Chloe's POV
"You know you're not supposed to have boys in your room," Aunt Lauren scolds. I resist the urge to roll my eyes because I've already explained to her that I am not leaving Derek. She knows how I feel about him but she still can't seem to process it. She was a teenager once, so she should know what it's like to have feelings for someone who your parents don't like.
"I left the door open," I remind her.
"That's not point," she says, "I don't like -"
"Derek," I snap, cutting her off.
She walks further into the room and sits on the edge of my bed where Derek once was. I lean back and pull my knees up to my chest. Aunt Lauren reaches over and pats my knee, but I just stare at her through my lashes.
"What?" she asks.
"After everything that's happened and after everything we went through with the Edison Group, you're problem is still with Derek."
She pulls her brows together. "Chloe, I -"
"I see the way you look at him - us." I feel tears well up in my eyes. I don't know why I'm crying. Maybe it's due to the fact that my aunt doesn't trust my boyfriend. But like I said before, I'm not leaving him.
"I can't help it if I don't trust him, hon," she says quietly, reaching up to stroke my cheek but I move away.
"What is it that you don't trust about him, Aunt Lauren?" I ask finally. After all this time, I finally get the time and remember to ask her.
She sighs. "He's a wolf, Chloe. He's dangerous."
I snort a sarcastic laugh. "Right, because Derek has proven to be sooo dangerous so far." I wipe at my tears. "Derek has made countless efforts to protect me since we left Lyle House and I'm still standing, aren't I?" My voices rises.
Aunt Lauren just sits there, watching me with a no hint of expression.
I take a deep breath and calm myself down. "If protecting me means that Derek is dangerous, then you're right. He's deadly."
When Aunt Lauren doesn't say anything, my heart breaks. I don't even think she's heard a word I've said because she continues to watch me as if I'm still ranting and yelling at her. She sits there watching me, not uttering a single word. What more can I say about all this? I am so sick of trying to prove to her that she has nothing to worry about when it comes to Derek.
I jump off the bed and rush out the door. I run down the hall, down the stairs and out the back door. I don't run out towards the lake; instead I run into the woods. I don't know how long I've been running for, but when I stop by a large tree I'm out of breath. I lean against the tree and slide down the trunk and let the tears flow. After everything that's happened in the last few weeks I finally find some happiness in all of this supernatural crap and it seems like I can't even have that. It's like I'm being teased. Derek's right in front of me; I try to reach out to him but he slowly fades away in the distance. I know I shouldn't be worrying about getting personal with someone while on the run, but how long can one person fight their feelings until they officially lose it?
I'm pulled from my thoughts when I hear a growl from behind me. I quickly think of Derek and I jump up to find a grey wolf. From what I can make out in the dark, this wolf is the same size as Derek-wolf, but this one has a silvery gray coat on it and icy blue eyes. The wolf continues to growl and moves one large paw out in front of him. I take a careful step back. I try to scream out for help, but the words and my voice won't come. When the wolf takes another step forward, I turn and run back in the direction of the house. I make it about five paces before I'm knocked to the ground, pinned under the wolf.
"Help!" I scream as loud as I can. "Someone help me!"
The wolf stops growling but looks down at me with its icy gaze as if I'm something to eat. I make to scream again, but it growls viciously and I close my mouth.
Suddenly, the gray wolf starts to get smaller. I continues to shrink until I see the course hair recede back into the skin of a human male. The guy is hunched over, weeping and panting. I sit up and back away quickly, eager to get away from the person. When the guy looks up I see the face and my heart stops when I see...Cole?
"Cole?" I breathe.
He smirks. "Sup, Chloe?"
I point at him with a shaky hand. "Y-Y-You're the w-wolf?" I'm not stuttering this time, but I'm actually too scared to talk.
Cole nods.
I don't know what possesses me, but I pick up a handful of dirt and throw it at him. He puts his hands up and laughs when blocks the dirt ball. Without a word, Cole gets to his feet and I see that he's naked. I quickly look away and I hear him laugh. I then hear twigs breaking and then distant shuffling and I see that he's disappeared behind a tree. When he re-emerges, he's fully dressed in jeans and a t-shirt. Now I can focus.
"W-What are you d-d-doing out h-here?" I ask, still not over the fright of being found by a supposed random wolf in the woods.
"I heard you fighting with your aunt." He shoves his hands in the pockets of his jeans. "I saw you running out here so I followed you."
"B-But why?"
He shrugs. "I wanted to make sure you didn't get hurt." He smirks at me again. "And make sure you didn't run into any wolves."
I roll my eyes at him and wrap my arms around myself. I look around the woods and see fog begin to form around us. I can't see the house anywhere in sight and now I realize that I'm lost. I'm about to say something when I hear a voice.
"Chloe!" And I recognize Simon's voice in the distance.
Simon's POV
I watch as the stars decorate the black sky above me while I throw rocks into the lake. I think about how far we've come since Lyle House. We escaped the group home, we were on the run and living on the streets for days; we found Andrew and went with him to a safe house for Supernaturals, ended up back with the Edison Group and now we're here.
I remember watching as Chloe rose Tori's mom from the dead and had her kill Dr. Davidoff. I remember thinking how cool it was to see something like that happen in real life, right in front of me. She and Derek went on all of these adventures together and I missed every one.
Even though Chloe's with Derek now, I can't help thinking about her all the time. I may be okay with them being together, but that doesn't mean I've stopped liking her. I just backed off because I have never seen Derek so happy with or about a girl before. Seeing the way he looked at her and how she looked at him, I knew right away that there was something between them. I just didn't want to believe it.
A slam in the distance startles me and I see a small shadow running out the back door of the house into the woods. I recognize the figure of the shadow as Chloe. No one was as small as her. I'm about to yell out to her when a large animal jumps down off the roof of the house and runs in after Chloe.
Shit!
I run into the house to tell someone and I find my dad, Derek and Ruth in the kitchen. I ran so fast that I was out of breath. They all gathered around me, asking me if I was okay and if I needed my insulin. I shook my head and took in a few deep breaths.
"What happened, Simon?" Dad asks me, rubbing my back.
"Chloe," I breathe, "in the...woods...wolf..."
"Slow down," Derek snaps. "Take a few more deep breaths and repeat that." I can tell that as soon as I mentioned Chloe's name, Derek's protective streak went up. I finally managed to get my breathing under control. And that's when Tori decided to show up.
"I saw Chloe run into the woods." I look at Derek. "And I think I saw a wolf run in after her."
Derek's face began to contort in a way I have never seen before. He banged his fist on the counter top and rushed past us, through the kitchen door and out the back. Everyone in the kitchen - including myself - followed him out. We found his clothes torn off and he was hunched over in the yard. Dad stopped us all right away and told us to wait and give Derek some room. We all stood and watched as Derek's skin rippled and bubbled, sprouting black hair as he grew from his six-foot-three height and into a huge black wolf.
He turned his head to face us. He nodded towards the woods and I was the first one in, Dad and Ruth close behind me. Derek came in sniffing the ground, obviously look for Chloe's scent. His head sticks up suddenly and he bolts forward through the trees. We run in after him. We keep running, following the loud sounds up ahead until I bump into a large rear of fur. Derek grunts at me and I mumble apologies. Derek looks from left to right and turns to Dad.
"She must have gone in either direction," Dad says.
"I'll use a tracking spell," Ruth says. I hardly hear her chant something went purple lightening bolts spark out of her fingers. "This way." She starts running South.
Dad warns Derek to stay with us unless there's a serious emergency. No kidding, we wouldn't want Derek running in and stomping on Chloe for anything. We follow Ruth until she stops. What we find is surprising. I hear Derek growl at my side and I reach up, patting his flank. Cole and Chloe are just on the other side of the bushes.
Without a sound or a noise, normal Derek is back and he's pulling on a shirt and jeans. Where did those come from? He's glaring straight at Cole and I can't blame him. I want to go over there and tell that creep to piss off. Dad pats my shoulder and I take it as the okay to move in.
"Chloe!" I call.
She turns to look in my direction. "Simon!" We all run through the shrubbery and rush towards Chloe.
"Cole, what are you doing here?" Ruth asks him.
"Chloe seemed upset," he says. "So I came out to see if she was okay."
"After he decided to scare me half to death," Chloe snaps. It's then I notice that Derek has his arms wrapped protectively around her. I take a moment to picture what it would be like to have my arms wrapped around her in a desperate time of need. When I get the image in my mind, it's nothing like how it looks with Derek.
Cole smirks at her. "I was just having some fun."
"So that makes it okay?" It's Derek's voice now.
Cole snorts. "I thought it was hilarious, man."
"Well do yourself a favor and find someone else to scare." Derek steps up close to Cole until their noses are almost touching.
Cole smirks at Derek. "Or what?"
Derek shakes his head. "You don't want to know," he says almost inaudibly. "Walk away."
Derek backs up and takes Chloe's hand, heading back to the house. The rest of us take one last look at Cole and follow the others. What is his problem? Is it really that funny to follow someone into the woods, who's upset and you're disguised as a wolf? Where does that asshole come off? I just hope Chloe's okay.