Prompt: anger
Derek's anchor hadn't always been anger. When he was a kid, just starting to shift, he could hear his family all around him. The heartbeats in such specific timing. The feeling of family from the pack bond. The smells of home. That was all the anchor he needed. Even when Kate showed up, new and exciting (a part-timer in the coffee store he frequented before class) with her scent - so intoxicating to him - and her steady heartbeat, it could not begin to replace that feeling.
When Laura and him were at the homecoming game and the pack bonds frayed and snapped one after the other both spontaneously shifted. They curled their fists to hide the claws and ducked their heads to prevent the flaring (oh god, Laura's eyes were red now) and tried desperately not to fully 'hulk out' as they sat in the stands of their high school until the police came for them.
There was no point in saying anything. When they saw the pitying looks of the Sheriff and the quiet disclosure – Uncle Peter was in the hospital, with Sarah in the ICU. The rest of their family (nine year cousin Alex who hadn't shifted yet. Mom and Dad. Mary, Cora, Sean. Aunt Heather and Auntie Julia. Baby Jake. So many.) had been confirmed dead on the scene.
When they ventured out of police custody (No sir. They wouldn't leave. They would stay at the hospital to wait for any news.) and checked on both Peter and Sarah – there were no words. The Pack bond was non-existent between them. Derek and Laura clung to one another. Trying to reaffirm the ties between the new alpha and her beta. They looked at each other after the whine of Sarah's heart monitor was turned off and strode out into the parking lot. They ran towards their house.
The smoking ruin almost covered up the traces of wolfsbane and mountain ash. There were traces of other scents. The ones who started the fire. And that heady scent that he had loved to smell in the mornings (and secret evenings, before running in the woods to hide it from his family. He had wanted one thing to himself). Derek burst into tears.
Laura would never realize why. And his sorrow and guilt from that night would become overshadowed by the burning anger. Anger that never left him.