'I can't believe this, I'm as excited as a high school freshman on her first date.' thought Melissa McCall as she put the final touches on her make-up. The doorbell rang again.
"Scott, for the love of God, please!" she called down. Sighing, she peeked around the staircase to see her beloved only son staring up at her while her date waited outside.
"Scott, aren't you going to invite him in?" 'Cripes, he's here!' She rushed back to the bathroom and checked herself once more. Well, she was as perfect as she was ever going to be. She went down the stairs and searched for her purse in the kitchen. Where the hell did she put it?
"Just half a second, sorry." She said apologetically. The hairs on the back of her neck stood up as she got a distinct feeling of déjà vu.
Robert had always hated it when she kept him waiting…in fact it had led to the one and only time he ever struck her. His temper had grown shorter and shorter over the fourteen years of their marriage, and she had grown more and more nervous, which of course had led to more absent-mindedness. The big day came when he had gotten the promotion he'd been after for years, and they were running a few minutes late to his 'surprise' party. There he stood, dressed to the nines, the gorgeous brown eyes narrowed in thin fury when they had once looked at her with adoration, and the perfect teeth bared in a sneer of disgust instead of the happy smile she fell in love with.
"Goddamn it, of all nights! No way in hell you could have maybe prepared by leaving everything out in a convenient spot! Every day with the damn scavenger hunt! You doing this to piss me off? Well, it's goddamn working!"
"Robert, I'll just be a second, please calm down!" she said frantically. Thank God Scott was already off to stay over with Stiles for the evening. She hated for him to see his father like this. She hoped bad tempers didn't run in the family.
"Stupid bitch…" he said under his breath, perhaps louder than he realized. Melissa froze where she was standing, clutching the purse she had just discovered wedged behind a sofa cushion.
"Good, you have it, now LET"S GO!" he practically shouted at her.
"Go by yourself you son of a bitch." she said slowly and clearly.
"What the HELL did you just say to me?" he said in a quiet deadly voice.
She turned to him, and for some reason all of the fear and anxiety that dominated her life suddenly fled.
"You heard me. You are nothing but an animal. A goddamned soulless beast. It's over, Robert. I'm leaving and I'm taking Scott with me, before you turn him into an animal too.
He stared at her, a range of emotions passing across his face. She had the feeling that he only realized just now how he had been behaving for years, and was stunned that the point of no return had come up so suddenly and without warning. His mouth opened and closed while he struggled for something to say.
"Look. I'm sorry. We can talk about this later. Let's go."
She shook her head. If she took it back now, he would always assume she was too weak to follow through…and the treatment would get worse.
"No. Go to your party Robert, it's being thrown for your favorite person in the world. Yourself. You don't need me…you haven't for a long time."
Rather than think about admitting this to himself, Robert seemed to snap and he was over to her in a second holding her arm in a painful grip.
"I said let's go. Don't make me tell you again. You always have to screw everything up for me, I could have had this job a long time ago, but you had to let yourself get knocked up-"
Melissa yanked her arm out of his grip. There was a popping sound, and a small button from his sleeve cuff flew across the room. Robert looked at the hanging shirtsleeve…and then slapped Melissa across the face. Again, that stunned look as he stared at his own hand. Had he really just done that, or had his hand acted on its own? It felt like his anger were a separate entity, once chained up but now able to free itself at the slightest provocation. He contemplated this for about 1.5 seconds before Melissa snatched up a vase (fourteen years previously it held flowers that he bought her when she brought home Scott.) and smashed it into the side of his head. He staggered and reeled, clutching the bleeding side of his head. He growled…actually growled…but her next words cut it off.
"If you ever touch me again…one of us is going to die. Don't be too sure it will be me. You can beat me to a pulp…but you have to sleep sometime." Her voice as she spoke these words seemed to belong to another. Did they both have inner monsters? What hope was there for Scott?
Robert looked at her for a brief moment and she almost thought she saw regret in his eyes. Then he turned and left the house. It was over.
All of these memories flashed through her mind as she once again found her purse wedged behind the sofa cushion. Scott and Peter were talking, and Scott was tense and glaring daggers at the older man. How adorable, Scott was being a little man of the house, probably threatening Peter to take good care of her. She brushed between them and Peter flashed a smile at her that Robert never could even on his best day.
"I'm ready, sorry again."
Peter offered her his arm in such an old school gesture of gentility that it startled her. Men never treated her with such deference…he acted like he had waited a lifetime just for her. She smiled and intertwined her arm with his and they stepped out the door.
"MOM!" said Scott urgently.
"Yes, sweetheart?" she said brusquely, torn between her mothering and dating instincts.
"Have a good time." Scott mumbled forlornly. Melissa was touched. When she got back, she would be sure to have a long talk with him about how he felt. As much as she wanted to have a social life again, she would give it all up if it would hurt him.
Peter opened the door for her and helped her inside the car. As she settled in, he closed the door gently and in less than a moment was seating himself beside her. He was remarkably quick and extremely graceful, and it threw her for a moment. He had the reflexes and speed of a teenager.
He smiled at her, and her heart sped up a tad. She wondered again what it was about him that had charmed her so quickly. Her guard had been up for years, and Scott would be stunned to know the number of suitors she had turned down cold, including her own boss (hence the passive aggressive shift schedule he had imposed on her since then). Peter just seemed…like he was from another planet or from a different race. She knew that she had never met anyone like him before. Not a single alarm bell had gone off.
They drove past the turn for the restaurant. From her experience with Robert, she knew men didn't like to be told how to drive, so she kept silent while she thought frantically how to bring it up in a diplomatic fashion. Although his attention was on the road, he spooked her by saying "Everything all right?"
"Um, yeah, except I think…maybe we missed the turn for the restaurant." This would be the test then; how he reacted would tell her if this was something she wished to pursue. Unless of course he were a serial killer and was really driving her to some lonely place so he could-
She stopped that line of thought.
"Well, I'll pull over. You can map it on your phone." he said to her relief. Not overly macho, and not a serial killer.
As she began pressing buttons on her phone, she felt his eyes on her. His look when she met his gaze was almost predatory, as if he were hungry for her. She grew embarrassed, definitely not used to this sort of attention.
"What?" she said, giggling. When was the last time she giggled?
"I was just noticing you have the most incredible skin. It's flawless."
Melissa flushed with an uneasy mixture of self-consciousness and vain pleasure. Thank the gods for the cosmetic effect of darkness…though how he could tell anything in the dark car was beyond her. Or was this an opening move? Melissa McCall was not the type to become intimate on a first date…and especially before the first date.
"That's a new one on me." she said to make it clear that while compliments were appreciated, they were not the way to take things to the next level.
Then his hand was stroking her face. "Do you mind?" he asked softly. At his touch, she felt a long dead part of her come burningly awake. For a moment, she wanted him as much as he obviously wanted her. There was no doubt about it now…his face was rapt with desire. They moved towards each other when her phone dropped from her nerveless fingers, enough to snap her out of the spell she was under.
"Oh, sorry." she said, tearing herself away from the gaze to bend down and reach for her phone. She failed to notice while she searched that her date's eyes were burning with crimson fire, and his lips were pulling back over teeth that were too large to contain them.
Elsewhere…
"God Stiles, of all times to get a flat tire! Who knows what they could be doing! He could be biting her right now!" Before Stiles could answer, Scott took off running.
Melissa found her phone and straightened up. Peter was looking thoughtfully out the windshield.
The phone's map program beeped as it coughed up the directions they needed. Peter glanced at it quickly, then pulled back onto the street.
"Everything okay?" she asked. She wondered if he were mad that the moment earlier had been broken.
"Perfect. More than perfect. I have to say that I haven't had a night I've enjoyed like this in over six years."
"Wow, and the date hasn't even started yet." she quipped.
"Oh, trust me, it has." Another blinding smile. Melissa settled back in her seat content to finish the trip in silence, happily musing that after all of these years…she still had it.
Scott tracked their scent all the way to the restaurant and peeked through the window. Peter Hale and Melissa were sitting at an intimate table for two, a glowing candle set between them. Melissa was laughing, and as Scott watched, she moved her chair just a little close to Peter's. Melissa lifted a piece of prime rib and gently placed it in Peter's mouth while he closed his eyes and chewed pleasurably. The eyes opened then and focused directly on Scott. He finished chewing and swallowed before taking Melissa's hand in one of his own and gently squeezing it. With his other, he pulled out a phone and sent off a quick text without even looking at it. Melissa didn't notice. Scott's phone beeped.
"She will be all right. I give you my word. Go home. We'll talk."
Peter put the phone away and held up his hand in a 'Scout's Honor' gesture. Scott was already listening for the heartbeat, and it remained steady.
Fuming, Scott left and ran at superhuman speed back to Stiles who had just finished changing the tire.
"Scott! Is she okay?" he asked frantically.
"They're having dinner. He promises he won't hurt her." Scott showed him the text.
"And you believe him?" Stiles gaped.
"He won't do anything, tonight at least. But we are going back to the restaurant to keep an eye on them."
Peter Hale was having an amazing time. Up until now, he had been sure that the fire had burned out any shred of human feeling he had left. He had been about to administer the Bite to this woman who had long ago whelped the world's worst future teenage werewolf when the uniquely enticing pheromone scent she gave off had finally built up to critical levels. A shock of recognition roared through the Alpha wolf within him; against all possibility, it had decided she might actually be his true mate. In less than ten seconds, the wolf instinct began a subtle re-ordering of his thought processes, and Peter pulled back from her, shoving the transformation aside. He felt the gasping relief one feels when pulling back from a dangerous precipice…the sense of disaster barely averted. Had he really wanted to hurt her? Funny that what he was intentionally doing to her, she had unwittingly done to him…awakened feelings that had lain dormant for years. Dormant…but not as dead as he thought.
He looked at her with new eyes and debated the choice he had in front of him.
He needed Scott to take down Kate Argent…the miserable evil witch who had taken everything from him. Melissa was obviously the best way to obtain Scott's cooperation. Peter convinced his nephew that once Kate was dead, Derek would be free to take the Alpha's life and acquire his power…both to put Peter himself out of his own misery and also to pay for his own unintentional murder of Laura. Peter was no hypocrite, and was committed to paying that debt the moment he realized what he had done to his niece. This promise had insured Derek's cooperation.
On the other hand…life had a few more surprises to offer, it seemed. Peter had never married, never felt a connection with any woman before. The sense of mate had eluded him for years, far longer than any other werewolf the Hales had ever heard of. He had never even known what he was missing. The wolf was reveling inside him. Kate Argent would still need to die, that fact had not changed. Now, self-preservation would replace revenge as the necessitating factor. Kate would want to murder Derek and Scott, and Peter could not allow that. The thought of Kate finding out about Melissa sent chills up his spine. If he were to lose her, then he would be dead inside, this time forever. For this to happen now when he was so close to final revenge and the bliss of death was the greatest of ironies.
"Are you sure you don't want dessert?" he asked again.
"No, thank you, I'm on a diet." She said.
"You're kidding me. Why ever for? You look stunning." He said with dead seriousness.
"Oh, thank you, I know I don't not really-" she stopped when she felt his hand on her chin dragging her blushing face up until their eyes met.
"You don't know the power you have. You are a goddess…don't let anyone tell you different. I've never met a woman like you." The sincerity in his voice was impossible to fake. He believed every word he said. Melissa's face was glowing like a crimson moon.
"So, tell me what's made you so guarded when it comes to men. Scott's 'man of the house' routine looks pretty well practiced."
"You don't want to hear about all of that."
"Never be afraid to tell me anything, Melissa. In fact, I am determined to find out everything there is to know about you, so you might as well get it over with. I am relentless when I need to be."
Melissa knew that often the last thing a guy wanted to hear on a date was about previous relationships, but since he asked…
She attempted to gloss over and summarize, but each time he stopped her and asked questions and probed for detail until she gave up and gave him the 'long version'. He took it all in, only reacting once when she described the domestic violence incident. His fist clenched around his teaspoon, turning it into a stainless steel pretzel.
Melissa was awed. "That's some kung fu grip you have there."
Peter looked down.
"What's wrong?" she asked, afraid she had said too much.
"I may as well confess to you now that I have my own anger management issues. In fact…I was hurt by some…pretty bad people. My life has been consumed with seeing them… brought to justice. I wouldn't dream of asking you to put up with anything like that again. There are other things too, that I don't want to tell you…just yet." He withdrew his hand from her and seemed to pull back into himself. His eyes went frost cold. Melissa began to panic. 'Shit! Why do I always mess everything up?' she berated herself internally.
"You can tell me anything, Peter. I understand about being afraid of scaring someone away. I'll just ask that if you feel you can't tell me something yet, let me know, but don't lie to me. As for the ones that hurt you, I'm sure they deserved what they got. I told Robert I would kill him if he touched me again, and I meant it. Oooh, I was so furious with him for fourteen years of cruelty. I didn't know what would be worse…if he started in on Scott or if…Scott started to become like him. I won't have anyone turning my son into a monster."
Peter started to choke on his wine.
"Would you have done it?" asked Peter, his eyes looking slightly red when he recovered.
Melissa thought about it.
"I would have stuck a meat fork into his throat as soon as he fell asleep. I know how that sounds, but I would have. Possibly cut off certain things he would sorely miss." Now it was Melissa who averted her eyes.
"If you had to describe to the police in a single word why you had done it, what word would you have used?"
Melissa glanced at him at the odd question, then shrugged her shoulders.
"Revenge, I guess. The most primal basic instinct of them all. No use prettying it up with another fancy word." God, he must be revolted by her.
"I think…I'd like to kiss you, if you don't mind." he whispered, against all reason.
The breath stopped in her throat.
Their eyes met, and the connection that had been buzzing between them like electricity between two broken wires suddenly grew strong and steady. In both their minds, they jumped off of their own proverbial cliffs and gave themselves over to the idea that they could actually fall in love.
The kiss was pure passion, and both forgot that they were in a restaurant in full view of other patrons and staff.
"Your check, Sir?" said a rather snooty waiter. Melissa pulled back suddenly, and Peter turned a crimson gaze on the offending staff. He paled and backed away while Peter slipped out his wallet and withdrew some bills to place in the leather folder. Melissa was blotting her mouth with a napkin, and Peter did the same amusedly rubbing off her lipstick. Neither noticed the single drop of blood soaked into the fabric of Melissa's napkin.
"Maybe I should leave it, it could be my color." He said jokingly, staring at the lipstick stains. Melissa laughed, and outside the eatery Scott was amazed that such a laugh came out of her mouth. He had never heard it before. They linked arms and exited while the valet brought the car around while Scott and Stiles frantically hid. Peter smelled Scott of course, but instead of being irritated, he decided he approved of the younger werewolf's desire to protect his mother.
Scott and Stiles beat them home by about ten minutes, and the two boys had less than 30 seconds to pretend to be lounging about carelessly when the couple walked in the door. Stiles was holding an upside down book, while Scott was punching texts into his dead cell phone.
"Oh, hi guys, back already?" Scott asked.
"Yes honey, I told you we wouldn't be late. Stiles, you can stay if you want just call your father and let him know." said a nervous Melissa. She had hoped the boys would be asleep.
"Oh, no ma'am I'll be heading home. Nice seeing you guys." Stiles ran out to his jeep and sped off.
"Scott, don't you have something to finish up in your room?" said Melissa smiling in a strained bizarre fashion. 'Get out or I'll ground you until Judgment Day' the look said. Scott went up the stairs, still listening in with his werewolf hearing.
"I had an amazing time tonight." Melissa said breathlessly.
"So, you don't have to answer now… but I would love to see you again. Any interest?" his eyes sparkled, and she felt her heart skip again.
"Are you free every night for the rest of my life?" He chuckled and once more embraced her, breathing in her scent and rejoicing at the return of his soul.
'I'll do what I can to clear out my schedule. Good night." Another kiss, and he was gone. Melissa shut and locked the door, and only kept herself from shouting for joy to keep from upsetting Scott. After washing up and retiring to bed, she slept for the first time in years with a small Mona Lisa smile on her face.
Scott paced his room impatiently. About half an hour after his mother went to bed, Peter Hale appeared in his room. Even Derek couldn't pull it off as smoothly as that.
The two stared at each other.
Finally, Peter spoke.
"You have me…at a disadvantage."
Scott folded his arms, and said nothing.
"I know you'll be listening for a lie. I fully intended to use your mother as leverage with you, Scott, but…I genuinely have grown to like her. More than like her. I would not harm her now even if Kate Argent would promise to cut off her own head after slowly torturing herself for hours."
"Well, too bad. You need to stay away from her." Scott growled, amber eyes glowing fitfully in the dark.
"Why?" Peter asked simply.
"Because you're dangerous, and the people you are involved with are dangerous. Even if you didn't hurt her, who's to say one of the Argent's-"
"By that logic, Scott, you need to leave as well. Shall we go together?"
Scott floundered.
"I will protect her Scott…and the best way to do that is to go along with my original plan and take down Kate Argent. She will never stop…and you are in her sights now too. Do you think she would hesitate to slaughter your mother? There were humans in my house when it burned. Children. You saw it. You cannot be around all the time. I can."
"If you kill Kate, her family will never stop coming for us."
"Let me worry about that." Said Peter with grim finality.
"Okay, seriously? What do you think is going to happen when my mother finds out about werewolves? About me and you? About the fire, and the vendetta? She is going to freak, Peter. And what happens then when she rejects you? Are you going to let her go? Or are you going to get mad? Goddamn it, she has been through too much to go through this again! There are ways she could be hurt besides physically!"
"You underestimate your mother. She is very strong, and I…shared a little bit with her. She understood. Even empathized."
"My mother would never hurt a fly!" Scott grated.
"Your mother confessed a desire to murder your father. Rather gruesomely, I might add. For his sake, I hope he doesn't plan on trying to return."
Peter's eyes glowed with hellfire as he said this.
"Great, now you're threatening my father too."
"He hurt her, Scott. Did she never tell you?"
From Scott's silence, and the advance of his features into full Beta phase, Peter guessed not.
"See how bravely she tries to protect you? Not many women stand up to abusive husbands these days. Your mother did. For you."
"Fine, you could have him."
"Excellent, what's his address?"
"Oh my god, I was kidding, I think. I know he's a jerk, that's why we don't talk to him! Look, this is about you. The only way I would even think of allowing this is if you could promise she wouldn't get hurt, and you can't promise that! And you would have to leave all of my friends alone too."
"That reminds me." Peter pulled out his phone and sent out a quick text.
'Derek, hold off on JW. If he still wants it, I'll give it to him.'
"What was that?"
"Calling off an attack dog. Your friend Jackson has gotten a reprieve."
"You were going to kill Jackson?" Scott could barely keep his voice down.
"He was going to expose you. If you don't want him dead, the safest thing is for him to join the club."
"That's all I need." Scott threw up his hands and sat on his bed.
"He will be much more compliant after he turns, and I have a little chat with him. He is very intimidated by Derek, and frankly, I can make Derek seem like a Teletubby. Listen, even you cannot promise that you're mother will be safe, despite your efforts. I had ample opportunity tonight to kill or turn her if that was what I wanted, and you could not have stopped me. I can promise you this, however. She will eventually have to learn the truth. All of it. If at any time she requests that I leave her alone, I will do it. No questions asked, and you and your friends will remain safe. How does that sound?"
Scott nodded, hearing only a steady heartbeat as the Alpha spoke.
"A few things. First, I'm never calling you 'Dad'. Second, I want to be there when you tell her about werewolves…and you can't lie. Third…no turning my mom!"
"It isn't necessary, but on the off chance she asks for it, you will respect her wishes."
"My mom would never ask for that."
"Scott, you really do have a lot to learn about women. If you ever want to have 'the talk', I'm here." Peter smiled in a fatherly fashion while Scott rolled his eyes. "Kate Argent is the last responsible party for the Hale fire. She still dies, Scott. She is too much of a threat."
Scott sat down and thought about it.
"My mom won't like it, and you will have to tell her. I wish there were another way…but after you showed me that stuff in the shower at school…I really can't argue with you. My house could easily be next on her list. God, what is this going to do to Allison?"
"Make her stronger." Peter got up and seemed almost to flicker out the window.