The Immortal Queen

Chapter 9

The moment they had walked into the man's study, Deucalion had shown him the map that had the territory marked on it. "Long ago, when Alexander fell, Genim grew worried that her enemies would turn towards Beacon Hills. Even though this place had brought her so much pain, her father was still here and so was he. So, she asked us to put up a barrier and protect it. The veil is us, we've protected this place from other packs trying to claim more land. Of course, we couldn't make it obvious to Derek, so we've been letting packs in every now and then to not raise suspicion." Deucalion said as he motioned over the border showing the man every post that their people were protecting. "If she's asking me to remove it means she's suspecting something big will try to intercept our route home. She's going to use Derek as a decoy to get her kids out. We will be moving with you to get the children out of here safely. Which means Beacon Hills will be left unprotected." He explained.

It went without saying that now that Derek had met Scarlett, he would do anything to protect his pup. The man won't easily stand down when it comes to a fight, just this time the fight won't be with them. It will be with himself. Genim was going to purposely bind him to the Beacon Hill's border.

"He'll die before we even leave the territory," Carson said looking at the vast area they had to cover between Beacon Hills and the Queen's Empire.

"He won't," Deucalion said shaking his head, "He's just like her highness. He won't fall so easily."

"What do you mean?" Carson asked as his brows knit together in confusion.

"Even when their bond isn't complete, Derek is her soul bond. Any wolf from her pack will bend to his will once he realizes that he, too, is our alpha. Why do you think she sent humans to escort her children back? Wolves can be forced into submission, humans can't. You won't feel the pull that we do, so you can get them to her." He said before he was quickly adding, "Although, before that even happens, he'll have to sacrifice his own pack. He will never do that," He said. He's watch the alpha long enough to know that he won't risk his pack again. If anything, it sounded like this was going to be the start of a revolution.

"How is that even possible?" Carson said far too perplexed to even begin to understand it.

"It's very possible. For us werewolves, mating goes beyond the claiming bite," Deucalion said with a small sigh, "It's where the true meaning of 'soulmate' came from. Although it's not really taken that far these days because of how dangerous a bond like that really can be. When one's soulmate dies our own soul is killed with them, too. It's how we know we've lost them, and that kind of insanity is only cured with death. I doubt either Derek or her Highness knew how deep their bond ran. However, her highness found that out after her first marriage." It went without saying that Deucalion, as the Queen's confidante, knew her far more than Carson. "The reason Alexander lashed out on her, was because this..." He said pointing at his neck as if insinuating the claim bite, "could never replace the bond her highness already had. For an alpha like that, it drove him mad that its mate found more comfort in a child of another's than in his own arms. Scarlett became an eyesore to him, one he wanted to get rid of."

Derek on the other hand, had believed the lie he had told him and never given himself the chance to look at anyone else to have figured out their bond. Otherwise,he was sure that he would have found his way to her long ago and their fateswould have been very different.

"But the stories we've heard all these years," Carson said now being far too intrigued in this conversation to put an end to it.

"Don't believe everything you hear, Carson," Deucalion laughed before he was saying, "There has only ever been two men, her highness has cried for, and the children of those two men are the most important to her." Even though he said that they both knew that the Queen loved all her children. However, the void she felt from their absence is what Scarlett and Samuel filled. They kept her sane and being able to move forward with her life without them.

"How about we change topics and talk strategy? We don't know what will come our way from here on out," Deucalion said leaning against the table.

"Right," Carson said nodding his head, though he was just letting all this information sink in. The guilt he felt really was sizzling within his chest at learning all of this.

If only he had known sooner...

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Despite Peter not thinking this was a good idea, he had not pushed it further. Instead, he had dismissed his family and left so Isaac could get some rest now that the owner of the house had returned.

Derek had managed to convince his daughter to wait until the morning to leave. He didn't want to see her leave him at all even though he knew that despite what he wanted, Stiles needed her with him and that just meant he would never see her again. These past couple of days with her had only proven that Stiles would never forgive him nor trust him to keep their daughter safe. At the same time, he couldn't be all that sad because her existence meant that Stiles had once loved him deeply.

When he felt his pants being tugged, he turned towards his gaze down at the boy with the striking green orbs that resembled his very own. "Hm?" He had hummed gently.

"Are you, my daddy?" Samuel asked with such bright eyes that it had his brother's tensing at the youngest' questions to the alpha.

"He's not your father, Sammy. He's Scar's father," Logan had yelled out at him though his voice had quieted down towards the end when both his eldest sister and alpha were glaring at him.

"But mommy said daddy had green eyes like me," Samuel had pouted as he clung to Derek's hand.

"Just because you have the same-colored eyes doesn't make him your father, dummy," Logan had said a little annoyed.

"You're the dummy for fighting with him," Vladimir said to his twin brother as he pushed his shoulder.

"He's too young to understand," Scarlett said apologetically to her father as she tried to pick up Samuel up, but he refused and only whined out digging his little nails into Derek's wrists. "Sammy, let him go we have to go to bed," She growled lightly.

"No!" Samuel had cried, "I wanna sleep with daddy!"

"Leave him," Derek said stopping his daughter from tugging on the child anymore. He was used to Joey clinging to him like this, so he didn't entirely mind it. However, the children seemed bothered that their youngest seemed to cling to the idea of him being his father. If those looks told him anything, it was that Stiles would not take kindly to him letting Samuel keep that misunderstanding. The moment he had lifted the kid into his arms, he had stopped whining and wrapped his chubby little arms around his neck giving Derek a whiff of his scent. It relaxed him, all he could smell was Stiles and that brought the alpha such deep comfort that he had even embraced the child in his arms.

"He smells so much like your mother," he said settling down on the couch with the kid in his arms. He had almost forgotten how wonderful Stiles' scent was. Even his daughter's scent wasn't purely Stiles, her own scent had a unique blend between theirs, but Sammy's smelt just like Stiles.

"Well, yeah, he's human. Mom's smell sticks to him very strongly," The twins said unanimously after they stopped their bickering, "Besides, up until recently he was still taking milk from her."

"Makes sense," Derek hummed as he gently patted the kids back.

"Dad, can we borrow some blankets so we can all camp down here?" Scarlett said motioning to the living space they were all residing in. She didn't exactly trust her father's pack to separate herself from her brothers, especially not from Samuel. The moment, she had asked that had the twins looking at one another before they were moving to grab either end of the coffee table to make room for themselves.

"Yeah, there is extra blankets upstairs," He said getting up before the twins had said, "We got it." And disappeared from site. It was strange to see them do that, but Scarlett's stories reminded him that one of Stiles' mates had taught the children a few tricks.

When they had returned, Scarlett had helped them extend the quilts and blankets on the floor to make beds and rearrange everyone's pillows.

It was different having children in your life.

Despite the twins' initial hostility, they seemed very different now that it was bedtime. He wondered what Stiles' routine with them was. Clearly they all loved him and missed him.