TWELVE
"They were there for two days." Cora had said, looking out the window of Derek's place. It was raining. Apparntly, Boyd died while Scott and I were looking for Deaton. "Waiting, hiding. That's what we were taught to do when the hunters find us. Hide and heal."
"Okay, is two days standard then?" Stiles asks. "Or are we thinking Derek's on, like, some extended get away?" Derek has been total MIA since Boyd died. No one knows where he went.
Cora turns and faced us. "Why do you guys care?"
"Why do we care? Let's see, because, over the last few weeks, my best friend's tried to kill himself, his boss nearly got ritually sacrificed, my girlfriend is something, a girl that I've known since I was three was ritually sacrificed. Boyd was killed by Alphas. You want me to keep going? 'Cause I can, all right? For, like, an hour." My boyfriend ranted.
I'm sitting on the couch, and Stiles was standing, pacing around. All I got out of that was when he said girlfriend, and it just hit me that I was his girlfriend. It sounds really good rolling off his tongue.
"And then, once you're done listening with Stiles' rant, you can listen to mine which will be about another two hours." I smiled sarcastically at Cora, and Stiles glanced over at me.
"You think Derek can do anything about that?" Cora steps forward.
"Well, since he's the one everyone's seems to be after, it's more like he should something about it. Yeah." Stiles nods.
"I don't know," Cora said. "There's something different about him now. He wasn't like this when I knew him."
"What was he like." I lean forward, and Cora looks over at me. We all then look up, and Peter Hale himself came walking down the stairs. I cocked my head.
"A lot like Scott, actually," Peter spoke.
"No one asked for you, you can go now." I snap, glaring at Peter. He chuckled. "Go back to the basement. You know you don't belong here. Who gave this guy the rights to live here, anyway? Like... did the apartment people who own this did? Seriously,"
Peter ignored me. "A lot like most teenagers, actually," Peter said and continued down the stairs. "A lot like you two, happily in love. Unbearably romantic, profoundly narcissistic... tolerable really to another teenager."
"And so what happened? What changed him?" Stiles asked and I stand up, and walked over to Stiles.
"Well, the same thing that changes a lot of young men. A girl." Peter told us.
Stiles scoffed. "You're telling me some girl broke his little heart? That's the way he is?"
I roll my eyes at Stiles. "Hey, Stiles?" I asked, and he looked at me. "We're over, we're done. We're not together anymore, done."
Stiles' eyes flashed a bit of hurt and confusion. "W-what?"
"Cue Stiles going all dark and not talking to the world," I said pointing at him. "Babe, I'm kidding." A big sigh comes from Stiles.
"Don't toy with a guy emotion like that, Stacey," he then wrapped his arms around me, and I side to hug him as he had his full arms around me and I smiled.
"Have you guys ever had a fight?" Cora asked.
I looked up at Stiles. "Maybe, I can't remember." I shrug. "I only remember the good things." Stiles kissed my forehead.
"I can tell you that you guys aren't going to be broken up anytime soon. You guys are literally always around each other, it's disturbing." Peter shudders.
"You jealous, Peter?" I chuckle. "The longest that we've been away from each other is three hours tops, just putting it out there."
"Even when you're still in the same room, Y'all are close up and mushy," Cora rolls her eyes.
"Is that a challenge?" I asked Cora, turning around. "I bet you five bucks that Stiles and I can stay away from each other when we're in the same room until we got home."
"Make it ten." Cora smirks. I looked at Stiles, and he rolled his eyes.
"Money over our a love, Stacey?" He asked, and I chuckled, before skipping my way back to the couch.
"And no thinking about how hot he is, either!" Cora said and I nodded. "I can see it in your eyes if you do. And no looking at each other, or texting. Or talking."
"Anyways." Peter claps his hands. "Do you remember Derek before he was an Alpha and had blue eyes? Do you know why some wolves have blue eyes?"
"I always thought it was like a genetic thing." Stiles said.
"If you want to know what changed Derek, you need to know what changed the color his eyes."
"Okay, so if Derek was a sophomore back then, how old was he?" Stiles asks as Peter had come and sat next to me on the couch. "How old were you?" I avoid eye contact with Stiles and looked over at Cora instead. She and Derek looked alike. "How old are you now?"
I let out a laugh, and Cora looked at me. "You didn't say I couldn't laugh," she rolled her eyes.
"Not as young as we could have been, but not as old as you might think." Peter said.
"Okay, that was frustratingly vague." I shifted my eyes around the room.
"How old are you?" Stiles asked Cora, pointing to her.
"I'm 17."
"See, that's an answer," I told Peter, turning my head towards him. "That's how we answer people."
"Well, 17 how you measure in years," Cora added.
"Ya killed me, Cora," I told her, sinking further into the couch. I turn my head to Peter. "What happened to Derek and the cello girl?"
"What do you think happened?" Peter asks. "They're teenagers, they did excatly what you and Stiles did. They fell in love, one minute it's, I hate you, don't talk to me, the next, it's frantic groping in any dark corner they can manage to find themselves alone in for five minutes."
I scoff. "Stiles and I are nothing like that."
Peter rolled his eyes in disbelief. "Over my dead body." Peter continues. "Their favorite dark corner was an abandoned distillery outside of Beacon Hills." I bite my lower lip, that's not romantic.
I then hear a slap, and I hear Stiles yelp. "Stiles, no looking." I glanced over, and saw him rubbing his knee, I laugh. "Okay, you guys lost."
"What? No, we didn't." I protested.
"If it makes you happy I'll give ya the ten dollars, just go cuddle up to him now." I grin, and Stiles jumps down from the chair and walks over to me. He sinks down on the couch and puts an arm around me, and I snuggle into him as Peter tells us the story.
"All right, hold up," Stiles said. "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." Peter explains, leaning forward.
"Kinda like how Stiles' is mine. Aw, that's cute." I mumble, and everyone but Stiles rolled their eyes.
"That's how I know." Peter continued. Peter had stood up, and gone to the window, and drew a spiral on the window. "Our mark for vendetta."
"Man, you guys really take that revenge thing to like, a whole new level, don't you?" Stiles asked as Peter turned around.
"Can't you guys like... give each other flowers and call it truths or something?" I laugh, and Stiles placed one hand on my knee, giving me the chills. I then place my hand on his, and we intertwine it together.
"It's not just revenge." Cora seethed. "Losing a member of a pack isn't like losing family. It's like you lose a limb."
"They wouldn't even let him see the dead body," Peter said.
"I don't get it." Cora starts. "What does this have to do with Derek?"
Peter turned to her. "Everything." Peter steps forward. "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 an opportunity,"
"Opportunity to do what?" Stiles asks.
"To always be with her." Peter draws out. "The thing was, he had this constant fear. He was obsessing over it, thinking about it all night, all day, always on his mind. I kept telling him not to do it. Every day the more he thought about the more convinced he became. You know teenagers. I bet he even blames me. He's probably convinced himself the whole thing was my idea." He turned to Cora.
✢
"They keep us connected to humanity," Cora begins. "But they're 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." Peter adds aside who was pacing around.
"She's an emissary, too?" Stiles asked, slightly annoyed.
"For the Alpha pack." Peter said, crossing his arms.
"Our guidance counselor?" Stiles raised his voice. "Why the hell don't you people tell us any of this stuff, huh? I shared some really intimate details with her." He glanced over at me awkwardly, but I ignored it.
"And did she give you good advice?" Cora asks.
"Actually, yeah. I wouldn't have gotten the courage to dance with Stacey if it wasn't for her." I smiled over at him, and kissed him on the cheek.
"Then we wouldn't be here today, huh?" I whisper in his ear, and he nodded.
"That's what they do." Peter told us. "That's what Deaton used to do for Talia. I got Ennis to bit Paige."
"Ennis?" Cora asks in confusion. "Why would you choose him?"
"Why not?" Peter seethed. "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, everyone wanted to be in good with her."
"So did she turn?" I ask, cocking my head towards Peter.
"She should have." Peter softly said. "Most of the time, the bite takes. Most of the time."
"When you offered it to me, you said, if it doesn't kill you..." My eyes widen. Peter offered Stiles the bit? Since when?
"What?" Stiles shushed me, putting a finger on my lips and I frown. I then lick his finger, and he gave me a look.
"Your gonna have to try harder," he whispered, I scoffed and shoved his hand out of the way.
"If." Peter said, nodding. So, Paige didn't make it. "What's happening to her? He said. He knew the answer, though. It didn't matter that she was young and strong. Some people just aren't made for this." I looked over at Stiles who I could see he was clearly upset by this story. "She fought. She struggled desperately, trying to survive." A tear slips down Stiles' cheek, making my heart warm. With a thumb, I quickly caught it before it fell, and Stiles wrapped his arms around me even tighter. "I remember taking her body from his arms, to the woods, to a place where I knew it would be found. Another long line of Beacon Hills animal attacks."
"What about Derek?" Cora's voice wavered. We were now standing over Peter who was sitting on the steps.
"Taking an innocent life takes something from you as well." Peter explained. "Bit of your soul. Darkening it. Dimming the one brilliant, golden yellow to a cold, steel blue. Like mine." He then flashed his cold steel blue eyes at us.
✢
"What?" I ask Stiles as we were now sitting on the steps, Cora and Peter had left to go upstairs in their rooms. I knew something was off with Stiles, I can see it on his face. He looked at me, and laced our fingers together. We sat close to one another. "What this look on your face?"
"What look?" Stiles asked, and I rolled my eyes.
"I know you like the back of my hand, Stiles, what is it?" I urge he sighed. "What is with the look?"
"I just don't believe him." Stiles finally said. "All right, in Miss. Blake's class we're reading Heart of Darkness, right?" I nodded. Haven't even started that book. "And it's in first person. Narrated by Marlow. The thing is 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." I caught on, pursing my lips together.
"Right, and I don't think we got the whole story," Stiles told me.
"So what? Are you just gonna ask Derek about the girl he fell in love with and then killed?" I softly asked.
"If I have to, yeah,"
"Okay. I'll be there with you." I softly said, and our foreheads touch. I chuckle and I connected our lips, his hands cup my jaw, making me smile as I inch close to him.