toughest of the pack. 

"They shot my toe." He glanced down at the floor. "You want to see it? My toe was caught in the crossfire. It was obliterated." Placing my hand on his shoulder, I slightly shook my head. "I love you babe but, your toe isn't important right now." 

Scott nodded in agreement, glancing around the room. "Aubrey's right, we have more important matters. It's not just the hunters, we've got another problem." Lydia nodded in agreement as Scott concluded his sentence.