Author's Note: Thanks to the people who took the time to review my story. You have no idea how great that made my day to read what other's thought of my writing. I was so excited to know that I didn't totally bomb my first fanfic. Oh, and I am implying, not stating, that Derek can't have Chloe (since that's his normal mind frame, he's so dumb) and that she is supposedly Simon's (of all people, I mean come on!). It might be a little OOC. On a personal note, werewolves have to be one of the coolest supernatural species ever. If anyone is wondering why I paint Andrew as an ass and coward, it's because I never liked him in the trilogy and wanted to belittle him in a sort of sweet revenge.

Disclaimer: I don't own Darkest Powers or any of the characters. Kelley does.

So…here's Derek's POV, hopefully I can get it right…

Crystal-DPOV

It had been a week since we had arrived at the safe house. During that time I had learned to avoid Andrew. He was afraid of me. I could smell it and see it. I didn't like having to act this way, but what was I supposed to do? Andrew didn't see me as the same person that he knew from before he and Dad had had their falling out. All he saw was the wolf. I couldn't really blame him for that. Most people only saw the wolf in me. Hell, even Simon, my brother, was sometimes afraid of me. He just didn't know that I knew.

The only person who isn't afraid of me is Chloe. My Chloe, my mate. I had realized that she was my mate after my first Change. That was the only way to explain why I needed to protect her, why I needed to know she was fine, why I wanted her smile and for her to just be happy. She made me feel like I was normal and not just a waste of space. Hell, her making me feel anything should have been my first sign.

She could actually stand to be in the same room as me, she could talk to me like a human being rather act like I was an animal (hell, most of the time, she sought me out so that she could talk to me), and she wasn't afraid to argue with me. And yet, when she knew I was right, she would accept that and listen to me. She's amazing, brave, and stubborn. She could give me a run for my money in that department. Who knew I would fall in love with a stubborn, pint-sized necromancer that seemed to be a magnet for trouble? Hell, who knew I would fall in love at all? Speaking of Chloe, she knows about the whole Andrew situation. I know she does. I've seen her expression when he would basically run out of the room, or when I would leave because of him. She is most definitely not happy with this.

My stomach growled. I headed for the kitchen to make me a snack before lunch. As I was eating, Chloe walked in, her divine scent wreaking havoc on my wolf senses. She smiled at me and grabbed an apple. I just grunted, not wanting to let on just what she did to me. She sat down at the table and I had to fight, very hard, not to go and sit next to her. I had to fight the urge to go and sit down, pulling her into my lap and kissing her senseless (and her not running away screaming, totally disgusted and hating me). Just as I was finishing my snack and gonna go talk to Chloe, Andrew walked in. He stopped dead in his tracks and the smell of his fear engulfed me. I could see it and smell his fear, his hate and disgust mixing with it. I growled and walked outside, heading for the forest behind the safe house. But I was stopped in my tracks by the noises coming from inside the house.

I heard a loud thump, like something hitting the wall, and stomping. What the hell… Then I heard Chloe…shouting. "What in the hell is wrong with you?"Then, "He is the same person that you've known since he was five!" She is yelling at him because of the way he's acting towards me? Then Andrew replying, "What do you mean?"

"You know exactly what I mean." I could smell her anger, 50 feet away. Oohhh, remind me to never piss her off like she is now. Smells scary. "Every time you're around Derek, you look at him like he's some rabid dog (fitting description, I suppose) looking for the chance to attack you!"

Then I smelled Andrew's anger. If he tries anythi…my internal threat was interrupted by his reply. "He IS an animal!" He would give me a run for my money, growling like that. "No, I take that back. He's worse than an animal, he's a MONSTER!" Then I heard him storm out of the room. I took off after that, not wanting to stay to see if Chloe agreed with him or not.

While lying in bed, the muscle twitches started up. Earlier in the day, during my run in the forest, the fever had started up. I knew that my Change would be soon, and I had been right. I needed to get outside. I got up, pulled on some jeans and a tee. I didn't want to put Chloe in any danger, so I decided to let her sleep. I am such a liar. Besides, she didn't need to go out into the forest, in the middle of the night, and she some guy barf up his insides and try to turn into a monster. Or maybe I didn't want to see her expression if I did turn into a wolf. I made it to the door, and was about to walk outside, but before could, I started to panic. Was I really going to be able to make the Change? By myself? I thought better of the do-this-by-myself-thing, that I couldn't do it by myself and went to get Chloe. She had no idea what her presence did to help me calm down and to comfort me. Maybe she won't be disgusted by my wolf side. Hopefully.

I found her room and stopped outside the door. I knocked but she must not have heard me. I cracked the door, and saw that she was still lying in her bed, sound asleep. Guilt racked me. I felt guilty that I was going to leave her here when I knew that she would want to come with me. Then I felt guilty about taking her with me, making her wake up when she was so tired. I just couldn't win.

I walked over to her sleeping form, leaned over, and shook her awake. Hers eyes cracked open and, once she realized who I was and what was going on, she shot out of bed. In her haste to help me, she fell. Again. She was so clumsy sometimes. I easily caught her (I had learned expect this) before she could hit the floor. I couldn't help but laugh at her. I heard her giggle, the sound playing along my nerve endings, doing interesting things. She scrambled into a pair of jeans, put on her sweatshirt and grabbed a blanket.

We went out to the clearing that we had found earlier in the week. I stripped down to my boxers and crouched down to prepare for the Change. I soon started throwing up (I had no idea how Chloe could sit there and rub soothing circles on my back while I did this), and then the hair started to grow. I was in unbelievable agony as my body attempted to do the impossible. I heard the snapping of bones and could painfully feel my insides rearrange themselves. My face elongated into a muzzle and I could feel my ears move upward. And with a final crack, the pain stopped. I was finally a wolf. Albeit, a BIG wolf. I knew that if I stood up, my head would reach Chloe's shoulder. I sat there and stared at Chloe, not wanting to scare her. She must have sensed this because she scooted closer to me and slowly reached out to me, like she was asking if it would be okay to pet me. I met her halfway and nuzzled her hand, basically telling her that it was okay and that I was okay.

I stood up slowly, getting used to my new center of gravity. Then I took off, running around the clearing. I was so happy and relieved that I had finally completed the Change, that I finally knew if I could survive it. After a few minutes, I slowed down and walked back over to Chloe. I just sat there and stared at her. I couldn't believe that she had stayed with during the Change, that she hadn't run away, and that she wasn't looking at me with disgust. In fact, she was looking at me like she was happy for me. She was so beautiful…

"What?"

Oops. She noticed. If I would have been in human form, I would have been blushing. I looked down at the ground, sheepishly. Could she guess what I was thinking?

"Can you Change back? Do you know how?"

Evidently she couldn't. I shook my head. Yes.

"Are you going to?"

I shook my head again. Yes. I looked past her, and then gave her a look that I hoped said "turn around".

She turned around. I gasped as some of the pain came back for the reverse process. I heard the snapping and cracking of my bones, the pain a lot less than what it had been before. I was still exhausted. I got dressed, barely able to complete the task. I did notice the blush that crept up Chloe's cheeks. What was that about?

"I'm dressed."

As soon as I said that, I collapsed, like my body knew that it could relax and sleep now, and it wasn't going to waste anymore time standing up. I was asleep before my eyes completely closed.

I awoke to find Chloe, sleeping in my arms. Oh my God. Chloe…in my arms…and she's smiling?...oookkkaaayyy. I must have made some sort of noise of surprise because, just then, Chloe woke up. I jumped up and I felt heat rise to my face. I'm blushing? Oh, come on! Chloe looked like she was trying to stifle a laugh. Great, now she's laughing at me.

We started walking back to the house in silence. About halfway there, I couldn't take it anymore. I didn't want her to hate me and I still felt guilty about having her come with me.

"Sorry."

"For what?" She sounded confused.

"For…this morning. For everything." I couldn't meet her eyes.

"I don't mind Derek. I never have and never will." Yeah, right. I realized that she had stopped walking. I stopped and looked at her. She continued, "I don't care, I really don't. I like being there for you." I don't really know why, but that angered me and comforted me at the same time. What is wrong with her? Did she not realize that I was dangerous, that I was a monster? I would never intentionally hurt her, but the possibility remained. With each new thought, my anger grew.

"How? How can you not care Chloe? How does my turning into a MONSTER not bother you?"

In a calm voice, Chloe started to speak. "I don't care because I know that you would never hurt me. Even when you Change, you're still you, still Derek. It doesn't bother me because you aren't a monster." I was kinda surprised by her outburst. I mean, she basically just screamed at me. I could smell her anger. For some reason she was pissed at me. What the hell? Before I could question her anger, she continued. "I swear, if I hear one more person call you a monster, I will summon every damn corpse I can and sick them on them." Whoa, where did that come from?

After she stopped talking, she tried to walk past me. I reached out and grabbed her by the waist, effectively stopping her. I stared her in the eyes and asked her a question, a question that I needed answered but was afraid of the answer. Who would have thought that I, a fully changed werewolf, was afraid of how a slip of a girl would answer a question?

"Why do you care so much Chloe?"

Chloe tried to stall by asking a question of her own. "Why do you care that I don't Derek?"

Because I love you and need you. "Answer the question." She didn't answer. "That wasn't a request Chloe."

She sighed. "What do you want from me Derek?"

Ooh…lots of interesting things come to mind…BAD DEREK! "The truth."

Another sigh. "You aren't going to like my answer." Again with the stalling?

"Try me."

She took a deep breath and said…"I…love you." What? She loves me? I was shocked and happy and I was having trouble breathing. She looked up at me and I saw tears start to well up in her eyes. She tried to step out of my grasp but I stopped her by tightening my grip.

"Chloe, I…"

She interrupted me, "Don't want that from me." She still had tears in her eyes.

What? How could she think that? She's my mate, the only woman that I will ever love. "No,…that wasn't what I was going to say." That dried up her tears. She looked like a weight had been lifted off of her shoulders. She also stopped trying to get away from me.

Chloe started to speak, or rather, she started to demand. "Answer my question." I stayed silent. "That wasn't a request Derek." She was using my own command against me? Then she stepped closer to me.

I gave her a half smile, but then turned serious. She loved me, she wasn't going to run. "I…I…love you, too."

Then she got this big, goofy smile on her face. I started to lean down to her and she stood on her tip toes. Our lips met. I could have sworn time had stopped. We stood there, holding on to each other for dear life. I couldn't believe it! I was kissing Chloe! I felt as if I was going to go insane with the feelings that were racing through me. I felt as if my skin was on fire and that I was going to drown in the scent of Chloe. But by God, I would die happy. I lifted her up so that I could gain better access to her. As soon as I did that, we fit aligned perfectly, like she was made just for me. Mine. I wanted, needed more. I nipped her lower, causing her to gasp in pleasure. I took the opportunity to plunge my tongue into mouth. The pleasure intensified tenfold. Unfortunately, we both needed air. When we broke apart, we were both gasping for air. I could make Chloe breathless. A sense of male pride washed over me. When she caught her breath, she started kissing me again. She bit my lower lip, asking for entrance. I growled and gave her what she wanted. She thrust her tongue into my mouth and took her time, doing some of her own exploring. When we came up for air, we were both breathing heavily, desperately trying to recover. She had actually made my knees weak. I could tell that she has having the same trouble. Her whole body was trembling.

When she could speak, she asked me, "How long?" I knew exactly what she meant. She wanted to know how long I had known that I was in love with her. As I set her on her feet, I answered. "Since my first Change." Then, she did something that caught me by surprise. She started to laugh at me.

"What? What's so funny?" I must have shown how that had hurt because she hastened to explain.

"Well, last night, when I laid down, you wrapped me in your arms." I was confused. "At first, I was sorta shocked, but then I realized that I liked it, actually loved it. Then I came to realize that I loved you." I loved hearing those words, but that still didn't explain…

"What's so funny about that?"

"You didn't let me finish. I also realized that I had been in love with you since your first Change." Ohhhh, I had to smile. One of my real smiles, the ones that only she could coax out of me. I had to kiss her.

After I pulled back, I realized that I had something else that I needed to tell her, but I had no idea of how she was going to take it. Everything was still new. "Chloe, I have something else that I need to tell you."

She looked at me warily. "What?"

Okay, I can do this. "I, um, I think that…that you're my, um, mate." I stammered and brace myself for rejection. "I would understand if you were disgusted by this. An-"

"Derek, shut up." She interrupted me, starting to look mad. "Hear me now. I love you and always will. I don't care that you're a werewolf. I never have and never will. I don't care about what everyone will think about us. I just want to be with you. I know what being your mate means (WHAT? She knows about werewolves' mates? Since when?) and I'm proud that you chose me to be your mate. Oh, and don't ever refer to yourself as a monster again. I won't tolerate it and it's insulting to me. AND remember this conversation. If I ever hear you think that I'm disgusted to be your mate, you'll wish that you had never been born. Do I make myself clear?"

"Crystal." Nothing was clearer at that moment.

I smiled and kissed her, possessively. She really is mine.

She's mine and I'm hers. Exactly how it should be.

Please review. Love it? Like it? Hate it? Want to flame me? Anything need work? Review and let me know. Be honest. Please review. I might continue, and write out the others' reactions to Chlerek plus an epilogue, not sure yet. Tell what you think.