25- Kori

"He what!? I'm going to kill him! I'm going to get a bat and bash his head in!"

"Nothing actually happened; Stiles, calm down!"

Kori wasn't exactly surprised Stiles was upset, he never liked Luke so him trying to force himself on her at a party was just another thing to not like him for. But Stiles was heated, whatever fear he had toward Kori was gone and forgotten; rage wafted off him, the scent of it hanging in the air around them.

"That doesn't matter! He could have…he…God! I'm going to kill him. You should have killed him!" He said to Kori. "Why didn't you kill him?!" Stiles jabbed a finger at Derek.

Derek's arms were crossed over his chest as he leaned on the nose of the Jeep. He nodded his head at Kori. "She wouldn't let me."

Stiles whipped his head back to his cousin. "Why wouldn't you let him!"

"Because what's the point? It's done, over. I have no reason or desire to speak to him again. Plus, even drunk I'm sure Derek scared him enough to keep him away from me."

Stiles huffed, not pleased that Luke wasn't going to get a serious ass kicking. "He can't just get away with it. What if next time it's someone without a scary werewolf boyfriend."

Kori's cheeks flushed, her eyes darting from Stiles to Derek. "He's not my boyfriend." She said quietly. Derek let out a low chuckle, Kori turned to him with a frown.

"You two were literally ripping each other's clothes off up there 10 minutes ago; he's your something."

"I…I…So?" Kori stammered, unable to think of anything to say.

Stiles rolled his. "Look, it's whatever. Not even the point. The point is, not everyone has Derek at their back."

"He's not wrong, Kori." Derek interjected.

"So, you want to kill him?" Kori swept her gaze over both men.

"No," Stiles concedes with a sigh. "I guess not, but someone needs to do something. We could report it."

"No."

"But Kori-"

"Stiles, I said no. I'm not going down to the station and going through this with Uncle Noah, when nothing happened. Do you have any idea how pissed he'll be? Over something that might have happened. He might be the sheriff, but he'll be in a cell by the end of the day. I'll talk to Luke."

"No." Derek tells her firmly. "You'll stay away from him."

"Derek-"

"I'm with Sourwolf on this; I don't think you should go anywhere near him. Scott and me will talk to him.

"You and Scott?" Kori laughed. "Seriously?"

"Scott can throw his werewolf strength at him." Stiles pointed out.

"Fine, whatever. This isn't even out biggest problem, you know."

"Well, tight now it's the only one I care about." Stiles says, opening the driver door. "And maybe I'll bring my bat, you know for good measure."

"You're an idiot." Kori tells him with a shake of her head. "Hey, why did you come here?"

The boy shrugged, climbing behind the wheel. "I had a hell of a time figuring out why the Jeep wouldn't start, until I saw some cut wires under the hood." Stiles said, narrowing his eyes at Kori. "I heard he was being released today, figured you'd be here. Wanted to show you my victory, also had intentions of yelling at you. Can't a Stilinski down Kor." Stiles grinned, closing the door and driving back down the dirt road.

Kori sighed, flopping down on to the leaf covered ground. "Well, that went better than I thought it would."

Derek set himself beside her, putting his arm around her and pulling her against him. "What did?"

"Stiles knowing about us, I mean there's more to tell him but I think maybe now he'll back off with the suspicious gaze."

"You were flustered when he called me your boyfriend." Derek said after a moment of silence.

Kori closed her eyes, letting out a slow breath. "We didn't talk about any of that…I'm not into putting a name on anything anyway. I didn't want him assuming something we didn't even discuss, plus this is…this is more than just a high school romance thing."

Derek nodded. "I don't mind you know."

"Mind what?" Kori shifted to look Derek in the eye.

Derek shrugged. "Him calling me your boyfriend; I don't mind. You're right, this is more than a high school romance. But what do you tell people? You can't just come right out and tell them the details, right? I didn't really even think twice about it; it didn't even seem weird."

Kori smile. "Okay, so there is it then. We had the talk."

Derek returned her smile, kissing her softly. "We had the talk."

Kori sighed, leaning into Derek, resting her head on his shoulder. "I scared him. Stiles." She said quietly after silence had fallen between them, her voice filled with guilt and sorrow. "He's never looked at me like that before."

"He's okay thought, so are you; you pulled yourself back."

"Only because of you and even then, I only just heard you. Everything was muffled. That hasn't happened in a long time. Derek…that scares me." Kori confessed, bringing her arms around Derek's torso.

"I know it does, but you're stronger than you think. You can stay in control, even without me. And I think telling Stiles everything will help; less secrets, another person to talk to; you had everything bottled up, Kori. You kept pushing everything down, forcing yourself to be okay."

"I guess." Kori mumbled into the material of Derek's shirt.

"You know everything is different for you, I don't have the difficulty with control you've had. Emotions don't anchor you like they do me, they feed your wolf. You fight it, which is good to a point, but that's where the panic attacks come in."

"I don't want hurt anyone, especially Stiles; not really."

"It'll get easier, I think this True Mate thing will help anchor us both." Derek leans forward, untangling himself from Kori, pushing himself up to his feet. He turned to her, looking down, and held out his hand. "We'll do some more research, there's got to be more than just added physical strength. You gain strength in number too, that's not something to make this unique enough to become some kind of urban legend." Kori reached her hand up, letting Derek pull her up to her feet gracefully. "There has got to me something more. I can physically feel a pull to you, it's like there is a rope keeping up tethered together; when you move, I stumble to follow. With such a strong connection, that has to mean that we can anchor each other and gain better control."

Kori nodded in agreement, holding Derek's hand as they walked back to the house. "Maybe it's not strong enough yet?"

"What do you mean? Feels pretty strong to me." He asked as they walked into the burnt shell house.

"Maybe there's something else to this; we're linked together but maybe the bond it still fragile, still forming."

Derek set himself down on the bottom of the stairs. "So, it's weak?"

Kori shook her head, leaning against the wall near the stairs with her arms crossed. "Not weak, fragile, incomplete. Maybe there something more to it than just…this pull. Something that has to be done to seal it."

"Hm." Derek hummed thoughtfully. "Okay, I can see that. I don't like the idea of anything about us not being strong enough, but that could explain why you didn't hear me at first. Really, if we can anchor each other is shouldn't take much effort at all to reel you back in from going over the edge."

"Maybe that really does mean that the bond isn't complete then."

Derek ran his hand over his face, sighing as he got to his feet. "So, we've got some answers to find then."

Kori stepped forward, wrapping her arms around his waist. "We've got burgers, that are ice cold by now, to eat. I'm starving.

Derek smiled, bringing his arms around Kori as he leaned down to rest his forehead against Kori's. "They're only cold because you just can't seem to keep your hands off me."

Kori leaned back in Derek's arms, giving him an appalled look. "Me?! You're the one who carried me of to your bed! All I did was touch this spot," Kori moved her hand to Derek's shoulder, brushing her thumb along the curve where his shoulder and neck met. "Right here." She finished softly.

Derek tilted his head to the side involuntarily. "Cheater." He murmured.

"Strategy." Kori said softly with a grin, pressing her lips against hi warm skin.

Derek's eye flutter closed, a low rumble vibrated through his body. "I thought you were hungry?" He ground out, his finger digging into Kori's hips.

"Hmm, yeah." She said, pulling back. "You're right. Let's eat." Kori grinned, patting Derek on the chest.

Derek's eyes follow Kori as she walked over to the rickety table by the door, grabbing their food.

"Who's leaving who hanging now?" He grumbled.

Kori laughed, walking back over to him, handing him the bag of food. She stretched up, pressing a kiss to his cheek. "Payback is a bitch, ain't is babe?" She through him a mischievous smirk, winking at him as she tugged on his belt loop. "Come on, let's eat outside."