Of Lovers and Of Beasts
A Teen Wolf fanfiction
"All that I am and everything I ever was and everything I could never be – it's led me to you. This monster! This bond! Her and yes, him too! It, it... she – me! I always come back exactly where I ended and exactly where I began. I always come back to you – to your wolf!"
Enjoy.
The black Camaro cut through the night like a scythe through the grain, 120MPH up the winding mountain back roads to the only place that ever felt right.
Two weeks gone was too long, but he had needed the break. Needed to let it all die down and use the time to figure out what came next. It was his job now to maintain his position, scant though it was.
Alpha.
"Of what," he growled to himself, turning up the music in an effort to distract his mind. It didn't work, the rumbling bass making his teeth vibrate uncomfortably and his ears twitch as they sought to maintain his awareness. Distraction meant death to his kind. Distraction had only ever fucked him over in life. No, he had to stay vigilant.
At least for once in his miserable life.
He punched the newly installed radio, hearing the small fans inside whir and crackle angrily at the moment of its unforeseen death.
Alpha.
The man hated that the word rattled around inside of his head in her voice, taunting and damning all in the same tone. He remembered the moment he had heard her spit the word at him, her hands grasping at her body in vain desperation, the tears coursing over her beautifully twisted features.
You should have let me die.
You will regret not letting me die, I will make sure of it.
I will not yield to you – never again!
I will not kneel to you.
You will never be my Alpha.
Distraction. The thoughts of her were distraction of the destructive sort, even the simple memory of her last howl awaking that deep longing inside of his wolf. He could hear it stir, the hot white heat of acid rising in his throat. He could taste blood there, knowing that the wolf was tearing him up inside as it so often did, straining to escape his flesh to scream at the night. He just had to push it down long enough for him to get home, trying to will it into submission with the promise that they would be free soon.
The only time his wolf was like this when he thought –
Danger.
It was an instant awareness that they spoke into existence simultaneously; the wolf, even when not in control, was always on alert. Even underneath the overwhelming thoughts –
DANGER.
Human preservation, animal instinct, all screaming.
He could hear the trees falling in the distance, as if the devil himself was headed towards him. Thirty, maybe thirty-five seconds at the most and that hell creature would be upon him even if he red-lined the Camaro. He would have to get out, to fight this wolf – this Alpha.
"News travels fast, huh?"
He snarled, knowing that his favorite jacket and vehicle were to be the first casualty of this piece of shit Alpha, letting go of the wheel to give himself over to the beast clawing at the surface. There was a flash of pain right before the moment of relief, blood splattering the interior of the car as the wolf took over. His claws tore at the roof in the same second he saw the wolf shadow emerge mid-leap from the black tree line, smashing the Camaro off of the road and into a large tree. The twisting metal pinned him there, leaving him struggling as he snarled and snapped at the beast pushing against the car. It was calm, burning red eyes almost hypnotic, taking in his suffering even as it continued to push, hot metal giving under its outstretched paws.
His wolf seemed to be giving up the fight, the adrenaline and blood slowing from the fever pitch in his veins. There was something in the air, something that made his stomach seem to shrivel up and his body sag uncomfortably under the weight.
The Alpha huffed at him with hot, moist breath before taking a step back, allowing him to catch his breath as it huffed in circles for a long moment, seeming to pace and shake its head. It then turned it back to him completely, digging its claws into the asphalt and breaking it there before the wolf reared up on its hind legs.
He didn't understand, why would this Alpha challenge him by even crossing into his territory and then concede. It gave him the opportunity to go for its throat, to make it an example for all others who would dare to come close. He shouldn't have left, he shouldn't have opened himself up to letting the scent go dead –
That scent.
His jaw dropped when it clicked, the wolf disappearing as a tumble of dark hair fell over three jagged scars marking bronzed skin. No. He had smelled that scent only for a moment years ago and again, two weeks ago on his way out.
And just like that, he was back. His wolf retreated as if it was terrified – and as his rational mind regained full cognition, he figured that it had great reason to be. Whether it was the emotional toll this meeting would take or the very real threat to his survival, he didn't know. But he knew felt it.
"Fear. You reek of it."
Her voice was soft, unmistakably her, but also not. There was a hard edge, it made her sound cold and detached. He didn't like it, didn't want to hear it dripping venom. This is how she sounded in his nightmares.
WAKE UP!
His eyes flew open just as the car went off the road, his heart beating against his ribcage, hands tightening on the wheel as he corrected his direction.
Once he was firmly back on the road, he stopped the Camaro and got out without a care as to the fact he was in the middle of the road, moving to heave his last meal into the bushes. He finished, moving to lean back against the cool metal of the car, pressing his fingers into his eyes.
The nightmares never stopped, not when he buried the love of his life, not when he finally became an Alpha again, not when he left and not when he came back.
The wolf inside of him twisted uncomfortably, making his empty stomach churn nonetheless.
"Its been three years, asshole. Give me a break."
He tried to spit out the bad taste in his mouth and got back into the vehicle, taking a moment to let the last of his anxiety dissipate before he continued on his journey.
Grateful eyes landed on the gray house for the first time in a very long time, even though he had been living here consistently for the last six months. The Camaro swinging into the driveway didn't fit with the rest of the street – it always stood out in the lower middle-class neighborhood he had abandoned once upon a time.
The house used to be yellow. He had painted it himself.
He got rid of the family vehicle once there was no longer a family.
Turning off the car, he sighed and folded himself out, walking down the driveway to retrieve the trashcans before he made it inside. His wolf stretched and he rolled his eyes – it was a constant he had never gotten used to, not with this perpetually sour thing finding itself at home right at the core of him.
He fumbled with his keys for a moment on the darkened porch after climbing the three sagging stairs that he would continue to not fix, his nostrils flaring for a moment.
The keys dropped, clattering to the wood slats of the porch as his eyes locked onto the door.
The frame was bent. The door wasn't quite closed, though if you had just been walking by in the afternoon, you wouldn't have paid any attention.
But –
There was a thin stream of light coming through that crack in the door.
And a scent.
His wolf knew that scent better than his own. It was stronger, wrapping him up in the very essence of her even through this six millimetre crack in the door. It was intoxicating, to be bound up in her in a way he never could have imagined before.
He pushed the door open, his eyes falling on the supple form sitting casually, yet on guard, in the armchair that took up half of the entryway.
"Derek."
Her voice sounded nothing like the nightmare – yes, she still spoke in those clipped tones she was so notorious for, but it was sickly-sweet, like an overly fragrant flower or a woman doused in too much perfume.
It broke him, Derek having to force himself to stay on his feet as she gazed upon him.
Those eyes, green and staring, exactly as he had remembered them if not holding a hundred years more weight. They both felt the uncomfortable pull as their wolves yearned for one another. The wolves had only met once, during their first and last battle. Hers was born here and his – it felt like walking on a grave every time he crossed the threshold.
These beasts were strangers, yet family.
Killers, yet protectors.
Sworn enemies, yet mates.
"Maia," he finally spoke, pushing the door closed with a click behind him. Hearing him speak her name betrayed him in a moment. She stood, unfolding herself from her perch, dagger-tipped hands not quite relaxed at her side. "I'm glad to see you."
His eyes flickered up to her face again. Her eyes burned red, with a thin line of fluorescent white glowing at the edge of her irises.
He had only seen her eyes look like this once – the last time her jaws had been around his throat.
"I hate to tell you this Derek, but I should be the last person you are happy to see."