Payment (revised)

Chapter 33

Ch. 34+35 are both half way written, because these next chapters are the battle scene they are double the length of our normal chapters which is why its take us a little longer to post, but we are almost done!

The song that goes with this ch is Walk on Water by Thirty Seconds to Mars

edited: 5/15/20

edited: 9/10/23

Sharp wind skimmed the steel casing of the warehouse, causing a hollow moan to ring in Derek's ears.

The Alpha remembered, vividly, his last visit to The Argent's headquarters.

Long ago, the metal cage in front of Derek had glimmered with polish, and housed a thriving business. The inside of the establishment reflected the sophisticated nature, donning imported rugs, private desk stations, and chandeliers that hung from high ceilings. There had once been a flurry of activity as people came in and out of those doors at leisure, proud to be affiliated with the name Argent.

Things changed.

Derek took pride in knowing it was all his doing.

Rust now dusted the outer shell of the building, like powdered ichor left over from battles past.

Through a broken window, Derek saw that large crates now took up all four corners of the room. The carpeting had been ripped up, though there were still frayed, moldy splotches of it against the curves of the walls. Furthermore, the cables that had once held up glimmering chandeliers now barely had enough strength to latch onto the singular light bulbs attached to their ends.

It was a ghost town.

As much as The Argent Clan had once functioned like a well oiled machine, it had been a cruel, and callous environment to be a part of.

Unlike Derek's pack, The Argents viewed being part of a mafia family solely as work. A nine to five job that they could escape from at the end of the day to live their separate lives.

It didn't represent the same ideals of family that Derek had grown up with. The Alpha was almost convinced that when they burned down his loved ones they hadn't realized what they were taking from him. Not that the excuse had made Derek lenient.

The last time he had been here was to get revenge on the people who had unfairly lived when Derek's family had unfairly died.

Derek had gone to set into balance a weighted scale. He had been their reckoning.

Since that day he had never returned to the Argent's seed of power. He'd had no want to, and no need to. He'd been content to leave that part of his life in the past with all of his other damning decisions, but Kate Argent hadn't agreed. She had forced him into a battle she knew he was not prepared to fight.

After this, everything would be different.

Derek couldn't deny that standing in this place threatened his soundness of mind with its bloody history. Separating the past from the present was harder than he had anticipated, and it was only the knowledge that Stiles was inside, yards from where Derek now stood, that morphed his pain into something that could bring the whole operation to its knees.

The warehouse was different then how it had once been, but so was Derek.

The Alpha and his pack had been observing their enemy for about an hour now, they had only seen the rotation of guards every twenty minutes.

But Derek knew better than to think the building was empty, or to think that retrieving Stiles would be easy.

He had told Kate he was coming, he had warned her. She was smart enough to take heed.