Never Let Me Go (Derek Hale Fanfiction Book #3)

Chapter Seventeen: Monster's Ball

                               The weekend of Homecoming came and went; Derek and I stopped by the dance briefly, but quickly took in the heavy stench of booze and the masses of sweating, gyrating bodies on the dance floor, and decided we’d have more fun out on the town, eating ice cream and enjoying each other’s company.

“You know our one-year anniversary is coming up soon?” Derek reminded me as we rounded the corner and headed back in the direction of the loft. It was getting dark, and the amount of walking we’d been doing had my feet barking and my stomach aching. Derek had offered to carry me over a dozen times by now, but I’d refused each time. It felt too nice to be out on a stroll with my fiancé, the threat of the Alphas gone from our lives for good. Except for Aiden, a small persistent voice in the back of my mind piped up. Aiden’s still around. And it was true; even after the death of his twin and the demolition of his pack, Aiden had stuck around in a town that he had no attachments to, attending a school where nobody liked him except for one person. Me. And for the life of me, I couldn’t figure out why. I’d asked him countless times, of course, but he’d only ever responded with “I couldn’t leave my pregnant newbie-werewolf friend alone in the midst of all this Beacon Hills drama, now could I?” And I’d only gotten that out of him once, when we’d been at a party and he’d gotten too drunk to try and change the subject on me. I was worried about Aiden; he acted upbeat and cheery around me, but whenever I saw him skulking around campus, he projected an air of bitter solitude.

“Yeah, of course I remembered! But did you remember that Thanksgiving is this Thursday?”

“Oh, right. Are we doing anything special this year, you know, because of Erica and all?” Derek’s eyes crinkled as he said this, worry lines magically appearing on his forehead as his thoughts travelled to Erica. She’d been doing better lately; her therapist was helping her work through her entrapment issues, but she was still weeks away from being ready to go back to school.

“Actually I’ve been meaning to tell you something...my mom invited us to have Thanksgiving with her this year. It’s been a while since we’ve seen each other, and she thought it would be nice to have you along as well,” I confessed, allowing Derek’s hold on my hand to pull me up the stairs and into our apartment. When he turned back to face me, Derek’s eyebrows were raised but his eyes sparkled with suppressed excitement.

“That sounds...perfect,” he whispered, leaning in and pressing his lips tenderly against mine, the lingering taste of his mint-chocolate chip ice cream bringing a smile and hum of pleasure to my lips.

                                    The next few days of school passed by too quickly; I hung out with Aiden, avoided Scott and Stiles in the hallways and in class, and tried to cope with my worsening pregnancy issues. My emotions were flying off the walls; somebody would answer a question incorrectly in class and I would burst into tears. If I didn’t get just the right amount of food on my tray at lunch, the intensity of my desire to chuck the tray at the lunch ladies overwhelmed me. I’d been forced to leave the cafeteria without eating for three days in a row now. But my life was settling back down into the relative peace that I’d come to cherish; it was rare as hell in a place like Beacon Hills.

***                                                         ***                                                           ***

Derek’s POV

                             After loading our bags into the back of Chris’s Jeep, which she’d insisted we drive to Ohio due to it’s inherent superiority over the Camaro for road-trip purposes, I dashed back into the apartment to check that we had everything and to lock up. I was pretty nervous to go visit Chris’s family for Thanksgiving; not only were Loni and Marcus going to be there, but so were Michael, his new girlfriend from college, Kyle, and in a surprising twist, Chris’s uncle Jim, and his wife and kids. Wanting to make me feel included, Gina had also extended the invitation to my family, which had only consisted of Cora and Peter, although now only Peter.