Visionary:
I walked into Derek's loft in my ISABEL MARANT ETOILE striped sweater, MANGO Super slim-fit black jeans and Accessorize Simple Side Tie Ballerina with a messy side plait. Stiles was shifted nervously at my side as I strolled into the loft as though I owned the room and I quirked an eyebrow as I looked around for any sign of Derek because I hadn't seen him for two days since Boyd's death.
"Cora, where's your brother?" I asked my friend in annoyance as I grabbed Stiles' wrist gently and dragged him further into the room as the female Beta walked into the main room of the loft from upstairs.
"Derek's not here. He hasn't been back since Boyd died." Cora told me in an emotionless voice as she crossed her arms over her chest and I sighed in frustration as I walked over to sit down on one of the ratty armchairs to the side of the room. "This has happened once before. Back when Derek was fifteen, he witnessed some hunters killing a werewolf and they were about to kill him but Peter stopped the arrow before it hit him. Apparently, they found an abandoned warehouse somewhere in the forest. They were there for two days, waiting, hiding. That's what we're taught to do when the hunters find us... hide and heal."
"Okay, so is two days standard, then, or are we thinking Derek's on, like, some extended getaway?" Stiles asked her impatiently as he started pacing the length of the living area and I rolled my eyes at him as I kicked off my shoes before crossed my legs on the armchair. Cora turned around to face him with narrowed eyes as she crossed her arms over her chest and he rubbed the back of his neck with his hand in irritation.
"Why do you care?"
"Why do I care? Let's see... because over the last few weeks, my two best friends tried to kill themselves. Their boss nearly got ritually sacrificed. A girl that I've known since I was three was ritually sacrificed. Boyd was killed by alphas. I... do you want me to keep going? 'Cause I can, all right? For, like, an hour."
"You think Derek can do anything about that?" I asked Stiles sceptically as I shifted to get comfortable on the seat and Stiles turned to face me with an exasperated expression on his face.
"Well, since he's the one everyone seems to be after, it's more like he should do something about it, yeah." He said sarcastically as he threw his arms in the air slightly with a frustrated frown and I held up my hands in mock surrender as I leant back on the chair.
"I don't know. There's something different about him now. He wasn't like this when we knew him." Cora said in a tone mixed with nostalgia and sadness as she turned around to look out the window at the raindrops running down the glass with a wistful frown.
"What was he like?" I asked her curiously as I tilted my head to the side with a small smile and Stiles nodded in agreement with my question as he crossed his arms over his chest.
"A lot like Scott, actually." Peter announced cheerfully from the top of the metal spiral staircase to the side of the room as everyone turned in his direction and I waved an impatient hand for him to elaborate as he strolled down the stairs towards us. "A lot like most teenagers... unbearably romantic, profoundly narcissistic, tolerable really only to other teenagers."
"Hey!" I cried indignantly with a scowl on my lips as he came to a stop next to my chair and he smirked down at me with guarded affection in his teal eyes as he placed a hand on the back of my head. "I take great offence to that! I pride myself on being exceptionally atypical. Especially, from the hormonal half-wits that populate my school."
"It's sentences like that one that make you the exception to the rule."
"And so what happened? What changed him?" Stiles asked impatiently as I smiled warmly up at Peter and the ex-Alpha smirked down at me as he sat on the arm of the chair I was sitting in.
"Well, the same thing that changes a lot of young men... A girl." Peter said nonchalantly as he shrugged his shoulders innocently with a faint smile and I licked my lip as I looked down at my folded hands because I knew exactly who he was talking about.
"You're telling me some girl broke his little heart? That's why Derek is the way he is?"
"Don't talk about things you know nothing about, Stiles!" I hissed angrily as I lifted my head to glare at my friend in annoyance and he jumped back slightly in shock as he frowned in confusion.
"Do you remember Derek before he was an Alpha, he had blue eyes? Do you know why some wolves have blue eyes?" Peter asked the human pointedly with a knowingly smirk on his lips as he crossed his arms over his chest and I leaned back on my seat as I brought my knees up to my chest.
"I just always thought it was, like, a genetic thing." Stiles replied easily with a subtle shrug of his shoulders as Cora strolled over to sit down on the small couch across from us.
"If you want to know what changed Derek, you need to know what changed the colour of his eyes."
"Once upon a time…" I drawled mockingly as I rolled my eyes playfully with a smile on my lips and Peter chuckled softly as he glanced down at me before looking back over at Stiles.
"Back when Derek was a sophomore in high school, he met a young girl. Derek and his Neanderthal friends were playing basketball in one of the hallways and this pretty brunette came out of a music room to tell them to knock it off. He followed her back to the music room and apologized for interrupting her cello practice. She blew him off, but he agreed to leave her alone after she tells him her name. She challenged him back, agreeing to tell him if he could play one instrument in the room."
"What instrument did he play? He did play one, right? He learned her name?" Cora asked him eagerly as she sat up straighter on the couch and Stiles walked over to lean his side on the edge of the couch as he tried to hide his interest.
"He played the triangle." I told them with a smirk as I rested my chin on the top of my knees and they all snapped their heads around to look at me in surprise. "And her name was Paige."
"He told you about Paige?" Peter asked me in shocked as he frowned down at me from the arm of the chair and Stiles gaped at me with his mouth open as I nodded sagely in answer to the ex-Alpha's question.
"Okay, so if Derek was a sophomore back then, how old was he? How old were you? How old are you now?" Stiles asked Peter rapidly in confusion as he pointed a finger in his direction and I stifled a laugh at his expression as I wrapped my arms around my legs.
"Not as young as we could have been, but not as old as you might think."
"Okay, that was frustratingly vague. How old are you?" he asked Cora pointedly as he turned to look at her on the couch and she quirked an eyebrow at him with a faint smirk.
"I'm seventeen." Cora told him easily as she glanced over in my direction for a split second and I smiled in amusement as Stiles sighed in relief that someone answered him properly.
"See, that's an answer. That's how we answer people."
"Well, seventeen how you'd measure in years."
"All right, I'm just gonna drop it. What happened to Derek and the cello girl?"
"What do you think happened? They were teenagers. One minute, it's, 'I hate you, don't talk to me.' The next, it's frantic groping in any dark corner they could manage to find themselves alone for five minutes. Their favourite dark corner was an abandoned distillery outside of Beacon Hills." Peter said indifferently as he shrugged with a smirk on his lips and I laughed lightly as stretched my legs out so that my feet hit the ground.
"That was so not how Derek described it." I murmured to myself in amusement as I shook my head slightly and Cora smirked slightly as Stiles chuckled lightly.
"All right, hold up. How do you know all this? You just said that they were alone." Stiles asked Peter suspiciously as he narrowed his eyes at the ex-Alpha and I quirked an eyebrow as I looked over at Peter curiously.
"Back then, I wasn't just Derek's Uncle. I was his best friend, his closest confidante. That's how I know." Peter lied easily without blinking as I pressed my lips together to stop from laughing at the blatant lie and he placed a warning hand on my shoulder as I covered my mouth with my hand. "Anyway, Derek and Paige had snuck out to the distillery one night but unfortunately, it was the same night that there was a meeting with all the packs in the area. They were all there... Ennis, Kali, Deucalion... each with their own packs, before they'd killed them all and decided to form their little all-star team."
"But they didn't all live here, did they?" I asked him in confusion as I frowned up at him because I didn't know this part of the story and he hummed a little in acknowledgement to the question as he glanced down at me.
"No, but there was an exceptionally powerful Alpha who did live here. She had a capacity to shape-shift that was rare among her kind. That made her something of a leader, the kind of person that they would go to for advice and guidance... My older sister, Talia Hale."
"Mom…" Cora and I both whispered fondly as we shared a small smile across from each other and Stiles frowned in confusion as he looked between us but didn't comment.
"Ennis had called the meeting because the Argents had killed one of his Beta's. They dragged him to the distillery, an arrow in his throat, and they hung him and cut him in half. The Beta killed a hunter, so the hunters killed the Beta, and Ennis wanted to kill the hunter that killed the Beta. It was a never ending cycle. Talia and Deucalion both tried to talk Ennis out of his bloodlust for revenge but he was determined." Peter told us all as he stared at the wall across from us in recollection and then snapped back to reality as he stood up from the edge of the chair before strolled over to the window. I watched him curiously with a small frown on my lips as he drew a spiral in the condensation collecting on the window and then turned around to face us with a small smirk on his lips. "Our mark for vendetta."
"Man, you guys really take that revenge thing to, like, a whole new level, don't you?" Stiles commented in disbelief as he stared incredulously at the ex-Alpha and I rolled my eyes at his naivety as Cora stood up from the couch with a frown.
"It's not just revenge. Losing a member of your pack isn't like losing family. It's like you lose a limb." Cora explained to him quietly as she stared at her feet with her lips pursed together and I looked at her sympathetically as I stood up from the chair before making my way over to where she was standing.
"They wouldn't even let him see the body." Peter said in a mock-concerned voice as he tilted his head to the side and I wrapped an arm around Cora's shoulders as I led her over to sit on the couch.
"I don't get it. What does this have to do with Derek?"
"Everything. It's never just a single moment. It's a confluence of events. Personally, I looked at Ennis' circumstances, I saw a profound loss. Derek saw something different. He saw opportunity."
"Opportunity? To do what?" Stiles asked him in confusion as he shook his head slightly and I rolled my eyes at Peter in annoyance because I knew what came out of his mouth now was going to be a lie or at least not the whole truth.
"To always be with her. The thing was, he had this constant fear. He was obsessing over it, thinking about it all night, all day, always on his mind. Derek wanted her to be turned. I kept telling him not to do it. Every day the more he thought about it, the more convinced he became. You know teenagers. I bet he even blames me. He's probably convinced himself the whole thing was my idea. He knew that Talia wouldn't agree to turn her so he wanted to get one of the Alpha's to do it while they were in town." Peter said calmly as he walked back over to the armchair I had recently vacated and I bit the inside of my cheek to stop from snapping at him as he sunk into the chair. "This was around the same time that Talia went to see Deaton about the upcoming war. He was the Hale pack's emissary, you know?"
"What's an emissary?" Stiles asked cluelessly as he looked around at all of us with a frown while I nodded in understanding and Cora bit her lip slightly as she took in all the information.
"They keep us connected to humanity. But they're a secret even in the pack. Sometimes only the Alpha knows who the emissary is. Derek and I had no idea about Deaton." Cora explained to him firmly as she ran a hand through her hair in frustration and I grabbed her free hand in mine to offer her some comfort.
"Or his sister, Morrell." I supplied nonchalantly as I waved a hand dismissively in the air and Stiles spluttered slightly as he turned to look at me in surprise.
"She's an emissary too?" he asked me in shock as he snapped his mouth closed and I nodded at him as I shrugged my shoulders innocently.
"For the Alpha pack."
"Our guidance counsellor? Why the hell don't you people tell me any of this stuff, huh? I shared some really intimate details with her."
"And did she give you good advice?"
"Actually, yeah."
"That's what they do. That's what Deaton used to do for Talia." Peter said dismissively as he rested his elbows on his knees and we all turned back to face him eagerly for more of the story. "Derek decided that he wanted to be with Paige forever. He asked me to help organise one of the Alpha's to turn her for him. I looked at the available sources and finally decided on Ennis."
"Ennis? Why would he choose him?" Cora asked him curiously as she rested her head on my shoulder and I squeezed her hand comfortingly as I pursed my lips in annoyance at Peter.
"Why not? Ennis needed a new member for his pack. Paige was young and strong. Doing a favour for Derek meant Ennis would be in good with Talia. Back then, everybody wanted to be in good with her."
"He doesn't remember it was Ennis, does he? Because he never mentioned that part to me." I stated with a frown on my lips as I curled my feet underneath me and Peter shrugged his shoulders at me indifferently as I quirked an eyebrow at him in question.
"So then what happened? Did he turn her?" Stiles asked irritably with obvious interest in his voice as he shifted on his feet and I glanced down sadly because I knew how this story was going to end.
"Almost. He came at Ennis. A 15year-old boy against a giant. There was no reason for him to fight. She'd already been bitten. She should have turned. Most of the time, the bite takes. Most of the time." Peter told us softly as he folded his hands in front of him with something that could almost be called regret in his teal coloured eyes and I heard Stiles' heart start beating slightly faster as he frowned in suspicious at the ex-Alpha.
"When you offered it to me, you said, 'if it doesn't kill you.'"
"Not everyone makes it. Didn't take that into consideration when you bit me, did you?" I asked Peter with annoyance lacing my voice as I flashed him a tight sarcastic smile and he scowled at me with indignation as he leaned back on his chair.
"You survived! You're too stubborn not to have survived." Peter said dismissively as he waved a hand in the air with a roll of his eyes and I scoffed slightly at him as I fought a smile at his stupid outlook on what happened. "I was there at the high school that night. Just in case Derek needed me. I followed him as he carried a dying Paige to the same basement we hid in from the hunters. I listened to him ask himself what was happening to her. He knew the answer, though. It didn't matter that she was young and strong. Some people just aren't made for this. But she fought. She struggled desperately, trying to survive. Paige begged him to end it. To end her suffering. I remember taking her body from his arms, to the woods, to a place where I knew that it would be found... another in a long line of Beacon Hills animal attacks."
"And what about Derek?" Cora asked in a small voice as she looked at her uncle with glassy eyes and I felt a tear run down my cheek as I cleared my throat gently.
"Taking an innocent life takes... Something from you as well, a bit of your soul... darkening it, dimming the once brilliant, golden yellow to a cold, steel blue... like mine." He answered slowly in a dark voice as he flashed his steel blue werewolf eyes at us and I stood up from my seat on the couch as I wiped away the tears that fell from my eyes. I watched the rain drip down the glass of the window as I crossed my arms over my chest with a sigh and I could see the other's reflections sitting sadly as they took in the story they'd just heard. Some over what Peter had told us was complete bullshit but I didn't bother correcting him because I knew that Stiles and Cora probably wouldn't believe him anyway. I could still remember the first time that Derek had told me the story of him and Paige and it always brought tears to my eyes to think about how in love they must have been for him to consider spending forever together.
I rolled over onto my stomach with a satisfied sigh escaping my lips as I smiled contently and Derek chuckled softly from the opposite side of the bed as he turned to head on the pillow to look at me with a faint smirk.
"We should have been doing this from the start." I murmured lightly in amusement as I swept my gaze over Derek's muscular bare chest with a smirk and he laughed at my comment as he nodded in agreement. It was the start of the summer after we had defeated Gerard and cured Jackson from being the kanima and I had been spending more time with Derek because he was helping me train Jack on how to be a werewolf. The Alpha had dividing his time between teaching Jackson and searching for the missing Erica and Boyd with Isaac and Peter while I had been spending as much time with Jackson as possible before he moved to London. We were both feeling completing stressed out with what was going on and we found that sex was the perfect stress relief. "You know, if we had been doing this from the start, it probably would have improved your mood considerably. Why are you so grumpy all the time? It can't just be about the fire. Although, it is a perfectly reasonable excuse and you are handling it better than Peter. A lot better than Peter."
"It's not just because of the fire." Derek admitted softly as he turned onto his side with his arm under his pillow and I quirked an eyebrow at him with question with a small smirk on my lips.
"Is it because one of your girlfriends was a complete and total psycho? Because at least she was a hot psycho. Crazy people are the best in bed."
"I know." he said with a grin as he leaned over to gently bite my bare shoulder playfully and I laughed at him as he pulled back to pressed a kiss to the same spot he bit before lying back on his pillow. "It is about a girl. But not Kate."
"You don't have to tell me." I said quietly as I leaned my cheek on the pillow opposite him when I saw the sadness in his greenish eyes and he smiled faintly as he ran his finger gently down my bare spine while I supressed a shiver at his touch. "But you can. It might make you feel better to get it off your chest."
"When I was in high school, I played on the basketball team. It was the popular sport back then, not lacrosse. One day, my friends and I were playing around in one of the hallways near the music rooms, just bouncing the ball around, laughing, not caring who we were disturbing. This gorgeous brunette came storming out of one of the music rooms. Apparently, we were messing up her cello practice. She told us off for playing in the corridor, said that she was practicing. I was being a cockily asshole and asked her how she knew we weren't practicing ourselves. I can remember I said, 'Well, I'm pretty sure basketball practice takes place anywhere you got a basketball.' When she just rolled her eyes at me and tried to walk away, I stopped her, told her that we'd leaving if she could take the ball off of me. She made a few half-hearted attempts to steal the ball and I showed off with trick dribbling and she just turned around and walked back to the music room."
"And what did you do then? Please don't tell me you let her walk away? She sounds badass!" I exclaimed happily with a smile on my lips as I listened intently to Derek's story and he chuckled at my description as he nodded in agreement with a wistful expression.
"I didn't let her get away. I followed her and tried to apologise. She blew me off, but I asked for her name anyway and she told me that she was trying to practice, and I agreed to leave after she told me her name. She challenged me, agreed to tell me if I could play one instrument in the room. I think that was the moment I fell in love with her." He told me softly as he stared blankly at the ceiling of the train car we were lying in and I hummed in acknowledgment as I tilted my head to the side to look at his forlorn expression. "I scanned the shelves stacked with musical instruments and went back to her with the instrument hidden behind my back. She looked at me expectantly and I pulled a triangle out from behind my back and hit it gently with the metal beater producing a single clear note. I can still remember the surprise and reluctant impressed smile on her lips when she told her name was Paige."
"You were such a dick. A triangle? Really?"
"After that I went back to the music room a lot just to see Paige. We used to sneak around together. Mostly at school, sometimes at this abandoned distillery on the outside of town. Everything was going great. I was falling more in love with her by the day. It wasn't until Peter showed up one day at school during lunch that I even started to think about it. I remember the exact words he said to me. 'She's perfect for you. And perfect combinations are rare in an imperfect world. It would worry me too, though. I'd probably be thinking about it all the time. Her finding out. You've thought that through, right? You know it always happens. One minute, you're in this blissful teen romance, and next, she sees fangs, glowing eyes, claws. They always find out. Especially when they're perfect for you. There's really only one way to make sure you'll always be together. Turn her. I have the perfect idea. Laura told you about the packs being here, right? There are more alphas than I've ever seen in one place. Your mother would never do it. And these packs won't be here much longer. The time to do it is now. One little bite, and she never gets sick again. She stays younger, more beautiful. Think how she'll be able to protect herself. Derek... the bite is a gift.' It started me thinking."
"You agreed for her to be turned?" I asked him softly in an understanding voice as I bit the inside of my cheek and blinked away the tears that had started to fill my eyes.
"I don't even remember who it was that bit her. My job was to lure to the school at night so I wrote her a note asking her to meet me. I sat alone in the locker room bouncing a basketball up and down as I listened to Paige whimper and cry. I just sat there. I finally reached the point that I couldn't stand listening to Paige's suffering anymore and rushed to help her. I found her crawling along the floor of the hall and I did the only thing I could think of. I went after the Alpha that was following her. I don't remember what their face looked like. All I can remember about the fight is that I was easily tossed onto the ground and I saw that Paige had already been bitten so I stopped fighting."
"What happened?"
"I took her to the basement of this abandoned house we used to go to. I took away as much of Paige's pain as I could but she was still suffering, still in pain. She explained to me that she knew I was different. She suspected I was a werewolf because she had seen strange things in town and also because of the way I spoke, said things like how I'd 'caught a scent'. I couldn't believe it. I asked her 'And you still liked me?' and she told me that she loved me. She was bleeding black ooze from everywhere, kind of like how Gerard was but not as severe. She cried out in pain, and I kissed her forehead as I drew out more of her pain. She asked me if she was going to die and all I could do was nod my head. She cried and told me that she couldn't take the pain anymore. She begged me to end it. To end her pain. It was my fault in the first place. It was my fault that she was in agony. I couldn't let her stay that way. I pulled her into an embrace and then hugged her so hard I broke her neck." Derek told me in an emotionless voice as he stared blankly at the ceiling overhead and I sniffled slightly as I hastily wiped the tears that had fallen down my cheeks away with my hand. "Peter took Paige's body from me and placed her in the woods where he knew she would be found. Taking an innocent life takes something from you, a bit of your soul. It dims the once brilliant golden yellow of our eyes to a cold, steel blue. Like mine were before I was an Alpha."
"Paige sounds amazing. I think we would have gotten along great. She didn't take crap from you either." I said lightly as I rolled over onto my side to face him with a faint smirk on my lips and he turned his head to look at me with a half-hearted smile but I could easily see the remaining sadness and guilt in his green eyes. I pressed a small kiss to his bare shoulder as I shifted closer to his side and leaned my head on his chest as he wrapped an arm around my waist comfortably.
I was knocked out of my memories by the sound of my cell phone vibrating in my pants pocket and I frowned slightly as I hastily pulled it out thinking that I might be Derek calling me but instead I found a text message from the last person I thought would be texting me.
Unknown: We need to talk. Please. – Aiden
I inhaled sharply when I read his name on the screen as I frowned down at my phone and I ran a hand through my hair as I glanced over my shoulder at three of the people I loved most in the world. I knew something was wrong because Aiden had taken the time to type his whole name instead of just signing over with an 'A' like he normally did when he texted me and I knew that this was his way of subtly warning me. I tapped my finger against the edge of my phone as I considered the request I had been sent and one major thought ran through my wind as I stared out the window blankly: 'Appear weak when you are strong, and strong when you are weak.'
Me: Train Depot at the edge of town. 10 minutes. - Sophie
I took a deep breath to calm my racing heartbeat as I slowly made my way down the metal staircase into the abandoned train depot the pack had once used as a hideout and I knew that I was basically walking to my death as I concentrated on the sound of my shoes clanging on the metal steps. I wasn't sure what I was going to find waiting for me at the bottom but I was damn sure I wasn't going to go down without a fight.
"Sophia. Nice of you to join us." I heard Deucalion's voice greet me happily from the middle of the empty warehouse as I stepped off the last steps and I held my chin up in defiance as I looked over to where he stood with Aiden a few steps behind him.
"Deucalion. What an unwelcome surprise." I said emotionlessly as I walked slowly towards him with a blank expression and I noticed Aiden shift slightly on his feet with a small hint of remorse in his chocolate brown eyes as he crossed his arms over his chest.
"You came alone. I don't know if that's very brave or very stupid of you."
"Why would I shepherd my friends to their slaughter?"
"There'll be no slaughtering today, I assure you." He told me with a small amused smile on his lips as he folded his hands over the top of his cane and I came to a stop at least a car length away from them.
"Well, if it isn't my blood you want, what is it?" I asked him quietly as I crossed my arms over my chest with a frown and I steadily ignored Aiden's gaze burning into me as I focused on Deucalion instead. "I highly doubt you invited me down here to chat about my day."
"No, you're right." Deucalion muttered mostly to himself as he tilted his head to side as though he was studying me although I knew that was impossible and I tried my best not to shift uncomfortably on my feet. "I wasn't always like I am today, Sophia. I want to tell you a story. One that might make you see my side of things. A few years ago, I was just an ordinary Alpha and when I still had my sight, I had a pack of my own only a few hours away from here. All the local packs were gathering and we were all there with. Ennis, Kali, myself were all in attendance. We gathered in Beacon Hills with our own packs in tow to seek guidance and advice from Alpha Talia Hale."
"I would be very careful what you say next." I warned him softly in a deadly voice as I narrowed my eyes at him threateningly when he spoke of Talia and I saw Aiden stiffen slightly at the mention of Ennis.
"Ah, yes. You knew Talia when you were younger, correct? You were friends with her youngest daughter. She mentioned you once or twice. She was very fond of you, even when you were a child."
"She was like a second mother to me." I said quietly as I licked my lips sadly with a frown and Aiden shot me a sympathetic look over Deucalion's shoulder as I blinked back tears.
"I remember her saying something the last time I saw her, 'I've found the perfect girl to add to my pack. The only problem is her age. She's only nine at the moment, and I don't want her to miss out on her childhood. At least I know what to get her for her eighteenth birthday present. After all, the Bite is the perfect gift.' I believe she was speaking about you, Sophia." Deucalion told me in an quiet voice with a soft smile on his lips as I swallowed roughly and I felt my lower lip tremble slightly as I closed my eyes tightly so that I wouldn't cry in front of them.
"You said you wanted to tell me story. Tell it so I can leave." I ordered in an emotionless voice with a hard edge as I opened my eyes to glare at him and he sighed slightly as though as I being a difficult child.
"Ennis showed us a rope covered in blood hanging from a hook in the distillery ceiling. Apparently, one of his Beta's had been shot in throat by the Argent's. They hung him up and cut him in half. He was understandably angry and called a meeting to discuss what we should do about it. I reminded them that the hunter's may not discern packs but they do discern motive and I asked Ennis why his pack member was killed. It came about that the Beta had killed another hunter and was killed for revenge. I begged Ennis not to become a historical cliché. I argued that tradition is no reason to keep doing something. I tried to convince him not to carry a vendetta. A blood feud with the Argents wouldn't end with an eye for an eye. A murder would become a massacre. But Ennis couldn't be persuaded and he carved a revenge spiral into the side of the distillery with his claws."
"Interesting moral compass you have. Other people shouldn't participate in blood feuds, but it's okay for you to play a part in one." I remarked drily as I rolled my eyes at him with a scowl on my lips and I saw Aiden's lips twitch slightly as Deucalion pursed his lips in annoyance at the interruption.
"Talia and I arranged a conference with her emissary, your boss Deaton. I wanted to approach Gerard about a truce, a call for peace between the Argents and the packs. Talia thought that Gerard might be the wrong one to approach and Deaton assumed she meant because the Argents have a matriarchal leadership structure. Talia disagreed with him, said that Gerard was the wrong one because he is a 'complete psychopath' who 'cuts people in half with a broadsword'."
"I've meet Gerard. She wasn't wrong."
"Don't get ahead of the story, dear." Deucalion scolded me lightly with a small smirk on his lips as he tilted his head towards me and I bit the inside of my cheek to stop the onslaught of sarcastic comments that came to mind. "I was mildly surprised that they had so little faith in people. I naively believed that Gerard must have been worried about the deaths on his own side as well. Deaton then retold the fable of The Scorpion and the Frog. Do you know it?"
"Yeah. yeah, I know it. A scorpion and a frog meet on the bank of a stream and the scorpion asks the frog to carry him across on its back. The frog asks, 'How do I know you won't sting me?' The scorpion says, 'Because if I do, I will die too.' The frog is satisfied, and they set out, but in midstream, the scorpion stings the frog. The frog feels the onset of paralysis and starts to sink, knowing they both will drown, but has just enough time to gasp 'Why?' The scorpion replies: 'It's my nature...'" I recite knowingly with a purse of my lips as I nodded along with the story and Aiden quirked an eyebrow at me as he tilted his head to the side with a cocky smirk on his lips.
"That' right. The story was to point out to me that my faith in humanity wouldn't matter if I underestimated Gerard's nature. Talia advised me to meet Gerard on neutral ground and not to go alone. Gerard was waiting with several hunters when I arrived at the abandoned distillery with three members of my pack. Gerard commented that the meeting place is fitting because 'distillation is the separating of two substances by pushing them into their individual volatile states but I said that volatile is the state I was hoping to avoid." He told me softly with a slight edge of anger in his tone as he tightened his grip on the top of his cane and I stiffened slightly in anticipation of the rest of the story because I could already tell that this wasn't going to end well. "Gerard then cranked open a valve that released a white gas into the room from several different pipe openings and both of my betas and two accompanying humans went down from the effects of the gas. Gerard jabbed himself with an autoinjector syringe, I'm not certain what was in the syringe but it made him immune to whatever was affecting the others. While the werewolves are incapacitated, Gerard picked up a spiked mace that he stashed in the building and started attacking his own hunters, killing them in a way that would look like werewolf attack. I couldn't believe it. He told me that the hunter's wanted peace with werewolves, and therefore were traitors to the cause."
"He's a hypocritical old bastard. It was only recently that he blackmailed Scott into helping him get the Bite. He killed people to become what he most despises. He was going to kill his own son and granddaughter." I hissed angrily as I clenched my hands into fists at my sides with a scowl on my lips and Deucalion tilted his head in curiosity as he hummed in acknowledgement to my words. "Gerard is currently rotten in a long-term care facility suffering from wolfsbane poisoning. I imagine it's very painful."
"I'm glad. He deserves no less. I haven't told you the last of the story."
"Then please continue. I don't need another reason to hate the bastard, but I'd welcome one."
"I crawled out of the distillery and rolled over in the dirt onto my back as Gerard stalked after me. I begged him not to kill me, told him had a vision, a vision of peace. It's true. That's all I wanted. For my pack, the other packs nearby and the hunters all to stop adding to the pointless rising death tolls. Gerard mocked me for having 'short-sighted' vision. He then produced two of the hunter's flash-bang arrows and thrust them deep into my eyes. They exploded, and all I can remember is the intense burning." He recounted angrily through clenched teeth as he glared blankly over my should at the wall and one single tear ran down my cheek as I hurried to brush it away before Aiden saw it. "When we didn't return after some time, Talia came looking for us. Doctor Deaton treated my injured eyes as best he could at the animal clinic but explained that, while the tissue will grow back, my sight would not return."
"I'm sorry. I'm sorry that that decrypted old man did that to you. But that's not the rest of the story, is it?" I asked him knowingly as I tilted my head to the side slightly in curiosity and Deucalion sighed heavily with a small smile on his lips as though he was hoping to get away with leaving part of the story out, but wasn't surprised that I figured out the truth.
"No. No, it isn't. I asked to be left alone. I need time to adjust the news, Talia and Deaton understood that and left the room. My second in command, Marco stayed and I guess he thought that because I was now blind I was weak and he attacked me. I defended myself against him. I accidentally discovered that killing one of my Betas allowed me to absorb their power." Deucalion said calmly as he walked a few steps closer to me and I stiffened immediately as I narrowed my eyes dangerously. Aiden tensed slightly behind him as he carefully watched the older Alpha's movements through narrowed chocolate brown eyes and I pursed my lips together as Deucalion stopped an arm's length in front of me. "I think you'll find that I'm not completely heartless, Sophia."
"No. No, not completely. There's always that narcissistic side of you that loves yourself."
"Hm. I can see why Talia like you so much. You're spirited, vivacious." He commented with a soft chuckle as he tilted his head to the side with a small smirk on his lips and I hummed in agreement with his assessment of my character as I took a step back from him.
"Excuse me if I don't necessarily want a character reference from the man who's making me and friend's lives a living hell. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a funeral to get ready for." I said tersely as I walked backwards away from them with a scowl on my lips and I turned away when I reached the bottom of the metal staircase. I glanced over my shoulder at Aiden quickly before I could talk myself out of it and I saw him looking back at me with an almost remorseful expression on his handsome face.
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