Chapter 73

The shovel crunched in the dewy grass from with each driven step. Isaac tossed the dirt to the side. He had to be sure. Dirt smudged his hands, arms and face, blending with the sweat from over exerting himself. Shovel full after shovel full. His throat burned from being out of breath and his muscles actually ached, but he didn't stop until the shovel thudded against the top of the casket.

He dropped to his knees and brushed aside the dirt. The dark wood had dulled from the long months underground. He flung open the lid. He scoffed and slid back. The casket was empty. Sprinkles of earth tainted the silky white pillow. He sniffled.

She'd never been in here. He touched the pillow where her head was supposed to be. How could this be? He buried her himself. A growl ripped through his chest and he tore through the small pillow with his claws. He crawled out of the grave, getting his knees dirty. The gravestone, etched with lies loomed in the night shadows and scattered moon light that pierced through the dark clouds.

"I-I buried you," he mumbled.

"You thought you did."

Isaac trembled with a complicated mess of fury, happiness and woe. Melanie was so calm, standing there beside the open grave. She looked down at him expressionless.

"You were alive this whole time," Isaac said low and furious.

He came up beside her, looming over her.

"Do you have ANY idea how painful the last year and a half has been?" he ground out.

"Yes." She turned her head to look at him. Her eyelids hung low with exhaustion, and most of all pain.

She moved around him and walked away. Fog was already settling around the gravestones, hugging them. The frosty grass crunched under her studded combat boots. Isaac followed closely on her heels. He wasn't letting her go ever again.

She reached up and pulled the chain from underneath her shirt. She began to play with it, moving it back and forth on her chain. It had become a habit when she was anxious. Isaac was knocked breathless at seeing the ring hanging from the chain. He stepped in her path and grabbed her by the shoulders.

"Where did you get that?"

"A friend made sure I received," she chuckled softly. She was unfazed by his aggressiveness. "It is mine after all."

"Danny," Isaac whispered.

"He's very good at finding things," she said.

"What the hell?" Isaac's voice cracked. His hands swung up, strangling the air between them. "Who are you? You're not the girl I knew. She's dead. You're dead. I felt it-I still...feel it." Isaac said in a whirl of emotion.

He grabbed her by the shoulders and shook her. Melanie shoved him away.

"Me?" she said appalled. "You're the one who was trying to kill Derek and Cora."

Scoffing with disgust, she made her way to Laura's grave.

"I didn't try-" He struggled to find words. "I don't know. I wouldn't have-"

"Helped kill them?" she asked.

"Scott was so sure," Isaac said.

"Scott's a newbie! Do you honestly think he knows everything!?"

She cackled, throwing her head back. She pulled her long locks to one shoulder. He followed at a distance. Melanie quieted down to a snicker. After it died down, she shook her head. He was afraid of her? Disillusioned by HER? He needed to look in a mirror and wake up. She wasn't the problem. He was the one void of any emotion.

"Go home, Isaac." She stopped and turned. "Oh wait, there is no home, you blasted moron!"

"That wasn't my fault!"

"I know!" Melanie yelled.

Her eyes flushed in a vibrance of deep pink. Isaac's lips parted with a shaky breath at the sight. Melanie's heart sped up so quickly.

Melanie turned away and look down at the shadow covered gravestone.

"Go to your alpha. When Derek awakes, we'll gather for a meeting." She said quietly resigned. "I want to be alone.

Those eyes. She was still in there. It was her. The exterior was filled with enough anger to unleash hades but the girl he knew was still there. Getting to her was going to be a feat, though it didn't take much for her to get to Isaac. It took only a cold glance and a pause, and he fell to his knees.

Isaac walked through the front door. Melissa was reprimanding Scott. Her eyes were wide disbelief, with exhaustion overriding her emotions and with an anger only a parent could get away with.

"I can't believe you attacked Derek! I did not raise you to be like this, Scott!"

"Did you miss the part where I said Melanie is alive?!" Scott exclaimed.

Melissa's lips pursed together. She turned away from her son. Her eyebrows pinched together and she rubbed her head. Seeing the look struck Isaac.

"You knew," Isaac said, incurring attention from both of them.

Melissa looked up at him with a bland look of confirmation. Her features softened apologetically. She could only nod as her secret was now in the open.

"You knew?" Scott snapped with disgust. "And you said nothing!"

"I couldn't!" she shouted back.

Scott shook his head and left the kitchen. His stomps up the stairs were followed by the slamming of his bedroom door.

"Why?" Isaac gasped. "Why didn't you say anything? You saw everything that it put me through."

"Ask Derek." She replied.

She pulled out a chair and sat down at the table. Her body shook and the world as she knew it crumbled. Isaac wanted to be super pissed off and go on a rampage for such deception, but he didn't. She had plenty of opportunities to say something. Not saying anything at all tore her up.

Isaac knelt down beside her.

"I couldn't. He asked me to help and I couldn't say no. I was helping to save her." Melissa said between soft sobs.

Isaac rubbed her back soothingly like a parent would. It was strange to be in such a position. If anything, it should've been the opposite right now. The mother that she was to him was what kept him civil. He hadn't had one in so long and sort of understood why she did it. She cared.

"I get it. I hate it, but fine. I get it," he said. The lack of emotion in his tone made Melissa shudder harder.

He ended up putting her to bed. Scott never left his room once and Isaac knew that he could hear her crying. Isaac was torn in deciding whether Scott was acting like a dick or he was justified in his feelings. Everything was coming with two difficult decisions now. He'd never been indecisive before.

The sun rose. He didn't sleep. Too many thoughts kept him occupied. The blended stripes of color of the fresh early morning amazed him every time. Like an explosion of fire, they were an end which only meant the beginning. Isaac smiled. A beginning is what they all needed.

He walked down the hall to Scott's room. He could hear the alpha pacing on the other side of the door.

"I'm going to see Derek today. It's a good idea that we get our facts straight," Isaac said.

Scott's shuffling stopped and the door swung open. He wrenched with guilt and regret. He glanced down the hall.

"She left about fifteen minutes ago," Isaac said, meaning Melissa.

Scott wrung his hair in his fingers. He leaned against the doorway.

"Time to stop being an ass," Isaac said.

Scott turned his head. His eyebrows rose curiously at the statement.

"Time to stop acting like a robot," he countered.

They both chuckled.

"Time to find answers," Scott said at last.

Derek stirred, making the exam table squeak. He blinked groggily and groaned as he shifted a little. An invisible, heavy weight pressed down on his chest with every breath. He stared up at the ceiling. The pain didn't subside.

Scott seriously ripped through him. He propped himself up on his elbows slowly and swung his feet over the edge. His entire body was stiff. He rolled his neck from side to side. He could hear the steady breathing of two bodies just outside the room.

Dark purple bruising skated across his abdomen and chest. A fresh shirt was set on the counter, neatly folded. Wincing, he pulled it over his head. His eyes watered in the process.

"You're awake."

The gasp of words was followed by a bone shattering hug. He groaned loudly, but didn't try to pull away from the small form that was Melanie Rouxe. It had been a very long year without her, without a lot of people.

"I thought I told you not to come back," he said after being released from the over-welcoming hug.

"You didn't say that." she winked. "I remember."

She stepped back and perched comfortably against the wall with her arms crossed over her chest.

"We've been keeping Scott and his pack away," she said.

"We?" Derek's eyebrows furrowed.

"He's awake," came a cheerful voice.

Erica pranced in just as happy as Melanie and stood on her tippy toes in ballerina fashion and kissed him on the cheek and then went to stand beside Melanie.

"We started to wonder if you were seriously dying," she said.

Jackson and Boyd followed, but remained in the doorway and gave a gratuitous nod. Derek stared at each of them stunned. They were here. He never expected that they would return. He never gave them a reason to. Scott's jabs here and there about the kind of leader he was wasn't lost on him. More so, he didn't need Scott reminding him. He felt like a terrible leader and was hard enough on himself about it.

Each of them here left so they could have lives and yet, here they were at his side. His pack. His heart swelled in his chest, threatening a joyous explosion he didn't particularly want to indulge.

"You didn't think I wouldn't gather the pack, did you?" Melanie smirked.

The pack filtered out of the room. Melanie was the last to leave.

"I need to talk to Scott," he told her.

"I know. Scott called. He wants to meet up," she replied. "Though he went by the Stilinksi house…I was out of there pretty quick."

Derek nodded. A meeting would be good. There would be no fights this time, not that Scott would stand a chance. He'd fight back if another fight happened. There would be no taking it in hopes he'd come to his senses.

"I didn't know what to tell him." Melanie shrugged, her shoulders slumping heavily. "I'm tired and haven't slept yet."

She sauntered out of the room.

Derek couldn't believe the woman she'd become. It happened so quickly. She was beautiful and strong. He wondered if she'd seen Isaac yet? She must've by now. There was no way they wouldn't sense one another.

What they had was weird. Derek could never explain it out loud let alone understand it. The idea that the animal inside recognized its mate before the body it inhabited did was ludicrous, but that's what happened. Neither of them could survive without the other. Not technically.

He still remembered the first time Isaac's eye flushed that bright color of purplish-pink. It felt threatening when all it was, was a longing for his loneliness to end. Melanie must've felt that pain too. She was just hiding it very well.

Derek was surprised to see his pack in the waiting area out front of the clinic. Deaton smiled, relieved and gave a nod. There wasn't a single ounce of annoyance, anger or resentment from any of them. They all awaited to hear him speak.

Derek just stared, astonished at the sight. All he ever felt was a sense of failure because he couldn't give all of them what they sought. Setting them free, he didn't expect them to return.

He stared at the twins plus Danny for a long second. Melanie's arm was looped with Danny's. Her eyes were filled with happiness. She brought them all.

Cora slinked up to his side and nudged with her usual nonchalant pose.

"What do you want to do?" she asked.

Her eyes were filled with something Derek had never seen before. All of their eyes were. Even Danny's. They were all filled with life. It was something he hadn't seen in a long time. He had a family again.