Abandoned Beacon Hills Rail Depot
Derek's POV
"Ar-Are you sure?" I hesitantly and shakily asked.
"Yes," Boyd answered with an almost indifferent voice, but I knew better and could smell how distraught he felt. "We couldn't find him before because he was locked inside a walk-in freezer."
"A walk-in freezer?" Erica inquired, clearly as confused as we all were. "What would Scott have been doing in a walk-in freezer?"
"Maybe he was looking for a place to keep Jackson," Isaac suggested.
"You said that he went to make sure that the Argents didn't ruin the plan," I reminded him, quickly finding something to focus on rather than grief, and that was anger, and I was familiar with anger. "They killed Jackson, anyway, and Scott disappeared before they did. This is their work. They killed Scott!"
"We don't know that, Derek," Erica said. "Accidents happen and sometimes people get locked inside walk-in freezers by mistake. Aren't the Argents only after killers? Scott is... (Pause.) Wa-Was not a killer."
"Don't be naive, sweetheart," Peter retorted. "You don't know what the Argents are capable of. They killed my family and covered their crimes against us, against me, for years, and only gave up Kate after I killed her, so there wouldn't be an investigation. They don't care if you're innocent or not.
And let's be honest here, they had reason to kill my Beta because he was guilty of something."
"You should be dead, not Scott!" I growled out to the man I killed not so long ago, and he somehow found a way to make Lydia revive him by using me, hence I couldn't help with the search for Scott these last few days, because I spent the last four days recovering.
"You got your revenge, dear nephew, what more do you want?"
"What if he killed Scott?" Boyd questioned while staring at Peter, and we all stared at him.
"How would I have killed Scott when I was dead when he disappeared?" Peter inquired from his cage.
"You were dead, but you're alive now," Erica pointed out. "People don't come back from death, but you did."
"You have as much motive as the Argents to kill Scott," Isaac added, moving between Peter and me with Boyd and Erica, and my heart ached as I realised that they were protecting me, me, the person who tempted them to this dangerous life, despite the fact that we had Peter locked inside a cage.
"This is ridiculous!" Peter boomed. "Do I look like someone in the condition to kill someone, let alone my own Beta?! You think coming back is easy and without a price?"
"From what I heard, you killed your own niece, your own blood. Maybe you paid for your revival with Scott's life." Erica responded.
Considering how cunning and heartless Peter was, I knew that there was a chance that he at least orchestrated Scott's death from beyond the grave to revive himself, he killed Laura, as Erica reminded him, and orchestrated his resurrection, after all.
"What did you do to Lydia to make her resurrect you, Peter?" I questioned, walking past the wall my Betas formed, my eyes turning red as I came face to face with my uncle. "What was the price for your unnatural life?"
"A little of your Alpha spark and my abilities," Peter answered, and pointed at a nasty bruise from my fist meeting his face. "I have a bruise to support my case, a few, actually, all over my body, that you gave me. What about you? What proof do you have that I killed my Beta."
"Scott is MY Beta!" I yelled at him with my Alpha voice, and he recoiled away from me.
It took a moment for me to register that I used the present tense, and my heart ached, while a single tear fell down my cheek.
"I'm sorry, Derek," Peter replied after a few moments, and for once, he genuinely sounded sorry. "But Scott isn't - wasn't your Beta. I don't know what gave you the idea, but he wasn't. If he was, you would have felt him die."
An arrow with an arrowhead made of the most poisonous wolfsbane to my heart couldn't have hurt more than those words did.
Peter's ability to hurt people with just words was really something, and it hurt even more because he sounded genuinely sorry.
"What?" A confused Isaac asked, doing a good job of hiding just how much the way Scott died affected him.
He was by far the best Beta I had when it came to control.
"I don't know why you two (Boyd and Isaac) are so affected by Scott's death, but you (Erica) aren't as affected, are you?" Peter responded, I wasn't surprised he saw through Isaac. "You (Derek), Boyd and Isaac are impacted on a personal level, but not Beta/packmate level.
My take is that Scott's death reopened old wounds for you, Boyd and Isaac, and I can say the same for you too, Derek, but you also cared about him.
I don't know if Scott cared about you too, but he certainly didn't feel like you were his Alpha, he was probably using you to deal with the kanima just as you used him to get to me."
"Shut UP!" I yelled, using anger to hide how betrayed and vulnerable I felt. "You don't know anything!"
"Except what I know, and what I know tells me Scott had a plan of his own."
"I. Said. Shut! UP!" I roared at Peter, and he fell to his knees and wrapped his hands over his head and ears. "Say one more word, and I'll kill you, again, and you are not going to come back this time, I'll make sure of it."
I then stormed out of the rail depot, but Peter's words followed me out and kept on echoing in my head.
I was grateful neither Boyd nor Erica or Isaac followed me because I needed to be alone.
