Splintered

Chapter 9: Pot Meet Kettle

Hello all! Sorry this update took so long, I'm trying to get back to updating more regularly. This is a bit of a filler but expands Nora and Derek's relationship so buckle up! Thanks again to heirsoflilith for taking a look through this chapter.

WARNINGS:

STRONG LANGUAGE

Derek had stuck close as long as he could to the room. But when he got a text from Scott telling him there'd been another murder he had to leave. And now the sun was coming up and all he wanted to do was go back to the house and pass the fuck out. And he'd be doing that if he didn't have a niggling feeling in the back of his head to go check on the girl. For Christ-sakes he didn't even know her name but he felt the need to be sure she wasn't dead in a ditch or something. She seemed different than any Argent he'd met but to be fair Kate was not a fair measure against anyone. And that thought was dangerous in it's self.

That was a pretty low bar for anyone else to lay beneath. And didn't that just tell you where his state of mind was. Every person he met was below that bar, no matter what they'd done. Kate Argent hadn't just burnt his family alive, she'd burnt his faith and hope straight out of his soul. And over the past six years Laura had been trying desperately to bring a spark of that back to him. And some days he could forget it, forget that they were basically running for their lives, never sure who'd be around the next corner.

That spark had been snuffed out the moment Laura's life had been. That rogue wolf, now an alpha had stolen from him everything he'd attempted to build back since Kate burnt it out. Laura had been helping, and with her gone the hole she'd left spread black through his heart. He knew the wound was fresh and would scab and scar eventually but it felt like that eventuality was light years and galaxies away. And he wasn't sure if it'd swallow him whole before it could heal. He was a lone wolf now and that black hole had only one thing on the other end, a feral omega.

Derek heard some talk out in the hallway from her room. It sounded like a nurse updating a deputy to leave the patient be so she could rest. That it'd been a rough night of pain for her. The nurse left and he heard the deputy take a seat in a creaky plastic chair and if the thunk against the wall was any indication the man had already fallen asleep after a long night of guard duty. Shaking his head the wolf entered the room, knowing that he could get in check on her and get out.

He had picked up her chart mouthing, "Eleanora Argent" to himself when another voice shocked him, "if you wanted to know you could've just asked," her voice sounded rough as he looked up meet her bloodshot eyes.

"I'm sorry?" Derek was confused.

"If you wanted to know my name you could've asked?" she raised an eyebrow in challenge.

"Was this before you smashed your mouth into mine or after you passed out cold from blood loss?" Derek's eyebrows furrowed together at his question.

The woman in front of him, yes she was an adult (he'd checked), actually laughed at this question. "Put those puppies away I'm too strung out for that shit," she shook her head moving as if to get out of the bed.

"What the fuck are you doing?" Derek glared at her from his spot still holding her chart.

"I'm getting dressed so you can sneak me out whatever creepy way you got in," Nora started to strip out of the hospital gown.

Derek took in the bandages covering most of her back before his eyes shifted down finding nothing but a small pair of thongs for his trouble. Derek's brain felt like it'd been deep fried as he watched a part of black pants slide up to cover the exposed skin and a shirt did the same for the back before Eleanora was turning back a smirk on her full lips.