I Was Meant To Die In Your Arms (Steter)

Chapter Nine

Werewolves are tactile creatures, they build their pack on love and touch, but more importantly they communicate even if it's just a silly conversation. The Hale pack is no different. Most of the time the dinner following a school day is filled with conversation of what the children did during the day, followed by the adults' work days, and then would either turn to light pack business or "fluff" talk. It was their normal and made everyone feel welcome, heard, and loved.

Which is why Cora quickly caught on to Peter's silence and the way that every few moments he would look down at his wrist with pitched brows and a thoughtful look on his face. Deciding that it was best to ask him about it after dinner though, not wanting to draw attention to the uncomfortable elephant that always lingered in the room, she kept her observation to herself.

Cora was taught at a very young age that werewolves were different and alike to humans in many ways, but the blessing that wolves had that humans didn't was they didn't have soulmates. Sure, they could find a mate in a partner and settle with them for the rest of their lives, but they didn't share a soul, just a bond. And what a way to simplify it and it worked well. The lessons of their kind always did, at least until her Uncle was brought up. Peter Hale the Left Hand, Peter Hale the brother, Peter Hale the exception – Peter Hale the cursed.

The family was taught not to ask about Peter's destined soulmate and chance of death. They were told that if he brought it up, then they could ask their questions, but he never did and never has. Even when they catch him staring at the pale lines that cover his wrist and spell out an unpronounceable name and he catches them staring. Even when his eyes hold a look of challenge daring them to ask, they remain silent, the fear of causing him pain that their Alpha has warned them about ringing in their ears.

Which is why when Cora finally got her Uncle alone after dinner, she didn't know how to broch the subject in a tactful and gentle way. How do you ask why your Uncle is paying more attention to their soul brand then normal? How do you tell them that you found them in your high school English class? In a certified Cora Hale way, she decides the best way to go about asking is to just rip the band aid off.

"Your soulmate goes to my school," she blurted out with no preamble.

The silence that followed was heavy. They both stared at each other, Cora in expectation and Peter in confusion, as if waiting for the other to continue. When it drew on for too long Cora felt frustration build up and let out a huff.

"Did you hear me? Your soul- "

"I heard you Cora," her Uncle's voice was strained when he cut her off, "But I don't have a soulmate."

Cora can't help the laugh that escapes her, no matter how insensitive it might be, before contradicting again.

"What do you mean you don't have one? His name is right there on your wrist!" She can't help the way her voice turns annoyed when she tacks on, "You're constantly staring at it."

She watched as Peter looked from her to his wrist and back again. His eyebrows drawing together in confusion as he starts to rub at it with his thumb.

"There's nothing here Cora," Peter repeated slowly, his voice pained but still somehow still as if he was reciting a script.

Still, Cora couldn't understand how her uncle could lie directly to her face. As if she can't see the messy scrawl of Stiles' birth name on his wrist. As if she couldn't hear his heart beat to verify—wait.

"Uncle Peter," she makes sure listen closely to the beat of his heart, "repeat these exact words and mean them: 'I don't have a soulmate and there's no soul brand on my wrist'."

The youngest direct Hale took in the steady pace of her uncle's heart as he repeated the words back to her. She couldn't believe it, but it was true, or at least Uncle Peter believed it was. Which leaves the question of why uncle Peter can't see the writing on his wrist.

"Uncle, I believe you," Cora said finally, "But if you listen to my heart, you'll know that I'm telling the truth as well, you do have a soulmate and a brand to go with it."

"I know."

"Which means if where both telling the truth, one of our truths isn't real." Cora waited for her uncle to speak, but he remained silent, his eyes going from his wrist to the empty space by her head and back.

"And, not to call your truth unreal, but it is. The entire pack can see your soul brand Uncle Peter," Cora's voice was softer towards the end and containing more sympathy.

"Then why haven't you said anything? None of you?" This time Uncle Peter's voice has lost some of its confusion, frustration and anger taking over, "Not even in concern that I have an unlit timer on my body!"

"Because..." Cora took a step back slightly, her body shrinking in the sight of her uncle's anger, "You never brought it up..."

"Why would I bring something up I had no idea about?"

Which when faced with that question Cora found herself stopping to ask the same. How would Uncle Peter open up about something if he apparently couldn't even see the thing, he needs to open up about. Technically, the pack just thought he was tightlipped about it, especially with the way he would fixate on his wrist. However, that could be a coincidence. None of the younger pack was alive- or was too young to remember- when Uncle Peter was first branded. And the older pack members were just as tightlipped as Cora thought her Uncle was.

"The pack was told not to ask unless you brought it up Uncle Peter," was all Cora could offer after all her internal thinking. She was starting to have an idea of what happened, but she couldn't voice it yet. It was as if it was trapped in her throat and could only be brought out by the correct prompting.

"Who told you that?" Her Uncle finally, but his tone gave off the feeling that they both knew.

"My Mom. Our Alpha," Her voice was a whisper, but it was enough because it was as if right then she could slot all the missing pieces in the puzzle.

Her Mom snapping at Peter to stop looking too long into space whenever he fixated on his wrist too long. Her Mom explaining how soulmates work in the human world verses the supernatural world, only to turn cold when Peter is brought up. The weird way her Mom and their emissary would constantly have phone calls around a year ago before they rushed to move back to Beacon Hills.

When Cora gave her Uncle her full attention again, he was looking at his wrist again. However, this time he was tracing Stiles' name line by line, his eyes glowing a bright blue.

"Yes," his voice was low and filled with slight anger, "my sister Talia."