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“Why are we here again, Stiles?” Scott asked his best friend as they trudged through the preserve. It was almost midnight, and the only light the two had was the moon above and the lights from their cell phones. They were currently in a small clearing in the middle of the preserve.
Much of the preserve had once been the property of the Hale family, whose large home was right in the middle of it. But after a fire had tragically killed the majority of the family and the survivors had moved away, no one looked after it anymore. Teenagers often went into the preserve exploring, much like the two friends were.
“I told you already, Scotty! There was some weird activity here a couple of nights ago!” Stiles grinned with excitement. “I heard it on the police radio. Maybe we can see something really crazy that was left behind!”
Scott was not as adventurous as his friend, and he turned to Stiles with alarm. “But what if they’re still there? What if they kill us and our parents have no idea what happened to us?”
He looked even more afraid as he realized he was having trouble breathing. Stiles’ eyes widened and he quickly opened the backpack on Scott’s back and took out his inhaler and pressed it into his friend‘s hand. “Here you go, dude. Deep breaths, okay?”
Scott breathed into his inhaler a few times, sighing in relief as his airways opened.
Stiles sighed. “Look, you want to go back? I don‘t want you to have anoth..”
But before Stiles could finish his sentence, a loud howl that sounded very close and very much like a wolf echoed through the preserve. Despite the fact that everyone in town knew there were no wolves in California.
The two best friends looked at each other and screamed, then ran off toward where Stiles had parked his jeep just outside the preserve. They didn’t realize that Scott dropped his inhaler where they had been standing, and they didn’t see the pair of red eyes glowing in the darkness or hear a muffled feminine laugh behind them.
**********
“I can’t believe I lost my inhaler,” Scott moaned as he and Stiles were back in the preserve the following day. “And I can’t believe we’re back here already.”
“Well, it’s the daytime, so the dark, scary things in the preserve should be sleeping, or at least leave us alone,” Stiles reasoned. “Now come on. We’ve got to find your inhaler, buddy, before we can even think about lacrosse practice! And we were really lucky you didn‘t have another attack when we ran last night!”
They walked slowly along the same route that they had done the night before, keeping an eye out for the inhaler that Scott needed.
They were almost up to the clearing where they had heard the howl when they heard footsteps crunching through the fallen leaves.
A man was walking toward them, and Stiles stared at him open-mouthed. The man was older then Scott and himself, and he had dark hair that looked rather soft. He had a scowl on his handsome chiseled face, his extremely thick and expressive eyebrows drawn down in a frown. His shoulders were broad and Stiles could practically see his muscles through the thin t-shirt he wore. And the icing on the cake, he wore a black leather jacket like the modern incarnation of James Dean. He basically looked like everything Stiles had never known he wanted.
But as he got closer, Stiles saw his beautiful light eyes, and he felt something familiar about them. He gasped as he remembered a dark-haired teenager sobbing in his sister’s arms at the police station, those same light eyes red-rimmed from his tears. “Derek… Hale?” he whispered in shock.
The man startled and stared wide-eyed at Stiles, then his eyes narrowed again and he growled, “This is private property. And how do you know me?”
Stiles wasn’t sure how he should answer that. He knew that if it was him, he wouldn’t want someone to be bringing up the circumstances of his mother’s death. But while he was thinking of what to say that didn’t bring up the fire that took most of Derek’s family away from him, Scott said, “Hey, man, we’re sorry, but I’ve got to find my inhaler.”
“This?” The man tossed something to Scott, who managed to catch it. He and Stiles looked at what was in his hands, and sure enough, there was his inhaler.
“Thanks, dude!” Scott grinned at him.
“Now get out of here. And don’t come back,” the man turned away and started to walk off.
“Derek! Derek, where are you?” a female voice called out from the opposite direction.
The three males turned around as a woman walked out from the trees, just as dark-haired and gorgeous as Derek. “There you are, Derek!” But while Derek had a permanent scowl on his face, the woman had a grin on hers. Stiles had a feeling that this might be the sister he remembered.
“I’m right here, Laura,” Derek grumbled.
Stiles gasped softly. His inward glee at guessing correctly again was replaced by an even greater inward glee at hearing growly, gorgeous Derek Hale practically whine.
“And who are these cuties?” Laura said as she approached Scott and Stiles, a smirk on her face and a gleam in her eye.
Stiles and Scott looked at each other nervously. Derek was kind of scary because of his constant scowl and growling, but Laura was her own brand of scary. “I’m Stiles, and this is my buddy Scott.”
“And Derek helped us find my inhaler,” Scott added helpfully.
Laura looked like Christmas had come early. “Der-bear!” Stiles nearly choked trying to hide his laughter at the ridiculous nickname. “Did you actually help these nice boys? You’re becoming practically social!” She clapped her hand on Derek’s back, and Derek actually stumbled forward from the force of it.
“Laura…” Derek was definitely whining now, and he was shrinking in on himself.
“Don’t mind my brother,” Laura fake-whispered to Stiles and Scott. “He was practically raised by wolves!” She started laughing loudly, while her brother looked on with horror.
The two boys exchanged another look. “Well, we need to get going! Thanks for your help finding my inhaler!” Scott said cheerfully, slowly backing up. “We won’t come back on your property anymore!”
Laura glared at her brother. “You better not have scared them off, Derek!” She came forward and put an arm around each boy. “You must come and see us again. We’re going to be repairing the old house for us and our uncle.” She turned to Stiles and winked. “Especially you, Stiles! You’re exactly Derek‘s type!”
Stiles blushed and chanced a look at Derek. The older man had turned away, so his face wasn‘t visible.
“See you around, Stiles and Scott!” Laura called out as the two best friends left the clearing and headed out of the preserve.
“Those two were crazy,” Scott said to Stiles when they were almost to Stiles’ jeep. “You’re not going back there, are you?”
But Stiles was already imagining going back there, and maybe even making the grumpy Derek Hale fall in love with him. And if what Laura said was true, it probably wouldn’t even take as long as his seven year plan to woo Lydia Martin. Operation Woo Derek Hale, commence!