Hunger

Chapter Thirty-one

Stiles

"Stiles, I love you." 

Those words played on a loop in my head, even after James had started to call out orders, telling us to start moving. Even when Kara was rambling on about something completely irrelevant to anything that was going on. All I could think about were those four words I'd been waiting to hear for the past few days. I thought they'd never leave his lips. Not unless I dreamt about it again, but that had only happened once before. But he said it.

"Stiles, are you good?" Kara asked as we approached the edge of the forest, a few yards from the building. She flipped her blonde curls off her shoulder, raised her eyebrows at me. I was still thinking about Derek and those words, and how his hand was incredibly close to my ass right now. I realized Kara was staring at me, but all I could do was blink at her. "Earth to Stiles," she tried again, slower this time as she waved her hand in front of my face. 

I nodded. "Good," I said softly, glancing at the building. We were supposed to start moving when we saw James closing in on the back door. So far it was quiet. 

"Are you nervous?" Derek asked, lips next to my ear. He softly touched his nose to my skin, so I could feel his hot breath against my neck. I knew he was asking if I was nervous about doing this, saving Scott and Malia, possibly dying. But nothing made me more nervous than when he was touching me. 

"No," I breathed, closing my eyes as I leaned against him, his arms wrapping around my shoulders. "I'm just ready to get this over with. Ready to go home." I smiled as he spun me around fully to hold me against his chest, his face buried in my neck. I sighed happily, even though I knew there was a chance this whole thing could go wrong, I still had Derek. "I love you," I mumbled. It felt so nice to say it, so natural. It wasn't forced. 

Derek tightened his arms around me. "I love you too," he said, his voice muffled by my neck. 

"It's time to go," Kara interrupted as I untangled myself from Derek. She gave a small, uncertain smile before taking a deep breath and jumping right into her fancy cloaking spell. Derek linked our fingers together. Kara finished her spell and stumbled forward a bit, but regained her balance. "I hope this doesn't take too long. I'm not sure how much I've got left in me for today," she said a little out of breath. "Remember to stay quiet because they can hear you, just can't see you. And stay close. Now let's get going." Kara waved us forward, past the trees and into a clearing leading to the back of the building. James was standing at the door, another man I'd never met before standing across from him. James was holding the door open, and surprisingly, no one had noticed. We just strolled right in, no problems.

Derek and I stayed close behind Kara, but gave her enough room to walk without breathing down her neck. She already wasn't feeling her best, so smothering her wouldn't do any good. Derek walked to the left of her, his shoulders tense, but he looked ready to attack at any time if need be. I was walking to the left of Kara, feeling a bit awkward because I didn't have a weapon, or witch powers, or werewolf strength. I kind of felt useless. I probably should have let Liam do this. 

Kara stopped for a second to lean against a wall, her eyes squeezed shut. "Hold on, someone's coming," she said quietly as she cringed, wrapping her arms around her stomach. Derek moved closer to the wall where Kara was leaning and pulled me between them by my wrist. Right after that, a man turned the corner, walking slowly and cautiously, as if he was looking for something suspicious. That something suspicious being a bunch of witches and werewolves lurking around in the building. I found myself holding my breath as he passed, too close to the wall for comfort. I was on my toes, stretching to get out of his way.