Damaged...

That's what they've called him.

Derek's fingers fumbled with his tie in an attempt to loosen it, but the knot kept getting more and more tangled because he kept pulling the wrong end.

'We won't vote for a Damaged Beta as a Chairperson,' Harris' voice continued to ring in Derek's ears like an irritating bell. He had just returned home from the meeting with the management committee of Hale Enterprise. The agenda was to select the nominations for next Chairperson of the company, after his father's death a week back.

Last week was the darkest week of Derek's life, including the Hale Fire and even 'Paige's death'…or maybe 'Paige's Death' would be a tough competition, though, considering that incident had changed his fucking life.

That had made him…Damaged.

Everything was jumbled in Derek's mind all at once. He tried to separate each thread.

Paige's Death

Derek was fifteen and dating Paige. Why not? Neither of them would know their soul mates, at least for three years, when they turn eighteen.

That was some kind of werewolves' genes system, that they would start getting hints about their soul mate only once they were of age.

So there was no harm in just getting to know each other, right?

Paige was an Omega werewolf.

A beautiful, unmated omega and Derek felt lucky to have her by his side. She was a strong, level headed person, unlike other omega werewolf girls and boys, who wanted to mark him (maybe do something more) just to get attached to his famous family name – the Hale pack.

They were happy together. They were one of the most popular, most beautiful, most compatible couples at their school.

Derek wished sometimes that his life could have just frozen there and never start ticking again.

Derek was dropping her off at home one night after their study date. They took the long route through the preserve to spend some extra time together. It wasn't after-curfew hours, but still late, when a rogue alpha suddenly jumped in front of them from out of nowhere. The alpha sniffed the air and hungrily focused on Paige. The sweet smell of a raw, unmated Omega must be alluring for him.

Claiming an underage, unmated, unwilling Omega was the most punishable offense as per werewolves' law, but who the hell was going to teach the law to the violent Alpha on the night of a full moon?

Like a reflex action, Derek moved between Paige and the Alpha, but he was just a Beta and just a kid, after all. He was thrown out of sight before he could even blink.

When he rushed to help again, the damage was already done. The alpha had left a claiming bite on her shoulder and left the site.

That fucking rascal had just left, leaving Paige on the ground, shuddering in pain.

Derek quickly lifted her, laying her head down on his lap carefully. She wasn't healing. God, why wasn't she healing?

She was rejecting the claim-bite.

Your wolf rejecting the bite was bad. Death bad. Your wolf would react to the bite like mountain ash, choking inside your veins, forcing you to deny the claim.

"Why are you rejecting it, Jesus," Derek exclaimed, shaking violently. He grabbed her hand and tried to take her pain. His forearm filled with the black veins running up through his hand. He tried that until his head went light with dizziness. He couldn't afford to pass out now.

"I can't…my wolf can't accept…D-Derek," Derek stared at her, horrified.

"No..NO…I'll call Dad, just hold on a while, he is an Alpha. He'll do something," Derek's fingers were trembling when he pulled his cell phone from his pocket.

There wasn't a signal in the preserve area.

Derek felt his heart sinking. He couldn't just leave Paige unattended in her delicate condition and look for a damn signal. He grabbed her close, supporting her pale cold body to his chest.

Paige vomited black blood.

"Derek, please…I can't…no more," Paige's muffled voice whispered into Derek's ear and tears started rolling down his cheeks.

"Please Paige," he pleaded, not knowing what he really wished for.

"Let me go Der, help me."

"No, please," Derek whispered.

She cried, begged him for mercy.

And Derek couldn't deny her that, not anymore.

Killing an innocent soul would take away a part of your soul…changing the colour of your eyes. Derek knew that. When Paige went still in his arms, Derek felt the change. His eyes glowed blue, no longer a golden yellow.

He was now Damaged.

That was the terminology they all used for such cruel, heartless werewolves who could dare to kill an innocent soul. Derek would never have imagined in his wildest dreams that he would be one of them.

His life turned upside down after that incident. There were investigations held and cops tracked down and killed the rogue Alpha. That bastard deserved it. But the incident had many negative effects on his overall already gloomy image, I mean; you couldn't just stop when the news spread in all possible weirdly wrong directions like a wildfire. Many of them thought that Derek was the one who has killed Paige. In a way, that was true. But he was just trying to help her. It was a mercy killing, and not a cold blooded murder. But Derek was not ready to get involved in any speculations. That horrible incident was already enough for him to get nasty nightmares every other night.

He lost all his friends. Everyone looked at him in disgust and fright. But, who would need friends when you have your twin sister in all your classes to keep you a company. Laura was the sole reason he survived school and college life. She would kick anyone who tried pulling slumbering threads of Derek's sad past.

One day, things went even beyond Laura's control when a gang of Alpha-beta bullies tried to torture Derek in his junior year of high school and Derek lashed out, shifting in the middle of a school hallway, (wolfing out was strictly prohibited inside school premises) claws out, teeth baring, and blue crystal eyes filled with rage.

The gang was taken aback by the sudden display of outburst from the usually calm Damaged Beta, but they were in majority and therefore fearless against a single vulnerable Beta.

Things looked like they were going to get messy, but the situation was tactfully handled by a new replacement teacher – Kate Argent.

Kate stood by Derek throughout the episode, even saved him from suspension. Derek was...impressed. She was an adult omega and of course, a teacher. But, Derek was seventeen and miserably lonely and before he could make any sense of what is right and what is wrong, Derek got attached to her and the lady fully encouraged him.

They never crossed any boundaries though, because Derek was still underage and they were constantly on Laura's radar, 24x7.

Derek thought that things were getting better for him.

Then one day, Derek and Laura were suddenly escorted from the middle of school to the home where half of their family was burnt alive with only two survivors – David and Talia (their parents), who were at the Hale Enterprise when the incident took place.

It was Kate.

Derek felt like a volcano erupted through his veins. Fury, betrayal, pain, guilt...everything all messed up, all so dreadful.

The Argent Werewolf Pack had history with Hales...a bad one. And Kate tried to take advantage of the vulnerable puppy, to meet her motives, to eliminate Hales.

"It's not your fault, Derek."

The remaining members of his family reiterated that, again and again, in failed attempts to comfort him, to take away from the mountain of guilt that Derek had buried himself in.

But nothing helped. It just added into his daily dose of nightmares.

That was the day when Derek decided that he would never get involved with any werewolf, until he met his soulmate.

Derek wished that things would be this easy for him.

Derek had a damaged soul and that would definitely not just limit to change in colour of his eyes.

He had learnt that when he turned eighteen.

It had been three months since he was of age, and things were still routine for him. No twist of heartbeats, no weird dreams, no smell which would stand out in the crowd of million of other werewolves. Well, these were the basic signs which every single werewolf would experience the moment they turned eighteen, irrespective of whether they would meet their soulmate or not.

And Derek felt nothing.

His case had been discussed with other elders and they revealed that it was a part of the process when you get a damaged soul. Damaging would take away some part of your identity, it was not just the colour of your eyes.

Damaged souls would also lose a chance to know their soulmates.

Derek's case was among the few rare ones. Many of the damaged werewolves would already know these Soulmate-signs before they killed someone. Killing an innocent soul before you turn eighteen was uncommon.

Derek was really okay with it. Soulmates were a tricky concept. And hey, not all un-damaged werewolves would know about soulmates at eighteen. Many had spent their life time to get to meet their other perfect half. Majority of them wouldn't even meet them. Like ever. They would just spend quite a happy life with other unmated werewolf. That was easy. Derek knew that too.

His parents were not soulmates and he had watched them spending a happy, love-filled life for twenty two years now, since his birth. It was like they were made for each other. Definitely no less than so-called soulmates.

But, there went Derek's plan of waiting for his perfect half.

Because he wouldn't be able to sense nor smell his soulmate. He wouldn't know who his soulmate was, ever.

After the incident with Kate, Derek never dared to indulge himself in any kind of relationships. He poured his heart into the family business, helping his father grow the Hale enterprise. He was getting it there, slowly and steadily, like he had finally found a purpose in his life. His father would always involve him in bigger deals, letting him handle a couple of projects independently. After all, Derek was the future. He was the future Alpha of the Hale pack.

Though the Hale siblings were twins, Derek was fifteen minutes older than Laura.

And life couldn't be so harsh on him, all the time, every fucking time?

He was twenty one when he received a courting proposal from the Blake Pack.

Jennifer Blake was an intelligent omega, confident and independent. She was just a year older than Derek. Derek remembered meeting her in one of the pack functions from the previous day and surprisingly, he had actually shared a genuine conversation with her there.

The very next day, Derek received the proposal.

Derek felt awkward to reject it right away. She looked like a nice lady. Hence, like a true gentleman, he actually dialled her number on Laura's insistence, and his life suddenly rejuvenated from its miserable depths.

Jennifer's soft voice rang in Derek's ears, when she said "I am your soulmate."

Derek had almost dropped the phone, stunned. He was not ready for such things. Such nice things.

He listened to her intensely when she spoke about how she had recognised his smell from her vague 'coming of age' memories. How desperately she wanted to drown in his scent and how she couldn't afford to spend a single second away from him.

Derek had never given a thought to the fact that even though he was totally incapable of identifying his soul mate, his soul mate could definitely track him down.

Even after six months of dating Jennifer, he still wondered if this was true and was actually happening with him, that he was finally getting a chance to know his soul mate, for real.

Well, things were never going to remain good for him, ever.

No. It was not his relationship, this time, but his parents'.

Derek had smelled some tension between his parents, for a few months now, almost immediately after he had started dating Jennifer.

Their family dinners were not as fun as they used to be a few months back. He could smell a distinct acrid scent oozing out of his father that literally choked Derek on a couple of occasions. It felt vaguely like sadness, or even despair, in fact. His mother was not better, but there was this distinct aroma which clung to her all the time which suspiciously smelled like - happiness?

Could despair and happiness go hand in hand?

And last week, Derek received a call from the emergency were-Hospital saying that his father had an accident and he was admitted there.

Emergency were-Hospital… a highly unused entity, in the world of freaking werewolves who had super healing powers. And when that was getting used, at all, for any reason, then it was a clear sign of red-alert.

Derek ran to the hospital on the verge of shifting into his Beta form, shivering.

Laura was waiting outside the operating room, like a scared, wet puppy, and Derek felt as though his heart had stopped beating.

His father was an Alpha. He was a fucking HALE Alpha. Derek had heard tales of his ancestors possessing those superior wolf genes. In fact, that was one of the reasons why every other pack had envied them so much, or wanted to be a part of the Hales so desperately. Then why the hell his father was in the hospital, with those useless super-Hale-wolf genes?

And where was his mother?

Derek could smell Talia. She was around, or at least she had been there, sometime back. And then Derek just gaped at Laura, shocked, as his sister told him that his own mother was responsible for his father's condition.

Talia had stumbled upon her mate, six months back.

That was the reason of the unspoken tension that ran around his parents all the time for the past six months, which eventually ended with Talia deciding to join her mate.

Derek felt like the ground was being pulled away from under his feet. He couldn't even dare to imagine the state of his father's mind. Derek's heart broke for him.

The doctors said David Hale was undergoing some mental trauma, and his wolf was not ready to trigger the healing process. His wolf denied the healing. He was ready to accept death, over accepting a separation from his life-mate, who was sadly not his soulmate.

The Hale twins were waiting outside the operating room, terrified, shaking, hands clasped with each other, when Laura suddenly cried out, clenching Derek's hand, eyes squeezed, tight.

When she opened her eyes, again, they flashed bright red…Alpha red.

David Hale died that day.

And Talia Hale was disowned by her own children that day, accusing her for the death of their father.

Laura was the new Alpha Hale.

And of course, Derek had no complaints. Everyone else though, did not agree with his opinion. Not even Laura.

"It's not fair." she exclaimed when they settled enough from the shock of losing their Alpha, their father, and their…mother. But Derek knew that there was a reason behind everything that happened in this werewolf world and everyone knew that reason, already. After all, Derek had fucked up big time with his own werewolf genes, long back, to even try to claim something as strong as an Alpha rank.

He was fucking Damaged.

It was no wonder if anyone (Harris) had thought that Derek was not good enough for the position of chairperson of Hale Enterprise, which had been occupied by Hale pack Alphas for ages.

Derek's cell phone vibrated in his pocket, breaking the chain of his deep, depressing thoughts.

His lips softly twitched upwards when he noticed the number on the display.

"Hey Jennifer," he muttered, in low tone. He was feeling so drained, physically and emotionally, after the board meeting today.

"Derek," her voice rang into the speaker. "My dad wants me to try other propositions."

Derek furrowed his eyebrows. Jennifer's sentence did not make any sense to his already worn out brain.

"My pack needs it," Jennifer continued as there was no response from Derek, or maybe she was not expecting any response from Derek. It mostly felt like a declaration. "I proposed to you thinking you would be…the future Hale…A-Alpha," she stuttered in hesitation but continued. "But you aren't, and you never will be. My pack needs a capable Alpha, and I am not ready to risk my future for nothing."

"What future? We…we're…mates," Derek struggled for words, he felt like he was dreaming. He hoped that this was just a dream. Why would his soulmate suddenly say such horrible things to him?

"I lied."

There was a long pause.

"Huh?" Derek managed to get out, finally.

"I am not your soulmate, Derek," Jennifer said, in a cold tone. "I lied to you," she repeated.

With a blink of an eye, Derek shifted to his beta form, roaring as he crushed his cell phone in his clawed hand into pieces.