Beautiful. That's the one main word Derek Hale would use to describe his girlfriend, Erin Rigel. Even when she's currently sitting on the end of his bed, one leg tucked under the other, absorbed in a school textbook. Which is what he should be doing but in all honesty he'd gotten a little distracted. "You know staring at me isn't going to make your studying go any quicker", the blonde remarked, not taking her focus away from her book.
"Sorry", Derek mumbled and turned his gaze back down to the book in his lap "actually, no I'm not sorry", he corrected, looking up at Erin. She glanced at him with a look of confusion on her face "I can't concentrate on school right now", Derek admitted setting his book aside "and you…" he took her copy away too "are smart enough that you don't need to study as much as you do. So I was thinking we can do something else".
"Like what?" Erin asked. In response Derek shifted closer to her, placing one hand on her cheek. Erin's eyes fluttered shut as he pressed his lips against hers.
~Rigel's Residence~
A young Banshee stood in front of Gabriella Rigel with a serious look on her face. "What did you see?" the Protector asked, getting straight down to business knowing that Sophia was here because she'd seen someone get seriously hurt or killed.
"The Hale house on fire", Sophia replied "several people were trapped inside, including Erin".
"Did my daughter survive?" Gabriella questioned.
"I'm afraid she didn't", Sophia told her "Gabriella, I believe that Erin needs to be separated from Derek as its their relationship that'll get her killed".
Gabriella nodded, having come to the same conclusion "I agree", she said "but forcing them to stop seeing each other won't be enough. They're True Mates".
"So what'll you do?" Sophia asked.
"The only thing I can. Wipe her memory, give her new ones and place her with a normal family", Gabriella answered.
~Hale House~
Erin parted from Derek when she heard her phone ring. "Sorry", she said apologetically, getting it out of her bag. "It's my mom", she said after seeing the caller ID. Erin slid off the bed and answered the phone. "Hey mom. Whats up?"
"Sorry to disturb your studies but I need to come home", Gabriella said.
"Is everything ok?" Erin asked.
"Everything is fine. There's something important I need to discuss with you", her mother replied.
"I'm guessing it can't wait", Erin stated already moving to grab her bag.
"I'm afraid not", Gabriella answered.
"Alright. I'll be home in 10 minutes", Erin said and hung up "looks like we need to cut our study date short, sorry".
"That's ok", Derek said getting off the bed to join her at the foot of it "can I see you tomorrow?"
"Yes", Erin replied "tomorrow, I'm all yours", she promised.
"Good", Derek said, pleased. He kissed her one last time "I love you".
"Love you too", Erin said and with that she left his room. Derek flopped down on his bed with a smile on his face. Tomorrow…he hoped it would come around quickly.
~Rigel's Residence~
"Mom!" Erin called as she entered her home.
"In here honey!" Gabriella called from the living room. The blonde walked into the room to see her parents and brother standing there.
"What did you want to talk to me about?" Erin asked. None of them answered her which made her concerned. She got even more worried when Theo wouldn't even meet her eyes. "Guys? What's going on?" she questioned. Suddenly she felt a sharp prick in her neck. Almost immediately, Erin collapsed, succumbing to the drug she was injected with.
"Do we really have to do this?" Theo asked his mother and father. He honestly didn't feel right about doing this to his little sister. Yes, it was to ultimately protect her but still… wiping her memory?
"I'm afraid we do", Thomas replied.
"If we don't, Erin will die", Gabriella added "Sophia saw it happen".
"But…we're Protectors! We could've kept her safe!" Theo insisted.
"This is the way it has to be", the Protector who'd injected Erin said. He went to pick up the blonde when Theo stopped him.
"No, I'll carry her", he stated firmly. The brunette carefully gathered his sister up in his arms and they took her down to the basement. "I will see you again, I promise", Theo vowed. He stood back and watched his parents plus several of the other Protectors combine their powers to remove all of Erin's memories, replacing them with new ones. As an extra measure, they modified the memories of everyone in Beacon Hills to ensure that no trace of Erin Rigel existed.
Little did anyone know that aside from the family, one person WILL remember her. Her True Mate: Derek Hale.
6 years later…
"'A glooming peace this morning with it brings. The sun, for sorrow, will not show his head. Go hence, to have more talk of these sad things. Some shall be pardoned, and some punished. For never was a story of more woe. Than this of Juliet and her Romeo'" Bethany sighed and closed the book, glad to have finished it. Now I have to write about it the blonde thought great. As much as she loved homework, she wasn't a fan of Shakespeare. She cracked open her notebook and started to jot down some things that she wanted to mention in her paper. There was knock at the door "come in!" she called, not stopping her writing.
It opened and her twin brother, Scott entered. "Beth…I need help", he said.
"Figured as much", Bethany said, setting her pen down and looked over at him "what is it this time?"
"I'm stuck on this question", he admitted "I've been staring at this page for ages and the numbers are starting to blur together". He held up the worksheet. Bethany sighed again.
"Alright, I'll help", Bethany agreed.
Scott smiled "Great!" he said and went over to the desk. Bethany took the worksheet from him and proceeded to explained how to solve the problem. "Oh, now I get it! Thanks Beth, you're the best", he said, happily.
"No problem, Scott", Bethany said. She watched her brother took the worksheet and ran out of the room. The blonde then continued with her homework. Suddenly she heard a noise outside, making her look around at the window. The teen got up and glanced outside but didn't see anything. Bethany shrugged and went back to her writing. She'd barely gotten back into her school work when she heard Scott scream. The blonde bolted from her chair and out of the room. She skidded to a stop when she saw Stiles hanging upside down. "Of course it's you", she remarked "what brings you here at this hour, scaring my brother half to death?"
"I came to tell you that I saw my dad leave twenty minutes ago", Stiles replied "Dispatch called- they're bringing in every officer from the Beacon Department, and even state police".
Scott frowned "For what?" he asked.
"Two joggers found a body in the woods", Stiles answered, barely able to contain his glee. He reached up, pulled himself free of the trellis, landing with a thump on the ground.
"What, a dead body?" Scott questioned making his twin roll her eyes. Even Stiles shot him a sarcastic expression when he pulled himself to his feet.
"No, a body of water" he rolled his eyes "Yes, dumbass, a dead body!"
The McCall siblings watched him clamber over the railing to join them on the front porch "Was this person murdered?" Bethany queried.
"Nobody knows yet. Just that it was a girl, probably in her twenties", Stiles told her.
Scott frowned again "Hold on, if they found the body, then what are they looking for?"
"That's the best part- they only found half", Stiles said.
"Let me guess, you wanna go look for the other half?" Bethany stated.
"Uh…yeah", Stiles admitted.
"Well, count me out. I'm not traipsing through the woods in the middle of the night looking for half a dead body", Bethany said "but I will cover for you with mom".
Scott grinned at her "you're the best Beth", he said.
Bethany smiled back "I know", she said "just whatever you do, don't get caught" and with that she headed back inside the house. The blonde haired teenager carried on with her homework for a little while longer before she turned in for the night.
"I'm not sure what I can't believe more that you found the body or that you lost your inhaler", Bethany said as she drove Scott and herself to school the next morning, her twin having explained what had happened last night. Though he omitted the detail about him being bitten as he didn't want her to worry.
"I know" Scott sighed "please tell me you've got the spare still?"
"Glove compartment", Bethany replied. Scott opened it up and took out his extra inhaler.
"What would I do without you?" he asked, pocketing it.
"Do you really want me to dignify that with a response?" Bethany counter questioned.
"No, not really", Scott admitted.
"Didn't think so", Bethany said. Moments later she pulled into the school "Stiles is here", she remarked nodding to the teenager who was waving at them. Scott opened the door "20 bucks says he goes into super excited mode after you tell him about the body", Bethany said in a teasing tone.
Scott glanced back at her "you know as well as I do that's what he'll be like. So no I'm taking that bet", he said.
"Fair enough", Bethany said "I'll see you in class". Scott nodded and hopped out of the car, taking his bag with him. Bethany also got out of the car, moments before Jackson's silver Porsche, pulls into the parking spot next to her.
"Good morning, Beth", he greeted, getting out of his vehicle "you look nice".
"Thanks", Bethany said. Getting compliments from him wasn't anything new. She got it at least once a day. Though what she could never figure out is why he was so nice to her and yet he was anything but toward her brother.
"Want me to walk you to your locker?" Jackson offered.
"Uh…sure", Bethany replied. She grabbed her bag from her car and locked it. Bethany shouldered her bag and the pair headed into the school. "You know, as much as I appreciate you being nice to me, I still don't understand why", the blonde commented.
"Do I need to have a reason?" Jackson asked. While he was dating Lydia, he couldn't help have a bit of a crush on the McCall girl. She was smart and funny. And unlike Lydia, she didn't have expectations of him.
"No, I guess not", Bethany replied. When they stopped by her locker, she opened it up and put the books inside that she didn't need.
"You coming to practice after first period?" Jackson questioned.
"Yeah. To support my brother and Stiles of course", Bethany answered, closing the locker door.
"Right, of course", Jackson said "see you at practice". He turned and walked away, heading to his first class. Bethany went off in the opposite direction toward the English class room.
~English~
Bethany slid into her seat just in front of Stiles' desk and set her books down on it as Mr Curtis started the lecture, while writing on the chalkboard. "As you all know, there indeed was a body found in the woods last night", Scott grins and looks over at Stiles, who winks at him knowingly "And I am sure your eager little minds are coming up with various macabre scenarios as to what happened. But I am here to tell you that the police have a suspect in custody, which means you can give your undivided attention to the work I've put on your desks". Bethany picked up the piece of paper and scanned the page. Oh, yay. Jane Austin's Pride and Prejudice. Why can't we do anything exciting like Harry Potter?" she thought.
She looked up from the syllabus when the classroom door opened and the Vice Principal walked in with a nervous looking brunette teenager. "Class, this is our new student, Allison Argent. Please do your best to make her feel welcome", he said. Allison smiled weakly at the students before finding the only open seat in the class, which just happens to be the seat behind Scott and to the right of Stiles, the latter of whom smiles at her awkwardly as she sits down.
The former turned around and held out a pen to her. Allison gave him a look of surprise as she hadn't expected him to offer one but she took it anyway and smiled gratefully at him. "Thanks", she said and to which Scott returned her smile.
Oh I know that smile Bethany thought watching the interaction. Her twin brother is starting to fall for the new girl already. She just hoped that neither of them ended up getting hurt.
"We'll begin with Kafka's Metamorphosis on page one-thirty-three", Mr Curtis said breaking through her thoughts. Bethany opened up her textbook to the page and the lesson began.
Bethany settled down on the bleachers ready to watch the lacrosse practice. "Hey Beth", Lydia greeted moving in front of her, blocking her view of the field.
"Hey Lydia", she greeted back "Allison", she added acknowledging the new girl with a nod. The brunette gave her a shy smile. Lydia parked herself next to Bethany while Allison sat on her other side.
"Oh no", Bethany murmured under breath as she watched her brother move toward the goal. She knew how much playing on the team meant to him but she also knew that he wasn't exactly the best player. She just prayed that he wouldn't get hit too many times.
"Who is that?" Allison asked.
"That's my brother", Bethany replied.
"I didn't know you had a brother", Lydia remarked.
Bethany refrained from saying something like 'yeah you were aware but you pretend not to know because he's not cool enough to be on your radar'. Instead she just replied with "Well, now you do".
"He any good?" Lydia questioned nodding to where Scott was.
"He needs a little improvement but otherwise he's not a bad player", Bethany replied. The assistant coach blows his whistle to start practice and Scott, who now has extra sensitive ears, flinched and covered his ears. Jackson took advantage of this and took a shot at him. The ball hits him right in the front of his helmet with so much force that he's knocked backwards onto the ground.
Coach Finstock, Jackson, and the rest of the team members immediately start laughing and making fun of him. Bethany cringed. "Hey, way to catch with your face, McCall!" Jackson jeered.
Scott, now determined to prove himself worthy of being first line, gets to his feet shakes out his shoulders in preparation for the next shot. The next player tosses the ball towards him, and Scott catches it easily. Bethany did a double take at this while Stiles cheered happily. "Yeah!"
Bethany gaped at her twin as he caught the next four shots just as easily. "It looks like your brother doesn't need any improvement at all", Allison stated.
"No, he doesn't", the blonde agreed "he could make first line for sure".
Down on the field, Scott grinned having picked that up with his new heightened hearing. He bounced on the balls of his feet, giddy with the rush of catching all those shots. Jackson glared at Scott and shoved past the player in front wanting to take him down a peg. "Oh, God..." Scott breathed, tensing up seeing Jackson plough towards him and tossed the ball with all the force as he can muster. Though much to Jackson's increasing annoyance Scott caught that shot as well.
Bethany, Lydia and Stiles surged to their feet, cheering loudly. The strawberry blonde gave Jackson as very pointed look 'Is that all you've got?' However, this doesn't do anything but make Jackson even more furious for Scott taking his glory as the best player on the team. "Incredible", Bethany breathed, thoroughly impressed with how her brother had gone from being an a-ok player to being better than Jackson.
~Beacon Hills Nature Reserve~
"You wanna explain how you managed to make all those shots?" Stiles asked as the three of them crossed the creek in order to head to the spot where Scott had both lost his inhaler and found the other half of the body.
"I-I don't know what it was. It was like I had all the time in the world to catch the ball. And that's not the only weird thing. I-I can hear stuff I shouldn't be able to hear. Smell things", Scott explained.
"Like what?" Bethany asked.
"Like the coconut shampoo you used this morning", Scott said and Bethany sniffed her hair, the scent of coconut extremely faint to her "and the mint mojito gum in your pocket", he added to Stiles.
The teenager scoffed sceptically as he reached into his pocket "I don't even have any mint mojito—" Stiles trailed off when he found, much to his surprise, a single piece of folded-up mint mojito gum. Scott raised both of his arms to the side as if to say, 'I told you so'.
Stiles considers this for a moment before he continues "So all this started with the bite?"
"Wait, what bite?" Bethany asked.
"You didn't tell her?" Stiles counter questioned.
"I didn't want to worry you", Scott admitted.
"You didn't want to worry me?" Bethany repeated loudly, smacking him in the arm "bit late for that. is there anything else you're keeping from me?"
"Nothing!" Scott insisted.
"You promise?" Bethany asked.
"I swear, that's it", Scott assured her.
Bethany looked at her twin for a moment before she nodded. "You know, I think I might know whats going on with you", Stiles said after a moment.
"What?" Scott asked.
"You've got lycanthropy", Stiles said as serious as he possibly could. Bethany shot him an unamused look while Scott, not realising that his best friend was messing with him, he started to panic.
"What's that? Is that bad?" he asked.
"Oh, yeah, it's the worst. But only once a month", Stiles said, not even bothering to hide the teasing tone.
Bethany smacked Stiles upside the head "Stop teasing him, he's not turning into a werewolf", she said in a scolding voice "that would be impossible".
"Okay, obviously I'm kidding", Stiles said rubbing the back of his head "But, if you see me in shop class trying to melt all the silver I can find, it's 'cause Friday's a full moon".
Scott stops walking and looks around, frowning when he doesn't see anything remarkable where they're standing. "No, I-I could have sworn this was it", he insisted "I saw the body, the deer came running. I dropped my inhaler..."
"Maybe the killer moved the body?" Stiles suggested.
"If he did, I hope he left my other inhaler", Scott shifted some leaves with his foot "Those things are pretty pricey".
"Tell me about it. I had to replace the last one you lost", Bethany said. She looked around at the area they were standing in "you sure this is were you dropped it?" she asked.
"I think so but it was dark and everything happened so fast…" Scott admitted.
"Alright. You two look around here. I'm gonna take a look over there", Bethany said pointing in a direction.
"Be careful and if you see the body…" Stiles started.
"…Or my inhaler", Scott cut in.
"I'll shout", Bethany promised and headed off in the direction she pointed.
The blonde trudged through the leaves, occasionally some aside, her eyes trained on the floor searching for Scott's missing inhaler. She hoped they would find it but it was highly unlikely considering it was dark when we brother lost it. She paused when she reached a slight slope and started to walk carefully down it aware of how slippery the leaves were underfoot.
Suddenly her foot shot out from underneath her! Bethany screamed as she tumbled down the slope. Thankfully she was caught by a pair of strong arms. "Thanks for the save", she said to her rescuer breathlessly. The person in question couldn't bring himself to speak for he was rather shocked to see that his True Mate had quite literally crashed into his life…well into his arms after seemingly vanishing off the face of the Earth 6 years ago.
He'd spent so long trying to figure how she disappeared and why. But he never got any answers and to make matters worse it had seemed like everyone had forgotten her. Everyone that is except for him. And as for her family…he couldn't find any trace of them either which had frustrated him to no end. However, the literally barrage of emotions that he'd felt over the years: anger… frustration…worry…fear…that was all gone the second his Mate was in his arms. "Erin", he breathed.
The blonde looked at him confused "You've got my confused for someone else, I'm Bethany McCall", she said.
"Oh, right. Sorry", Derek said, setting her down. He should've realised she was different. For one thing, she would've been able to stop herself from falling. For another, there was something off with her scent. It wasn't quite the way he remembered it. There was something missing. "I'm Derek Hale", he introduced and waited for a glimmer of recognition but there wasn't one.
"Nice to meet you", Bethany said "strange question: you wouldn't happen to have seen an inhaler by any chance? My brother lost it out here last night".
"I have", Derek replied and produced it from his pocket.
"You are a lifesaver", Bethany said, gratefully taking it "I better get back to Scott and Stiles, tell my brother the good news".
"You want me to walk with you?" Derek offered. He really hoped she'd say yes as he didn't really want to let her out of his sight, not when he'd just found her.
"Sure", Bethany replied. They walked back up the slope, Derek keeping a supporting hand on the blonde to make sure she didn't slip. "Thanks again for catching me", Bethany said as they walked.
I would always catch you Derek thought, out loud he said "you're welcome". It didn't take them long to reach Scott and Stiles as the pair were still pretty much in the same place Bethany had left them, searching for the former's inhaler.
"Guys!" Bethany called, gaining their attention "found it!" she held up the inhaler "actually, Derek found it" she corrected nodding to the werewolf standing next to her. She turned to him "I know I've said this twice but thank you", she said giving him a smile.
Derek returned it "you're welcome Beth. Take care of yourself", he said and with that he walked away. Bethany watched him go before turning back to Scott and Stiles, the latter giving her a rather incredulous look.
"What?" she asked.
"Do you know who that was?" Stiles counter questioned "that was Derek Hale".
"I know, he told me", Bethany said.
"Do you know who he is?" Stiles repeated "and what happened to his family?"
"No, what happened to them?" Bethany asked.
"They all burned to death in a fire, like, ten years ago", Stiles explained.
"Oh…" Bethany breathed, shocked "poor guy".
"I wonder what he's doing back…." Scott mused aloud.
"I'd say that's Derek's business, not ours", Bethany said.
"Well, we can't stand around here chatting about it, I got work to get to", Scott said and the three of them headed back to Bethany's car and Stile's jeep.
Hours later…
Bethany yawned as she pulled back the covers and she got into bed. She tugged the duvet back over herself, rolled over and closed her eyes. A few minutes later her bedroom window slid upwards and Derek climbed inside. The werewolf knew he shouldn't be there especially when Bethany could wake at any moment. But he couldn't help it . This was his True Mate. Derek quietly walked around the bed as the blonde shifted slightly in her sleep. He reached out and gently caressed her face, his movements stilling when Bethany seemed to lean into his touch. "I won't let anyone take you away from me again", he quietly vowed.