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"I thought it would be me."
There's no response to his quietly spoken statement. Crossing the floor, careful of the remaining puddles, he tries not to breathe in the damp and mustiness. The furniture, what little there is, is ruined.
In the end, all for nothing.
His nephew stands with his back to him in front of the windows like a lone sentinel, except his shoulders are bowed with grief. He reeks of it.
And blood. The hands clasped behind his back remain stained a rusty color. His clothes are damp and torn.
How long has he been standing there? Since his Pack took away the body?
He approaches carefully. The boy has killed one of his own. He knows...he knows how easily that can lead to the desire to kill again. The power gained by taking a Beta isn't anything like that of an Alpha, but still alluring, and his nephew has done both.
There's a phantom ache in his throat and he absently rubs at it.
Once he learned of Deucalion's plan, to have Derek kill a member of his own Pack, he stayed away as much as possible because he was the obvious target.
Had that led them to using the boy instead?
He can't feel grief for a teenager he barely knew, but he does feel a shred of remorse.
And he asks, "What will you do?"
A shudder goes through the Alpha, his Alpha, the wolf inside him reminds him firmly and pushes him to comfort.
The human holds back, waits, as Derek turns. He looks old, shadowed eyes rimmed in red, face pale beneath the stubble, lips pulled tight with deep, emotional pain.
"Give myself to them."
"Give up, you mean," he snaps, unable to stop himself, because that resignation angers his wolf.
Derek's eyes blaze for a moment, then he sags against the windows, hands clenching and unclenching at his sides. He looks helpless.
He could take him now, kill him so easily. The boy wouldn't even fight back. He'd be the Alpha again with all that power.
And all that insanity. He hadn't lied those months before. He doesn't want the power back. Or the responsibility.
"If you leave with the Alpha Pack one of two things will happen. They'll make you kill the rest of us or the Hunters will do it for you because you'll leave this Pack without an Alpha. How soon before they fall feral? Cora's half way there already."
"Scott."
"May be some mythical being some day but not yet. He's sixteen. Do you want to burden him with leadership so soon?"
"He already leads them better than I do."
He can't help himself. He rolls his eyes, and Derek snarls in response. Good, anything's better than apathy, even frustration.
"You are a Hale. This is Hale territory. A Hale will lead the Pack or there will be no Pack to lead."
"You killed the Hale Alpha. I was never meant to be this," Derek snaps.
"You weren't trained for this, but it doesn't mean you can't do it. My sister birthed two with the potential. As the eldest, it was going to fall to Laura so she received the instruction. I always warned Talia she should have been teaching you both, as our mother taught us."
"If you have the potential and the training, then take it back!" The boy bares his throat, ducks his eyes, submits!
He stares in shock and shakes his head because...No. Growling, he grabs Derek's chin, jerks it up so hard his teeth clack together. "Don't you ever offer that to me again." He can tell his eyes are blazing blue fire even as his claws dig into the skin of his nephew's jaw. "To anyone beneath you. An Alpha submits only to a stronger Alpha and only in extreme circumstances."
Half-heartedly Derek tries to jerk away, but he pins his bigger, stronger body too easily to the glass and smacks his free hand down beside the too pale face.
"You're not going to give into those dicks. You're not going to become one of them. You won't shame our Pack that way, do you understand me?"
He releases Derek and, when he slowly nods, steps back.
"Then what do I do?" the boy, still so young, asks, his voice trembling with pain and fatigue.
"Am I Pack, Derek?"
"Yes." Surprisingly, there's no hesitation.
"Am I your elder?"
"Yes."
"Then you listen to me, you learn from me, you become the Alpha you were meant to be."
"Why now?"
Good question. He's not really sure why now, why he didn't take the boy under his wing months ago. Too wary of each other, perhaps, too busy dancing around Derek's anger towards him, his own frustration at how slowly he was healing.
They're out of time now, though. No other choice but to fight their way forward.
"You need three. You tried to push Isaac away, but the boy is still Pack."
"Cora..."
"Is a Hale but half wild. Can you make her submit?"
"I don't know," Derek answers, honesty and sorrow in his voice.
"She can't stay if she won't. And if she won't, you need to think seriously about expanding the Pack through the Bite."
"Because that went so well the first time."
Ignoring Derek's bitterness, he forces eye contact and firmly states, "You never bit the right one, Derek. He's been there all along." The startled look in the Alpha's eyes before he drops them, but doesn't deny anything, is enough for now. "But, I think Cora will submit."
As Derek settles, thoughtful, he steps towards him again and bares his own throat, lowers his eyes and shoulders, and he can smell the surprise. "You mean it."
"Yes, Derek. I mean it." It's very hard to be submissive when he wants to roll his eyes again, but he waits, patiently, for his Alpha to reach out and pull him close.
The fangs in his neck feel like home and the pack bond snaps firmly into place.
End