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Waking up in the burned out husk of his family’s home was nothing short of torture, but Derek refused to go anywhere else. Returning to Beacon Hills was the last thing he wanted to do, but not hearing from Laura had made him worried. His suspicions were correct; halfway through the drive, he felt the loss surge through him, the grief flowing through him until he had to pull over so he could attempt to breathe through his sobs.
The painful resurgence of his tears, something that had stopped coming to him around the time he came home to find everything he loved in ashes, did not help him in the slightest; he had to stay strong, now that he was all alone. Forever.
The sounds of the Preserve hummed around him, daylight peeking through with its youthful glow. It was still early, the woods quiet after the excitement of the night before. Derek was still unsure what had happened, but he could feel it when it happened; someone had been bitten by the Alpha that killed his sister.
He would have to track them down, teach them control. Maybe together they could find the Alpha and become a small pack after the rogue was taken care of. Brushing that thought aside he stretched, basking in the warmth of California. He knew better than to hope things would go so well, but he could enjoy the weather while he was still here.
Suddenly, scents filtered into his nose, scents he knew from an almost forgotten time before the fire. He dressed quickly, curious despite his caution to see who he had remembered. He treked through the woods, warmed through with his leather jacket. As he pushed on, however, melancholy hit him once more. These woods belonged to the Hales, but he was the only one left. Everything that had happened, even Laura’s death, was his fault. Him and his stupid inability to see manipulation for what it was.
He never thought much about Kate, even if he reflected more than he should about his guilt on what had gone on in his life. For the first few months after the fire, he thought of her constantly, unable to breathe through the panic attacks that engulfed him. At first, Laura had thought they were residual effects from the fire, his grief pushing him to panic at everything around him. As time wore on, and the panic attacks continued, she finally broached the subject with him.
His family had known that he had met someone, and the last few days of their lives had been awkward because they could smell what he had been up to. His reticence on the subject had led them to leave him alone, his sisters tired after all of their teasing resulted in the same outcome. If only they had asked, pushed a little bit more, all of them would still be alive. Or maybe if Derek hadn’t been so trusting, believing Kate when she said they had to keep it a secret.
Laura had been appalled at Kate’s actions, gripping him tightly when he fought through the tears to convince her that he was at fault. She refused to believe it, and spent hours researching how to help him. The information she found was hard to hear, and he purposely blocked it out to carve out his own peace.
That peace came when he avoided anything that reminded him of Kate, and as he neared the newcomers he thought of something his mother used to say whenever any of them wolfed out in anger over something that happened as kids: “You get what you get, and you don’t get upset.” He supposed it was true; what right did he have to be upset when everything was his fault?
He could see them now, stomping through the brush and looking for something. One looked vaguely familiar, the one whose scent he recognized, but he couldn’t place him. Sighing, he stepped forward and said the first thing that came to mind.
“This is private property.”