Lillian's POV
"Why didn't anyone tell me about Kate Argent?" I demanded as I threw open the loft door so hard it slammed against the wall behind it. Derek was already alert from his seat on my bed, the computer in his lap.
"What happened?" was Derek's first question as he got up and came immediately to my side.
"She found me at the fucking library, for God's sake!" I hissed. "She tried to get me to tell her where you were but I didn't, but I barely knew who she was and I think knowing would've made the conversation go a lot more smoothly. I could've just run away. But I had to stick around listening to her be all threatening and bitchy. She shot you, Derek!"
"Well, I'm glad you didn't tell her where I was," he joked, and I shoved him.
"Stop fucking around, this is serious. She could've followed me here. She could be on her way to kill you right now."
"Doubtful," he scoffed as a method of making me feel better.
"Oh my God, Derek, do you not care about your own safety at all?!"
"I do," he replied. "I don't think she or any of the other Argents are stupid enough to trespass onto a well-respected surgeon's property and kill his daughter's boyfriend."
"How are we going to stop her from hurting you?"
"I don't know, but I can protect myself," Derek said. "It's not like I'm completely helpless."
"No," I agreed. "But you need to be careful. This woman isn't joking around. She wants to hurt you. Why is she so obsessed with you, anyway?"
Derek sighed. I could hear a lifetime of stress in that sigh. "Do you remember the fire I told you about? The one that burned down my house and killed my family?"
My stomach dropped as I hesitantly replied, "Yes."
"Well, that was the Argents' doing. They locked them all inside and lit the place up like a bonfire. The only person who survived was my uncle, Peter."
The contents of my stomach rose in my throat. I could've thrown up right then and there. I had no words to respond with. There was nothing I could say to even remotely atone for what they'd done. "Sorry" would never be good enough.
"When were you going to tell me about this?" I breathed.
"Once you found out I was a werewolf, but I never really got a good opportunity before shit hit the fan," Derek admitted and guilt smashed into me like a stack of bricks. I frowned.
"Fair enough," I murmured. "So basically this woman is on a crusade to kill you because you escaped the first time?"
Derek shrugged. "I guess. She's a hunter so I think she's generally obsessed with killing werewolves."
"It's shocking no one has ever arrested her or any of the other Argents," I scoffed. "They've done enough illegal things."
"Who knows, by the end of this Kate might be behind bars," Derek pointed out. "She's putting considerable effort into killing me so I wouldn't be surprised."
"I'm glad we both know self-defence, but I don't think that'll be much use if either of us gets shot."
"Guns are only good for long-range. And I don't really want you near enough to her or her brother Chris to get shot."
I snorted. "It doesn't sound like we'll have much choice if she decides to show up." Even as I said that the thought of getting shot made my blood go cold. Derek getting shot, with his supernatural healing abilities, was one thing. Me getting shot was something entirely different. Humans were so much more delicate. I've lost count of the times my dad or his colleagues had patients bleed out from something like a gunshot wound or a car accident.
The feeling of Ophelia's hooves grinding through my chest pulsed through me for a moment and I clenched my jaw. I resented how easily I could've been killed then.
"Can you think of anything else I should know before we move on and try to not get killed?"
"When my sister came back to Beacon Hills, she was looking for a guy named 'Harris' and she had this sketch of some symbol. She was trying to figure out what it was, and how they were connected, I think, before she was killed," Derek said, and I raised my eyebrows. "I think it's connected to the fire. I haven't really been able to pick up where she left off, though. She saw every person named Harris in Beacon Hills except for one, but I haven't been able to track him down yet."
"What about tracking down the Alpha?" I asked. "Do you think maybe the person who killed Laura was looking for the same information?"
"Maybe," Derek replied. "We'll solve a lot of problems if we just find the damn Alpha."
"How are we going to do that?"
"He might be out tonight," Derek said. "It's the full moon."
Oh, right, that was a thing, I remembered.
"No matter what, I need to watch out for Scott. He isn't used to being a werewolf yet and I think he might try to hurt people tonight."
"Not on purpose, though?"
Derek shook his head. "No. He can't help being super aggressive on the full moon. I'm sure Stiles will try to help him, but at a certain point you need another person who knows what it's like and can physically stop him if necessary."
"Makes sense," I said.
"Did you find anything at the library?" he asked, tilting his head and moving back over to my bed where my laptop sat.
"Yeah, actually," I replied, pulling out my phone. "I came across something called a 'Schäferin'. I don't think I'm saying it right, but what they can do matches me pretty well. I didn't get a chance to read much before Kate got there. But I took photos of the book."
Derek was already punching the name into Google. "Well, they have a Wikipedia page," he scoffed, squinting as he read. Of course they did. "Schäferin means 'Shephard.' It says they control animals."
"What else does it say?"
Derek cleared his throat. "'Schäferins can control animals. They can manipulate their emotions to convince them to calm down or stop them from doing things, but can also outright command them, regardless of what the animal would want to do naturally. As well as this, Schäferins can feel the physical pain of other animals and are highly sensitive to their emotions without necessarily having to be near them.'" He paused, looking up at me. "If that's not you, I don't know what is."
"Hm," I mumbled, mulling over everything he just read and glancing down at the photos I took of the section of the book on Schäferins. "That sounds about right."
"You don't seem very happy," Derek observed, setting aside the laptop again.
"I am, it's just pretty weird for me to confirm that I'm not human. You've known your whole life what you are, but I've never thought I was anything different. Also, I always thought I had something special with Ophelia, but it looks like I cheated."
"Cheated?" Derek repeated in disbelief.
"Yeah," I sighed. "She was utterly uncontrollable when we got her, but I managed to turn her into the best horse I've ever had. I thought I was just good with horses, but it turns out it's because I'm a Schäferin. I cheated without even knowing that's what I did."
"You're still great with horses," Derek reasoned. "You're better than any person could ever dream of being."
"I wonder if Rosie is one as well," I pondered out loud, tucking away the shock that I wasn't a regular old human. I'd fully comprehend that later. "What about my dad?" Then my attention fell back on the name: Schäferin. Definitely not English. "Does it say where they're from?" I asked, a guess already forming in my mind before Derek said, "Germany."
Ding, ding, ding!
Maybe the gene came from his side of the family, given his rich German heritage.
"I bet you my dad has it," I told him. "And if he knows about it I bet he knows about werewolves, too. It might be worth it to ask him."
"Yeah, I think you're right."
"Maybe once we get through the full moon," I suggested. "Let's do one thing at a time. Do you basically just plan to follow Scott around for the whole night?"
"Pretty much," Derek said. "I think Stiles is going to try to contain him to his house, so we could just go over there and see if anything happens."
"Sounds like a plan," I replied. "When do you want to head over there?"
"Not for a few hours," he sighed, glancing up at me. "Do you have anything you want to get up to before then?"
I chuckled a bit at the look on his face. I knew what his ideas were for the next few hours.
"I want to test out these abilities of mine now that I know I actually have them."
Derek's eyes flashed with joking-disappointment for a moment before he went back to normal. Then he snickered, "Sounds like a productive use of time."
A/N: Happy Canada Day everyone! I spent the day writing this chapter. No fireworks for me. Who else here is Canadian?
I hope everyone can be patient with the next chapters coming out. I'm pretty busy working this summer as well as squeezing in time up north. I'll try to keep the updates regular but I'm having some trouble ironing out the plot at the moment which is another reason for the slowness. If anyone has any ideas, I'd actually love to hear them.
Anyway, I hope you all liked this chapter. The reveal I've been working on for fifty-five chapters is finally here! What do we think of it??
Have a swell week!
- TAAF_