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It wasn’t supposed to end this way. They weren't all supposed to die, burning to death while the screams echoed off the walls.
It should have been Talia. Her and possibly a few of the older ones and that should have been the end of it. Or, perhaps, the beginning had his plan worked out.
Instead they had destroyed them all and he was trapped in a prison of his own burnt flesh, air barely being able to wheeze from his lungs while those responsible lived on.
It started with two new faces that simply wouldn’t go unnoticed in a town the size of Beacon Hills. They were just taking a break from their travels, apparently, or at least that was the story they told people.
Peter could recognize them as hunters from miles away. Granted, his experiences so far had been limited, but it was not a subject he liked to remain ignorant on. The details that gave them away weren’t even subtle, they were rank with the smell of gun powder and of course, if you were good enough, which he was, you could always detect the faint trace of wolfsbane underneath the stench.
His interest was sufficiently piqued.
“So can you see or smell anything in particular?”
“Not really…”
Derek was bored. Peter had dragged him outside into the woods for the purpose of teaching him how to track animals. Why that would be a skill he should have he didn’t know and when he’d asked Peter went on to give him one of his vague speeches that could easily bore anyone to death, so he figured he’d just be quiet and get it over with.
They’d been out there for a while when they heard footsteps thumping against the ground in a quick pace. A runner revealed herself on the path a few feet away from them. She was a dark haired girl, her pony tail swaying from side to side with the rhythm of her movements. Derek thought she was very pretty; maybe a bit older than him, but what made him look at her for longer than appropriate, was the expression on her face. Rather than being on a relaxing run through the woods she seemed determined more than anything else, like she was ready to go to war.
“Has nobody ever told you that staring is rude?” Peter was grinning from ear to ear as soon as she was gone.
Derek had never been terribly hard to figure out for Peter. The boy was as open as a book when it came to his emotions and easy prey to them as well.
"You need to stop being so goddamn broody all the time."
"I’m not-"
"Oh yes, you are, dear nephew. Take it from your wise old uncle." Peter took another sip from his beer while studying him with a sly smile on his lips.
"Maybe a bit of a distraction could help." The smile spread into an obvious grin. "I saw how you looked at that girl in the woods. Very pretty indeed."
"It was nothing."
"Now don’t pout. It doesn’t become you."
He was definitely pouting.
Derek decided to take up running for himself, to release pent up stress and anger and such things. He was sure it would help him control his wolf side better. Talia gave him a skeptical look the first morning he left the house a good while before school, but said nothing.
For as long as he could remember, Talia had never trusted him.
Oh, she must have thought she was so clever when she asked him to help Derek along with his transformations. You could guide him, she had said, be an older brother to him. But he knew that this was just her way of keeping an eye on him.
It had been funny that it was her miscalculation in the first place that had enabled him to set his plan in motion.
And to think it all could have worked out easily if it wasn’t for that psychotic hunter bitch.
"You mean to just leave them alone? A werewolf pack of that size and you’re just going to let them go on their merry way?"
"There haven’t been any attacks. All we’ve got is a frightened kid who might have seen something and those animal corpses could have been killed by anything. A warning should be enough. The code-"
“Ah, yes the code. Can’t act until it’s too late. How utterly pathetic." There was a pregnant pause until Kate pulled a picture out of the pocket of her jacket. A sweet-looking teenage girl smiled at them from the page of an old newspaper.
There was a sardonic smile on Kate’s lips. "Well, how fortunate then, or rather unfortunate for her at least, that it was too late for this one. Paige Haynes. They were clearly trying to turn her. Seems to me like they are recruiting."
She had them now.
He’d done his best to draw the hunters towards the Hale clan without being too conspicuous of course. If he did something too drastic Talia, knowing her, would take note and take charge of the problem, which would probably end with her mitigating the danger entirely.
No, he needed to escalate the situation very carefully and he needed plausible deniability just in case someone started suspecting. Fortunately for him he had a little helper in his unsuspecting nephew.
So he happened to “accidentally” let Derek out of his sight once, at the full moon. He’d just let him wander just outside the wood where he knew teenagers liked to meet up on little rendezvous. Really, he just needed him to be seen, although a few scratches for good measure wouldn’t hurt either. Wouldn’t hurt him, anyway.
Obviously he had then spent the next day apologizing to Derek and reassuring him that he wouldn’t let it happen again. That he’d try harder. And that by the next full moon Derek surely would have more control. He’d also told him that he’d been making progress, which wasn’t even a complete lie considering Derek had managed to keep a hold on himself for a full thirty seconds longer than the time before.
The deer he had killed himself and placed strategically where the badly battered corpses would be found.
And he could tell the hunters were getting restless. They had doubled in numbers for one thing and they were talking to all sorts of people about all sorts of things. Soon he’d have them exactly where he wanted them.
“Hey there, I know you!”
It was the girl from the woods. He’d crossed her a few times on his runs and had constantly thought about talking to her but had never quite gathered the courage to actually do it.
And there she was now, smiling at him, the bonfire and the silhouettes of his partying schoolmates behind her.
“Hi.” He smiled weakly.
“So why aren’t you joining the party? You seem to have separated yourself from the herd.” (He was blushing at that, which she enjoyed immensely.)
“I’m just…thinking about things.” That didn’t sound too stupid didn’t it? His ears grew even hotter.
“Oh yeah? Mind if I join you then? I’m just here to keep an eye on my little brother.” (It was a lie of course, but she gave him the most charming smile to go with it.)
“We could sit on the stone over there and share a drink, if that’s alright with you?” There was something about the curl of her lips that made it hard for him to look away.
“My name’s Kate by the way.”
He had studied up on the hunters before he concocted his plan, he wasn’t stupid. What normally happened when a pack got a bit careless, was that the alpha and the other pack leaders were killed, which would be most of the adults. The younger ones, children and teenagers usually only got a warning. In addition to the trauma of watching your family die, obviously.
And once Talia and the others were dead he would be the natural choice to be the alpha. Or at least he’d have a good chance of killing anybody stupid enough to oppose him.
She’d pulled a flask out of her pocket and spiked their drinks up a bit. “Don’t tell anybody about this. It will be our little secret.”
The music from the party was blasting through the air, but thanks to his heightened senses he could still hear her chuckle quietly.
Derek regarded her for a moment, not sure what to say. He’d been thinking about Paige again. He’d never gotten over what had happened to her or his role in it and ever since the last full moon where he’d almost hurt someone again the guilt weighed on his conscience heavier than ever.
“I- A friend of mine died recently.” Suddenly he was very aware that she was a stranger and that he shouldn’t be telling her this, but the alcohol was bringing down his defenses and he realized how badly he wanted to tell someone about it.
“I’m very sorry. That must have been hard for you. I lost my mother a few years ago, so I know what you’re going through.” She had lowered her eyes when she said this, staring into the contents of her cup as if deep in thought. When she looked up again she smiled wistfully. “But that mustn’t stop you from living, you know.”
Her eyes sought his as she grasped his hand firmly between her own. “I say we have another drink and then you’re going to dance with me.”
(This was almost too easy.)
They were panting when they came apart and Kate’s lips formed a mischievous smile as she slid her hands further down his body. Her fingers trailed the outlines of his muscles until she reached the edge of his shirt and began lifting it up ever so slowly. He could feel her knuckles grazing his skin, leaving a hot trace in their wake.
He barely let her pull the shirt over his head before he eagerly kissed her again. He wanted to touch her so badly, touch her more, taste her more. Something inside him was stirring. His body felt feverishly hot and here was a familiar pressure inside his mouth and his fingertips as his fangs and claws were pushing to come to the surface.
Startled, Derek forced himself to pull away, fighting hard against these urges taking over his brain..
"Derek?" Kate, of course, sounded worried. “Is everything alright?”
He swallowed. “Yes. I just…” I don’t want to hurt you, he wanted to say, but how could he possibly explain?
She closed the distance between them with a light smile on her face and wound her arms around his neck. She kissed him softly on the lips.
"It’s alright. We can take all-" She kissed him again, slower.
"-the time-" Her fingertips found their way into his hair.
"-that we want." She looked up at him from beneath her eyelashes, that grin on her face again.
(Indeed, she had felt quite satisfied with herself. She had known she could get the wolf to come out. Poor little puppy.)
It didn’t take long for the boy to trust her, oh indeed, he’d fallen in love with her so quickly. She immensely enjoyed his responsiveness to both her touches and her subtle questions about his life and his family. He was so eager to please.
It was almost a shame that it would have to come to an end so soon.
“Barricade all exits!”
Men armed with silver and wolfsbane herded them inside like cattle and nailed the doors and windows shut.
The adults tried to bargain at first and upon failure tried to fight, but the hunters were too many and shot them down with their poison bullets. The children cried and pleaded but fell on deaf ears.
Soon after came the overwhelming stench of gasoline, followed by the heat of the fire and too much smoke to even see your own hands.
Eventually the screaming stopped.
And now he couldn’t move, not even blink, but he kept seeing her face and that arrogant grin of hers while she watched the carnage.
He’d rip it off and tear her to pieces as soon as he got the chance. He’d paint the walls of his prison with her blood.
He’d kill them all.