"I like flawed characters because somewhere in them I see more of the truth."
—Nicholas Cage
DPOV
My teeth are on edge. She won't answer her damned phone, and I haven't seen her since she had her episode earlier. I bounce my leg up and down in the hospital waiting room, next to Isaac and Scott, with the Lydia sleeping in Stiles' room. My fingers curl into a fist at my side.
"Derek, relax." Scott mumbles. I growl, standing up and childishly stomping down the hallway to the fucking vending machines and calling her again.
Emily.
Her name's a mantra in my head I can't shake. I know there's something wrong with her. If she kills anyone else, it's going to hurt her like a motherfucker.
EMPOV
I don't let go of Cora for the rest of the night. I keep my hand in hers. Eventually, she falls asleep on one side of me, her cheek pillowed on my thighs. Boyd's temple rests against my shoulder as his full weight rests against me. When he caught Derek's heavy influence on my scent, me, he knew I was safe. That I was Pack. He's asleep now, gripping my hand in his. The door swings open, and before I think about it—I throw myself at the Alpha, knocking him back to the floor outside and slamming my fist into his nose.
"No," Cora's voice trembles breathlessly in horror as his fingers close around my windpipe and he slams me against the wall. He doesn't question how I broke through the line of ash inside the vault.
"Mm. She's even feistier than you, Cora. What do you think, should I play with her too?"
Her heartbeat speeds up fearfully, eyes brimming with tears. No-one makes my sister cry. The wolf inside me snarls. I draw my fist back and push it into the bridge of his nose hard enough to send him reeling back.
"Cora!" I shout, thrusting my hand forward.
"Aiden, don't! Please!" She screams, and the Alpha grasps me by the back of my shirt and dragging me down the hallway, struggling against him. He throws me to the ground and pins my thighs to the floor. The sense of zero control I used to feel when Kate and Gerard used to pin me down to beat the shit out of me comes back full-force and the panic sets in. Aiden grasps the fabric of my shirt, and rips it in half. I can't fight him off. I'm too weak, and he's heavy. So heavy. When his eyes light up at my fighting, I go limp. I refuse to move.
"Fight, bitch! Fight me!" He snarls.
"Niquer vous!" I shout, earning a harsh slap across my cheek. Hard enough I taste my own blood flowing down my throat.
"Think you're above us because you were one of them, Argent? What's Derek going to do," He hisses, brown eyes dark, as he unbuttons my jeans. I want to scream, but I won't give him that satisfaction, "When he finds out you didn't fight this?"
I spit in his face as a last act of defiance. I'd rather die than give in to him. I can hear Cora slamming her fists and elbows against the doors and brick to get out to me. The terror in her voice when she knew he was going to take me…Oh, God. Nausea rolls through me. She knew what he was going to do, because he's done it to her.
"From now on, you want to do this, don't take me instead." I snarl, "Understood, Aiden?"
He jerks the denim down my legs roughly and leaves them cuffed around my ankles, followed by my panties. One of his hands pins both mine above my head. My stomach rolls harder at the sound of him unzipping his jeans and his body covers mine. Aiden thrusts his hips forward and my fragile mental state shatters.
When it's over, he throws me back into the safe with the others. I curl up, drawing my knees to my chest and moving into the fetal position.
"Emily, c'mon. Stay with us." Cora's voice feels as if it's through water. Far away. All I can feel is the sharp stinging pain between my legs. Now, I don't want Derek to find me. I'm disgusting. I'm not worthy.
"Em, please!" She shouts, her fingers digging into my shoulderblades and shaking me to try to pull me out of this dark place I've withdrawn to, "Derek needs you! Weneed you!"
"Cora, stop it. Stop. She's in shock. Scaring her could only make it worse. Let her deal with this." Boyd murmurs, quietly. I feel his thick fingers comb through my hair, trying to comfort me. I still don't move. However long I lie there must be a long time, because I hear the woman enter four times. Four. She comes in at least two times a day. I learned that my first day. So, I lie on the floor for two days. It becomes exceptionally quiet outside the vault as Cora moves my head into her lap, brushing my hair the same way as Boyd.
The wall to the left of me bursts open and the two betas back into the darkness defensively. I don't move. I can't. My muscles have locked.
There's a sharp intake of breath before I hear him say my name. Derek. His scent blankets me before I feel his strong arms underneath my knees and my lower-back. Finally forcing myself into movement, I fling myself forward and cling to him. Arms around his shoulders, legs around his waist with a wince.
"What did they do to you?"
I don't answer. I can't. My throat burns from lack of use.
"I love you." I force myself to murmur, "I love you, Derek." My voice cracks. He tilts his head to kiss me and I shy away. No. Not until I can wash him off of me.
"I love you too. I'm going to set you down now." He whispers, "I want you to go stand by Scott."
Listening to him as my Mate instead of my Alpha, I tuck myself into the boy's side, resting my head against his chest. Over his heart. He keeps his arm around my shoulders, his chin rested on top of my head. Closing my eyes, I let him hold half my weight.
"Cora," I hear Derek's deep breath, "Cora?"
"Who's that?" Scott mumbles, to me.
"Derek's younger sister." I tell him.
"Derek, get her out of here. Get out, now!" The auburn haired girl growls. The full moon. This room. It all comes together when a hand connects the mountain ash in the room.
"NO!" I scream as Cora and Boyd lunge, throwing myself between them and Derek, crashing to the ground with my future sister. Her claws slice through my stomach and I welcome the pain. Blood flows down my stomach and I grasp her by the windpipe—throwing her up against the wall and kneeing her in the diaphragm. Vaguely, I hear Scott and Derek struggle with Boyd, but I ignore it.
"This isn't you, Cora!" I say, trying to get her to relax. To see reason. She slams her knee between my legs: where I'm most in pain from Aiden's assault. I cry out and sink to my knees. Growling, I let the full moon take over. Springing to my feet, my claws extend as Cora and I circle each-other. Derek's footstep in our direction causes a growl to come from deep inside my chest. He freezes.
"They haven't felt the full moon in months!" Scott shouts into the room. I'm too far gone to speak. Derek's teal eyes soften on me as they always have. He slowly makes his way forward: completely focused on me.
"You have to control it. Remember your anchor, Em? You love me. Think of how much you love me. You don't want to hurt me. Je suis a toi." My stomach drops at his words. I am yours.
When Allison steps into the doorway, I back up until my spine flattens against the wall. I really don't want to hurt her. My niece. She glances at me, my appearance, in horror.
"Don't break the seal!" Derek shouts, gripping Cora's wrists fiercely to stop her from clawing more. I sprint forward to face her just as she shouts Boyd's name and pushes the ash apart. Cora and Boyd blur past me and I start after them when Derek charges forward and grasps both of Alli's upper arms and shaking her.
"What were you thinking?!"
"I was thinking I had to do something!"
"Derek, let go of her!" I snarl, grasping him by the collar of his shirt and shoving him up against the wall. His eyes widen when I growl defensively, releasing him and pushing Allison's sleeves up higher. She has fiver branded fingers on each, where he grasped and shook her.
She doesn't speak to me, glaring at him instead.
"You wanna blame me? Well, I am not the one turning teenagers into killers."
"No, that's just the rest of your family."
"Derek!" I protest, shooting him a glare.
"Gerard was not my fault." It's like I've been slapped. I rip away from her and back away.
"What the hell did you do?" I growl.
"She tried to kill me and Isaac last year." My mate speaks in a sour tone, "Because she blames me for her mother's death. Tell her, Scott. Tell her the real reason I was fighting with Victoria that night."
Derek draws me into his arms and carries me out of the bank into his car.
"What did they do to you, Emily?"
"One of them...Aiden...He–" I catch Cora's scent, wrench my door open, and throw myself out. Chasing after her. My heart slams faster as I push myself to my physical limit of speed. Someone's hand shoots out to clothesline me and I growl. My stomach drops when I find myself face-to-face with the last person on earth I'd expect to see.
"Preston?" My half-brother flashes me a devil-may-care smile and I throw my arms around his shoulders. He was born six months before Allison. My mother had divorced Gerard and married an Alpha. She was the scandal of the century, but was still the matriarch of our family. My brothers were all mama's boys.
"Where have you been?!" I murmur, examining him curiously.
"Taking care of the others. Sawyer turns sixteen next month, and Daemon turns eleven." I feel tears well up. They're growing up so fast.
"Where are they now?"
"Locked up in the motel room. I came looking for the Alpha."
"You're looking at one of them. My fiancé is probably the one you were trying to find. Derek."
"Derek? You're engaged to Derek Hale?"
"Yeah. I am." I smile, "I have somebody I'm supposed to be finding right now, so...Which motel are you at?"
"Motel 6 Downtown. I can help you look, Em. I'm in control." He murmurs.
Preston is slightly taller than me with his father's chocolate brown hair that sticks up in every direction, with my mama's—and Allison's—honey brown eyes, wide shoulders, and a wide chest. My older brothers weren't born muscular—they had to build muscle up on their own. But, the Adelizzi kids were born with the blood of a strong Alpha.
DPOV
Emily remerges from the woods in a full-force sprint, leading a beta I've never seen before behind her. When they both pause, the resemblance is unmistakable. This has to be one of her younger siblings. The ones I never met.
"Preston, this is my fiancé, Derek Hale, the Alpha you came looking for. Derek, this is Preston Adelizzi, my brother." She says, her arm around the teenager's shoulders. He looks like her. I reach forward and shake the kid's hand.
"Hi." I grumble.
"Hi." He replies gruffly, glaring protectively. She elbows him in the ribs, grey eyes flashing red as she lets out a warning growl.
"Der," I turn my head at the sound of my nickname. She's still wearing her torn shirt, purple circles under her eyes, her skin paler than normal. Gaunt. "He's going to help us find Cora...and Boyd." My mate continues. I nod, reaching over to tug her against me. Three days without her has been hell, with thinking of the awful things the Alpha Pack could've done to her.
Whatever it was, the woman clinging to my arm isn't the same Emily that sent me running after Stiles. Emily looks her age—but more tired. As if the world came crashing down on her shoulders while she was away from me.
3PPOV
Sawyer rolls over restlessly, her heart pounding in her chest as she hears her baby brother fighting the chains that keep him bound tightly to the headboard.
"Sawyer, please!" He cries, "Please let me out!"
"Shut up, Daemon." She snarls, her claws cutting deeply into the mattress. Her glowing yellow eyes flash as she looks over at him before the beta rolls out of bed and crouches down in front of the Pre-adolescent. Without warning, Daemon rips through his restraints, shoves his sister to the ground and beelines for the door, tugging it open and sprinting.
"Daemon!" Sawyer tears after him, following after the boy, "Petit frère, arrêtez!"She freezes when a tall, male figure throws him over his shoulder to still him.
A cloud moves away from the moon, and the boy's features become visible. Tanned skin, high cheekbones, dark brown eyes, full bottom lip, and strong muscles visible through his clothes.
"Need some help?" He smiles amusedly. Sawyer chews on her bottom lip as he follows her up into their motel room and securing him to the bedpost better.
"I'm Sawyer."
"That's a different name for a girl. I like it."
"Well, Handsome Stranger, I told you my name. Are you going to tell me yours?"
He smirks before answering.
"I'm Aiden."
Niquer Vous: Fuck You.
Petit frère, arrêtez: Little Brother, Stop!