Derek always thought it was a legend, a myth, something parents told their werewolf children as a bedtime story.
Once upon a time, hunters only preyed on animals. The wolves were noble creatures but they were without the ability to fend off humans. One day four hunters scoured the forest looking for game. They spied in the bushes four wolves sitting in a circle. They were stupid and did not know that these four were the spirit of four great packs they had hunted down in their youth. One was midnight black, another sterling silver, one blood red, and finally one was purest white. The hunters started to get worried as they walked closer. The black wolf looked at them, it had gleaming iridescent eyes. The others turned too with eyes to match. They began to speak which frightened the hunters
"You have destroyed us with blackened hearts of coal" The midnight wolf said
"You have ridden our pups with holes of silver ore" The silver wolf said
"You have drained us of blood with ravenous hunger" The red wolf said
"You have stolen our bones with disgraceful vanity" The white one finished
"We will take back what you have desecrated. We will become the children of death, and in so doing, make humanity suffer" They said in unison.
The hunters did not understand what they meant by 'children of death' until they saw the wolves become human in form. The hunters realized what had happened. Before them were their daughters and sons, whom they thought were safe at home"
"We have taken the flesh of all your first born so that you may live in eternal agony. It is your punishment for slaughtering our packs" The wolf children said. The hunters looked into the iridescent eyes of children who were no longer theirs and felt a great agony burn inside them.
We are the decedents of those four spirits, and as long as we live, they will suffer.
"This is pretend" a young wolf boy said to his mother.
He was wrong.
Derek ran gracefully in the forest. The moon shown over head and glimmered off the ferns. He had picked up a scent, and knew instantly that a werewolf was around. Being the protective Alpha that he was, he decided to check it out. Worst case scenario he would have to scare off an Alpha from his Betas, best case he would recruit an omega into his ranks. He was lost in thought but as he neared something brought him back to his senses. The scent of the werewolf was like nothing Derek experienced. It was ... dangerous
Then he saw her. She was standing naked with her back turned to him, in the light of the quarter moon. She looked up and noticed that she was not alone. She turned her head towards him. It was her eyes that gave it way, they were iridescent. After he realized what she was, he turned and ran for his life. He could hear past the loud thumping of his heart that she was not pursuing him but he ran on anyway.
He had glimpsed at her form for only a fragment of a second. She was magnificent, her skin was moonlight. Her frame was glorious. She had long flowing raven locks that nearly touched her perfectly shaped…. No he had to stop thinking about her.
Back at the ruins of his house Derek finally settled down, after he hit the liquor store again of course. He need a little comfort after what he saw tonight.
"An original werewolf" Derek said. This meant trouble.
Scott was sitting in econ, stressing over his final. Coach was passing them back right now. If he failed then he would have to repeat sophomore year. It really wasn't his fault. He spent all of last month hunting down Jackson and keeping the town safe. On the upside Jackson surprisingly didn't press charges and agreed to be chained up every night until he could be cured. Of course that was after he saw the reconstructed video they stole from the Argents.
A flutter of paper hit his desk breaking his train of thought. He closed his eyes reflexively. Then he peaked through his lids. It was a C, thank god. He passed, he was going to be a junior after all! He sighed with relief. Stiles was sitting behind him and saw his grade as well. Stiles let out a whoop accidently which caused half the class to turn and look at him.
"Never mind false alarm" Stiles halfheartedly said. He waved the class to go back to whatever they were doing. Slowly they all turned back around.
"Good job Scott" Stiles then whispered.
The bell rang signaling the end of the day and the end of the school year.
"This day couldn't be any better" Scott thought as he triumphantly walked out of class.
Then Scott spotted Derek at the end of the hall looking stoic as usual. This day couldn't get any worse. Derek lips moved in the distant and Scott could hear it through the din.
"Scott we need to talk, meet me at my car in five" Derek said. A student passed in front of Scott's line of vision and Derek was gone. Was this anyway to start the summer, trouble and all around suckary? No… not this time. Derek was not going to ruin his summer. He was going to spend as much time as he could with Allison, even if it was just five minutes at a time when ever her dad when out for coffee in the morning.
He marched towards the double doors that lead to the parking lot. Derek was standing by his car somewhat aloof. Scott stalked up to him, his eyes yellow with rage.
"I don't care what it is, you deal with it. I'm not wasting another second with your problems…" Scott began to say but the look in Derek's eyes melted his resolve until it was tenuous at best.
"Shut up Scott" Derek said. Scott suddenly realized that Derek wasn't his usual apathetic self, he was on edge. Something was seriously wrong.
"Last night I saw something in the woods, and it could mean a massacre" Derek said when something caught his eye. Behind Scott was Stiles and beside Stiles was the girl he had seen last night. Her eyes were a cool brown and she wasn't naked but he was sure it was her. She was talking to Stiles and giving him… letter? Should he run towards her and save Stiles or save himself and run away. Scott turned to see Stiles and the girl. She was walking towards them now. Stiles stayed behind reading the letter which was quite long.
Before she said anything she handed Scott a letter as well. But it wasn't just any letter. It was an elegant gold trimmed letter with raised lettering. It read Invitation. It was an Epistle.
"Hello, my name is Nora. My family and I just recently moved here and this is an invitation to a house warming this Saturday" Nora said warmly. Scott looked at the letter for a second before he realized what she was.
"You're a werewolf" Scott blurted out semi loudly, luckily there was no one in the vicinity to hear thanks to Derek's intimidating aura. Nora flipped her long straight black hair behind her shoulder.
"You're sure quick to business newborn" Nora said half laughing.
"What are you doing here?" Derek interjected. Nora paused for a second before laughing lightly. She placed a hand on Derek's shoulder.
"You should show me some respect Alpha" She said, her tone no longer humorous. Derek felt his shoulder crack, yep definitely a fracture. She squeezed a little harder, oh never mind make that a compound fracture. She let go finally
"You two have made quite a mess. Dead wolves, rouge hunters and a Kanima on the loose. On top of that one of mine is dead… and I could say that it's all because of you" She said looking deadly. This was getting intense. Scott had to break the tension. What did she mean? How did they kill one of her pack?
"There was an omega here a few months ago" Scott said. Nora turned her attention to him now. Understanding dawned on Derek's face.
"It was a hunter, we never touched him" Derek said
"What's the name of this hunter?" She said her voice low. Derek began to answer but Scott stopped him.
"What are you going to do to him?" Scott said. Nora looked deeply into his eyes before placing her hand on his shoulder.
"Tell me who it was" She said as she applied an uncomfortable grasp on his shoulder. Scott knew that this summer was going to suck. But before he could hear the snap, Stiles finished reading the letter and walked up to them from across the lot. Nora let go abruptly.
"Hey Nora, this is my friend Scott" Stiles said cheerfully. Nora looked at him for a second and Scott was sure she was going to break Stiles' shoulder.
"You're friends?" She said tentatively. Stiles smiled and nodded.
"So, what's the attire going to be, Semi formal? I don't want to be the only one showing up in my spider man t-shirt" Stiles said before he realized what he said. His face turned pink with embarrassment.
"Oh my god did I just say that, why did I say that?" Stiles continued in a higher octave.
"Casual is fine" Nora laughed. Her demeanor had suddenly changed from threatening to friendly on a dime. But Scott felt that she was being genuine somehow.
"Well anyway, Scott is going to show me around town, I'll see you later okay?" Nora said warmly to Stiles.
"Uhhhh… Scott was supposed to help me something" Stiles said. He was looking a little grave now. Scott was supposed to be helping him chain down Jackson tonight.
"Just this once bro" Scott said stiffly. Stiles shot him a "you owe me" look.
"I'll see you guys later" Stiles said and walked off towards his jeep. Nora watched him go for a moment and then turned back to them. Derek shifted slightly and winced.
"You're friends with a human, that's so … amusing" She said. Derek felt his shoulder finally pop back into place, giving him some respite.
"Sorry about that, I've have a bit of temper" Nora said though she sounded anything but sorry. She sighed and looked up to the left as if pondering on something. She looked at the two of them again after a moment.
"I'm having a meeting with the pack tonight before our dinner party tomorrow. It's a briefing on some of the more polemical things in this god forsaken town. You are welcome to join" Nora said with slight exacerbation. Then Scott blinked and in that nanosecond it took for his eyes to open again, she was gone. It took a few more seconds for him to adjust to the blank space she left behind
"Who was she?" Scott asked turning to Derek. He figured that she was definitely the problem he was talking about earlier
"I think… she's an original" Derek said hesitantly as if he couldn't believe what he was saying.
"Original?" Scott repeated.
"She's like the origin of the werewolf, one of the first" Derek answered drawing the knowledge from childhood bedtime stories.
"If that's true then… shouldn't she be like a thousand years old" Scott retorted in disbelief
"More like fifteen hundred, but who's counting when you're immortal" Derek said nonchalantly
"How do you know?" Scott pressed
"I saw her last night in the woods, her eyes were iridescent like the refraction off soap bubbles. That's how the legend goes, it began with four skin walkers who had iridescent eyes" Derek answered
Scott sat uncomfortably between Derek and some guy who looked like he was a muscle magazine model. Scott was slim and lanky in comparison, although Derek fit right in. They sat at long dinner table with ten seats, each filled with either a built Adonis or resplendent goddess. Scott felt himself sink into his chair. He looked around at the fine room, which was nicely decorated with paintings and busts. The table was empty but could easily hold a heavy set of fine china. There was a brilliant crystal chandelier hanging on the ceiling tying the elegant look together.
Derek eyed the chair at the head of the table. It was empty, and everyone was quiet. This was unnerving. Suddenly Derek saw a blur come from the door behind them and lead to the chair. The blur coalesced into Nora. While everyone was wearing jeans and shirts, she was wearing rainbow striped pajamas with slightly damp hair. She was clearly unabashed. Her pack could care less. From the look in their eyes Derek saw that they regarded her with accolade.
"Are you going to kill the Argents" Derek said tersely. He heard a snarl from someone across the table. The guy was clearly peeved at his show of disrespect.
"I'm not a monster. I'm not going to orphan a sixteen year old girl" Nora replied
"Seventeen" Scott chimed in involuntarily. Nora looked at him for a moment.
"She's your girlfriend isn't she" Nora said with insight.
"And you like Stiles don't you?" Scott said without thinking but realizing it was true instantly. He had noticed the way she smiled at him this afternoon. It was silent for a moment before a female beta giggled quietly. Derek looked at Scott as if he lost his mind. Derek clearly didn't think that Nora liked Stiles. But the Beta was still giggling drawing some attention to her.
"This newborn is really observant, Stiles was that puny human boy you were following around this morning wasn't he? Your affair with humans has always been rife" She said playfully
"Shut up Rachel" Nora said angrily as her eyes turned iridescent with rage. The beta quickly shut her mouth but she was still smirking
"I'll just pretend you're odious behavior did not just happen. I was following him because I thought he might be the Kanima. Even if I did like him, I don't see how that matters to our pack" Nora said. Scott was right, and he knew it.
Scott felt a sweat drop slide down is face.
"It is Stiles?" A beta suddenly asked Nora. The beta wondered if Stiles was the Kanima, it was plausible after all he might have gotten the bite from one of them.
"No" Scott said looking at Nora with horror in his eyes.
"He's telling the truth, I'm sure that Stiles is not the Kanima" Nora concluded after a moment.
"What if your judgment is off?" Rachel asked brazenly. Rachel was second in command. It was her job to keep Nora in check once in a while
"It is not off" Nora said sternly and then suddenly she shifted. Her body was covered in dark fur. She pulled on Scott's shirt so that he was inches away from her. This would have been funny, with the rainbow striped pajamas and all, if only she wasn't radiating anger and a hint of evil.
"And if you tell Stiles that I'm a werewolf, I will rip… her throat out" She said as though she stopped half way from threatening him to threatening the girl he loved most in the world.
Derek was fuming quietly in his seat. Nora liked Stiles. That was ridiculous, she was a goddess, and he was some boy who had no idea what feminine pleasure was. The thought of Stiles with his clumsy hands all over her body made his own hands shake. His eyes turned red but he didn't stand out since every beta had the red eyes of an alpha in this room.
Nora was still holding Scott by his shirt, he nodded slowly, and Nora roughly shoved him back into his chair. This was going to be one long summer.
"Now about the hunters, who is responsible for the omega's death" Nora asked Derek. Nora slowly shifted back into her human form.
"It was Gerald Argent, but the omega had just eaten a human kidney off the back of an ambulance" Derek replied carefully.
"You equivocate and I don't like it" Nora said looking slightly unhinged. Scott wished he knew what equivocate meant, probably something along the lines of lying.
"Gerald's gone rogue but killing him won't solve anything" Scott said trying to cut any tension
"I suspected as much, and I agree about not killing him, we'll have to think about what to do." Nora pondered
"I guess we only have one more thing to discuss" Nora said after a thoughtful moment
"Do you want to be part of our pack?" She asked. Scott's eyes widened, she was serious. The betas in the room turned to look at Scott and Derek. Most of them were pensive, a few surprised, and one furious. Rachel looked over Scott and Derek with new eyes. Her expression clearly showed that she did not think they were worthy. Oh what a long summer indeed