It was a Friday afternoon in the beginning of summer break when Jackson, Isaac and I were leaving school and heading to Scott's house for our weekly pack meeting. It was going to be the last pack meeting for a while due to everyone's summer plans. The twins, Lydia and Danny were taking a couples trip to France, but I think that trip is just an excuse for Lydia and Danny to go shopping. Deaton has arranged some kind of spiritual awakening trip for Scott that involves backpacking through the Alps for two months; thank God he didn't suggest anything like that for me. The only ones in the pack that are going to be remaining in Beacon Hills are Peter, Jackson, Isaac and me. However, most of my summer will be spent continuing my training with Deaton to develop my spark.
Even though at the moment there was no danger, we all still met up to check in with each other. Normally we're the last to arrive but this time we got there before Peter so we ended up having to wait for a while. We were all in the living room talking amongst ourselves, all of us split into our separate groups; Lydia, Danny, the twins and Scott on one side of the room and us on the other when Peter finally arrived. "Sorry I was late. I had some personal matters to look into." As he said this he looked over and locked eyes with me. I knew this his way of saying that we needed to talk after the meeting. I nodded towards him before looking at Jackson and Isaac making sure they saw to; they nodded their acknowledgement. Scott was looking back and forth between the four of us but I gave him a look to let him know not to ask. Even if we weren't as close as we used to be he still knows to leave certain things alone.
The pack meeting lasted about 20 minutes consisting mostly of checking to see if anyone has seen or heard that could cause problems or be considered a threat. Luckily enough there seemed to be no danger in the immediate future. Throughout the whole meeting Peter kept looking at me and he couldn't sit still. This is definitely not like Peter, whatever it is that he needs to tell us must be very important; honestly his behavior is a little unsettling. Typically pack meetings are followed by either a movie night or going to the theater but we opted not to tonight so that we could talk to Peter so we left. When we reached to car Jackson started to ask Peter about whatever it was that he saw but I stopped him. Whatever it was that happened he obviously didn't want anyone to know but us so, we drove back to my house.
Most of the conversations that I've been having in my room in the past few months have been personal and private so the pack knows not to come by unless they've called first so we all bounded up the stairs and headed there. Immediately the wolves let out a relaxed sigh upon entering my room; they always do this when they get here and I don't know why. I've asked them multiple times about it but they can't seem to explain it; Peter just says that my room has a comforting pack smell, whatever that means.
After everyone is situated and comfortable I ask Peter what was going on. "I was out by the house and I caught a familiar scent." He stopped and looked up us before he continued. "It's Derek." At first we were all too shocked to speak. Derek's back in Beacon Hills? Why didn't he tell anyone? Isaac was apparently on the same track as I was because he asked just that. "The scent is still fresh. My guess is that he got here late last night and is just settling in. I don't know much of anything else. I didn't go up to the house to see if I saw him." Peter finished with a sigh.
"Why not?" Jackson asked confused, but to be honest I was confused. "Derek wasn't here when I apologized about everything, he doesn't know how I've changed. I know he's still angry Laura, which he has every right to be. I doubt I'm the first person he wants to see now that he's back." And ok he had a very good point there but someone needed to go out and see him and I guess that would be me. I stood up and pulled on my favorite red hoodie and grabbed my keys. "Where are you going little red?" Peter asked. Will he ever let that nickname go? Of course wearing this red hoodie definitely doesn't help.
"I'm going to see Derek. I'm the most neutral party here because we're not related and I wasn't his beta. Hopefully if everything goes ok and he feels up to it I'm going to bring him back here so we all can talk." Everyone seemed to agree that this was a good plan. As I was leaving Isaac stopped me. "What about Scott? Are you going to tell him?" Damn it. He had a point, Scott was the alpha now and he needed to be told about new werewolves in the area. But Derek isn't really a new werewolf; I mean Beacon Hills is his home. So, I think that warrants him some time to adjust to being back before shoved into pack business, right? "Not yet. I'm going to wait until Derek is ready for everyone to know." With that I went down to my jeep and made the journey out to the remains of the Hale house.
It was starting to get dark by the time I got to the house. Getting out of the jeep I find myself feeling the same as I always have being out here; it's this feeling of immense sadness that overwhelms me and gives me the chills. I make my way up the steps of the house to the front door opening it slowly. "Derek, are you here?" I yell out. Pocketing my keys I fully step into the house looking around for any signs of Derek. The longer I'm in the house the more creeped out I get. Walking further into the house I continue calling for Derek but to no avail. Where could he be?
Once I get towards the middle of the house I come across a large room and decide to check in there. As soon as I get about four feet into the room the door slams shut behind. And great I'm going to be killed in the most cliché way possible; in an abandoned house in the middle of the woods. Seriously, how is this my life? From one of the corners of the room I hear growling. I look over and there are two pairs of glowing yellows eye looking at me; and then there's a pair of red one too. An alpha. Oh course at this point my ADHD and lack of self-preservation kicks in. "Umm, hi?" I hear myself say before I can stop myself. The growling stops but the eyes are still glowing.
"My name is Stiles. Well that's not my real name but trust me you don't want to know my real name. My own father can't even pronounce it correctly and now that I think about I don't even know if I pronounce it correctly either. I should probably call my grandmother and ask her about, she more than likely know and…" "Oh my God! Shut up Stiles!" someone says. And hey that voice sounds familiar. One of the werewolves with yellow eyes steps out of the shadows smiling. "Oh my God! Erica!" I practically scream before rushing over to hug her. We never really got along all that great in the past but the last time I saw her and Boyd, Chris Argent had let us out of the basement after Gerard had tortured us. We got word that they ran into the alpha pack so we just assumed they were dead. Thank God we were wrong.
To my surprise she laughed and hugged me back then Boyd came out of the shadows smiling. I immediately went to hug him as well. It's so good to see them and know that they're alive. "Where have you guys been?" I asked. "You know. Around." Boyd still isn't big on words I see. "Well, I'm just glad you guys are ok." I said still unable to stop smiling. Then I remembered the red eyes in the corner; I looked over and the eyes were still fixed on me. "Umm, hi?" I waved towards the eyes. "Stiles." Red eyes said. I froze; that voice could only belong to one person. "D-d-d-d-derek?" I asked tentatively. He slowly walked out of the corner letting his eyes dim back to that beautiful bluish green I love so much. And….wait what?
Before I knew what I was doing I found myself running across the room and throwing myself at him hugging him as tight as I could. At first he went completely stiff but he soon relaxed and hugged my back just as tight.
We held each other for a while before he let me go and he had the biggest smile I've ever seen on his face. "I missed you." I found myself saying and ok where did that come from. I mean it's true, but I never thought I would ever tell Derek that. And what really surprised me was what he said. "I missed you too Stiles." And yep that would be me swooning, majorly swooning. I hear Erica clear her throat behind me and then I realized that Derek and I have just been staring at each other. I blush and quickly look down and Derek chuckles. "How'd you know I was here?" he asked. I cleared my throat before speaking. "Peter picked up your scent when he was out running earlier. He told us after the pack meeting today. So, I volunteered to come find you." Derek growled when I mentioned Peter telling us that he was here. "So, Scott knows that I'm back?" he asked quietly still kind of growling. I definitely made the right choice of not telling Scott yet. "Umm, no. He didn't tell Scott, just me, Isaac and Jackson. He moved back a few months ago. The four of us kind of have our own pack within the pack. They're back at my house waiting for us. I told them that I would see if you would come talk to us."
"Why didn't Peter come see him?" Erica asked. I turned to look at her then back at Derek. "He was scared." I said and Derek raised an eyebrow. I sighed. "Peter's changed a lot in the past couple of months. He's apologized for everything that happened and he's really trying to be better. He knows you're still angry about Laura so he didn't think that he'd be the first person you saw when you got back." Derek looked at me for a minute before nodding accepting what I was saying as the truth. "Ok. Let's go talk with them. I'm sure that they have questions and I know you do. Is your dad ok with all of us there?" He asked. I nodded. "Yeah, he's been pretty accepting of everything since he found out about werewolves." We headed out to the jeep, piling in started back to my house. This is going to be a long night.