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Kate never takes him to her place. Or offers to come home and meet his parents. With the exception of their first meeting at the pool, they’re never in public together. It’s a little hurtful, actually, though Kate would probably laugh herself silly if he admitted as much. She’s his first girlfriend—Sally Brandon in eighth grade doesn’t count, because according to Laura, nothing counts until you hit high school—and he wants to show her what a great boyfriend he can be. He plans elaborate dates for just the two of them; plans which inevitably come to an abrupt halt when she drives them to the local make-out spot and pins him in the backseat of her car, whispering filth into his ear and grinding down against him.
Sometimes he likes it.
Sometimes not so much.
They went all the way on their first ‘date,’ and Derek had to go for a swim in the pond back home so he wouldn’t come inside smelling like sex, the idea just too mortifying for words. Not only the embarrassment factor, of course, but also the thought that the family might find out about the nine year age gap between them. Since then, brisk swims have become par for the course.
Kate smiles and leans down over him, running her tongue along the outside of his ear. He hates having his ears touched, but she just laughed at him the first time he complained. “Still with me?”
Derek manages to nod his head, even as Kate’s hips cant forward. Derek groans and tries not to blow his load before they get his jeans off. He’s gotten better at not coming in his pants, but not that much better.
“I was thinking,” she whispers in his ear, “maybe sometime this week we should meet up during the day. You can cut a class or two and we’ll sneak into your place. Have sex on a real bed.” She grabs his chin between hard fingers. “You’d like that, wouldn’t you?”
He’s wanted to have sex in a real bed since their first time. And it would be easy. There are certain times during the week when the only one home during the day is his Aunt Lisa, and she’s got a pretty regular nap schedule now that she’s in her third trimester. And she’s human, so it’s not like she’d hear them if they were quiet.
He stutters out a broken ‘yeah’ and Kate laughs.
“I’m going to make it so good for you. You’ll never—”
She’s cut off when a harsh tap on her window surprises them both. Derek sits up, fast enough that Kate is knocked out of his lap, and his eyes widen when he sees the Beacon Hills County Deputy looking into the car.
Kate hisses. “Shit.”
Before Derek can say anything, she slips out of the car. Derek stays where he is for a moment, willing himself to melt back into the seat and disappear from the face of the earth.
“I’m going to need you out here too, son.”
Damn.
Derek swallows a burst of panic and climbs out to stand beside Kate. She shifts away from him and Derek shoots her a hurt look. Aren’t they in this together?
The Deputy’s gaze shifts back and forth between the two of them for a minute, silently appraising the situation. Derek opens his mouth to speak, but quiets when Kate shoots him the vilest look he’s ever seen on her face. He looks straight forward instead, directly at the Deputy’s badge. Stilinski, 4061.
“All right,” Deputy Stilinski finally says. “I’m going to need to see some ID from both of you.”
“I’m sure that’s not—”
He pins Kate with a look Derek’s seen on his father’s face when one of them tries to weasel their way out of trouble. And just like him and his siblings, Kate shuts up and does what he says. Derek reaches into his own back pocket and pulls out his wallet. He’d just gotten his provisional license in the mail a few days ago. It sucks that this is the first time he’s using it.
Stilinski looks at the two pieces of identification, his face growing stormier by the second.
“Derek,” he finally says, “do your parents know where you are?”
Derek feels his entire face suffuse with red. “Umm…”
“I didn’t think so.” He turns his attention to Kate. “Tell me, Miss Argent, are you familiar with the statutory rape laws of California?”
Derek’s blood runs cold and he doesn’t hear Kate’s answer. Because Kate’s last name isn’t Milton, like she said.
Her last name is Argent.
“Son? You all right there?” Stilinski asks.
Derek feels a bit like he’s going to pass out, actually, but he manages to nod.
“We all know those laws are really in place to protect girls,” Kate says, obviously continuing whatever she’d been saying when Derek’s world shattered around him. “I mean, Derek’s a boy. It’s not the same thing at all.”
Deputy Stilinski frowns. “I have a son who’s going to be sixteen one day, Miss Argent. And if a woman almost a decade his senior tried that line of reasoning on me, I can’t say I’d be very receptive.” He turns his attention to Derek. “Get in my patrol car, son. I’m taking you home.”
Derek does what he’s told, though he climbs into the passenger’s seat when Deputy Stilinski waves him away from the back. He expects to see Deputy Stilinski handcuff Kate and shove her in the back. Isn’t that what they do on television? Instead, the tension between them grows to the point where Derek can practically feel the air hanging around them. He doesn’t listen in. Can’t bear to. He practices filtering out the sounds, like Laura taught him, and screws his eyes shut.
He only opens them when Deputy Stilinski slides into the driver’s seat a few minutes later. They pull away from Kate’s SUV, and Derek gets a last glimpse of her before they pull away. She licks her lips and winks.
Derek feels physically ill.
“I’m going to need to talk to your parents,” Deputy Stilinksi says after about a mile of silence. Derek nods mutely. He must look pretty bad, because Stilinski follows it up with, “if you need me to pull over, you just let me know.” More silence. He wonders if he’s even capable of speaking.
Aren’t Hunters supposed to follow the Code? Aren’t they supposed to respect his pack? Because they’ve never done anything to hurt anyone. She must’ve been using him all along. Why else lie about her last name? He doesn’t want to think it, but what else could it be?
What would’ve happened if he’d let her into the house?
“Derek.” Derek looks his way, and Deputy Stilinski meets his eyes. “You’re not the one in trouble.”
But he is in trouble.
Because Kate’s last name is Argent.
And she’d wanted him to get her inside his home.
“Can you please pull over?”
Derek throws himself out of the cruiser before it’s come to a complete stop and vomits on the side of the road. His throat burns, but not as bad as his eyes do. He retches until there’s nothing coming up and his stomach is violently heaving up bile. Derek’s knees buckle and he hits the border between the asphalt and dry brown grass, heaves turning into violent sobs.
Amidst all of it, there’s a hand on his back, solid and comforting.
He’s never seen his mother look so pale. She listens to Deputy Stilinski’s account in grave silence. Derek sits on the couch, staring at his hands and trying—and failing—to avoid looking at her. His alpha. Ostensibly, they’re alone, but he can hear the way Laura’s heart is beating out of control in the next room. The subvocal growling Uncle Peter is trying to suppress. Maybe Mom will let him run, instead of having the pack tear him apart.
He’s not sure which punishment he’d prefer, but he knows which one he deserves.
Deputy Stilinski explains that while he hadn’t seen anything strictly illegal, Derek was in obvious distress once he’d been removed from the car and, if he testifies, they can press charges. His voice is steady and warm, though Derek can hear the tremors hiding in his tone.
Derek blanks out a bit, and the next thing he’s aware of is his mother’s hand on his shoulder. It’s surprisingly gentle. He looks around and realizes that Deputy Stilinski is gone.
“Walk with me.”
Derek nods and stands, following her through the kitchen. He passes by Laura and Uncle Peter, hovering by the door. He can’t look at them. Aunt Lisa is sitting with Megan and Nathan at the kitchen table, helping them with homework. Dad is probably still at work. He doesn’t know where the others are. He keeps his head down, and flinches when Laura touches his arm.
He can’t.
He just can’t.
Mom leads him out the back door and towards the woods surrounding the property. She’s silent, but her heartbeat tells him all about her anxiety. They break the treeline and she still hasn’t said a word. The silence gets heavier and heavier until he can’t stand it anymore. His claws burst through his fingertips and dig into his palms.
At the scent of blood, her steps falter and she finally looks at him.
“Oh, Derek—”
He presses the heels of his hands against his eyes. “I’ll go. I can be out of our territory by morning.” If she lets him go, he’ll run all night. His stomach churns, because he’ll never be able to run fast enough. Far enough. Not to escape how much he hates himself right now.
“What?” She sounds as lost as he feels. “Derek, sweetheart, what are you talking about?”
He rakes his hands through his hair. “A Hunter, Mom. She was a Hunter. And I didn’t know. I didn’t—”
Before he can get another word out, his Mom has her arms wrapped around his shoulders and she’s drawn him into an almost-painful embrace.
He can’t breathe properly.
“I’m sorry,” he chokes out. This is what drowning probably feels like. “Mom I’m so, so sorry.”
He doesn’t hug her back, and when he tries to pull away, her arms tighten impossibly more. “Derek, you listen to me. This isn’t your fault.”
“It is!” Deputy Stilinski hadn’t understood—couldn’t have understood—but there’s no way his mother doesn’t get it. “She wanted me to get her into the house and I said yes. Mom, I said yes.” His voice rises until he’s shouting so loud he’s sure everyone back at the house can hear him. “I almost let a Hunter into our den!”
“You are sixteen years old,” Mom finally snaps. “Sixteen. And you are still a child. You are my child. And what that…that bitch did is not your fault.” She grabs the back of his neck and forces his head back enough so she can meet his eyes. “Do you understand me, Derek? Or would you blame Laura if she’d been in a similar situation? Or Megan?”
“But, they’re not—”
“Not what? Boys? Derek, this is no different for you than it is for them.” She shakes the back of his neck a bit, scolding but not enraged. Not like he was expecting. “And I will tell you that as many times as I need to before you believe it. You do not carry this around with you, do you hear me? I forbid it.”
Derek closes his eyes, fear bleeding out of his shoulders; fear that he’d be dead by morning. Or an Omega. His alpha has told him that things will be all right. He can believe that she believes it, if nothing else. His eyes are hot, but he feels cried out. Now there’s just a tightening in his chest as he struggles to catch a breath.
Once she’s sure he’s composed, Mom takes a steadying breath. “I’m going to talk this over with your father tonight. And tomorrow we’re going down to the sheriff’s station so you can tell them everything that happened.”
Derek frowns, but with his Mom’s arms still around him, it’s almost like he can breathe again.
A week after he arrests Kate, Deputy Stilinski and his wife die in a car accident. The investigation confirms that the car was tampered with, though no leads are found.
It haunts him. Because he can read the message in Deputy Stilinski’s death the same as his parents can: blood traitors will not be tolerated.
Derek attends the funeral with his Mom. Half the town is there, of course, but all Derek can see is the grey-faced boy sitting near the front of the room. He can’t be more than twelve, and the guilt sticks to Derek’s ribs like a crushing weight bearing against him. The boy doesn’t look up from the open grave. Doesn’t blink. Barely breathes. And even from a distance, Derek can practically feel his fragile heart breaking into a thousand pieces.