Angeline POV

"Jackson get your feet out of my face."

"Well get your nose out of between my toes, Scott."

"Would you two shut up? You're going to wake up Angeline, and then Derek is going to skin us senseless!"

"Would all of you shut your mouths? Angeline's cool, she won't tell Derek that we woke her up. Which is the exact reason we shouldn't. She's too nice to ruin her sleep."

"And she doesn't look like she's healed yet."

Despite knowing that I would regret it, I pulled the pillow from beneath my head and threw it at my feet. From the thump I heard, I could tell that I had successfully hit someone in the face. "You guys need to shut up and get out or I'm going to throw you down the staircase."

"You are so Derek's girlfriend." Scott chuckled beneath me, to which I kicked him in the ribs. "Lydia, Allison, Boyd, Erica, where is Derek?"

Lydia replied as the rest of them erupted with questions as to why I selected a few people. "He said he had to meet someone and pick something up at the grocery store."

I sighed, "What is it with him and leaving me alone with you guys? Is it some kind of bonding exercise you came up with?" I sat up, head swirling like fog. The pack began to rise, climbing out of the bed and walking out the door. Isaac stood beside it with an arm to help me out; I chuckled, accepting his help for a moment before trudging out on my own. I slowly made my way down my stairs, looking for my phone somewhere near the counter.

"Hey Ange, there's a note over here for you from Derek. And something written in a different language." Before I could take the note from Stiles, Erica plucked it from his skinny, nimble fingers. "Ooo, love letters, way out of the norm from our glaring, stern alpha male. Lydia, what does it say?"

I pulled it from her fingers and looked it over as Lydia scoffed a sassy reply, "Why do you automatically assume I know what it says?"

"Because you're the chick that's freaky smart. You already learned archaic Latin because classic was too easy." I hardly noticed her comment as a small smile parted my lips.

Sorry babe had to meet a former pack member. Going to the store afterwards, have the pack text me with anything they need. See you before noon. Don't go to work. – D

Below it was the message. It was written in Italian, it shocked me how he would've known that 1) I speak and read Italian, and 2) he knows and writes Italian.

The message translated into Aspirin is in the cupboard next to the fridge, you won't have to ask. By the way, you look very self-satisfied when you think I've fallen asleep first.

Allison caught on to my smiley expression, moving over and lightly bumping hips with me. Light enough to avert any possible discomfort from the bruises on my bones. "So what does it say?"

I folded the sticky note and tucked it into my pocket. "Derek wrote it so that it would be safe from prying teenage eyes."

"What is it, some kind of love letter?" Stiles wriggled his eyebrows and Scott gagged. Isaac got that same red, uncomfortable expression on his face. I squeezed it in my hands inside the fold of the thick fabric and smiled, "More or less." The boys cringed and moaned again.

The girls smiled at me and went about their own business of feeding themselves. "What time did he leave?" I asked absentmindedly, pulling out the coffee grounds and turning up the burner for the kettle. No body answered and I could hear them commencing in the living room, I figured they were ignoring me. Warm hands gently hovered on the sides of my hips and slid their way till they rested on the dip of my waist, rough hands that were cautious to circumvent the variety of damages.

"I haven't been gone long", Derek's voice was whispering in my ear, rough and husky. I could smell leather and rain over the reeking stench of coffee. I loved that I could smell it stronger than anything else, why though, I didn't know, not that I really cared. I reached up and curled and tugged the hair on the back of his head, leaning my own against his collarbone. Derek wrapped one arm around my front midsection and the other pulled back on my arm, kissing the sensitive skin of the inner part to my bicep. I shivered, part because of the chill from his lips, and part because my shirt had ridden up and the counter was cold on my touchy skin.

Derek didn't mind though, there was a splitting grin that formed on his face. One that only got wider when it happened again. The muscled in his chest rippled, despite the heat radiating from them I still broke out in goosebumps. "Cold now are we?" His chest rumbled behind me, chuckling. "Very", I murmured, this was my favorite thing that we did. I felt empowered and vulnerable at the same time, with the only person I would want to. There was a small *click* and Derek sighed, the moment ruined. He turned his head away and suddenly my arm felt cold too.

"I'm saving this picture for when you need it." Lydia said, smirking to her phone and turning around as Derek and I shared a concerned look.

"What does that even mean?" I said it with a laugh, but my tone was evidently concerned. "You'll know when you know", was all she replied with.

I looked up at Derek behind me for some reason, "she knows more than it seems. I try to just go with it."

Derek's face didn't give much away, not that it would've normally. "So who were you meeting with?" I turned around to look at him, his blank and confused expression changed to that of a begrudgingly angry type. "Much as I would prefer you never have to know, he'll be here any minute. There is someone coming that I haven't told you about –"

"No, nephew, I doubt that you would've", a man that looked in his forties stepped into the doorway. He was wearing a button up shirt and hunting jacket overtop, simple pair of jeans and a smug smile that seeded a pit of dislike in my first impression. Derek seemed to take notice, "This is my uncle Peter."

The betas had jumped up and stood in a crowd opposing Peter. Scott stood to the front of the mob, glaring painfully and standing on the verge of shifting. "Is this the same uncle that killed dozens of people, kept 5 teenagers trapped in a highschool, then let you get blamed for it, nearly killed Lydia, and had the major hots for Scott's mom?" Silently, Derek nodded; he had his eyes trained on the male inside the doorway.

"You told her about that!?" Scott sounded like he wanted to continue being angry at Peter's presence, but my comment seemed to have caught him off guard. It didn't matter though; Derek was in a protective stupor. He re-secured his arms around me and pulled him flush against his chest.

"Hello dear", Peter leered a shiver worthy smile my way, and took a step forwards to grasp my hand for a shake. Derek growled deeply, grabbing my shoulders and turning my away from Peters reach. The betas growled again and glared. "I said you could be here, not antagonize my pack and family."

Peter smiled again and retracted his hand, putting them in his pocket ad rocking on his heels. All the while he seemed nonchalant; his piercing eyes remained classically trained on my person. I put my hand on Derek's shoulder, pulling out of his grasp. I turned in front of him; his eyes were an astonishing red, the alpha red.

"Why is he here?" Scott choked out, becoming red in the face from frustration. "He wants back in." Derek kept his voice mild, but I could hear his heart beat, steady, but fast, angrily fast.

"And you're just going to let him? Welcome him back with open arms?" Scott shouted incredulously, I analyzed peter, whom pursed his lips and chuckled downwards.

"Well it is technically his house; he did live here for a better part of his life." Isaac broke from glaring to tug on his scarf and furrow his brow in thought. Stiles' anger was stripped away as well, only proven more by his comment following Isaac's. "See? See what I mean with the not helping? How does that comment assist, in any way, what we are trying to do here?" The two continued to bicker back and forth and Scotts glare maintained itself on Peter, who squinted oddly at him, like this was funny.

Everything seemed to be funny to Peter; it was ridiculous that he seemed not to have a care in the world. The man had an entire packfull of teenagers and their alpha glaring at him and he was laughing.

"I'm home, now will you please stop with the staring? Your making me blush." Peter smugly walked path the horde of teens and past Derek and I, who again, whipped me behind him faster than my achy body would have liked.

Derek sighed with an unnamingly agitated expression across his features. He pecked my cheek and made his way for the stairs, I got the feeling that Peter's presence had put him out of his happy mood. It didn't help that Scott was hot on his heels either.

"Derek this is outrageous! You can't let him back around here! It's not safe, he's going to –", Scott rambled on, and Derek began his ascent up the stairs. "Not now Scott." Derek sighed, and it made my heart ache with everything else that this was ailing him. Scott stared after him dubiously and started to follow after him before I grabbed his arm lightly. He turned on me with a confused look; I puckered my lips, and beckoned for all of them to follow me.

I led them outside, Derek's hearing was near immaculate, he would still be able to hear me, but it wasn't the point. "Do you realize that that man upstairs has had his existence crumble to pieces on 3 different accounts and have not been able to do a single thing about it?"

The betas hung their heads in submission, but Scott and Stiles refused to let it rest. "We know, we've heard this story like – a million times."

I scoffed at him, "Just because you come accustomed to something, does not make it any less horrid." The two of them stood with heads down too. "Imagine it Scott. You lost your mom. And then Derek, and everyone else, all because you chose to trust Allison. Think about that, you mom would be dead, your brother, your best friends, your father. Anyone that you would have been able to turn to, anyone you trusted, more than life, is dead. And there isn't one thing that you can do about it. And it's all because you wanted a relationship with Allison." There was an odd light in his eyes, one that shone slight fear, but I wasn't done.

"You've still got Stiles, but not for long. Because, oh look, all of a sudden Stiles is gone too. And again, you are all alone. After a little while, there's a little spark on the horizon." I took a step forwards, eyes a pair of auburn rocks with a black dot in the middle. Scott had fear in his eyes, it was good, because it meant I was getting through to him.

"Somebody's back, your dad maybe? And you've got everybody yelling at you and telling you not to trust him, forget about him and side with them. People you've just met verses a person you held close for longer. And then he's gone too. And nobody cares but you, and then he's back. And those people who don't care that you've lost everything three times now, are telling you not to take the chance to be with the sliver of your old self.

Peter is the sliver of his childhood that he has left, sick and twisted as he is. And every one of you is telling him not to take the opportunity to remember his childhood, and family. It's what you kids can't understand. Derek has finally got a piece of his old family back and you guys are basically saying that he can't have it." I saw Isaac swallow hard, tears in various sets of eyes and I smelled sorrow and regret rise in the air.

"Look guys, I can't stress enough that you don't give him enough credit, for anything. Just think about that the next time you go to give him a hard time about something. Derek has you guys, and now again he has his uncle. I simply ask that you don't screw that up by making him feel guilty for indulging himself." With on last lasting glare, I turned to go back inside. I wanted to see Derek, I didn't know his perspective of the situation, and something told me that he wanted to kill Scott.

"He's really lucky that he has you too, Angeline." I paused, putting a hand in the doorway and smiling a little to myself. Whisking the expression away quickly afterwards, I walked for the stairs.

"You're good for him." Peter was right behind me, with his eerie tone of voice, "and them."

"I appreciate that. But don't think that it makes me any less angry about what you put him through."

Peter chuckled again, and it was a surreal experience, and I don't like it. "Well that's too bad, I –", I walked on, quickly lugging myself up the stairs. "It's rude to cut someone off."

Peter smelled peeved behind me, but again I felt that ache in my hearts walls that Derek was hurting. "I don't really care." Following the statement, my feet carried me the rest of the way up the stairs and down the hall to his bedroom.

Pushing open the door, it was evident that he had closed the curtains. Maybe he didn't want to hear what I had to say outside. Maybe he just didn't want to hear anyone at all. "Derek?" I called; the sound of light scraping leading me to the bathroom. The door was locked and the light was on beneath it, "I'll be out in a minute." Derek's voice sounded distracted, he's probably shaving, my mind reasoned.

Choosing to trust him with his declaration, I rested on the bed. Looking over the room was something I didn't get the opportunity to do the previous night, so I took the chance to do it now. For starters, it was big. It was big enough it be a master suite, but then again, this was a mansion, an estate even. It's no surprise that the Master bedroom was the same size as the ballroom…

It was a wide rectangular shape, the door stood in the middle of it, and just across from the king size bed. A grand pair of windows sat superiorly on each side of the short headboard, covered by dark shaded, blackout curtains. The room was left unpainted, with charred, ashened black walls. The floor was simply covered with a big grey rug, and a few more scattered around for whatever the first one doesn't cover. The entire chamber looked like the dark end of a grey scale. From the rugs, to the curtains, to the bedspread, they were all varying shades of grey and black.

My thoughts were interrupted by the bathroom door creaking open, and light hurriedly flooding the dusky room. Derek sighed and stepped out, revealing a clean shaven face spoiled by an unhappy expression. He had that air around him like he had things he wanted to say, but no words to. He began rifling through the files upon files he had sitting on his desk. He was conflicted; I could sense it like a pressure, a pressure that constricted my breathing, my heart and my head.

Walking up behind him, I curled my arms up around his shoulders, pressing my nose into his spine. This happened to be in the center of his back due to me being so much shorter than him. It was a blessing that he could comfortably kiss the crown of my head, but a curse that I can't see over his shoulder when I stand directly behind him. Derek stopped moving and turned his head to the side to glance at me just over the fabric from his tee shirt. It was only a moment before he turned back to his papers.

I didn't say anything for a while, turning my face to one side and resting it on the center of his back. There was a steady bump – bump, bump – bump of his heart. It was the most serene, calming thing I'd ever experienced, more than sitting in my mother's lap.

My mother.

She's the hardest thing to remember, of every family member, every fact and event that happened at every reunion, birthday party, funeral. She has always been the hardest thing to recollect. Maybe it's because I repress those thoughts, or maybe I repress all thoughts when it comes to Boston. What is it with me and self - philosophy every time I get quiet time with Derek?

"What are you thinking about?" Derek's voice rumbled and vibrated through his lungs and tee shirt, buzzing warmly against my cheek.

"I didn't think you would be the one to talk first."

Derek scoffed, "It's not like I'm mad at you." I had to think about that for a moment. Is that really what he's like when he's mad at someone? He must be furious, because he's never acted that way at me. Derek and I have had bicker battled, but nothing big enough to be considered our 'first fight'.

"Well?" He asked again.

"Thinking."

"About?"

"Things that don't need to be discussed right now."

Derek grunted in response. For a moment I thought we would go back to being silent, but Derek wouldn't let it go. "I'm sorry for springing Peter on you." He didn't look up and I scoffed and let go.

"Derek, if you thought that Peter would spark any kind of emotional disappointment, you are sorely mistaken." I went and lay sideways on the bed, supporting my head with my hand.

Turning his head to the side he squinted at me with a casual scrutinizing gaze. "I must be." He stopped with his papers and looked away, before adding, "And Allison was right, I am very lucky." Speeding across the room and planting a peck on my forehead, Derek left the room, door open.

For a moment, I was confused, until I remembered a voice shouting. "He's really lucky he has you too, Angeline." I smiled despite myself and buried my face in my hands and pillow, unsuccessfully giggling at my very deceivingly sweet boyfriend.