SONG: Been sittin' eyes wide open…Behind these four walls, hopin' you'd call…It's just a cruel existence…Like there's no point hopin' at all…Baby, baby, I feel crazy…Up all night, all night and every day…Give me somethin', oh, but you say nothin'…What is happening to me? ~ I Don't Wanna Live Forever by Zayn

Chapter 11

Malia:

I didn't sleep much, too much on my mind. So, when the clock read 8:30 on Saturday morning I climbed out of bed, took a shower, and left the house. I remembered the area from the last time I was there and ran quickly scenting out the exact location. Taking the lift to the top floor I raised my hand to knock only for the door to open before I could.

"Malia? What are you doing here? Where's Stiles?" Derek asked. he was dressed and ready for the day as if he had already been up.

"Hi. Stiles isn't here, I came by myself."

"How did you get here?"

"I ran. Can I come in?"

"Yeah, sure." He said moving aside to let me in. "Did you need something?"

"Uh, yeah. I need to talk to Peter. Do you know where he is?"

"He's upstairs. He never leaves. He may actually live here now, and I don't know about it." He said heading for the staircase. "I'll get him."

"Thanks." I looked around while I waited unsure of what exactly I was doing. I think I just needed answers. I don't know if he could actually give them to me, but I needed to try. I couldn't wrap my head around any of this.

"Malia?"

I turned to see Peter coming down alone. I stared as he walked over to me stopping only a few feet from me. we had the same eyes, the shape at least. His were more a hazel. Maybe we had the same nose as well. I couldn't really be sure. He started to look concerned since I had not said anything. Shaking my head out of my study I said the first thing that popped into my head.

"Hello possible daddy." It was snarky.

"Stiles told you." he said with a half-smile.

"Yeah well, we kind of had a fight last night about honesty and secrets so he thought he should let me in on what's been going on behind my back."

"Ah. Well, I wanted to tell you at the lake house, but he said not to say anything. I guess he thought it would be too much for you. But I knew you were strong enough to handle it."

"Don't do that. I may be a little upset that he hid it from me. But he's always had my best interest at heart, and he has been there for me since the moment he found me in the woods. All of them have."

"I would have too if I had known it was you. I'm not the bad guy in this. My memory was stolen from me. I didn't even know you existed until a few months ago."

"I didn't know you existed before a few weeks ago either. And would you have been there for me the same way you were there for Scott after you bit him? Because I have seen enough death in my life to not want to be the cause of it again."

"Scott was a different situation. I wasn't in my right mind when I did what I did."

"I get that." I shouted then took a deep breath. "Look I didn't come here for that. I just need to know if its true. Do you really think you are my biological father?"

"Yes, I do." He said. I let out a breath I didn't know I was holding. I'm not sure what I was hoping the answer would be.

"That means that she is probably my mother." I whispered feeling so many things at once. My birth mother a killer, my father a psychopath. What does that say about me?

"Malia." Peter called.

"I, uh." I swallowed thickly, thoughts whirling in my head.

"How did this happen?" I asked.

"How did what happen?"

I saw Derek on the steps, watching us. My cousin. Oh God. My phone dinged in my pocket. I pulled it out to see it was Stiles. I denied the call, shoving my phone back in my pocket.

"You? Her? all of this? How did you not know about me? does she know?"

"It was just one night we spent together in Texas. I never knew her name. My sister, Talia, stole the memory of me and her and you from me. I just recently recovered some of those memories. And from my understanding, when you were born, Talia stole you away and left you in an orphanage. It was to protect you. its also why she stole the memory."

"Protect me from what?"

"Your mother, the Desert Wolf."

"Why?"

"Corrine, that's her name I just found out, believes that when you were born you inherited part of her power leaving her weaker. In her eyes it was theft and she wanted to kill you to get it back."

"Wait so she wants to kill me?"

"As far as I know she thinks you're dead."

"How do you know this?"

My phone dinged again, again it was Stiles. I turned it off.

"I've been putting out feelers on any information about her since I found out who you were to me. I got lucky and found an informant who actually talked to her. she was drunk one night in a bar in Mexico and spilled it all to him over shots of tequila."

"But she's wanted to kill me since I was born." I said mostly to myself. My dream coming back to me. the person, silhouette standing in front of the car my mother sister and I were in. pointing something straight at us. Not a hand. A gun?

"Why would she think I was dead?" I asked, again mostly to myself but he answered anyway.

"I don't know."

"If she knew I was taken from her at birth then there would be no reason to think I was just gone. Which means that if she was trying to get her power or whatever back she would come looking for me." the car accident came screaming back to the forefront of my mind. Usually I tried to not remember, not wanting to relive what I did. but now I could hear the gun shots, hear the screams as I burst into fur and then the crash.

"I didn't kill them." I said, looking at Peter.

"Kill who? What are you talking about?"

"My family, I didn't kill them." I repeated.

"Malia." Derek called coming fully down the stairs.

"It was her. when I was 9 and I first shifted it was because I was in the car with my mother and sister, and we crashed. I thought, this whole time, that when I shifted that I ripped them apart, that I was the one that killed them. But I wasn't. she was there. She found me."

"Wait, how do you know that?" Peter asked.

"I've been having dreams, reliving the accident. But I remember seeing someone standing right in front of the car. I thought that's what made my mom swerve to avoid them. But just now I remember hearing the gun shots, I remember hearing my mother and sister scream and then nothing and then the crash before I shifted."

"So, you think that it was her and she shot up the car, hoping to kill you."

"If she thinks she has to kill me to get this power or whatever, then yes I think it was her. no one else would have reason to shoot up a station wagon holding a woman and two little girls. She was waiting, she knew what route we were taking and where to wait for us. She was right there, right in front of us. There were headlights glaring at us from our side of the road, the wrong side of the road, and she was standing right there."

No one said anything and I was starting to feel claustrophobic.

"I have to go." I said suddenly.

"Wait."

"No, I have to go. I'll, uh, I'll come back another time." I said before leaving taking the stairs as fast as I could.

Stiles:

24 hours. Its been 24 hours since I talked to her. she keeps declining my calls. I don't dare go by there. Its apparent she doesn't want to talk to me. I was kicking myself for not just telling her. I'm hoping that if I give her a bit of space, she will talk to me. but I miss her. I laughed at myself when I first thought it. I've turned into Isaac and Scott. It had only been less than 12 hours and I had started to miss her.

Getting up I made my way to the kitchen to grab something to eat and passed my dad sitting on the couch reading the paper and eating a donut. I wanted to bitch at him about eating junk food, but I didn't have it in me, so I grabbed a donut myself and sat down next to him.

"Hey, you've been quiet. Everything okay?"

"Not really, no." I told him, eating half the donut in one bite.

"What's going on?"

"I messed up dad." I sighed. He put his paper down and gave me his full attention.

"Messed up how?"

"Malia and I got into a fight on Friday night and now she's not talking to me."

"What was the fight about?"

I didn't hesitate to go over it all with him. From her calling Scott to Peter possibly being her father. My dad and I were close, so it was comforting to talk to him to just tell him everything, well almost everything. There is no way I'm going over the sex part with him. He listened without interrupting but his face told everything.

"So let me get this straight, Peter Hale may actually be her father. Its scary to think that he could be anyone's father."

"I know right." I snorted. "I should have just told her."

"Yes, you should have. I get why you didn't. but she's not a kid and this is her life. She should have been informed from the beginning when it was first suspected."

"I know." I groaned. "Now she's mad at me and she has a right to be. I want to fix it, but I don't know how."

"That's because you can't."

"Then what? Just wait and see if she breaks up with me?"

"I don't think she will break up with you. I think she is processing all of this, and she needs to do it alone. When she is ready to talk, she will. She may yell at you for keeping it from her, but she will probably understand why you did as well. Its good you finally told her, it may be a bit late, but you did it and you did it without waiting for a resolution first. Stiles you can't solve every issue on your own and not for everyone."

"I just wanted to protect her. she's been through so much already I wanted this one thing to not be a burden for her."

"Yes, but you can't protect her by keeping things from her. you protect her by giving her the information she needs and being there with her supporting her to do it for herself. If you had told her to begin with, she could have made the decision for herself if she even wanted to know. What if you had found a way to get confirmation and you told her after the fact and she was upset about it. Maybe she didn't want to know. Or maybe she wanted to make the discovery on her own without having it done for her. you took that choice from her. that's why she's mad. She's been through a lot, yes, but going through it proved how strong she is. Having someone do the hard stuff for her is not showing her how strong you think she is. Do you understand?"

I thought over what he said, and I understood exactly. I was treating her like she wasn't capable of handling difficult situations without me holding her hand or doing it for her and that's not how I saw her at all. I groaned again seeing how stupid I was being.

"You just realized what you did, didn't you?"

"Yeah, I did. I'm an idiot."

"It's okay. We all are at some point in our lives. You tend to have more idiotic moments then some, but you usually figure it out." he said patting my shoulder.

"Gee, thanks dad."

"You're welcome. Give her time and space Stiles. When she's ready, she will come to you."

"I'm going to try to get some homework done. Thanks for the talk and the donut, which you shouldn't have by the way."

"Pot, kettle, Stiles." He said picking his paper back up and going back to his Sunday routine.

I went back to my room only to see Malia standing in the middle of it. She looked rough, eyes puffy, hair in a sloppy ponytail wearing a shirt she stole from me that was half buttoned and buttoned wrong. She was twisting her hands again meaning she was stressed and upset.

"Malia?"

She jerked her head as if she just noticed me standing there. I walked closer to see bright shiny eyes staring back at me.

"What's wrong?" I asked. Her face crumpled and she threw herself at me. I wrapped her up as she sobbed against me. "Hey, it's okay."

"I didn't kill them." She cried into my shoulder.

"What?"

"I didn't kill them."

"I don't understand."

She squeezed me tighter. I just held and rocked her, letting her cry it out.