Just a Kid [Derek Hale]

Chapter Nineteen

Matt was dead. The boy who'd controlled the kanima was dead and now there was a new tension over everyone. They'd gotten rid of half the problem through death and yet still they had more problems. With the hunters, with the kanima, and now Boyd, Erica, and Isaac all wanted to leave the pack.

That was how both Hayley and Derek were stuck in silence as he was rooting through a collection of books, and she was sat a little distance away a notebook in hand and a pen in the other. All she could think about was the death which surrounded them. It was like a weight on her shoulders - was this going to be the life her child had. Always fleeing from the danger and the hunters.

"You've decided," Derek suddenly said, and Hayley looked up confused as both Erica and Boyd stepped into view, "when?" He added on already knowing what answer they were going to give.

"Tonight," Erica said.

"Everyone's gonna be at the game. We figured it was the best time," Boyd admitted and Hayley pushed herself to her feet putting the notebook down on a chair as she watched them carefully.

"It's not like we want to," Erica admitted, her voice low.

"What do you want?"

"Since I just turned sixteen a month ago, I wouldn't mind getting my license... I can't do that if I'm dead, you know," that was a terrible reminder. That they were so young and they probably were going to end up dead.

"Well, I told you there was a price."

"Yeah, but you didn't say it would be like this!" Boyd countered.

Hayley couldn't say anything, what was there to say? She didn't understand how packs worked or what Derek was probably feeling because he never let you close enough to see. "Yeah, but I told you how to survive-- you do it as a pack. And you're not a pack without an Alpha."

"We know."

That was when it clicked in Derek's mind, "You wanna look for another pack?" He asked and Hayley raised her brow. She just wanted to wish them happiness and safety and then watch them go, "how are you even gonna find one?"

"We think we already did..." Boyd admitted.

"Like, all of a sudden, we heard all this howling. It was unbelievable."

"There must have been a dozen of them-"

"Maybe more!"

"Yeah, or maybe only two. You know what the Beau Geste effect is? If they modulate their howls with a rapid shift in tone, two wolves can sound like twenty," Boyd explained, and Hayley sighed bringing her hand to her head. She didn't know how much longer she could watch this for.

"Look, that doesn't matter, okay?" Erica cut in, Hayley understood. They'd done nothing but fight this entire time and they simply wanted to go to somewhere where they can be in peace, "there's another pack out there. There's got to be. We've made up our minds," she finalised.

"Yeah. We lost, Derek. And it's over. We're leaving."

"No. No, you're running. And once you start, you don't stop. You'll always be running," Derek growled, and Erica and Boy simply turned away not wanting to say anything else.

Sighing, Hayley stepped over to Derek trying to meet his eyes, "you knew it was going to happen," she pointed out and he glanced at her with a glare, "they're kids. Teenagers. They were never going to make up their mind about something so huge - heck I'm still changing my mind about shit every few weeks. As long as they find a new pack and they find safety then... it's fine."