Payment (revised)

Chapter 32

This chapter is Kate's letter from the previous ch, and Derek's rivaling answer

The song you should listen to for this ch. is Arsonist's Lullabye by Hozier. The first verse/chorus fits well with Kate's letter and the second verse/chorus fits with Derek's.

Hope you enjoy!

edited: 5/14/20

edited: 9/7/23

Hello Mr. Hale,

It's been a long time. So long, in fact, I was concerned you had forgotten all about me. We used to never let more than a day go by without hearing from each other. Do you remember? All the love letters you sent me. They would pile up on my nightstand, hundreds of them all declaring how you were mine, entirely. I still have them, every single one. They are my trophies. They are what reminded me, on the days where I almost gave up, that there would be a time your final chess piece would fall, and it would be because I pushed it down. You were supposed to burn in the flames like the rest of your pathetic family, yet somehow you made it out. My fire was an art, your death was intended to be its magnum opus.

Did you know it was a torture to break bread with you Hales. It was agony to force a laugh and converse with them about peace between our two families. We didn't want peace, we wanted control. The only thing that made sitting through those dinners tolerable was having you in my bed every night, reminding me why I didn't just put a bullet through your bitch of a mother's head. It was tiresome to keep my mask on all the time, but I did it, Derek. I fooled you. I fooled you so well I wouldn't be surprised if you loved me long after they were all gone. Even now I bet I'm swirling about in that beautiful head of yours. Derek, it was an honor to watch you crack most of all. It was so easy to exploit your pride. You were so quick to fall into every ridiculous praise I rained down on you. So quick to trust. You were everything, Derek Hale. Then you lived. Allison told you everything. I took a page from your book, I trusted the wrong person. She'll get what she has coming to her the same way you will Derek, don't you worry.

Still, you took it a step further, this I could not ignore. You waltzed into my dynasty and single handedly brought it to its knees. You killed a foundation that had stood for centuries. I was almost impressed. Your only redeeming act was to leave the children alive, but that was an amateur's mistake. In your wake, you left an army that has a personal vendetta against you. They're coming for your life, I'm tempted to let them have it.

You destroyed everything. You took everything from me. For almost ten years I let you get away with thinking you had won. I disappeared, but it was only fair I returned the favor, my love. The Alpha Pack came to me the second they left your meeting. Derek, they were working for me all along. You stupid boy; still trusting the wrong people after all this time. How did I persuade them to my side, you might ask? I knew something they didn't want getting out, and I made a bargain. My price for secrecy, your head on a platter. They agreed. To gain your trust, I let them tell you where my niece's lover was being held a few days after her capture. But then communication went silent, you didn't call on them. I thought I had wasted a good bargain. So imagine my ecstasy when you finally did reach out to The Alpha's. This time around I told them to get me something that would break you. Find me the one thing that would raze Derek Hale. They returned to me with more than I could have ever hoped. My old lover had taken a new. A boy he was madly in love with. It was too good to be true. Too goddamn easy.

The one thing I regretted after starting that fire was not staying long enough to hear your family's desperate cries ring out into the night as death crept inescapably closer. Now I'll get that pleasure.

I'm intimately familiar with the ways you can make him scream, but now he's mine to make sing.

Forever Yours,

Katherine Argent

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Dear Ms. Argent,

I kept the children alive so you could never escape the faces of the people you failed. Unlike you, I bathed in the blood I left in my wake. Every horror and fear felt by your people was witnessed by its composer. I have no regrets.

Every time those children shot a gun, I wanted my bullets to hit their targets. Every time they made someone scream, I wanted them to hear my roar bleeding in their ears. Every time they woke up with my face as their nightmare, I wanted them to know that it was you that made it so. I burned your letters. Every last one of them I burned, and I promised myself, for every crumpled piece of paper turned to ash, that I would become your own personal hell.

You like shielding yourself with other bodies. You'll take someone of mine long before you will ever face me yourself. You're a coward. This is over now, and the monsters you call family will watch as I cut through your bones. Those children will know the reason that they hurt, the reason they are alone in this world, is because you decided to pick a fight with someone miles out of your league. You are the only cause of their suffering.

If you're brave enough to face me after all these years, you won't have to wait to make the first move. I'm coming, and there is nothing you can do to save yourself. Tell The Alpha's they're next.

As for Stiles, I'll get him back. I'll get him back and I will destroy you for daring to lay a hand on him.

There is nowhere you can run,

Derek Hale