Work Text:
”Thank you for allowing me to sit and talk to you. I thought I understood how difficult it has been having me in New York, but recent events have made me realise that I have effectively been neglecting my Pack.” Talia held up her hand to stem the flood of protests.
"It has also come to my attention that by choosing not to share certain aspects of my past, I have made things – difficult in some unexpected ways."
"What's going on?" Derek looked worried and she gave him a reassuring smile.
"Your uncle Peter has made me realise that you children need to know about your father – about the events surrounding how we got together and the effect it had on our community."
"How is any of this about Daddy?" Cora was curled up next to Laura on the couch, looking much younger than her twenty-one years.
"The Hunter's Council and the Elders of the Packs agreed to a Conclave and Beacon Hills was chosen as a suitable place for such a meeting to be held. The idea was to set some ground rules – ensure there wasn't full-scale war. It went relatively well – the leaders of the Hunter's Council were amenable to a cease-fire because they were losing their people very quickly; most of the Packs merely wanted to be left alone and the rules being brought into place were reasonable.
I met your father at the Conclave. I was Laura's age and many people thought it was well past time I chose a partner. And the main front-runner in many people's minds was Deucalion. He was an Alpha who was willing to move to be with my Pack, bringing with him some strong betas and some wealth. It was – a good match.
Then I met Robert. All of the stories about feeling a 'zing', about the rest of the world ceasing to exist – they all came true. But it wasn't quite as simple as it might have appeared – Robert was a hunter – from a prominent family."
"What?" "How did we never know?" "Mom!"
"Quiet please – I need to get the whole story out and then I'll answer any questions you may have. Obviously, as a human, Robert didn't feel the same things that I felt – he didn't have a wolf telling him that this was it, that we were meant to be. But he did have feelings for me and wanted to pursue them.
We were both completely upfront with our families about what was going on, and we agreed that if it was merely a physical thing, we wouldn't risk the peace we were all working for on something so transient. But it turned out to be so much more. So we decided to fight for what we hoped to build together.
We had to attend a meeting with the Hunter Council and the Elders – it wasn't a case of asking permission – we just knew the waves it would cause. My family – your Grandmother – had her reservations initially, but having met Robert and spent some time with him, she could see what a good man he was. He wasn't one of those that considered us no better than animals; he was open-minded, fascinated by the supernatural and best of all in her opinion, he was head over heels in love with me.
His family were not quite as receptive to the idea. They were a long-established Hunter Family and in all of that time, they had never socialised with any members of the supernatural, let alone allowed themselves to fall in love with one of them. The Hunter's Council agreed that as long as it wouldn't disrupt the peace, we were to be left alone.
Robert's family didn't agree. They wanted him to choose. Whether he became a werewolf or not, they didn't want him to be with me. They didn't expect him to choose to abandon his entire inheritance – he was meant to be the next equivalent to a 'left hand' in his family alongside his sister. But he did.
Because they did not want to be associated with him any longer, and to allow the Hale name to continue, he took my name and we got married. What we hadn't realised was that Deucalion had been working in the background to try to sour things. He attacked various members of Robert's family and tried to make it look like the Hales were behind it. He attempted to poison the minds of other supernaturals against us – he just – boiled over. I thought it was a species thing but alledgedly it was that he had decided that Robert had stolen me away from him and he wasn't going to accept that.
Deucalion conspired with the wrong Hunter family. He met with Gerard Argent and tried to broker a deal with him, separate to the one between the Council and the Elders. Argent betrayed him – we still don't know all of the details, but Argent blinded Deucalion and he wasn't able to heal from it."
"What happened?"
"Before the Elders could hold a formal trial, Deucalion killed his entire Pack, stealing their power and disappeared. By the time the Council and Elders were involved, Deucalion was gone and it was a case of Gerard's version being the only one available. Deucalion has built himself a new Pack made entirely of Alphas and I believe he is coming back to Beacon Hills to get his revenge."
"Revenge against who?"
"Against the Hales. And the Argents. I believe Deucalion intends to start a war and use it as a means of taking control of Beacon Hills and thereby controlling any reveals regarding the Supernatural. And I think he's using Scott McCall to do it."