Smoke and Nightmares

Sliding his phone back into his pocket, Derek turned to watch his mate. He could feel the satisfaction rolling off his scent and down the bond between them. Stiles was as protective of those he cared about as Derek. He was pleased to discover how much his mate had grown to care about his new family in less than a week.

"If they know we're coming, won't they run?" Stiles glanced his way, the light from the late morning sun turning his eyes the color of whisky.

"They don't know we're coming. I've alerted the pack only." Derek reached out to clasp Stiles' hands, their fingers twining together easily.

His mate nodded, turning his attention back to the approaching city. While the bond between them didn't really let Derek hear his mates thoughts, he received impressions and intentions quite clearly especially when Stiles was thinking as hard as he was now.

"You think this doctor had something to do with the bombing too?"

"No. But I think you need to make sure you check everyone you talk to for those wires we found at the pack home. The more I think about it, the more I find that nothing seems to fit together."

"What doesn't fit?" Stiles pulled away from his side, letting his fingers slip from his hold so that he could wrap them around his chest. It was a defensive gesture, closing himself off, separating him from his mate. "Hey," Derek called quietly. "I'm listening. Tell me."

"It's just little things. I don't know how to explain it without sounding like an idiot." Derek stopped him from leaning away by wrapping his arm around Stiles' shoulder and pulling him closer.

"I don't care how small they are. If they are important to you, I want to know about it."

Stiles sighed and leaned against Derek's shoulder for a second. "Okay, hear me out. From childhood I've been taught, it's been drummed and then beaten in to me, that wolves are to be feared, that you don't really like us at all, just tolerate us so we can do your grunt work."

"Not true." Derek gasped but was quickly silenced by Stiles' fingers against his lips.

"I know it's not true. I've seen it every day since I've been with you and once even before when I was hiding. Wolves don't just like humans, you seem to crave us."

Derek couldn't help but nuzzle his mate just a little at the word crave. "True." And it was. He did crave Stiles but it was more than just want or desire, it was like having air in his lungs, blood in his veins, Stiles was everything.

"Most humans only get to be around turned wolves who are supposed to go through some sort of super screening process with Pilak, right? What are they screening for exactly?"

Derek pulled himself away from the scent of his mate's neck and focused on the question. "They take an ethics test, looking for people that are loyal and trust worthy. They want only the best to become werewolves so that the human population will feel safer knowing that one of their own is looking out for their rights and well-being."

"And that's just the thing." Stiles scowled. "They don't look out for our well-being. Everyone I have ever met is a bully of the worst kind. They are cruel, capricious, and brutal. They never let you go with a warning when a beating can get the point across better. You can't tell me that these people slipped through the cracks of the system, not that many. It's almost as if…" Stiles stumbled to a stop and turned to look back out the window.

"Almost as if they were chosen on purpose." Derek finished for him. "But why?"

"I don't know Derek. But I do know that most humans fear wolves if not outright hate them and you guys don't have a clue."

"We're starting to now. But who would do this? What would be the purpose behind making humans hate us so much?" Stiles could only shrug in response and lean closer into his mate's warmth as the car drove into the city limits.

The first wave of betas had already sealed off the exits to Zillarrezko when Derek's car arrived. The Claimed milled around the lobby or huddled together in offices and lobbies. He hated causing un-needed fear but someone had tried to kill his mate and that was not something he would ever forgive.

"Let's start with the doctor that Max saw yesterday. I want him and all his staff brought to me immediately." Three of his betas pulled off to find the necessary humans while the last showed Derek and Stiles to a plush office where they could set up their interviews.

"Derek, you need to tell the betas to ease up a bit. I'm sure most of these people are innocent. We don't want them to panic or get hurt." Derek glanced up at the beta standing by the door and tilted his head toward Stiles and then just raised his eyebrows. The beta quickly left the office to obey the alpha's unspoken command.

Responding to Stiles' look of disbelief Derek smiled. "You're my mate. You carry as much authority as I do when dealing with the pack." Stiles swallowed and slid deeper into his chair.

It was only a few minutes later when Dr. Chris Venator entered the room. Stiles shifted forward as Derek motioned the doctor to sit across the desk from him with a smile.

"Thank you for joining me so quickly, Dr. Venator. I have a few questions to ask you about yesterday's near tragedy."

"Ah. I was expecting something along this to happen soon but I thought the police would show up not the Hale Pack."

"My mate was almost killed yesterday, Dr. Venator. I have a very vested interest in this incident."

Derek began to ask a barrage of questions to the doctor while listening to his heartbeat as well as his answers. The doctor's heart rate remained steady but Derek could smell the fear rising off of him and beads of perspiration formed on his forehead until it glistened. With narrowing eyes Derek stood up from his desk and crossed over to the older man.

A week ago he wouldn't have doubted his senses. He would have taken the doctor's heartbeat as proof of his truth and never looked further but since his discovery at the Pack Home he had been questioning every heartbeat he heard, wondering if it held a lie behind it's steady thump.

"Would you unbutton you shirt please?" Derek smiled at the man's widening eyes. The Hale pack had kept their discovery at the Pack Home a closely guarded secret except from their neighboring alphas, no one in the human community knew what they had discovered as of yet.

"I beg your pardon!" Chris Venator stood with an angry puff of air, indignant and offended. "To what purpose."

"He's checking for wires." Stiles moved smoothly between the doctor and the door. "Funny thing. This other doctor that I know used this weird set up to keep his heartbeat steady so he could lie all he wanted and the pack would think he was telling the truth. It was a really good trick until Derek found out about it. Now," Stiles smiled wide and with a predatory cant to his head. "Now, it just means you're really guilty."

With a speed that surprised Derek the doctor whirled toward the door. His blow took Stiles down, sending his mate sprawling to the floor, stunned and dazed but otherwise unharmed.

Derek had the man pinned to the floor before he made it a dozen feet away from the office. A syringe filled with a yellow, mucus like substance flew towards his neck but it was stopped just inches from plunging into his skin by Stiles' well timed kick. Derek could smell it as the shattered across the room, wolf's bane.

With a snarl Derek lifted the doctor to his feet, ripping his shirt open to reveal the same set up as the Pack Home. "Now I have a few questions to ask you, again." Derek said in the calmest voice he could manage as he dragged the doctor back toward office. "And this time you will tell me the truth."

"I don't think you will have any time for questions." Chris Venator grabbed a pager like device off his pants and pressed a button. Derek had just enough time to be scared for Stiles when his ears were assaulted by the sounds of multiple explosions from around the building.

The fire alarms went off with their shrill scream and smoke filled the hallways and rooms. Derek could hear the panicked cries of the humans all around him as he twisted around to locate the most important one. "Stiles." He yelled as Chris slipped out of his grasp, the shirt tearing beneath his claws.

The smoke was thick and laced with an overly sweet scent that took Derek a moment to place. By then it was almost too late. Lungs filling with wolf's bane, his mate not responding to his calls, Derek dropped to the floor and worked his way back over to where he last saw Stiles.

His mate was nowhere to be found but it didn't stop Derek from looking. He clawed his way around the area until his betas, gas masks firmly in place, drug him from the building. He tore at them, rending their flesh beneath his claws and fangs as he struggled to get back and continue his search for Stiles.

His vision darkened yet he still struggled and called until it swallowed him whole and his world vanished into nothingness.

AN:

Sorry - It's another shorter chapter but this story has now gone further than I ever expected. I want to give a shout out to everyone who played my little guessing game - ya'll are GOOD! Some of you caught things I didn't expect you to at this point.

Kudos go to: BrodyAwesome, Krysylyn86, Laurenceisokay, LuciLucifer, James Roberts, Magic Howl, yaboyjazz, Dianizx - whose reviews make me laugh all the time, Twisted-67 who found EVERYTHING!, Chrissy Truman, lord kiras hand, and pagan mama. Also to mehh;;!;!;!&$ (seriously! this is your user name? Too funny) Sorry for the cliff in this one - forgive me.

Happy 4th of July for those of you in the States!