I do not own any of Kelly Armstrong's characters or books. I have no rights to the Darkest Power Trilogy.

Ch. 1

The First Lie

Chloe sat around the tree out side her high school. She had fallen asleep against it. She slowly awoke to a furry creature moving back forth near her hand. She payed closer attention to it and smiled in relief. It was alive, a fully skinned animal. She hesitated, or was it.

Derek approached her and she asked him to smell whether the animal was dead.

It was killed recently.

Chloe groaned, just when she thought she fell asleep without raising anything. She let the animal's spirit go and subsequently urged Derek to sit with her.

"You know you really shouldn't be sleeping outside here."

"Yeah, sorry I know it's dangerous out in the open."

"I meant for your safety, I guess it's kinda okay since its in the school's property."

Chloe leaned back onto the truck of the now uncomfortable bark. She squirmed a bit until Derek motioned for her to rest on him. She smiled and leaned against him without hesitation. Who would miss the opportunity to lay against something more relaxing than a rough tree.

"What kept you up last night? You're really tired." Derek asked.

"The usual. My Aunt took me out by the basket ball court near the train tracks. The imagine kinda stuck."

"Oh sorry. Well at least you got some sleep a few seconds ago."

Chloe nodded.

Not long after Chloe and Derek sat together, a crowd seemed to gather and stare. They were mostly scared classmates hiding around the corners of the school building.

Derek growled in annoyance. He was 'surrounded by idiots' in his classes. He couldn't stand any of his classmates. Most cowered in his height or talked shit about him at any chance they could get, striking comments about his appearance. But honestly, he didn't have ache anymore, his hair wasn't oily like it use to be and he tried not to wear baggy sweaters and track pants all the time. Chloe had been trying to lighten up his image at school but their lunches and classes were completely different. It was hard to prove Derek wasn't as antisocial as he appeared.

"Looks like you have an audience. You're so popular." Chloe laughed.

"No thank you."

"If you smiled at bit and let people see your eyes," she said as she pulled back his bangs behind with her clip in from her hair, "then maybe they will see the real you." she said smiling up at him.

Derek resisted the intense impulse to hug her. How can she be so adorable?

Simon soon joined them. He sat in front of the two and asked them how their day was.

The typical "good" was usually their answer. Until Tori came. She would come changing the one word answers. She ran up to them and prepared to eagerly tell everyone her day. How another boy asked her out, how a classmate was bitching or how she just found out about a new and better computer software.

Life was fun, people were nice and all their powers were, for the most part, in control.

Chloe's Aunt walked towards them and her eyes narrowed towards Derek. Lauren really hated Derek. The group assumed she was simply racist and didn't like werewolves.

But all of them had over heard a fight once back at Chloe's house between the two. Lauren tried to justify things she didn't like about Derek. Like how he was so big, she thought it was unnatural or how he seemed dangerous with super strength or how he didn't deserve Chloe's attention. That's when Derek stopped coming over.

Chloe would still argue with her Aunt every time even the snidest of comments left her mouth. It made Derek feel a bit better about himself knowing Chloe disagreed.

"With this lug again?" Lauren answered rhetorically.

Chloe sighed. "Here it comes." she mumbled.

"Chloe we've been over this, Derek really isn't suited for you. I know you don't look at him in a 'more than friends' way but I think you two need to have at least a little more distance." She said as she motioned at both of them.

In Chloe's mind, there was nothing wrong with the way she interacted with Derek, they were best friends.

"What's wrong with the way I look at him?"

"It's tragic that you too are still friends. God save us if you two were together together."

She took a deep breath and knew she was going to regret this.

"We're dating." she said quickly.

Everyone's eyes seemed to pop out, especially Aunt Lauren's.

"What?" she sputtered.

"You heard me. He's my b-boyfriend." Chloe said in an attempt to sound strong. She mentally cursed the little momentary stutter. Maybe her Aunt wouldn't notice.

"Yeah right. Who could look at him and think about him romantically. Come on Chloe. He's not even your type."

"Type? Like tall dark and handsome right? That's what you mean right."

"Yeah." she said nervously.

"Well look, he fits the description, seems to be my type. Logically you really shouldn't be surprised. We were meaning to tell you, but just couldn't find the time."

Her Aunt fumed. This had to be a prank she thought. There was no way. She would never accept Derek. Never.

"I'll see you in the car." she said as she stormed off back to her car.

So Chloe had momentarily won. Her Aunt could go on about how she hated Chloe's friend but a boyfriend is a choice and even Aunt Lauren had lost the energy to bring up the deeper discussion right now. Chloe smiled triumphantly.

As she turned to face her friends she found Tori collapsed on the ground; fainted, Simon's jaw hanging open and Derek biting his lip in deep thought.

The evident shock seemed to impact her friends more than she thought.

"One lie couldn't hurt. Right?"

Derek drew his eyes to Chloe, there was absolute conviction. He was trying to see what she was trying to do. He found it.

"You didn't have to." he grumbled.

"I kinda think I did have to. If she can't accept us as friends, then she will have to accept you as a boyfriend. This is the solution to get her to stop mouthing off to you."

"I don't mind it. 'She doesn't know' me as you are always saying. I could live with it"

"No! You will not stand for that. It pisses me off. You'e a great guy Derek. I won't stand for this. She's going to get to know you now. She has no choice. Even if I have to make up one little lie."

"It's not little to her, it's catastrophic."

"Please just go along with it." Chloe begged. Her little blue eyes glistened, tears at her ready if he refused. He knew full well what that puppy dog face was ready to abuse. He scratched the back of his neck and let out a "Fine." in a short breath.

"Sooooo, you guys aren't dating?" Simon finally asked.

"Just pretend." Chloe said, "Someone tell Tori when she wakes up from the shock. I need to go to my Aunt."

What did you think? This is my first Chloe and Derek fic.