Chapter Text
Derek knew who was behind this the second he woke from his forced unconsciousness. The familiar scent that haunted him for years lingered in the air like mold in damp corners of a rundown house. The cold floor beneath him was unfamiliar and the plain stone walls that surrounded him were as well. It wasn’t until his eyes truly focused when he saw the bars that caged him. Vertical steel trapping him in. And circled around the outside of the cage was a very thick drizzle of mountain ash. The Alpha felt suffocated.
A groan drew him out of his haze and he looked to find most of his pack in similar stages of alertness. Scott was rubbing his forehead, seemingly trying to make his head less heavy. Boyd and Erica were helping each other to sit upright. Jackson was still slightly out of it, blinking slowly as he lied on his back, chin up to the ceiling. And lastly, Stiles was comforting a startled Isaac as they looked around with concerned eyes.
Seeing the Alpha rising to his feet, Stiles sighed in relief.
“Derek? Do you know where we are?” He asked, rubbing the comforting figure of eights onto Isaac’s back.
“No.” The Alpha growled, “But I know who brought us here.”
Scott frowned, “Who?”
“Kate.”
“Kate?” Stiles said the name as if it disgusted him, “The same Kate that manipulated you and murdered your family and has been on the run ever since? That Kate?”
Derek nodded, going towards the bars to rest his head against them, his clawed hands gripping them with everything he had, hoping they would bend under his strength. They didn’t.
“How do we get out of here?” Isaac said in a small voice, eyes wide. The enclosed space making his heart rate go up, running a mile like a scared rabbit.
Stiles went to him and knelt down to bring the wolf to his chest, “We’ll figure something out, puppy. Okay?”
Jackson groaned as he sat up, “We better figure it out soon before Isaac freaks out on us. Wouldn’t wanna deal with him spazzing out.”
“Enough!” Derek roared at him, pacing up and down the small space they had.
Then a voice.
“Well, well. You’re up.”
Kate.
She came in through two steel doors. Her steps were confident as one long leg went in front of the other. Behind her were two others, both in some sort of laboratory wear - white coats and face mask.
The Alpha growled as she got closer to his pack, crouching low and threatening.
“Now, there’s no need for that. I just want a chat.”
“That’s what phones are for.” Stiles sassed, folding his arms with a sneer on his face.
Kate just laughed at that and went as close to the cage as she could, eyes on Derek.
“It’s been a while, hasn’t it, Derek?”
Derek’s chest was rising and falling so fast that his nostrils flared with the air that was pushed from his lungs. “What do you want, Kate?”
“You see, I’ve been working on something wonderful - something life changing. And… I needed some more lab rats.” Gesturing to the pack with her slender fingers.
“And that’s why we’re here? To be test subjects?” Stiles scoffed, standing in front of Isaac and next to Derek, “No way in hell, little miss psycho.”
“You seem to think you have a choice.” Was Kate’s response. Her gaze goes back to Derek once she’s done glaring at Stiles. “There’s a special reason why you’re here, Derek.”
Erica huffed, “You brought us here to skip down memory lane?”
“Kind of. I want Derek to finally know.”
“Know what ?!” The Alpha werewolf growled, letting his teeth grow to a sharp point.
The hunter smiled suggestively at him, biting her lower lip - it made Derek cringe and Stiles to look down.
“Do you remember our… alone time ?” She asked, “In the woodlands, next to the river?”
Derek stayed silent, anger radiating off of him.
“It was the weekend before the fire.” She continued, “You said it was your first time.”
Everyone in the cage refused to give her the gratification of replying to that. The Bata’s kept their heads down while Stiles had a look of heartbreak as he looked at Derek.
“We created something that night Derek. Something new…” Kate then went into the back pocket of her jeans and took out a picture and threw it into the cage. It fell to the floor, face up. Black and white.
A sonogram.
“A life.”
Derek flinched, looking down at the picture, reading Kate’s name at the top and the date it was taken. His hands shook and his breath became sharp and quick.
“You’re lying!” He shouted, tears gathering in his vision. Stiles put his hands over his mouth, then went to Isaac as the pup flinched at the tone of his Alpha. Stiles kept his eyes on Derek, his own tears filling his eyes.
“YOU’RE LYING!!” Derek shouted again but with more disbelief then anything - which only made Kate laugh.
Everyone watched as the woman on the other side of the bars lifted her shirt to reveal her belly. They were covered in stretch marks - purple and red lines permanently drawn into her flesh like tattoos. But that wasn’t the most noticeable thing. No. There, carved into her stomach, was a large scar. Hip to hip indentation.
“He was big. 9’2 Ib. Had to have an emergency C-section at 36 weeks.” She informed everyone, “He was beautiful. And, boy, did he have a pair of lungs on him.”
Derek trembled, falling sideways to lean against the bars, knees suddenly weak.
“Where is he?” The Alpha asked after a while.
Kate laughed again, shaking her head while putting her shirt down. One of the nurse’s beside her frowned and shuffled on her feet, seemingly uncomfortable.
When he didn’t get an answer, Derek snatched the sonogram from off the floor and waved it at her, “Where is he?! WHERE’S MY PUP?!”
“I loved him.” She said, eyes wondering off as if replaying a memory in her head, “I truly did love him. But when he opened his eyes… I knew he wasn’t my son. He was an abomination, a wolf. Just like you.” She straightened her back informatively, “And I am a hunter. I get rid of the threat.”
One single tear fell from one of Derek’s eyes, it flew down his stubbled cheek. “No.”
“I took a knife-”
“No!”
“- and ridded one more monster from this world.”
“NO!” Derek slammed himself against the bars, tears falling, his face morphed to his Bata form. His claws dug in the metal - this time denting the steel. He roared in agony of his lost pup and carried on slamming all his weight against the cage, trying desperately to get out and attack the woman who killed his child. The child he never got to meet. Never got to hold.
The Bata’s were shredding over their own tears, grieving with their Alpha. Stiles cried silently as Isaac sniffled against his chest. The sadness stunk the room.
“You took everything from me!” Derek cried out, “My mother, my father, sisters, a baby brother! A pregnant aunt and two cousins…. And now… you’ve taken my pup as well.”
When he started, he was shouting - screaming - but by the end he was whispering. The strength draining from the Alpha. He sunk to the floor, clutching the sonogram in one of his clawed fists.
“I always win, Derek.” Was Kate’s reply. Then she left with the two nurses behind her. Only one looking back onto the pack with sympathy in her eyes.
It was silent for a moment.
Then… Derek let out the most harrowing howl anyone had ever heard.
It was the sound of grief. Of anger. Of sadness. Of loss of hope.
After the howl was done, Derek just cried. He didn’t care that the other’s could see. His Alpha wolf howled in grief and the only way he could express the emotions he was feeling was by crying.
Stiles got up from his place beside Isaac and went to Derek. He put a hand on his shoulder but Derek seemed to not notice - or not care.
Stiles then wrapped his arms around the Alpha and pulled his head into his neck so that Derek could surround himself with his scent. It didn’t help. The Alpha werewolf just clung to Stiles as he broke down. The younger man petted Derek’s hair, all the while crying himself as the sounds Derek was making made everything seem so hopeless. So empty.
The Alpha had lost his pup.
A Pup he never even knew he had and Stiles had no idea what Derek was feeling - but by the looks of it… it was as if Derek had been skinned alive and thrown into a bucket of lemon and salt water.
The screams, howls and shouts mimicked nothing but absolute agony.