Wolfblood

CHAPTER SIX

Page count: 13

Four days after the vampire incident in the woods found Hermione trudging into her kitchen half asleep, clad in her pyjamas and with Magic and Crookshanks following at her heels.

The last few days had been strange for her, and all because of Derek Hale.

It seemed that the vampire incident had totally freaked him out and he'd become more protective over her since it'd happened, and it'd been driving her insane.

After waking from her nap a few hours later on that day, she'd done so to discover that not only were Magic and Crookshanks asleep and curled up against each other at the end of her bed, but that Derek had fallen asleep too, and he'd apparently wrapped himself around her. She'd woken on her side facing away from him and he'd been behind her, his chest pressed up against her back with his arm thrown over her waist and his hand pressed intimately against her stomach underneath her pyjamas, holding him to her possessively. His face had been buried against her neck, his nose pressed against her skin and his breathing unsettling a fallen curl.

She'd been more than surprised at their intimate position and she'd tried to pull away from him several times, but each time had been a failure as he'd just pull her back to him and his hold on her would tighten. In the end she'd given up and just laid in silence waiting for him to wake, and when she heard the change in his breathing, she forcibly slowed down her own and pretended to be asleep so she wouldn't have to face him.

Her breath had almost hitched in surprise when the first thing he'd done was nuzzle at her skin, breathing in her scent and a sigh of content left him, his warm breath ticking her. She'd held still and forced herself to remain calm as to not give herself away. It had taken all but eight seconds –she knew, she'd counted- for him to realise what he was doing and where he was and his body stiffened against hers, before he let out another sigh and he released his hold on her, silently climbing out of bed and leaving the room. She'd waited another twenty minutes before giving up her ruse of her sleep, thinking she'd been faking long enough and it was no longer suspicious of her to leave her room not long after he had.

She'd headed to the bathroom before making her way to the kitchen, her intentions being to make a start on dinner seeing as they'd both sleep through lunch and she was starving. She'd found Derek sitting at the kitchen table, flipping through one of her text books on the history of magic in Britain, sipping at a glass of water and snacking on a bag of crisps. He'd glanced at her for all but a second, giving her a nod of greeting before returning to his book in silence. The rest of the evening was much the same, silence and reading.

The days that followed were different; he was no longer silent, rather it seemed to be the exact opposite. He pulled her into conversation as often as possible. He always seemed to be behind her, following after her, but he did his best to hide it. If she stood to go to the bathroom, he'd follow after her and duck into his own room, and when she exited, he'd leave his bedroom with a book in his hand and follow her back to the living room. If she went into the kitchen to make herself something to eat, he'd follow her with the excuse that he wanted a drink.

He'd follow her to the library and choose a book, sitting down opposite her but he never once looked at the words in front of him, his eyes were always on her. When they went for a walk through the woods, he barely left her side and he was always ready to catch her when she tripped, which she did often. He wouldn't allow her anywhere near where they'd found the body and he seemed to be determined to keep her as far away from the area as possible. He got antsy if they were out for more than an hour and they always had to return to the cottage. When night fell and Hermione retired to bed, she knew he was standing outside her door until she fell asleep and he returned to his own room.