Darkest Powers fanfiction
EVERYONE'S SECRET
Derek Souza/OC: Mary Ralluber

Author's Note: Taking me forever to write. Still working on Plastic Promises, chapter seven. Sorry for the delay. And sorry if this ending is a bit duddish; I didn't know how to end it. d: Review, please, and enjoy! [:

Chapter O2.

Sitting at the dining table in the kitchen while Mrs. Talbot drabbled on about being a popular girl in high school, Mary twiddled her thumbs together, remembering how she even ended up here. She also pondered what the doctor—what was his name? Davidoff?—had said about genetically modified supernaturals with the other doctors in the facility. After Mary had run away from her father, she'd run into a man who'd immediately taken notice to what she was. He treated her to a dinner at Denny's and then talked to her about hr powers and even other supernaturals. He had brought her to this lab where she stayed a couple of nights and then convinced her to stay here in this group home for a while, since she had no where to go. Mary didn't like the idea of being in a group home. Group homes were for crazy people, and she certainly wasn't crazy. If anybody needed to be in a group home, it was D. Jay, her father. However, Mary agreed, just as long as she wasn't sent back to her dad's and her dad wasn't away of her whereabouts in case he was chasing after her.

She was pulled from her thoughts when a presence appeared into the room, his arrogant scent filling her nostrils. Mary's eyes flickered his way as he plopped into the chair next to her, perching an elbow on the table and resting his head in his palm.

It was the dark-haired boy; not the werewolf, but the other one, the arrogant jock star. He was the first one to meet her, flashing such a egotistic smile that really annoyed her. She knew right off the bat that the two of them would not be friends, at least in her eyes.

"Hey Mary," he chimed, smirking. Mrs. Talbot turned neck to see him walking into the room.

"Brady. Perfect. Come and help me peel these potatoes, won't you?" she asked. He quietly groaned and opened his mouth to protest, but Mrs. Talbot beat him to it. "My poor hands aren't what they used to be. Mary, why don't you help him." Brady turned his head back towards Mary, shrugging one shoulder, but Mary kept her gaze locked on Mrs. Talbot. She didn't want to peel potatoes. She actually wanted to go out and run, flex her muscles, which had become quite tight ever since she'd arrived at the group home.

Brady gave her a soft nudge with his shoulder and stood from the chair, jerking his head towards the kitchen where Mrs. Talbot left the bag of potatoes and peelers at the sink. Mary watched Mrs. Talbot leave the room before reluctantly standing to join Brady's side. He pulled out another peeler from the drawer underneath the counter and handed it to her, along with her very own potato.

"So, how are you liking Lyle House?" he asked, as if instead of arriving at her first day in the group home, she was arriving at her first day at a new school. Mary rolled her eyes at him, arching an eyebrow. Brady chuckled. "Relax. I'm kidding. How exciting is it to live at a group home?" He sneered and rolled his eyes. "Hella lame."

"Uh-huh," Mary muttered, scraping the skin off of the potato so quickly. Brady rose an eyebrow with surprise as she snatched another potato and peeled off all the skin within seconds.

"Damn. Peel potatoes much?" he asked. Again, Mary rolled her eyes.

"I lived on a ranch. Rednecks like me know how to peel potatoes," she said. Of course, there was another reason, the real reason. Her speed was accounted for her being a werewolf. Her agility came natural.

Still, Brady seemed satisfied with her answer. It was, after all, legitimate. Rednecks and potatoes mixed just like peanut butter and jelly. He chuckled and nodded with approval, returning to his own first potato. Mary reached for her fifth one.

"A ranch, huh? Have any cowboy boyfriends? You know, I can ride a horse," he said suavely, though his charms had no effect on Mary. If anything, his charms were repelling her from him. She mentally groaned and prayed to die on the spot.

"No cowboy boyfriends. I don't do cowboys. Do I look like a Texas girl? And I don't care if you can ride a horse. I don't do animals either. Just because I'm a girl doesn't mean I like them," she snapped. Brady looked taken aback.

"Whoa. No need to get all snippy," he said, which only made Mary glare at him. She scoffed and returned to her potato peeling, scraping the peeler against the skin with quicker and sharper strokes, peeling almost the entire bag of potatoes before Brady could reach for his fifth one.

She finished the last potato while Brady peeled his sixth one. The sink was stockpiled with soggy potato peels. Mary washed her hands and turned her back on the sink.

"I'll give you the honor of cleaning up, just to make it appear like you did something," she snarled. Brady glared at her.

"God, you and Derek would get along perfectly. You're both bitches!" Brady exclaimed. Mary could have wheeled on him and torn out his heart to eat, but she remained calm. She merely scoffed and walked out of the room.

The bedrooms were separated by gender. One side of the house was dedicated to the boys, and the other Mary got all to herself. Mrs. Talbot and Miss Van Dop had showed Mary her room as soon as she'd arrived. It reminded her of her old room back home, which made her gut twist. The walls were yellow and white and painted with daisies, walls you would only find in a ranch home. There were a couple empty twin beds, both covered in white sheets and tucked neatly, as if nobody had ever used them. Both sides of the room mirrored each other: same bed, same dresser, same little desk. A small closet was installed near the door.

Mary had chosen the bed furthest from the door. She'd placed her suitcases on the bed, and then left to continue her tour with the nurses. Now that she was back in her room, she had the opportunity to unpack and get settled in. However, she wasn't sure if she was ready to do that yet, or ever.

Being here at Lyle House was a thousand times better than being back home on the ranch with D. Jay, she had to admit, but she still didn't feel comfortable here. She didn't like the group home, the people at the group home, and she hated that other werewolf stench. It tickled her nose to her annoyance, and yet wherever she was in the house, she could still smell him.

She unzipped her suitcase and pulled out her shower bag and extra clothes. Because of the lycanthropy, she was required to clean herself more than ordinary. She attained extreme body odor, broke out with acne incredibly, and acquired her period more times than the average teenage girl. Luckily, the showers and baths helped keep down her body odor, if she took about three showers a day and possessed miracle acne cream her father had found from a secret source that knew all about teenage werewolves. However, the periods and cramps couldn't be dealt with. Luckily, though, she'd grown used to them and managed to toughen them out.

She walked out of her room, possessions in her arms, and made her way towards the bathroom. She could smell the other werewolf very near, and then realized he was making his way towards the bathroom too.

Mary could tell that Derek had the same problems she did, but his seemed to be twice as bad, perhaps because he was a boy. His hair was dank and greasy, hanging over green eyes while his face was spotted with angry red zits. He was big and burly and could smell the sour odor coming from him. She pitied to the boy, yet completely empathized with his body problems.

Twice her size, Derek towered over her, eyeing the bathroom door, and then her with hesitation.

"You were going to use the shower too, I suppose," Mary stated slowly, eyeing his clothes and shower bag under one arm. Derek's eyes averted back to the door, jaw set.

"Yeah," he muttered lowly.

"Well, go on, then. I can wait," Mary said and quickly turned on her heel back to her room. She knew he needed the shower more than she did. A couple of minutes wouldn't harm her. She heard him trample into the bathroom, shutting the door.

While waiting for Derek to finish up in the bathroom, Mary stumbled back to her suitcase, gazing down at it and trying to muster up the will to just unpack and accept that this was where she was going to stay. She pulled out a couple of shirts, laying them out on the bed before going over to the closet to gather some hangers. Suddenly, she groaned and fell to her knees, burying her face in her arms.

The urge wasn't there. She hated it here. She wanted to be out in the wild. Here, she felt like a prisoner. There was no freedom in secured doors and windows. She hated the home, hated the nurses, hated that doctor for bringing her here, hated herself for agreeing to come here, hated her father for killing her mother and making her life miserable ….

Her mother. Thinking about her made her heart slam against her chest. The memory of her parents fighting and screaming at each other, her mother frightened when finding out what her husband and daughter really were.

Fiona had been terrified of Mary. And D. Jay tried to convince her that what he did to her mother was the best thing for the both of them. Mary refused to believe that. When she'd seen her father walk back into their house without her mother, hands, face, and clothes stained with dirt and blood, she'd lost all respect for him, and began to fear him. That only made him angrier and so began the two of them fighting.

However, throughout the months of D. Jay's abuse, Mary grew stronger and fought back, gaining control of her werewolf power. His size and experience didn't matter anymore. After all, she'd learned from the best. Former Pack member, one of the strongest werewolves in Montana, D. Jay made the perfect tutor for her.

The water shutting off from the bathroom alerted Mary that Derek had finished. She blinked a couple of times before returning back to reality and leaving the realm of her memories. Shaking her head, she stood from the floor and gathered her things again, ditching the clothes on her bed. She planned on stuffing them back into her bag to make her believe that she wouldn't be staying long.