Shepherd [Sterek]

Chapter 33

"I really wish I could gasp and be shocked at knowing who you are, but it's hard to do so when I know nothing about my apparent past lives." Stiles will there to be humor in his dry words.

"We aren't technically your past lives." Rain corrects. "More like souls who share the same spiritual plane."

"Because that makes all the difference." Stiles wasn't sure how he'd gone from fearful of Rain to almost feeling a bit of resentment toward her.

"I will say that all of our souls floating around in your head contribute to who you become. We all factor into your way of speaking, walking, and attitude. Those of us who still reside in the memories you'll most likely access."

"What about my attitude?"

"Is that all you heard me say?" Rain rolls her eyes. Stiles doesn't answer, the glower on his face telling her he didn't plan to until she explained. "Your back-and-forth attitudes are an attribute of Ruby. Not saying that we all don't go back in forth, but she's fiery. The biggest flaw in her training was the fact that she had a hard time controlling her emotions. Shepherds must know when to put their emotions on the back burner, or people will die."

Stiles groans at the thought of the redhead having anything to do with development. He does his best to push the reflection aside. "So what did you bring to the table then?"

"I wouldn't know. After what happened with Morrie, I couldn't keep sitting there while we failed. I couldn't watch it happen firsthand." Rain looks to her left, her gaze looking out of the windows.

"So you'd rather sit in a memory refusing to help? Also, who the hell is Morrie?"

"I can't tell you that."

"The hell you can't!"

Rain whipped her head to look at Stiles again. She stood to her feet, and her chair flew back and tipped over at the power she emanated. A growl brewed in her chest. "It is Jade and Ruby's story to tell." Rain's voice bore into Stiles shaking him at his core.

"What can you tell me?" Stiles fought his courage to come back to him. "Because obviously, I'm wasting my time here talking to you if they're the ones I should be speaking with. This Morrie guy must be important if Jade didn't tell me about him before, and no one else could speak about him."

Rain stared at Stiles, her white eyes never changing as he stared back, waiting for her to answer him. "If you fail in defeating the Shepherd of Old, we will all die. Our knowledge and any evidence that any of existence will vanish. It's likely that if you die in this battle, your loved ones will as well, but if they don't, you'll cease to exist for them. All their memories with you will be filled with someone else or altered."

"What?"

He couldn't breathe. Stiles' chest felt like someone had placed a bolder on it and wouldn't remove it, no matter how much he begged. His heart pounded so hard against his ribs he swore that it would bust out of his chest. Vision blurred and filled with black spots, mouth dry.

Stiles clutched his hand to his chest, digging his fingers into his shirt, trying to get to the skin underneath to see if causing pain would break him from this panic. But he couldn't get there; he couldn't make his hands dig further than his shirt. If Stiles tried to grab another part of his body, his hands would refuse to release his shirt. He couldn't kick himself, couldn't move at all.

"Your mate will be assigned a new mate. He won't feel a single twinge of pain from losing you. The universe will have another mate in place for him before your heart even stops beating. If you fail, your parents will be given another child to replace you."

Stiles hated that he could still hear her. He wanted this to be like any other panic attack where nothing could get to him besides the voices in his head. But Rain is one of the voices in Stiles' head.

Stop. He pleaded.

"You are alone in this, Stiles. There is no one to help you this time. All you have is yourself and the voices in your head. No one will be there."

Shut up! He screams. Shut up! I am not alone! Derek would never let me go through this alone. Never.

"Your fancy mate won't help you, Stiles. He has no power. He is weak compared to you and the world you come from."

"Enough!" Stiles snaps his jaw shut. He thought he'd been speaking the whole time, but now Stiles realizes he hadn't. "Enough! What the fuck do you know? Huh? I don't give a shit how many years ago you went through this. What do you honestly know about my life and my relationship? They're mine. It's my life. He's my mate."

Stiles stood from his place on the floor. He hadn't realized he'd fallen out of his chair in panic. "Derek would never let me fight on my own. Doesn't matter if he'd be helpful; he wouldn't listen if I told him to let me fight on my own. That isn't Derek. Derek will do whatever he can to help me, no matter how difficult the task."

"Derek would never forget about me. Damaged goods or not. He still wants me and always will. My friends and family wouldn't forget either. Please, I'd leave too large of a hole in their lives. I know the impact I've made on them. Scott doesn't have a memory without me in it. I was there for him after every fight his parents had. I was sitting next to him for most of them! I was the one who fought his dad off the day he went after Scott. You can tell me all you want: they'll forget I ever existed, and the universe will replace me; I can't wait to see it try. Because I know I'm unforgettable."

Rain stared up at Stiles, her expression neutral. Stiles wished he could read her, but with her white eyes, there was no reading past what she was showing him. Until the corners of her lips turned up ever so slightly.

"Good. Keep it that way." She ordered, turning away from him.

"What?"

"You might be a nervous mess when introduced to a new situation, but that cocky sarcasm you usually walk around with isn't an act. We can see that now." Stiles' eyes follow Rain as she walks across the room and opens a door. Ruby, Jade, and Seth walk into the room, two smiling; Ruby, well, her scowl wasn't as degrading as the last time he'd seen her.

"This was a test?" Stiles gasps.

"Of sorts." Jade grins at him.

"Rain sent word that you'd shown up here. We all knew it was for a reason, just as she explained." Ruby sighs, trying to find something more interesting in the room.

"I wasn't kidding; I do my best to stay out of the middle. But I can see that you're different, and our predecessors wanted me to see that." Rain takes a step closer to Stiles. "I'll be around from now on to help."

Stiles wanted to ask many more questions and get answers to at least some of them. But his vision went black before he got the chance.

AN– I just want to let everyone know that updates are going to slow down a little while I work out all of the fine details. I'll try to have an update out biweekly.