Chapter 20

The smile creeped across Derek's lips almost involuntarily as soon as Skye's number popped up on his cell phone display. "Hey, almighty witch." he said.

She chuckled quietly. "Don't be a tease." There was a small, almost hesitating pause before she asked: "Do you have any plans for this evening?"

His plans had been to go for a run in the forest and then hang out in his loft until sleep would finally come – and with it the inevitable nightmares – but his mood considerably brightened at the prospect of spending the evening with Skye instead. "No, why?" he asked.

He could hear her smile in her voice as she answered. "Well, I'm hungry but way too tired to head out – or god forbid cook. You could pick up pizza on your way here and then we could watch some more Orange is the new Black. We got a lot of catching up to do."

"Sounds good." he replied, already grabbing his jacket and car keys. "Give me thirty minutes. You have any special wishes?" Again, Skye chuckled and the sound made his heart beat a little too fast. "Tequila, but I doubt they sell that at the pizza place, so just pizza. See you in half an hour."

"Yeah, see you." he said, and then he almost raced out of his loft because he couldn't get to Skye fast enough.

As soon as he'd ordered their pizzas – Skye hadn't been the only one to pay attention; she'd had the same pizza the last two times so he figured it was her favorite – and the bored-looking boy at the counter – Derek was pretty sure he'd was in Scott's and Stiles' year – had told him that he needed to wait about twenty minutes, he made an impulsive decision. There was a liquor store just two streets away, so it wouldn't be much trouble to pick up a bottle of tequila.

(He wouldn't admit it to anyone that he only wanted to make Skye smile, because her smile never failed to make him smile too. Pure egoism, really.) Telling the young guy that he would be back to pick up the pizza, he strolled out of the door.

He was halfway there, passing through a dark, narrow alley – not that it worried him, he wasn't exactly defenseless – when suddenly, he heard a sound behind him that reminded him dangerously of a gun being cocked. He turned around abruptly, letting his eyes flash blue to see and taking in a breath of air, searching for any unusual scent, but there was nothing.

Still on guard, he turned around again but before he could even take one step, something sharp pierced his neck and Derek's world went black.

When forty-five minutes had passed since their call and Derek still hadn't arrived, Skye called him. His phone went straight to voicemail and that was when dread started building up in her stomach.

She tried again and then again, left him a message asking where he was – she tried to sound cheerful but in reality she probably sounded a little desperate – and by the time one hour had passed, she grabbed her gun, tucked it into her waistband and left her apartment. Maybe she was overreacting, but her instincts were telling her that something was terribly wrong and over the years she'd learned to trust her instincts.

When she entered the pizza place, she ignored the small line and went up straight to the counter, silencing a woman's protest with one piercing glare. "Hi." she said to the boy – who wasn't doing a very good job at subtly checking her out – and forced herself to smile. "Have you seen a guy in the last hour, about six foot tall, black hair and beard, kind of grumpy?"

The boy raised one eyebrow. "You mean Derek Hale? Yeah, I saw him. He ordered two pizzas but never came back to pick them up. Or pay them." Skye clenched her fists and forced herself to take a deep breath before slamming a twenty dollar bill on the counter. "For the pizza. Did he say where he was going?"

He shook his head. "Nah. And, well, I didn't ask. Honestly, he's kind of scary." Under any other circumstances, Skye would've laughed but instead she just thanked the kid and stormed out, trying very hard to keep her palms from flaring up blue. Her brain was making up countless horrible scenarios of what could've happened to Derek and she had to force herself to keep breathing normally.

It took several minutes before she had calmed down enough to do the logical thing and start searching the vicinity – which was embarrassing, really, because she was supposed to be an expert, she was supposed to know what to do in a case like that, but apparently her brain just shut down completely when it came to Derek.

She didn't find him but she found his phone half hidden under a dumpster in a dark alley that – of freaking course, because that was just her luck – didn't have any traffic cams or surveillance she could've hacked into, and that was the last piece she needed. Something had happened to Derek. Someone had taken him.

Don't panic, she told herself. You've done this before. You're great at tracking people down. He'll be fine.

But still, she couldn't shake the image of Derek, bloody and broken, and for the first time since her family had died, she found herself thinking she was going to need help.

Scott was in the middle of the first chapter of the biology textbook he'd been meaning to get started on for weeks when the doorbell rang. He sighed deeply and contemplated just ignoring whoever wanted something from him at ten o'clock in the evening – it couldn't be Stiles, because he would've let himself in already – but then the doorbell rang again and Scott got up from the couch with a groan.

At the door was a woman he'd never seen before. She was a good deal shorter than him, probably in her early twenties and didn't look threatening at all, but there was something in her eyes that unconsciously made him tense. "Can I help you?" he asked politely.

"I hope so." she replied and then she held out a phone to him. "I found this under a dumpster in an alley. It's Derek's. He was supposed to meet me two hours ago, never showed up. I know he isn't technically part of your pack, but I have a feeling you're nice enough to care anyway."

Scott stared at her incredulously. This was not what he had been expecting – a woman who seemed like she was worried about Derek and apparently had extensive knowledge about him and his pack – and he was so taken aback by it that the fact that she claimed something had happened to Derek didn't even fully register at first. "Who are you?" he asked.

She rolled her eyes. "My name's Skye. But let's focus on the important stuff here. Whoever's taken Derek, they probably aren't planning on letting him go anytime soon. So will you help me or not?"

Scott's thoughts were racing in his head. He was pretty sure that her worry was real – he could hear her slightly elevated but otherwise steady heartbeat which also told him she wasn't lying – but there were still a lot of questions he wanted answers to. How did she know Derek? Why did she know about him and his pack (she wasn't a werewolf herself; that much he could tell)? And could she be trusted?

The part of him that she'd called "nice enough to care anyway" won. He fully opened the door and took a step to the side to let her in. "We should probably discuss this inside." he said and a small smile flickered across her face. Her "thank you" was so quiet he could barely hear it.

Inside, Isaac was just coming down the stairs – he'd probably heard them talking – and eyed the woman – Skye – suspiciously. "Who is that?" he asked. Scott answered before she had any chance to. "Her name is Skye." he said. "She says Derek is gone."

Immediately, worry appeared in Isaac's eyes, again confirming Scott's suspicion that the Beta harbored more loyalty for his former Alpha than he would like to admit. "What do you mean, gone?" he asked. "What the hell happened?"

He descended the last few steps, still eyeing Skye, but she didn't seem in the least bit intimated even though Isaac was almost a foot taller than her, and Scott was pretty sure she was capable of much more than her appearance suggested. He had the uneasy feeling that she would probably be able to take him and Isaac down without much of an effort if she wanted to.

"I mean gone as in leaving behind nothing but his phone in a dark alley." she all but snapped. "And seriously, I know we don't each other but can we get to work here? Because if you aren't willing to help, I'll walk out of here and find him myself. I just thought you would at least pretend to care that Derek is probably being tortured right now."

It wasn't hard to see that her anger was only hiding her fear – fear for Derek – and that was what convinced Scott she was telling the truth. Her worry was sincere, and whatever problems he'd had with Derek in the past, he didn't want the older werewolf to be tortured or even killed.

He could tell that Isaac was still skeptical – he appeared ready to attack Skye at any moment, which Scott was sure wasn't a good idea – but one flash of his red eyes made the Beta back down.

"Okay." he said. "Show me where you found the phone."