Chapter: Thirteen
After her night of being paralyzed again with Stiles and Scott, Derek had Zara blindfolded as he helped her out of the Camaro. She heard the crunching of leaves beneath her feet so she assumed he brought her to the woods.
"If you're planning on killing me and leaving my body in the woods may I suggest making it a fair fight?"
Derek snorts, "Shut up, Zara."
"Okay, fine but where are you taking me?" She whines as she feels his hand his hand on her lower back. "Just walk up, these are stairs." He mumbles, she then lifts her feet step by step until Derek gently pressed her forward. She then heard a door close and she was filled with warmth from wherever she was.
Almost like there was a campfire somewhere that was cooling her vampiric always cold skin. She then felt the tie behind her head loosen and she opened her eyes, she was confused when she looked around and saw a house. It was a nice house actually, it was completely furnished and it looked very new.
The walls were painted a burgundy red, the couches and chairs in the middle of the room were black leather couches and there was a tv hanging on the wall above the fireplace, she also turned and saw a kitchen with an island and a stainless steel refrigerator and a silver oven along with dark wooden cabinets and utensils and other kitchen items.
Next to the kitchen on the other side of the livingroom was a glass circular table with upholstered wooden chairs with cushions on the seat. That was a room that was painted a warm blue with paintings hung up on the walls.
"Derek... what is this place?"
She felt his arms wrap around her middle and his chin resting on her shoulder, "This... is your new home."
She spun his arms facing him, "What?"
"It's my family home, I've had people fix it up since the summer, whenever I would tell you that I was going for a run in the woods I would be here trying to check the progress of the house. They just finished it today and I couldn't wait to show you." He explains with a smile on his face.
"But you—you said it was my new home."
"That's because.. it is." He pulls out a key and places it into her hands. "The lease is under both of our names but since I'm away alot it is your home. And you can still keep the loft but.. this house if you ever need somewhere to go.. it's here for you." He replies gently as his hand caresses her cheek.
"Derek.. I can't believe you did this. This was your family home, how did you find the strength to even come back here and change it?"
"I guess Stiles never told you about how I used to live here in the rubble of this place then, huh?" Derek gives her a sad smile.
"No, I think he failed to mention that actually." She replies going to sit on the leather couch with Derek sitting next to her.
"Back when I returned to Beacon Hills after I found my sister dead... I couldn't get myself to leave this place, I was just always here. I ate in the burned down kitchen, I sat in the living room with the destroyed furniture, I even slept in the remains of my bedroom. Eventually when I became an alpha and I had Isaac, Erica, and Boyd I relocated to an abandoned subway station and made that my new place with my Betas.. felt like they needed a change in scenery. And then I bought the Loft building and got myself a place to stay."
"But then the moment when I talked to my mother through the ritual with her claws, everything was different. I no longer felt guilty, really I felt like it was time that I move on from everything in my past. And then in the summer I started thinking about the house, how I could find people to rebuild it, make it better, make it a family home again. I know the pack isn't very close at the moment but I hope that when you guys all come back.. which you will, that you will bring them here and this.. it can be for all of you." He looks around the house with a nostalgic look in his eyes once he finishes and Zara has no choice but to wrap her arms around his neck embrace him.
"That sounds... amazing Derek. They'll love it, I love it." She pulls away and pecks his lips, "And I love you."
He smiles, "I love you, too."
"So.. I know you have to leave but how many beds are here?"
"Enough for the entire pack, why?" Derek asked raising a brow.
Zara smirks as she stands up, "We're gonna go break one in of course."
Derek shakes his head with a huge smile playing at his lips as he grabs her hand, "God, I love you so much."
"Right back ya, Der." She replies before yanking his collar and slamming her lips onto his. He groans deep in his throat as he grabs at her thighs picking her up.
They continue their bruising kiss as Derek walks up the stairs, Zara fingers tangling in his dark hair as they make their way to the first room they can get to. She feels her back being pressed to a very soft comforter as she leans up and yanks her sweatshirt off leaving her in her bra, she then removes Derek's shirt before climbing ontop of him and attacking his neck.
"What a great way to break in the new house." Derek says before letting out a soft moan from Zara leaving a trail of hickies down his throat.
Zara giggles, "I know, right? Gotta christen the new place eventually, might as well have it be now."
—
After about three or four rounds of mind blowing love making, Zara knew that Derek had to get back to Cora and the other wolves in South America. They were standing outside of the new and improved Hale house with is actually what Derek called, The Mccall pack house.
Zara had her arms wrapped around him as his hands were gripping her waist, a normal human would be bruised by how tight it he was holding her but she just felt safe and comforted in his arms.
She really didn't want him to go again, but she knew that he would be back..
He gently pulls away and cups her cheeks, she feels tears slipping and he leans down and captures her lips in a bruising and passionate kiss. She sniffs as he pulls away to kiss her temple. "I love you, Zara. More than you'll ever know."
She nods, "I love you too, Derek." She then hides her face in his neck getting a whiff of him, she would miss the smell of cinnamon bark, a gentle musk and well... home.
He then handed her the keys to the Camaro and she watched as he shifted from man to wolf, as she always does she leans down scratching him behind his ears smiling fondly at the small chirp he lets out. She kisses him on the snout before letting him run off into the night, she smiles as she hears a howl through the woods.
She'll see him again..
She then climbed into the Camaro and went to grab the keys out of her pocket when she suddenly got a text, she pulled out her phone and saw it was from Scott.
Scott: Stiles fixed his jeep
Scott: We'll come get you at the loft in 10
Zara: On my way back there now
Scott: Where were you before?
Zara bites her, she may or may not tell the pack when Derek comes back to visit. She doesn't want anyone to get their hopes up and honestly this is the longest that he's ever stayed, the first time was just an hour or less but this time it was two days.
Zara: It's a surprise , I'll need to show you when we get the pack back together
Zara: Trust me, it's worth it
Scott: Okay, can't wait!
And with that she pocketed her phone, placed the keys in the ignition and sped her way out of the woods and towards the loft building. When she arrived she parked it in it's usual spot in the parking garage and waited at the stairs infront of the apartment for the boys.
She then heard footsteps, four of them and then she stood up once they made it upstairs. "Well, it took you guys long enough."
Stiles rolled his eyes, "You guys ready to get Kira back?"
Scott nods with a determined look in his eyes, "We get Kira and then we slowly get everyone else."
"We got this guys, let's get our family back together again."
Scott freezes, a smirk tugging at his lips, "Did you say the word Family?"
"What? Ugh. Fuck you, Scott. Yes, you guys are my fucking family, okay? All of you, even when you piss me off in ways I could never understand. I would die for you, all of you."
"Awww Zara!" Stiles coos before throwing his arms around her, she groans but wraps her arms around him, and then she feels Scott hugging her from behind.
"You guys are such saps, let me go." She whines but to no avail.
"Enjoy the group hug, Zar." Scott replies smugly
"I hate you both." She mumbles but melts in their embrace.
"No you don't." Stiles replies
"You love us." Scott says
These two really are like her brothers.
Soon they both pull away, "Okay!" Stiles claps, "Time to go to Mexico.!" He pauses, "Again."
The drive to Mexico was quite stressful, for one Stiles' jeep was overheating so Zara was in the back fanning herself with the window down in nothing but jeans and her sports bra since it was too hot for her band shirt. But other than that, the two boys were amazing company as they screamed at the top of their lungs whatever song they all knew from the radio.
That or Scott was sleeping in the passengers side, although now he was wide awake with a book in his face scanning the pages like our lives depended on it, knowing their luck what he was reading probably was important information for their survival.
"Guys, I found something." Scott announces
"What you got, Scotty?" Stiles replies as he keeps his eyes on the road ahead.
"It says "Damnatio memoriae was a Roman practice, a government decree to destroy the images of the damned. They would scratch off their names from inscriptions and chisel their faces off of statues. The Romans believed it was a punishment worse than death." Wow, that definitely sent chills down my spine, how about you guys?" Scott says before reading some more.
"Being forgotten, that's the punishment." Stiles mumbles
"Sounds miserable but if it's to make a villain unrecognizable to itself then I say it's a pretty good idea. A smart one, actually."
"Yeah, it's a smart idea until said villain is given a way to remember itself by our resident crazies called the Dread Doctors." Stiles huffs
"Listen to this, "Damnatio memoriae was once used on a serial killer in 1598, known as the Demon Tailor. He lured children into his shop in Paris where he would kill them and boil the flesh off their bones to eat."
"What the fuck." Zara felt herself shiver in disgust.
"There's more, "The court's believed the crime's so horrible and ordered all documents to be destroyed. To this day no one knows it's real name." Well... that's gonna give me nightmares for the rest of my life." Scott groans as he closes the book.
"So let me get this straight, the Dread Doctors resurrected a serial killer from the 1900's that was so bad that the Romans had to literally erase him from history?" Stiles exclaims tightening his hands on the steering wheel.
"A killer that became a werewolf." Zara mumbled
"Which makes him an even better killer." Scott adds
"So what I'm hearing is, we're all fucked. That's terrific." Stiles groans before pressing harder on the break and sending the Jeep flying down the New Mexico desert road.
The drive was pretty silent after the information that Scott gave that they were all trying to let marinate in their heads, Zara was reeling as she thought about what kind of threat this werewolf beast from hundreds of years ago could be to her friends, her family, her home. She ended up drifting off to sleep as she was thinking about it but it didn't last longer than maybe two or three hours because she was being woken up by the chaos of the boys in the front seats.
She noticed that Stiles and Scott had switched and now Scott was driving but they were groaning loudly about something as the jeep slowed down. Zara yawns into her hand before going to ask what he fuck is happening and why they interrupted her anxiety induced sleep.
"Why is the jeep getting slower and why are you both so grumpy?"
"Stiles didn't fix the gas gauge." Scott grumbles as he turns the car into a gas station and parks it next to a pump.
Zara climbs out of the jeep and she and Stiles make their way to the gas station doors, the entire place looks abandoned and the doors are locked but Zara just kicks them open anyway, Stiles just groans in annoyance but Zara just smiles as she skips down the candy aisle and starts picking out some snacks to eat during the drive.
"So who's paying for this?" Stiles asks
"You pay for the gas and I'll pay for the candy, what do you want?"
"Reese's would be great, Scott likes anything cookies and cream." Stiles replies
Zara nods as she grabs a couple packets of Reese's, Skittles, and Cookies and Cream Hershey bars. Then she heads to the chips aisle and grabs some Wavy Lays, Cheezits and Ranch and Nacho Cheese Doritos.
A girl's gotta eat.
She finds a bag behind the counter and pulls a twenty out of her wallet and leaves it on the counter along with Stiles' money and head out of the gas station store. She places the bag inside the back of the jeep through the window and leans on the door as Stiles helps Scott fill up the tank and a jug for some extra gasoline so they don't have to make anymore trips.
Scott sighs as he holds the full jug of gasoline in his hand, "This probably isn't the best time but.. I wanna talk about what happened between us, the three of us. But mostly you, Stiles. I was... a jerk. I was a really bad fucking friend and I just wanna say I'm sorry, from the bottom of my heart I really am."
Stiles gives him a small frown, and then he glances at Zara before looking towards Scott again, "There was a pin. A really small pin attached to the scaffolding, He was trying to pull us down. He threatened to eat Zara's legs and he was already gripping onto her ankle." he explains keeping his gaze on the ground.
"He was trying to kill both of you." Scott says gently
"Yeah, and I pulled the pin and all the metal braces came falling down. When I finally managed to look I saw that one of them just went right through him." Stiles replies looking at Scott now.
"Why didn't you guys think you could tell me?" Scott asked with a small frown, "Not that I made it very easy at all that night, and I'm sorry for that by the way, truly I am."
"It was that night that made it so hard but.. Scott. You're a true alpha, you've never actually killed anyone, in-fact you're extremely against it. Stiles knew that and I knew that and we thought that telling you would ruin everything. But of course Theo the manipulative bastard that he is blackmailed both of us and when the time was right he flipped the entire story and manipulated you."
"Also you looked at me as if I had whacked you in the head with the wrench, and you flinched from me like I would murder you with it or something. I knew you didn't believe me when you did that but I also didn't know what the fuck Theo told you." Stiles replies
"He told me that you beat Donovan to death with the wrench and Zara stepped on his chest to keep him down as he tried to defend himself." Scott says
"That bitch." Zara snarls
"No wonder you thought I was some murderer, Theo made me out to be one, and made Zara my accomplice when in reality she just ended up in the crossfire with me because we were at the library that night together." Stiles scoffs angrily
And then Zara realizes somethin, "You guys understand that this whole thing could've been avoided if we all just trusted in our friendship, in the pack? Scott may have been making bad decisions but has anyone been able to trust anybody since Theo came to Beacon Hills? This is what he wanted and he manipulated all of us."
Scott nods, "You're right, I should've trusted you guys. I shouldn't have tried to fix everything all by myself when I knew I had my pack to fall back on if I ever needed help, I'm sorry I've been such a shitty alpha and best friend."
"We forgive you, Scott. But guys, promise me one thing. We have to trust each other, no matter what. The pack is my family and you guys are like my brothers, we have to stick together and we have to get everyone back."
Stiles throws his arm around Zara, "We promise, and we will." Scott then walks over to Zara's other side and wraps his arm around her waist.
"We'll get everyone back, I promise." Scott says assuring the two of them.
"Alright, let's get gas in Roscoe and let's go save Kira." Stiles announces as he grabs the jug from Scott and goes to fill up the jeep as Zara climbs into the backseat. She quickly straps herself in and digs into the bag and pulls out the package of skittles, she pops both a red and yellow past her lips before Scott and Stiles both climb back into the car, Stiles then puts the key into the ignition and Roscoe roars to life.
And then they're off.
It's night time when Zara sees it, storm clouds surrounding a mountain like area, but the clouds are only around that are, and then there's a flash of lightning, but not just any lightning, Kira's lightning.
"Guys, you see that right?"
"What the hell are they doing to her?" Stiles asked
"I don't know." Scott says as he climbs out of the jeep, Zara and Stiles following after him.
They walk over towards the cliff's edge and scan what's going on near the mountain, it looks like some kind of battle going on but Zara cant's quite put her finger on what the hell is actually going on down there.
She just hopes Kira is okay.
"Do you guys think Malia would've came with us if she knew we were saving Kira?"
"Malia is busy doing other things at the moment." Scott replies
"Wait, what does that mean?"
"She... she's planning on killing her mother." Stiles replies hesitantly
"Wait.. how--"
"I went to see her today and she pretty much told me that I wouldn't like her very much if I knew what she was doing, she also told me to leave, I also think Braeden was there and well.. you know what Braeden does for a living." Scott explains
"Well.. shit."
Scott sighs running his hands through his hair, "I didn't want it to be like this."
"Be like what?" Stiles asked
"I knew that eventually someone in the pack would get their hands a little bloody, really I thought it would be Malia first." Scott replies
Stiles snorts, "Well.. she's working her way to it."
"It should've been me, I'm the one who's constantly putting you guys in danger, risking your lives for people you don't even know." Scott frowns
Zara can see the war that's stirring in her best friend, she knows he wants to tell him about that night at her house with her siblings, so she crosses over to him and squeezes his hand, "He won't hate you, Stiles. You can tell him."
"Tell me what?" Scott asked
Stiles let's out a deep breath before facing his best friend, "Remember when I got kidnapped by Zara's siblings?" Scott nods, so he continues, "They locked me in a room for four days, no food, no water, but most importantly... no blood. I was starving Scott, I was losing my mind, I was hallucinating and my veins felt like sandpaper. Then they finally let me out, but they came in with this woman. She was--she was bleeding, her neck as sliced open but... she was still breathing. Scott, I-I drained every drop of blood from her b-body. I--" He pauses to try and control himself so he doesn't have a panic attack, "I killed her, I held her in my arms as her heart stopped and my hands were covered in her blood. I hated myself, I still hate myself and I could never bring myself to tell anyone but Lydia and well Zara knows because she was there."
Scott let's out a sigh before pulling Stiles into his arms who was breathing shakily as tears slipped down his cheeks, "You didn't have a choice, man. You were starving, it was instinct. You can't keep blaming yourself for something like that." Scott gives him a deep frown as he pulls away.
Then Zara sees it, a reflection of light bouncing off a sword.
Kira's sword.
"Guys I hate to ruin the moment but.. I think I can see Kira's sword."
The boys then run over to Zara, "I see it too, we got a few hours till sunrise, we need to get going." Stiles says before they all ran back over to the jeep and hopped inside, Stiles started the jeep and they were speeding down the desert road once more.
When they got to Kira and her mom Zara was shocked to see that they were a battle of some sort, Scott tucked and rolled out of the jeep and she saw his claws come out as he growled at the women covered in war paint and pelts.
"Get in!" Stiles yelled towards Kira and Scott.
Without hesitation the two of them climbed into the back of the jeep and Zara instantly threw her arms around Kira who happily returned the embrace. "I missed you so much."
"I missed you too, Zara." Kira pants as they pull away and she reveals a big smile, "You guys came back for me."
"Of course we did, no one get's left behind in this pack." Scott replies as Kira's mom climbs into the jeep, Stiles then turns the jeep around and hits the gas trying to get as far away from the woman as he can.
"So. Who were they?"
"They're called Skinwalkers and they were trying to make me into one of them, but I couldn't leave you guys. I won't." Kira says with finality in her tone.
Zara smiles and throws her arm around the vixen, "It's good to have you back Kira."
She smiles leaning into her embrace, "It's good to be back."
When they made it back to Beacon Hills everyone was fucking exhausted, they dropped off Kira's mom and Kira decided to hang out at Scott's place for the night, surprisingly her mom let her.
Something about getting back into a rhythm with her friends, nobody really asked any questions.
Everyone decided to crash at Scott's for the night and Zara was laying upside down on the couch, her socked feet curled around the top edge as the blood rushed to her head.
And then Liam walked in the house with Mason.
Zara sat up quickly and crossed her legs, "Hey guys." She mumbles as her eyes glance to Scott who's hesitant to go near Liam.. which yeah... understandable.
"We know what Theo is doing." Liam announces, "Also hi Kira, I'm glad you're back." At that she smiles at Liam and Mason.
"Yeah, we know. The idiot has his own undead chimera pack." Stiles scoffs as he texts Lyla for updates on Lydia.
"Yeah, and he has Hayden." Mason adds
Scott's eyes widen as does Zara's, Kira's and Stiles', "Is she okay?" He asked with a look of worry in his eyes.
"Well.. she's alive but I wouldn't say that she's okay. She's... she's with Theo. Says he can protect her better than you can." Liam frowns deeply, Scott's face reflects him, "But that's not all."
"He's looking for an alpha." Mason remarks as he lets out a sigh.
"A blind alpha." Liam finishes
Oh shit, he can't be.
Scott's jaw tightened, "Deucalion."
—
This chapter wasn't supposed to be this long but I got carried away with writing that apology scene at the gas station but oh welllll.
ANYWAYYYY.
I gotta work in the morning so I think I should stop writing chapters for tonight.
I'm gonna go read Lore Olympus.. if my stupid Wi-Fi will let me see any of the comics.
Alright, until the next one guys.
Byeee.
— Mic ꨄ