Nora, holding Mateo, paced across the floor of Derek's loft. She'd gone to visit him to find him gone, which worried her. She'd tried contacting him, but he wasn't answering.
Cora stared at Nora as she paced. "Nora, relax. I'm sure he's just busy."
Nora stopped and stared at her, shaking her head as she gestured to her ears.
She sighed. "Right." She typed out a message. 'What are you feeling?'
Nora laid Mateo down, pulled out her phone and began typing. 'I'm not sure. I don't feel in pain, which I guess is a good thing. But I'm worried about him.'
'You and me both. But I'm sure he'll come back soon. He always does. He wouldn't leave his mate or the kid he's come to like. You know that.'
Cora, hearing someone arrive, opened the door to reveal Stiles and he said, "Okay, so where's Derek?"
"We don't know," Cora replied. "He's been missing for two days. They were there for two days, waiting, hiding. That's what we're taught to do when the hunters find us... hide and heal."
Stiles frowned. "Okay, so is two days standard, then, or are we thinking Derek's on, like, some extended getaway?"
"Why do you care?"
"Why do I care? Let's see... Because over the last few weeks, my best friends tried to kill themselves. His boss nearly got ritually sacrificed. A girl that I've known since we were three was ritually sacrificed. Boyd was killed by alphas. I... Do you want me to keep going? 'Cause I can, all right? For, like, an hour."
"You think Derek can do anything about that?"
"Well, since he's the one everyone seems to be after, it's more like he should do something about it, yeah."
"I don't know. There's something different about him now. And it's not just Nora and Mateo being in his life. He wasn't like this when we knew him."
"What was he like?"
"A lot like Scott, actually," Peter said, walking down the spiral staircase. "A lot like most teenagers... Unbearably romantic, profoundly narcissistic, tolerable really only to other teenagers."
"And so what happened? What changed him?"
"Well, the same thing that changes a lot of young men... A girl."
"You're telling me some girl broke his little heart? That's why Derek is the way he is?"
"Do you remember Derek before he was an Alpha had blue eyes? Do you know why some wolves have blue eyes?"
"I just always thought it was, like, a genetic thing."
"If you want to know what changed Derek, you need to know what changed the color of his eyes."
Peter launched into a story about a younger Derek and a girl named Paige Krasikeva.
Stiles frowned. "Okay, so if Derek was a sophomore back then, how old was he? How old is were you? How old are you now?"
"Not as young as we could have been, but not as old as you might think," Peter replied.
"Okay, that was frustratingly vague." He sighed and turned to Cora. "How old are you?"
"I'm 17," Cora replied.
"See, those are answers. That's how we answer people."
"Well, 17 how you'd measure in years."
"All right, I'm just gonna drop it. What happened to Derek and the cello girl?"
Peter frowned. "What do you think happened? They were teenagers. One minute, it's, "I hate you, don't talk to me." The next, it's frantic groping in any dark corner they could manage to find themselves alone for five minutes. Their favorite dark corner was an abandoned distillery outside of Beacon Hills."
Stiles stopped Peter. "All right, hold up. How do you know all this? You just said that they were alone."
"Back then, I wasn't just Derek's uncle. I was his best friend, his closest confidante. That's how I know."
Peter explained the spiral he'd found. "Our mark for vendetta."
"Man, you guys really take that revenge to, like, a whole new level, don't you?"
Cora shook her head. "It's not just revenge. Losing a member of your pack isn't like losing family. It's like you lose a limb."
"What about if a mate lost their, uh, mate?"
"Eventually they die. Usually the cause is from a broken heart."
Peter nodded. "They wouldn't even let him see the body."
Cora frowned. "I don't get it. What does this have to do with Derek?"
"Everything. It's never just a single moment. It's a confluence of events. Personally, I looked at Ennis' circumstances, I saw a profound loss. Derek saw something different. He saw opportunity."
"Opportunity?" Stiles repeated. "Opportunity to do what?"
"To always be with her."
He launched back into the story before saying, "The thing was, he had this constant fear. He was obsessing over it, thinking about it all night, all day, always on his mind. Why does she eat alone? Before you ask, Stiles, Derek didn't know Nora. He saw her around, but they ram in different circles so to speak."
Cora turned to Stiles. "They keep us connected to humanity. But they're a secret even in the pack. Sometimes only the Alpha knows who the emissary is. Derek and I had no idea about Deaton."
"Or his sister, Morrell."
"She's an emissary too?" Stiles questioned. "Ella, your mom's part of the Alpha pack? When were you gonna tell me that?"
"Whenever it came up, I guess. So yeah, that's the news."
Peter frowned before continuing. "For the Alpha pack."
"Our guidance counselor? Why the hell don't you people tell me any of this stuff, huh? I shared some really intimate details with her."
"And did she give you good advice?"
"Actually, yeah."
"That's what they do. That's what Deaton used to do for Talia."
Peter resumed the story and Cora frowned. "Ennis? Why would he choose him?"
"Why not?" Peter answered. "Ennis needed a new member for his pack. Paige was young and strong. Doing a favor for Derek meant Ennis would be in good with Talia. Back then, everybody wanted to be in good with her."
"He doesn't remember it was Ennis, does he?" Stiles asked.
"If he does, he keeps it to himself."
"So then what happened to her? Did he turn her?"
"Almost. He came at Ennis. A 15-year-old boy against a giant. There was no reason for him to fight. She'd already been bitten."
"So did she turn?"
Peter met his eyes. "She should have. Most of the time, the bite takes. Most of the time."
Stiles' brow furrowed in thought. "When you offered it to me, you said, "if it doesn't kill you.""
"If." Peter paused a moment. "He knew the answer, though. It didn't matter that she was young and strong. Some people just aren't made for this. But she fought. She struggled desperately, trying to survive."
Peter explained that Paige didn't make it and said, "I remember taking her body from his arms, to the woods, to a place where I knew that it would be found... another in a long line of Beacon Hills animal attacks."
"And what about Derek?" Cora questioned.
"Taking an innocent life takes... Something from you as well, a bit of your soul... darkening it, dimming the once brilliant, golden yellow to a cold, steel blue... like mine. Sometimes called an icy blue."
Soon, Peter left the loft.
After several minutes, they sat and Cora looked at Stiles. "What? What's this... what's this look on your face?"
"What look?" Stiles asked innocently.
"The kind of look that makes me want to punch you."
"Oh, my God. You are so Derek's sister. I forgot."
"Well, what is with the look?"
Stiles glanced at Nora who motioned for him to speak.
Stiles shook his head. "I just don't believe him. All right, in Ms. Blake's class, we're reading Heart of Darkness, and it's in first person, right? Narrated by Marlow. The thing is that he's... he's an unreliable narrator. You know the details of it have changed, you know, just because of his perspective."
"Well, then we heard the story from Peter's perspective," Cora said.
Stiles nodded. "I don't think we got the whole story."
Cora frowned. "So, what, are... Are you just gonna ask Derek about the girl he fell in love with and then killed?"
"If I have to... Yeah."
Nora, who'd seen a nod, shook her head. 'No, don't do that. Derek hasn't said anything to me and I suspect it's far too personal and emotional to dwell on.'
Stiles eventually left.
Nora picked up her son and waved to Cora before also leaving. She drove home and laid Mateo down for his nap, wishing she knew where Derek was and if he was okay or not.